Reducio

Three gypsies came tae oor hall door An' O but they sang bonnie O. They sang so sweet and too complete That they stole the heart of our lady O. For she cam tripping down the stairs, Her maidens too before her O; An' when they saw her weel-faured face They throwed their spell oot-owre her O. When her good Lord came home that night He was askin for his lady O, But the answer the servants gave tae him, 'She's awa wi the gypsy laddies O.' 'Gae saddle tae me my bonnie, bonnie black, My broon it's ne'er sae speedy O, That I may go ridin' this long summer day In search of my true lady O.' But it's he rode East and he rode West And he rode through Strathbogie O. And there he met a gey aul' man That was comin through Strathbogie O. 'For it's did ye come East, or did ye come West, Or did ye come through Strathbogie' O? And did ye see a gay lady? She wes following three gypsy laddies O.' 'For it's I've come East and I've come West And I've come through Strathbogie O, And the bonniest lady that e'er I saw She wes following three gypsy laddies O.' For the very last night that I crossed this river I had dukes and lords to attend me O, But this night I must put in ma warm feet an' wide An the gypsies widin' before me O. Last night I lay in a good feather bed My own wedded Lord beside me O, But this night I must lie in a cauld corn-barn And the gypsies lyin a' roon me O. For it's will you give up your houses an your lands And will you give up your baby O; And will you give up your own wedded Lord And keep following the gypsy laddies O? For it's I'll give up my houses an my lands An I'll give up my baby O, And it's I'll give up my own wedded Lord And keep followin the gypsy laddies O. For there are seven brothers of us all We all are wondrous bonnie O, But this very night we all shall be hanged For the stealin of the Earl's lady O. WEREWOLF WERE 🐺 WOLF WEREWOLF According to best folkloric resources, this incident of the Thee Gypsies is cata- logued by Child as Ballad 200 and goes by many names such as the Raggle Raggle Gypsies or The Gypsie Laddie. In Muggle culture, this ballad has travelled from Brit- ain to Ireland and across all seas and oceans to Australia, New Zealand and America where it remains as a staple of Scots - Irish - British folk song. Interestingly enough, the story is almost un- heard of within the Wizarding world, even though all the main characters but one are magical. It is fairly certainly known that the earl in question is that of Aberdeenshire. Though it is unclear if the "lord" is actually the Earl or one of his sons. The only named place in the song is Strathbogie, a town a little ways east of Dufftown, which as every wizard in Britain knows is not more than a few miles from Hogsmeade. Strathbogie itself was once a wizarding town, according to the ancient sources, and while some magical folk still live in the vicinity, it is now a largely Muggle village. Strathbogie also refers to the Dark Forest and high country to the west which still is very much magical country. This area is familiar to every magical school child as the territory in which Hogwarts is situated. Although that territory far exceeds the school grounds which most children are wont to explore! WEREWOLF WERE 🐺 WOLF WEREWOLF C L A I R F E R N A N D E Z !! O W O O O O O O O O O !!! C L A I R F E R N A N D E Z !! O W O O O O O O O O O !!! C L A I R F E R N A N D E Z !! O W O O O O O O O O O !!! C L A I R F E R N A N D E Z !! O W O O O O O O O O O !!! CLAIR FERNANDEZ!! OWOOOO!! CLAIR FERNANDEZ!! OWOOOO!! CLAIR FERNANDEZ!! OWOOOO!! COLIN LOVES CLAIR FERNANDEZ! CLAIR FERNANDEZ!! OWOOOO!! CLAIR FERNANDEZ!! OWOOOO!! CLAIR FERNANDEZ!! OWOOOO!! C&C FOR EVER!!!! C&C FOR EVER!!!! C&C FOR EVER!!!! WEREWOLF WERE 🐺 WOLF WEREWOLF

July 2023 Who knows what thoughts lurk in the hearts of cats? Colin watched Greebo as he sat attentively in one of the high windows of the library at McCoire House. The storm was brewing outside and he watched with interest as the birds fought the rising winds or else were blown pell mell across the sky. One of the other cats of the house was curled up at the other side of the broad window seat. Colin, Liam and Ciarán were chatting and reading at the library table. Colin thought that Greebo might be thinking along these lines. His humans were making the happy noises. Greebo decided to investigate. One never knew when happy humans might not be convinced that a cat treat would be an appropriate sign of joy? Gracefully, he hopped down onto the chaise under the window and thence to the floor. The floors were nice and warm here. Unlike the other place his human lived. But it didn't matter much! His human was always running about --- like a dog! --- though at least he was warm and cosy to snuggle with. Greebo delicately sniffed at one of the large table legs. Hmm. . A familiar cat has been here. Something like a cat has been here. As well as dogs. Hmm. Also something like a dog. But not quite. Interesting. But of no import! Greebo purred contentedly as he rubbed his face against the ancient wood. His lips curled open slightly as his whiskers and fur touched the wood. This was his house after all! The table was