Allison grinned at Sabel ignoring of course the beautiful paste smeared all over. She had missed him enough to demonstrate her great care for him. However she did feel like scolding him for being fearless with teachers--as he kept proving, hanging out with evil people wasn't really helping his cause, in Allison's opinion.

Hearing Arya come in Allison's grin spread for Arya as well, "Arya! I'm just here visiting Robin and look what I found." Allison accepted her friend's hand and stood, and while she pointed at Sabel happily and Arya helped get him up, Allison stepped in front of the two and accidentally tripped Sabel along the way. Walking over to Robin who was perched up on the tower's balcony like edge, Allison overlooked the accident she had just caused.

"Robin!" she waved at her small baby white elf owl.

Robin opened one eye and seeing as it was Allison he thought it more important to sleep. After all, the treats did nothing for him but make him fat. And he wanted to grow, but not to the sides. Closing his eye Robin hooted almost in a grunt sort of way.

"Robin! C'mere. Needja to meet meh new brother," with no embarrassment whatsoever, Allison called for Robin down and referred to Sabel as her brother. It was official. The moment he had said sorry the night before Allison had adopted him as her Hogwarts' brother.

Now that, caught the interest of the owl. Hooting and tilting its head to his side Robin flew down and landed on Allison's now padded shoulder. From her shoulder, Robin seemed to open his eyes even wider to inspect the human brother. Allison poked Robin's feathery tummy and threw a big gleaming smile at Sabel.

At first, he was relieved and grateful to have a helping hand up, rather than down. For moment he forgot about the bird paste on his face and grinned at Arya, opening his mouth to return the greeting when...

Yup. There he went again. Feet one way, body the other. 45 degree angle to 0 degrees. Beautiful clean air and a view of Hogwarts through the tower door, to the heavy scent of ammonia and front row seats to a rather defiled floor.

For a moment he lay there, listening to Allison try to beckon her owl as he debated whether or not it would be worth getting back to his feet.

After a long minute and a heavy sigh he found his footing again and stood beside Arya, absently swatting whatever had attached itself to him and was willing to remove itself, off his clothes. "Hey Arya. How were classes?"

He paused in mid swipe and looked up, blinking wide eyed at Allison. He wasn't sure he quite heard her, or he had and just needed a clear repeat. "I'm your what?"

She helped up Allison first, seeing as she was on top. She grined at her friend, "Hey Allie!" Helping up Sabel she was about to greet him as well but before she knew it he was back on the ground. Giggling she watched him pick himself up as she listened to Allison talk to Robin. When Allison called Sabel her brother she smirked at Sabel's reaction. "Your her brother silly." She took his hand and pulled him over to where Allison and Robin were while she awnsered his question. "Classes were fun! Professor Lawson gave me a cupon for helping Allie with soccer. DADA wasn't fun though, can you believe he made us do an unforgivable?" Arya didn't dare say the name of the curse, once was enough for her. She did not plan on EVER saying any unforgivable again. Reaching up with her free hand she gave Robin a few strokes.

Allison nodded over and over while Arya repeated to Sabel what she had already said. Her brother. HER brother. Sabel was allll Allison's. Well where family was concerned. And as such, her responsibilities as a sister would grow. Indeed, in Allison's head nothing Sabel could say or do would show her the contrary.

Force feeding a treat into a protesting Robin Allison began to look uneasy, "The cruciatus curse isn't something one should play with. But perhaps it would have done well...learning it." Allison had been throughly disappointed she had been unable to perform such a spell.

However she did give herself a break, after all it had been an advanced curse. Patting Arya on the shoulder, unable to see that it made Arya uncomfortable the mention of the curse's name Allison sighed, "The man seems like he is bloody brilliant, but I dunno if I really liked that class. It was a bit scary. You would think we would learn something to defend ourselves from that sort of thing."

Lifting Robin and the leather pad from her shoulder Allison got on her tippy-toes, much like in ballet, and placed it on Sabel's shoulders. The second she did so, robin began pecking at Sabel's hair. Robin was quite unused to so much disorder, and he thought it very entertaining.

"Sh-h-h-h, between us three--Okay, fine Robin us four, I overheard an older student say that Headmaster Tate is on Professor Dussssku-something's case," Allison nodded in a perfect imitation of an old lady gossiping.

He blinked at Arya first. Then Allison. Then at his hair that was being fussed over by a rather large and heavy owl. He figured he probably looked something like one of the roots that were scattered about the owlery, what with his stick figure covered in...well partly decorated in...well enough said.

