Crookshanks | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 17

Jenna took her time to return to the castle that day. She stayed hours on end at the graveyard in Godric's Hollow, sitting on the cold ground and staring fixedly ahead.

     But at last, she finally stood up and with one last glance at Lily and James's gravestones, she disappeared out of there and Apparated back in Hogsmeade, in a deserted alleyway.

     There was no trace of students there, meaning that they had all gone back to Hogwarts for the magnificent Halloween feast at the Great Hall, just like every year.

     But when Jenna got back to Hogwarts in her cat form and slipped through the Dementors as Crookshanks, she decided that she needed some cheering up to do. So instead of going back to the Gryffindor common room, she made her way down to Remus's office with a plan ready in her head.

The moment she reached the door to his office, Jenna looked around her in the cat form to make sure no one was around before turning herself back to human form, though she did not take her own look.

Instead, she turned herself into Argus Filch before knocking and opening the office's door, walking in.

"Ah, Mr. Filch," said Remus as he was sitting behind his desk, throwing a quick glance up at the door as he was grading his students' papers. "How may I help you?"

"There are actually a few ways that you can help me out, Professor," said Jenna in a flirty manner in Filch's voice, taking slow steps toward the desk.

Remus blinked a few times in confusion and frowned up at Filch as the caretaker reached the desk, batting his eyelashes up at Remus.

But then Remus suddenly smiled and chuckled. "Nice try, Jenna. But you've got to be a little less obvious to fool me."

"Damn," Jenna grinned before transforming back to herself. "Was the eyelash batting too much?"

  "Yes, but you first lost me at the flirty voice."

She smirked. "Better luck next time, then."

"God, I hope not."

They both broke down into laughter at that, falling into an awkward silent soon after that.

  "So... honestly," Remus started, "how can I help you?"

"I'm bored." Jenna groaned, dropping herself down on a chair before Remus's desk.

"And you think I can amuse you how, exactly...?"

"I was actually hoping that you could suggest something." She shrugged. "If I knew what I wanted to do, I wouldn't have bothered you in the first place."

  "Well, unless you find helping me with grading these essays amusing, then I can't really help you out."

"Ugh, you're no fun." Jenna rolled her eyes playfully before grinning and getting to her feet. She then hopped up on Remus's desk, sitting on it. "So how dumb are your students?"

"They're not bad, actually," said Remus, looking down at the essays. "Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all pretty good."

Jenna scoffed. "You do realize that Harry and Ron have been copying from Hermione, right?"

  "Hmm... now why does that sound familiar?" Remus said sarcastically, giving Jenna a knowing look.

"Oh, all right. So Harry takes after his aunt for when I used to copy Lily's homework. Happy?"

Remus smiled. "Very."

"Welp," Jenna sighed, getting back to her feet, "now that my Filch prank didn't work out and you're too busy, I think I better get going back to the common room. I've got some cat-napping and purring to do."

  Remus chuckled. "All right. Goodnight then."

"Night," said Jenna, winking at him one last time before getting out of the office and closing its door behind her.

Jenna soon turned back to Crookshanks the moment she walked into the corridor and made her way back to the Gryffindor common room.

But when she reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, she found it jammed with students and had to step to the side so she wouldn't be stumped on.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" She heard Ron say curiously.

"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password — excuse me, I'm Head Boy —"

And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. And just then Jenna heard Percy say in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on their tiptoes for a better look.

"What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived.

A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through.

"Oh, my —" Hermione grabbed Harry's arm from the shock.

And then, Jenna finally saw it too; the Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor and great chunks of it had been torn away completely.

Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape hurrying toward him.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.

It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.

"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."