A Cat-Astrophy

[Antonia Valkyrie]

Why she had decided to buy the damn feline she would never know. It had looked cute and innocent when she bought it, but Benji the half-kneazle was quickly driving her around the metaphorical bend. No matter what she tried he wouldn't stay out of trouble, and he was supposed to be the intelligent one. Apparently things went wrong with his breeding, or that was what she was starting to believe as she chased her pet once more through the winding corridors of the castle. The half-kneazle had been sleeping a while ago on the armrest while she worked, perfectly peaceful and calm. But that was just the calm before the storm she had soon found out. Once he was awake Benji had shot off like a light and Antonia knew better than to just let him run around the castle like a mad thing. Last time that happened he managed to send someone to the Hospital Wing after tripping them up and she had sworn that was the last time he was going to embarrass her.

Skidding around the corner into the Entrance Hall, she only had a short moment to look around before Benji the half-kneazle bolted towards one of the statues, hopping up it and sitting on top like it was no bother. On top where she couldn't reach. "Benji, come here," while she doubted the creature would actually listen to her, it was worth a shot. But as she predicted, he just curled his tail around his paws and stared at her like he was mocking her. "Down boy. Please. Just come here, I'll give you a treat and everything if you just come down from there!" Still, nothing. She scowled.

Hearing footsteps, she didn't even bother to turn her head to see who it was as her arms folded across her chest, "Don't suppose you have any ideas about how to get my half-kneazle down from that statue, do you?"

 

[Carol Wicker]

Following the Winter Break, Carol had considered simply not returning to the castle to study further. She missed her mother and their caravan. She missed travelling across the country, picking herbs during the mornings and dancing around a fire by night. She missed meeting new people all the time, wearing the clothes she felt like, eating food they spent time chopping and preparing themselves. Constantly on the move, constantly seeing new places and things. Hogwarts New Zealand did not offer any of that. She was bound to one place, saw the same people day in and day out, and had her meals prepared for her by little more than magical-slaves. She couldn't stand the same old uniforms they had to wear, consisting of blacks and greys with the only splash of colour coming from their respective house ties and crests. It had been an enchanting place to be when she had first started attending, but after a year the castle lost most of its charm. She wanted to be home.

The girl wandered aimlessly through the halls of the castle, something she often found herself doing in recent months. She got so stuck in her thoughts, positive or negative, that she'd simply let her feet take her places without paying all that much attention to her surroundings. The hem of her robes brushed across the floor with each step she took. Her mother did not have that much money, so she had gone with clothes slightly too big for her, so she could instead grow into them. If there was any of her robes left by the time she could fit. Already the bottom of it was wearing from being constantly dragged around.

Without paying much attention, her feet took her around a corner and into the Entrance Hall, passing by the large hourglasses containing the house points counter, which so far was devoid of any gems. With the new school year only just starting, no one had a chance to earn any points for their houses. A voice, much louder than her thoughts, roused Carol back to reality. She looked up to see another girl, roughly her age, who was having problems with a feline. It took the Ravenclaw a moment to register the fact that she had been asked a question, realising that no one else was around and the only person who could have possibly been addressed was her. She walked up to stand behind the Slytherin, eyes turned thoughtfully up toward the cat. "You could try levitating it back to the ground, maybe. Or just stun and catch it." She suggested, attempting to be helpful. When it came to cats, you couldn't force them to do something. "Unless you know anyone with a pet rat."

 

[Antonia Valkyrie]

One of the downsides to being quite short was the fact she couldn't really reach anything. A lot of the taller students could probably happily just reach up and pick the feline down, but Antonia was still some way under five foot and not even standing on her tip-toes was going to do her any good. It was like the cat knew this and had purposefully picked a high place to sit so she could do nothing but stand there and glare from a distance. If there was a chair around or something she could stand on then that would be rather helpful, but it seemed like her luck had run short and there was nothing, unless she wanted to risk climbing up the statue, but that would only get her into more trouble if a Professor happened to come along. Losing house points was not something she liked doing and it was not something she was proud of. If there was one thing she hated, it was feeling like a failure and losing house points would certainly help her feel like one of those.

"I am not levitating my cat," she huffed, folding her arms across her chest and angrily tapping her foot against the stone floor."I don't trust myself, I'll probably drop him and end up hurting him and I don't want to get told off for animal cruelty or something." While she currently might hate Benji, she certainly didn't want to get him hurt in any way, she wanted to be a good owner, something which was quite hard when Benji was determined to be a bad feline. "And he doesn't much seem to be interested in chasing rat's either, he is more likely to chase his own tail like a dog." Sighing she bitterly scratched the back of her neck, tilting her head a little to the side as she tried to think of some way to get her half-kneazle down from his perch before he managed to hurt something else in some way. "Do you reckon I could get away with climbing up there? But I don't want to get into trouble."