January 28th, 1890 — Streets of Wellingtonshire Near the Lupin Household

"Leo."

Nanny's voice had that warning tone to it. The sort of sound that made him want to do the exact opposite of whatever it was she was going to say. It was likely because he was getting ahead of her again, but it was meant to be his walk and not hers. He should be able to go exactly where he wanted. Just to spite her, he skipped along faster.

He would have continued to speed up if it weren't for the blob of brown that caught his eye. Was that a cat? With a gleeful smile, he scurried his way closer. The creature didn't move. It laid stiff as a broomstick just off the edge of the street.

Hadn't he seen this particular cat before?

"Matchstick cat."

His gaze fell on the feline's tail that looked as if it had been singed. That had been his handiwork, but the cat hadn't died at his hands. That fact made him much more curious! With his shiny, little boot, he drew back and gave the deceased pet a swift kick.


Open to anyone who might be wandering about Wellingtonshire.

  

Tinnie had been out in the fenced-in yard playing with her dolls under the supervision of one of the lower nursery staff when movement outside the gate prompted her to look up. She stood, leaving the dolls on the grass and tucking Igor into her pocket where he wouldn't be noticed - Father wasn't a fan of when she had him out in public, but if he and no one else knew she had him, she couldn't be in trouble.

It was a boy... kicking a cat!

"Stop that you!" the little girl cried, stomping over to the gait. She would not tolerate that outside her home. "That is gross touching a dead thing like that! What are you, a street rat?"

  

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Pretties by MJ!
Serpentine is a parselmouth, however, this is not public knowledge. She snuck her pet snake to Hogwarts and may occasional wear it. If visible, your first thought is probably jewelry not actual snake.

"No," the boy spat out, firmly. It was his immediate reaction to anyone, who wasn't his mother, telling him to stop doing something.

He sniffed at the girl in an annoyed sort of way. Who was she to tell him what to do? He bristled at the insult and stood up much more straight. "I am not. What are you, a nosy, stupid girl?" In his opinion, Emily was the only girl worth knowing, and this irritating, little so-and-so wasn't worth his time.

Just to cement in that he didn't particularly care what she said, he gave the poor, deceased feline another swift kick.

  

The child stamped her foot as she was denied, childish temper flairing. No child liked to be told no, but she did not yet have the comprehension to realize she expected him to be told no.

You act like one!" Tinnie snorted, fist curled tight into balls. "Nanny says your actions matter more than your words! And I am not stupid! I just have manners!"

As he kicked the cat again, she pushed through the gate and marched towards the younger child, determined to push him away. She didn't know what she'd do when she got there - she didn't actually want to touch the cat, but she didn't want to watch him do so either.

  

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Pretties by MJ!
Serpentine is a parselmouth, however, this is not public knowledge. She snuck her pet snake to Hogwarts and may occasional wear it. If visible, your first thought is probably jewelry not actual snake.

"Nannies don't ever know anything," he stated loftily. In his opinion, nannies were really only good for transportation and for figuring out money matters since he wasn't yet allowed to.

When the girl marched toward him, he smirked and reached down to pick up the cat. "Oh, did you want to look at it?" He questioned and pretended to toss it in her direction, laughing.

  

How dare he bash Nanny like that! She only felt her rage spike more as he picked up the dead cat. As he moved to fake toss it at her, she froze rather than flinched as if she couldn't quite believe he would have the audacity to do such thing. "You put that cat down right now, you rat!"

She had been planning to push him but more that he was actually holding the cat she didn't wasnt to be anywhere near him. If she thought it would scare him,  she should have sent Igor after him - Igor wouldn't do more than bite, he had no venom, but the street rat didn't know that! But she was pretty sure that Igor would not scare him away and she found herself wishing she was in possession of a bigger snake.

But she could try?

"If you do not put it down I'll send Igor after you!" she snorted, her hand tucked in her dress pocket, reassuring herself her friend was still there.

