Wait. Who Are You??
7 July 2025
Ottery St. Catchpole
Colin enjoyed Devonshire. It wasn't too far from the sea and mostly it wasn't terribly crowded. It wasn't quite as nice as the desolation of home, though, where one could run for miles through the Highlands and never see another person. Or wolf. And that, apparently, was the whole point of Colin and Liam being here. After what happened last year up at Wolf Rock, it seems that Ma and Da decided to send the twins to live with their older sister Aoife for a couple months. Perhaps they thought the change of pace would cool the twins down a bit?
Aoife was actually a really cool girl. Well, technically a young woman. At barely twenty-three, Colin reckoned that she wasn't quite as ancient as ancient as Andromeda and therefore was under the threshold of being --- technically --- old. Colin smirked. Andromeda was twenty-six.
Colin found himself walking through something of a garden park not far from the village. He remembered he was here last year for the meeting of Lear's Army. He found it really quite strange, the terse flurry of notes he had received from Jacob. He seemed to be very agitated about something. Not that the two were close personal friends or anything.
Hey I need something done, I've been waiting a while, and I need to get it done soon.
That was the first note.
Colin had been put in charge of Keeping the Rolls. Twas a scrap of old parchment with everyone's name on it. Just like Dumbledore's Army of old. Jacob had given him the task of updating the list, and in typical Jacob fashion, he wanted it done last week. Colin rolled his eyes. "Should've written me last week, mate," he whispered.
I'll be expecting that new list soon for Lear's Army by next week on Thursday, so you better be quick. I need to update it with the new students.
Colin needed to think.
He found a spot under a spreading oak tree. A wooden bench. Perfect! He hopped up onto the thick wood and crouched down. He ran his fingers through his tangled hair as he worked himself into something approaching a seated posture. Jacob was on odd fellow. Colin leaned back into the backrest, draping his long arms along its length. What was odder still were two interesting facts. First, Jacob's last note had been most cryptic. He'd gotten it at the end of July, expecting to meet again for Lear's Army. Convenient in that he wouldn't have to make a special trip to Ottery St. Catchpole, as he'd be staying nearby anyway.
It's fine, they win. I don't expect to be an Auror any time soon. Not returning. Carry on.
What the heck was that all about? Colin really didn't know much about Jacob or what drove him on. There were hints dropped. Half mad mutterings of an older student who likely spent too much time breathing in potions fumes or whatever. There was always something urgent about him. Something about a wedding. Something about a murder. Colin never paid any attention to that stuff. The usual Pureblood drama, he reckoned.
But when he got to Aoife's place and settled in, he and Liam decided to got on walkabout. They passed by the Harman's residence, only to find it vacant! It had seemed to the twins that the final note was some last moment missive to tell them that he wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts and that they should continue with Lear's Army without them. Colin mulled these things over in his mind. Like as not, he'd be receiving a note from Kim Aoki that he'd be taking over the club's leadership. Colin shook his head. He sometimes wondered how Kim and Bailey did it. They seemed to be involved in just about every club at Hogwarts! Certainly all the ones the twins had been in, and many more besides!
It struck Colin that Ottery St. Catchpole was also home, or former home, to a few Hogwarts kids. He let the eyes of his heart wander over past memories. The only kid he knew at all well from here was Jarael. Colin smiled as the dappled sunlight danced on the grass. He never did know where exactly she lived. After she disappeared, he never heard from her. And he never did see her again in all the times he'd been down here. He closed his eyes, still smiling at the memories. Eleven year old Colin had been madly in love with the Ravenclaw girl!
And now there was Emmi! Colin's heart leapt! Those first inklings of love, he now knew, bore no comparison. Aye, those old feelings were surely love, after a fashion. But his feelings for Emily ran much deeper. He thought back to their long talk down by the lake. He longed to tell her plainly how he felt! He missed staring into her beautiful hazel eyes. Eyes of Sky! Out of all the girls he ever fancied, crushed on, gazed at in class, daydreamed about in class, or had snogged in some disused classroom, the lake, the dungeons, the Potions classroom, or anywhere else; Eyes of Sky was the girl his heart was set upon! It was totally correct to say that Colin loved girls! But what was really true was that his heart belonged to only one. And she was his Eyes of Sky!
Colin sighed.
"Emmi!" he whispered softly.
WHUMMPPP!!
Something landed on Colin's lap!
Hands laced themselves through his hair!
Lips locked to his and the kiss was long and ardent!
CAILEAN! CAILEAN McCOIRE!! Wake up! This isn't a dream about Emily! Honestly!
"NGNGNG!!??"
A voice whispered: "Who, or rather what, is an emmy?"
