Friendship Puffs: The Friendship Puffs Meet Grumpy Puff

It was a bright and cheerful Summer day and Sunshine Puff and Lucky Puff were climbing trees in the park when they spotted a completely new puff! His fur was dark purple and he was scowling at them as they screamed and laughed and ran around.

"What's the matter?" asked Lucky Puff at the same time as Sunshine Puff asked for the mystery puff's name.

"I'm Grumpy Puff," he said. "And you're much too loud as you play. Your yelling hurts my ears. Could you please keep it down?"

Sunshine Puff loved making people happy and so he nodded and tried his best. But no matter how quiet they tried to be, Grumpy Puff would always come to complain that they were too loud and they were hurting his ears.

Eventually, Lucky Puff decided to try something different. He invited Grumpy Puff to play with them, but Grumpy Puff just shook his head.

"I don't like trees," he said. "They have sap that leaves my paw all sticky and I'm scared of the bugs that might nest there."

"We could play something else," Lucky Puff said. "What about playing catch?"

"I don't like ball games," Grumpy Puff replied. "I don't like the thought that someone might confuse the ball for me and throw me around or whack me."

And so it went. To every suggestion Sunshine Puff and Lucky Puff could come up with, Grumpy Puff found a reason he didn't like it. Eventually, Sunshine Puff and Lucky Puff returned home, looking dejected.

"What's the matter with you lot?" asked Braveheart Puff, on seeing their sad faces. And Sunshine Puff and Lucky Puff told the story of Grumpy Puff who didn't like yelling or balls or trees or anything at all, and who was never, ever happy.

"I have an idea," said Braveheart Puff when he finished hearing the story. "We should use a cheering charm on him! I can cast it with my wand and that will make him happy again."

Sunshine Puff and Lucky Puff nodded enthusiastically. This was a great idea!

They were running back to the park when Mama Puff spotted them and told them off for running with wands. "You'll hurt yourselves," she said. "Where are you going?"

And so Sunshine Puff and Lucky Puff and Braveheart Puff explained about Grumpy Puff and their plan to use a Cheering Charm on him. They thought Mama Puff would be excited like them, but when they finished talking they saw she was wearing a scowl just as scary as that of Grumpy Puff himself.

"You can't change someone's mood with magic without their permission, even when they're doing something you don't like," she told them. "That's wrong. Can you imagine how you would feel, Braveheart Puff, if I cast a Coward Charm on you that made you feel scared when you wanted to feel brave?"

Braveheart Puff hung his head. He wouldn't like that at all.

"But then what can we do?" he asked Mama Puff. "If Grumpy Puff isn't happy, we can't play in the park, and nothing makes him happy."

"Have you tried asking him what he likes?" asked Mama Puff. The little Puffs looked at each other. They had not.

So off they went to the park, where they asked Grumpy Puff what he liked doing, and he told them he liked reading and showed them his favourite books, and they spent a quiet evening reading together and eating Mama Puff's best strawberry tart.