  

---

Pretties by MJ!
Serpentine is a parselmouth, however, this is not public knowledge. She snuck her pet snake to Hogwarts and may occasional wear it. If visible, your first thought is probably jewelry not actual snake.

"You put that cat down right now, you rat!" Leo repeated, voice obnoxiously higher than normal, mocking the girl that stood before him. No, he wouldn't put the cat down. He wanted to keep it. Investigate it. He had an unquenchable curiosity about the subject of death. He just couldn't walk away when such a perfect specimen presented itself. He hadn't even had to do any work!

"Who is Igor?" He spat out, pompously. Turning the cat over in his arms, he'd already begun to exam it. "That's an awfully ugly name for a Nanny." Of course, he knew that wasn't likely to be her nanny's name. Igor was probably some sort of pet like a dog, but he couldn't waste the opportunity to call it an ugly name.

  

Had she been the cat right now, or at least the cat when it had been living, she would have hissed at the boy, her fur raised up along her neck. Being as she wasn't a cat, didn't have fur, and wasn't a baby with no manners, she didn't do either of those things, even if she wanted to. Still, she refused to let the boy get away with teasing her!

"That this will give you diseases!" She remembered when Callistrus found a dead mouse in the nursery. The maid had screamed and pulled her brother away from the mouse, muttering something about it giving him diseases. She had one of the Male servants promptly remove it. Tinnie wasn't entirely sure what diseases were, but she thought it was a type of sickness. Like how she got colds in the winter.

"Igor is a boys name, are you stupid? Igor is snake. Not the nanny!"

  

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Pretties by MJ!
Serpentine is a parselmouth, however, this is not public knowledge. She snuck her pet snake to Hogwarts and may occasional wear it. If visible, your first thought is probably jewelry not actual snake.

All Leo could think to respond was to roll his eyes. Diseases? Who cares. Whatever that was supposed to mean. And that girl had been so thick to not even appreciate his insult. He wasn't about to acknowledge such an affront.

"I don't care about your snake."

He huffed and turned on his heel, the cat held in his arms. He intended to bring it home with him. To study. He didn't particularly care if it had been someone's pet, and it deserved to be buried and mourned over.

  

An insult to herself, while annoying would have been fine. An insult to Igor was maddening. And then he was leaving with the cat. Clean dead animals didn't bother her. After all, she had to feed Igor frogs all the time. After all the maids wouldn't do it. She'd been feeding him for three years now. Dead bodies of things laying in the street that died of who knows what, that was gross.

Anger was enough to remove her fear of her father's anger if he learned what she was about to do. Rather she didn't even consider Gaius Malfoy's anger. Lips parted, she spoke what sounded like words to her and would sound like hissing to anyone else. At this point, all she instructed as for Igor to raise his head from her pocket.

"Leave the cat alone!"

  

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Pretties by MJ!
Serpentine is a parselmouth, however, this is not public knowledge. She snuck her pet snake to Hogwarts and may occasional wear it. If visible, your first thought is probably jewelry not actual snake.

Serp hadn't made any indication that the cat in question was her cat. Therefore, Leo thought she needn't be concerned with what happened to it. Finders keepers. He had a little knife tucked away in a hidden part of the back garden where the plants grew up to form a canopy tall enough for the likes of him. His current caretaker didn't bother him there, taking his lead to get some much needed rest. He wanted to see what would happen if he pierced the cat's flesh, what would lay inside. He was sure the feline's body housed more than just the blood that seeped out of wounds.

A strange hissing had him pausing momentarily, his eyebrows raised in confusion. Had that sound come from the girl? Was she daft? The snake the peeked out of her pocket received a curious, almost interested look, but he didn't wish to remain in the bossy girl's presence any longer. Even if he did wish to inspect the serpent more closely and taunt her for trying to speak to it. Didn't she realize she sounded like a lunatic?

"Goodbye, Snotty Snake Girl."

Leo let out one note of an uncaring laugh and started to stride down the street toward home.