God-Mothering 101

Finish That Thought #28 (Judge's Comments)
Prompt:  Nothing good ever happens after midnight.  
Special Challenge:  Incorporate at least three small, furry animals (Please don't kill them)


“Nothing good ever happens after midnight,” Professor Puffly stated while tapping the chalkboard with his pointer.  “Remember that when you prepare your spells.”  He waddled to the other side of his desk and leaned against it, crossing his paws.  “Who wants to give me an example?”

Hetty peeked across the classroom and made eye contact with her best friend, Pearlie.  They shared a private giggle.   Would anyone dare mention the professor’s calamity that turned him into a hamster?

“Cinderella,” one of the students piped up.  “Midnight is when she lost everything.”

“But without midnight, she would never have piqued the prince’s interest!” Pearlie blurted. “I’d say that’s gaining something.  I mean, the wedding happened after midnight, right?”  She was the smartest pixie in class.  Hetty was sometimes jealous of how well she could debate anybody--- including the professors! 

“That is a point, Miss Pearlina,” Professor Puffly nodded.  “But that has to do more with how they handled things, not the spell itself.  Anyone else?”

“Sleeping beauty?  Didn’t her spinning wheel have something to do with midnight?”

“Scrooge was visited by three spirits after midnight,” another student volunteered.  “He was doomed to an afterlife of chains!”

“But he changed for the better because of that visit!” Pearlie retorted.

Professor Puffly’s nose twitched.  Clearly this lesson wasn’t going as planned.  The students whispered among themselves as they tried to think of examples.  Hetty wracked her brain for another spell that involved midnight.  There had to be lots!  It was cliché after all.  It couldn’t be cliché unless it was overused.  Nothing came to mind, however.  None except...

In the back of the room, William raised his paw tentatively, “Pardon me, Professor, but I can think of one.” 

The room hushed and Professor Puffly called on him in surprise.  William hardly ever paid attention in class, but that was to be expected.  He was the only woodchuck in the pixie-only course God-Mothering 101 and administration had yet to look at his transfer request.

William glanced nervously back and forth and gulped.  “You and Principal Fennysticks put spells on each other that changed you both into animals.  You couldn’t reverse it before it became permanent...at midnight.”

Even Pearlie couldn’t refute that one.  It was a lot worse being a chubby hamster than an adorable chinchilla.