Mutant Pygmy Puff Incident

[Kessa Cirtos]

[Ditto here!]

The next morning before breakfast Lilith found herself heading for the hospital wing...again!

"This isn't happening to me! This can't be happening to me! A mummified finger and a giant pink toe! I can't go to the Back to school party like this!"
She looked around but didn't see anybody. She sat down and looked at her toe. It looked like a piece of bubble gum on a stick.

"Geez, what kinda mouse leaves a bite like that? Have they got special pink magic mice around here or something? Maybe this is one of Peeves' tricks. I wonder if he can get into the commons."

She really had no idea what that small furry creature that bit her was. She didn't even get a look at him. But her toe had stung like crazy. It wasn't stinging so much now, but it was pink!"

"I hope somebody shows up soon. I don't wanna go to class with a big pink toe, and there's no way I'm putting on a pair of shoes!"

[Kessa Cirtos]

Kessa had fallen asleep in her office because the Fat Lady had been as good as her word and hadn't permitted Kessa into the Common Room. "Let this be your hard earned lesson!" Was her reprimand, though Kessa was terribly unhappy with it, she moved on. After all, the Fat Lady had over the years helped Kessa out more than once in a fickled situation. Surely the Healer-in-Training couldn't take advantage of the woman so much in her life.... She exited the back room into the connected room that allowed for patients to be treated.

She had been rubbing her eyes tired-like when she saw that she already had a patient. Quickly the rememnant of fog from sleep disappeared, "What happened now? DId your Pygmy Puff go into labor again or is it another slip of your knife?" Kessa joked and teased until she saw her toes - it was very nasty for anyone to walk around barefooted anywhere in the school. The floors were nasty with who knew what.

"What did this happen?" Kessa would've exclaimed, but was much too concerned to allow too much emotion in her voice and startled poor Lilith. "It seems you've not been having a good first week, huh?" Bending down, Kessa began to inspect the wound while she listened to Lilith explain just how she came to get a toe the color of chewed bubblegum.

[Lilith Lovecraft]

"Well, you see, I got up in the middle of the night cause I couldn't sleep. I started to climb down from the bed when this....this something bit me. I don't know what it was. It was soft and furry, but its teeth were like little tiny knives. It bit my toe. Hard.

I put some tonic on it and wrapped it in a bandage, sorta. Then I went back to sleep. When I got back up, my toes was bright pink!

I don't know what it was, Kessa. I thought maybe a mouse or something.But mouse bites don't turn your toes pink, at least not where I come from. Do you think...it could've been..."

No, it wasn't possible. The little thing had felt soft and furry, and it made her think of her own pygmy puff. She had even looked to see her own pygmy puff asleep after the bite. It couldn't have been one of the babies, could it? All the babies were in different houses. Besides, pygmy puffs don't have teeth like that. At least not hers anyway.

[No playing for other characters silly! If I want Kessa to wait with bated breath, I'll say so. Mkay? ^^ Good.]

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe some kind of magical creature that Muggle-borns like me wouldn't know about."
She wasn't satisfied with that answer, and she didn't think Kessa would be either.

[Kessa Cirtos]

Kessa frowned, definitely not sure what to make of the event. She had listened and nodded along, trying not to impose on Lilith's sense of security. "Okay...well. Sit on the bed then. I'll see what I can do. You're sure you don't know what could've bitten you?"

She would go back to inspecting Lilith's toe. There were miniature teeth marks, two on the bottom of the bite and two on top. It seemed as though it had been a mouse bite! But nothing in Hogwarts would make a mouse do that, unless the place hadn't been exterminated. Kessa made a mental note to talk with Prof. Dumbledore about the possibility about disease ridden mice being loose in the school. But surely the hosue elves would've seen to it that there were no pests around the school...and the other students' cats would've helped!

Kessa rubbed her face, trying think of what kind of remedy she could perform on Lilith for her bite. "Tincture of pine tar!" She took some out of the cabinet, already made. "Okay Lilith...you might have to miss your morning classes, but I need you to stay here and keep reapplying this." Kessa did it the first time to show her. When she opened the bottle, it smelled of forest, not at all an unpleasant smell. She rubbed it on the infected area, not expecting to see results immediately.

"I'll contact Dumbledore to see if he can help. I've never seen a bite like this and I haven't read it in the books. Those bite marks don't look like a mouses', but I still cant' do much more than treat your bite until I knwo what exactly did it."

[Lilith Lovecraft]

The tine par tincture wasn't too bad, but the smell started making Lilith feel sorta funny after a while. It brought back memories of Christmas, too. She remembered the smell of ham roasting in the oven and hot apple cobbler with cinnamon candies. She remembered opening gifts Christmas morning, and watching her Dad open the chess set she and Mum had bought him. And she remembered her little pygmy puff nestled down in her stocking.

Then it struck her; it had bit her that first morning when she slid her hand into the stocking. It hadn't swelled up or anything, but didn't it look kinda funny afterwards? Hadn't she thought she'd left some pink fingernail polish on that nail? That cute little thing did have sharp teeth, and a strong enough bite might even turn more pink!

"Geez, what have I done?"

It must have been the babies. They could've escaped...but no, they were all still accounted for. But they did reproduce quickly. What if one had had a litter of babies itself in the middle of the night before anyone found out? She could've been pregnant when she was given away. That would mean that the parents would be brother and sister.

"Ooooh, not good. Not good at all! Geez, mutant pygmy puffs, and I'm the one responsible!"

Lilith waited till Kessa got back, then she told her everything.

[Kessa Cirtos]

"Pygmy? If that's all...then we don't have to worry about a thing!" Kessa laughed, feeling silly about going to Dumbledore about mutant mice. "The pine tar tincture won't do any harm to your toe, but Pygmies hav e alittle bit of a sting to their bite. Nothing that shouldn't go down in swelling in an hour or two. If it happens again, you should send your overeager pet to be trained at LaMarx's Pet Trainery for Magical Pets - they do a great job and at such a low price!" Since that was all there was to this minor problem, Kessa took the jar of pine tar and scooped some out into a smaller jar.

"Alright - you can apply this next time you get bitten by a pygmy and it'll help take the edge off of the bite as well as a bit of swelling. I'll put up a note to everyone that has gotten your pygmy babies about this so I'm (Madame Pomfrey too) not overrun by our classmates complaining about mice bites. ANyho w- feel free to leave when you like...I could give you a note for our class, but it's really too early for class and by then you should be better than before." That said, Kessa went back into the room to check on her lilies. She dearly loved them...they reminded her of simple love.

[Lilith Lovecraft]

"Wow. I'm so relieved. I'm glad it's nothing serious.

Still they are obnoxious little buggers, aren't they? Somebody needs to round those things up!

Anyway, thanks tons. I don't know what I'd do without you!"