Chapter 11: Gethsemane Prickle

ΔOl

Danny scribbled in the margins of his Transfiguration book with his quill, illuminated by his own glow where he sat, bored out of his mind. He'd been ordered to guard the inky stretch of highlands for over three weeks with nothing to show of it but a grumpy hippogriff that seemed adamant about cosying up in the cave off the cliff's edge. No matter how much he'd tried to tempt it out, it would squawk angrily at him and try to bite his fingers, which didn't make for great company and sadly, there didn't seem to be any other living thing in sight for miles. He thought he saw a dog once, but summed it up to being a trick of the moonlight.

Danny kept his distance from the murderous chicken after he'd tried to use his powers to try and levitate it out and was given a sharp nip on the ear for his efforts. It had taken nearly ten minutes for his healing to kick in enough for him to clear up all the blood.

Flopping on his back, he stared up unseeing at the night sky. Spooky, his owl, hadn't returned with any letters yet — he didn't know how long it would take to travel over the ocean, but he couldn't stop the worry seeping into his hollow bones at the thought of Amity Park being overrun with Animi and ghosts alike. His parents' inventions often led them into more trouble than not, and without him there to protect them...

The stars seemed extra bright up on the rocky mountain range, he noted distractedly — the air was brisk, not cold enough for snow but cold enough to coat the ground with thin patches of frost. His mind quickly turned from Amity Park to the first task of the Tetrawizard tournament. He had no clue what the test would be — he'd been at Hogwarts for weeks with no notice of even when. Cedric seemed to be getting more jittery by the day, he didn't even rise to the bait when Danny made fun of the 'Support Cedric Diggory' badges his friends were wearing, just muttering that he'd asked them not to wear them before scarpering away.

An inhuman shriek shattered through the darkness, jolting Danny upright and nearly sending his textbook off the side of the cliff. Squinting into the night he spotted a large black shadow cutting its way across the sky. Without hesitation on leaving his mind-numbingly boring post, he flickered away from visibility and shoved off the cliff's edge, soaring into the sky. It didn't take him long to catch up; half a dozen wizards were slowly edging across the sky as they struggled to balance a large barred crate between them, which screeched in outrage as it rattled, a glint of purple and blue flashing from inside.

One of the wizards leading the way shouted back, 'I thought I told you to keep that thing quiet! We can't have it waking up an entire muggle village!'

A wizard to Danny's left shouted back nervously, 'We tried, boss! It's impervious to most of our spells!'

Another wizard shot a blast of red through the bars in a vain effort, causing the creature to squawk indignantly, its body writhing in its tight cage, slamming against the walls in an attempt to break free. The wizard scoffed. 'The sooner we can sell this thing off the better. I'm sick of capturing these beasts in these ridiculous boxes.'

'Just shrink the box, you idiots!' The crate glowed a sickly yellow in response as it slowly shrunk in size and whatever was inside howled.

Smugglers, Danny thought. Carefully, he slid intangibly through the cage. He immediately contorted his body to take up what little space was remaining, colliding with what felt like either soft scales or hardened feathers. It was near claustrophobic. A snake-like tail flicked out angrily, feathers that glinted iridescent in the moonlight encased a long, slithering body with a pair of wings strapped tightly to its sides with a rope-binding spell. Danny narrowly dodged another red spell that snuck its way through the bars, and the creature squawked, revealing a wild plumage of purple feathers surrounding a beaked head and two golden eyes glaring out at the wizards.

An occamy.

He'd only seen them in textbooks; he thought they were all extinct nowadays, hunted to annihilation for their eggs. The occamy hissed in fright and pain as it struggled in its bindings. Whatever this crate was, it wasn't accommodating for the occamy's natural size-shifting, and the walls seemed to squeeze in retaliation. Danny lurched up into the ceiling as the occamy's tail crushed into his ribcage. Letting out a pained gasp, he fell back into intangibility, relieved from the intense pressure of nearly becoming a smudge on the side of a box. The occamy didn't have the same luck, letting out an unnatural gurgling sound as its body twisted even more. The crate stopped shrinking as quickly as it started, and Danny quickly swooped over to where its wings were pinned, watching them unravel under his glowing grasp. The occamy seemed to be at attention now, its large gold eyes turning to where Danny was floating, attempting to ruffle its wings in the small space.

