Linus had been stuffing his mouth full of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and playing a rather raucous round of exploding snap with Ted Lupin. In the background, the wireless was playing. Suddenly, the music was interuppted, cut off by an urgent news broadcast. At first, he let out a whine-- the news was so boring. But then he listened, and his large ears twitched.  His jaw dropped, he disrupted the pile of cards, and jumped to his feet.

The Leaky Cauldron exploded.

This was something straight out of a comic book.

It didn't even occur to Linus that anyone he knew would have been at the bar, though his cousins Francis and Monty went with his uncle Flynn sometimes.  The little lion picked up Ted's portable wireless and tucked it under his arm.

He let out a blood curdling screech and ran out of the common room and down the hall, flinging his candy everywhere. Meanwhile, the wireless continued to spout the news.

"EVERYBODY! WANDS AT THE READY!" He screamed, "THE LEAKY CAULDRON'S GONE, KA-BOOM!" Francis the frog croaked loudly. "IT'S TIME TO BREAK OUT OF HOGWARTS. It's time to be heroes! TO ESCAPE." He turned the volume up on the wireless, running through the hallways and shouting for action.

"HOGWARTS IS A CAGE, A PRISON FOR UNSUNG HEROES! IT'S TIME TO PROVE OURSELVES, CITIZENS!" We, we will rescue the victims!"

 "ADULTS ARE INEPT." Linus bellowed, "It... is... OUR. TIIIIIME!"

"Linus! Linus, for Merlin's sake, slow down!!"

You didn't spend a year and a half as roommates with Linus Hughes without getting used to some unusual outbursts. Attempts to play superhero with actual flying? Been there. Complex plots to steal sweets from the kitchens using an army of frogs? Done that. Dramatic calls for rebellion against unjust teachers and homework? Seen it, seen the reruns,  and served the detention involved for sticking up for him when he actually went through with it.

Usually, though, Ted was accustomed to getting a little warning. Even Linus had to warm up most days, working himself into a quiet frenzy before bursting out on high-octane. Tonight, though...well. Ted had barely processed the special news bulletin or the fact that it had silenced the common room before Linus was out the portrait hole with Ted's radio and screaming down the halls at full-throttle.

Of course, Teddy ran after him. Now he was stuck running full-speed down the seventh-floor hall just to keep up, his trainers pounding the stone and powder-blue hair flying in the wind. Whenever he could get his breath his shouted at Linus to calm down, but this was inevitably lost in the other's boy's echoes.

They were nearly to the staircase when a wall of tan fur appeared, blocking their way. Ted tried to stop, but the floor was slick from a recent wash and his shoes slipped right out from under him. Arms flailing, he crashed into Linus's back and skidded into a wall of muscle and fur.

Ted bounced off and landed flat on his bum. He rubbed his lower back with a groan. "Ow...."

A shadow fell over them both. Ducking his head, Ted grinned sheepishly up at the lion looming over them both. "Ah...Hi, Mr. Woodward. Nice night, eh?"

Beside him, the wireless continued to play, repeating its emergency alert bulletin again for the third time...

The evening of November 5th found Felinus quite concerned. Not that he would admit it, and you would have to be an expert in leonine expressions to read it in his flicking tail as opposed to the usual annoyance it communicated. Still, it was there, and it lingered despite his repeated self-admonition to the contrary.

It was the radio that got him. Usually, after dinner, he'd take a half-hour break to return to his office and listen to WWXZ, the station his broth...that his cousin worked for. Silas's usual show didn't run until after curfew, but he often covered special reports or narrated short fiction or simply talked to fill the open air time between dinner and the news. That hadn't happened tonight. Near has Felinus could tell, WWXZ hadn't broadcasted anything since 8 PM this evening.

He'd busied himself with scrubbing the second-floor corridor as a distraction, telling himself to stop being such a ninny with each stroke of his makeshift mop. He'd been well into the activity for fifteen minutes when a voice suddenly echoed from the vague direction of the Gryffindor common room.

"HOGWARTS IS A CAGE, A PRISON FOR UNSUNG HEROES! IT'S TIME TO PROVE OURSELVES, CITIZENS!"

Felinus sighed, recognizing the voice. He never quite knew how to respond to little Linus Hughes. On one paw, the boy was such a troublemaker, constantly getting in over his head, provoking teachers and students alike with his antics, and never failing to make a godawful mess. But on the other, he was also undeniably sweet-natured and didn't mean any real harm. He was just a boy with far to much excess energy to be safe for anyone.

Hearing their footsteps approach, Felinus stepped out to block the hall with the full nearly-eight-feet-from-tip-to-tail length of his body. The two second-years crashed into him a second later, sending a wireless radio, a bag full of jellybeans, and a portable wireless set crashing to the newly-washed floor.

Felinus squared his shoulders and flared his nostrils, staring the pair down. Lupin, at least, at the decency to look mildly ashamed of his actions.

"No running in the halls, cubs." Felinus wrinkled his maw, fresh concern gnawing at his gut. Whatever had set Hughes off, he looked...genuinely upset. "Tadpole...what's gotten into you this time? Is something on fire?"

