The Cat Who Knew How to Unveil A Mystery

Professor Blaise Zabini, a short, slender man in his thirties, with olive-colored skin, black curly hair and black eyes, was walking along a little winding street lined by cute German half-timbered houses. His cat, a little slender gold-red tom with leopard spots, tasseled tail, large ears, long whiskers and enormous green eyes, was strolling alongside Blaise. Mountain peaks glowed in distance.

'Nice, isn't it, Macavity?' Blaise asked. 'And to think this wonder is in the Venezuelan Alps! This place, La Colonia Tovar, was founded by a party of German immigrants from Schwarzwald in the 19^th century and named after an influential Venezuelan, Don Martin Tovar, who donated these lands to the immigrants. This place is called the Venezuelan Switzerland since then.'

'Yaow!' Macavity said.

Blaise turned into a side street and went to a house bearing a sign that said, 'Drei Tannen' and had three fir-trees painted under the words, for this was what the words meant. Blaise entered the house. He was now in a quaint dining room with large beams along the ceiling, wooden tables and chairs, a large fireplace, a wooden counter and many large tankards on the walls. A buxom middle-aged blonde behind the counter smiled to Blaise and said:

'Good afternoon, Professor.'

'Good afternoon, Frau Reichenbach.' Blaise smiled in answer.

'What will you have?'

'A bit of your excellent Schwarzwald Kirschtorte, please,' Blaise said.

He sat down at one of the tables, and soon Frau Reichenbach brought him the Black Forest Cherry Pie he asked for. Blaise started to savor it. Suddenly a door at one end of the dining room opened, and a very young and frightened maid ran in and cried:

'Frau Reichenbach, Señor Diaz's vanished! I found a note on his bed; it says a Lethifold's got him!'

'Mein Gott!' Frau Reichenbach said.

Blaise looked at them attentively and said:

'Please let me look, Frau Reichenbach. I'm a specialist in magical creatures, as you know.'

'I'd be much obliged to you, Professor,' Frau Reichenbach firmly said. 'Gretchen, see Professor Zabini to the room.'

Blaise rose and followed the maid. Macavity followed him with loud yaows.

Gretchen escorted Blaise along a wood-paneled passage and up an old wooden staircase to a passage on the first floor and then to a room opening into the passage. Blaise looked the room over - comfortable armchairs, a large fireplace, a table, a four-poster and a dressing-table by the bed. On the dressing-table was a note. Blaise picked it up. It said, 'I'm suffocating! It's a Lethifold...'

Blaise looked the room over and said:

'This Señor Diaz - was he well-to-do?'

'Oh yes, he was, Professor!' Gretchen said.

'H'm,' Blaise said and examined the bed thoroughly. Macavity leapt on the bed and played with a coarse hair. Blaise picked it up and looked at it. Then he said to Gretchen:

'I want to speak with Frau Reichenbach now.'

Gretchen escorted him back. Blaise looked Frau Reichenbach in the eyes.

'Frau Reichenbach, I must now Disapparate from this place with my cat. I will return soon. And you don't be worried - monsters aren't threatening your guests.'

Blaise went back to Señor Diaz's room. He took Macavity in his hands. Then he felt dizziness, and the next moment he was in a little shabby room. A man was sitting on the bed.

'Señor Diaz?' Blaise asked. The man nodded.

Blaise pointed his wand at Diaz and said, 'Stupefy!' Diaz fell unconscious. Blaise took Diaz and Apparated to the dining room of The Three Firs.

'Call the Aurors, Frau Reichenbach,' Blaise said. 'I expect Señor Diaz here is a swindler. Macavity helped me to Apparate to the place where he flitted.'

'But how you knew, Professor?' Frau Reichenbach stared.

'You see, Frau Reichenbach, I found this hair,' Blaise said. 'It's dog hair, and there were no traces of a dog living in that room. In my room you'll find Macavity's toys and bowl, and cat hair all around the place. So Diaz had to be a dog Animagus who Disapparated from his room in his dog form. As Lord Peter Wimsey said, when you know how you know who and why.'

Frau Reichenbach looked at Blaise in admiration.