Feeling nervous now, he slowly lowered his hands to his waist, unclipping the thermos that sat comfortingly by his side. The occamy stared at him unblinking as he carefully pulled the lid off the thermos, making sure not to trigger any buttons. In its current state, it was just a regular, old, empty thermos.

'Don't worry,' Danny whispered in what he hoped sounded reassuring, 'You'll be safe in here. I've got you.'

Golden eyes flickered once more between himself and the thermos before he watched, mystified, as the occamy lept into action, its long torso roiling like silver waves as the opportunity presented itself.

'What's going on in there?' bellowed one of the wizards.

The walls tried to narrow themselves even more, but weren't fast enough — the occamy's body shrunk at an astounding rate, its wings flaring as it unravelled its head free from the trappings of its own body, eyes stuck on the thermos. He watched bewildered as its body continued to shrink down from the size of an Indian elephant until it was no larger than a common garden snake. Letting out a squeaky crow of delight, it dove into the shallow depths of the thermos where Danny slammed on the lid.

The crate stopped shrinking the moment the occamy had disappeared, and the sound of angry and confused wizards filled the empty air, their flight slowing to a stop.

'What in Merlin's beard is going on in there?' the leader shouted.

A wobbly voice replied, 'I dunno, the spell just stopped working!'

'Maybe I can fill you in on the details?' Danny said as he swooped out of the crate to glare down at the wizards whose faces had quickly turned from ones of bewilderment to terror at the sight of him.

He gave a toothy smirk in response, his hands glowing green. 'I'll tell you on our way to the Ministry.'

He swore he heard a triumphant chirrup coming from the thermos on his belt.

ΔOl

Danny felt more than a little battered and bruised as he stepped out of the lift with six slightly squashed smugglers floating in a cage behind him. The attendant in the lift let out a sigh of relief, slamming the door shut to whisk himself away. Danny, used to this behaviour now, wandered his way down the corridor and, not even bothering to knock, stepped straight through the Auror department's door. He was met with the shocked face of Auror Prant, who let out a surprised yelp before a wide grin encompassed his face, 'Phantom! You're here! And you brought… is that Mulchwin and his gang?'

'If you mean a bunch of mean-mugged smugglers, then sure.' Danny summoned the cage into the room as the three other Aurors stuck burning the midnight oil leapt to their feet, crowding around the entryway in a mix of excitement and curiosity at Prant's outburst.

'You're joking.' Auror O'Flaherty stated as he stared down at the smugglers, 'We've been hunting these guys down for over a year! They're the biggest traders in the game! Prickle upstairs has been breathing down our necks for months to catch them.'

'How on earth did you do it?' Prant looked awestruck as he flicked an immobilizing spell at the leader, Mulchwin, who had been mumbling furiously through the ectoplasmic gag Danny had slapped on him.

Danny shrugged, pleased to finally feel useful, 'Caught them smuggling an occamy over a no-maj village in Scotland.'

'An occamy? They're incredibly rare nowadays — they must have been looking to sell the eggs. Made of pure silver, you know? Where is it now?' Auror Lewin-Bennings asked.

Carefully plucking the thermos from his belt, he placed it down on a nearby desk, giving it a soft pat.

'Brilliant.' O'Flaherty muttered, 'It's no Sirius Black, but it's definitely a good mark for the books. Six of the top smugglers. Six!'