On the floor, the wireless set continued to drone, though its sound was muffled as it lay face-down on the stone.

It hadn't taken Harri long to realize that Linus Hughes was a bloke worth knowing. He reminded her of a friend she had back home and the pair had gotten rather close since the start of term, or well as close as one would expect an over active hyper second year and a gruff feisty first year to be. The fact that he was room mates and good mates with her 'cousin' certainly helped. All that said though she was still getting used to his sudden outbursts.

She had been watching the boys play exploding snap when it all happened and she was practically on Ted's heels as he dashed out. The boys' bigger frames carried them faster down the corridor than her own shorter legs could and by the time she had caught up to them fully they had run into the talking lion teacher (have we mentioned that there's a talking lion, cause really that's so much cooler than most of the magical things she had seen so far)

"The pub exploded!" Harri answered in her deep gravelly voice, "That one over on Charring Cross Road." She had spent several days using it as an entrance to get to Diagon over the summer, whenever her Father allowed the trip to London (which really wasn't as often as she would have liked) but for the life of her couldn't pull the name to mind.

He crashed abruptly into the lord of the lions, king of the corridors,and sweeper of the floors... The mighty Felinus Lionpaw. Linus discovered that he didn't care that Felinus' last name was Woodward. Lionpaw sounded much more hardcore. He felt Ted collide behind him. Francis let out a terrified croak and lept out of Linus' pocket and onto Felinus' great paw.

"Yes! Harri's right!" Linus exclaimed, "The Leaky Cauldron went and BLEW UP. KABOOM. EXPLODED." He pointed towards the wireless that had crashed to the ground, "People are trapped inside and MUGGLES saw too!!!" He looked behind his shoulder and gave his friends an approving nod, "AND, we're going to go save them."

Some of the younger children were making a fuss, which sparked the curiosity of fifth-year Lydie Patil. Sometimes when the kiddies were making a stir, it was like an animal whining before a storm -- they knew something was up. Always wanting to be first on scene, she meandered over to where the babies appeared to be playing at army. Even Felinus was there asking about what happened. Lydie couldn't resist. She picked out the head of the drama. It didn't take long for Linus Hughes to make himself known as a loudmouth, but that was a type of person Lydie could respect (or at least rely on for news).

"What're you talking about?" Lydie walked directly up to the source. She was not much taller than Hughes but she was bigger than him. She looked over at one of the first years who'd piped in. "What d'ya mean?" She'd overheard something about the pub exploding as she walked over. Lydie didn't know which pub or where, but her thoughts instantly jumped to her older brother Jai. He was recently graduated and she knew he liked to hit the pub after work. She didn't blame him, he was still living at home with the 'rents - she'd avoid going home too for a little space, especially if she was of drinking age. Lydie's heart was in her throat. What if something had happened to her brother?

Felinus cocked his fuzzy head, eyes darting from one first year to the next as they spouted dire news. The commotion was starting to draw attention, not just from Gryffindor, but also the Ravenclaw commons at the other end of the hall. Several students who poured out had radios of their own, or were talking about the radio with loud voices and flailing arms.

Careful not to disturb the frog too much, he pawed at the fallen radio set until it flipped speaker-side-up, just in time to hear...


Felinus froze, his paw still raised over the machine. A half-frantic name hissed out of him. "Maiko..."

The school councilor had mentioned the Cauldron at dinner. She was going to...what was it...she was going out for drinks at the Cauldron with a friend, to celebrate Bonfire Night, and then to another friend's house to see their new baby. Had she gotten out before then? And this, was this the reason Silas hadn't been on-air? He often complained, during his rambles, about co-workers dragging him to the pub when they knew he didn't drink...

A deep croak from his raised paw reminded him of where he was and what was going on. Little Hughes continued raving about rushing off to the rescue. Felinus growled at him without thinking. "You're not going anywhere. Any of you!"

He came back to himself a second later, taking in the concerned expressions of the other gathered students. Even Lupin was doing that thing where his eyes got oddly small whenever he was distressed. Felinus cleared his throat.

"Even if you could do something, there wouldn't be any point. We can't get there fast enough." He nudged his paw, urging the frog to jump back into the lap of its owner and raising his voice to draw attention in the crowd. "Everyone just remain calm. That's the best we can do from here. I understand that you may be concerned, but do not attempt to contact your families tonight; the air needs to remain as clear as possible for emergency correspondence." To Lydie Patil, who looked somewhat frantic, he added, "It won't do any good to worry yourself sick. Stay strong."

Now if he could only take his own advice...

"THE LEAKY CAULDRON IS DOOOOOWN!" Linus exclaimed, knowing full well just how far his voice could carry. He was oblivious to Felinus' concern. It was awfully hard to read concern on a lion. But then, the caretaker growled at him. Linus crossed his arms and looked at him affronted  "Excuuuuuse you!" He huffed, his lips curled into a stubborn frown. As awesome as that growl was, it had shut the Gryffindor down-- and not in the way that Felinus would have liked.

Now Linus was certain that for the rest of the evening, he was not going to listen.

