The Cat's Pyjamas
by Healer Pomfrey
Please refer to the disclaimer, warnings and notes at the beginning of chapter 1!
12 - All my little wisdom try.
'Goldie, what's wrong?' Pangur thought to his familiar, causing the horse to let out a small sigh.
'I don't know, but ever since I ate my portion of sugar earlier, I feel a bit dizzy, and I think the other horses have the same problem,' she finally admitted. 'Don't worry though; it's all right, Pangur. We can still fly.'
Pangur telepathically relented the message to Patrick, only then realising that Patrick would not be able to communicate with him. 'Where is he?' he wondered, looking around, before he recalled, 'No, I need to search for the Snitch. Patrick will decide what to do on his own.'
An instant later, Patrick's voice could be heard all over the park. "I need to interrupt the match. All players please land on the ground immediately. The horses are having problems. After checking on them, we will decide if the match can be continued today."
'Oh no,' Pangur thought, feeling very disappointed. While he instructed Goldie to slowly descend to the ground, he feverishly looked for the Snitch; however, the small ball remained invisible to the boy. 'At least Severus didn't catch it either,' he tried to console himself, as he stepped over to Patrick to see if he could assist with the horses' check-up.
Before he could reach the vet though, Fred and George Weasley, the sixth year twins, cornered him. "Pangur," they whispered, simultaneously, and Fred pressed something into Pangur's hand.
"We're sorry..."
"... It was meant to be a little joke..."
"We did not intend to hurt the horses..."
"... in any way," the twins told him in small voices.
Pangur looked at the item in his hand. It was a small bag with pieces of sugar. "Do these contain the antidote?" he asked sternly and, seeing the twins nod eagerly, hurried over to Patrick, showing him the sugar. "Someone played a prank on the horses, but at least they gave me the antidote," he explained quickly, determined to not give the twins away, even if he was not pleased about the prank. 'They said they're sorry, and if the antidote works, no one needs to know that it was them,' he mused, while he quickly fed each of the horses one piece of sugar.
Patrick busied himself checking on the horses that had finished their sugar and after a few minutes announced, "Everyone get ready. The match is going to be continued in two minutes."
"Are you feeling all right now?" Pangur asked Goldie, smiling in relief when the small horse replied positively.
This time, it only took the boy five minutes to spot the Snitch. Noticing that Severus was flying right behind him, observing him the whole time, Pangur decided to not speed up but merely telepathically pointed out to Goldie, where the Snitch was, and continued to fly in the same way as before. 'I hope we'll be able to fool Severus,' he mused, grinning broadly, when he managed to grab the struggling ball out of the air a minute later.
Goldie already knew what it meant, when Pangur caught the Snitch, and immediately descended to the ground, landing right next to Patrick, who was refereeing the match instead of Madam Hooch, who was playing for the teachers' team.
"The students win," Patrick announced, "360 - 210. Congratulations!"
猫のパジャマ
A few days later, an hour before the Leaving Feast at the end of the school year, the twins approached Pangur in the common room of the fifth and sixth years, holding out a small package to him.
"What's this?" Pangur queried in surprise, quirking an eyebrow.
The twins smirked. "Ah, it's just a little acknowledgement..." Fred began to reply, before George completed the explanation.
"... a small thank you for not giving us out to the teachers."
"If you ever play pranks on the horses again, I will tell though," Pangur said sternly. "That's no fun. If you have to prank anyone, prank the teachers or the older students."
The twins exchanged a look, while Pangur curiously opened the package. "Chocolate horses," he said, smiling. "Thank you so much. I really love these, although they're very fast to jump away if you don't quickly bite their head off." Seeing the twins grin, he asked as an afterthought, "Where did you get these though? Since our last Lexington trip was cancelled due to our detention with Professor Snape, we haven't been there in ages."
Fred and George glanced at each other, before George spoke up. "We can offer you a deal," he said, smirking.
"We'll show you our way to get to Lexington..."
"... if you introduce us to a house-elf, who'd be willing to put a prank potion into the teachers' drinks at dinner tonight."
Pangur remained thoughtful for an instant, before he agreed. "Very well then, do you know where the kitchen is?"
The twins cast him a surprised look, before they let out a questioning, "Nooo?"
"We've really explored the whole school so many times..."
"... and we've often wondered where the kitchen might be..."
"... but we've never managed to discover it."
Pangur grinned and glanced at his wrist watch. "Okay then, I'll show you. Take your phial or whatever contains your prank potion with you, and we'll ask the kitchen elves if they'll help us."