Danny can't help the blush that coated his face at all the praise, awkwardly shaking hands with each of the Aurors who congratulated him on his great capture. He wished Tonks was around to break up the embarrassment but she was following a lead down in Wales with her new senior partner, Kingsley, who hadn't said much to him in his short time with the team but was a definite improvement from Caldwell. Last Danny heard he'd been demoted and placed on suspension for endangerment of Auror safety. Danny couldn't help the grin that had spread across his face at the news and old Scrimmy in turn had made a poignant effort to pretend not to see it.

Auror Hooper was the last to shake hands with him and with a quick mutter said that the boss was on his way. Before Danny could even rebuff the idea, the fireplace in the corner erupted in a flash of green fire and a haggard Scrimgeour strode out, his usually proud mane of hair hung as limp as his robes in the early morning hours and he looked less than pleased to be pulled away from his bed.

Danny couldn't sympathise considering he'd been the one stuck in the bluffs every night on watch duty. Scrimgeour shuffled over to where they'd congregated around the entrance and stared down at the trapped smugglers before giving a heavy sigh and turning back to the fireplace. Baffled, Danny watched as Scrimgeour threw a handful of Floo powder into the fireplace, crouched down onto his knees and shoved his face right back into the flames.

The other Aurors pottered about as they worked at yanking the smugglers free from the cramped cage, which Danny turned intangible with a touch of his hand, much to the appreciation of everyone except Mulchwin and his gang, who toppled to the floor in a groaning heap.

Scrimgeour's head appeared back on his shoulders shortly after, crooking a finger in Danny's direction to join him in his office. Snatching up the thermos, he gave a quick wave to the other Aurors who were pulling the smugglers to their feet, more than a little fascinated by the ectoplasm bindings, and followed after him.

Scrimgeour didn't say anything as he stepped into the room, simply proffering his hand to the chair opposite. For once, the Auror wasn't in a constant state of motion. There was no organising paperwork or measuring charts; Danny had his full attention.

Admittedly, Danny thought as he lowered himself into his usual chair, he much preferred when he didn't have Scrimgeour focusing on him. It left him feeling more than a little unsettled.

He sat unblinking, staring at Danny with an expression he'd never seen him wear before. A paper plane swept into the office, forcing Scrimgeour to break eye contact with Danny, who let out a relieved breath. Scrimgeour snatched it out of the air, unfolding it with trained hands to read its contents.

He carefully folded the note onto one of his meticulous piles before stating, 'You should be happy to know that we've already been able to identify four of the six wizards you picked up this evening, some of whom were already facing penalties in France for similar crimes. Now that we've been able to detain them, we'll be able to coordinate with the French Minister to have them processed for Azkaban in less than a week.'

'Oh,' Danny said, 'That's good. Honestly, I thought you were going to tell me off for—'

'This is in spite of disobeying your direct orders to maintain vigilance over the highlands for sightings of Sirius Black.'

'Ah, there it is.'

Scrimgeour raised a hand, cutting Danny short, 'I will admit your lack of focus has… benefited us. I just received personal thanks from Gethsemane Prickle, the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, for our direct action in taking down those black-market peddlers, which I can promise you is a rarity from her. We've been after that smuggling syndicate for the past year with no luck.

'I've informed Prickle that she'll be expecting you – she's on the fourth level.' He nodded at the thermos Danny held in his hands. 'You should head there directly after with the occamy before you're dismissed for the evening.'

Danny, wondering if he'd been hit with a daydream curse said, 'Er… no worries?'

Scrimgeour gave him a sharp look, 'This doesn't distract from the fact that you left your post. After reviewing the situation we've concluded that the highlands is too broad of a job for you to handle alone. As a result, I am reassigning you.'

Too broad? Danny felt his ego bruise a little at that statement, 'That's not fair! I didn't break any of your stupid rules—'

'I've chosen to reallocate you to Hogsmeade and the surrounding areas, for you to better narrow your focus — in particular, we are hoping for you to watch over one of the Hogwarts students, a Mr Harry Potter.'

'Oh, Hogsmeade. Yeah, cool. You want me to play babysitter?'

