Chapter 21 Stealthy Ferret
Corin rolled his neck and stretched his back, sighing at the pops these motions produced. After his Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff third-years, he'd spent the rest of the day at his desk going over his lesson plans for the coming weeks and months. Then he'd gotten together with Laurea, Oron and three other elves who were helping him teach the wandless defense class. The first class was the following night with all the fourth through seventh-years. They would test all of the students taking the class to see whether they were beginners or advanced. The beginners would continue to meet on Tuesday nights from seven to nine PM and the advanced students would move to Wednesday nights.
He glanced around his rooms, looking for something to do. There were plenty of books to read, but he felt he'd jump out of his skin if he had to sit anymore. Then he got an idea. He hadn't become any of his animagus forms since coming to Hogwarts. What if he became Quist and snuck around the castle for awhile? It was nine o'clock, so most of the students would be in their common rooms. Or they should be if they didn't want to loose house points. Yes, an excursion in his ferret form would be just the thing.
"Hedwig, keep an eye on the twerp." His owl gave a hoot and he was out the door. Glancing quickly around and seeing no one, he became Quist in a split second and was waddling down the hall.
Hogwarts looked quite different in his ferret form. For one thing, there were fascinating smells off down that corrid- Hold on, keep a hold of yourself Corin. I can't let the ferret part of me take control. He continued on, exploring and poking his nose in just about every crack and crevice he could find.
He was contemplating climbing a suit of armor (must think to bring Artue on one of these excursions) when he heard humming up ahead. Laurea! Suddenly his ferret face broke out in an evil grin and he gave a soft chuckle. (Quite funny how a chuckle sounds when coming from a ferret.) Stealthily, he crept behind the suit of armor's boots and crouched waiting. The second he saw one of her feet come into view, he leapt.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!" The sound of her scream was beautiful! It was at such a high pitch that the very stones underneath them seemed to vibrate. He was ecstatic! Ha! That'll teach her to deliberately sic Ailin on me!
"CORIN!"
He jumped around in front of her making little huffing sounds that ferrets make when they're excited.
"I'm going to kill you Corintur Raumoraa!"
He jumped on her feet once more for the fun of it, then took off down the hall running. She's sooo going to kill me in the morning...
Finally he slowed down as he got to the stairs and cocked his head listening for pursuit. Nothing, wicked! This means I can explore more! He began making his way down the stairs. After going down three flights, he stopped for a rest. I feel like a furry slinky.
As he continued down the stairs, he looked for interesting hallways to explore. One such hallway was down where he had found the Mirror of Erised.
Hmm, maybe Albus is hiding other rare of interesting magical artifacts there this year. His curiosity piqued, he left the stairs and started down the familiar corridor. This part of the castle does have a mysterious feel about it; maybe that's what attracted me in my first year.
Finally reaching the door where the mirror had been kept, he was about to push the door open when he heard a rather feline growling sound.
Oh crap. He turned around slowly and stared into the eyes of Mrs. Norris. The scruffy, red-eyed cat eyed him hungrily and licked her lips in anticipation. He took off running. Ferret instinct was in control now and in choosing between fight or flight, Quist had chosen flight. Unfortunately, Quist didn't know Hogwarts half as well as Corin did and he was soon cornered.
Mrs. Norris stalked slowly toward him and Quist hunched his back up, making himself look larger and hissed softly. Not deterred, she continued towards her prey, drool dripping from her mouth. Suddenly, Corin was in charge of his animagus form again and gave the cat a mischievous smirk.
Confused by this sudden change of attitude in the furry-rodent-prey, the feline cocked her head. Why is the rodent-thing growing? This was her only thought before every single strand of fur on her back stood on end and she bolted in fright. Chasing after her came a gigantic dark-silver and black leopard.
He chased her for awhile- okay, about an hour. And when he'd gotten tired (meaning, when Mrs. Norris had wedged herself under one of the trophy cases), he headed back to his rooms to sleep.
The next morning, he headed out at five o'clock for his morning run. After about an hour of that, he met the rest of the elves on the quidditch pitch for fighting practice. He'd had to cut it short this morning though, because there was a staff meeting at 6:30.
Walking in, he yawned and made himself a big cup of coffee before sitting down in one of the chairs. Black leather, very comfortable. The other teachers wandered sleepily in, one at a time, and soon they were ready to start. Albus, as he'd learned from Professor McGonagall, always held a staff meeting the day after school started. They would go over any changes in schedule, problem students, and other announcements they needed to be aware of.
Finally it was time to start. "Welcome everyone. Before we begin, I have been asked to notify you of an incident that happened last night. Apparently Mrs. Norris was terrorized last night to the point where she won't come out from under the display cases in the trophy room-"
Corin, who had just taken a big gulp of coffee, promptly spit it out again all over the 4th Year syllabus he'd been scanning. All eyes turned to him as he tried to discretely wipe the coffee away, while still trying to look the dignified elf at the same time. It wasn't working.
"Corintur, is there something you'd like to... tell us?" Albus asked, barely holding back a grin.
Corin gave a small, innocent smile. "No sir, nothing."
Yay! Here it is!! Well, I never was able to get a hold of my friend. I wanted to ask her about ferret behavior and what they do when they're really ticked off or scared. Well, I made an estimated guess and I hope it's right. If it's wrong, I'll probably go back and change it. I hope you liked this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Arye
