[TTD - Shetland Islands] Pandora’s Aquarium (Rolf)

Deirdre had been visiting Ms Robbins in London and had listened to the older woman’s instructions for a new case she was supposed to take over. The witch asked her to take a portkey from Hyde Park as she suspected that she’d be on the same portkey with her target. It was an easy enough task. Another detective had overheard the man that he’d take the portkey from there so Ms Robbins just needed someone to be there and observe the guy from his destination which, supposedly, was Edinburgh and thus a home advantage for Deirdre.

She walked to the spot in Hyde Park and looked for the portkey that Ms Robbins had described but she saw no kettle anywhere. There was, however, an old pan. She looked around and, when she saw two other people who seemed, like her, to be looking for some old item on the floor she approached one of them - the one who was definitely not her target.

“Do you want to go to Edinburgh, too?” she asked, thinking that this was a question that would maybe sound odd if the person wasn’t magical but would not give anything away.

However, before she could get a response, the pan began to glow and Deirdre instinctively reached out for it. The journey was longer than expected and when it ended, Deirdre saw a lot of water (the Sea) and small ponies.

“Hmm,” she said, looking around, “this definitely is not Edinburgh.”

@Rolf Scamander

His confidence boosted by the knowledge that the Daily Prophet were now regularly going to be printing his articles and calling on him when they had a story that needed covering, Rolf had decided to broaden his horizons by introducing himself to some fellow magizoologists. Naturally his grandfather seemed to know just about everyone in the country, but the nineteen year old was mostly just known to them as a small child they'd met a decade or so earlier. Now he was an adult, he wanted his own contacts and thus he had written to two people in Edinburgh, a wizard in his seventies who specialised in the breeding of fancy kneazles and an elderly witch on the outskirts of the city who had written three books about which plants were suitable for feeding to griffins.

One thing Rolf wasn't entirely confident in was apparation. Oh, if he was just travelling a few dozen miles it was no problem, but all the way up to Scotland was a bit far. He also didn't want to impose by asking a virtual stranger if he could floo directly into their living room, so he decided to take a portkey. There was one leaving shortly from Hyde park, a mostly deserted, lightly wooded area that had plenty of places to hide behind so muggles wouldn't see. Only then did Rolf question his memory. Was it an old boot or a bucket he was looking for?

He was saved by a woman about his own age who approached and asked if he was going to Edinburgh. "Yes, but I..." he began, but the young woman was already reaching for an old frying pan that he had previously overlooked. Rolf reached down and firmly put a finger onto it as well, relieved that he would be at his destination soon.

Except when he opened his eyes, he clearly wasn't. He and the young woman were standing on a windswept shoreline. One one side was a huge body of water that, from the unmistakable smell he assumed was the sea, on the other, scrubby pasture and a few small trees upon which ponies and, in the distance, sheep were grazing. "It looks like one of the Scottish islands" he mused thoughfully, his destination temporarily forgotten. Taking a few steps, Rolf broke into a huge smile and turned back to his unexpected companion. 'It's beautiful though, don't you think? Wouldn't it be a great place for a holiday!"

Deirdre looked at the young wizard, her face was expressionless but she doubted his sanity. They had wanted to get to Edinburgh and ended up Merlin-knew-where and he seemed… delighted. He was around her age and since he spoke without an outlandish accent she suspected that he was a wizard from the Hogwarts area, however, she could not remember having seen a Gryffindor or Hufflepuff with such a broad smile while at school. Deirdre’s instincts told her that she didn’t even have consider that he might have been in Slytherin or Ravenclaw.

“Yes,” Deirdre said rather coolly, “it might be a nice place for a holiday but I have business to attend to in Edinburgh and this is quite inconvenient.” She was about to snap at him that it was all his fault because he hadn’t stopped her from grabbing the obviously wrong portkey.

However, before Deirdre could go on there was some sort of crustacean emerging from the water. The young witch took a step backwards as she stared down at the animal. “Looks like a lobster,” she mused, “maybe we should catch it, apparate to Edinburgh and cook it for dinner.”

She was only half serious, after all, she did not want to invite this stranger to dinner but she remembered having once eaten lobster at a restaurant she had been to with her grandparents and it had been delicious.

