The Cat's Pyjamas

by Healer Pomfrey

Please refer to the disclaimer, warnings and notes at the beginning of chapter 1!

13 - So in peace our task we ply

"Minerva, are you sure that it is safe to establish a Floo connection to Hogwarts? Won't we endanger Pangur?" Poppy asked, her voice laced with concern.

"Severus, what shall we do?" Minerva queried, causing everyone to turn their eyes to the Potions Master.

Severus thoughtfully let his right hand run through his silky hair, before he replied, "I am not certain, but I believe that there is an encryption charm, which we should cast on the fireplace beforehand. Medusa will probably be aware of it; otherwise, we need to do some research first."

Everyone remained thoughtful, until Medusa and Patrick fortunately arrived a few minutes later.

Medusa smirked upon hearing Severus' concern. "In fact, I have placed the encryption charm on all fireplaces, before we opened the school five years ago. It is completely safe to contact any place in Britain from here. They won't know from where you are calling. Even the British Ministry of Magic won't be able to track the Floo call. Go ahead, Minerva."

After a glance at Pangur, Minerva grabbed some Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace, before she said firmly, "Headmaster's office, Hogwarts."

An instant later, Albus Dumbledore's voice could be heard. "Minerva! Is that you? Nice hair style you have today."

"Albus, I called to warn you," Minerva said crisply. "We have received the information that Voldemort is planning to attack the Hogwarts Express tomorrow afternoon."

"From which source did you get this information?" Dumbledore asked sharply.

Minerva let out a long sigh. "Make him swear a wizard's oath not to reveal what you tell him now," Severus threw in, causing Minerva to nod in determination.

"I will only give out my source if you swear a wizard's oath on your magic not to reveal this source to anyone," she said firmly.

"You're asking a lot," Dumbledore replied, sounding very upset. "Why would I know that you're not trying to fool me?"

"Albus!" Minerva said, angrily. "Why would I ever bother to call you if not for the safety of your students? You need to send the students home by other means, at least the muggleborns."

Pangur and the adults could hear the Headmaster of Hogwarts swear his oath, before Minerva explained about Pangur's visions.

"Are they authentic?" Dumbledore queried in apparent surprise.

"From all the information that we receive from the Daily Prophet, they are," Minerva confirmed. "You should know me better than to doubt my warning. I hope you have a plan how to get rid of Voldemort."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Ah, believe me, Minerva, I have a plan and a very good one at such."

Minerva let out a snort. "I'm glad to hear that. Good luck, Albus." With that she cancelled the connection.

"Well done, Minnie," Poppy said warmly. "Now it's up to him to make a decision. You have done what you could."

"Yes," Minerva replied, sighing. "Let's have some tea."

While everyone made themselves comfortable, Severus turned to Pangur. "Tomorrow morning I wish you to remain close to me or Poppy. The Dark Lord will be very upset and is surely going to punish his followers harshly, provided that Dumbledore listens to Minerva."

"All right," Pangur promised, smiling at his godparents.

猫のパジャマ

In the morning, Pangur woke up to hushed voices. "Pangur," he heard, while someone lightly shook his shoulder.

"Wake up, lazybones," another voice whispered, chuckling.

Pangur sleepily opened his eyes, glancing at the ceiling, where the time was displayed in huge letters, which he could read even without his glasses. "It's four o'clock. What the..." he mumbled and was just about to turn around to face the wall, when a whispered sing-song penetrated his mind.

"Don't go to sleep again, Pangur..."

"We still have to fulfil our part of the deal..."

"Come with us and we'll show you..."

"... what we promised you yesterday."

"Fred, George," Pangur groaned. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Yes, it's four in the morning..."

"... the best time for the early bird," the twins cheered, causing Pangur to quickly get up.

Throwing his robes over his pyjamas, he hurriedly followed the twins out of the dormitory. 'I'm going to miss them,' he thought. 'Next year we'll be sixth years, and from then, we'll always be paired with younger classes.'

Pangur was so wrapped in his thoughts that he did not realise where they were, before they found themselves near the entrance to the kitchen on the first floor. However, the twins did not lead him to the kitchen but chose a different part on the opposite side of the wall to walk through the wall. 'Where does that lead?' he wondered as he hesitantly stepped through the wall, immediately noticing that it led outside.

'We're in the front garden,' he realised, amazed. "How come you know this way and I don't, although I've been living her for years?" he asked in confusion, causing the twins to smirk.

"It was only by chance..."

