date: 2026-06-05
date_world_start: 2007-12-14
date_world_end: 2008-06-20
role: public
summary: "Stranded on a country road, the party hitched a ride to the next town and ended up at a church, where the Vicar made them call home. Caoimhe's mother drove two hours to collect them, heard the whole story, and delivered them back to Hogwarts and a tense reunion with McGonagall, who agreed to keep Fredrickson safe in the divination tower. The rest of the term passed quietly: Otto drew the worried Callum out with a Hogsmeade trip and gym sessions that ended in a clumsy first kiss, while Finlay and Caoimhe got nowhere with a prickly Primrose, who hinted she might transfer to Inverness and not return next year."

The spirit's directions led the party out of the woods and onto a road. They tried to summon the Knight Bus, but the spell did nothing, so instead they talked a passing trucker into driving them to the next town over. He delivered them to a church and went straight in to tell the Vicar about the lost children he had found on the road. The party tried to slip away while the two talked, but were called back inside before they could manage it. Caoimhe stayed invisible the entire time. Even the driver never knew she was there.

The Vicar insisted they call their parents. Otto rang Caoimhe's mother and, as subtly as he could, told her to come. She arrived a couple of hours later, frantic and picked them up. The party told her everything (almost -- they left out the part about the rings). She listened, then asked, half-despairing, why they couldn't be normal children who just did drugs or something. She drove them back to home and then escorted them on the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade. Upon arrival at Hogwarts, she traded sharp words with Professor McGonagall, but eventually calmed. At the party's request, McGonagall agreed to keep Fredrickson somewhere safe, and they suggested the divination tower, alongside Sir Cadogan.

The rest of the term was, by their standards, ordinary. Callum fretted constantly over his missing parents, so Otto took him to The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade to get his mind off it, and they had a fine afternoon. On the walk back, Otto asked Callum to help him get stronger, and the two began meeting in the gym. One evening, after a session, Otto kissed Callum on the corner of his mouth. Callum froze, went scarlet, blurted "goodnight!" and fled.

Finlay and Caoimhe, meanwhile, pressed Primrose for more about the tower. She had little patience for them — still stung that no one had believed her about Harry Potter sending her mail — and flatly refused to approach Otto, whom she named the meanest of the lot. Before they left her, she let slip that she probably wouldn't be back at Hogwarts next year. She was thinking of transferring to Inverness.