Woof?

[Judy Hatchitt]

April 6

"He's only very little," She explained to Cash as resisted the urge her to hike up her skirts as they headed towards the groundskeepers hunt. It was normally something she would not have bothered about but she was trying to be on her best behaviour for the pup, his very existance depended on her good behaviour and, more then that, she was being watched.

She sent a surreptitious glance towards the Professor who walked, a basket under her arm and a book in her hand. She wished she lived in a world where the Professor wasn't needed but as she'd been told, quite firmly by Professor Ruteledge the first time she tried to sneak down to his new living quarters that if she intended to visit she would require the chaperonage of a female Professor because she was a girl of respectable class and that she should not be unaccompanied by a man and the groundskeeper was one. It was a neccessity that annoyed Judy but had been explained as a way to save both their reputations.

She'd glowered all the while because she did not like the idea of all of being considered a girl of respectable class or marriagable age or even as virtuous as she indeed was. She couldn't wait until she was old enough for it not to be a necessity. Or she could just become one of those women who didn't have chaperones. Or she could get married for the simple fact that she then wouldn't need a chaperone.

The last thought was terrifying because Judy had no intention of marrying, or of giving herself so completely to another person like her parents had, of giving themselves to each other that nobody else, not even their children mattered in their lives. She supposed she could possibly settle for a loveless marriage if the idea of what lay beneath a mans clothes wasn't just so very, very gross.

Maybe she should just kidnap somebody and polyjuice herself to look like them daily. It would be simpler.

She looked sideways at Cash.

She wouldn't even need to kidnap Cash. He'd probably willingly give her some of his hair.... except then... well, then she'd have to learn what was under those clothes and. Nope.

She approached her puppy, whose heads were happily gnawing on the thick rope that tied him to his picket. She smiled upwards at Cash, a gigantic grin on her face as out of the side of eye she saw the Professor sit down and get out her book.

The Professor had said she was happy to accompany Judy because it meant time outside the castle to read in quiet and Judy was fine if she kept to her devices and stayed within eyesight. She'd been slightly displeased when Judy had asked if she could bring Cash to see the pup, because she suspected that goings on would happen. Judy was told, rather strictly that if such goings on occurred, or if they strayed too far then it would not happen again and Judy would find her visitation rights denied. It was amazingly how quickly word of leverage against Judith Hatchitt got around.

Though, such threats in this particular circumstance were unnecessary. Judy had never found a boy more then passingly attractive and those boys were few; of which only William Pendergast (now married to a baby), and Cassius Lestrange had actually gained that particular distinction. And while it Cash had numbered among those boys she had never pictured any of it going any further then that.... because seriously, No.

Ew.

She whistled, and the puppy stopped chewing its rope and unsteadily tried to gallop towards her, falling sideways and picking itself up. It was a lot healthier then when she'd first found him, a trip to both the library and the nurse as well as the groundskeepers knowledge had assisted her greatly in that regard but he was still quite young.

"Isn't he adorable?" She said as the puppy made it to the end of his rope and almost fell over against the strain he was putting against the rope. She made her way over to him and fondled its three heads.

  

[Cassius Lestrange]

Cash didn't know where, why or how Judy had gotten a three-headed dog, but he did know that he definitely wanted to see it before she found someone else to take care of it. He had never seen a three-headed dog, after all - this was a once in a lifetime experience! Or, he supposed, a once in 'until we graduate' experience. But Cash was still having a very difficult time thinking of his life Post-Hogwarts as being a real thing that was actually going to happen.... Except for when he was reviewing a language for his future job.

Another good thing about meeting the puppy: it was a very good excuse to take a respite from studying for his NEWT exams or freaking Russian.

"Very little," Cash echoed "And with three heads. Huh." He was getting the sense that their chaperon did not trust him very much... which was an odd sensation, but valid when he took into account two things: 1) the chaperon did not know that Cash had no interest in women, of course and 2) one girl had been expelled recently for being alone with a man in the Forbidden Forest, and a boy had been expelled for some sort of dreadful misconduct.

Both of them had been Slytherins, and sixth years, so of course Cash was not particularly inclined to care.

He couldn't help but grin at the sight of the puppy.

It was small, like Judy had said, and the three heads were as cute as they were distracting.

"He's very cute," Cash agreed, approaching with his hands in his pockets. He knelt down next to Judy and the puppy and, very carefully, reached out to scratch it under one of its chins.

"Have you named him yet? Or - them?" Which was it? He knew literally nothing about three-headed dogs, except that they, well, were dogs with three heads.

  

[Judy Hatchitt]

She mused out loud.

"I was thinking of calling each head something separate like Tom, Dick and Harry," She said pointing to each individual head and they each quirked up separately to look at her and then to resume investigating Cash who was obviously new and therefore far more interesting then she herself could be. She would've called it betrayal except she knew that she'd regain his attention again when Cash stopped being NEW and EXCITING besides, it was Cash.

"But I found a dog raising book that said it was easier to stick to short names and that having a calling each head by something different may end up a little complicated especially if I wanted to call it all at once. I'm thinking about calling him D'Artagnan, just because that was the writer that made the three musketeers famous and if you count the heads he has three... besides, I never liked the names of the three musketeers anyway." She said babbling as she watched two of the heads fight for Cash's attention and pats while the other seemed more intent on investigating Cashs' shoes for any stray laces.

  

[Cassius Lestrange]

"I like D'Artagnan," Cash said absently as he attempted to pet two of the heads at once. "It has a good ring to it." His old cat had been named Aelius, so it wasn't like he had much room to judge anyways, but he really did think that it was a good name.

"Have you found anyone to take him yet?" Cash asked. He was scratching the underneath of one head's chin with one hand and using his other hand to try and bat his shoelaces away from the other two heads. Were all puppies this active, or just the sorts that had three mouths?

  

[Judy Hatchitt]

And that was the problem. She'd tried asking around and she'd sent off a dozen letters begging family members the day before but she didn't know for sure anybody that would want him, everybody seemed to have massively busy lives and to be entirely, 100 percent honest, Judy problems asking others for help.

It was one of her problems.

She didn't like admitting that she couldn't do things. She usually found a way around them and it all turned out okay, except this time it hadn't because the Professor hadn't allowed her to keep Dart. Dart. She was already calling him that in her head. It had to be a sign that her little ward was going to be called D'Artganan.

"I don't know yet, I haven't had that many replies beyond 'If there is nobody else...' I'm hoping I can get more responses by the eighth so...." She shrugged. She giggled at the puppies efforts. He liked Cash, that was a good sign, though she'd had very little doubts about anybody, or anything disliking Cash. It seemed utterly impossible to dislike him.

  

[Cassius Lestrange]

"You should stress that they won't have to watch him for very long," Cash said, "I mean, we'll be out of school in two months." Not that he was looking forward to it - they were going to take their NEWTs and, assuming they survived that, be shoved out into the real world. They were going to have to work - or, in her case, work or find a husband - and that was rather unfortunate seeing as they had been able to spend previous summers doing a very refreshing nothing. And it was going to be a lot harder to avoid Lucius once he was an actual adult.

But she was going to be able to house her puppy on her own.

"We should play fetch or something with it," Cash said.