Disclaimer: The characters and setting for this story belong to J.K. Rowling, the plot belongs to me.

Redder than the Bloody Baron

Colin Creevey was a new ghost in a place where there were over twenty ghosts. He was also the smallest and youngest of the ghosts who had stayed here. The older ghosts seemed to be rather cliquish to the young ghost. Colin felt low man on the totem pole, so to speak. He had told Dennis one time when they were waiting for the opening feast to start that if he died he wanted to be a Hogwarts ghost, and now he had his wish. (You do know that a wizard has to make that choice before they die, don't you?) The ghost council was not certain that they were happy about the new ghosts at Hogwarts because so many of them were so young, but the Grey Lady, Helena Ravenclaw reminded them that these were the very same students they had been associating with not days before.

Colin decided that one good thing was that he was a real ghost and not a poltergeist like Peeves. Another good thing was that he had Fred Weasley to hang out with instead of Crabbe who hung out in the dungeons. Until they got their training wheels off they thought that they might be better off observing and hanging out in the Gryffindor Tower. (The number of muggle turns of phrase that he had not thought of in years kept creeping into Colin's thoughts unexpectedly and never failed to amuse Fred.) Nearly Headless Nick was proving a helpful mentor most of the time, but really that ghost had weird envy issues.

Colin wanted to become as famous as Nick. As a brave Gryffindor he had fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, but now he needed a bigger purpose and decided that he would make certain that Peeves did not bother the first year students. He remembered being late for so many classes because of Peeves. That would help he thought.

Fred, on the other hand, merely wanted to figure out how to turn his hair red. Ghosts are semi-transparent, non-corporeal beings. They are pearly white and glowing. Where does red hair come into that?

When the first of September 1998 came around and the new school term commenced Fred and Colin were waiting on one of the window ledges in the Great Hall. The very same one they had shared on May second during the Battle of Hogwarts. They watched as their friends filed in and took their places at the Gryffindor table. The seventh year students from the previous year were returning as eighth years as well as all of those students had been run out of the school since the beginning of the "Umbridge Era". Dennis Creevey was sitting at the Gryffindor table next to Ginny, Ron and George Weasley.

"Let's give them a start after the other ghosts make their entrances," whispered Fred to Colin.

Just then Colin noticed Peeves hovering over the first years who were lined up to be sorted. Preparing for the sorting the teachers at the head table had not noticed him far up in the rafters of the room. "We have to stop him," said Colin. They couldn't see what he had in hand to drop on them, but knew it wouldn't be good. As Peeves flicked his hand and a whole basket of red goo streamed downward toward the first years. Before it reached them, Fred and Colin swooped in with such speed as to move the mess toward the back of the hall and away from the students. The gust of wind caught everyone off guard and the splat of red on the floor startled one and all.

Colin looked at Fred and laughed. Somehow the red stuff had stuck to his hair as if by "magic". Fred looked at Colin and pointed at the camera that was hung from his neck. It was also red. Nobody in the castle could explain how or why these two ghosts had a hint of red on them, but it never went away.

Charms Assignment #4

Task: Write about the sudden rise of somebody - this could be in magical or political power, their reputation or simply physically.

Word Count: 300 min. 1500 max.