Summer Ready Errand

Attire: Usual weekend kit: Slytherin pride, kilt, no shoes, wolf fang necklace, feathers in his braid.

Reducio

Oh, to be outside! On a school day! It wasn't like Colin never got out: he got up really early every day to go running and take a dip in the lake before most anyone else was even awake. But today was a special outing, as a couple of Prefects had arranged for students to come out and help clean the lakeside before leaving for home. Not that Colin necessarily liked cleaning, but this did give him a chance to put off the impending depression of going back home where there would be no Liam. Colin couldn't believe it had been ten whole months since Liam was killed. He just hoped that the letter that Clair and AngelFyre helped him decypher --- the hit letter --- would help his parents find and hold his would-be killer. At least he'd be able to sleep without that to worry him.

He was therefore so happy to see AngelFyre jumping up and down with joy! Maybe she really loved to clean things!? Colin was feeling the heat of the day. It wasn't anywhere near this hot before sunrise when he was down here running across the grounds this morning! He unbuttoned his shirt, fanning himself with the front of it. Monica and Simon were droning on about how to sweep up leaves and rubbish. What was so hard about that? Colin laughed softly. At least AngelFyre was eager to listen to the Prefects! He himself would rather jump into piles of leaves than anything else.

And then there were the tools. Some of them looked vaguely familiar. Colin had seen them in the barns at home. Some he had even used! But now, he just shook his head. "Monica!" he said under his breath. "Ye're such a muggle!" This is what wands are for! Colin decided to see about picking up rubbish in stead of leaves. He grabbed a plastic bag --- ew! It felt nasty in his right hand! --- and went skipping along the grounds. Honestly it wasn't that bad. Wizarding kids rarely rarely littered, mostly because stuff in the wizarding world was packaged up in paper. It was the muggle kids who brought all the horrible plastic wrappings to Hoggys. They never disintegrated.

Whenever Colin came across a bit of rubbish, he'd stop and accost it for the monster it sure was: "Avast ye scrofulous beast! How dare you blight my castle grounds? Have at you!" And with a deft flick and swish --- "Wingardium leviosa!" --- Colin lifted the offending bits of plastic up and let them fall into the rubbish bag! Soon enough, Colin's shirt was off, tied around his waist and he was off yipping and skipping towards some new conquest against the evils of littering!

When his bag was about half full, Colin headed over to the place where a lot of kids liked to picnic. There, on a rock, he found a gold necklace. Or it looked like gold anyway! It had a cross on it and two golden earrings attached to it. Although it was in a hidden area, the gold sparkled in the sunlight. It was really pretty. Normally, stuff Colin found in the lake ended up in an old cigar box in his trunk. Mostly pretty crystals or hagstones along with some old bracelets and a parchment journal. But this necklace seemed different. It clearly wasn't lost decades or centuries ago. It looked like someone had just set it here or dropped it here recently. No more than a fortnight ago, for surely whoever owned it would have been back to look for it!

Colin wondered. He picked the thing up. The links and cross and earrings tinkled merrily. What if she forgot it was just here? What if she looked somewhere else, not realising it was here? Colin sniffed at the necklace. He couldn't detect anything, though the thing somehow seemed familiar. Somehow finders keepers oughtn't apply to something like this. It was too precious a thing. Not something ordinary that could be cast off without much thought. He slipped it into the pocket of his kilt. He'd find Monica or Miss Jensen later and give it to one of them. Maybe Miss Jensen knew a spell that could detect what his own nose couldn't?

After all that, Colin decided that it might be fun to take up Monica's suggestion of throwing rocks into the lake. Colin was not at all sure why she wanted rocks thrown into the lake, but, Colin smirked, then said: "Well, if my dear Prefect wants rocks yeeted into the lake, I shall happily oblige!" He tossed the sack of rubbish aside and seeing as no one else was around to help with rock yeeting, Colin started the project on his own. He found several likely candidates, rocks that were loose and could trip any uncareful person up! He picked up one in each hand, then waded out into the lake. The water was only up to his chest out here. Colin reckoned that would do nicely. First the left, then the right! "WOOHOO!! Two rocks yeeted into the lake!" There was nothing for it but to swim back to the shore and repeat the process several more times! He even levitated one rock out with him. That one was fun to sling out over the water! He really hoped the squid was right under there and would get bonked for all the trouble it caused him during Slytherin's last race!

But at last, the scent of a wood fire tickled his nostrils, and that meant it would soon be bonfire time! Colin swam back to the lakeside, got his rubbish bag and, soaking wet from being in the lake, headed up towards where the bonfire was being held. Once there, he fished the gold necklace out of his pocket and gave it to Monica, so that she could find out whose it is and give it back to the girl that lost it. He prayed that she would get it back soon.

@AngelFyre McCubbin | The Girl Who Lost the Necklace