"... that we followed Professor O'Leary out here one night," they finally admitted, before they led Pangur out of the school territory. They walked several hundred metres away from the building in the direction of Lexington, and Pangur was just beginning to wonder where they were heading, when George suddenly pulled his wand and waved it through the air.

All of a sudden, an extremely large horse appeared out of nowhere. "Is that a horse?" Pangur blurted out, eyeing the thing in front of them in confusion.

"No," the twins replied, chuckling.

"It's the Derby Bus..."

"... the equivalent to the Knight Bus in Great Britain..."

"... if you know that."

Pangur shook his head, staring at the wheels, which seemed to be a combination of horses' hooves and wheels. "No... but this is awesome. Where does the bus go?" he asked, interestedly.

Suddenly, a man jumped down from the horse's head. "Good morning, gentlemen. I am Nick, the Driver. Where may I take you today?"

"Hmmm... is it worth going to Lexington..."

"... this early in the morning?" the twins queried, cheering at the driver.

"Ah no, the town's still asleep. How 'bout goin' to The Flooding Cliffs 'n St. Francisco?"

"The Flooding Cliffs?" the three students repeated, questioningly eyeing the bus driver.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Have you never heard of the wizarding night market at St. Francisco?"

"Sounds interesting," Pangur mused aloud.

"But how far is St. Francisco?"

"Will we be back in time?" the twins asked, sounding equally excited.

"It's far," Nick informed them, smirking. "However, since there aren't any other customers on the bus at this time, it'll take us about ten minutes."

"We need to be back in two hours," Pangur threw in, hesitantly.

"That's all right, lad. I'll pick you up in St. Francisco right on time to have you back here in two hours' time," Nick promised. While the bus took a huge jump, he explained, "The Flooding cliffs house a market once a year. The Muggles call the place the Golden Gate bridge, and once a year, it is closed for their traffic for a night. They believe that it is due to some street renovation. However, it's a great event, which no adult wizard should miss." He let his eyes wander over the children, before he added, "I suppose that you escaped from the school for a few hours. Well, I'm not going to give you out to the Headmistress, provided that you're back at The Flooding Cliff, when I come to collect you." With that the oversized horse bus stopped at what seemed to be the beginning of a huge bridge.

The three boys thanked Nick profusely, before they turned around and excitedly made their way over to where they could see a huge number of small tents lined up on both sides of the bridge.

"I wonder what they're selling in these," Pangur spoke up in surprise. "They're really small."

The twins chuckled. "These are magical tents," George finally said. "Come on, we'll show you. From the inside, they're much larger."

"Pangur, sometimes you sound as if you were muggleborn," Fred threw in, thoughtfully.

Pangur let out a long sigh. "In fact I grew up with Muggles, before my grandmother adopted me," he admitted in a barely audible voice. So there are a lot of things, which I don't know about the magical world."

"How come McGonagall let you grow up with Muggles?" the twins queried, simultaneously, looking at Pangur with a combination of sympathy and interest.

"Please keep this information to yourselves," Pangur replied and hesitantly told the twins about his real identity.

"Okay, we won't tell anyone…"

"… especially not our little sister…"

"… since she has been having a crush on you since she was a baby."

"Thanks for telling us the truth," the twins replied and ushered Pangur into a small tent with the inscription "Holler's Hoopitch Home".

With surprise Pangur realised that the twins had not promised too much, and the shop was about one hundred times as big as the tent seemed to be from the outside. 'This is amazing,' he thought and thoroughly enjoyed his excursion together with the twins. There were shops selling tons of pumpkins for pumpkin juice as well as a wand maker, a shop for magical animals, an apothecary, a shop that sold all kinds of chocolate animals, and Pangur even saw a tent with the writing 'Seals' Candycane Foals and Horses'.

'Oh no,' he thought, terrified. 'What if we meet Mr. or Mrs. Seal? No one must know that we're here.' However, the boys were lucky and did not see any familiar face. Too soon, the two hours were over and they had to call the Derby Bus in order to be back at the KFC, before everyone else would wake up and miss them.

'Pity that I didn't know this in advance,' Pangur mused when he trailed behind his friends to the Atrium for breakfast. 'Otherwise I'd have taken some money with me and perhaps bought a Snitch or a book for Hermione,' he thought, resolving to take his best friends to The Flooding Cliff at the next opportunity.

猫のパジャマ

After the students had taken their Portkeys home for the summer holidays, leaving Pangur, the teachers and the house-elves behind, Pangur joined Severus in the Potions lab in order to spent the morning assisting his godfather. However, he had only just begun to prepare the first ingredient, when a sharp pain shot through his scar and his vision failed.

tbc...

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