The Ravenclaw girl's nose finally returned safely to her face-but because it had been away from her face for too long, her left nostril had become sluggish and fragile.
Now, only a tiny, tiny amount of air could pass through it, and a blast of cold wind would give her a nosebleed.
"This is only temporary. It will recover completely in a week."
Madam Pomfrey pressed a mask over the girl's face and said sternly,
"I hope losing your nose has taught you a lesson, Miss Turpin."
"Madam, I'll remember-"
The girl, whose full name was Lisa Turpin, said with lingering fear,
"Not being able to breathe through my nose felt awful. A hundred times worse than popping a stubborn pimple-oh my goodness, if all I had left on my face were pimples, would I have to breathe through them?"
The terrible thought made her unconsciously tighten her grip. The Compass Owl in her hand widened its eyes and gave a hoot. Lisa immediately loosened her grip, then apologetically rubbed it all over from head to toe, but the Compass Owl had now fallen completely silent.
"Professor Brian, why has your owl suddenly stopped hooting?"
Lisa asked Brian forlornly as he supervised the owl's "atonement" nearby,
"It likes my nose, but it doesn't seem to like my hands much."
With his ears no longer smoking, Brian said cheerfully, "As you can see, it's a rather special owl-its body isn't ticklish, but its beak is extremely ticklish. Try scratching it here."
He pointed to the bend on the right side of the little creature's beak.
The Compass Owl gave Brian a shocked look. Then Lisa, having discovered the trick, scratched it until it hooted nonstop-it was easy to foresee that it would be doing plenty of hooting like this over the