The Cat Hunt ((Not Reserved!))

[Charles Driscoll H7]

((Open to anyone, but don’t catch Socks! Trying is OK though! I have already arranged a plot with someone to catch her at the end of this thread, but anybody who wants to join in the hunt and help Charlie is welcome!))

“Sunday!” thought Charles excitedly, looking forward to a day of freedom, with no classes and no homework, just lots of time to relax and have fun! Fun for Charles meant quite a number of activities, but today it meant one thing – photography. He was going to take his new camera, which he had purchased behind his family’s back, and go out into the snow and take some pictures! What exactly of he was not sure, but that wasn’t going to stop him. Photography was a new found love of Charles, but unfortunately not one he had been able to do anything about during the summer. He had spent most of his summer in his room, avoiding his family as much as possible as he was fed up of the scathing looks and long speeches about his failure to live up to their expectations. He was who he was, and it was his life and he could live it the way he wanted to, the way he knew in his heart was right.

As Charles turned over in his bed and got up a low purr of disapproval came from the area on the bed where his feet had been a minute ago. “Oh sorry Socks, didn’t mean to wake you up,” he said, picking up the small kitten and stroking it. Socks stretched herself and then walked around the room, went over to a basket containing some colourful yarn and started playing with it while Charlie got dressed. “Come on, let’s go,” called Charles. “Don’t you want to see the snow?” he said, tying his checkered scarf around his neck and picking up his camera carefully. It hadn’t been easy to purchase that, he had had to take care of his neighbour’s pet Kneazle for two weeks to get enough money for it and his parents had thought he was just going there to play with her children. Their neighbours were purebloods of course and his parents had thought he was finally mingling with the right people, but when they discovered the truth Charlie was grounded for the rest of the summer. "At least nobody can stop me now," thought the happy third year, as he made his way to the Great Hall ready to exit the castle from the door at the back of it.

There was suddenly an excited mewing from Socks and she jumped out of Charles’ arms and after something small and grey into the Great Hall. “SOCKS! Come back here,” yelled Charles as he saw a white ball of fluff scuttle in front of him before he could stop it. He ran into the Great Hall and to the Hufflepuff table where he thought Socks had run off to and saw a girl in his same year sitting there finishing off her breakfast. “I’m very sorry, but did you just see a kitten run over here right now? She has white fur except her legs are grey,” he said anxiously.

[kat]

Kat woke up early that morning as usual and went to make her regular jogging trip near the Quidditch pitch. The weather was perfect – not too cold and the snow looked fantastic.

Kat finished her morning jog and sent an owl to her brother, then running to her common room to quickly shower and change for the day. Choosing gray trousers and a blue shirt, Kat slowly made her way towards the Great Hall. She had just about reached the doors to the Great Hall when something white ran between her legs, making her stumble as she stepped on the untied lace of her sneakers.
Kat yelped and fell on her bottom, staring at the little furry creature and absently noticing that her shoe, which had came off landed a couple of feet further from her. Kat noticed that the creature was in fact a white kitten.

“I’m very sorry, but did you just see a kitten ruin over here right now? She has white fur except her legs are grey?” Kat heard some boy ask from inside the Great Hall.
“Hey, I think I saw your kitten!” Kat shouted to the boy and smiled reaching for her shoe and pulling it back on, while still sitting,” After running me down, she headed towards the main staircase.”<br>

[JordanCortes]

(Mind if I join? I'm a bit...bored.)

Jordan ran down the stairs and then turned right, heading down another staircase but stopping short at the sight of a cat. She smiled and continued to run down the staircase, slipping on some water she dropped her sketchbook and pencils and rolled down the rest of the stairs.

"Ow." Jordan said, as she stood up and started to gather her things. Her pencil slipped beneath her grasp and rolled into the Great Hall. With an exasperated sigh Jordan crawled on her hands and knees after it. It seemed to have rolled under someones foot. Tapping the foot of the person lightly, she said;

"Excuse me, you're stepping on my pencil." She tugged on the end with the eraser, but before the person could step up it jogged loose and she fell over. With a smile, she stood up and looked at the person. She scrunched her face up in though, she had seen him around before; but it didn't ring any bells, and Jordan liked to put a name to a face.

