Fic: Ye Olde Curse [GEN]

[jade_dragoness]

Title: Ye Olde Curse
Author: J.D. aka
jade_dragoness
Summary: Mishaps happen when you have an apprentice under the roof.
Pairing: None/GEN
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None; but set pre-Turn Coat
Warnings: None
Word Count: 791
Disclaimer: Never ever will be mine. *sadness*
A/N: Written for
trope_bingo prompt: wingfic, under amnesty.
Feedback is always welcomed.
*-*-*-*
AO3
*-*-*-*

The thing about having an apprentice that older wizards don't warn you about, is that when they make mistakes -even the sort that aren't dangerous or involves falling under the Doom- they can get spectacularly messy. Okay, so older wizards probably expected you to figured it out. After all, if you were wizard than it was a pretty good chance you'd once been one of those messy, chaos bringing apprentices. Hmm, I wonder if that cliched curse that is supposed to be passed on to offspring from exasperated parents works from master to apprentice.

'May you have a student that's just like you.'

I wouldn't put it past Eb. He'd probably would've gotten a kick out of the idea.

I rubbed at my mouth, resisting a smile through sheer force of will that wasn't helped out at all by Molly's widely horrified eyes. Or the splatter of purple glitter-goo that was covering her face, clothes, hair and the rest of my lab. Fortunately, nothing I sensed in the lingering magic of the goop triggered my instincts for danger. It was just messy and colorful. Hopefully, it wouldn't stain, which was just as well since the blast zone had including Bob.

What I thought was a pile of gray blankets had stirred as Mouse emerged, wagging his tail.

Thomas who'd followed me down to my lab when we'd heard the boom, gasped at the sight of him.

Stars and Stones, what had Molly done to my dog?

Mouse had wings! Freaking huge bat-like wings the color of ashes. Fortunately, he had them pulled close to his body, because those wings looked like they could easily span twenty feet or more, easily. They were scaled to fit Mouse and he wasn't a small breed dog, (he could play the stunt-double for a woolly mammoth). The wings were folded down until it looked like he was covered in a dark gray leathery coat that dragged on the floor, if you ignored the way the 'coat' was growing out of his furry shoulders.

Yet he looked okay. Mouse kept wagging his tail and his jaw was dropped into a doggie grin so whatever had caused the wings clearly weren't worrying him. Which made me relax, a little.

I looked back to Molly. “What. Did. You. Do,” I intoned, in my most serious, disapproving voice. The sort that I always imagined the Sorcerer would've used when he'd discovered his own apprentice's shenanigans.

Mickey's -I mean- Molly's expression was stricken.

I had to bite down on my tongue to hold back my laughter. Thomas choked, his shoulders shaking as he tried to hold in his own amusement. I bit hard down harder.

Molly's cheeks turned scarlet as she flushed with embarrassment. “I can fix Mouse. I can clean this up! I swear!” she said as she scrambled past us to get into the apartment above, and to the cleaning supplies that I kept near a cabinet in the small kitchenette.

As soon as she was out of sight, I grinned. Putting my hands on my hips, I faced Mouse. “There's a story behind why you ended up with those, isn't there, boy?” Because you couldn't make me believe that Mouse couldn't have avoided whatever spell or potion Molly had concocted that had made those wings appear.

I knelt before my dog, sliding my finger through the leonine ruff around his neck. I scratched, while Thomas touched one of the closest wing gently. Mouse huffed.

“Let me guess, she was trying to figure out how to fly with magic?” At least she hadn't tried to enchant a broomstick, so that's something. “Can you make those go away?” I asked quietly. In answer, Mouse just leaned into my hands and sighed with bliss. I took that as a yes. “Good.” Then a thought struck me. “You know what those wings make you, boy?”

Mouse new wings perked up as he titled his head at me in a mute questioning gesture.

“You're a Mouse with wings...that makes you a dun nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh Bat-Dog!”

Thomas groaned in piteous pain. “Empty night, that's terrible, Harry. I can't believe that just came out of your mouth.” To Mouse he said, “You know that he's not going to stop with the bat jokes. If it gets to be too much and you need to escape the puns, you're welcome to stay with me until he stops.”

Mouse heaved a deep doggie sigh, dropped his head and put his large head down on his paws, letting loose a long suffering huff.

I started humming the old Batman theme song, at least until Molly clattered down with the cleaning supplies and I went back to wearing my best stern teacher expression.

End

a/n: Yeah, I went a long way to make a short and terrible joke, heh. Dun nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh Bat-Dog!