Page 22 of Monster's Baby

“No!”I said again, weakly.I landed outside the cloud of smoke, and magically fanned it, lifting the smoke until I could see the professor’s chair, sitting empty between his colleagues.

No, not empty.

I stepped closer to see over the edge of the table.Lying swaddled in his clothes, was an infant.

“Professor?”I gasped.

CHAPTER6

It waslike all my senses were focused on the baby, and then suddenly the wider world returned.Screams, shouts, people running...The professors on either side of Professor Reynolds leapt to their feet and ran away from him.

The baby held my eyes for a moment and then scrunched up his face and started to cry.

“Oh, no no no, it’s okay,” I said, circling the end of the table to get closer to him.

I vaguely heard Aiden calling my name, but he’d find me soon enough.

I scooped up the baby, saw he was naked, and put him back in his robes.

“Umm...”I wrapped him in his clothing and picked him up again, hugging him and rubbing his back.“I know it’s really loud right now.But it’ll calm down soon, I promise.”I bounced a little, hoping that was something he’d like.

The professors were keeping their distance from the baby, and I glared at them.“How are you going to help Professor Reynolds from over there?”I said, but my words barely reached my own ears, let alone theirs, over the cacophony.

The baby’s cries got louder.I was getting frazzled myself, the combination of noise and his crying grating on my brain.

“Here, let me,” Aiden said.“You need to fix this, and you can’t do that if you’re trying to calm him down.”

My boyfriend, who had only recently told me that he knew nothing about babies, competently plucked the professor from me and cradled him in one big arm.With the other, he produced a toy manducare from thin air and gave it to the baby.

Professor Reynolds took it mid-cry, hiccupped, and promptly fell asleep.

Aiden looked up at me.“I put a sleep spell on it,” he admitted sheepishly.

I laughed.“Good thinking.”

Professor Akhtar pushed through the other teachers and joined us.“Sorry, I was at the opposite end.What happened?”

I explained, his face darkening like a thundercloud as I continued.

“Where is Emma now?”he asked.

I shrugged.“I don’t know.We need to get all the students out of here and back to their rooms.Emma should be easier to find then.”

He nodded.“Something went very, very wrong with her spell.”He winced.“Understatement of the millennia.”

I glanced at the professor nestled in Aiden’s arm and clutching the stuffed manducare.“No kidding.”

Professor Akhtar nodded again, and went to organize the other teachers.Within fifteen minutes, the cafeteria had emptied of everyone except the head teachers, deans, and the headmistress.

I noticed that there was still a wide berth given to us.

Headmistress Blackthorn cleared her throat.“Unfortunately, the best person to dissect this spell was the professor himself.Until we can discover what, exactly, has been done to Professor Reynolds, someone will need to look after him.May I have a volunteer?”

The professors all grumbled to themselves, but nobody raised their hand.

“If you forgive me, Headmistress, but if you want us to find a cure, we can’t be bogged down with looking after a baby,” Professor Wainwright said.

I wanted to roll my eyes at the Charms and Potions professor.

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