"We can get there fast enough!" Linus insisted, "We can take our brooms to Hogsmeade. And then we can floo! We can!" He insisted. "Harry Potter defeated Voldemort when he was a baby. He fought him again when he was younger than we are now, Felinus Catnip Lionpaw!"

Tears streamed down Branwen's soft, lined face.  She hurried through the sleeping castle a lantern levitating after her.  The castle was slowly beginning to stir as the news began to spread.  Branwen had been out in the greenhouses tucking in some rhubarb she was going to try to winter when the news of the first explosion interrupted her gardening programme. 

A stack of duvets lay abandoned in the plot by Greenhouse 12.

The castle needed to be secured immediately. It was the safest place anyone knew of, but it was also a symbol. If someone had dared threaten Diagon Alley it was for it's meaning, not its treasure.  She wiped away tears, but the witch was distressed.  She'd been alive too long to not react with memories.  She headed first for the towers.  It was the fastest way to get a eye on the grounds and to see if anything was lit up in Hogsmeade.

"Felinus!"  The beastly caretaker and a wizard she'd grown fond of was with a knot of noisy students - clearly they'd heard the news. It was Linus Hughes she'd heard screaming.  She wiped her face again, sturdying up.

"Students.  You've heard. Good. Then you can ... help."  She looked at Felinus trying to communicate silently that, even though she didn't know what they had already discussed, that there was no way the students would consent to being sent back to bed. 

She nodded to reassure herself.  "Yes.  There's lots to be done here, isn't there, Mr. Woodward?"

The minute Linus started talking about Harry, Ted went pink. It wasn't the usual sort of pink either, not a rosy blush, though it was in the right places. No, this was neon pink, which faded into fire-engine red and back again. Linus might be fired up, but there was no easier way to make Ted shrink from the heroic limelight than to bring up the deeds of his family. He loved Harry. He just didn't want to be him.

"Linus," Ted hissed, giving his friend a light kick. But Linus was on a role, rambling on about Harry and Voldemort and Felinus Catnip Lionpaw as Teddy's blush got worse, the pink bleeding into the roots of his hair.

He reached out and grabbed Linus's sleeve, giving his a sharp tug and muttering into the wide ear. "Harry Potter would kill me if I left school. Or if I let you leave school. He'd kill me, then he'd bring me back, and then he and Gran would ground me for-ev-er. You don't want that, right?"

Thankfully, Professor Strangely turned up right around then, looking distressed but comfortingly capable. She spoke to the gathered students, eyeing Mr. Woodward the way Aunt 'Mione eyed Uncle Ron during lectures. The lion, who remained as hard to read as ever, cleared his throat as his long tail continued its restless swing.

"Indeed. There is much to do. Like....Like securing the castle. Especially the windows."

This was all happening very fast for Lydie. Nobody was giving the full scoop, and that's what Lydie needed. This story was incomplete, and with her brother's well-being at risk, it was the most important story she'd have to flesh out. "But what do you mean blew up? Who blew it up? Was this just some Guy Fawkes celebration gone wrong?" She looked around and hoped that someone would have all of the answers. Nobody seemed to, but Linus kept yelling on about going to fight.

Before she could yell at Hughes to stop yammering on about things he couldn't even do, Professor Strangely entered the scene looking rather solemn. She then confirmed the news, that the Leaky Cauldron had blown up and this wasn't just some rumor made up by an immature first year. By the way the adults were acting, Lydie could ascertain that this was not just some Guy Fawkes celebration gone wrong. The explosion had been... on purpose.

"When d'ya think we'll be hearing about who was there?" Lydie asked hopefully. She directed the question to everyone, since there wasn't a single person who seemed to know the whole story. Woodward was right, she didn't want to worry herself sick, but it was against Lydie's nature to just stop asking questions. She was endlessly curious, always looking for answers to a wide variety of questions. "Is there anyone in touch with anyone there? Can we send out Owls?" If anything, she'd ask her aunts for the story. If there was some sort of terroristic attack, they'd be obsessively finding out every detail about it.

Branwen nodded, grateful that Felinus had suggested securing the windows.  "Yes. Yes, indeed.  Fasten windows. Check the locks, cast warding spells and Dark Magic detection."

She began to wring her hands.  Lydie Patil's concern was a concern Branwen shared.  "So far we only have word from the WWN, but I have no doubt that Professor McGonagall will be in touch with the Ministry of Magic as soon possible." Branwen was sure the Ministry would always take Hogwarts's owl, no matter the doom facing the countryside. 

But she found herself unsure of how to advice Lydie about sending out owls.  It could be unsafe for owls to be flying into London, too many owls could overwhelm the Ministry and St. Mungo's...

"That's a good idea," she decided after a moment.  "Miss Patel, perhaps you can organize three owls - one to St. Mungo's and the other to the Ministry of Magic and the third to the Daily Prophet requesting information regarding our list of loved ones. You could speak with the others in your house and coordinate with the other three houses and get birds in the air within the hour."

Her statements were really questions.  She didn't know Lydie Patel well enough to know if she'd cope best with this frightening situation if she had a task to do - a task which could be very important.