chapter the second.
a ravenclaw feline in hufflepuff

"Oh, you have got to be joking," Ernie mumbled, mostly to himself. He crouched down on the floor, looking beneath the armchair the cat had hidden itself beneath. And... to his surprise, there wasn't a single jingly black cat to be found, but instead a rather familiar-looking gray one. "Aristotle?" Ernie said, reaching to drag the unwilling feline out from his hideaway. "How did you get out of the common room?"

Aristotle -- Ernie's own cat -- looked up at him with an "I didn't do it" face, before meowing loudly to be put back down. "Dumb cat," Ernie mumbled at his retreating form. The cat was a few years old -- he'd gotten Tot second year, when he was just a kitten -- and had always been somewhat... special. Very quirky. Very annoying. Ernie was usually glad to let him prowl around the common room, if it meant that he'd be left alone in the dormitory.

He looked around the abandoned common room one last time, just to make sure he really hadn't seen Luna's cat, before heading back to his dorm. Hopefully he'd be able to sleep, even with so many interruptions...

He reached the sixth year dorms, which had been rather quiet and desolate when he'd left for the breakfast that didn't happen, but now his roommates were up and moving around. Justin was awake and packing his things for home, and Wayne Hopkins was on his way out the door, a stack of blue parchment in his hand. "Here," he said, handing one to Ernie before he was even through the doorway.

Ernie glanced at what Wayne was offering; it was a replica of the one he'd received from Luna. "Already got one, thanks," he said, shaking his head.

"I am helping Luna Lovegood with her search," Wayne said cheerfully. He was staying for the week, too. Ernie couldn't decide if he was glad to have company, since Zach and Justin were both leaving, and he wasn't sure what Francis was doing yet... but Ernie assumed that he'd be leaving, too. "See you later, Ernie!" Wayne said as he headed out the door. And on that note, spending a week with Wayne Hopkins was somewhat frightening. Wayne was good friends with Luna. In all of their oddities, the two of them made a good pair.

Justin finished packing his things, making a bit of small-talk with Ernie as he did so, but eventually he had to get himself to the Great Hall to prepare to head home for the week, waving his goodbye to Ernie and leaving him alone to try to nap... but by that point he'd already been awake for so long that it was starting to look rather hopeless. He tried to read for a bit, and had almost drifted off when the dormitory was suddenly invaded by the sound of racing paws and the tell-tale yowl that could only be Aristotle.

"Tot!" Ernie said crossly, hoping the stupid cat would calm himself down -- except a cat that certainly wasn't his jumped up onto his bed and stopped in its tracks, staring at him for a second. "You're not Tot," Ernie added, sitting up and reaching for the collarless black cat. Despite the lack of a belled collar, he was rather sure that it was Luna's missing one, considering he didn't know of anyone in Hufflepuff with an all-black cat. Hannah's cat had white markings. He scratched the cat behind its ears before looking down at the floor to see Tot sitting there, looking up at Ernie rather expectantly, flopping his tail back and forth.

Letting the black cat go, it jumped down to where Tot was, sizing him up for a moment before lunging and biting him. The two cats wrestled for a moment before taking off running once again for the stairs. Ernie rolled his eyes and let them go. Justin had already left; that meant the rest of the homebound students probably had as well, so there was really no rush in getting an owl off to Luna to let her know the cat was safe. He'd get around to it... eventually.

"Ernie MacMillan!" Wayne said rather breathlessly, running up the stairs to their dormitory later on that morning. Ernie opened his eyes, not even realizing that he'd drifted off finally, and wondering how long it had been since he'd fallen asleep. He looked at Wayne, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, and wondering slightly just why Wayne always felt so compelled to use everyone's full names all the time.

Wayne waved something at Ernie -- a something that made a jingling sound as he did so. "Look what I found in the common room!" he cried excitedly, his face looking more than somewhat concerned. "I believe this belongs to a certain missing cat from Ravenclaw..." He trailed off, clearly fearing the worst.

"Oh... yeah," Ernie said, running a hand through his hair and trying to wake himself up fully. "Uh... I saw Luna's cat a bit ago. He was chasing Aristotle around. I was going to send Luna an owl later on this afternoon."

"You found him?" Wayne said, his expression changing to a grin. "That is wondiferous news! Luna will be so relieved! "

Ernie nodded, yawning a bit as he did so. Wondiferous news indeed. Except that it meant now Tot would be running around twice as much with his new friend, and the problem of Wayne Hopkins talking to him twice as much as usual was still rather imminent. Hopefully he'd get tired of Ernie's one word answers and nodding eventually...

"So does that mean you will be looking after Lucian while Luna is away?"

"What?" Ernie looked up, his eyes wide. He hadn't really thought about that. "Why me?"

"Well, you found him, after all," Wayne said matter-of-factly, "and if your cat has befriended him, the least you can do is allow their friendship to prosper! They can be like brothers!"

Ernie found himself just staring at Wayne again. He sighed, looking up at the ceiling for a long moment. "I suppose," he agreed, looking back at his roommate. It wouldn't be too hard leaving some extra food out for the other cat, anyway. And he was planning on writing to Luna. Eventually.

The train ride had been rather fretful without Lucian there. Heathcliff had kept her company, sensing Luna's unease and becoming quite the overly-affectionate biscuit tin. She was undeniably glad to see her father at King's Cross when he'd come to retrieve her, but her missing cat was still on her mind for the rest of the day, and she kept to herself when they returned to their house in Ottery St. Catchpole.

She opted to go to bed early instead of seeing what Ginny Weasley was up to that evening, telling herself that she'd have all day tomorrow and for the rest of the week to see what Ginny Weasley was up to.

She was woken up rather early the next morning by an owl pecking at her window. She opened her window to accept the owl's letter -- it was addressed in Wayne Hopkin's rather familiar scrawly script! A letter from Wayne was an unexpected surprise, but perhaps he had news about Lucian. She thanked the owl and opened the letter, and was greeted with a much more conservative print -- not Wayne's at all, but instead... that of one of his roommates.

Luna,

Hi there. This is Ernie MacMillan, from Hufflepuff... you gave me a notice about your missing cat this morning.

Anyway, er, I think I've found him. In the Hufflepuff common room, of all places. I can get him back to you, I guess, but since you're already gone for the hol, I don't mind looking after him and making sure he's fed til you get back. He and my cat Aristotle have been following each other around all day... I think they're sort of best friends now.

I hope you have a nice Easter. At least you don't have to worry about your cat anymore, right?

Ernie MacMillan

Hufflepuff Prefect

Well! That was good news indeed (although why the letter was addressed by Wayne and yet written by Ernie confuddled her slightly, but she could ask Wayne about that later. For now, she was much too relieved about her cat, writing a quick thank you note back to Ernie before leaping out her bed and down to breakfast with her father, followed by a bicycle ride over to the Burrow to share the news of her good fortune with Ginny.

author's note the second.

It's been kind of forever since I updated this. I suck. But I have gotten back into my Ernie lately, and getting back into your character's head is always good for inspiration when trying to write a fic XD

The next part may be up rather soonly. Hopefully. Tonight would be totally wishful thinking... haha.

Dena!