The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

Raining Cats and Muggles

Kendra had spent much of the early afternoon searching for Elise with no success. Her quest had ultimately taken her down the hill behind the castle to the greenhouses, where she found Professor Sprout busily at work preparing lessons in anticipation of the return of her second-year students after the break.

Having taken a brief hiatus from her hunt for Elise, Kendra had offered to assist Professor Sprout with organizing vials of magical plant seeds and placing them into their proper niches on the shelves. Shortly thereafter, Professor Sprout had stepped out to attend some kind of meeting. Later, Kendra had heard rumors from other students which had come by the greenhouse, that all the teachers staying on the school grounds had been called to an important meeting in the staff room. Probably some boring end of break preparation meeting, Kendra thought. I'm certainly glad I'm not a teacher here.

On the shelf above her sat an open bag of dragon dung, which Professor Sprout had been using earlier to fertilize a tray of Venomous Tentacula that her students would be transplanting into pots in the coming year. Strangely enough, Kendra found the fresh, mulch-like smell of the dung curiously alluring. Then again, she felt that way about most things related to the field of Herbology.

Kendra loved herbology. Ever since she was a child, she had loved plants and gardens. Not just for walking around and smelling the pretty flowers, but for getting down into it with her hands and doing the hard work of getting things to grow. Kendra always found great joy in simply getting dirty.

Kendra also enjoyed joking around from time to time. She had once told a group of second-years how much she loved the dulcet tones of mature Mandrakes as they sang in harmony, and that her mother had often lulled her to sleep that way. Some of the younger students had believed her tale, much to the dismay of Professor Sprout, who had to explain to them that the loud, shrill cry of a mature Mandrake was actually lethal to anyone who heard it with unprotected ears.

There was another concern on Kendra's mind this evening. Her cat, Fidget, had disappeared again. Fidget was always taking off to roam around the school grounds, looking for high places to take short, cozy naps. Kendra would frequently find him lounging in trees, bookshelves and even on statues. Fidget was particularly fond of the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw located in the Ravenclaw common room, where he could often be found draped over the shoulder of Rowena's wand arm, fast asleep.

During the first week of school this year, Fidget had the misfortune of seeking refuge in the upper branches of a giant old willow tree that resided down the hill, half-way between the greenhouses and Professor Hagrid's hut. Apparently, the tree had been struck by a flying car a few years earlier and was not at all welcoming to trespassers in its upper boughs, which were probably still a little tender from the vehicular assault. A fourth-year Kendra knew had sworn that he had once seen the tree eat a sparrow that had perched innocently on one of its branches, though Kendra wasn't sure if she believed it. Nonetheless, Fidget learned an important lesson that day: never sharpen your claws on a tree with a mean right-hook. Fortunately, that day, he had escaped unharmed, except for his ego.

Kendra wasn't too worried about Fidget, at least not yet. It had just become dark, and that was usually the time that Fidget would come looking for her. He'll be showing up any time now, she assured herself.

Just then Professor Sprout entered the greenhouse and walked over to the workbench where Kendra was still sorting seeds into vials, probably to get another pail-full of dragon dung to resume her planting.

"How was your meeting Professor?", Kendra asked.

"What meeting do you mean dear?" she replied, trying unsuccessfully to seem nonchalant.

I was told that there was an important meeting for all the teachers earlier today," Kendra said, "I assumed that's where you were off to".

"Oh, no," she replied, nervously twisting her wand in her short, grey, wavy hair. "There were no meetings today, whatever would give you that idea?" Then she let out a restrained giggle.