So we all settled down again. I returned to my room with Fluffy and her helpurrs - though to be honest they never seemed to do much for me - and we went back to our routine.

All, that is, apart from Rosemary who spent the next several days screeching every time something moved. I invented a wonderful little game called "Hiding under her bed and grabbing her ankle in the morning" which was absolutely hilarious. You should have seen how high she jumped! I thought that, eventually, I could get her to the ceiling but then Fluffy told me to stop it or she'd put me in my cage at night. Spoilsport.

I was starting to feel a bit penned in, which didn't help, as the weather had definitely taken a turn for the worse. It suddenly got very cold, wet and windy. Whilst it was rather nice to stretch out in front of a log fire before meeting Norris I did miss going out to do a bit of hunting and my emergency supply of voles was starting to get a bit low. If necessary I could lay in a few mice, but I'm partial to a bit of vole; always have been.

But on the up side, at least it meant I didn't meet Fang much and I could get on with my search for the rat. I knew it slept in Honestlyronald's room and I was fairly sure it was now accompanying him to lessons. That meant my best chance to get at it was when they were all asleep, but that was when I was with Norris. Decisions, decisions.

One morning I decided go have a quick look up there before going to bed myself. There was a rare old thunderstorm going on, and I hoped it wouldn't keep me awake. I was quietly edging my way into the room and was very surprised when I met Hairy coming the other way. What was he doing up so early? I was not impressed when he grabbed me by the tail.

'You know, I reckon Ron was right about you' he said.

'Hardly, young tom. The idiot would struggle to be right if you asked him his own name. And I want to know what he's getting up to with my servant.'

He ignored this and proceeded to push me down the stairs.

'There are plenty of mice around this place, go and chase them.'

'Do you honestly think I'd even consider eating that moth eaten pile of…how gauche can you be?'

I left with my tail held high. 'I'll chase mice, alright, and they'll all end up in your shoes.' Stupid boy.

Once again I considered going to McGon-yowl, but decided against it. I needed some proof. So nothing really happened yet again except Honestlyronald, probably tipped off by Hairy, kept an even closer guard on his pretend rat. My quest was not proving as easy as I had thought, but at least something came along to distract me.

-o0o-

Twelve huge trees appeared in the Great Hall. Not any old trees, either. They were Christmas Trees! As every cat knows, Christmas trees are an essential part of the greatest game ever invented - "Rescue me!". It's always been a favourite of mine.

At the first possible opportunity I climbed up the nearest one and carefully made myself comfortable; they're called needles for a reason. Now I was set.

'Help! Help! I'm a poor little cat stuck up a tree!'

Fluffy played her part to purrfection. She came rushing into the Great Hall and said 'Oh Crookshanks, you poor thing! Don't worry; I'll save you!'

She did, too, and gave me a hug and tickled my tummy whilst I made grateful little mewing noises and rubbed my head against her. What fun!

The only problem is that she's got quite a small attention span. The fifth time I "got stuck" she looked at me, said 'You climbed up there, you get yourself down' and walked off. Spoilsport.

I played it a few times with some of the other kittens, but it wasn't the same. Especially the rather backward one who confused leviosa with levicorpus. That is not an expurrience I want to repeat in a hurry.

All too soon it was Christmas day itself, and I awoke to find Fluffy bouncing on my bed.

'It's Christmas!' she squeaked, dragging me from my sleep. 'We've got presents; come and see!'

We had, too. She got lots of things, and I hadn't been forgotten. I had some more sugar mice, and some kitty chews (anchovy flavour!) and…ooh! A Mister Mousie with essence of catnip! I love those.

I wasn't too keen on the flea collar she'd got me, though. Silver and tinselly is a little too flamboyant for my taste and it didn't work very well, either.

Problem. In all the rush I hadn't got her anything, but then I had an idea. Although my vole store was running low there was still a rather good one in there I was keeping for a special occasion. It was a sacrifice, but I'm so glad I made it.

You should have seen her reaction when I dropped it on her lap! She was dancing around the room and screaming enough to raise the roof. I can honestly say it was probably the best present she'd ever had, judging by her reaction. I've given her a new one every year since, and she still gets excited!

Then we had to go and see "her boys" - in their room. Maybe she hasn't got a sense of smell. She insisted I wore my new collar, too, which didn't best please me. As a social occasion it was not a great success.

When we got to the boy's room Fluffy dropped me onto a bed whilst she went off to admire their presents. It turned out to be Honestlyronald's bed, and I was sharing it with the rat. Serendipity, indeed.

'Come here, you; I want a word.'

The rat looked at me with big, scared eyes and tried to make a run for it. Why would it do that if it had nothing to hide? I leapt...and all hell broke lose. Fluffy was screaming and the toms were yelling. Honestlyronald even tried to kick me, but I could have had a wash and brush-up and still avoided him. I've seen trees move faster. He couldn't stop in time to avoid his big toe hitting a trunk, though, and started hopping around the room bellowing at the top of his voice which was much, much funnier than it sounds.

Then a sneakoscope fell out of the trunk and started whistling, adding to the general confusion. By this stage Fluffy had grabbed me but I didn't struggle; I was having too much fun watching the show. Humans are hilarious.

Fluffy seemed rather cross with me when we eventually got back to my room and she dropped me on my bed. Well, threw me, actually.

'Crookshanks! I've told you to stop attacking his rat! You know he doesn't like it and he always ends up taking it out on me. Why can't you behave yourself for once? It's almost like you're doing it on purrpose.'

'If you would just listen to me for a moment, my dear...'

But she had already departed, in what can only be described as a marked manner. Mollies, eh?

-o0o-

I dined alone in my room, as Fluffy didn't return. I had smoked salmon to start, with a traditional turkey main course. There was even a little sausage wrapped in bacon - and what looked suspiciously like a sprout. Fortunately, Rosemary had left a pair of shoes behind so I hid it in one of them. Dessert was a dish of cream with some brown sugar in it! Very nice.

Rather full and contented I was just settling down for a doze when Norris burst into the room, her eyes shining with excitement.

'THEY'VE LET THEM LOOSE! THEY'VE LET THEM LOOSE! Come quickly before they all escape!'

I looked at her, wondering what was going on. 'Have you been licking the brandy butter?'

'What? No! The white mice...from the Christmas crackers...they've let them go. We can chase them! Come on!'

I jumped down from the bed. 'White mice? On the loose?'

'Yes!'

'Well, what are you standing around here talking for? Let's go!'

-o0o-

It probably was the best afternoon of my life. We scampurred round the castle chasing mice, but the good bit was when we managed to get some outside. Hunting them against the snow was such fun! (The secret is to look for the eyes.) Of course, it also involved jumping into snow drifts and covering each other with snow which we took turns in brushing off.

Then I spotted a mouse making a break...and leapt. I won't be modest, not on this occasion; I was fantastic. I managed to turn in mid-air, and spiral, before getting it with an outstretched paw.

It was a clean kill, too - no blood. I trotted back to Norris, feeling very smug, and laid it at her feet.

'Merry Christmas.'

'For me?' I nodded and she looked shyly at me. 'We could always share.'

'I like sharing. I want to share everything, with you.' Our eyes met.

I am aware kittens may be reading this so I shall just say that, by the time we got round to eating that mouse, we were both rather hungry again.