Mrs. Norris Goes Walking Options

[evlpez]

Argus Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, is a busy girl. Write a short post, picking her up from her location in the previous post and taking her through a few moments in her life. Don't kill her or signal the end of the world. The next writer should be able to continue from the end of your post.


Mrs. Norris smelled something unusual wafting under the door of her and Argus' chambers. It was early morning and they'd only just come back to their chambers to rest until their afternoon duties. It had been a relatively quiet night, but not the sort of time she'd spend laying about like other cats, doing nothing. She had a duty to Argus and even to the castle to work those corridors at night, searching for any rule breaking or security breeches.

She was used to smelling breakfast from the kitchens at this time. In fact, she'd just come from the kitchens where the little ones had given her some liverwurst and strawberry jam on toast for her shift's end dinner. She wasn't expecting this smell. This smell was something she'd expect to smell inside Horace's classroom, or even in his office. It was too strong to be something that belonged out of there.

Argus was snoring already, bless him. It was up to her to look into things. She sighed and rose from her bed, exiting their chambers through a secret passage under a tapestry, which seemed to move in anticipation of her passing.

[McGonagall's Cat]

A subdued crash from the other end of the corridor caught her attention almost immediately. “Ah ha!” she thought and dashed toward the noise.

Running footsteps thundered down the stairs, just passing over her as she ducked close to the bottom step’s riser. The Gryffindors were in hot pursuit of the lone Syltherin and didn’t notice her presence. There was a sudden cessation of the footfalls, a pause, then the sound of the students walking quietly back toward her. She crouched in a shadow, quite unoticable.

“...but HOW did he get through so quickly? Our Common Room never opens,” started the shorter of the two tallest ones.

“Or closes,” interupted the blond one.

“that fast,” finished the first.

The tallest of the three had a mischievous grin on his face.

“What?” asked the other dark-haired one in exasperation.

“I heard the password.”

The other two stopped and stared at him.

“Yeah,” he nodded, looking ever so much like the cat who’d swallowed a canary. “He said, ‘Pureblood’ then vanished through what looked like solid rock.”