"Ello. I'm Jordan, Jordan Cortes. Thanks, for stopping my pencil from rolling into the Slytherin table, eh wouldn't want that." She greeted,sticking her hand out of him to shake.

[Nokomis Astarra H5]

She had been walking down the stairs when she thought she saw familiar color of Hufflepuff robes and long brown hair that she was pretty sure belonged to a certin Hufflepuff beater, especially when she saw the girl crawling across the floor. That was definatly something Jordan would do.

She tried to keep up with Jordan, having to almost run down the stairs, Jordan crawled very fast, but she started going so fast, thinking about catching up, that when Jordan finally stoped, and almost fell backwords while holding her pencil, Jordan almost fell back right onto her.

Her cheeks flushed, not sure why she suddenly felt embarassed, but she did. It probably had to do with the Hufflepuff boy who she had only see a few times before but had never spoken to.

"Um...Hi. I'm Nokomis."

[JordanCortes]

Jordan smiled and tucked her pencil behind her ear, where she normally kept it for security. It was easy to get to when she had a sudden inspiration of drawing. That was the thing Jordan did most, draw. She loved her art more than anything in the world, well almost more than anything. It was her thing to do when she was mad, sad, or just stressed, most people knew that when she drew she drew for fun, but there were times when all her drawings meant something or other.

Nokomis joined the small group that Jordan was just starting to meet, and with a small smile Jordan welcomed her. Nokomis was also on the Quidditch team, Hufflepuff Chaser to be exact. They were friends, and Jordan hadn't spoken to her in awhile. Jordan liked Nokomis, she was a good person to be around with, and she reminded her of herself when she barely knew anyone.

"Hi Nokomis! Long time no see." Jordan spoke, her words fluttering liberately over her tongue, she hoped they wouldn't get tangle up as they often did in greeting. Her fast spoken words and racing mind normally did happen to confuse most people on what she was saying, sometimes she even had to slow down and talk to them in a normal manner. Her rambling wasn't always as it was at this particular moment, but it was coming back to her slightly as she readusted to her normal lifestyle. Smiling at the other two, she waited introductions and hopefully what is to be a new friendship.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy looked up as Charles Driscoll ran up to her. She hardly knew him - only by name. He looked a little flustered. She smiled at him uncertainly, her brow furrowing in bemusement.

He started off with an apology, which seemed a little strange, but she soon understood why when she realised that his kitten must have gone missing.

"Um..." she started, recalling the kitten that had dashed past her at breakneck speed, as if on some pursuit or other. She was interrupted by a younger girl, a Ravenclaw, by the looks of her. She appeared to have also sighted the mad cat. It had certainly looked mad, anyway. Appearances can be deceptive, but cats more so, kittens especially.

"Yes," Ivy said as the girl finished. "It was here only about a minute ago. Headed in the direction of the staircase."

Ivy looked up as Jordan arrived, not in the most graceful style, closely followed by Nokomis, who seemed a little out of breath. She gave both of them a smile, and sighed. Everything had become so chaotic all of a sudden.

"Can I help?" Ivy asked Charles. "If we're going to find your kitten we need to get going."

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla was walking down the staircase. She saw Jordan slip and fall then talk to a little boy. She raised an eyebrow but kept walking down the staircase. She saw Ivy and was about to yell out to her when she felt something rub against her leg. Kiyla looked down confused and screamed as she saw a kitten. It kept running and she looked after if confused. She walked down the rest of the stairs in a rush.

"Hey guys, did you just see that kitten? It scared me! Someone should realli catch that thing." Kiyla said to them with a smile.

"Oh, I'm Kiyla, on case you didn't know." She said to the boy.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

((Sorry for the delay, just waiting for Ivy since I had no idea all of you would want to post here with us! Cheers for group posts!))

