A Doggy for Christmas - Advent's Calendar Story 2022
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Later in the evening, everything happened so fast that Harry and Hermione could only exchange a look of pure exasperation.

When they entered the common room with two minutes to spare before curfew, Ginny Weasley was, as usual, sitting alone in a corner, her attention focused on a black book that was lying on the table in front of her. They unobtrusively sat down on the adjacent sofa, eyeing the younger girl from the corners of their eyes.

All of a sudden, however, Whisper took action. She jerked over to the table holding Ginny's book and snatched it away from the girl's soft touch. Ignoring Ginny's outcry, she dashed through the common room and left through the portrait hole carrying her treasure away.

'Whisper, what are you doing?' Harry thought to his familiar in shock.

'That book is evil. I can sense it. I'm going to McGonagall's office. Come and translate for me. Bring Ginny.'

"Ginny."

"Go away. It's bad enough that your pet stole Ginny's diary."

"Ronald, shut up." Hermione glared at their former friend. "Harry, what happened?"

"Whisper told me that she could sense that the book was evil. She said she'd take it to McGonagall, and we should join her there together with Ginny."

"No." Ginny crossed her arms wearing an angry expression. "Tell your evil dog to give me my book back."

"Harry, let's go." Neville stood from the sofa, and the Gryffindor trio made their way to McGonagall's office.

When they reached their head of house's office, the professor was cuddling with Whisper, and the black book was lying on the table in front of them.

"What happened?" McGonagall cast them a disapproving look, and Hermione quickly informed the professor.

'Harry, ask McGonagall to call Sirius here please.'

"Professor, Whisper asks if you could summon Sirius here, please? He's an Auror, and I suppose that she's able to communicate with him in his canine form."

McGonagall nodded. "Of course."

HP

Two minutes later, Sirius stepped out of the fireplace. "Good evening, Minerva, Hermione, Harry, Whisper, and you must be," his eyes narrowed, "Neville Longbottom? What happened?"

"Yes, I am Neville Longbottom. Nice to meet you, Lord Black."

Sirius shook his head. "No, I am not Lord Black, at least not yet."

"Hi Sirius, can you please transform into your dog form? Whisper wishes to speak with you." Harry leaned into the embrace, when his godfather pulled him into a light hug. 'He won't hurt me,' he reassured himself, feeling very happy at the older wizard's affection.

"Of course." Sirius swiftly transformed into his canine form.

=Hi Whisper, what happened?=

=I can sense that the book on the table is evil. It must be destroyed. Can you take it to the goblins? They might be able to destroy it.=

=Of course. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.=

He transformed back and informed the humans in the room about his conversation with Whisper. "I shall take the book to Buckbean as requested. Or perhaps even to Unspeakable Croaker," he added as an afterthought.

"Do you believe that the book is evil enough to have possibly caused the opening of the Chamber of Secrets?" McGonagall asked, her mouth stretched to a thin line.

Sirius picked up the book, only to cast them a flabbergasted look. "It leaks evil," he said, wide-eyed. "I'll better take it away right now."

HP

To everyone's relief, the incident with Mrs. Norris remained the sole case, and nothing else was heard about the so-called Chamber of Secrets.

From that time onwards, Ginevra and Ronald Weasley completely ignored Harry, Neville and Hermione, but the three friends could not care less. As far as they heard in a heated discussion between Ronald and the twins, Ginny had received a dressing down from McGonagall, who had lectured her about not trusting magic in an item, when the origin of the magic was not obvious. She had even taken 50 points from Gryffindor.

HP

Time passed fairly quickly, and the sextet of three Gryffindor and three Slytherin second-years enjoyed themselves so much that they were surprised, when the test week before the Christmas holidays began.

Harry found the tests fairly easy, and he was looking forward to travelling home to Furry house for the holidays. However, the Defence Against the Dark Arts test, which was the last test for the time being, was simply a farce. The test did not cover any knowledge, which they might have acquired during the first months of the school year, however, it consisted of personal questions concerning their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Gilderoy Lockhart.

'Is it difficult?' Whisper, who apparently had decided that he might need her assistance for the tests and was for once lying on his feet during class time, asked.

'It's totally ridiculous.' Harry informed his familiar about the nature of the exam.

'Take it with you and hand it to McGonagall,' Whisper advised him, and Harry immediately agreed, glad that Remus had thought of teaching Hermione and him a copying spell during the summer. 'She is very cuddly in her cat form, almost like Mrs. Norris,' Whisper informed him, causing Harry to stare at his familiar in disbelief.

'That was too much information,' he thought, as he handed in the blank parchment of his Defence Against the Dark Arts test.

HP

After the last afternoon class, Hermione, Harry, Neville, Daphne, Tracey and Blaise made their way to Professor McGonagall's office with Harry and Daphne carrying copies of their Defence Against the Dark Arts test in their robe pockets.

"Please come in." If McGonagall was surprised to see all of them together, she did not show it. She swiftly conjured three more chairs and motioned them to sit down, before she lowered herself onto the seat behind her desk and cast them a questioning look.

"Sorry, Professor, for intruding here together." Daphne was the first to speak up.

"We just thought that you should know what our Defence Against the Dark Arts exam was like," Hermione continued.

Harry handed over the parchment, and the professor let her eyes wander over the text. "Do I understand this correctly? This was the second-years' Defence Against the Dark Arts exam?"

"Yes, Ma'am." This time, they replied in unison.

"Preposterous. I've told Professor Dumbledore many times that Lockhart is a fraud, but he insists that he doesn't have anyone better willing to teach." McGonagall let out a deep sigh.

"Professor, what about Remus Lupin?" Hermione suggested. "He would make a much better Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and he is not occupied otherwise right now."

"You know Remus Lupin?" The surprise in McGonagall's expression was genuine.

"Professor, will you promise me to keep what I tell you now a secret from Professor Dumbledore?" Harry cast his head of house a pleading look.

"Harry, you should demand a witch's oath." Daphne's voice was firm and allowed no contradiction.

tbc tomorrow...

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