Story Notes:
This is another story in my sporadic "Potter family" series and, as it's set in 2009 it's the most modern of my stories. This particular story is something of an experiment, so please let me know what you think.
Alwinton and Harbottle (and Harbottle Castle and the River Coquet) are real places in Coquetdale in the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland. The house called Drakeshaugh (pronounced Drakes-hoff) exists only in my imagination, but Harbottle Lough, Drakestone Burn and the Drake Stone itself are real.
Haugh is an old English word meaning meadow, or hollow (or sometimes hidden place) and is a common place name in Northern England and Scotland. For some unknown (to me at least) reason, Northumbrians use neither the English word lake nor the Scottish word loch, instead following the Irish tradition and calling large bodies of water loughs (locally pronounced loff). Confusingly, a –burn†in Northern England and Scotland, is a stream. Coquet (if you’re interested) is pronounced koh-kett.
This is a part of the UK I am familiar with (as should be obvious from my nom de plume), nevertheless, any resemblance between my Original Characters and the residents of Coquetdale is purely coincidental. The canon characters, of course, belong to JKR and I’m simply playing with them.
Finally, apologies to local footballing legend Jackie Charlton for the bad joke.