his. The humans were his. By extension, even the dogs and the other cats, present and long gone, those of faint scent memory, were his. Greebo claimed them all before going to rub against the legs of his humans. He liked his humans. Unlike most of the other humans, his humans rarely covered their feet and legs. This made scenting and marking sooo much more convenient! Greebo rubbed his sides against the smallest set of bare feet. The smaller human made the chirping happy sound. Greebo purred. He rubbed his sides against the long skinny legs of his own human and his other human that smelled like his own human. They wiggled their toes and reached down to scratch him behind his ears and stroke his sides. He had to admit, these were good humans. Food and affection were plentiful. Litter box facilities were most excellent. Even the tiny humans with the long wing-shaped ears were fun to play with! Colin smiled. He really loved Greebo! "Liam!! Ci! Look at this one!" Colin turned back to the old book he had been looking at. The top of the large library table had been strewn with books and notebooks and quills and all sorts of things that three keen kids would need for studying or drawing or playing table games. Colin had been telling Liam all about second year, the year Liam missed due his being held captive by their wicked Aunt Agatha. Liam had almost despaired of being so far behind his twin in their studies! It wasn't so much that he had a lot of friends in Ravenclaw House, but the very thought of being held back a year weighed heavily on the thirteen year old. Thankfully, Colin had heard that there was a way for kids who had been in long magical comas or eaten by Goblins or held prisoner by their evil relatives to study hard all summer long and they could join their classmates of their appropriate year. This had excited both boys, and even their little sister Ciarán was eager to help! She would be starting Hogwarts in September, and was keen on finding out about the place, so she had joined them in the library. "What is it Cail?" the girl asked. She leaned over the table, peering from her own book to what Colin was looking at. It was a battered looking old book full of scribbly handwriting. "Those don't look like normal letters! Are they runes?" Liam's interest was piqued at the mention of runes. He got up from his place and crowded into the chair with Colin. He ran his finger along the lines Colin had indicated. The two boys smiled as they read. Ciarán's brow furrowed. Colin poked Liam's side and pointed at a part of the story. Liam laughed aloud! Not long after, Liam poked Colin's side and they both laughed at the passage! "Will ye two let me in on the secret! Ye're laughing like two daffies!" The girl got up on her knees in her chair next to Colin's. She stretched herself out to see the writing on the page. "I know me runes, ye know! I can read that, if it's runes!" She began reciting and the twins watched her with interest. "Feehoo, oorooz, thoorisaz, ansooz, radio and koinan!" "One wrong!" sang out Liam. Ciarán stuck out her tongue. "Onyway, lassie, this ain't in runes. Ye can read it wi us! Here: A'll read it!" Colin flipped the page back and began to read. Many times in our family's history, we have come into curious and even humourous contact with Muggles. Here, my Aunt Mary of sainted memory relates an interesting anecdote about the Muggle song known by various titles but is often heard in pubs as The Gypsie Laddies. It is a very old song, certainly far older than dear Aunt Mary! Possibly even predating the Statute of Secrecy. This is what she told: It was a stormy summer's day when the Three Brothers set out. Liam, Alex, and Colin, and Colin was the third born of them. They wandered far over the high lands and down into the valleys and all around the lochs and rivers of the north. After many days, they came to a certain house. A Muggle house. And the lord of that manor was a-hunting. There lived a very pretty girl by the name of Lillybet, and she was a squib. She was also married to the lord of that land! But Colin had long had his Eye on her beauty, for he knew her sister from school, as she herself was a wizard. And so it was the trio stood before the great manor house and began to sing. And how sweetly they must have sung!, for it wasn't long before the lady of the house came tripping down the stairs, through the hall and out the door! Her maids all came out with her, looking on in astonishment as the young lady stood entranced by the young men's singing. Some called for the men of the house to chase off the Gypsy intruders, for they were casting their spells on the lady, but none could do anything, for she was utterly entranced! One can only guess if Colin had learnt of some spell that could be cast whilst singing, or perhaps he cast an imperius curse on his darling! That, we shall never know! But when their good lord came home that night, he certainly was 'asking for his lady-o' as the song says! But all the maidens and servants of the house could do was lament that the lady was 'awa wi the gypsy laddies'. And he became very wroth. He wanted to kill the three young men. Of course, they weren't