Boy to Wolf and Back Again

7 September 2021

Colin sat in the Owlery. He loved it up there because he could be alone and just think, away from the chaos of the common rooms. He'd written a letter to his little sister in which he admitted to catching and eating a mouse.

And now, he'd done it again. "I hope it wasn't someone's pet," he said to a nearby owl. "Or your breakfast!" The first time he ate a mouse came as quite a shock. It's not the school didn't feed him! But, as he thought about it, there was just something *satisfying* about the hunt, the tracking, the pounce.

And then, well, the crunch and the juiciness.

Colin had only just started at Hogwarts the week before, and the whole overwhelming experience was now compounded by this whole mouse eating thing.

He had put it out of his mind until now, but when Mamó had treated the dog bite he received during the attack before he'd left for London, she said something strange. That the family had just gotten itself a werewolf.

Suddenly his heart felt heavy! "Oh, no! No! I wrote and told Ciaràn about the mouse hunting and snarling at that kid in the corridor and everything! What if she shows the letter to Ma?"

Colin's mother worked for the Ministry and was outspoken on the matter of werewolf activity in the Highlands. A sudden and crushing thought entered into Colin's awareness. "Ma wants to kill all werewolves --- but what if I were bitten by a werewolf and not a dog!? Oooh, no! What if she finds out? What if --- what if *I'm a werewolf too* and she finds out. She wouldn't come after me --- would she?"

Colin sighed.

It was bad enough he'd been sorted into Slytherin while his twin, Liam, was in Ravenclaw. But now this.

Colin felt suddenly so very alone. He bowed his head onto his knees and began to shiver.

His tears fell onto the stone seat of the Owlery window, mixing with the downy feathers there.