A/N: Hi all! (dodges objects thrown her way by disgruntled readers) I know, I know! I haven't updated in way too long! I am truly sorry about how long it has taken to get this far with anything. This is the last chapter of Furby, so I hope you all enjoyed the little trip I took with him and you liked it.
For those who are waiting for the next chapter of Raising Phoenix, never fear I am working on it. I have been so busy with work and moving it seems that as soon as I sit down to type that I wake up two or three hours later with a kink in my neck and I opt for going to sleep in my bed. It is coming, slowly but surely. I promise I should have it done before the end of the month and posted for your reading pleasure.
Now enough blabber and on to the final chapter of this story.
Chapter 4
The fall of Furby
The halls of Hogwarts were dark and silent the next night, but that by no means meant that everyone was in bed and asleep. Quite the opposite. There had been a school wide meeting in the Great Hall the that morning when again there was nothing but lumpy oatmeal to eat for the second day in a row and the rest of the day did not look like it was going to be much better in terms of food, the dress code looked to be broken for the second day in a row and there was a very disgruntled Severus Snape wearing the same thing as he had before a second day in a row- and not his customary black.
After a quick morning conference with the teachers at the head table, there was then the announcement made to the whole student body of what exactly was stealing the food and the uniforms. While it seemed that the students didn't really mind what was going on in the realm of the uniforms, there was a great uproar against the Furby because of the lack of proper food. It had been decided that the classes were not going to be geared towards the specific subjects that they were meant to teach (with perhaps the exception of Defense Against the Dark Arts, as this was a dark arts crisis after all). All the classes were all going to be geared towards finding a solution for the pest problem. There was a final school wide meeting in the Great Hall directly after dinner to discuss and then decide which of the plans that had been cooked up in the classes was the best to try and hunt down and corner the menace that had been let loose on the school.
Because they were all not sure exactly how the Furby would react to being met one on one by either a student or a faculty member all the students were sent to the Great Hall and locked in for the night to keep them safe. They had all been dispatched after dinner to gather together blankets and pillows from their dorms and extra were provided so kindly by the house elves.
After digging out his notes on Germlins from his apprenticeship days, Severus was able to figure some things about the creature that roamed Hogwart's halls. He knew from the description of the creature that had been let loose in the Headmaster's that it looked like a Gremlin, sort of. There were some differences in what he had written and researched about the creatures and what the portraits had seen and he wasn't quite sure if the ideas that had been suggested would work or not. But as desperation can cause people to do things that they normally wouldn't think of, this was the case with Severus and his agreeing to a plan of action that he didn't have the foggiest idea of the outcome. He figured that he would go along with and compromise to find a solution that might work rather than continue to do nothing and be forced to wear the same robe until the end of time, because he certainly was not going to change his wardrobe from black to any other color at all!
Though Severus did feel a bit more self important because of this whole ordeal. Because he was the only one that knew anything about the creature that might be roaming the school, he was allowed to boss everyone else around and be the head of the project. Of course Hermione had a small say in the whole process as she helped him sort through the half dozen plans that the classes had chosen and produced for the day.
It was finally decided that they would go with something super low tec., as well as something that was muggle. Normally doing something the muggle way was seen as something that was primitive or backwards, as many of the people in the school had little or nothing to do with muggles on a regular basis and believed them to be the 'unwashed heathen mass' beyond the wizarding world's sphere of influence. But in this case it was seen as the safest and most likely to work, seeing as even Severus' wards, Death Eater strength and beyond, had been breached, it was assumed that the creature would be able to do some sort of magic. While muggle inventions were usually susceptible to magic, it was decided that a muggle style humane trapping cage would be the best move to capture and then perhaps identify the creature that was roaming the halls. Since it was made quite clear that the creature enjoyed eating things that were sweet as well as baked goods, that is what they baited the trap with.
After setting and bating the trap all of the teachers and staff made their way back to the Great Hall and locked the doors behind them. Severus even put up some of his own wards around the whole of the Great Hall with other teachers putting up their own behind his so that there was more than one magical barrier between them and whatever this creature was. They figured that the creature may have been able to breach Severus's wards on his rooms, but with so many different layers, there had to be something or a combination of wards that were either strong enough, or long and tedious enough for the creature to either give up or fail. Now all they had to do was wait, and see if they would be able to trap the menace.
