Closed Another Wolf?? In MY Zoomies?? pv Colin McCoire

Attire: Usual weekend kit: Slytherin pride, neck ring, kilt, no shoes. Nothing fancy!

Reducio

Colin's mind was reeling still from everything that had happened over the last few days, and his heart was so utterly broken. When Colin awoke at last on Sunday morning, he cast lumos and checked his watch. It was quarter of six. His eyes widened in shock --- "Bloody hell! I really slept in!" And without any further ado, he wrapped his kilt around his waist, tucked his wand in his pocket, grabbed his shirt and headed for the doorway that led to the corridor from Regulus Dorm to the common room. Padding along on bare feet, he had himself buttoned up by the time he reached the corridor.

He stepped out in the familiar dim light of his dungeon home. He smiled, memories of the fun he'd had at the feast and the initiation afterwards still fresh in his mind. He looked down as he started along the corridor. "Blast," he whispered. He'd managed to misbutton his entire shirt, even missing one entirely. Oh well! Nothing for it now. He shrugged and began the long run up all eight hundred forty thousand six hundred ninety seven steps that brought him up to the main level of the castle.

He carefully looked around to see if anyone else was about. He sniffed the air. Someone unfamiliar had passed by relatively recently. Unlikely to be a Prefect. Probably some firstie got lost looking for the lavvy. Satisfied that all was clear, Colin headed for the stairs that would bring him up to the owlery. Uhuu surely needed some exercise, and Colin was feeling the need to hunt.

"Come on, Uhuu lad!" he cooed softly to his Indian eagle owl, "let's go down and have some fun hunting! Just don't tell that ruddy chicken of Sophia's if I share a snack with you, right?" Without any further word, Colin headed back down towards the main level of the castle and out!

The first place headed was the loch! Not for a swim this time, although the water did look tempting. Well, perhaps a wee dunk won't hurt! Kilt and shirt both shucked, Colin waded into the crisp water of the loch. He dunked himself in a couple times before leaving the water, shaking himself all over like a hound that's just retrieved a duck from the water. He breathed deeply thinking that today was going to be a good day!

He got his kilt back on and, slinging his black and green plaid shirt around his neck like a cape, began to run! He loved running! It didn't matter to Colin where he ran, just so long as his legs were moving fast and the wind was in his hair and the newly risen Sun was stretching her fingers down to caress his face and his body. He got all the way up to the rock outcropping before he stopped. From here, he could look back down towards Hoggys or up to the forests and mountains of the Highlands beyond.

His breath came heavy as he stood on the flat stone. It was his favourite place of all Hogwarts. He remembered talking long with Fyre Angel up here. He'd love to bring Clair up here too! He laughed as he remembered howling for her during the feast! Without even thinking about it, he bent his head back and howled for her again! "YAWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! CLAAAIIIRRR!!!! WHOO!"

My God!, he thought; there is something about that lassie!

His reverie was broken by his owl landing on his head. "Uuh huuu!" he said, as if to rebuke him for his caterwauling and forgetting all about the hunt!

Colin's nostrils flared. "Right lad! It'll be breakfast soon for me, but we still need to hunt, you and me!" With that Colin leapt down from the outcropping and Uhuu spread his wings to fly above. Their hunting went well in the high meadows, and Colin let Uhuu eat the field mice he'd caught. He was growing lad after all!

Eventually they made their way down towards the castle again, and Colin found himself scrabbling about in the tall wildflowers that grew along this stretch of wall. There were also stone seats and piles of disused stakes and stones and things. Probably from gardens of old, now long turned over to a wilder state.

Colin smiled as he watched Uhuu soar overhead. Perfect hunting grounds for both of them! He sniffed the air, taking in what news it would bring him. His ears listened for the scrabbling of tiny feet and claws in the heaps of rubble. His smile broadened. Colin dove towards the stone seat where the scent and sound were strongest! He landed on his belly on the smooth stone, stretching out with his hands to catch the thing that was trying to escape! "Come back here you little bastard!" he cried. "Oof!" he overbalanced and tipped over into the wild tangle of mints and lavenders behind the seat. "Bloody hell, you're a --- mmf! 'Ot yeh!" he said, his mouth full of fur.

Victory! The hunt was a success!

"Hi there! What are you doing out here?"

"Yeep!" Colin squeaked, surprised that anyone else would be out here calling to him!

CRONK! Colin's head thunked on one of the old wooden poles as he turned himself around in the deep tangle of fragrant herbs. Plap! Plap! His palms slapped onto the stone seat and he lifted himself up to a crouching position behind it. He wondered briefly if perhaps they were calling out to a friend and not him at all. Oh no! he thought. "Crap," he whispered; what if they were a Prefect? No one had ever bothered him yet when he had the zoomies or needed to be out hunting.

