PV Colin McCoire Bad at Researching Closed

Attire: Usual school day attire: robes, shirt (buttons mismatched), tie (undone), kilt, neck ring, no shoes.

Reducio

Colin was technically in the library. He was also technically studying his astronomy lesson. It was true that there was an astronomy book open before him, and it was also true that his planner and notebook were open to appropriate pages. Oddly enough, it was also true that he'd actually read and remembered the lesson.

Colin was also aware of the little things going on around him. Small sounds. The scritching of quill on parchment, the flipping of pages as students read, the occasional grumble as chapters never seemed to end! He caught a sickening little snap. Oof. A broken quill! The heavy chunky sound of an ink bottle being upset followed by the wet sound of spilled ink! Colin's brows furrowed, as almost all of those little indicators of impending disaster appeared to be coming from close by! His ears told him that the source of all the trouble was to his right, just down the study table a bit.

But the reality of course was that his bare feet were rhythmically tapping the warm wood of the library's floor and his body was bopping to some inner music as his mind contemplated the one girl that filled his imagination and his heart to overflowing. That person of course, was Clair Fernandez! He thought about her a lot. Colin liked girls. A lot. Many of his friends were girls. And he'd kissed no fewer than four already in that bottle spinning game! But even so, he was coming to the conclusion, rationally rather than just emotionally, that here was a girl worthy of serious attention. Clair. She was ---

"This school can turn me into a frog, but doesn't have a single spell to make me less of a moron?!"

Colin laughed! When he looked up, he saw that smirks, quizzical looks, pointed fingers and whispers all seemed to focus on the same source. Tsk! Some poor Hufflepuff girl had managed to turn her area of the table into a war zone!

"What's wrong lassie? Ye look like ye've gone started the third wizarding war right here at the table!" He got up and went over closer. He stood up on the chair next to the Hufflepuff girl's and crouched down into it. He looked at what she was writing. "Sugar Quills? I don't remember that in first year potions!" He surveyed the damage from the flood of ink on the table to the splotches of ink all over the parchment.

"Tis nothing a wand can't fix! A'm sure they haven't taught this one yet!" Colin fetched his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the ink. "Scourgify!" he said quietly but firmly. He watched as the ink was cleaned off of parchment and table alike. He nodded in satisfaction as the place looked tidier already.

"What's your name, anyway? I'm Colin!"

@Dove Peregrine || Mentions @Clair Fernandez

The girl seemed momentarily confused by the reference to the wizarding wars. Probably another poor muggleborn thrust into what must seem a queer and utterly alien world. He gave her a cocked smile when she said that sugar quills aren't in potions. Good, he thought, she can at least stand up for herself. She'll need to around here!

But the moment he withdrew his wand, she recoiled! Colin's eyes opened wide as she covered her face with her arms. "Whoa! What's that all about?" he whispered. But he shrugged and continued with the clean up operation. As soon as Colin had cleaned up the mess, thought: Wait. Is she really scared? Of me? Whoa. He wondered if she'd heard some rumour.

But before he could comment, she began to talk! And the flood of words was every bit the torrent the ink had been moments before! "Oh wow, haha! I thought you'd, you know! And the table, you know! But you made a-all the ink... You kn-know!" The Hufflepuff was on about something, but the only problem was, Colin had no idea what she was on about!

"Er. Well ---" was all he could get out before she cleared her throat and launched into a very long introduction along with an etymological discussion of her name!

"I'm Columbia. Or Dove. I like Dove better, though! Did you know that Columbia means Dove in Latin? That's where my nickname came from! A lot of my family's nicknames are from translations of their full names! It's super cool, you know!" Colin could only smile. When she finished gushing about how super cool his name was, he felt he could get a word in edgewise.

"Aye. Colin. That means young dog in Gaelic," he said with a grin. "Funny how many animal names we've got! Sounds like you've got an interesting family and a cool tradition! Um." He really hoped she didn't feel embarrassed. He really did think it was cool! Colin realised he still had his wand out. "Er. Give us your quill Dove. The one that started this whole mess?" He pointed towards her bag.

