Wallace and Gromit at Hogwarts

One day while doing a spot of spring cleaning Wallace found a broom at the very back of the broom closet. He took it out and studied it.

"Oddest broom I've ever seen," said Wallace as he studied its highly polished handle and twigs that came together at the ends in a point.

Gromit watched his friend very carefully as he handled the broom.

"Oh, well, I guess we have to make do.", said Wallace. Gromit put his paw on his friend's arm as he poised to sweep with his Nimbus 2000.

"Oh, do you want to sweep, Gromit?" asked Wallace. "That's ever so kind of you, boy." He gladly handed the broom to the dog. Gromit immediately swung a leg over its handle.

"What are you doing, boy?" Wallace chuckled. "Going to take a ride on a broomstick like a wizard?"

Just then Gromit and the broom rose into the air, hovering at the height of Wallace's waist. Wallace looked dumbfounded when he saw that Gromit's back paws were not touching the floor. "You really ARE riding a a broomstick!"

Gromit motioned for the man to get on behind him, and Wallace obliged. "Where are we going?" Wallace asked. "Out into the sky to some dark old castle?"

Gromit looked at his friend for a minute with a look that seemed to say, "You don't know the half of it."

Gromit maneuvered the broom out the front door and high into the air over the neighborhood. Soon they were zooming along in the crisp, clear night sky, silhouetted against a full moon. The wind whipped their ears, Gromit's flying behind him and Wallace's flapping.

"Whee, Gromit! This is FUN!" laughed Wallace.

They flew most of the night until finally as the sun started to peek over the horizon they saw the outline of a very large, very old fairytale castle situated in the mountains. Gromit took them circling around the castle and the grounds and finally brought them down in front of the huge, oaken front doors.

Wallace and Gromit dismounted. At that point Gromit did something Wallace had never seen him do before. He changed shapes right in front of his eyes. Pretty soon he was looking at a smiling, ginger-haired man with brown eyes.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Wallace," said Gromit.

"But-but Gromit, you're-you're a man!" cried Wallace.

"Actually I'm a wizard," replied Gromit. "I'm a special kind of wizard who can turn into an animal." Seeing Wallace's pole-axed expression he asked, "Do you want to go inside?"

"Do I?" said Wallace. "I've never seen a wizard castle before."

Inside Wallace kept looking around in delighted amazement. "This is the most fantastic place I've ever seen!" he exclaimed.

"Well thank you," answered one of the portraits on the wall.

"Oh, hello there," said Wallace, just noticing the talking painting as he passed.

Professor Flitwick was waiting to greet them.

"Gromit! It's been years since I saw you last! How's my star student?" he asked.

"Just fine, just fine," said Gromit. "Professor Flitwick, this is my friend Wallace. Wallace, this is Professor Flitwick."

"Pleased to meet you, " said Flitwick. Gromit owled me that he was staying with a kind master these days."

"Oh, that's nice," said Wallace, obviously too overcome with what he was absorbing to think of a better answer. "Wait a minute, you called him your star student?"

"The best student I ever had," said Flitwick. "And I've had some really good ones over the years."

"This is a school of witchcraft and wizardry," said Gromit.

"Gromit, you went to SCHOOL?" asked Wallace.

"Of course. How did you think I knew how to read?" replied Gromit.

Wallace kept muttering "amazing", "wonderful," and "fantastic" under his breath as Gromit showed him around. He saw students performing magic in the classrooms.

"You can do that?" he asked Gromit.

Gromit smiled. He took a wand out of his robes and said, "accio cheese!" A large block of Stilton came floating down the hall towards them from the direction of the kitchens.

"My goodness, Gromit!" said Wallace as he took out his knife and cut himself a slice. "That's a very useful talent. Why didn't you use that at home?"

"We're not supposed to use magic around Muggles," said Gromit. At the puzzled expression on his friend's face he explained, "Non-magical people."

Dumbledore came down the hall towards them. "I heard we had a visitor. Gromit! How are you? It's been forever since I saw you last!"

Gromit and Dumbledore hugged. Gromit introduced his friend Wallace. Dumbledore went off with Wallace to show him around, and Flitwick and Gromit walked together.

"Why did you stay in the Muggle world all these years?" asked Flitwick curiously.

"Because I enjoy being a dog, and Wallace, despite his oddness, was always a good master." Gromit added, "Besides, I was afraid of what might happen to him if I left him."

"Have you been keeping up with your magic?" asked Flitwick.

"Of course. I've really needed it since I met Wallace. All those inventions of his-he would have been so disappointed if they hadn't worked."