'In simpler terms, I suppose, yes.' Scrimgeour continued, 'Sirius Black is the godfather of Harry Potter. From what we can make of the patterns, it is strongly believed that he is heading that way. With your abilities, we have all agreed that you would provide the highest chance of capturing him.'

Danny narrowed his eyes at Scrimgeour, 'Hold on… is this your way of saying sorry for double-guessing me?'

Scrimgeour's jaw tightened, 'I think we're done here, Phantom.'

'It is, isn't it? I'm right!' Danny laughed, 'Turns out the big bad Auror does have a heart tucked under all that paperwork!'

'Get out!'

ΔOl

With a cackle, Danny slipped out of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, casually wandering his way into the elevator with the ever-nervous attendant. Why a magical elevator needed an attendant he didn't bother to understand.

'Y–you're back! Wh–where to, Mr Phantom?' the attendant stuttered, his face gaunt. He was probably still reeling from seeing Danny cart around a crate full of criminals.

Danny gave him a toothy grin that made the attendant wilt even more, 'Fourth.' he said simply, his head turning intangible as a paper plane swooped in a little too close to his head. The attendant nervously pressed the correlating floor and the pair were thrust upwards.

Danny didn't bother to wait for the doors to open this time, instead slipping right through the decorative grate making the attendant whimper in fright.

The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was very different in structure from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which was packed to the brim with paperwork and wanted posters. The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was a wide open space with a single door at the end of the room. There were no cubicles, but instead the walls were crammed with cloth-covered cages of various sizes, where strange rumblings and growlings echoed throughout the room.

The hay-coated floor was nearly barren considering the early hours of the morning. Danny glanced at the clock located on the far wall, tiredly noting that it was a quarter past five in the morning. So much for catching some shut-eye before double-Transfiguration that morning. McGonagall had quickly become one of his favourite teachers, but she wasn't one for letting students nap during theory.

Currently, the skeleton crew consisted of a single woman who looked rather bored as she shoved hunks of raw meat through a cage door with an extendable arm that looked like it had seen better days.

Danny crunched his way across the floor and cleared his throat. The woman's head snapped up with a foul expression that quickly melted away to one of astonishment and a hint of fear.

'Er, hi. Didn't mean to scare you. I was just hoping to speak to Gethsemane Prickle?' Danny asked, hunching down in hopes of appearing unassuming and friendly. He hadn't had much contact with the rest of the Ministry outside of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement — barring the lift attendant but he was pretty sure the attendant had been sworn to secrecy. Or threatened, considering his skittishness.

The woman pointed a shaky finger at the door at the end of the room, her mouth hung gormless as she blinked up at him. With a quick thanks he floated over to the door and knocked softly.

'Come in.' Barked a reedy voice.

Danny thought it would be better to open the door this time instead of gliding straight through it.

Dressed in a pressed pinstripe dressing gown and matching hair bonnet, a stern-looking woman sat hunched over a roll of parchment that was slowly extending its way across the floor. She didn't look impressed.

Raking his fingers through his hair, he tried to tame the windswept ends before gliding over. Gethsemane Prickle glanced up at him with a raised brow, placing down her giant eagle-feather quill to cross her fingers under her chin to stare at him with hard grey eyes.

'So, you're the Phantom I'm supposed to thank for miraculously saving an incredibly rare, and very valuable, creature from a band of renowned smugglers?'

'Er, yes?' He said uncertainly.

'Well, you've made for excellent timing at least; my meeting with both the French and Spanish ministry representatives got pushed up to later this morning. This piece of news will hopefully ease some of the tension that's been culminating.'

Picking up a pale wand, Prickle summoned over a small cage that landed neatly on her desk. Tapping on the wire with clean, blunt fingernails she stated. 'The occamy, if you'd mind.'

'Oh,' Danny clutched the thermos to his chest. 'You want it back? I didn't think—'

'Like I said, Mr Phantom, that occamy is extremely rare. We're not just going to let you traipse off with it to who knows where? The creature rights activists would have my head!' Prickle rapped at the cage with more force.

