The school Pokémon daycare was an expansive, well-designed structure that lay just a few meters from Hagrid's cabin but was surrounded by trees that hid it from view of the castle.
There was only one entrance, a large iron door that served as both the only entrance and exit.
Past the door was a broad hallway that stood between four other doors, two on both sides.
Magnus immediately noticed that each of the four doors had the colors and emblems of each of the houses.
The first two, overlooking each other, were Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
Edgar led them to the first door on the left.
There were students already coming in and out of all the doors, carrying their Pokémon or with the Pokémon walking after them. He noted that, unlike on the train, no Pokémon were in the baskets.
On the Ravenclaw door, there was a replica of the eagle knocker like the one at the entrance of their common room.
It spoke once they were standing in front of it.
"The more you take, the more you leave behind. What would you say I am?"
Edgar looked sideways at him. "Go on."
Magnus thought for some seconds. "Memories," he said, though he could feel ahead that it didn't entirely fit.
"A well-thought answer, but not the one I seek," the eagle knocker said.
"Footsteps," Edgar said, and the door swung open.
Crap. Magnus cursed silently. This guy had a way of making everyone feel like the dumbest idiot in the entire world. At least he should fake one wrong try for modesty's sake.
"Wait here," Edgar said curtly as he stepped through the Ravenclaw door.
Magnus leaned on the wall and immediately began observing the various Pokémon that streaked past him.
'Just a few days and I will have my own', he thought to himself. Even Snape had confirmed it.
The Gryffindor door opened up, and Magnus saw his three friends emerge, leading their Pokémon. It was Lee who saw him first.
"Magnus? … What are you doing here…?"
The twins looked similarly surprised at the sight of him. Fred, however, was fast to grasp the reason.
"Crap… must be that stupid Ravenclaw rule about losing points… ain't it?"
Magnus nodded as he approached them and bent to ruffle the fur of Lee's Rockruff, Ruffy, before petting the twins' Eevee, Fweg, and Goj.
"Who was it, mate?" George was asking while Ruffy was licking his face.
"Snape," he said as the Eevees joined the Rockruff in the fight for his face.
"Of course, it's that git," Fred said. "And quit growling, Fweg," he added to his Pokémon, who was trying to throw off the other two. It fell silent and looked up at Fred upon hearing its name.
"How many, though?" Lee asked. "How much did he take?"
"Twenty-five."
"What?!" the three exclaimed.
"Twenty-five on your first day? What the hell did you say to him, mate…?"
When Magnus told them, the twins looked at him in awe, as if he had done the most impossible feat.
Then they broke into identical mischievous grins.
"I knew it," Fred said while slapping him on the shoulder. "Told you his heart was in the right place," he said to Lee and George, who were staring at Magnus almost admiringly.
"Huh!" George smiled. "You might as well have poked your wand into his nose… Snape doesn't like being told what to do… you're lucky he didn't give you detention."
"He did," Magnus said, standing up.
"He did?!" both twins exclaimed, almost furious. "Wait, and your prefect still made you their dung boy? That is totally unfair!"
"Dung boy? … What is that supposed to mean?" Magnus asked in clear confusion.
"Wait… you don't know? No one has told you?" Lee asked. Magnus could see a knowing smile playing on their faces.
"What?" he asked impatiently.
The twins snickered.
"Mate, you're gonna have to clean your house's Pokémon stall until you earn those points back," Fred said, trying to withhold his laughter upon seeing the shocked look on Magnus's face.
"Hey… but you are a Ravenclaw," Lee said comfortingly. "That should take you probably two days at most. You'll have those points back."
Magnus doubted that. He did not seem to know as much as he had thought he did. Watching all this in a movie was one thing, but now that he was part of it… now that he was required to practice magic… things were entirely different.
"Yeah… you'll get the points back, mate… just make sure you behave in Snape's classes," Fred added.
"Worst thing is that he knows about that Ravenclaw rule, and now that he has marked you… well, you'd better be careful, mate, or you might end up as a permanent dung boy for the rest of the term."
Magnus had not regretted pointing out Snape's bias against Hermione, but now that he was seeing what it was costing him, he began to have second thoughts.
How the hell would he be able to earn 25 points back when everyone seemed to know loads more than he did? Even the stuff he knew about Pokémon wasn't exactly the same as what was recognized by these people… at least not yet.
'Well, you could read' , a voice said inside his head.
Well, he could try that… but it would take all his free time, time that he had planned to spend doing his Pokémon research.
Then again, at this rate, even that free time would be nonexistent. Apart from cleaning, he had detention with Snape.
"But why can't they allow the elves to clean the stalls…? I mean, they clean all the castle."
"Mate… our little friends are quite choosy about who they serve… they only recognize humans as their masters," George explained.
"As far as they are concerned, Pokémon are not above them."
'That would be because no one seems to realize how much potential Pokémon have', Magnus thought to himself.
But he would change that… oh yes, he would.
"Besides, it's your house rules that dictate that… as far as I know, everyone cleans their Pokémon's stall in other houses," Lee said.
The twins were looking at each other like they were having a silent debate between themselves. Then George spoke.
"Wait here, mate…" he said as he turned and rushed back through the Gryffindor door, his Eevee right behind him.
Magnus looked at Fred curiously. "What's up with him?"
Fred looked even more mischievous.
"Well, let's just say we are going to help you… speed up the process… I mean, you probably don't know any cleaning spells yet."
He was right. Magnus suddenly recalled his wand within his robes. Magic would have made the whole thing easy, but he barely knew any magic, let alone how to cast a decent spell.
Fred went on. "Well, we have something even better… it's one of our last-year inventions. We made them specifically for mischievous first-years like you," he said in a mock reprimand.
"It would cost you a galleon and eight sickles, but you have helped us a lot, mate… just consider it a gift."
Magnus was dying to know what the hell Fred was ranting about, but at that moment, the Gryffindor door opened, and George emerged, grinning ear to ear.
"Did you get it?" Fred asked expectantly.
George reached into his pocket and brought out a yellow object that looked like a table tennis ball.
"Blimey, you are a lucky man, mate… only one was there!... we forgot about this lot bro"
"Yeah... it was a busy holiday, but we should restock them tonight... you know, before Snape gets his momentum and we have more Ravenclaws joining our friend here," Fred said, taking the ball from Magnus.
"We call this one a Pokémon dung ball," he said, smiling more evilly. "A brilliant little lifesaver, this one is. Just open a cage, place the ball, and boom—it opens and swallows the dung, fur, and any dirt, leaving the cage as pristine as the Minister of Magic's office," he finished, grinning.
"This is our limited edition with near-infinite storage... you could use it the entire school years and it still wouldn't be full or heavy. It shouldn't take you more than twenty minutes there, bro," George added.
"Magnus... in here."
He turned to see Edgar standing at the Ravenclaw door. The prefect looked even more admonishing at the sight of his three friends.
"Hey... we gotta go too. Was nice talking to you, Magnus," Fred said, shaking his hand and pressing the ball into his palm. "Come find us when you are done," he said in a whisper.
Both Lee and George shook his hand as well, if only to hide the deception from Edgar.
Magnus watched his three friends leaving with the Pokémon padding silently behind them. He slipped both his hands into his pockets before turning and walking towards Edgar.
***
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