"Oh, yes, you wrote me about them. What happened when you went to the moon?" asked Flitwick.

"I was exhausted when we got back. It took some seriously powerful charms to keep that contraption of a rocket ship from exploding. I also had to transfigure the moon's surface to cheese so Wallace wouldn't be disappointed. He's as sweet as he can be, but once he gets an idea in his head, there's no turning back."

"I read about when you caught Feathers McGraw," remarked Flitwick.

"It's amazing that little git even dared coming to our house. He really thought he could drive me away! What an idiot. It serves him right being locked up in a zoo without the ability to turn back into a human."

"Are you going back with him?" asked Flitwick.

"No, I was thinking about trying to get him to move to Hogsmeade," said Gromit, "although I'm not sure how he's going to react to all this.

Just then they heard, "Whee!" Dumbledore had given Wallace a fizzing Whizbee, and he was floating merrily along.

"I love this place!" exclaimed Wallace.

"I think you may not have any problem," said Flitwick, smiling.

Later that day they went to Hogsmeade to the Three Broomsticks.

"Lovely stuff, this butterbeer," said Wallace, "Goes very well with cheese."

It was definitely different, having people stare at Wallace while paying no attention to the dog sitting at the table with him drinking butterbeer and reading the Daily Prophet.

"I feel a little out of place," said Wallace, looking around.

Gromit put his paw over his mouth to indicate that Wallace should stop talking.

"So, have you found a place?" asked Wallace. Gromit put down the newspaper and pointed at a listing in the Classifieds.

"Nice semidetached, three bedrooms, two baths, reasonable rates. Gromit, how are we going to pay for this? It's asking for something called Galleons."

Gromit looked at his master as if to say there was nothing to fear. He took out a bag full of gold coins.

"Gold! You never told me you had gold, Gromit!"

"I couldn't exactly, could I?" thought Gromit.

That night they took a room at the tavern. The next morning Wallace and Gromit, this time in human form, went to look at the house.

They took the grand tour of the house with their witch real estate agent, who praised its coziness to the skies. "And here we have a nice big fireplace for flooing," she was saying.

Wallace was about to ask a question when human Gromit put a hand over his mouth.

"And it's 25 galleons a month?" asked Gromit. "We'll take it."

"There's just one...stipulation," said the agent. She looked at Wallace and said, "No Muggles."

Wallace and Gromit both looked dejected. Gromit thanked the disgruntled lady for her time, and they left.

Every house they went to had the same rule, no Muggles. They spent the entire day looking at progressively worse and worse places until they gave up.

Wallace petted Gromit, now a dog again, in a loving, soothing way. "I'm sorry, Gromit. I know you were looking forward to living here again. It would have been nice living around all this magic and wonder. Still, it's not like we have no place to go. There's still our house in London," he said.

Just then they noticed a sign on a lamppost. "Room for Rent, Ottery St. Catchpole. Owl Arthur Weasley at The Burrow.."

Gromit turned back into a human and led Wallace to the post office where he scribbled a note and attached it to one of the post owl's legs. Later that day they got a reply. Arthur and Molly would be glad to meet with them that evening.

That evening they flooed to the Weasley residence. Since Wallace had never flooed before Gromit took his hand and pulled him into the fireplace before throwing down the powder and saying, "The Burrow."

Soon they were both spinning as fireplaces went flying by them.

Wallace called out, "GROOOMMMMITTTT!"

They found themselves in the Weasley's huge fireplace with a very happy looking redheaded couple there to meet them.

"You must be Wallace and Gromit!" said Mr. Weasley, reaching out his hand to shake theirs. "And Gromit here tells me you're a Muggle!"

"Well, yes," said Wallace.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to meet you. You must tell me all about what it's like living in your world."

"Arthur, dear, they've just arrived," said Molly. "Come, dears, and have some tea. All our children have graduated from school and have moved out." She sniffed back a tear. "As a result we have rooms to rent. We're looking forward to the company. Will you be renting separate rooms?"

"No ma'am. I'll be staying with Wallace. I'm his pet dog," said Gromit.

"An animagus!" said Mr. Weasley excitedly. "So, you've been his pet for a long time? In the Muggle world? What's it like living there?"

A few months later Wallace and Gromit had settled into their new home. Every evening Wallace and Arthur would talk for hours about Muggles and Gromit's inventions. Arthur was delighted to look at Wallace's plans and even to assist him in building some of his contraptions. Molly sat around after supper petting Gromit the dog. Life was good.