Reluctantly, Danny took off the lid and carefully tilted the thermos to let the occamy slide out, shaking it gently to coax it into its temporary home. 'Come on now, there's heaps more room out here to stretch your wings.'

The occamy flurried its wings experimentally before giving Danny a belligerent caw and attempting to slither back into the thermos.

'No, no! You've gotta stay here, where they can take care of you.' Danny cooed back. It was rather cute for weird a snake-bird hybrid.

'Are you done talking nonsense to that creature, Mr Phantom?' Prickle had picked up her quill again, looking unimpressed.

Danny felt his cheeks flush. 'Er, right. Sorry about that.'

Danny hadn't even returned the lid to his thermos when the door was flung open and a man with bright red hair receding at the temples and wearing rumpled robes that looked like they had just been thrown on if the slippers on his feet said anything, stumbled in.

'Weasley, can't you knock?' Prickle demanded, looking more than a little affronted.

Weasley?

'Sorry for the intrusion, Prickle. Posely's mistakenly sent me an owl with a bit of an emergency in South Brighton. Thought it better to bring you the news directly. A litter of krups have been sold off to a muggle family and are seemingly magically multiplying!'

Prickle pinched the bridge of her nose as she stood, looking displeased at having to abandon her paperwork. 'Very well, I'll coordinate a team to look into it. Do me a favour and escort Mr Phantom—'

'It's Danny.'

'—out of the building, would you? Dismissed.'

Without another glance in Danny's direction, she strode out of the office.

The man, who Danny easily assumed was Fred and George's father, seemed suddenly aware of Danny's presence and jumped on the spot. 'My goodness, you're Danny Phantom! Rutherton on the second floor told me the rumours, but I didn't think they were true!'

He snatched up Danny's hand, shaking it vigorously. 'Incredible work there with that motored vehicles registration place last year. Who'd have thought dementors would be so attracted to a space filled with so many muggles?'

'Beats me. It was depressing enough without them there.' Danny grinned, 'Mr Weasley, right?'

'Oh, I forgot myself! Yes, Arthur Weasley from the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, at your service.' Mr Weasley looked like he'd considered bowing to him, but stopped himself at the last second, giving an odd sort of jerk of his head instead. 'Now what, might I ask, is that curious contraption?'

Danny glanced down at the thermos left abandoned in the occamy's cage, quickly snatching it up to place the lid on with a twist. 'It's a thermos. No-maj's use it to hold things like soup to keep them hot.'

''Without a warming charm? Fascinating.' Mr Weasley, raised his arm in a flourish to lead Danny out of Prickle's office and quickly fell into step beside him. 'How's it do that?'

'Double-lined walls, conductive metals… stuff like that. This one's mainly for catching and trapping Animus and poltergeists.' Danny laughed, 'and sometimes the odd occamy.'

'It traps both soup and ghosts? How so?' Mr Weasley looked like Christmas had arrived early as they left the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and stepped into the lift. He gave a cheery grin to the attendant who blatantly looked the other way as he jabbed the button for the Atrium.

'My par— I mean, a couple of inventors, the Fentons, back in Amity Park made it.'

'Incredible. My boys, Fred and George, are friends with a boy called Fenton. Think they're the same?'

Danny flushed, feeling rather pleased that Fred and George had told their father about him. 'Yeah, I think they're the same.'

The lift opened into the wide space of the Atrium and the pair stepped out. The giant clock on the far wall now read a quarter past seven — any hopes of getting a wink of sleep were crushed. A few early-rising witches and wizards were making their way out of the rows of fireplaces that sat at the entrance, too bleary-eyed to notice the pair as they stumbled to their respective offices.

Mr Weasley clapped a hand over Danny's shoulder, whispering conspiratorially, 'You seem like a sharp fellow on all this muggle stuff. Tell me, do you know what is the function of a piñata?'

'What?'

