Imps in the Study

I have just returned home from a ten day foray into southwestern Ontario, where I accompanied an American and a Canadian colleague to track down and relocate a rogue pack of hodags. Vicious creatures, really. Although they never grow much over knee-high, this pack was particularly troublesome for us. Agent Clive Quilligan, of the Magical Creature Records, Education, Enforcement, and Protection Service (MCREEPS)--the American equivalent of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures--was particularly informative regarding the unique challenges of North American field work, and I look forward to working with him in the future. Trooper Maxwell Weatherborough of the Canadian Ministry of Magic "hooked me up" (as they say here) with a reliable source of drinkable beer. Couldn't ask for two better chaps with which to round up dangerous creatures in the North American wilderness.

Upon my return, I found that the imps I "rescued" have begun to feel at home in their new environment. I arrived late in the morning by broom, under cover of my most powerful disillusionment charm of course, so I was surprised at first to hear such a ruckus coming from inside my study. Thinking there might be an intruder, I drew my wand and swept the house in deliberate fashion, clearing each room in turn. Finally I reached the study, only to find my three little blighters ransacking my son's desk. After a brief but heated battle, I left them to it and put the beer in the fridge.