Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

One morning in late August, Pandora was about to start working on a new potion when she looked in the potions cupboard and shook her head. Out of shrivelfig again, she thought. And it looks as if I'm also running low on asphodel.

She went to the sitting room where Newt was lying on his back, batting a ball of yarn with his paws. Luna lay on her back as well, giggling as she imitated the cat by flailing her arms and legs in the air.

"Sweetheart, I have to go to Diagon Alley," Pandora said, scooping up the little girl and taking her to her room to help her get dressed. "We'd best get ready if we want to make it there before the crowds do."

"Can I bring Newt?" asked Luna.

"No, I'm afraid he has to stay here," her mother replied. After she had quickly dressed Luna and helped her brush her teeth, the toddler walked over to Newt and said, "Bye-bye, Newt. Be a good kitty for Daddy, okay?" The cat mewed in reply and rubbed himself against Luna's leg.

A while later, after Pandora had picked up the potion ingredients she needed and they had made a quick stop at the Magical Menagerie to buy a present for Newt, the two of them headed back home. "Newt!" Luna called. "I bought you a catnip mouse!" There was no answer. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! Meow!"

"Why don't you ask your father if he's seen him?" Pandora asked.

"Okay." Luna toddled over to where her father was deeply absorbed in writing an article about the brutal mauling of an eight-year-old boy in Scotland which was thought to be the work of an Umgubular Slashkilter. "Daddy?"

Her father was too preoccupied to answer her.

"Daddy!"

No response.

"DADDY, DADDY, DADDY!" Luna screamed, jumping up and down.

Xeno jumped up, startled. "There's no need to shout! What is it?"

"Where's Newt?"

"I don't know, moonbeam. I haven't seen him."

All three Lovegoods searched the house from top to bottom, as well as the garden, but the cat was nowhere to be found.

"Xeno," said Pandora, "by any chance, did you remember to feed Newt while Luna and I were away?"

A look of realization and horror crossed the wizard's face. "Er...no, I didn't. I was so preoccupied with this article that I - "

"I KNEW it!" Pandora cried. "Once again, Xenophilius Lovegood, you have allowed a member of our family to wander off on their own!"

"Now really, Dora! You know of my tendency to become absorbed in my work - "

"Mummy, Daddy, please don't fight," Luna begged, tears welling in her large, silvery eyes.

Pandora took a deep breath. "Luna's right. Let's just focus on finding Newt."

The family spent the day looking all around Ottery St. Catchpole; they asked the Weasleys, the Diggorys, the Fawcetts, and even some Muggle families. They looked in the woods, the park, and just about anywhere else they thought the cat might have wandered to. No luck.

"What if we don't find him?" Luna asked that night as her mother was tucking her into bed. "What if he's lost forever?"

"Oh, he won't be lost forever," Pandora assured her. "When I was young my owl went missing for several days. She was my very best friend and I was absolutely miserable without her. And she turned up on the roof of my house. Do you know what I learned from this?"

"What?" the little girl asked.

"I learned that the things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect."

"Really?"

"Really." Pandora kissed Luna on the forehead. "We'll find Newt soon enough. Sweet dreams."

As her mother left the room, Luna rolled over on her side and thought, There has to be something I can do to help us find him faster...

When Pandora came to wake up Luna the next morning, she found the little girl stretched out on the floor drawing a large picture of Newt's face. There were a few identical pictures on the floor nearby, all inscribed HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CAT? in big letters; the C and the S's were backward. "What are you doing, sweetie?" she asked.

"I'm making posters," answered Luna. "I wanna put them up for people to see."

"That's a good idea, but you don't need to keep drawing the same thing again and again. Here - " She took one of the posters, got out her wand, and cast a Duplicating Charm until she had enough copies.

"Where are you two going?" Xenophilius asked when he saw Pandora and Luna heading downstairs several minutes later.

"We're going to hang up missing-cat posters," Pandora explained.

"May I help?" asked Xeno, eager to make up for his grave mistake from the previous day.

"Oh, I suppose so," sighed Pandora, and within minutes they got to work; Xeno covered the Muggle neighborhoods and the shopping district while Pandora and Luna took care of the spaces near their wizarding neighbors as well as the park.

"We did a good job today, didn't we, Mummy?" Luna asked that evening during supper.

"Yes, we did," her mother said. "Hopefully someone finds Newt soon."

They ate in silence for a while until Luna said, "Mummy?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"I hope Newt's okay wherever he is."

"I'm sure he is. I know he is."

"Charlie!" Molly called up the stairs. "Have you started packing yet?"

"Not yet, Mum!"

"Well, you'd best get a move on; you won't have that much time tomorrow morning."

"Okay, okay!"

Bill, who had already finished his packing for the journey to Hogwarts the next day, caught sight of a disturbance near the chicken coop and decided to investigate. What he saw was a calico cat chasing the chickens around the yard. Wait a minute, he thought. I've seen this cat before...He scooped it up into his arms and then looked at the poster on a tree nearby, and at once Bill realized whose cat this was.

"Mum?" he said once he'd come back inside. "I'll be back in a few minutes; I just need to return this cat to its owners."

"All right, dear," his mother answered. Bill was about to set out on his way when a shriek erupted from the stairs: "KITTY!"

Ginny had just raced from her room and was now snatching it from Bill's grasp. "Mine!" she said gleefully.

"Ginny, this cat already belongs to someone," her brother told her. "Besides, we already have a cat."

"But I want dis one too!" the three-year-old screamed, holding on tightly to the cat as it tried to slip out of her grasp. Bill tried to grab it back, but Ginny just pulled away.

"What is going on here?" Molly demanded. When she saw what was happening, she said, "Ginny, give that cat back to Bill."

"NO!" the little girl screamed; after a minute or so, the cat finally managed to break free of her grip, but not before scratching her on the arms. While Molly began tending to Ginny's scratches, Bill picked it up once more and proceeded to the Rook.

Xenophilius was in the middle of reading Luna the Tale of the Three Brothers when a knock sounded at the front door. "I've got it, dear!" Pandora called from downstairs. A minute later she called, "Luna! Someone's here to see you!" The toddler raced down to the front door, where she saw Bill Weasley standing with something in his arms.

"Hello, Bill!" she said brightly. Then recognizing what he was holding, she cried "NEWT!" before jumping up and down, flapping her arms, and screeching loudly.

"Er...is she all right?" Bill asked Pandora. "It looks like she's having a fit or something."

"Oh no, that's what she does when she's excited," Pandora explained. "Thank you for finding her cat."

"No problem," the teenage boy said, placing Newt on the floor in front of Luna. "I'd better get home. See you, Luna!"

"Bye, Bill!" Luna called after him as he left. She then bent down to pet Newt on the head. "Did you miss me?" she asked. The cat purred in response.

A few minutes later Luna was tucked back into bed, but before Xeno could finish reading to her, there was something important he needed to say. "Listen, moonbeam. I just want to say I am truly sorry for not paying better attention to your cat while you and your mother were away. I'm going to try harder to fix that."

"It's okay, Daddy," Luna assured him, giving him a hug.

"Thank you. Now let's finish the story..."