Colin's eyes opened. A figure was straddling him on the bench. The Sun was in his eyes and he couldn't see the person's face clearly. Whoever it was didn't smell right! She certainly wasn't his Emmi! A bright smile greeted his vision.
"Colin McCoire! Oh, I missed you so much! I was hoping you'd come back!" She leaned in for another snog. The voice was that of a girl. She scootched in close and, hands on his shoulders, rested her weight on him. He was pinned. Who the heck...!?
"I---!"
Strands of red hair flowed down between them and her eyes sparkled. Colin blinked. "Don't you miss me? You never wrote back to me!" She thumped his chest.
"But---!"
Colin wracked his brain for any memory of who this girl was! She looked vaguely familiar, like someone he'd met before but could not place a name to. She smiled at him, searched his eyes. He stared back. She poked his chest with her finger. "I turn seventeen this December, Colin; and I know you turn sixteen next April, and you know what that means, right?"
"Um! Wh---!?"
The laughed and wiggled happily. Recognition came slowly, but she flung a real bombarda before he could sort it all out in his head. "Silly boy! That means you and me can get finally get married! Just like we talked about last summer! Aren't you excited Colin?" Colin's eyes widened. Did this girl just say the M-word!? No, not that M-word! Colin shook his head, trying to clear his mind. It didn't work this time!
"I- Wait. Who are you??" he blurted out. The girl fell silent. Twas but the calm before the storm.
@Emily Shephard || @Scout Fu-Hai because you'll get a kick out of this! | @AngelFyre McCubbin
Keep your mind in hell; and don't despair.
Cursa McCoire
Rigel McCoire
Wait. Who Are You??
THAMPP!!!
"HRRRK!"
The pain was immediate and intense! Colin's eyes widened and his body collapsed as the feelings of nausea and pain surged through his entire body and sloshed around in his brain.
THAMPP!!! THAMPP!!!
Colin moaned softly. The strange girl, said nothing. Somewhere inside Colin's pain addled mind, he saw only anger in her eyes. What had he said? Did he --- do --- something to tick her off? The bright eyes that sparkled with delight mere moments before now burned like embers off of Satan's throne itself. Colin felt like he wanted to throw up. The pain radiating from where it hurts most broke over him in wave after wave. The last few minutes of Colin's life replayed like one of those sketchy weedy yoyo things the Muggles had in the hand boxes. I should totally know who this girl is, right? he thought.
And then the storm broke.
No gentle summer shower this either. Colin saw her eyes narrow even more. She raised her hand, the fingers balling into a fist. Colin watched stupidly. He was in no fit state to fight back or even defend himself.
THACKK!!!
The girl's fist drove straight into his throat! The next hit struck his nose with a harsh crack! And then she began flailing! Knees, fists, elbows! Every part of her body that she could hit with she unleashed on Colin! And still she remained silent, except for the occasional grunt of effort. Colin raised his arms to tray and fend off her attacks! He felt a sharp pain over his right eye and blood began flowing. Now blinded, and still hacking from the throat strike, Colin managed to get in a kick to her stomach. That threw the girl off for a moment, but did nothing to stop her rage!
Colin tried to stand up so could get into the fight. He landed another kick, but the girl threw herself into the attack, grabbed his shirt and flung Colin down to the ground! His head struck the thick wood of the park bench. Her shoes landed several more extremely tactical kicks! Colin tried to curl up into a fetal ball, but that didn't stop her. She only paused for a moment. Colin whimpered softly, trying to reach for his wand.
Colin rolled over, aiming his wand at the barking mad girl! She'd had the same idea! Her wand was out too, and the spells came flying! In a brief moment of clarity, Colin realised something his sister Aoife had been teaching him: spell flinging never pays. Most of the girl's spells never even hit him! All the worst ones missed anyway! Colin did catch the girl's slug vomiting curse, though. Thankfully, the boy was very used to the effects of that spell by now! Through the pain, Colin calmed himself. It wouldn't do to be utterly defeated by this wicked witch of the west when she could only barely control her magic!
Colin aimed Naur-an-Edraith.
He focussed.
"Incen-KOFF!-dio," he said hoarsely. His wand fizzled and arcked a wicked blue spark of energy around his fingers! "OW!" He cleared his throat as he dodged the girl's weakly cast flipendo.
"Incendio duo!" he cast, aiming low. The fire zinged from Colin's wand and set her leggings on fire! The girl screamed, trying to put out the fire!
"Jaculor!" he cast with greater confidence. A good sized round river rock flung itself straight into her chest! The girl fell back, her face now a livid shade of red. Colin wiped the blood from his eye again, stood firm and took aim. "Calvor-KOFF!-io!" he tried again. "Drat!" He cleared his throat again as the spell failed utterly.
