CHASER 1: "The Holy Grail" Sir Galahad is saved by Sir Lancelot from… ahem…. peril in the form of numerous beautiful women. Write about a canonly virtuous/innocent character resisting temptation.

Prompts:

(dialogue) "The only thing tougher than farmers are farmers' mums."

(creature) Niffler

(word) coincidence

The third-year boy's dormitory in the Gryffindor tower was usually surprisingly clean and organized. Yes, the house elves made the beds and did laundry, but for the rest of the personal items, this particular group of boys all seemed to be at least moderately tidy. That's why it was such a surprise to the 5th-year Gryffindor prefect when he walked by the room and glanced into what looked like a small tornado had touched down. The lanky teen studied the room for a brief moment before walking to one of the beds, reaching down, grabbing a foot, and pulling.

"Ahhh!" squeaked Colin, taken by surprise.

"Colin, you have class in 5 minutes, what are you doing here?" The older boy demanded. He looked down at the boy who looked as if he'd been crying.

"My camera broke," Colin answered, giving a little hiccup and holding up a couple of bits he had pulled from under his bed. It was obvious that it was beyond repair, even with magic.

"You need to go; you're going to be late," the prefect scolded.

Colin pouted and trudged out of the room.

"Colin, is everything ok?" Ginny asked during their study session that evening.

The boy looked up from his book. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"You've been reading the same page for an hour and you haven't started on your essay," Luna said softly.

"My camera broke. I don't think it can be fixed, some of the pieces are missing I think."

"Isn't that the new one you just got for your birthday?" Jared, one of Luna's Ravenclaw friends, asked.

Colin nodded miserably. "The only thing tougher than farmers are farmers' mums."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "What does that even mean?" she asked with a bemused expression.

"I thought your dad was a milkman," Luna said wistfully.

"Your mum's gonna kill you, isn't she?" Jared pointed out as Colin dropped his head to his book in defeat.

That was exactly what Colin was worried about. Being a milkman didn't pay very much and he knew that the camera had taken his parents months of savings to buy for him it was a top of the line model that he had wanted for ages. He couldn't believe it when he opened his present last month to find that his parents had actually bought it for him. And now his beloved camera lay in pieces on his bed. He wasn't sure how to tell them it broke. He had been practicing some spell work in his room and aimed badly, all his belongings had flown around the room, the camera crashing into the wall and scattering the parts and pieces. A reparo spell only worked if you had all the pieces. To top it all of he'd already told his parents he'd send pictures of the upcoming task for the Triwizard Tournament and they were looking forward to seeing them.

Deciding to take a walk in an attempt to clear his head, Colin headed to a part of the castle he'd never been to before — exploring and sometimes getting a little lost was almost always a surefire way to forget about your other troubles, mostly because the current problem of finding your way back before you got into even more trouble would preoccupy the mind.

A jingling sound distracted Colin from his wanderings, looking around he saw a small animal scurrying around a corner, his Gryffindor curiosity getting the better of him he naturally followed. When he turned the corner himself Colin saw a small dark animal trying to squeeze into a gap in the wall. Not knowing what exactly he was looking at, he approached the distracted creature quietly. It was cute, as far as magical creatures go, with black fluffy fur and a long platypus-like snout and was fairly small, no bigger than a cat.

Colin chuckled at the little nifflers antics trying to get into its burrow, it was getting stuck because of its overly stuffed pouch.

At the sound of his laugh, the creature turned around and stared at the boy. Colin slowly crouched down.

"I won't hurt you," he said softly and reached out his hand slowly, the dark fluffy fur too irresistible to not try and pet. The little niffler leapt onto him, running up one arm, across his shoulders, and down the other arm before disappearing into the hole in the wall. It didn't take Colin long to realize the little thief had taken his watch. He dove, arms first, into the hole in the wall, it was just large enough for him to get in up to his shoulder as he felt around for the little creature. The space must have been very deep because there was no sign of the niffler as he felt around hoping to get back his watch. His fingers grazed over a familiar feeling object his fingers curled around it and he gave a little tug and the object freed itself.

Colin stared in awe of the camera, an even better model than the one his parents had given him. It was such a strange coincidence that the niffler would have had one packed away. He smiled, at least now he wouldn't have to worry about explaining the broken camera for a while.

For the next couple of weeks, Colin was on cloud nine with his new camera, no one noticed that it wasn't the same camera and most of the other kids just assumed he had managed to fix the broken one.

The second task of the Triwizard Tournament was quickly approaching and a day or two before the press and other officials began to arrive. Colin found a great view of the events behind the press box bleachers, with his new camera he knew he'd have the best shots

"I'm telling you, Rita, I had it for the first task and then it disappeared," a man with a poor quality camera said as he and Rita Skeeter approached the press box.

"Howard, what are you trying to say?" Rita asked with a puzzled look.

"Just that I'd like to look around the place a bit see if anyone found it. It was a high-quality camera, this thing just doesn't have the same resolution."

The photographer, Howard, went on to describe to the non-interested Rita all about the camera. Even down to the nick on the left edge. Colin, from his spot behind the bleachers, heard the whole conversation, he looked down at the camera in his hands, the nick on the left edge and initials under the cap. Colin couldn't deny it any longer: he had this man's camera. He knew he could get away with keeping it; it was a large castle and hundreds of people, no one would pin it back to him, still, it didn't calm the unsettled feeling in his stomach. With a heavy heart, he crawled out of his hiding spot and approached the anxious-looking photographer and returned the most beautiful camera he'd ever used.

Howard was flabbergasted when this small boy approached him and held out the camera explaining he had found it some weeks prior. The boy clearly was a prodigy when it came to photography. Howard couldn't help but invite the boy to sit in the press box with him while they discussed the fine points of the art, especially considering there wasn't much one could see during the main event as all the champions were busy underwater for a whole hour.

Eventually, Colin did write home and told his mum and dad what had happened. Two days later a letter arrived for him from home.

Dear Colin,

Thank you for telling us about the camera. Don't worry. We purchased insurance on it. Just send it home and we'll get it fixed.

Love,

Mum