The inside of the stall was just as well-designed as it looked from the outside... that is, if all the others were similar to the Ravenclaw stall.
There were seven rows of cages, each separated by a wide path between them. Magnus guessed that each row belonged to students from a different year.
The place was empty, and he guessed that the prefect had been clearing students from the stall.
"Here," Edgar said, handing him a pair of blue gloves. "There is a dustpan and a bin over there," he said, pointing to a corner of the stall.
Magnus silently nodded his acknowledgment.
Edgar led them to the first cage in the second row.
He pulled the cage door open and stepped aside to let Magnus get a clear look.
He was immediately hit by a mild stench as soon as he poked his head to get a look inside.
He, however, did not betray it. Edgar would definitely be waiting for that victory. Besides, the smell was nothing compared to what he had endured during his dumpster diving days.
Magnus ignored the Pokémon dung and focused on the space.
He was surprised to see how spacious the inside was... I mean, from the outside, it was easy to assume how limiting it was, but that was far from the truth.
One cage could easily fit two or three Eevee-sized Pokémon with plenty of room left for them to play.
This one was well-cushioned, with several toys lying around.
On one corner of the cage lay a feeding trough and a drinker.
"Your task is to clean every cage to perfection," Edgar's voice sounded like a demon to Magnus' ears.
"Take care of all the waste and dirt, but don't touch any other possessions... I would rather avoid handling those cases."
Magnus stood up and scanned the sprawling rows of cages. For his sake, he hoped the twins' little trick proved effective. Otherwise, he would be spending quite a few hours in this stench.
Edgar had already turned to leave but stopped like he had forgotten something.
"Oh... I almost forgot to mention that you will be on duty until you earn all the points back."
The prefect's tone made Magnus assume that this bit of information had been meant to be the final slap to his face.
Edgar must have expected to see fear... maybe regret... at the very least, there should have been a sting.
Unfortunately for Edgar, the twins had beaten him to it.
Magnus didn't say anything; he instead busied himself with fetching the dustpan and the bin.
Edgar was still standing where he was, as if he was wondering whether his damning message had been understood.
"But I guess you already know that... the Weasleys must have told you, didn't they?"
"Yes," Magnus answered nonchalantly.
"What they didn't tell you is that the two of them are probably the biggest rule-breakers in Hogwarts."
Magnus remained quiet. There was no need to tell the prefect, even that wasn't entirely new to him.
"If I were you, I would stay away from them... and any rule-breaker for that matter."
Fortunately for Magnus, the prefect left after delivering his unsolicited opinion. Had he stayed a little longer, he might have gathered enough courage to tell him to piss off or eat dung.
He waited until the door closed behind Edgar before he scanned the place once more just to be sure he was alone.
He was.
"Here comes the moment of truth."
He quickly took out the tiny yellow ball and slipped it inside the cage before stepping several feet away.
It wasn't that he didn't trust the twins... well, to be totally honest, he did not. Then again, he couldn't blame himself.
I mean, if there was one thing he would strive to observe in his dealings with Fred and George, it was caution.
You could never tell when they were serious or when they were joking... even worse, you could easily be an experimental lab rat for one of their inventions. I mean, they hardly spared themselves—what do you think happened to people around them?
He gave it about thirty heartbeats before approaching and bending over the cage.
"Bloody hell."
Magnus stared at the pristine cage as though he didn't believe it was the same one he had placed the ball in.
Not even the foul smell he had encountered earlier remained.
"It works."
He picked up the little ball and examined it. Just like the twins said, the weight of the ball hadn't changed one bit...
Now that he had proved it wasn't a trick, Magnus found himself curious about how the little invention had done that. He quickly closed the cage and moved to the next one.
This time, when he placed the ball, he didn't step away. He ignored the smell and fixed his eyes on the ball, not willing to miss any action.
He felt it before he saw it.
It was like a small breeze, one that he might have assumed was normal had they not been in a totally enclosed space.
The tiny little specks of dust and fur began to magically pull toward the Pokémon waste in one corner of the cage. Then the small pile began to compress, and in mere seconds, there was but a small pile of tiny pellets.
Suddenly, the little ball split open in half, and Magnus watched as the waste flew into the nonexistent space... all of it.
"But this is brilliant," he exclaimed in awe.
If he had to guess, he would say that the ball was probably embedded with a combination of spells.
One had to be the Enlargement Charm, maybe a Summoning Charm to pull in all the waste. He couldn't know all of them, but it had to be at least four spells.
For all their mischief, the twins should probably be awarded by the school for their creativity and problem-solving skills.
That would, however, never happen, seeing that most of their inventions were not only a secret but also dual-purpose.
Even this... maybe all this dung went into making more dung bombs, which were used to terrorize Filch, the caretaker.
With the help of the Pokémon dung ball, Magnus flew between cages in a breeze. He could only imagine Edgar's face when he came back to find him long gone and all the cages clean.
But then maybe the prefect already knew about the twins' invention... I mean, they had purposely made these balls for the sake of Ravenclaws.
But even as he moved from cage to cage, Magnus' thoughts were completely somewhere else.
He bent and retrieved the small object from the last seventh-year cage.
It still felt almost weightless. Magnus tossed and caught it with a thoughtful smile.
Did the twins know just how close they had come to inventing a Pokéball?
there are 15 chapters ahead on :
p@treon.com /Realmsinus