The trap had been set up in the kitchens and the house elves told that they could do as they pleased, either they could sleep where they normally did, or they could choose to spend time in a secured room that the staff would set up for that purpose. The house elves, who also had a vendetta against the creature for making them look bad, had chosen to sleep where they normally did, posting a guard to watch over themselves and hoping to get their own shot in at the creature if they could.
The Great Hall was nearly silent most of the night. Each student seemed to wait in eager anticipation for the clank that would mean that the trap had closed and hopefully trapped the menace within. But just like the much and anticipated and every tried attempt at staying up all night long on Christmas eve night, all of the children fell asleep, as well as the adults, leaving the ghosts to watch over all of the sleeping people in the Great Hall. Even the big bad Potions' Master was able to find rest. This was of course only after he was sure that everyone else was asleep. He had allowed Hermione to sit next to him, but of course she was persuasive enough to manage to end up curled on his lap and her head on his shoulder with his arms around her. How exactly she had managed it and he had allowed it was still up to question, especially since he was still extremely private with his private life and really abhorred any public displays of affection beyond his gentlemanly mannerisms to Hermione and really not much more than to Hermione alone. Although there was the occasional time he would kiss her hand upon meeting her after classes before tucking her hand into the crook of his elbow to lead her to the Great Hall for dinner or back to their chambers to dine there for the evening.
It was early the next morning when the ghosts decided that they would wake the sleeping staff so that they could begin their day. They first woke the Headmaster who was sleeping in a hammock floating in midair. After waking him the ghosts were about ready to wake the other staff when Albus stopped them for a moment as he surveyed the minefield of student bodies and limbs, chuckling to himself that anything trying to sneak through the Great Hall would have found it very hard to do so. There would definitely have been some sort of alarm raised by the shear fact that nearly every square inch of the floor was covered either by a body, a limb or even a spread of hair attached to a person's head.
As he also looked around he caught a glimpse of where his staff had fallen asleep as well. He could not help but smile to see that Severus was leaning against the wall with Hermione curled contentedly in his lap. Severus looking as though he was more content than Dumbledore had seen Severus in a while. He had his arms around his wife and his cheek resting against the crown of her head. He was also almost smiling as he did this, the very corners of his mouth tilted upwards as he held the most important person to him to his chest. The Headmaster could not help but smile, it was good to see that Severus was finally happy after all those long years of the war and loneliness.
Quickly pulling the camera he had brought along for just such an occasion he snapped a picture of the loving, slumbering couple before he woke them. There was defiantly going to be some leverage points earned with the taking of that picture. Not that Albus really needed any more leverage points than he already had, considering he was Severus' boss and could choose to fire him, but it was something relatively harmless and far too much fun for him in general. Almost as if on cue Severus seemed to nearly jump in his sleep and after picking up his head and giving it a light shake looked suspiciously at the Headmaster who stood about twenty feet away looking far too perky and 'angelic' than was really normal or in fact healthy for anyone to be at that early hour of the morning and before their first cup of coffee. The Headmaster looked as innocently as he could back at Severus and smiled. Severus noticed that he was slipping his hand into his pocket as he spoke.
"Good morning Severus, how did you sleep?"
"Well, Headmaster." He said gruffly, "or at least as well as the situation could provide. I would have slept much better in my own bed."
"I am sure we all would, but it could not be helped." The Headmaster said, still way too cheerily.
"What is going on?" A sleepy Hermione asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Did we catch the creature?" She looked up at Severus and then over to the Headmaster, still snuggled in Severus's arms.
"Well let us go and check." Dumbledore beamed just a bit too happily for the whole ordeal. "We will just have to go wake up the others so that we can go and check and then hopefully send everyone on their way. Come let us wake the others!" He then turned and began to pick his way over the body ridden floor to wake the rest of the school.
Hermione could not help but look up at Severus with a baffled look on her face. "He really woke up that way?" She could not help but ask, rather surprised and almost half disgusted by the fact that he could simply pop out of bed and be as cheerful and overly sugared as always first thing in the morning. It was just plain creepy.
"Evidently." Severus said. "It looks like he just woke up. Definably creepy." He nodded.
