The Novelle Diaries & The Wampus Cub

Chapter 13: A Nasty Scratch

Wren spent most of Saturday looking up the names and addresses that she had remembered from Hagrid's conversation, in the library and wrote introductory letters to them all. She never enclosed the whole truth in her writings, simply that they had found and raised a Wampus cub in Hogsmeade and were looking for a sanctuary to take it on. She also omitted the fact that they were children and even made a fake name to sign the letter. She wanted to make sure that none of these letters would backfire on her and her friends.

'There you are.' Rosewaine whispered as she walked down one of the many library isles. Wren had never gone to breakfast or even returned to her dorm. She had been so set on her mission that she had headed straight to the library without telling anyone.

'I have been looking everywhere for you.' Rosewaine huffed a little irritably.

'Sorry, I've been a little busy,' Wren indicated to the pile of letters that were sealed and ready to send.

'What is this all about?' Rosewaine asked as she sat down by her friend's side.

'Im looking towards the future. A little birdie told me that we can't stay in class forever.' Wren said pointedly. Erris, who had found Wren several hours ago and had sat reading opposite her ever since, raised his dark eye brow as he heard this strange phrase. But as always, he did not ask. If Wren had decided that it was not his business then he would not stick his nose in. He did not want to alienate her by pushiness.

Rosewaine looked down at the letters with a more sombre expression, realising that one of the recipients may take Chirrup away from them but she knew that Wren was doing the right thing. A wampus cat is supposed to be wild and free, not cooped up in a dingy room.

Once the girls had sent the letters off at the owlery and had dinner, which by this point Wren was very thankful of as she hadn't eaten all day, they visited Chirrup in his class room to spend the evening playing and tiring the cub out before bed.

When Rosewaine unbolted the supply room door Chirrup burst out with a strength and rumbunxiousness the girls hadn't witnessed before. The cub launched itself with such joy at Rosewaine that he knocked her flat on her back, winding her on the hard flagstone floor. She only just had enough breath to yell an ouch as one of Chirrup's clawed paws slashed across her forearm as he tried to lick her face in a rather dog-like manner. As soon as Chirrup heard Rosewaine's squeal of pain he lept off her and positioned himself in the corner of the room with his nose facing the wall and his tail tucked tight around his bottom. The children had never raised their voices at him before so the sudden loud noise had made him feel very rejected.

'Rosewaine! Are you ok?' Wren exclaimed as she rushed over, seeing the dribbles of blood seeping from the papercut like scratches on Rosewaine's arm.

'I'm fine.' Rosewaine panted as she regained her breath. 'It was more shock than pain.' she explained as she looked down at her arm then turned to the cub who looked as if he had put himself in time out. 'It's ok Chirrup. You just caught me off guard.'

The cub turned its head a little, showing its wowful yellow eyes then returned to staring at the walls. It took Wren actually picking up the rather large cab and cuddling him on her lap for him to start making happy chirps once more.

Once they had consoled the cub, the girls got to work cleaning Rosewaine's wound with water and adding some of the all purpose healing potion that they had used to great effect on Chirrup's curse burn. They were both relieved to find that although the scratches were large, they weren't at all deep and would heal nicely in a couple of days. Wren bandaged her friend's arm and then forgot about it for the rest of the evening, playing tag and chase the feather with Chirrup until curfew.