#augh the world we could be living in if they set the frogs and the lobsters here.......imagining her in my head.....

[quatregats]

Pictures of Muzilheg/Muzillac (Brittany) showing the squares, churches, estates, and inhabitants

[downin-thevalley]

Yeti Hunt

Wrote a part two of this lil drabble , inspired by the latest Hogwarts Mystery side quest. Merry Christmas everyone!

Read on AO3!

James and Sirius burst into the common room from the boys stairwell, deeply engaged in a sword fight, two ends of a broken christmas cracker for their swords. James wore a paper crown, Sirius clutched some gummy slugs in his free hand, Peter sat in a chair working on getting ahold of his chocolate frog, and Remus was engrossed in a book that seemed to be half the size of him.

James collapsed onto the couch opposite him. “Remus, why are you studying on Christmas?”

“Yeah, cmon, lets play some wizards chess!” Sirius bounced on the couch next to Remus, “you’re the only one who matches up to me!”

“Hey!”

“Oh, James, I let you win!”

“If you’re interested,” Remus said over the sounds of Sirius and James now wrestling, “I’m reading about the infamous Hogwarts yeti.”

They stopped on a dime, and Peter, finally eating his chocolate, turned to listen.

“Yeti? What yeti?” Asked James.

“You’ve never heard the legend of the Hogwarts yeti?”

“Pfft, you’re making it up,” said Sirius.

“Well, there are numerous eye-witness accounts from former students and even an old headmaster about the yeti roaming the grounds around Christmas time, looking for stray animals to eat, and maybe even a student or two who stayed behind for the holiday... but you’re right, that’s just a dumb old urban legend. I can set up the chess boa—“

“I’M GONNA CATCH ME A YETI!”

“Not if I catch it FIRST!” Said James.

Remus closed the book and let it fall beside him. “Are you absolutely sure? The yeti is 15 feet tall, and incredibly strong, so even if we do manage to find it, it’ll likely devour us one by one.”

“Uhh,” Peter chimed in, “yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

James puffed out his chest. “Are we Gryffindors or what?!” Sirius and Peter cheered with him, and Remus sighed, though he was smiling at his friends.

“Let’s go get our cloaks.”

——

After tiptoeing past Slughorn under James’ invisibility cloak, nearly tumbling down a moving staircase, and stepping on Mrs. Norris’ tail and making a mad dash for the doors with Filch on their heels, the marauders were outside trudging through the snow covered grounds.

James pulled off the cloak once they were safely on the outskirts of the quidditch pitch. “Christ, what an escape,” he said, out of breath with a wicked grin on his face. “I’ve never heard Filch say so many swear words.”

“Yeah! say, what’s a—“

Sirius slapped a hand over Peters mouth. “Don’t ask, Peter, don’t ask.”

“Alright, so we’re outside,” James said, “now how do we find the yeti?”

“It’s probably in the forbidden forest,” said Remus. “It comes closer to the school when it thinks it’s safe.”

“How do we know when it thinks it’s safe to come out?” Asked Peter.

“We watch,” James pulled his heavy winter cloak closer to his body, “and we wait.”

So the boys sat behind a tree just on the edge of the forest, and waited... and waited..... and waited. There was no sign of a yeti, but they weren’t giving up. They were, however, getting very restless.

“Four bottles of beer on the wall, four bottles of beer...”

“Peter I swear to god, if you take that beer down and pass it around, I’m feeding you to the yeti,” said Sirius.

“You had no problem with the first 96!”

“Yes, we very much did!” Said Remus.

“SHH!” James threw his arm out in front of them, “I hear something!”

They all listened with baited breath. Sure enough, they heard heavy footsteps coming from the forest nearby.

“H-how many students have tried to hunt the yeti before, Remus?” Peter whispered.

“Oh, lots,” Remus whispered back.

“And how many found him?” James asked.

“Only a few,” whispered Remus.

“And h-how many lived to tell the tale?” Sirius asked in a wavering whisper.

“Oh, very, very few.”

James readied himself with a large stick he’d found on their way to the forest. “Well if anyone can do it, it’s us!” He said triumphantly. “Get your wands ready, and follow my lead!”

That’s when they saw it: a giant white figure stumbling out of the forest, much too close to them for comfort. They all gasped, and the yeti lurched in their direction.

“Holy shit, holy SHIT!” Said James, “CHARGE!”

James burst forward holding his stick, Sirius close behind him waving his wand wildly, sending stunning spells flying every which way. Remus followed at a safe distance with Peter, careful to avoid both the path of the yeti and Sirius’ wand.

“Take THAT!” James exclaimed, giving the yeti a hard blow too the side. It toppled over with a loud “OOF!”

They all stood, panting. “Well,” Sirius said, “that was—easier than expected.”

“Oh no,” Remus muttered once he caught up, “I’m afraid there’s been a mistake...”

The ‘yeti’ reached up to brush the snow out of its face, and—

“Hagrid?!” James and Sirius said together.

“Augh—“ Hagrid sat up, “what’re you boys doin’ out ‘ere? Must be freezin’ yer tails off!”

“Why are you wandering the forest all covered in snow?” James asked.

Hagrid laughed. “There’s a funny story! Er, maybe not that funny... I went t’ chop down one more tree, seems I was one short fer the Christmas feast, see, so I go and find a beau’iful pine, really gorgeous, yeh shoulda seen it! Only, when I started choppin ‘er down, some centaurs came to stop me. Turns out that tree was quite important to ‘em, and they’re not a species known fer their forgiveness. So they chased me down, and I ran so fast and got covered in so much snow I must’ve looked like a hoppin’ mad snowman come te life! Suppose that’s why ye hit me so hard, eh, Potter?”

James blushed and dropped the stick. “Sorry for hitting you, Hagrid. We—well, we thought you were a yeti.”

Hagrid laughed so loud and heartily that the boys all jumped back in surprise. “No problem there, Potter.” He patted James’ shoulder, practically knocking him to the ground. “Got a good arm on yeh! You should try fer Gryffindor beater! Now, didja just say you thought I was a yeti?”

They all had to laugh at themselves as they recounted the story to Hagrid all the way back to the castle.

“Ah, the legend ‘o the Hogwarts Yeti. Haven’t heard that one in a while,” he chuckled. “Tried to hunt ‘em meself when I was a boy, but maybe it really is jus’ a legend.”

“Wouldn’t be so sure,” Sirius said, “Remus here was reading all about it. Weren’t you, Re?”

“Well, yes, I was,” Remus said with a mischievous smirk, “but you didn’t happen to catch which book, did you?”

The three boys blinked up at him.

“It was an excerpt from ‘Most Well-Spun Lies of the Wizarding World’.”

He laughed as his friends groaned and swore at him, causing a ruckus as they entered the great hall.

“You really tricked us, Remus!” James said. “When were you planning to tell us the yeti wasn’t real, huh?”

“The yeti may not have been real,” Remus answered, sitting down for the feast, “but you can’t say we didn’t have fun.”

“Did I hear mention of the infamous Hogwarts yeti?” Dumbledore entered, taking his seat at the head of the table. “Don’t be so quick to disbelieve, boys. I myself had a run in with the creature my first year at Hogwarts. A much more gentle fellow than legend tells. Even shook his hand when he left for his home back in Tibet. Quite a long journey, as you could imagine. Might be another year or two before he visits again.”

The marauders sat in stunned silence while Dumbledore ate his mashed potatoes, as if he’d simply been going on about the weather.

“Next year?”

“Next year!”