The Breakfast Menagerie

[Topaz Urquart]

@'Citrine Weasley' / open to other Ravens @'Tristan Michaud'

15 March 1887

Despite being only thirteen, Topaz read The Daily Prophet every morning over breakfast. It was a ritual started shortly after her father's "death" had started floating around the rumor mill, and one she rarely missed since--though she'd written in to spend her allowance on a subscription without talking to anyone back at home first, and her mother had been quite bemused when she came home for the first summer and her daily delivering of the morning paper followed her. She hadn't understood most of what was being discussed at first, but over time it had become as familiar to her as the subjects covered by her homework.

Today they were talking about politics, which was not Topaz's favorite subject for newspaper articles but one that she followed diligently, because of her father's work. Not that her Papa would ever intentionally bring his work home with him, but sometimes she overheard small snippets of things he said to other people, and she was always secretly proud of herself when she understood what he was talking about.

She was munching on a piece of toast and reading about what the Minister of India had said when something suddenly poked up a piece of her newspaper, creating a small mountain peak in the center and making the entire page too wrinkled too be legible. Frowning, she folded the paper to see what had caused the disruption--and saw that in the middle of her breakfast plate was sat a large, squat toad.

With a start, Topaz shoved her newspaper down to the seat next to her--jostling Citrine Weasley in the process. She looked wide eyed to her housemate, unsure whether to apologize or whether the sudden appearance of a frog in her breakfast was the more pressing concern. Since the frog took the absence of her paper (and thus the clearance of a lot of overhead space) as a sign to jump, and he landed in Citrine's breakfast, Azzie decided on the latter.

"Where did this thing come from?" she asked, looking around to see if anyone was obviously missing a pet. "Oh--watch out," she said, scooting back on the bench as a cat came streaking down the table, apparently chasing the toad--and jumping right onto Topaz's breakfast plate in the attempt. A toad and a cat... it looked like she wouldn't be eating.

  

[Citrine Weasley]

Citrine was feeling a little sleepier than usual that morning. She had vaguely registered her dormmate reading the Daily Prophet as she had served herself breakfast. She was enjoying a helping of bacon and didn't really register anything else happening at the table until Miss Urquhart jostled her.

She looked over in puzzlement since the ministers daughter had never been one Citrine would consider the rude sort when she noticed the frog. Citrine gasped as the frog landed right into her bowl of porridge that she had not even gotten a spoon of.

"Haven't a clue," she replied though she figured it had to be someones pet. It wasn't really the season for wild toads to be in abundance. She moved back as a cat came barreling down the table and the toad hopped off, leaving a trail of porridge that caused the cat to slip and slide about. "Should we catch them or something, you reckon?" She inquired of the other girl.

  

[Topaz Urquart]

Topaz leaned very far back, as much as she really could without getting off of the bench upon which they were sat, as the cat came running by. Cats had claws and while this one didn't look particularly vicious, it was chasing a toad, and Topaz didn't intend to be anywhere near it if it slipped and ended up diving claws-first onto one of the students.

She started at Citrine's suggestion that they catch the toad and the cat. Surely there was someone better suited to controlling mealtime chaos than a couple of third years? A professor, or, barring that, one of the Ravenclaw prefects? Topaz didn't see any of them readily available, though, and the fact that there was an animal hunt going on during breakfast was not a situation that was likely to improve with time.

"Well, someone should," she relented. Topaz did want to be a prefect when the time came--and selections were only a year off. Maybe it was time for her to be the responsible sort, even when it came to problems that really had nothing to do with her. "But I don't think we'll catch up to them. Do you know any spells that would be good?" she asked; the only one that came to mind for her was accio, and she didn't really relish the thought of having a surprised cat hurtling towards her face.

  

[Citrine Weasley]

Citrine had seven sisters so chaos tended to happen on the regular whenever they were all at home so it didn't really occur to her that someone else could take care of this. It wasn't exactly 'every man for themselves' at home but it sometimes felt like it when it came to certain issues that predictably occurred in a house full of women.

