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“Mrrow?”
Severus looked down, expecting to find some student’s familiar, but instead he was greeted by an unusual sight: Mrs. Norris, carrying a kitten in her mouth. She put the kitten down and it meowed again.
“Mrrow?”
It took a moment, but something seemed familiar…
“Minerva?” he asked blankly.
“Mrrow.”
“Are you stuck?”
“Mrrow mmmnnn.”
He leaned over to pick her up, and Mrs. Norris twined proudly around his leg. Minerva was a small gray fuzzball, with just a hint of the glasses-shaped markings she sported as an adult cat. Other than being an infant feline, there was nothing obviously wrong with her. Severus was drawing a blank as to what could have happened.
“Did one of your Gryffindors have something to do with this?” he asked suspiciously. From what he could reall of her schedule, she had fourth-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs right now, which meant… “Potter. It was him, wasn’t it? Or Weasley, he’s equally inept.”
“Mrrow.”
Severus wasn’t sure if that was confirmation or not, so he clutched Minerva protectively to his chest and strode quickly through the castle toward the infirmary. Poppy would be able to do a more thorough diagnostic scan, at least.
He was brought up short at the infirmary doors, because the amount of sound coming from the room was horrendous. It sounded like a kindergarten. Shouldering his way inside, he was surrounded by–
Literal children. Dozens of them. Poppy and three house elves were running to and fro, trying to get the children settled two to a bed, but apparently none of them wanted to do anything except run and Poppy was far outnumbered.
“What’s going on?” he yelled in his sternest voice.
The room was suddenly silent except for a quiet sniveling from the bed in the corner. Longbottom, Severus surmised. Merlin, the boy was even more pathetic-looking at five or six than he was at fourteen.
“Thank goodness you’re here, Severus,” Poppy sighed. “As far as they’ve been able to tell me, there was an accident in transfiguration class. None of them can explain what happened, though.”
“Yes, well.” Severus withdrew kitten Minerva from his cloak and placed her gently on Poppy’s desk. “I’m not sure we’re going to get an answer until we solve the problem.”
“Oh dear.”
It was going to be a long, trying day.