But wait! What he saw from his crouched position was anything but a Prefect! A mop of short hair, golden and spiky, appeared, followed by bright blue eyes and a smile! Whoever it was was wearing a sleeveless black shirt and some weird kind of short trouser thing the likes of which Colin had never seen before! She seemed happy anyway and Colin felt certain her greeting was meant for him. There was a rat on her!

He stood up and stared as she got closer. He realised the red squirrel was still in his mouth, and she would surely notice that! He spat that out into his hand with a slight blush. "Er! Hello! A ---"

He stopped suddenly and whuffed. His nose was still full of squirrel but the girl's scent was unmistakable. Familiar. Instantly memories of the feast and the initiation came flooding into mind. Seven. Lilith. Colin's mouth hung open.

"Wait! Are you --- ? No way! You are a ---" Colin looked all around the area, just in case. You never knew when prying ears might be listening in. The only other person he could see or scent nearby was this yellow haired girl. He looked into her smiling face, his own full of wonder. "You're a wolf! Aren't you?" He laughed. He knew the only answer she could really give was an affirmative. He put his hands on his hips and gave her a broad smile, showing her all his fangs. "See lass! So am I!"

@Tesla Stone || Mentioning @Sophia Nelson | @Clair Fernandez || @Lilith Wolfram | @Seven Corigault-Seto

"I am!" Colin wasn't expecting such a strongly affirmative response to his question! He also wasn't expecting her obvious excitement at meeting another wolf at school! Her own excitement proved instantly contagious though. Colin had been thinking about hiding versus revealing his werewolfery over the summer and was determined to become more open about it. Within limits, of course! He knew that the Headmaster, Heads of Houses and professors probably knew who all the werewolves were.

And then the floodgate opened! "That's so cool!" was followed by a massive stream of questions, statements, pronouncements, explanations, and excitement. Colin couldn't help but laugh. Finally! Someone else who wasn't ashamed of being a wolf or trying to hide it. He tried to get in some responses but gave up against the onslaught!

"Tes! Nice to meet ye lass. I'm Colin! Er, Colin McCoire. Slytherin second year."

He was actually surprised when he said she smelled like her mum a bit. He giggled. "I don't have any family that are wolves --- at least not that I know of! It never crossed his mind to nose around the house for familiar wolfy smells! Colin laughed only more as Tes devolved into trying explain how he and her mum smelled similar.

Colin carefully sniffed his own shoulders and arms. He shrugged and laughed! "I reckon there's something about us wolves that lets us recognise each other. That's kind of cool, really." Colin shook his head in sudden recognition --- he should have used his nose back at the wedding! Sniffing out a rotten wolf might be easier than piecing together clues from his uncle's old book! "That's a great idea, Tes! I'd never even thought of that! Wait --- yer ma's a wolf too? Did ---?" Colin stopped short. No, that was a question for later. They'd only just met, and she herself didn't seem ready to ask him how he got turned.

He shook his head. "Aye. We'll leave those stories for another time! But no, we're not the only ones --- um, I don't know how many there are, but I do know of at least four or five others. Besides you now! Most of the ones I know are in Slytherin. I think one is a Gryff. One I heard ran away searching for his twin sister. Most I think are pretty secretive. I decided that I'm not gonna hide."

Colin stuck his chest out and had a look of determination in his eyes. "I mean, I'm not gonna go around telling everyone; but anyone that I think might become a good friend, I reckon they deserve to know. Then they can choose whether to like me or hate me right then." He positively beamed: "So far it's been brilliant! No one here at Hoggys has tried to kill me or haul me off to Azkaban or anything!'

He was just about to answer her question about hunting when he caught sight of Uhuu. He lifted the squirrel up over his head and called to the owl: "Uhuu!! Don't give me that look! I'm not gonna eat your breakfast!" The huge bird approached silently and grasped the treat in his talons before landing a discrete distance away to enjoy his feast. "That's Uhuu! Don't worry, Argentum!" Colin said, looking at Tes's rat; "Uhuu knows that pets are not for eating!"

"It's actually pretty cool here at Hoggys. Loads of places to run and swim and hunt!" Colin pointed out the loch down below and the meadows above the castle. "After a quick dunk in the water, I ran all the way up there! There's a spot up there I like to meditate. And then Uhuu reminded me that we hadn't actually hunted anything yet, so I rousted out some field mice and the the squirrel. I used to eat them myself, before I got him, but now I only take mice and such for owl treats! Anyway," Colin said, his eyes wide with excitement; "Sophia said I'd get sick eating mice in boy form. But I never did!" He shrugged. "Anyway, I was hungry! Like always! She said I should at least cook them first." He rolled his eyes. "What ever! But now that I know incendio, that's easy! She has an owl too, Sophia does. Her name's Amelia! I'd like to get out here with the two birds so we can go hunting --- maybe you and Argentum can come along! I'm sure Soph would like to meet another wolf!"

