In The Trophy Room ((Plot People))

[Mrs Norris]

‘Fall’ Mrs Norris thought with a grimace. ‘Filthy little freaks all inside. Nothing better to do than cause trouble for Master and I. No rest for the weary because those kids never rest. Always up, always about, always breaking rules. Never do anything productive. Always making a mess, always breaking a rule. No respect. None whatsoever.’ Norris arched her back drastically as she got up and stretched after much too short a catnap for her taste. Time to patrol the halls again – Argus shouldn’t be too far away. Kids shouldn’t be too far away either.

Mrs Norris pushed open the door to the office and took off down the hall not so sure what she was looking for but knowing she would find something soon. The vermin usually hide in the stairwells. Through a tapestry hanging on the wall Mrs Norris sprinted. She went through the small corridor and out another tapestry, which brought her into a stairwell. No culprits there unfortunately. Maybe closer to the lounge? Little twerps like the lounge. They like their common rooms too but Norris was never allowed in there. Why they like it she didn’t know. Crowded mess it was. All the time it was packed… except after hours perhaps. Even then you could still find them sometimes. Like bugs hiding under a rug – all you have to do is show up at the right moment watch them scuttle. Then turn it over and there they are.

Bloody little brats would be in the lounge. They had to be. They would be causing trouble. They were always causing trouble. She would find some and catch them up to it. Then Master would be pleased. He would be so pleased with Mrs Norris. His crooked yellow teeth would shine as his face would break out with glee. And maybe for once the old man would let Argus punish them properly. The day would soon come; she knew it. The day had to come soon. She and Argus had been waiting so long for that day.

Two corridors away. The lounge was only two corridors away. Trophy room was right here though. Not always kids in there. But when there were it was because they were up to something. Always up to something. Bloody brats always up to something. Could check in on the trophy room. If they are there they will be much worse off than the lounge. Then Master would be really happy. Ecstatic. Popping into the trophy room is a very good idea indeed.

Mrs Norris did an odd little trot into the room where she clearly wasn’t alone. No lights were on and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No breath was to be heard. But her senses told her she wasn’t alone. Norris looked around at the trophies glittering in the light provided by the open door – searching for a shadow of some sort. She couldn’t make one out but that didn’t matter – she wasn’t alone – she knew she wasn’t alone. “Meow” she said hoping to fluster whomever it was out of hiding – someone had to be there.

[danika]

The jobs were always easy, and while sadly they never really used her skills or gave her the glory she truly deserved, but at least it meant no one ever suspected her. There would be a time in the future when it would come in handy, and it would be for something far more important that poisoning an annoying school-nanny feline.

The cat was a rather easy creature to figure out. She roamed the hall as if it was her pride and joy to catch students stepping a foot out of the path of the straight and narrow. It made her a rather easy target. This time of day, she would probably be on her way to the lounge. It was not yet late enough for the students to have retreated to their common rooms, and the lounge would be a disaster of chaos and trouble--in other words a field day for the law abiding feline. But she could not be amenest the crowds, her task required a more solitary situation. The trophy room served as the perfect location. It was close enough to the lounge, and just often enough visited by students with far from honorable intentions to make it a likely place to be visited.

She stood in the shadows near the door, having worked out her timing for when she should wait for the feline to make its arrival by the time she normally made her trips to the lounge. After all, she was not about to wait here all day for that stupid cat to make an appearance.

Her calculations seemed to be correct, as almost exactly when she expected Mrs Norris to make her appearance, the cat appeared in the dim light. For a moment, the feline stood motionless, listening and waiting. When the meow echoed though the small room, she did her move, and almost silently mumbled the levitating charm, moving the uncorked bottle across the shadows toward the unexpecting Mrs. Norris, and when it hung in the air exactly over the cat, she ended the smell, and the vile tipped, as it fell, spilling the liquid across the cats fur.

Danika waiting only a few moments, then raised her want and changed her robes from Slytherin green to Gryffindor red; just incase...there was no need to get a Slytherin into trouble when a Gryffindor could take the blame. She stepped out into the light and over the fallen cat. Glancing quickly down the hallway before striding quickly away and toward the lounge, only pausing long enough to step into a corner and change her robes back to green once too far from the trophy room to have any connection drawn to her.

[Argus Filch]

The light of the lantern crept into every nook and cranny that Argus could find. He frowned in disappointment as he found the room completely empty. It was an unusually quiet day. Argus had been patrolling the halls for a quite a while now. Searching all the usual places for any student, but so far he had found nothing. He sneered in disgust and whipped around and left the room, moving down the hall. After years and years of patrolling these halls Argus had become a master of being able to sense when something was not right. That feeling was with him now, something was missing, something was out of place, but what?

Argus did feel comfort in the fact that his precious pet Mrs. Norris was out with him. Anything that was going on would never get passed the two them. Pausing by a wall Argus reached out and pressed a brick. The wall slid upward to reveal a passage. The lantern illuminated the pitch black passage. The wall slid smoothly and soundlessly shut behind Argus as he made his way through the passage. He emerged a few moment's later three floors above his original level. He barely blinked for he knew the place like the back of his hand, this hall led to the student lounge. Argus gave a crooked, yellow toothed smile. There was always something amiss in the lounge.

Argus made his way down the hall. He stopped short as he heard the faint sound of footsteps. "Whose there?" He asked raising the lantern high. His eyes scanned the hall in front of him and his ears strained to pick up any sound. Who ever it was, they had already disappeared. Snarling with disgust he lowered the lamp once more, ready to give chase. As he lowered the lamp a slight flicker caught his eye. Glancing at it he noticed he was standing directly outside of the trophy room. Argus's anger began to swell. The trophy room was a room to honor people who had done great deeds for the school. The thought of some hoodlum running amok in there was enough to get his blood boiling.

Argus moved to inspect the damage. He scanned the room. He frowned in confusion for he could find nothing amiss. His eyes caught something in the reflection of one of the trophies. His eyes dropped to the ground as he immediately identified the object laying there. "Mrs. Norris!" He dropped down to his knees, setting the lantern down and nearly shattering the glass on it. "What's happened to you?" He didn't need to ask, he could tell. The student's had always loathed his precious pet. Some student had come and poisoned her. He had to get help.

Argus quickly scooped her up and ran off as fast as he could to wards the hospital wing. If anyone in this castle could help her, it would be Madam Pomfrey. Dumbledore would have to be informed, but right now he was more worried about getting Norris help.