A few minutes later, Fawkes bumped into Hedwig. To be precise, he crashed into her, almost knocking Trevor out of her claws and sending him tumbling to the ground.
“Do you mind?” Hedwig asked shrilly.
“I’ve just been attacked!” cried Fawkes, not bothering to answer her question. “He tried to kill me!”
“Really?” she asked sarcastically. “Well, thank you for sharing that with us. But we’ve got to go now. Bye then!” And she flew off, leaving Fawkes flapping around with a puzzled look on his face.
“Hey! I order you to not leave me!”
But Hedwig ignored him. “Sorry!” Trevor shouted as Hedwig flew away. “I’d try to reason with her, but she doesn’t seem to be listening to me!”
Fawkes frowned, and then flew as fast as he could to catch up with Hedwig. “Stop and talk to me! I want sympathy!”
“You’re not getting any unless you use the magic word.”
“Erm … Alohomora?
“No, but you’re close.” Hedwig sighed. “Look, let’s just go inside and have a little talk. You seem quite upset … what is your name by the way?”
“I’m Fawkes, the phoenix.”
“Splendid. Come on in then.”
The two birds flew through an open window. Trevor, who had remained silent for the whole conversation, burped.
Crookshanks was asleep. He’d enjoyed a fine meal of spiders and scraps of food left on the floor of the Great Hall, and then explored the castle, searching for a comfortable-looking place where he could have another nap. Eventually, he’d decided on a pile of cushions in a Charms classroom.
However, he was rudely awoken by a pair of rowdy birds and a burping toad flying in. He opened one yellow eye and watched them, listening with one ragged ear.
“Where shall I begin?” asked one of the birds, shaking their head. That one had red and gold feathers, and was the larger of the two.
“The start would be good. I always find that the best place to start when I’m telling stories,” answered the other bird. Crookshanks recognised her as Earwig (or something like that), Harry Potter’s owl.
Oh good, Crookshanks thought, sitting up, a story!
“Alright then. If you didn’t know, Dumbledore’s my human, and last week, he disappeared.”
“That’s not that unusual, Fawkes,” said the toad. Crookshanks knew him too -- Trevor was his name.
“I know that, but he didn’t really disappear as such, he just walked out one morning and he hasn’t come back yet. I think something’s happened to him … ”
“Are you finished yet?” Trevor asked.
“Wait for me to say I’m finished! Anyway, to cut a short story shorter, an evil-looking man broke into Dumbledore’s office just before, and seemed to be looking for something. When he saw me, he tried to kill me! I’m finished,” he added.
“That isn’t the best story I’ve ever heard,” Crookshanks said, walking silently out of the shadows, startling everyone.
Trevor fainted.
Fawkes shrugged. “I admit that it lacked certain qualities, but at least it’s all true.”
“Wait a minute … how do you know that the person who broke into Dumbledore’s office was a man?” Crookshanks enquired.
“I don’t. So before you say anything else, a person broke into Dumbledore’s office. Are you happy? And who exactly are you?”
“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Crookshanks.” He extended his paw for Fawkes to shake, but the phoenix ignored it.
“I’m Fawkes. Pleased to meet you, by the way.” Fawkes turned to Hedwig. “What do you think I should do?” he asked.
Hedwig smirked. “Hold the phone. I think I have an idea … ”
“Electrical items don’t work in Hogwarts,” pointed out Trevor, who was waking up, rubbing his head. “I thought you of all people would know that, Miss ‘Read-everything-in-the-library.’”
“I didn’t actually mean hold a phone. It was a figure of speech, you see. A metaphorical phone, as it were. I have some friends who could help Fawkes, so we’d best be going. Follow me, Fawkes!”
The two birds took off, but Crookshanks grabbed Hedwig’s leg. “I think that I’d like to go with you, actually. It’s just getting interesting
Trevor hopped over. “I’ll come too … ”