The Best Magical Creature PV Colin McCoire Closed

Attire: Usual school day attire: robes, shirt (buttons mismatched), tie (knotted around his left knee), kilt, neck ring, no shoes.

Reducio

Colin headed down towards the great hall for lunch. He wanted to chat with Rebecca, and maybe even Avery. He could hardly believe that school was almost over! It was the end of June. Soon his second year at Hogwarts would be over. Colin turned to his left with a huge smile on his face. The smile died as suddenly as it had arisen. No one was there. Only some random first year saw the strange thing Colin had done. The suddenness of the end of term brought Colin down suddenly. The first year had no idea about Colin, that there should have been a tall skinny Ravenclaw boy at his side.

Liam.

Colin lost his appetite. Thoughts of the woman who wanted him dead came to mind. Aunt Agatha. Colin changed his mind about chatting, even though he saw his friends well along the Slytherin table. He grabbed a couple apples and some cheese. Dropping those into the pocket of his robe, he turned on his bare feet and headed outside to the courtyard.

THUMP!!

Colin dropped his satchel onto a stone bench and sat down. He leaned back against the wall, stuck his bare legs out in front of him and relaxed. His necktie was done up around his left knee, and that fluttered happily in the slight breeze. As usual, his shirt buttons were mismatched and his wolf fang necklace hung down on his chest, along with a thin braid of pale blond hair, at the end, three black raven feathers.

He bit into one of the apples. It was sweet. Not gaggingly sweet like the cupcakes and pastries that Jannette wolfs down! Jannette Applebottom. He hadn't seen her in quite a while, and here he was eating her namesake fruit! He'd try to find her later in the common room maybe. He wondered what kind of trouble she'd get up to as a real second year!

Colin heard pages ruffling. He chewed on his apple some more. Probably some Ravenclown going through a text book looking for spelling mistakes or printing imperfections that she would write to the editor about. Colin looked up. Nope. Twas a Gryffindork. She was avidly reading something! Colin could just about make out the words FANT--- AND WH----. The rest was covered by her hand. This wondered Colin. First years were still more than a year away from care of magical creatures!

"Oi! Gryffindork! Aren't you a first year? You won't have magical creatures until after next year!" She reminded him of Clair. Not the way she looked or anything, but the way she was so engrossed in her reading. Then a thought struck him. If she was this keen on magical creatures, maybe they could chat a bit. Colin was desperate to get out of this depression. "What's yer favourite creature then? Obviously the very best magical creatures are the occamy and the zouwu!"

@Estelle Nyx || Mentions: @Jannette Applebottom

He looked the girl over. She had that look about her that screamed disapproval of just about everything. Colin reckoned that, right now, what this Gryff disapproved most was Colin! He smiled, though. At least she could serve back the teasing. Colin liked that kind of strength in a person.

"Slytherimp!?" Colin raise his left eyebrow. "You should learn some respect!" Colin snorted. Well. He had to admit Slytherimp was a new one, and really not that bad a name! "Anyway, magizoologist eh?"

Now she had Colin's attention. Both he and Clair loved magical beasts and wanted to work with them some day. He wondered what she'd say her favourite was. Probably unicorn. Colin rolled his eyes. Or hippogryff. They were cool only because Mr Potter rode one a couple times!

And then she said it --- hippogryff. Colin really rolled his eyes this time. "Hippogryff? That's yer favourite? They're smelly! And they don't fly very well. You'd probably fall off. Now, the zouwu, that creature is class! They're just big fluffy kittens really. And I love cats! They can't fly, but they're wicked fast, and they're playful too! Try that with a hippogryff and it'll chew yer head off!"

@Estelle Nyx

The boy thought she should learn some respect? He was the one who called her a dork in the first place. And anyway, who did this boy think he was, saying that Estelle couldn't fly on a Hippogriff?

"I'll have you know that I have flown on a Hippogriff in Scotland, thank you very much. They are regal, beautiful creatures, with feathers like dappled sunlight, and they do not smell. That's more than you can say about your glorified kitten."

Estelle huffed. This boy was infuriating.

She rolled her eyes and looked back down at her book, pretending to ignore him. Honestly, she loved Zouwu. She had forgotten to add it to her list, but it would definitely have been on it. She wasn't going to let the boy know that though. He seemed like the type to rub even a small victory in her face, and Estelle hated losing.

"And before you say that I only like Hippogriffs because Harry Potter rode on one, let it be known I had Griffin plushies before I even knew about the magical world. I would've had Hippogriff ones, but those don't exist in the muggle world."

The teddy in question had been a little griffin teddy she had found in a charity shop. Her father had tried to stop her from buying it - they already had a mountain of stuffed animals at home - but she refused to the point where she was holding on to it so tightly he couldn't get it off her. In the end, he relented and bought it for her.

@Colin McCoire

"Wh---!?" This girl wasn't making any sense at all! "We're in Scotland, lass! And I bet you haven't flown on a hippogryff, in Scotland or any other country!" Colin leaned back against the wall as she rambled on. She really did like hippogryffs! "Awww! Regal and feathers like dappled dawn? Bleugh! They're just overgrown pigeons! Anyway, zouwus are so much cooler!"

