The Voyage of the Caterpillar

Chapter 9: The Witch

I woke the next morning, forgetting where I was. When I finalky remembered I was inside a glass jar inside the Apothecary, I had crashed into the invisible wall.

Trixie laughed. "Not used to being in a jar yet, are you?"

"I don't get how you can still retain a positive attitude when we're about to die." I said. She just laughed again.

There was the sound of a bell ringing and a human walked into the shop. It was a male, and he was wearing a funnily looking outfit that seemed to trail behind him. They must be the robes that Hermy had mentioned. So that means that this must be a wizard!

"Trixie, look! A wizard!" I exclaimed.

"Yup. Pretty cool." She nodded.

"What's he doing?"

"I don't know."

The wizard was frantically running around the shop, organizing the jars on she shelves, waving a weird stick around and chores were magically completed.

"Wow! Hermy was right! They do have magic!" Trixie gasped.

"I'll always believe his tales from now on," I nodded.

The wizard walked over to the door of the shop and flipped the sign on the door from, "closed," to, "open." Then he sat down behind a desk in the corner and began to bottle some potion ingredients.

A few minutes passed as Trixie and I watched the wizard. Kingsly and Patil seemed transfixed by him as well. Now there were more wizards entering the shop, but these wizards were children.

"How much for the valerian springs?" I head a young wizard ask the wizard behind the desk.

"Looking to brew Sleeping Draught, aren't you! The valerian is two galleons for three springs. Quite a bargain!" The wizard behind the desk nodded.

"Hey! I think those pufferfish eyes are looking at me!"

"I need some more wolfsbane for potions class!"

"Let's see... bezoar, mistletoe berries, unicorn horn..."

The wizard behind the desk was helping the younger wizards with thier goods. If they needed help, he would stand up and show them a bottle of ingredients or take them to the desk, where the young wizards would give these strange golden metal pieces and leave with their new ingredients. "Galleons," were those strange golden metal pieces.

THe door to the Apothecary opened and closed again and another wizard entered. This one was female, and she was wearing robes similar to all of the other wizards. She had hair the color of honey and sparkling hazel eyes and she had a messenger bag slung over her left shoulder.

The witch walked right up to the wizard behind the desk. The wizard looked up and smiled. "Hello, may I help you?" he asked.

"Yes. I've heard you started selling ingredients for the Shrinking Solution here" The young witch told the wizard behind the desk.

"Ah Shrinking Solution! Such a handy potion! Right this way!" The wizard stood up and lead the witch over to a shelf with small green bottles. "Here we are! Daisy roots!" He beamed. He seemed awfully proud.

The witch took a bottle of the daisy roots off the shelf. "Okay... Is there anything else I need?"

"You'll need shrivelfigs!" He handed her a jar filled with strange purple fruit. "And also hairy caterpillars!"

"Hairy caterpillars?" She echoed.

"Exactly! They're a key ingredient in making Shrinking Solution!" The wizard walked over to the jars of caterpillars that my friends and I were contained in. This couldn't be good...

"Here you go!" The wizard took a jar off the shelf. Inside was a familiar face, and he did not look happy...

"Hermy!" I called out.

"Fletcher! Help!" He yelled.

The witch gently took the jar out of the wizard's hands. "Aw... But he looks so upset!"

"Nonsense!" The wizard exclaimed "Animals don't have feelings!"

"But they do, Sir!" The witch protested. "These innocent creatures don't deserve to be boiled to death in a cauldron!"

There was a pause. Hermy was running around inside the jar in circles. Inside the jar next to mine, Kingsly and Patil were staring.

"Can... Can I buy them? Can I buy them all?" The witch asked.

The wizard smiled, satisfied that he would make some money after all. "Sure, sure! That will be... seventy-five galleons!"

The next thing I knew Trixie and I were lifted off the shelf and dropped into the witch's messenger bag.