"Pangur, don't be late for dinner," Hermione reminded him, when he rose from his seat.
"I won't," Pangur promised, smiling at his friends, when Eddie asked if he could join them.
"I'd love to see the kitchen," Adrian agreed, causing Hermione to roll her eyes in apparent annoyance.
"If we were supposed to know where they are, we'd surely know it by now," she lectured the boys, shaking her head as she turned her eyes back to her book.
"Of course you can come," Pangur offered. "Hermione?"
In the end, Pangur led his three best friends and the twins through the connecting door from the west wing of the building into the south wing, in which the classrooms were situated. At the far end of the first floor, he stopped walking, pointing to the wall between the Charms classroom and the History of magic classroom. "The kitchen is situated right under the Atrium; however, the entrance is here," he informed his friends and walked through the wall into the kitchen.
An instant later, the twins stepped through the wall, followed by the others. Immediately, two house-elves came over to the group and ushered them to a nearby table. "Does Master Pangur and his friends wants some raspberry sorbet?" the elf asked eagerly, and everyone automatically nodded their heads in agreement.
When the children had finished their sorbet, the twins spoke with the house-elves, who readily agreed to add the potion to everyone's drinks at the Leaving Feast, after the twins reassured them that it was absolutely harmless. 'Maybe I should refrain from drinking anything at dinner,' Pangur mused, before the thought crossed his mind, 'If I'm the only one who is unharmed, everyone will assume that it was me who played the prank.'
However, to his relief, the prank was really harmless and merely caused everyone to wear sparkling hair in neon colours for a few hours. 'It looks like fireworks,' he thought in amusement as he let his eyes wander over the other tables. 'Just the right prank for the Leaving Feast, although it's really sad that everyone is going to go home tomorrow.'
猫のパジャマ
Before he could further follow the thought, he was suddenly pulled into a vision. He found himself in the stone room, where Voldemort was speaking to a dozen Death Eaters.
"Tomorrow we're going to separate the wheat from the chaff," Voldemort announced. "We're going to attack the Hogwarts Express. Since no one is able to find Harry Potter, I have to assume that he is amongst the students at Hogwarts, disguised by a potion and under a different name. Bellatrix, give us the details."
One of the Death Eaters bowed and replied, "Yes, my Lord. The Hogwarts Express will cross the bridge at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon. We're going to wait right behind the bridge. Crabbe and Goyle, you will take the driver."
Pangur listened in shock to Voldemort's instructions, slightly moaning in pain, when the evil wizard cast his usual spells at some of his followers, before he dismissed them with the warning, "I want that we'll succeed tomorrow, and I want to have the boy here within twenty hours."
With that Pangur was back in the Atrium, where his classmates were observing him in concern.
'Pangur, are you all right?' Severus thought to him, causing the boy to turn his eyes towards the professor, who was sitting a few metres away from him.
'No sir, I need to speak with you and my grandmother as soon as possible. He is going to attack the Hogwarts Express tomorrow,' he quickly thought back, noticing an expression of shock cross the teacher's face, before it turned back to its usual blank mask.
"Mr. McGonagall, please accompany me," Severus suddenly said as he rose from his seat and strode around the table.
"I'll see you later," Pangur mumbled to his friends and hurriedly followed the professor out of the Atrium, noticing that Minerva, Poppy, Rolanda and Remus Lupin were also leaving the feast.
"Severus, have you informed Medusa why we left?" Minerva enquired, shock clearly written in her face.
"Yes, Medusa and Patrick both know. They will join us in your office, as soon as the Feast is over," Severus replied, leading the small group to the Headmistress' office. On the way, he unobtrusively handed Pangur a small phial. "I suppose you need this?"
"Yes sir. Thank you very much," Pangur said as he returned the empty phial. "This really helps a lot."
Minerva motioned everyone to take a seat, before she addressed Pangur. "Pangur, please put your memory into my Pensieve. I'd like to watch the memory, before we decide what to do." She pointed to the Pensieve that was sitting on a side table, causing Pangur to let out a long sigh.
"I'll help you. Just think of the vision," Severus said kindly, pointing his wand at the boy's forehead to accept the white memory strand and transfer it into the Pensieve.
To Pangur's relief, Rolanda remained with him and pulled him into a conversation about Hippolo and the tournament that was going to take place from the next school year onwards, while the others watched his memory.
"I believe that we need to contact Dumbledore," Minerva finally said after leaving the Pensieve.
tbc...
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