Charles was looking worriedly at the girl with a frown on his face hoping she had seen where Socks had dashed off to. Someone answered him first though; it was a girl he had never met before but knew was probably not a Hufflepuff as he didn’t remember her sitting with during meals. “You did?” he asked, looking at her hopefully and then his eyes widened as he realised the amount of trouble Socks might get him into. Suddenly he felt somebody pull something from under his foot and a girl in his year introduced herself and offered him her hand. “Oh, um hi, Charles Driscoll, just call me Charlie,” he said very quickly. Charles was a very friendly person, some people even said he was overly friendly, but that was just because he was always keen to get people to like him. However he was feeling very flustered and vexed at the moment which was why he didn’t try and pursue a conversation with Jordan.

In the middle of all the confusion Charlie heard Ivy confirm what the younger girl had just said. “Oh thank you, of course you can, I think she’s going to give me a hard time trying to find her. I thought she’d grown out of this tiresome habit of hers of running away from me when I least expect it,” said Charlie with a sigh. “We’d better get there now!” he agreed. More people showed up from Charlie’s year and suddenly Charles was beginning to wonder what exactly was wrong with Socks. They started saying they had seen a mad cat, which surprised him as Socks had always been adventurous but never hyper. “She’s really nice but sometimes she just gets a bit restless and decides to have some fun,” said Charlie, wishing he could stop and talk but knowing he had to hurry as he ran for the staircase and scrambled up it as fast as he could. Too many things were happening at the same time, and Charles looked at the group of people who had followed him with frustration evident on his face. “Do you guys mind if we split up? I’ll look in those rooms on the left, OK, and somebody look at those in the opposite corridor,” he said as he tried to think of all the possible places Socks might have gone to.

“SOCKS! Where are you? I hope she isn’t heading for the staff room, she could get me into a lot of trouble,” said Charles as searched each room in his corridor. When he came to the last one he saw the cat at the front of it, playing with some leftover pieces of parchment from the class that had taken place the day before. The minute she saw Charlie she mewed excitedly and ran outside the door as fast as she could, and Charlie threw himself on the ground in an attempt to catch her. He didn’t though so he yelled loudly for the others outside. “HEY! She just ran out of this room! Try and run after her!”

[kat]

Kat pulled her shoe back on and grabbed a piece of toast from the Ravenclaw table observing the general fuss about the little kitten amusedly.
She didn’t think that the Kkitten had been mad – just scared about something and running fast. From the little Kat had noticed it even looked rather cute.

As the little group and the erson who the cat supposedly belonged to left the Great Hall before Kat could offer hel she shrugged and went to roam the castle after finishing the toast.

Kat headed towards a classroom where she had forgotten her quill the last day and found it safely laying on hthe desk she had sat on. She tucked the quill in her long hair, that were pulled inot a loos and quite messy pony-tail and left the classroom once again, moving on a little bit. Just then some kitten rushed through a door at Akt’s rigth and froze for a moment eyeing Kat curiously.

„Hey, you run me down earlier, didn´t you?“Kat asked softly but the little kitten moved and rushed away again as a shout “HEY! She just ran out of this room! Try and run after her!” sounded from where the kitten had came from.
The same boy from earlier as well as the people who were helping him came rushing towards Kat who laughed loudly.
“She went around the corner just there. I guess one more helper wouldn’t really hurt,” Kat shouted over her shoulder as she speeded after the kitten.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy smiled at Kiyla as she arrived. She noticed the way that Kiyla raised her eyebrows. 'Oh come on', Ivy thought, 'Jordan isn't that bad. What about yourself?' Then Ivy smiled guiltily to herself and stopped that line of thought. Kiyla had been made to suffer by the two boys she had formed an attachment to.

Ivy nodded to Charles (or Charlie as he asked to be called) and hurried after him. She took a different fork of the stairs than he did. Later she heard his voice shouting some way down the corridor that he had seen the kitten. She rushed back down along the corridor in the direction of his voice, to see the kitten heading straight for her. She attempted to stop it but it shot right past her.

The first year came round the corridor hot on its heels, and Ivy joined in the chase. Charles and some of the others caught up with them, but at that moment the kittten took a sharp right angle turn. Ivy tried to race after it, but it was out of sight.