A bright flash of light flooded his retinas, and Danny was left blinking the stars out of his eyes. 'Well, isn't this exciting!' Crooned a familiar voice, 'The illustrious Danny Phantom, in the flesh. Well… sort of.'

Rita Skeeter, dressed in garishly bright daffodil yellow robes was tromping her way across the atrium, an ever-loyal photographer following after her. Her red-lined mouth had turned up at the corners, not unlike a cat's as her large hands snapped open her crocodile-skin purse, a sickly green quill zipping out the balance itself impatiently on a piece of parchment. 'So the Ministry really did barter a deal with the MACUSA to get you to be their plaything? Scrimgeour and his little posse couldn't handle the job by themselves?'

'Huh?' Danny felt overwhelmed, flinching as the camera went off again and another round of stars flooded his vision. 'Ugh, can you stop that please?'

'How about giving us a little pose for the camera, darling? The public is going to eat this up!' There was another flash, making Danny scrunch up his face in distaste.

'Excuse me!' Mr Weasley said, looking affronted. 'What do you think you are doing here at the Ministry? You can't simply barge in here unannounced, accosting people like that! Especially not Mr Phantom!'

'Danny's fine.' Danny mumbled under his breath.

Rita Skeeter ignored Mr Weasley, sidling her way closer to him to lean her face so close to his own that he knocked the back of his head on the wall of the lift. 'Fascinating,' she murmured like she was hypnotised, 'Your eyes really do glow like fire. It's… enchanting.'

Hesitantly, Danny placed his palms on her shoulders and gently pushed her away, 'Thanks, but I really gotta go. Nice to meet you, Mr Weasley!'

'You too, Mr Phantom!' Mr Weasley replied cheerily, but not without a disdainful glance in Rita Skeeter's direction.

'Oh, but you can't leave yet!' Rita's hands snaked around Danny's own, clasping down tightly when he tried to let go. 'You'll have to give us a little more detail as to why you're here. The ministry must have hired your services after their little… mishap at the Quidditch World Cup. It is very caring of you. Now tell us — saving the world all by yourself, it must be terribly lonely and the readers are dying to know; is there a Mrs Phantom around?'

Danny turns bright red before stuttering out. 'No! What? Why? Never mind — gotta go!' and, turning intangible, slipped his fingers out of her grasp and flew straight out of the Ministry and Rita Skeeter's red-clawed grasp.

ΔOl

Double-Transfiguration had gone as well as he expected that morning. He'd arrived back at Hogwarts just as breakfast finished, barely having time to exchange his thermos for his bag to get to class.

Professor McGonagall had thrown him more than one disappointed glance as he failed to transfigure his toad into a toadstool. At least the mushroom cluster he'd summoned looked mostly edible. The Ravenclaw girl he'd partnered up with during Herbology seemed even less than impressed when he'd face-planted into their freshly potted soil. Mad-Eye Moody, who was taking his role in pretending he didn't know Danny very seriously, saw his sleep-deprived state as an opportunity to blow up his desk as he barked out, 'Constant vigilance!'

At least he didn't transfigure him into a ferret like that snarky Slytherin kid.

By the time the day had ended, Danny was both dirty and exhausted. Dragging his feet up the final flight of stairs he didn't even bother distracting Sir Cadogan who let out a mighty squawk of fright and fell off his pony as Danny fazed through the portrait. Dropping his school bag he flung himself face-down on the bed, letting the softness of his pillows and mattress seep away the exhaustion in his body. The evening was quiet, he couldn't even hear the owls as they swept through the night. It was pure silence…

Except for an irritating scratching sound.

Lifting his tired head off the bed, Danny squinted through the low firelight, the scratching echoing through his skull. He thought it might be Spooky, finally returning with his letters, but the large bay windows were empty as always.

The scuffling sounded more impatient now. Danny's head whipped around to stare at the thermos he'd left abandoned on his bedside table. It rattled in response as if knowing he'd caught it in the act.