Tes seemed so excited to meet him! Now it was Colin's turn to ask questions: "What about you? How do you like Hoggys so far? Oh! Have you met Alena yet? She's my cousin. She's not a wolf, but she's cool! She's a first year too. Or how about Fyre Angel? She's my best friend! They're both Hufflepuff too! How long have you been a wolf? I was bitten last year, before starting school. See!?" He pointed out the bite marks on his right shoulder and claw marks all along his chest and side. "But check this out Tes!!" He showed her the long fang dangling from around his neck. "I got the bastard's upper!" He laughed and tapped his own fang with the other wolf's.

"And there was attacks at our house this summer." He showed her the scars on his left side. "One of them killed my brother Liam." Colin looked down suddenly. He couldn't bear to tell her too many details. Not yet. "But my older sister Moira, she got him back." A look of determination mixed with sorrow in Colin's face. He looked into Tes's eyes for some time. "It's wolves like that give us all a bad name. I can't fix that, but it's young wolves like us that have to make sure no wolf falls to the dark side. Sorry to bring that sadness in. I really am happy to meet you today Tes!"

@Tesla Stone || Mentions: @Sophia Nelson | @Alena Fernsby | @AngelFyre McCubbin

Colin lit up as Tes told him what she thought about wolves simply being able to sniff each other out. He stood up suddenly on the bench! He paced back and forth along its length! "Yes! That's it! It's like ---" He ran his fingers through his hair excitedly. "--- Like, sometimes I can just tell, right? I know I sniffed out one or two right away. But I think you're right, it's not always perfect. There's another, I --- I think might be a wolf, but somehow my nose just can't sort it out!"

Colin crouched down again, satisfied that Tes's thoughts explained something he'd been working over in his own mind. Irina. He'd have to figure her out later, so pushed that aside for now. "Aye. They take us all to the same place. The Shrieking Shack, they call it. I'm sure they took you there last month, but it's pretty big and has lots of rooms." He shrugged. "I reckon we'd have to go together next time or else we might not know where another wolf even is!" He laughed when Tes said she'd have to be more like him. He knew that not every wolf would even want to let others know about their condition. But even those could benefit from the wolves that did, those that chose to help non-lycanthropes understand them better as ordinary wizards that have a magical condition.

He was amazed by how energetic Tes was, how open and interesting and so very inquisitive! She reminded him of Clair! His heart suddenly began to thump as he thought of her. He wondered how she'd react to meeting a whole pack of werewolves! He heard Tes talking about her rat and meeting Sophia and hunting, but Colin's mind was wandering elsewhere with Clair. It wasn't until he registered that his new friend was talking about Uhuu that he came back to the present.

"Wh---Hmm? Oh! Uhuu! Aye --- he's big! He's an Indian eagle owl. They're the biggest owls!" Colin stood up on the bench again and spread his arms out as wide as they would go. He wiggled his fingers. "Uhuu's not quite full grown, but his wing span is already as long my outstretched arms --- and I'm no shortie!"

Colin crouched down on the bench again and listened eagerly as he turned the questions back on Tes. She showed him her own scar. He'd wondered why she wore a bandana thing on her wrist, and also wondered why it looked like she'd tried to hide her wrist earlier. But the bite marks were clear. "I'm just glad you weren't hurt too badly by the wolf." Colin did wonder though. Her marks almost looked --- friendly wasn't the right word; considering how likely it was his wolf was trying to kill him, he began to wonder if Tes's wolf somehow knew her. His brown furrowed in deep thought. He wouldn't ask her. Not yet anyway. She said her Ma was a wolf. No, he'd let Tes tell him her story if she ever trusted him. "I reckon we're all hurt by our wolves in some way. And it's more than just scars on our bodies!"

Colin was so happy that Tes had just accepted him as he was and that she was cool with sharing each other's stories. Especially about Liam. And he felt energised again as they talked. He really had a good feeling about Tes! He hoped they'd become really good friends.

He leaned in close to Tes so they were almost nose to nose and he stared into her eyes for some time. He'd been thinking about this for a while, and wondered if she'd be a good partner for his plan. "Wolves are creatures that live in packs. What would you say to joining one here at school?" He smiled at Tes and leaned back waiting to hear what she had to say.

@Tesla Stone | Mentions @Clair Fernandez | @Sophia Nelson | @Irina Sousa