"The Immobulus spell, maybe? It freezes living objects and it didn't hurt when it was practiced on me in class," Citrine said after a moment of thought. It was a second year spell too so should be easy enough for two third years to cast.

  

[Topaz Urquart]

Oh! Topaz actually knew that spell! They'd learned it last year, and it was one of the few that she had actual casting experience with, instead of just book knowledge. So maybe that meant she'd be able to cast it without freezing up, like she always did in transfiguration?

Well, there was only one way to find out, she supposed. The animals were only getting farther away and becoming harder targets to hit the longer they talked about it. "Okay," she agreed, pulling out her wand. "I'll get the toad," she said, because that seemed like the easier of the two and she wasn't entirely sure she was up to the task, whatever her intentions were. Without waiting for a response from Citrine, she darted after the pair of beasts, wand poised.

  

[Citrine Weasley]

Citrine nodded in agreement and promptly followed after her dormmate with her focus being on the cat. She was a little too focused since she was also pretty much running into different people as they tried moving past her but there were more important things for her to worry about. Casting the spell, she'd aimed at the cat but some other kid got in the way and ended up toppling over.

  

[Topaz Urquart]

Topaz saw Miss Weasley's spell hit the other student and stopped in her tracks, letting out a little squeak of alarm. Oh, what if she tried to do something like that with the toad, and only ended up making things worse? They might both start out with good intentions, and end up in detention!

It was too late to turn back now, though. Closing her eyes briefly to try and calm her nerves, Topaz shot off a spell at the toad. She did manage to hit the toad--probably only due to its slower speed, and not any difference of accuracy between her attempt and Miss Weasley's--but she hadn't considered that freezing the prey animal in this scenario would only make him--well, easier prey. The cat pounced on the now-petrified toad, and Topaz let out another horrified squeak of alarm.

  

[Citrine Weasley]

Despite the fact that her sister was a prefect, detention had never really been a worry for Citrine. Oh, she knew some professors could be awful and liberal with the corporal punishments that were the norm of the erra but thus far in her school career, she had seemed to get the soft ones that just made you write lines or something.

"Oh, the cat!" She exclaimed before casting the immobulus spell its way. This time around, she managed to hit her target and it landed atop the poor toad.

  

[Topaz Urquart]

"Oh, bravo!" Topaz gushed immediately when Miss Weasley managed to stop the cat. It might still have been in danger of crushing the toad, if they didn't go and get it off of the much smaller animal, but at least it wasn't currently engaged in eating him. Closing the distance between them and the two stunned animals quickly, Topaz picked the cat up with both arms, holding it awkwardly since it was stuck in the arc of mid-pounce and that wasn't a very normal posture for a cat to be in while you were holding it.

"What do we do with them now?" she asked her housemate as she eyed the toad, which appeared to still be alive. "We ought to find their owners, shouldn't we?" That seemed right, but Topaz had no idea how.

  

[Citrine Weasley]

Citrine beamed at her dormmate at her praise before following after the other girl as she took the cat into her arms. "I suppose we should," Citrine agreed. "Well, maybe the toad. Cats find their own way pretty well but the poor toad might be in danger if we just leave it to its own devices. Maybe a poster?" Taking the smaller animal into her hands, she wondered if they would allowed to put something up on one of the general bulletin boards.

  

[Topaz Urquart]

"Oh, yes!" Topaz agreed quickly. A poster sounded much better to the alternative, which was walking around and trying to ask everyone if they knew who was missing a toad. That would involve talking to a lot of people Topaz didn't know very well, and would take so much time that they might not even finish with it before they had to go to class. This also probably wouldn't be finished before class started, but at least this was more of a passive plan, which Topaz was in favor of.

"My sister's in the art club," she volunteered, eying the toad. "I could get her to draw a picture of him. Do you think we can keep him locked up in the dorm until someone responds?"