in any way gypsies, and it's a shame that Muggles conflated the Travellers with us Wizarding folk! But that's what happens when you make people live secretly. And he saddled up his favoured black steed, Darkest Night, for his brown was weary from the hunt that day and anyway by all accounts was rather slow. And he set off on a quest of his own to search out where his dear heart had gone off to! All over the Highlands he rode, east and west and one coast to the other, from Nairn to Aberdeen, from Inverness to Dundee and even through Strathbogie, that place once very well known to Wizard kind! And it was there he saw an old man coming through Strathbogie, and he carried a staff and wore curious robes of black and deep colours besides. And there was a kenning look in his eye as he regarded the lovelorn Muggle lord! For his eyes were green and it seemed that he knew what the nobleman was going to ask him about! "For it's did ye come East, or did ye come West, or did ye come through Strathbogie? And did ye see a gay lady? She wes following three gypsy laddies!" And the man with the staff spoke his answer to the lord, but he did not understand it fully. "For it's I've come East and I've come West, and I've come through Strathbogie; and the bonniest lady that e'er I saw --- aye, she wes following three gypsy laddies!" Of course, the 'gey auld man' was none other than Colin, who had heard news that the lord was riding the length and breadth of all Aberdeenshire in search of his lady! And he thought he might go out and meet the man. And having talked with him, he turned and disappeared, whence the lord knew not. But Muggles are clever and this one was also determined! He brought up his hounds and directed them to take scent where Colin had stood! And soon enough the wrathful lord and his men found where the lady and her gentlemen were camped! He had ridden through Strathbogie, that once wizarding town, though few of us remain, and through the dark forest nearby. How little did he know that he was skirting magical lands all the while! And at last he came to the Deveron and there by the opposite banks he saw his lady and she spoke. "For before last night when I crossed this river, I had dukes and lords to attend me, but this night I must put in my warm feet and wade, and the laddies wading before me. Then, I lay in a good feather bed, my own wedded lord beside me, but this night I must lie in a cold corn barn, and the laddies lyin around me." And the lord heard what she had said and was moved with pity for his dear heart's words. He would kill the gypsies if he could get his hands on them, but his wife, no, he would be merciful to her! And he spoke so that she could hear. "For it's will you give up your houses an your lands, and will you give up your baby? And will you give up your own wedded lord and keep following these gypsy laddies?" And Lillybet spoke the last words to her husband, choosing in stead to go with Colin and his brothers. "For it's I'll give up my houses an my lands, an I'll give up my baby. And it's I'll give up my own wedded lord, and keep following the gypsy laddies." And from there she turned and went along with Colin and Alex and Liam and they disappeared into the dark forest beyond Deveron. And immediately, the lord, his hounds and his men all charged across the ford to their peril! For they all heard the cry of the augurey, and a sudden flood of water rushed down Deveron and swept away man and horse and hound! And the last cries of the dying were drowned at last. And search as he might, the lord wandered the dark forest, peering into a magical land he had no hope of entering and became lost. The tale is told and sung by the Muggles, even now in the pubs of Strathbogie and Dufftown and Alford, and even as far as Perth and Dundee and Inverness, that there were seven brothers involved, and that they lamented 'this very night we shall all hang for the stealing of the Earl's lady!" But, as with many stories where the mundane and the magical meet in the middle, there is a kernel of truth! And the truth is, there were seven brothers in the McCoire line: the triplets Liam, Alex, and Colin and four others: David, Dougall, Albus, and Hamish. And it is also true that of the seven wizards, Colin who was born in 1642, set forth to rescue his love, Lillybet, from the clutches of the Earl of Aberdeen. The three kids looked from one to the other in amazement. The story had to be true! It was in their family history, and the entry was signed by their Mamó, Moira Esmerelda, and she wrote it out in the 188os! "Whoa," said Colin. Colin's eyes dilated. "Whoa!" said Liam. Liam's eyes dilated. "Whoa?" said Ciarán, looking from one to the other. "Wh---? What do ye two mean 'whoa'!? Ye got that look in yer eyes. " She bapped both the boys with a sheaf of parchment from the table. Greebo, having stretched out on the table while Colin read, twitched his ears. "Ow! What's that for?" they cried in unison! "That," stated Ciarán, as Colin and Liam looked on with mouths agape, "is because boys are such idiots! Honestly! All this Colin had to do was get poor Lillybet before that yarl did! So --- immature! The lot of you!"