The Novelle Diaries & The Wampus Cub

Chapter 18: A Letter Arrives

Wren and Erris sat in the library the night before the new term started and the school was filled with students once more. Though they had been working through their homework over the holidays, they had prioritised fun quite a bit more than usual so now they sat in silence, surrounded by the leather volumes, working through their last assignments.

However, Wren's mind was easily distracted this evening and her attention was easily diverted from her defence against the dark arts homework. There had been some recurring questions circling her mind for months, ever since she had found Chirrup. Some that had even been stirred by the appearance of the Hogad. Two wounded exotic animals turning up in the same location was no coincidence. She had concluded that much but how they linked together, she had no clue. These thoughts had often plagued her as she tried to sleep or focus in a particularly boring class but now, in the lamp lit library, her mind seemed to scream with these questions.

How did Hicklesons Relocation services come to play in all of this? Had they confiscated Chirrup from an illegal collector? Had he escaped in a fight between the company and the owner? How did the Hogad work into that narrative? Should it? It didn't have an ear tag and it was found a lot earlier but Wren's gut told her that the two animals had come from the same place.

She sighed heavily and mindlessly pulled the tag from her pocket and stared at the winged bear symbol. A habit she had found herself doing whenever the questions became rather unbearable. Every time she hoped that the logo would miraculously tell her something else, a new clue that would break the mystery wide open but all she ever found were the letters H.R.S in a banner over the reared bear with the strange numbers completing the circle around it. Most of the circle was composed of two long numbers, 28.4727 and 81.4726 but there was a larger number 11 planted right at the bottom of the circle in a bold font.

Wren's forte had never been numbers or mathematics so these numbers and how they worked with one another had remained a puzzle so as she stared blankly at them her brow furrowed in frustration.

'What is that?' Erris asked her quietly, looking up from his parchment to see Wren scowling at the small square of red paper in her hand.

'Honestly, i don't know,' She grumbled, then sat up a little straighter, 'well i do know. It is the tag that I found on Chirrup's ear when I first found him. It's the logo for Hicklesons Relocation Services. The company works with the ministry to keep magical creatures and muggles out of each other's way but when i showed Hagrid this logo he said that it doesn't usually have numbers on it.' Wren finished with a tired breath.

Erris nodded for a moment, silently taking in this new information then asked, 'May I look at the numbers?'

Wren gave him the small piece of paper and watched as he studied the numerals carefully. Within a few moments he looked up with a small smile, 'The numbers around the edges are coordinates.' he explained, then without a pause he jumped up from his seat and disappeared into the maze of book shelves that surrounded them. A few minutes later he returned with an incredibly large, heavy book that upon heaving it onto the table and opening the first page, Wren realised it was full of maps. She watched silently as the boy flipped through the book scanning the margins for numbers that matched up with those on the logo. It took a good long while before Erris finally sat back in his chair with an accomplished grin.

'Well?' Wren asked expectantly, leaning on the table eagerly.

'As there were no compass indications, I had to go with my best guess. Luckily I didn't have to trawl through all the combinations. The first guess had me finding a location somewhere in Greenland but the second sent me to Hogsmeade. I thought that was most likely the correct answer as I'm sure the other options would have had me looking at Brazil or somewhere in Nigeria.' He explained with a rather proud puffed out chest.