“Would you mind telling us who you are first, and what you’re doing sneaking around scaring terrifying innocent cats?” Crookshanks asked. He was cold, hungry, some creature had just scared the life out of him, and (worst of all) he was wet. This was definitely not a good day.
“I’m Fang, and it’s my job. To patrol the grounds, that is. Terrifying cats is just an added bonus,” the voice replied, although he was lying. He normally just slept all day, but these creatures had woken him up from his nap.
“I’m Trevor,” Trevor replied, “and this is Crookshanks.”
“Yes. Now can you at least come where we can see you?” Crookshanks asked.
“Fine,” came Fang’s voice. And out of the shadows came Fang, revealing himself to be an enormous black boarhound, who towered over both Crookshanks and Trevor. Crookshanks gulped and shrank back in fear.
“You look cold,” stated Fang. “Come to my house, it’s a lot warmer there, and I’d much prefer to be there than out here, chatting to you two.”
*****
Now Pig’s disappeared. It’s as if all the animals in Hogwarts are disappearing one by one! Kess thought. First Mrs. Norris, then Crookshanks and Trevor, and now Pig!
Kess had grown quite attached to the tiny owl, even though he had an annoying voice, and he was quite hyperactive. She was now questioning the birds that had been in the same search party as Pig, but they had no idea when Pig had disappeared. Absolutely no idea. He was easy to overlook, being so small, Kess thought, but not so small that you could forget about him, because he did have a very annoying voice that you couldn’t ignore.
And they’d only realised that they didn’t have Pig with them when they got back to the Chamber of Secrets, so there was no way of knowing when Pig had gone off.
“What can we do?” Kess asked herself.
******
Fang led his two new friends to a small wooden house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, so small that there was only one room inside. There was a massive bed inside, which Trevor didn’t think belonged to Fang, and a roaring fire in the fireplace on the other side of the room. Lying on the floor, pointing to the fire, was a battered pink umbrella.
“How did you get this fire going, Fang me old mate?” asked Crookshanks, who had walked straight towards the fireplace, and was already lying by the fire warming himself.
“Easy,” was Fang’s reply. “I just used that umbrella. It’s actually my human’s wand “ well, bits of it, anyway “ and you can still use it to light fires.” Fang shut the door, then climbed onto the bed and lay down and looked at the other two.
“So where is your human?” enquired Trevor, who was sitting on the table near the fireplace. “He can’t be far away, if his wand is still here.”
“Well, that’s the strange thing, Trevor. You see, Hagrid “ that’s my human’s name “ just disappeared a few days ago. He was in such a hurry that he even forgot his wand.” When he’d finished, Fang closed his eyes and rolled over
Trevor was staring at Fang. “Dumbledore disappeared a few days ago too! Maybe they went somewhere together.”
Fang opened one eye so he could see who he was talking to. “Yes, I heard about that. Pretty strange, if you ask me. It makes me want to find out what’s going on, but then I decide not to and then go to sleep. And if you don’t mind, I’m going to go to sleep now. Wake me up when it’s morning. I’ll break my fast, and then have another sleep. Good night!”
Trevor shook his head and turned to Crookshanks to tell him that they should leave, but realised that Crookshanks was asleep, too.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, that’s what Trevor’s mother used to say, so Trevor went to sleep as well.
*****
Kess had finally decided what to do. She would go and visit Fang, along with Hedwig and Fawkes. After all, Fang was the only animal who knew his way around Hogwarts’ grounds like the back of his paw, and he might have seen Pig, or even Crookshanks or Trevor, unless he was sleeping. Which he probably was. Still, Kess couldn’t think of anything else to do.
She flapped her wings, and flew off into the night sky, towards Hagrid’s Hut, Fawkes and Hedwig close behind her.
*******
The fire in Hagrid’s Hut could be seen from far away, and it was from far away that Mrs. Norris saw it. As soon as she saw it, she changed direction and headed towards the firelight instead of Hogwarts. Lord Voldemort had given her a job, and that was to be his eyes and ears in Hogwarts. So she might as well, go and see what that light near the Forbidden Forest was.
“Where are we going now?” Wormtail and Pig asked at the same time.
“Can you see that light straight ahead?” Mrs. Norris asked in reply.
“Yes.”
“We’re going there.”
As they got nearer, Mrs. Norris saw what the light was coming from. It was coming through the windows of a small wooden hut, and looked like it was firelight, which was what Mrs. Norris had guessed it was at first.
She suddenly stopped, and Pig hopped right into her and fell backwards onto the ground.
“What did you stop for?” Pig screeched.
Mrs. Norris whirled round and glared at him. “Be quiet! Listen (you too, Wormtail, come back here); there are some creatures in there already. I can hear them. Now, if any of them ask what our names are, Wormtail isn’t Wormtail. He’s Nancy, alright?”
“What’s my name?” Pig asked.
“It’s Pigwidgeon. Have you forgotten your own name? We can’t let them know Wormtail’s name, because…well, because. I’m going to cut these things off you, because we don’t want them to think we’ve kidnapped you, do we Pig?”
Pig shook his head so hard that Wormtail thought it might fall off. “Oh no, of course not. We definitely wouldn’t want that.”
“Good.” With one swipe of her claws, Mrs. Norris cut the vines off Pig. “Let’s go in now. Come on, Nancy!”
******
Mrs. Norris knocked loudly on the door, waking Trevor up, and as the toad opened the door for Mrs. Norris and her two followers, Kess swooped down towards the hut.