Meanwhile, a fully-fledged search was going on in the Chamber of Secrets. Crookshanks and Trevor had gone missing, and none of the birds in the chamber had seen them for at least an hour. During that hour, Hedwig and Fawkes had been talking with Kess and Pig, but when they’d decided that it was time to go, they were shocked to learn that the other two members of the group were nowhere to be found. Kess had immediately organised everyone into search parties and sent them off to find the troublemakers.
Unfortunately, none of the sparrows, finches, pigeons, doves, eagles, hawks, buzzards, ducks, swans, geese, thrushes, or owls could find them.
“Do you think they’ve been taken by the same people who’ve taken Mrs. Norris?” Hedwig asked Kess, as they searched the cast-off basilisk skin.
“No, I don’t. They’ve probably just got lost. Don’t worry about them. They’ll turn up somewhere sooner or later.”
When they weren’t found, Kess gathered all the birds together, and off they went to search all of Hogwarts and its grounds, a great flock of birds all searching for a cat and a toad.
*****
Mrs. Norris winced as she walked back towards Hogwarts, and hissed as she thought of Lord Voldemort.
Once she’d agreed to help him, he’d lifted her up and stroked her head, luring her into a false sense of security before stuffing her into the sack again, along with Wormtail (in his rat form), and tying the end of the sack tightly, so the two prisoners couldn’t escape. He completely ignored Wormtail’s screeches, and even though the human couldn’t understand what Wormtail was actually screeching, he must have had some idea that it was along the lines of: “Let me out, master!”
And now, here she was. Another human “ a Death Eater, according to Wormtail - had carried the sack to somewhere near Hogwarts, dropped it and then opened the bag. However, when Mrs. Norris came out, Wormtail following, the Death Eater had disappeared, so Mrs. Norris couldn’t sink her claws into the human.
In the distance, she could see one of Hogwarts’ many towers peeking over the top of a hill, so that was where she was heading. She winced again and meowed forlornly. What she needed right now was her human, Argus. He’d know how to make her better.
But no, here she was, at least a mile from Hogwarts, and an injured leg, from when the Death Eater had dropped the sack onto the ground.
“You do know where you’re going, don’t you?” Wormtail asked in a whining voice.
“I don’t often go for midnight strolls this far from the castle,” Mrs. Norris replied scathingly, “but surely you, with your little rodent brain, can see the castle over there,” she pointed with one of her good paws.
“Yes,” Wormtail answered quietly. She’s almost as bad as the Dark Lord, he thought.
The pair of them reached the top of the hill, and looked down at the lake, the Forbidden Forest, and Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the castle was on the opposite side of the lake to them.
“Oh great,” Mrs. Norris muttered to herself. “I hadn’t thought it was that far away.”
“Erm…what’s that?” Wormtail asked.
The Animagus was staring wide-eyed at Hogwarts. Something had just shot out of the middle of the castle, like a black fountain, disintegrating and spreading out all over the place. Wormtail had heard bad things about the Forbidden Forest: giant spiders, for example. Was this another of those things?
“I have absolutely no idea,” Mrs. Norris said, and that could have answered both of Wormtail’s questions, both spoken and unspoken.
“Well, I have the feeling that we should get away from whatever it is. It looks as if it’s looking for something.”
The cat and the rat looked at each other, terrified, and then jumped into a hollow tree trunk that was lying nearby, waiting for whatever it was to go away.
There was silence for a few minutes, as if the whole world was watching, wondering like you what was going on.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by a flock of birds landing nearby, and a high voice at the end of the hollow log saying, “Hello? Anyone in…mmmph!” Mrs. Norris had pounced out of the darkness onto the creature with the squeaky voice, a small fluffy owl.
The three of them lay in silence until they heard a loud fluttering of wings again, and finally Mrs. Norris released the small bird, sure that the other birds outside had gone.
Stopping to take a deep breath, the bird started speaking in its annoying voice. “Hey, aren’t you Mrs. Norris? The others will be interested to see you, because Kess knew that you’d been kidnapped, and thought that your kidnapping had something to do with the fact that someone had broken into Professor Dumbledore’s office. We were talking to Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix, and he was in the office when someone broke into it, and then he joined up with Hedwig and Crookshanks and Trevor, but now Trevor and Crookshanks have gone, and I thought they were kidnapped by the same person who kidnapped you and broke into Dumbledore’s office, and do you know who I think it is?” The bird didn’t stop for anyone to answer; it just carried on. “That’s right, I think it’s Voldemort. He’s a terrible man…”
“Will you just shut up?” interrupted Wormtail.
“Who are you?” the bird asked, seeing Wormtail for the first time
“I think you should introduce yourself first,” said Mrs. Norris. “After all, we’re the ones who kidnapped you.”
“Alright. I’m Pigwidgeon, but my friends call me Pig. I’d like to say that you can’t call me Pig because you’re not my friends, but it gets tiring when creatures keep calling me Pigwidgeon. I’m afraid that you’ll just have to call me Pig.” Pig finished his introduction and smiled proudly at his kidnappers.
“I’m Mrs. Norris, and this is Wormtail, my…associate,” replied Mrs. Norris.
Pig turned to stare incredulously at Wormtail again. “Wormtail? Wormtail? I’ve heard of you! My human, Ron Weasley…”
“Your human? No, Ron’s my human!” Wormtail cried indignantly.
“So you are Scabbers. I thought you were as soon as I saw you.”
“Actually, I prefer the name Wormtail now.”
“I’d guessed that already. You know, Ron’s always talking about how much he hates you, Scabbers.”
“You’re lying. We’ve spent many happy years together, and I’m sure that he’d prefer me to you.”
“Be quiet!” Mrs. Norris screamed. “Honestly, you two are giving me a headache. Now, as I’m the leader of this little group, I’ve decided that you’re coming with us, Pigwidgeon.”
“What if I decide I don’t want to?” Pig asked. “I could just fly away, and neither of you could stop me.”
Mrs. Norris smirked. “Actually, we can stop you. Wormtail, can you turn into a human for a moment and then tie this little bird up?”
“Yes, I can,” answered Wormtail, grinning at Pig.
There were a few moments of silence when nobody did anything.
“Oh,” said Wormtail, realisation dawning on him at last. “You want me to do it now?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Norris in a bored tone of voice.
“Alright. Could you just look away for a moment?” he asked shyly. “I find this a bit embarrassing.”
“Sure. Anything for you, Wormtail dear. Look away, Pig, and let him do his business.”
Mrs. Norris and Pig both turned away. There was a rustling sound, and then a human voice told them they could turn round again. They did so willingly, and saw a man standing there. “Right then…” He bent down and picked up a piece of vine, then took Pig out of Mrs. Norris. Struggling a little, he managed to tie Pig’s wings to his body, and he set the owl down on the ground before asking his two companions to turn round again.
A few seconds later, Wormtail was back in his rat-shape again.
“You’re an Animagus!” Pig breathed, hopping up and down.
“Yes, I am. But I don’t like to boast about it.
“Just as well “ it’s probably why Ron doesn’t like you,” said Pig.