"Tell me who ye are, ye canna jist KOFF! canna jist jump on a lad, kiss him and then try beatin sax kinds a shite out of him!" Colin wiped his bleeding nose on his sleeve. "Ach, Ma'll skin me alive fer another shirt ripped to shreds," he muttered. Still the girl didn't answer. She only roared as she tried launching herself into another attack! Colin didn't waste any time! "Piscifors!" he cried, aiming straight at her chest!
Colin actually surprised himself at how well the spell turned out!
"AAAAAAAAACCCKKKKK!!!!" the girl cried out in surprise! She looked down, only to discover that her shirt was now transfigured into long and slimy old hagfish! Colin help but laugh! Everything still hurt, but a brilliant transfig was a brilliant transfig! The hagfish in question was long, thin, slimy and wrapped tightly around the girl's chest! It was bright pink. And it gave Colin an accusatory look, as if to say, why me? As bright a pink as her face turned in embarrassment! "COLIN MCCOIRE!" she screeched like a hag! She turned and fled from the scene of the battle! "This is not the last time we'll meet I promise you!" she called over her shoulder, her red hair bouncing along in the breeze.
Colin shot back: "Hagfish looks good on ye, ye dour auld hag!"
Colin collapsed back onto the bench. He leaned over and threw up a few slugs into the dirt. Poor things. He smirked. He gently lifted them up and placed them into a shady spot under a bush. No one else was in the park, so Colin leaned back. As the adrenaline wore off, the pain came back into his thought. Not as bad as initially, but the ache would last a while, he knew. He closed his eyes for a moment.
@Emily Shephard || @Scout Fu-Hai because you'll get a kick out of this! | @AngelFyre McCubbin
Keep your mind in hell; and don't despair.
Cursa McCoire
Rigel McCoire
Wait. Who Are You??
A shadow fell across Colin's closed eye vision.
A voice spoke.
"I see ye had a wee falling out with Lark, Cail!" Liam's cheery voice broke the silence of the park.
Colin's eyes flew open. They blinked in confusion. Lark? he thought. Liam smirked. Colin's expression flipped from blank confusion to confused fear. He wracked his brain for anything connected to a girl called Lark. Apart from the slugs that Liam had been observing, nothing else came up. His twin sat down next to him. "Looks like Lark beat six, seven kinds of carp out of ye Cail! And trust me, I know that that nauseous feeling." He put a loving arm around Colin's shoulder, though he continued to press for more details. "What ever did ye say to the lass?"
"I---" Colin began; "I didn't say anything! I was dreaming about Emmi. And she said what's an Emmi, which I thought was queer, cos Emmi's a girl, right? And then she started snogging me and all, and I asked her who she is. And, well, then she got all mad at me."
"No wonder." Liam toyed with the frayed tatters of Colin's shirt, shaking his head slowly.
"And then she crunched me nuts and THEN she really started to fight! She never said anything, but fists and elbows and knees and feet all started punching and kicking! Mind you, Liam, I got into the fight quick enough! And then it was wandwork from there on. And, well, ye saw the result of that!" Colin smiled broadly. "I thought the hagfish were a really smart touch! Lark, eh? She did look rather fetching wearing naught but a pink hagfish! I just hope it didn't slip off!" Colin laughed and Liam joined in.
"And ye don't remember her at all, Cail?" Liam's face suddenly looked worried, his eyes searching Colin's.
"Well, now that we're talking about her, I do --- sort of --- recollect a red haired girl. I remember a lot of snogging, but I don't remember anything at all about marrying this Lark girl! Ew! I mean! Liam. I love Emmi! I want to marry Emmi! not hagfish girl!" Colin sighed and assessed his injuries. "Here, can ye fix me nose?" Liam began the process of repairing what Lark had broken. Colin's mind whirled with thoughts of who this Lark girl actually was.
Could she actually be telling the truth? Sure she flew into a rage and all, but as Colin thought about what happened, she didn't actually seem to be lying. He wondered if he had actually forgotten something important. Last summer was indeed a blur, and he'd snogged with loads of girls. There was bound to be at least one hot tempered red head in that lot! Colin shook his head. He'd have to sort this Lark girl out later. He and Liam had more important things to attend to. Like wand practice with Aoife and getting ready for their time with AngelFyre in a couple days!
@Emily Shephard || @Scout Fu-Hai because you'll get a kick out of this! | @AngelFyre McCubbin
Keep your mind in hell; and don't despair.
Cursa McCoire
Rigel McCoire