"This way," Ivy panted, pointing in the appropriate direction. She gave a sigh of exasperation and raised her eyebrows at Charles before setting off again, knowing that next time they came to a fork the pursuit group would have to divide.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

“Oh my, I’ve just been inside that room she was last in! There’s a picture of big black dog in there, I think they were doing Transfiguration in there and Professor McGonagall must have been telling them about Animagi. I think that picture must have scared Socks even more, you said you saw her Ivy, right then, I’ll go with you,” said Charlie a little breathlessly. He ran as fast as his short legs could take him, and sure enough at the end of the corridor was the small kitten, under a table. She mewed pitifully when she saw Charles, then just as he tried to get hold of her she mewed again looking like she was enjoying this game of hide and seek and ran into a room. The door leading into the room hadn’t been closed all the way and the cat managed to slip in before Charles could stop her. “What is wrong with her? I thought she was scared, the little rascal was just pretending,” said Charles to Ivy, sounding annoyed and amused at the same time.

Charles looked around him, and suddenly he felt his heart sink. They were in the Staff quarters. He turned to Ivy and the small group of people who had now joined them and asked them “Do any of you know whose office this is? I really hope it isn’t Snape’s,” he said, and then pulled a face. He wondered if any of them knew, because if someone didn’t answer quickly he was going to have to knock on the door and enter before Socks did any damage. He shuddered when he thought about the punishment Snape would give him if Socks did anything to his supplies and potions ingredients.

[Nokomis Astarra H5]

Lost for a moment int he confusion of hte cat chase her eyes darted around trying to locate the direction the cat at run off in. After following Charlie up the stairs he sugested that they split up, she nodded, it sounded like a good plan, especially if something had scared the kitten, she knew that her own cat became even more frightened when a large group of people were around.

"Me and Jordan can go over there..."

It was not long after that she heard Charlie call his cat's name and she followed the sound of his voice, seeing him on the round telling them to get Socks. This time they all followed after the kitten, and the next time that she saw him, she was talking behind Charlie, and the little feline darted into a professor's office. She paused for a moment, wondering what teacher it was. She had never been into one of the teachers offices before, well besides their own house leaders at least. She really hoped it wasn't Snape's, and Charlie seemed to share the concern.

"I don't know who's office it is...but it looks too....um...not Snape's to be his. Maybe we will be lucky and its someone elses"

She looked over at Charlie, giving him a weak smile as she tried to be optomistic.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy stood back as Charles went and tried to coax his kitten out from under the table, but soon regretted it as the kitten escaped again, as she felt it might have been more helpful had she been there. Ivy listened to what Charlie said and smiled quietly. She didn't know very much about cats, if truth be told, due to the fact that she didn't own one. But she could see that the people that had them were very attached to them. Her father had been very attached to Gilbert, and he was an owl.

Ivy followed Charles into a room, which the kitten had just dashed into. As Nokomis and some of the others caught up with them she closed the door behind her. She didn't think it would be good for the kitten to escape out that way again. It was able to turn corners in a much more agile fashion than any of the human company present.

Ivy smiled exasperatedly at Nokomis. What she said was very true - they'd just have to hope to be lucky.

"I don't think Snape's office is around this part of the school," Ivy said hopefully. He scared her stiff, and she didn't fancy her prospects of being found in his office chasing a runaway kitten anymore than either of the others.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

Charles took a last look at the group of people around him, some of who were smiling encouragingly at him. "Well, um, I'd better get in there before Socks does more damage," he said, trying to sound braver than he felt. He knocked on the door that was now half-open and then entered, hoping he wouldn't find the dreaded Potions professor seated at the desk inside.

