sweetpinkpixie's
Menagerie of Holiday Havoc

Disclaimer: All locations, characters, objects, etc. from the Harry Potter series that appear in this writing collection were created by JKR. Any characters and elements that were not created by me will be credited accordingly.

Every paw and claw has a tale to tell. For the 2025 Days of Potter EEFD challenge, I've unleashed a couple of quills to help create some creative writing chaos. With them in hand, I'm tasked with a set of prompts that are just begging to be pounced on. These aren't your average tails tales - they’re full of fur, feathers, and whiskered shenanigans.

QUICK QUOTES QUILL

• someone gets "quoted" saying something they absolutely never said
• a character is the subject of a ridiculous headline
• someone wildly exaggerates a story about themselves
• someone blurts out a half-truth to save face
• a character is accused of something absurd and must prove otherwise

PHEASANT FEATHER QUILL

• a character's "moment of peace" in nature is interrupted
• a character finds themselves hopelessly lost in the woods
• a small, ridiculous incident spirals into a much bigger problem
• someone chases something they absolutely should not chase
• a character insists they are a "survival expert" (they are not)

Now, with a few familiar familiars eyeing these quills... let's see what trouble (or tail-wagging brilliance) we'll end up with!

⋆꙳•❅‧*₊⋆☃︎‧*❆₊⋆
TREVOR THE TOAD
someone blurts out a half-truth to save face

Humans are funny. Especially my human who is equal parts sweet, loyal, endlessly bumbling... and who has once again misplaced me.

To be clear, I am not lost. I am exploring. There is a difference, though humans seem tragically incapable of grasping it or perhaps simply forget that I, like a chocolate frog, am capable of hopping away.

It is the final week before Christmas and the castle is glittering like a well-shaken snow globe. Pine boughs adorn the walls, the portraits hum carols off-key, and Peeves keeps rearranging the mistletoe so that unsuspecting students walk directly into awkwardness. Thankfully, perhaps, Peeves is not a requirement for my human when it comes to awkwardness.

I hop away from the Great Hall where Neville had left me on the bench while misinforming Harry, "I've got Trevor under control this time!" A half　truth I have heard many times since September. He had me under control… only for the two seconds it took him to say he words.

I leap past a group of fifth years attempting to enchant tinsel to drape itself tastefully across a banister. The tinsel wraps around them like a boa constrictor and slithers off - I suspect Peeves is involved in this as well but do not cease my hopping long enough to know. Just as I reach the end of the hall, the floor abruptly rises to meet me. Or perhaps I rose to meet it? I've yet to fully figured out how stairs work when magic is involved. I do soon know that I am, suddenly, sailing up through the air, landing squarely in the hood of a set of robes.

I once again suspect Peeves' involvement.

"AUGH—WHAT—WHO—OH," says the robes' occupant who soon pats it carefully and lightly squishes me against their back. "Trevor! Thank goodness. Harry was asking if I’d lost you again and I definitely didn’t want to admit it so I said you were in my pocket."

As though I spend all my free time lounging like a coin in Neville's pocket.

We walk (well, he walks, I jostle in his hands) toward the Gryffindor common room. As he rounds a corner we hear the unmistakable cry of one Seamus Finnigan, who is yelling, "I DIDN’T MEAN TO SHAKE THEM, THEY SHOOK THEMSELVES!"

...dare I once again suspect...

Neville promptly spins on the spot to head right back the way we came. "Come on," he murmurs. "Let’s get back before dinner. I heard they're serving Christmas pudding."