Chapter Fifteen: The Vanished Cat

After two exhausting hours spent processing Bai Xian in Herbology, the young wizards emerged from Greenhouse One utterly drained.

"Why is Herbology so tiring?" Mowbray complained, dragging his weary feet and leaning his entire body against Gomez, lamenting the just-finished class.

Abraxas and Shevin felt equally spent; it wasn't just the physical fatigue but the relentless repetition of tasks that wore them down. The Herbology professor seemed inexperienced, teaching strictly by the book. She simply had them memorize the steps for handling Bai Xian, then led them through endless rounds of processing the plant.

Each time the students finished a batch, the professor repeated the key points of the lesson and highlighted individual mistakes, then set them to work on another batch. Only when the bell finally rang were the young wizards released. Shevin even suspected that they had processed every Bai Xian plant in the entire school...

"Shall we go eat?" Abraxas asked weakly.

"If any of you would bring me something back, I wouldn't mind skipping the Great Hall," Shevin retorted, rolling his eyes.

Gomez suddenly spoke up, "If you need me to, I can bring food back for you."

Abraxas and Mowbray looked tempted.

Noticing this, Shevin quickly intervened, nudging Abraxas and Mowbray's shoulders—which, since Mowbray was still draped over Gomez, ended up pushing all three.

"Come on, let's go," he said. "No need to be so lazy that you won't even go for a meal."

…

After dinner, Shevin relaxed with a shower in the washroom. The sweat from morning exercises had lingered all day, and Shevin—accustomed to a pampered life in this world—found this ordeal unfamiliar.

Drying his hair with a towel, dressed in pajamas, he headed back to the dorm.

Abraxas was persuading Mowbray and Gomez to go check out the Quidditch pitch. When Shevin entered, Abraxas asked, "Shevin, want to take a stroll to the Quidditch pitch? With a bit of luck, maybe we could borrow a few broomsticks for some fun!"

"I don't think that's necessary," Shevin replied decisively, shaking his head. "I'm not in the mood to trek from the southeast corner of the castle to the northwest at this hour."

Mowbray and Gomez nodded in agreement, leaving Abraxas looking somewhat disappointed.

Shevin tossed his towel onto the rack and glanced at his cat cage, sensing something amiss...

He paused, then looked again.

The silver cat cage was tightly shut, everything inside undisturbed—but the cat was gone...

"Wait a moment, has anyone seen my cat?" He looked suspiciously at the trio.

For two months, the silvery kitten Shevin had brought from the Magical Creatures shop had slept with its eyes shut, just as it had in the shop.

After some research, Shevin learned that ordinary kittens open their eyes between eight and twenty days after birth, marking their readiness for survival. Wildcats live longer than domestic cats, and their kittens take a bit longer to open their eyes, but generally not more than a month.

Yet the kitten Shevin brought home, resembling a British Shorthair Silver Tabby, had kept its eyes closed for a full two months. Sandrine had even doubted it could survive and wanted to throw it away, but Shevin insisted, and the family elf Milly fed it goat’s milk from a bottle every day. The kitten, tenaciously, survived.

Sandrine even called an expert from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to examine the kitten. The expert, after observing for some time, only concluded that the kitten possessed both domestic and wildcat blood and was very healthy, but could not explain why it hadn’t opened its eyes.

So Shevin planned to ask the Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts for more insight. Yet, unexpectedly, something happened before he even had the chance.

…

Shevin regarded Abraxas, Mowbray, and Gomez with suspicion. Since the kitten had always slept and the cage door was securely shut, it was unlikely she had woken and escaped on her own. So Shevin suspected the trio, who were closest, of playing a prank.

"Hey! Don’t look at us like that," Abraxas protested. "We never touched your cat!"

Mowbray chimed in, "We’ve been pestered by Abraxas to go to the Quidditch pitch since we got back; we never had a chance to touch your cat cage."

Shevin looked to Gomez, the quiet one, who nodded.

After a moment’s thought, Shevin believed them. Despite the short time since term began, they had gotten along well, and a prank like this seemed unlikely.

So, where had the kitten gone?

"Do me a favor," Shevin said after a brief silence. "Help me look for my cat nearby?"

It was all he could think to do; with no clue what had happened, enlisting more help was the best option.

Mowbray and Gomez, eager to avoid Abraxas’s night-time Quidditch pitch adventure, quickly got to work. Seeing he had lost his audience, Abraxas also joined the search.

…

"Kitten!" Shevin called loudly in the corridor outside the common room.

"So you actually named your cat 'Kitten'?" Abraxas couldn’t help but tease.

Shevin shot him a glare. "Instead of cracking jokes, why not check the stairwell?"

"Alright, alright," Abraxas replied, spreading his hands in resignation. "How did I end up with a friend like you?"

Shevin’s search for his kitten soon drew the attention of the Slytherin common room; students, curious about their odd behavior, asked what was going on.

After Shevin explained, many bored young wizards joined the search, embarking on the quest to find the kitten.

The group grew larger, gaining momentum, and soon even upper-year students resting in the dorm or returning from outside joined in, culminating in the monumental achievement of nearly the entire Slytherin House searching for a cat!

…

"Shevin, haven’t found your kitten yet? It’s almost curfew!" Alcione asked worriedly.

With the disappointment of not finding the kitten, most Slytherins lost their initial enthusiasm and greeted Shevin before heading to bed, leaving Alcione among the last to help him search.

Shevin sighed, helpless. "Yeah. If I don’t find her, I guess I’ll break school rules on my very first day..."

Alcione’s eyes widened. "What? You’re going out at night?"

"Shh—quiet!" Shevin quickly covered her mouth, lowering his voice.

Still, many in the common room heard Alcione and turned to look.

Seeing the prefect Ignatius rising and walking over, Shevin let go of Alcione, revealing her slightly flushed face.

"Shevin, I heard you’re going out after hours?" Ignatius asked, intrigued.

Shevin simply nodded. "Yes, Prefect Pruett. I want to find my cat."

Ignatius replied, "I told you, just call me Ignatius. Wait a moment!"

He drew his wand.

Just as Shevin wondered what he was about to do, Ignatius touched the tip of his wand to Shevin’s head.

"Disillusionment!" he incanted.

A cool, liquid sensation enveloped Shevin. Looking down, he saw his body’s color and texture perfectly matched the common room’s background; he resembled a humanoid chameleon.

"Is this the Disillusionment Charm?" he whispered.

"Looks good," Ignatius tilted his head, gazing at where Shevin stood. "Go on. You won’t fool the professors, but you might fool old Pringle."

With a casual turn, he walked away, but glanced back to add, "Remember, if you see a professor, drop everything and run back. They’ll think you’re a Gryffindor!"

Shevin’s mouth twitched.

So you really are a prefect...

…

…