@Dove Peregrine

Colin listened as Columbia, probably the most loquacious first year lass he'd yet met, explained how her Da was a Slytherin trouble maker. He wondered if she were on to his own trouble making tendencies! He examined her quill. Aye. The poor split thing! And easy repair job for either knife or wand!

"Wait! Expelled!? From Hoggys? Whoa..." Colin didn't think anyone ever really got expelled from Hogwarts. He tilted his head and stared at Dove: "I'm not quite sure whether to believe that story or not, Columbia! I mean. Expelled expelled? Like --- I mean everyone knows about Hagrid and of course Scamander!" Colin's eyes lit up at the mention of the famous magizoologist. He had to ask, so he lowered his voice: "What did yer Da do? A sign of glory! Sorry, but I'd never actually try to get expelled!"

As Colin sniffed at Dove's quill and gently prodded the split end, he turned to reach for his satchel, hoping to fix it. But Dove asked him what he was up to. Suspicious! he thought. Yoink! The girl snatched it back before Colin had a chance to grasp more the tail end of the feather!

"Reparo."

"Oh! Brilliant. You already know that one." She stuck her tongue out at his obvious expression of deflation. He'd just wanted to help but now he stared at her juvenile action. Colin raised his left eyebrow. Stick yer tongue out at me, lassis, is that it? Colin hooked his thumbs into the sides of his mouth, crossed his eyes and made a silly face at Dove in return!

He laughed as she seemed to get all flustered over whether it was rude to think of 'muggle-raised half-bloods' as useless. He brought his satchel and stuff over and sat. "Rude?" He shrugged his shoulders. "You have to admit that loads of muggle-borns come here totally useless and ignorant. But by the end of first year, they're no different than anyone else!" He lowered his voice. "There's lots of rude things you could have said, but when it comes to muggleborns, the only rude name, really, is 'mudblood'. That's a really mean thing to say. It's the sort of thing that'll get someone into detention if a Prefect hears them using that word." He grinned mischievously at Dove. "And the sort of thing that'll get one set on fire if they say that about any of my friends!" He nodded defiantly. "Usually it's pure blood manics that use words like that. Either them or wannabes."

"So, you a muggle-born? Or half-blood, pureblood, what?" she asked.

Colin laughed a little too loudly for the library! His hands flew up to cover his mouth. He looked around to make sure the Librarian wasn't going to swoop down like a bat and give him detention. "Heheh. I'm pure! Most McCoires are. What about you, then? You and your mischief making Da?"

@Dove Peregrine

Colin giggled when Dove told him about her muggle Ma finding out that her lad was a wizard! He gave her a quizzical look, but didn't say anything. Finally he said, "Aye! I can relate to that." After all, didn't have to make just such a revelation to his sweetheart!?

His interest was really piqued, however, when Dove practically shut down after he'd asked her what her Da actually did to get expelled. He knew it couldn't be easy to get expelled. Sure everyone had heard stories about mean teachers threatening expulsion for the smallest of rule breaking. But really! When Colin thought about it logically, everyone broke rules at some point in time. And many students, er, had a certain habit for breaking particular rules! If they expelled half the school for being up late or something like that, there'd be no school left in a couple years! It stood to reason he probably murdered someone.

That was a horrible thought.

But --- it was rather odd the way Dove suddenly began sweating. The way she began stammering. Colin just stared at Dove. He knew that he wasn't a great liar --- if he broke a rule, he'd most likely own it. But he knew that even he could lie better than this girl was trying.

"Oh, I --- I --- he never told me."

"You okay Columbia? You look like you're facing an inquisitorial squad or a dementor or something!" He looked around. No one seemed to be paying attention any more. There was a question that rose in his consciousness and he just had to ask. "Are you --- You're hiding something aren't you?" he whispered. He could literally smell the anxiety on this poor girl! His nostrils flared. He had to ask: "Your Da. Did he, you know, go away for a few days every month? Act kind of weird or take any potions around full Moon?"

Colin knew there were other possibilities, but lycanthropy seemed like as good a place to start as any. His eyes grew large. Hadn't he wondered what would happen if one of the school's Werewolves didn't take their potion every month. And --- and wasn't aconite a relatively recent invention? Sophia would know, but not all Wolves has access or desire to take it.

He narrowed his eyes at Dove. What dark secret was she hiding?

@Dove Peregrine