Colin stood up. "Zouwus have colourful fur, and really long tails! They've got a shaggy mane, are long and graceful creatures." Colin shook his head of long hair and bowed deeply, with a flourish. "Like me!"

Colin sat back down. "Hmf! Glorified kitty!"

This girl was so annoying. She reminded him of Lily. She was annoying and a Gryffindork too! She looked so smug, looking over the edge of her book. Honestly! Colin scowled slightly. Hippogryffs really were kind of cool. Smelly, true, but kind of cool all the same. And the girl had a point --- you could fly on them!

And of course, she had to open her mouth again! "Oh!? You had a hippogryff plushie!? Oh--- Wait. From a muggle shop? How did you find a hippogryff plushie in a muggle shop? I---" Colin stopped short. He never had any plushies at all. Not one! Not until earlier this year anyway. He now had a wolf plushie and a tatty old teddy bear that even knows his name! Colin narrowed his eyes at the girl. "Pfft. Well, hopefully you don't like mooncalves. Those are just silly!"

@Estelle Nyx

"Oh right yeah, I guess to me, Hogwarts seems its own magical world - I forget we're in Scotland. And I have ridden a Hippogriff. I have photos to prove it."

Estelle took out some photos from her pocket. She had made a little photo album with both magical and non-magical photos of her friends and family to take with her to Hogwarts and she carried it with her everywhere. Although indisputable proof was not the primary function of the photo album, it was a useful function nonetheless.

"Here. It's a moving photo of me on a Hippogriff. Is that proof enough for you?"

Estelle showed Colin the photo. It showed a younger Estelle soaring through the clouds on a creature that was undoubtedly a Hippogriff.

"I didn't have a Hippogriff plushie - it was a Griffin plushie - Hippogriff plushies can't be found in the muggle world. Well, not in charity shops anyway."

She was sure there would be some kind of Hippogriff plushie online somewhere.

"Also, Mooncalves are some of the most adorable creatures ever. Certainly better than the oversized moggy you so favour. I only wish that they came out more often than the full moon. They are so difficult to find and I've never seen one, although I wish I had. "

@Colin McCoire

Colin stared at the photos that Estelle showed him in her pocket album. His eyes narrowed. The evidence was incontrovertible. Colin thought back to last summer when Monica had explained all about how muggles made moving pictures. He was about to say that this picture of the girl happily astride a proper hippogryff was obviously some sort of muggle counterfeit.

But no. It couldn't be. Muggles needed a whole big engine of some kind to make the pictures move. And it was clear enough that the girl in the picture was the same. Freckles. Blonde hair. Bright blue eyes. For a brief moment, Colin actually felt jealous. He'd never flown on a hippogryff! Well, that might true, but he had made friends with bowtruckles and had fought a proper hag doll.

"Hmf." Colin battled within himself. Where did that feeling of jealousy even come from? It felt wrong. It felt ugly. Maybe this Gryffindork had caused it!? A likely story. "Ye...ah. That looks legit. I was just making sure you weren't fibbing is all! Gryffindorks like to make more of their stories than really happened." Colin gave her a little sneer. "Anyway, what's a chair tea shop?"

Colin rolled his eyes as Estelle prattled on about moon calves. "Yeugh! They're so not adorable! They're like big rats with big buggy eyes! And any kind of feline beats out yer moon rats! Of course, I've seen them loads of times." Colin nodded confidently. He neglected to mention that even moon calves were not stupid enough to hang around wherever a werewolf was likely to roam!

"So! What do you think of augureys? Those are awesome birds! People used to think that when they sing, someone's going to die!" Colin made a dramatic slicing motion across his throat. "You're probably all into flobber worms!"

@Estelle Nyx

Estelle smirked at the expression of jealousy and annoyance that crossed Colin's face. He obviously hadn't believed her until he'd seen the photo.

"You do know that you are insulting an entire house, right? We're not all the same. And how do you know the stories are all made up? Every faerietale has a basis in truth. Look at Beedle the Bard - his tales led to the discovery of the Deathly Hallows."

Estelle giggled as Colin mistakenly called a charity shop a chair tea shop.

"A charity shop is a place where people donate their unwanted items and others buy them, in order to raise money to help a cause. For example, there's one near my house which raises money to try to research cures for diseases."

Colin then insisted he'd seen mooncalves, which Estelle doubted. However, she really hoped he had seen them. If he had, he could tell her where to look.

"You've seen mooncalves?! Where? When? I've always wanted to see them - could you show me where? Maybe next full moon we can go to look for them! I can't believe you've actually seen them!! That's so cool!"

Estelle was practically jumping up and down with excitement as she said those words. She really hoped that he could show her them. Even though Colin was annoying, she'd spend many nights searching for mooncalves with him if he could show here where to find them. She really hoped he was telling the truth.

"Augureys are awesome! It'd be really funny to see someone who actually believed that the cry of an augerey led to death. They'd be panicking like, all the time. I live in England - it rains like every other day."

@Colin McCoire