Professor Lupin happened to be absent when Magnus swung by the staffroom at the end of the day's classes.
Magnus happened to be among the few who knew his situation as a werewolf, so he assumed the professor was undergoing one of his episodes and had to rest or was under Snape's medication.
However much Snape hated it, he still made the best potion to help when Lupin's werewolf shifting phase hit.
That must have been the case because when he decided to wait, Professor Flitwick told him he would better spend his evening elsewhere as Professor Lupin wouldn't return until the next day.
Magnus was more than happy to oblige; maybe even by then the matter would be forgotten.
He was leaving the staffroom area when Snape swung by with Malfoy at his tail.
He could have happily walked another way just to avoid them, but as it turned out there was only one path leading to and away from the staffroom. He instead held his head high as they walked past each other.
Malfoy had been looking expectantly between Snape and him like he was expecting his Head of House to do something. Snape, however, barely even spared him a look as they passed each other.
Malfoy threw him that ugly smug that seemed to say "your time is limited."
He ignored him and hurried away lest Snape decided to interview him.
There was no doubt Malfoy had been telling Snape about whatever he had seen
Or had he?
I mean, the fact that Snape had ignored him despite Draco's suspicions threw him in doubts.
That man had sworn to have him expelled, so one would think a chance to catch him with whichever scandal might have been cherished.
That aside, he was also the Head of House for Slytherin, and if Draco had indeed told him about any unique trait from Hermione's Pichu, Snape would definitely have found a way to poke around and even get the Ministry involved.
Unless Malfoy had just been bluffing. Which also didn't seem likely, the guy had thrown too much detail that even if he had not discovered everything, he at least had enough to know he was onto something—and knowing how wicked that guy was, he simply wouldn't stop.
Leaving the castle, Magnus ran towards the daycare. He could already see his three senior friends at their usual spot waiting for him. He had left his Zorua with George but he did not stop by. He was already late on his cleaning duties in Ravenclaw stalls, and he did not think telling Edgar that he had been summoned for missing a class would make things any better.
It however did not take long at the stalls thanks to his dung ball. The twins' invention had made his life so much easier seeing as he had only managed to earn only ten points so far out of helping Hagrid at the first lesson, and thus he still owed Ravenclaw fifteen points, which until paid, he would still be the dung boy.
Even from a distance he could see that there was some sort of commotion around their spots because a considerable crowd of students were looming around the three friends. He noted with some tension that all the attention were however being directed towards the Pokémon.
"What the fuck is happening," Magnus thought as he rushed towards the group.
A myriad of thoughts were crisscrossing his mind as he tried to figure what could be the source of interest.
Could the twins have decided to showcase the Pokéballs despite his objections? George didn't even notice the Zorua breaking away and running to jump on his shoulder. Then again, he couldn't blame him. The Zorua had proved to be quite elusive when it wanted to.
Magnus was forced to laugh as his Pokémon nibbled his ears excitedly.
"Stop it boy," he said, pulling it from the shoulder, and it immediately jumped back and ran towards the center of the attention.
George was the first to notice his arrival.
"It did it mate, it did it," he said, propelling him where Fred was playing with his Eevee.
"Wait for it," George whispered.
Magnus watched Fred throw a shiny coin and his Pokémon rushed to retrieve it. The Eevee hesitated on reaching the shiny coin and looked around at the whispering crowd. It was clear that the whispers of admiration and chatter from the gathered students were breaking its attention.
"Here... here!" Fred clapped his hands to get its attention. The Pokémon quickly turned back to its owner.
"Spin it boy… spin it and toss," Fred instructed.
Unlike the first time they had been practicing, Magnus noticed that Fred wasn't demonstrating. He wanted to point that out, but then the Eevee raised one paw and hit the coin, sending it spinning almost two feet into the air before hitting it with the back of its paws.
The coin flew towards Fred, who caught it neatly before raising it to show the excited crowd.
The gathered students applauded excitedly at the display of the cool trick. Magnus realized the place was crowding fast as more students and their various Pokémon were gathering around, hoping to see the source of excitement.
If it was the first time for someone familiar with the Pokémon world to witness this, one could easily laugh at the absurdity, but having seen how thoroughly incapable Pokémon were in this world, Magnus smiled in earnest excitement too.
"He did it, mate… he tossed… so what's next?" Fred yelled as he noticed Magnus for the first time.
"It's a good trick," Magnus patted his shoulders gently in congratulation and also as a reminder that there were too many people to discuss anything here. The three got his point.
Magnus noticed even Harry, Ron, and Hermione were among the gathered crowd. The trio were however not looking quite excited, especially Ron—and he could guess why.
He had tried to assure them that whatever Malfoy had said was bullshit, but it was a hard sell. I mean, he had got one thing right about Hermione's secret; it just made sense that he was also right about him, the twins, and Hagrid.
That coupled with the fact he had refused to reveal how he knew so much about Pokémon only made them more suspicious of him.
"I think I am beginning to see your point, Magnus," Lee said as they withdrew from the crowd. "I mean if Fweg can learn this, he can learn anything."
Fred smiled gleefully. "You bet. Screw the 20 galleons, mate," he said excitedly. "Now I'm certain we are beating the Slytherin like crap… we gotta increase the training session."
Magnus nodded, albeit for totally different reasons.
This was some serious progress… it wasn't anything big, but now he had established enough ground for the Eevee's evolution into an Espeon. Now the remaining part was the tricky bit.
Tricky because it was out of his control. The last step for the Eevee to evolve was that it had to show complete loyalty and bond to Fred. It had to prove its willingness to stick and protect him under immense pressure. Only then would an Espeon emerge.
I mean, he could arrange a scenario for that, but this was a Psychic type they were dealing with. They literally read emotions—so fooling it would be a problem.
In the meantime though, they had even bigger problems to deal with which sought immediate solution.
He suddenly realized that he had unknowingly placed himself as the head of a secret group whose members didn't even realize were members yet.
Be that as it may, as their de facto leader, he had decided to call an emergency meeting.
But first, he had to alert Hagrid because his cabin would host the group's first ever illegal meeting.
That is if their two headed friend would allow it.
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