Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Inferno Conscription (The Bagsy Chronicles 3)

The Goodest of Girls

Jill, Bagsy's rat, had passed away, so Mezrielda's terrifying eagle owl had the good sense to behave itself when it delivered its letter to her.

Bagsy was sitting on an armchair in her room, sniffling. The walls were plastered with designs and inventions, the majority of which were rat themed. Jill, one of Bagsy's pet rats, had taken ill when she'd returned home after her second year at Hogwarts. Jill loved to run about and explore, but she'd lost the energy in her back legs, and Bagsy had created a small contraption of wheels to allow her to move about.

Unfortunately, as the summer dragged on, and the weather grew hotter, Jill's condition had worsened.

Now Bagsy was holding a shoe box on her lap, lovingly wrapped in ribbon and coloured paper, with 'Jill' painted in gold on the top. That morning she'd found Jill curled up in one of the hammocks Bagsy had made for her. Bill had tried nuzzling Jill awake and Bagsy had tried coaxing her back to the waking world with food, but Jill had remained still.

Bill, Bagsy's other rat, who had always been the lazy one, was old but in good health and sat snuggled next to the shoebox, chattering mournfully.

Mezrielda's eagle owl – who had always wanted to eat Bagsy's rats – eyed the shoe box hungrily, but only obediently held out its talons, presenting Bagsy with a letter from her friend. He didn't even make a grab for Bill, who wouldn't have been quick enough to escape.

Bagsy thanked Mezrielda's owl, giving him a treat, before opening the letter. Mezrielda sent her condolences, decreeing that Jill was perhaps the most energetic and intelligent rat she'd ever met, and that should Bagsy want to come and stay at her home for a few days to be in good company, she could. Mezrielda didn't specify who constituted the current bad company but given how much Bagsy complained about her parents in her responses she didn't need to.

Bagsy's sister, as nice as she'd been to her over the summer, was busy at the Ministry, not to mention that Bontie now looked at her with something like pity or dread in her eyes and Bagsy didn't like it or understand where it had come from.

She sent a thank you letter back with Mezrielda's owl, who shot a last wistful look at Bill and the shoe box, before swooping out of her bedroom window. Bagsy had grown a bit since last year, but so had Mezrielda's owl, and she was still unsure if it thought she was for dinner or not. The way it looked at her sometimes she was certain he thought she was an oversized mouse.

Pulling on a nice set of robes, Bagsy picked Bill up and lowered the old girl into one of her pockets gently. Bagsy had taken to adding all sorts of pockets to her robes to conceal her latest inventions – Bontie had joked she looked like some odd wanderer, her entire house piled into her robe, with pockets that could accommodate her mag-net bat and ball, or the torch she'd been given by the muggle boy the year before.

Once downstairs Bagsy searched through the cupboards. Her parents would be up in their rooms, working on their inventions or potion recipes, so Bagsy would have to say goodbye alone. She fished out an old shovel covered in dust. If anyone else in the family wanted to dig, they'd simply cast a spell, unlike Bagsy, who still struggled to perform the most basic of magics.

She went outside and set to digging. Once a decent sized hole had formed in the ground, she lowered the shoebox into it. It didn't feel right covering up the hole right away so Bagsy left Bill to guard it whilst she popped to Diagon Alley. Bill sat by the hole, not snoozing for once in her life; just staring blankly at the shoebox.

Bagsy used Floo powder to reach Diagon Alley. Rushing past the usual shops, she turned onto Exception Alley and reached Strangling Vines and Twisting Twines. It was a tiny shop, big enough for the owner and one costumer, made only more cramped by the plants elbowing each other for space, and sunlight seemed sucked away from the neighbouring buildings as if the store was a vacuum for brightness.