Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Pest Problems ❯ One-Shot

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. However, I do own Henrietta Dooley.

 

Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.

 

“He's gone!”

 

“Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day,” said Ron.

 

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

 

Henrietta Dooley thought that working for Honeyduke's owl order catalogue was too good to be true. The pay was great, the work seemed easy enough, and it would give her the opportunity to eat candy until she felt sick. However, no matter how suspicious it seemed, she could find no logical reason to not accept the position. Therefore, she took the job double-checking the product photos, and all was well, at least for a while.

 

It was also part of her job (strange as it seemed, at first) to deal with the various pests that tried to infiltrate the office. When her co-workers warned her about stressing herself with the duty, she'd scoffed. Rats and insects were no problem. She had cast a simple pest-repelling charm and never saw the creatures inside again. She didn't realize that it was an entirely different kind of pest that had caused her predecessor's long-term stay in St. Mungo's.

 

This was how she found herself, for the fifth time in a month, standing in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. “It's happened again,” she complained, heatedly glaring at the stack of photographs that had been plaguing her since she started her job.

 

“So I see.” Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement. Henrietta felt like throwing his precious lemon drops at him, just to make his expression go away.

 

“I don't care if they leave their frames, but your pictures have to stop eating ours. It's bad for business. How are we supposed to sell our products if the customers can only see you stuffing your face?” she stated flatly. They'd had this conversation many times before.

 

The headmaster nodded solemnly, but he was still clearly considering this as entertainment. “Unfortunately, all wizarding photographs are connected. Perhaps if you tried it the muggle way?”

 

“We'd lose half our customers, and you know it. Maybe you could simply control yourself?”

 

“As I've said before, I couldn't possibly have an effect on my photographic selves. It simply doesn't work that way.” He paused a moment to examine the pictures. “Ah, see now? I've left. I never did like to spoil my appetite for dinner.” Dumbledore gave her a rather large smile. She just glared and snatched the photographs back. Henrietta stood and stomped her way to the floo. She was going to find a Dumbledore repellant, if it was the last thing she did.

 

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