"I think you read my mind." She agreed and carefully extracted herself from his lap so that he could stand.
"Who said I didn't?" He said with a smirk, a real smile never seeing the light of day beyond their chamber's door." Hermione gave him a nearly scandalized look though it was ineffective because she could not keep a straight face. He merely shrugged and smoothed the wrinkles from him robes.
Very soon the whole Great Hall was filled with the stirrings of the staff and some of the students. Dumbledore choose that most of the staff stay in the Great Hall with the children while himself, Severus, Hermione and Hagrid would go check on the trap to see if it had sprung and captured something. Dumbledore left those who were awake to their own devices within the confines of the Great Hall and lead the way for the little band of 'adventurers', as he had coined them, on to the kitchens.
Once they had arrived at the portrait of fruit and given the pair the obligatory tickle they were admitted to the kitchens. Once they entered the kitchens they were greeted with a once again smiling face of a House elf. "What can Gumdrop do for you Headmaster Sir? Is there anything that Gumdrop can get for you?" The little house elf asked in an excitement that had not graced any of the house elves' countenances in two days. Severus used the time spent by the house elf's nearly giddy declaration of desire to serve, to look around the kitchens from where he stood and see that the cage that they had set down in the room was no longer there. It was certainly not something that could have been missed, even in the great hustle and bustle of the kitchen. As great as the commotion all was, the cage had been about three and a half feet tall and five feet in length, definitely too large to miss easily.
"Where is the cage that we set out last night?" Severus asked the house elf as Dumbledore looked on rather amused. "And when did you move it?"
"Ah, yes Professor Snape Sir, the cage that was set out last night is not here. The cage, it was moved this morning before we began making breakfast. The creature on the inside was most unwelcome in our kitchen sir, it was causing quite a ruckus and had to be removed to someplace out of the way sir." The house elf told him with a nod of finality and absolute conviction. "Would Professors like to see what it is that we caught? It is not a nice creature at all Sir!" The house elf told them, waving the party of staff to follow when Severus had nodded his agreement to such a situation.
The house elves had moved the cage by whatever magic it was that they possessed and had actually taken the creature outside behind the castle, as an 'out of the way' place. But this did not mean that they had left the creature unattended. It was much as if they had gone to battle against this thing and they were bound and determined that it would not escape. Standing around the cage were half a dozen house elves all dressed up in what might be called battle armor. A couple of the house elves had colanders on their heads and held what appeared to be fire pokers as if they were spears. A few other house elves had each fashioned what appeared to be a breast plate out of a serving plate hung with pieces of rope around their bodies and held either a meat serving fork (the long ones with two long prongs), or they held a large carving knife as if it were a sword. All of the house elves were looking intently at the cage as the group walked up to see what they had caught.
Inside the cage was most definitely something that none of them had ever seen before. The creature was about the size of a small poodle and looked similar to a rat without a tail. It's fur was sort of a spotted striped affair, much like a spotted tabby cat that was of medium length and it had monstrous ears that stood erect that made it's already tiny head look even smaller. It had something like the beak of a bird as a snout and had a pair of canines that extended about an inch below the ending of the beak-like mouth. It appeared that as it gnawed and attacked its cage that it had sharp teeth throughout is mouth. It was stocky and had what looked like a powerful build that could allow the creature to travel at a good clip if allowed out of the cage. It also had sharp looking claws that appeared to be retractable in nature, like a cat's that were set in paws of a similar fashion.
As the group approached the cage it growled angrily and thrashed against the bars of the cage. Hermione jumped and clung to Severus' arm in surprise. Severus went immediately back onto high alert and drew his wand pointing it at the creature menacingly while eyeing it as if it might explode at any moment. Dumbledore jumped a bit and Hagrid got closer to the cage and peered curiously at the creature in question.
"It would appear that we have caught the creature!" Dumbledore exclaimed clapping his hands lightly with a large smile. "Well done!"
"Well now that we have it Headmaster, what are we to do with it?" Severus asked. "It is not a creature I have ever seen and it does not appear to match what I know of Germlins. This is something different."