[Professor Julius Foxcroft]

Julius heard his door creak as it opened, and he wondered who was entering his room without trying to knock, didn't all the students know better than that? He put down the essay he had been correcting and looked down in surprise at the small kitten that had just walked in. It walked right up to his desk, then suddenly heaved a large sigh and sat itself down and began to clean its paws. Julius frowned. What was a stray cat doing in the middle of his office? He got up to find out what was going on when suddenly a third year from his class came into his room looking flustered and worried.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

Charles rushed in and finally discovered who the owner of the office was. It was Professor Foxcroft. Now Snape he knew was mean and unfair, but he had no idea what to expect from Professor Foxcroft. Charles knew him to be very kind to all his students, but he could be very sarcastic at times. So Charles rushed in and quickly began to apologise. "I'm so very sorry Professor, you see this is my cat, Socks, and I don’t know what came over her I was just taking her out to show her the s-snow, and suddenly she ran away all around the school and I just managed to catch her now," he said all in one breath. "I'm sorry," he repeated, "for any inconvenience."

[Professor Julius Foxcroft]

Julius looked at the boy and then at the cat. "Well, she certainly looks like all that running has tired her out," he said as the kitten was now sitting looking quite meek and quiet. "You can take her back now as she hasn't done any damage. Take care next time though, OK?" said Julius, rather amused by the whole affair. "Oh wait, we haven't discussed your punishment," said Julius in a strict voice. He then looked at Charles with an amused glance in his eye. "You will work harder in class and concentrate better than ever before. I'm letting you off rather easily but you have to promise to do that," he said, sounding much less stricter now he had scared the boy a bit. He wondered what the boy had been expecting; he was looking at him with he thought was a bit of a scared look in his eyes.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

Charles stared at Socks in disbelief. She was sitting looking quite innocent and angelic and not at all like she had just had a small group of people running after her all around the school. He picked her up then listened to what Professor Foxcroft had to say, bracing himself when he heard the word punishment. Then he suddenly smiled in relief, Professor Foxcroft had just been scaring him, he wasn't going to give him a real punishment. "Oh Professor Foxcroft, I promise. I will try and do that. Thanks very much," he said, then rushed out of the room to the others with a smile on his face. "It turned out to be Professor's Foxcroft office; he was really nice about the whole thing. Thank you so much everyone for helping me find her," he said gratefully.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy waited tensely, unable to hear what was going on in the office. She hoped Charles wouldn't get into trouble for his kitten going on the rampage - it didn't really seem fair. That was one of the main reasons why Ivy didn't have a cat, besides the fact that her grandmother had been allergic to them - you could never tell if they were going to be well-behaved or not. Now Gilbert, he was much more predictable. Ivy was probably one of the only people in the group who didn't own a cat of their own. Why otherwise would they have been attracted to such a pursuit?

Ivy smiled in relief as Charles retreated from the office rather quickly, but with the runaway kitten in his arms and a happy smile on his face. She listened to his slightly breathless account of what had happened, and smiled again. She didn't know Professor Foxcroft, as she didn't take Muggle Studies, but she had heard reports that he was a fair person. Not particularly outgoing with students. But Charles seemed to have got his kitten back without a problem, so that was the main thing.
"Well," Ivy said in answer to his thanks, "I don't begrudge the time I've spent helping, although I'm not sure I was all that useful." She gave Charles a friendly smile and glanced at the kitten who had been the source of so much worry. It didn't seem to be the same creature that had been dashing about the corridors only ten minutes before. Fickle, very fickle. But also very cute. Ivy sighed slightly, shifting her weight uncomfortably, as she was suddenly aware of how large a group she was in. It didn't seem particularly eager to disperse though, probably because the kitten was now drawing them in with all its feline charms.

[Charles Driscoll H7]

Socks, who Charles was now holding firmly in his arms, was quite aware of all the attention she was getting. She looked at all the people around her, and then she meowed in a pitiful voice, once again sounding very much as if she had just been through an ordeal from which she had just been rescued, and not as she had had a lot of people running around trying to find her. "Little rascal," said Charles affectionately. "No, don't say that, you all helped Ivy. I'm going to take Socks to the common room so she can sit in her basket for a while, I'm sure she'll be wanting to nap after her little adventure," he said. "Why don’t you Hufflepuffs join us? Socks looks like she would enjoy the attention," he said, eager to make new friends and noticing the group consisted mostly of Hufflepuffs so the common room would be the best place for a talk.