Y9 Round 2 Drabble
THC/The Houses Competition
House: Ravenclaw
Class: History of Magic
Category: Drabble
Prompt(s): [First Line] "If he'd/she'd/I'd/they'd known the day was going to end this way, he/she/I/they wouldn't have gotten out of bed."
Word Count: 751
"If I'd known the day was going to end this way, I wouldn't have gotten out of bed!" huffed Neville.
"Oh, chin up, dear," smiled Ms. Lovegood.
"I might if my head and neck weren't sore from the incident," he said, breaking into tired laughter. It was just impossible not to around Luna. Even the worst things could be made better with her touch.
"Incident?"
"Oh, yes…"
"You see, it all started when I got out of bed this morning. I was up half the night on-call. They say you can go to sleep like usual and just return a call on the Floo within a quarter-hour, but it was my first night, and jimminy crickets, I couldn't sleep! I kept checking the Floo network every 5 minutes!"
"Aw love, I have a groob-a-gremlin that could help with that, you know."
"That sounds wonderful, dear."
"Do continue."
"Well, I woke early to get into work, to hand off the Floo Network Routing Stone to the next on-call deputy Auror, and locked myself out of the building."
"Oh dear, did a Niffler steal your keys again?"
"Aye. I think they did."
"So then I had to pick up a witness in Island of Sadsbury Township, which is all well and good, except it's a no-Floo, no-Apparation zone. So I had to fly all the way there. Now the coast and the tulips are quite lovely this time of year, but I hardly saw any due to the massive fog banks. Now when I got there, lovely fellow, he was, let's call him Gus–though that's not his real name, you know, Auror official business and that–well he wasn't sure which court had called him to testify. And I had no way of contacting the Ministry as this fellow hasn't a fireplace! So we had but one option of going back to the Ministry…. Now, to make a long story short, I went to the wrong flippin' office. He was to go to the one all the way over in Neptune Ridge, up the North end!"
"Oh my, was your superior officer angry?"
"Nah, Allen is a nice fellow; he had a laugh about it with me after."
"Oh, good. I was afraid I'd have to send some rumple-skinned snorkacks after them!"
"Now now dear, I wouldn't want to trouble Allen with their antics."
"Fine, fine. But what happened next?" Luna took a long sip of tea, eyes sparkling as she awaited more of his tale.
"When we got to Neptune Ridge, there was a troll about, and the one Beast Services Auror there was in a frightful state. You see, it turns out it's his first day, and he never dealt with anything more terrible than a sprite by himself!"
"Oh no, that poor troll–"
"I know! I tried to talk to him, but the Beast Services fellow had worked him into a right state, and it was no good. He knocked me off the stairs, and I hit my head–"
"Did you put willa-wacka-healing-powder on it–"
"Of course, you know I did–and got right back up and stunned the poor fellow, since he was only working himself into a state to get hurt. Then the Beast Services Auror decided to try to curse the poor creature."
"Oh no! Did you find out if the troll was okay?"
"Yes, I did, AFTER I told off the beast services fellow and sent him packing. As it turns out, the troll is named Enid, and she was having a terrible day. I helped her get back to her proper habitat down in the caves system, but by then the witness I'd been transporting had run away–whether in fright of Enid or because he just didn't want to testify, I do not know. I tracked him to a seedy portkey shop, and the owner explained he'd smashed the window and made off with several portkeys, so we have no idea where he went."
"Hmm, I bet there's a creature who can trace that…"
"Aye, that would be wonderful. Imagine if we could find and train such a lovely creature to help trace portkey travel…"
"I think the glimp-o-willow could be a helpful friend for that."
"Really? Do you know one nearby?"
"There was a whole family on my neighbour's roof, on the wind-side. We could go now. They're most active at sunset, you know."
"Should we bring anything?"
"Perhaps a picnic, they do love sneaking off with your dessert." Luna chortled.
"What's their favourite?"
"Cherry pie!"