closed Here's to You, Aunt Haggy! SOLO

Reducio

2 September 2023
Before Breakfast

Two boys leaned up against the dank stone walls of one of Hogwarts innumerable dungeon corridors. Tall and skinny, both had a shaggy thick braid of long pale blond hair. One wore a green and black plaid shirt along with his faded green kilt. The other wore a plain white shirt and a rather less faded blue kilt. Neither were wearing shoes.

They were both out of breath.

"That was a run!" said the boy in blue. He let out a big puff of breath. "How do you manage it? I'm knackered! And why did we pound all the way down here into the bowels of the earth? I know you Slyther Plushkins live down here, but blimey! This is nowhere close to the great hall and I AM STARVING!!"

"Whisht Liam. It is exactly this most pressing of questions we're down here to address." Colin, the boy in the green kilt found the place he had been looking for. It was a small alcove off of a long disused corridor, much darker than most. There was an old wooden table in the alcove. Heavy, engraved with an ornate H and all four signs of the Houses. He leaned his wand up against the stone wall. He began rummaging around in his satchel. "Lumos," he said as clinking sounds could be heard from within the prematurely battered leather bag. Technically it was new, but Colin had a way of wearing out even the best made things, making them look old and comfortably lived in long before anyone else's things even lost their brand new shimmer! He drew out a couple nondescript bottles, hopefully only 'borrowed' from the kitchens and a potion concocting kit.

Liam looked on with interest as he watched his twin crouch on the heavy wooden bench next to the table. Colin gave him a smile. "How are ye holding up, lad?"

Colin smirked as Liam gave him his 'did you really have to ask that' eyebrow lift.

Liam looked around the corridor cautiously. "You weren't lying, Cail. That stuff is mank! And were ye jerking me around? We have to drink that mixture of goblin piss and troll urine for a week every month!?" Colin nodded mournfully. "How do ye manage it, lad?"

"This!" said Colin brightly. He picked up his lit wand and tapped it on the page of a very old parchment journal. "Look. It's an old family recipe!"

Colin began to prepare the ingredients that would go into his concoction. There was a jar of dark sludge and a bottle of nondescript brown liquid. Liam dearly hoped that the bottle of clear liquid was water and not --- something two thirteen year olds shouldn't be drinking!

Liam read.

Liam's eyes blinked slowly. He read it again.

Colin hummed to himself as he worked. Generally, he and potions didn't get along too well, but this kind of potion work was a snap! He measured out the ingredients and poured them into a bowl. He whistled a tune as he stirred the fizzing brew.

"Cail. This sounds worse than the other potion!"

"Give it a try! Honest! Ye'll love it!"

"Suitselaith? What does that even mean?"

Colin shrugged. "Sounds Gaelige, but I never heard the word before!" Colin poured out the resulting tar coloured brew into two glasses. Giving one over to his twin, he said: "Cheers brev!"

Colin drank his down with a smile! Liam sniffed at the stuff delicately. With not a little trepidation, he put the thick glass to his lips and let the dark opaque brown stuff slide across his tongue and down his throat. Liam's eyes opened wide! He made a small noise! He chugged the rest of it! "Cail! This stuff is --- I love it! This stuff is better than the mustard water we made first year! Why didn't you tell me before? Why ---"

"WHOA! Right? I told ye ye'd love it!" Colin bapped the side of Liam's head as poured another round for them both. They clinked their glasses and linked arms as they drank the dark punch from each other's vessel.

Liam shoved Colin down the bench a bit as he studied the book the recipe had been written in. There were all sorts of things written in it in many different hands. He recognised Colin's penmanship right away. He smirked. One of no doubt hundreds of love poems to Clair! "Hey! There's plenty of other things to read in there laddie!"

"Well, Cailean, this bit seems to be all about Clair. How many words for blue eyes? Let me count the freckles on your face! She has cute feet? Cail. Brev." Colin blushed deeply. "Lad, I hope she hasn't seen this book! Hey! Wait. Is this the book you told me about? Where's the bit where ye lot found out about me?"

Colin quickly yanked the journal back from Liam. "There's all sorts of things written in this book. About girls, and I'll have you know Liam McCoire, not everything in here is about Clair!" Liam laughed. Colin whispered. "You should see some of the things Da and Uncle Colin wrote in here!" He rifled through the pages. "Look. Read that."

Liam lit up his own wand and read.

He turned to stare wide eyed at Colin.

"Well I'll go to foot of our stairs, Cail. A. A. Just like ye told me! And yer friend AngelFyre and Clair figured it out! Good thing two of ye are smart, eh lad!" Liam jabbed Colin in the ribs. "Huh. Dear. Old. Aunt. Hagatha. Agatha Auchinchloss. That, Cailean, is a name I shall never forget." Colin nodded. Some events simply seared themselves into the heart, and no potion, no medicine, no healing could be found in this world, magical or muggle.

Liam poured them another glass of the dark ambrosia. He paused in thought. "May Aunt Haggy rot in Azkaban until the end of her days," he said.

And without a moment's pause, Colin finished up: "and may she come to her Trial swiftly and there meet Justice!"

CLINK!