Rolf blinked in surprise, and then remembered that he was in the wrong place and he did have business to attend to. "Yes, you're quite right. Madam Mac an Ollaimh will be expecting me within the hour" he recalled "It's unusual for a portkey to malfunction like that, though. I wonder if we picked the wrong one by accident..." he spoke thoughtfully, half to himself, thinking that it was rather poor planning to have two portkeys going to different destinations left so close together. Not for a moment did he imagine that the woman might blame him for ending up here. After all, she had grabbed the portkey first, he had simply followed along because he assumed that she knew what she was doing.

Besides, blame was pointless. They were somewhere they hadn't meant to be, and now they needed to find their way back. But first, Rolf really wanted to know where they were so he could figure out where he would feel safe apparating to. "Perhaps we..." he began, but the young woman was now staring at something climbing out of the sea onto the rocks. "A lobster?" he asked, crossing to stand next to her. He only needed to stare down at the beast for a second before he knew what it was.

"No, no - that's no lobster!" he said excitedly, dropping to his knees and peering at it more closely "That's a mackled malaclaw. Don't touch it!" he cautioned, unnecessarily "They're quite beautiful, but their bite causes bad luck for up to a week and...I know where we are! You see, this one's a deeper share of grey than usual, an adaptation the stormy northern seas, and the green spots are more of a mottled pattern...We're somewhere north of Scotland...my guess would be the Orkney or Shetland Islands! Probably the Shetlands, this one really is quiet dark..." he clambered to his feet, positively grinning now.

"Do you have an apparation license? We should be quite safe getting back to the mainland from here" he said confidently. If the woman didn't - well, he hoped she wouldn't mind waiting here alone for a few minutes while he went to the mainland and fetched some help. It would certainly be more pleasant than getting splinched, which he felt would certainly happen if he tried side-along apparation for the first time.

This young man really was quite peculiar. Deirdre’s eyebrows twitched and she only just managed not to raise them. He told her who he was seeing in Edinburgh and to a secretive young witch like her it was really strange.

“I suppose so,” Deirdre agreed, “I was told it should be a kettle. I didn’t see a kettle so I assumed it would be the pan instead…” She didn’t want to expand on who had told her about the kettle in the first place although she figured the wizard in front of her would have called the person by their name if it had been him telling her this.

Things got even more weird after she had misidentified the lobster that was apparently a mackled malaclaw - a creature that Deirdre had never heard of if she was honest. Maybe he was even making it up. She couldn’t be sure. However, his enthusiasm for the ugly creature was quite astonishing.

Deirdre gave a shrug when he shared his knowledge or the information his imagination was fuelling him with. “Interesting,” Deirdre said, her voice sounding so very indifferent that it was clear that she meant the exact contrary.

He asked her if she had an apparition license and Deirdre offered a mean little smile. “Don’t you?” she asked, thinking that she had no problem whatsoever to leave him behind with his mackled malaclaw. They surely had a lot to tell each other anyway.

“I have mine,” she added. “It was interesting meeting you. I’ll get to my appointment now.” Having said that, Deirdre already disapparated.

[out]

"A kettle!" Rolf slapped his forehead and beamed. THAT was what the portkey was supposed to have been! Even though he had got the wrong one and ended up somewhere unexpected - and, now he thought of it, they were the only two people here... "I'll bet whoever wanted to come here grabbed the kettle and ended up in Edinburgh by mistake..." as far as Rolf was concerned, that was a mystery solved. He hoped the other person would be able to get their misdirection sorted out quickly. Probably they farmed the sheep he could see in the distance and would need to be back to make sure they were safe. Though sheep didn't really need much looking after, did they..?

He was beginning to think that this young woman wasn't particularly friendly. She certainly wasn't interested in the malaclaw, which was a great pity. If Rolf hadn't got two appointments in Edinburgh that day he would have happily stayed a little longer. Still, he knew they lived along these shores now, so it shouldn't be too hard to come back and observe them at his leisure.

"Yes, but I don't..." he began, then stopped as she continued speaking. And then, she...disapparated. Rolf stared at the empty space for a moment, sorting through how he felt about that. Rude, he decided. No doubt she had assumed he had a license, but it would have been nice to make certain he was okay. Maybe some people were like that, though. Maybe she hadn't had friends at school and now didn't know how to be nice to people.

Rolf decided to feel sorry for the young woman. He still hoped her appointment would go well. With that thought, he squatted back down on the rocky shoreline, staring at the malaclaw for a little longer before he decided that he, too, should be making his way to Edinburgh.

Standing, he drew his wand, turned on the spot, and a moment later the shoreline stood quiet once more.

[out]