Hermione stepped out from behind Severus and preformed a spell similar to a diagnostic spell that would identify what the creature was. After a moment Hermione looked exasperated and turned to Severus who was watching her carefully. "It is not a known animal." She said. "The spell came back with and unknown. I also cast a second spell that would tell me about it as it is before us. It would appear that it is only half alive. Parts of this creature are similar to the toy that it was spawned from. I think it might even require batteries still. Though I got the impression that eating is sort of a battery recharge that keeps it going, the thing has gears inside someplace too." She looked both intrigued and disturbed at the same time. Both Severus and Dumbledore looked to have a look of a combination of shock and disgust on their faces as well.
"Ah, isn't it handsome!" Hagrid exclaimed. He had been observing the creature through the bars during this whole time and had obviously not paying any attention to the conversations around him.
"Handsome!?" All three of the others said in unison all with varying looks of shock at the statement.
"Yes, he is the most handsome creature I have ever seen, aren't you?" Hagrid said in a sweet talking voice obviously still not listening to what was going on around him and talking to the creature in question. Severus and Hermione exchanged looks that they believed and this confirmed the fact that the half giant had indeed lost his mind. "Can I keep him Headmaster?"
Ringing silence met this statement, well except if you didn't count the constant growl and gnashing of 'Fruby' teeth. Hagrid looked back hopefully at Dumbledore, much as a pup looks back expectantly for a treat as he trots away. "I am sure that I can tame him down real nice headmaster, I am sure that I can. We can use him as a wonderful guard animal for all the greenhouses that have the plants the students aren't allowed near. I am sure that it would be real effective."
"Real effective I am sure." Severus mumbled just loud enough for Hermione to hear with a vocal roll of his eyes. "Just about as effective as protecting the Sorcerer's Stone I am sure. We all know how well that one turned out." Severus reached over and gave Hermione a hearty pat on the back as she doubled over in a coughing fit that originated from her attempt at stifling a laugh. "Are you well Madame Snape?" Severus asked with a straight face and as innocent a look as he could muster (considering who he was.) Hermione was somehow able to give him a death glare while attempting not to hack up a lung.
"Do you need assistance Hermione?" Dumbledore asked innocently with a sparkle in his eyes, then turning his attention back to the situation at hand once Hermione was able to stand straight again. "Well I suppose if you can keep him if you promise to keep him away from the food supply." Dumbledore said after a moment of thought.
"You can't be serious headmaster!" Severus asked in astonishment. "This thing is a menace! It must be stopped."
"Well I see no harm in it if Hargid is able to keep the … thing, under control I see no reason why he shouldn't be allowed to have it as a pet."
"Oh thank you headmaster!" Hagrid said enthusiastically. "I will take good care of Peaches I promise."
'Peaches?!?' Severus mouthed to Hermione in both shock and disgust. She just shrugged.
"Well now!" Dumbledore exclaimed with a clap as if everything that had just transpired was something that occurred every day and was 'normal', "we shall all have to go tell the students of this new developments so that we can all get along with our days." With a flourish he turned and led the way back to the Great Hall with a light step.
Later that night after all of the commotion had died down and the school uniforms mysteriously showing up again; Severus and Hermione retired to their chambers for the night and they snuggled together on the couch before the fire. Severus gave a deep contemplative sigh.
"Yes?" Hermione asked contentedly from his chest.
"I was just thinking." Severus said. Hermione looked at him questioningly. "I don't think we have seen the end of our 'dear friend' Furby anytime soon."
"Oh dear, I hope you are wrong." Hermione groaned.
"So do I, so do I." he said with a groan and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Come to bed with me," he said after a time. "Let us forget about this whole thing awhile and worry about later." He ran his hand along her side as she reclined against him and then shifted her so he could rise, holding out his hand to her.
"I like the way you think." She smiled and put her hand in his and lead him lead her away to their bed chambers.
A/N: Well I hope it was a satisfactory ending to the story for you all. I did hive plans of blowing Furby up or something like that, but my wonderful beta Skydancinghobbit gave me an interesting little one shot/extension idea for the whole thing, so I decided to leave my options open to write it if I felt the whim to do so. Though I will make no promises and it will be posted separately if I do write it.
I hope you enjoyed the story. Please leave me a review to let me know what you thought about it. And check out some of my other stories or those of my beta Skydancinghobbit on your way out too if you have the time.
Thanks to every one who has stuck with me so far! Live, Laugh, Love ~ Dragons Quill