'You're kidding.' Danny ran a tired hand down his face. 'Prickle is gonna haunt me.'

The thermos let out a soft chirrup in reply. Carefully, Danny unscrewed the lid and looked inside. An occamy peeked up at him with its big golden eyes, letting out a happy hiss as it leapt forward.

Danny flung the thermos away as it exploded out. The chintz armchair and ottoman Dumbledore had favoured was crushed under the occamy's ginormous heft, the canopy of his bed was torn apart by a razor-sharp beak as its massive head swung around, and he had to duck when his solid oak desk flew out the stained glass window with a sharp whip of its tail.

That was disappointing. His Defence Against the Dark Arts assignment was in one of the drawers.

The swirling mass of the occamy slowed to a creaking halt, its feathered scales glistening in the dim firelight as it stared down at him with its large eyes. It let out another chirrup.

'Well hey to you too, buddy.' Danny gave a wry grin, reaching up to scratch under its chin that nearly spanned the length of his torso. 'I wouldn't like to be stuck with Prickle either. Too spikey for my taste. Could have done without the redecorating though.'

The occamy cooed in response.

A soft knock echoed from the portrait entrance. Danny sucked in a nervous breath. 'Er, don't come in!'

His request was ignored as the entrance swung open. Or at least tried to, if it wasn't for the giant mass of feathers that blocked the way.

'Professor Dumbledore!'

'Oh!' Dumbledore said softly, peeking his head around, 'I appear to be stuck. Do you mind asking your feathered friend to move out of the way so I may enter?'

Danny turned to look at the thermos peeking out from under its massive weight to the occamy, which blinked back stupidly at him. 'I don't think that's gonna work, sir.'

'Ah, very well. Maybe a little bit of intervention is required.' Dumbledore's robed arm peeked out from the narrow gap of the portrait and flicked his wrist. 'Reducio!'

Danny watched in awe as in only a handful of seconds the occamy had shrunk from the size of a blue whale calf to a banana snake. It gave a terrified squawk before it slithered over to Danny, clambering up his leg to wrap around his neck.

'Ah, much better.' Dumbledore said as he stepped fully into the room. 'My, when Rufus told me your success in capturing those smugglers, I didn't expect you to be so invested in creature welfare to take it home with you.'

Danny flushed a deep shade of puce, 'I swear I didn't, sir! I thought I left it at Prickle's. It must have snuck into my things when I wasn't looking and—!'

Dumbledore raised a calming hand, 'I believe you.'

'Oh. Good. 'Cause I didn't.' Danny mumbled awkwardly, bending down to inspect his thermos. It didn't look damaged at least. 'Wait, you spoke to Scrimmy? Why?'

'Pure coincidence, I can assure you.' Dumbledore said as he wandered further into the room, looking a little put out at not having anywhere to sit. 'I was there to discuss final preparations for the first task when I just so happened to find myself unwittingly trapped in a lift with Rita Skeeter — I believe you've met? — who was more than happy to boast about how poorly a job the Aurors office was doing, where I was then waysided into Rufus's office who told me a peculiar tale of a smuggled occamy not dissimilar to the one currently occupying your person.'

Dumbledore smiled as he inspected the destruction around the room, 'You've certainly made an impression, Mr Fenton. I hope you recognise that. Even the Minister won't be able to deny it, try as he might.'

With a wave of his wand, the chintz set reformed, his torn canopy mended themselves together and the broken window returned to its former glistening glory. Danny looked on impressed, before remembering.

'My desk is still outside, sir.'

'I beg your pardon?' Dumbledore blinked.

'My desk. It got thrown out the window. My homework was in it.'

'Ah, I see. The house elves will be able to get that all sorted out for you before breakfast, do not worry.'

What in the world was a house elf? Danny thought to himself, but Dumbledore was already striding out of the portrait hole before he could ask.

'Try to get some well-deserved rest, Mr Fenton. You'll be needing it for tomorrow.'

ΔOl

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