"Well he kinda did tell a group of students to use the crucio curse." Sabel muttered, watching the big orange beak preen his hair as if it were feathers. Yes. He would definetly need a bath after this. "I don't think, unless its in the cirriculum any sane Headmaster would be pleased to hear such illegal things going on in the school. If the council members found it I don't think they would find it very amusing. And Headmaster Tate's not one for amusement at the wrong time."

Reaching up Sabel lightly trailed his fingers over the owl's chest, smiling at how soft the feathers were. If the owl was allowed to play with his hair, then he was allowed to play with it's feathers. That was at least what he was going to tell himself until a bitten finger told him otherwise.

His eyes flicked to Allison as he considered to smooth the bird's feather's down. Brother. It was a strange concept...word even. He had never had a sibbling before. He had to admit, he kinda liked the sound of it.

Watching Robin pick at Sabel's hair, she frowned at Allison's comment. "An unforgivable isn't something that should be taught at Hogwarts. It was a horrid idea...teaching that to us."She could tell that it didn't bother Allisonas much as it had bothered her. Her frown deppened at Allison's comment about the man as well. Did she really think a man teaching children unforgivable's was brilliant? She sighed and let the comment pass over her. Focusing instead on Robin. "I hope that Headmaster Tate is not pleased with this...what if a student decided to try it on another student!? The man's insane to trust his students with such dark magic."Standing up on her tip toes, Arya ran her fingers in Sabel's hair near Robin. Making the little bird nip at his hair even more and bringing a small smile to Arya's face.

Allison grinned as Arya offered Robin more of Sabel's hair. The owl nipped here and there and gave Arya a greatful hoot for the opportunity for more. Clearly Sabel's hair was much more interesting than the new treat Allison was holding for him.

Allison's grin vanished and in it's place appeared a large scowl, "I dunno why he dun like these treats," she mumbled under her breath.

Finally paying attention to the two individuals in the same room Allison shook her head, "Well of course he shouldn't be teaching us dark curses, and I'm pretty sure my mum will be furious if she finds out," looking at Arya into her eyes Allison continued, "And she won't know about it, but the man had a point, shouldn't we know how those things are done so we can ya know...defend ourselves?" Seeing she wasn't going anywhere with it Allison coughed, "I mean I would have never hurt that spider. Never." At least not for anything other than academic purposes.

Shrugging Allison began to walk around in the owlery looking at the other sleeping figures. "Divination was weird too. I'm a Gemini...but I dunno if I should believe in what that book said. Seemed like a bunch of bullocks, but it was still pretty interesting. Then with all the excitement of Arya getting a coupon because of my fail playing, I kept wondering if we'd get anymore."

With a small laugh Allison turned and stared at Sabel who around that time she wasn't sure whether his face indicated he was uncomfortable or resigned, "I don't get Robin. He attacks me one moment and then he's nice to yall the next. Tut tut," Shaking her index finger Allison poked Robin, "Shame on you!"

Robin then released Sabel's hair and glared at Allison. If Robin could form his hooting into words he'd state the girl was adorably insane, just like her mother.

Layla walked over to Dracio and allowed her to fly into her hand. She gave her owl a treat and looked around at the other students and owls.

"Well, for one thing..." Sabel began, blinking as Arya ran a hand through his hair only to offer to feed it to the owl; perching post indeed. He let himself ignore the fact that he was geeting preened by and owl and instead decided retaliation by stroking the owl's wings gently.

"For one thing, he said there wasn't a way to protect ourselves against the curses. No actual spell or anything, really nothing. Just the right circumstances. If he had wanted to teach us how to defend ourselves from it, he would have used the curse on us and had us try to defend ourselves."

He shrugged the one shoulder that Robin wasn't on and looked back to Arya and Allison. "I guess teaching us of the curse is the closest he could get to that, to getting us to recognize it. Not that we wouldn't recognize 'crucio' when it was spoken."

Another shoulder shrug. "I dunno. I'm not saying it's right or anything, or not dangerous to put in the hands of students. But...there would be some students who if weren't given the opportunity to try it in a controlled environment, would look it up on their own. And who knows what they might achieve, or what else they might find."

Not a comforting thought in the least so Sabel turned his attention to the biscut, treat thing Allison held, taking it from her and examining it. "I don't know why he's fine with me Allison." Sniffing the treat he wrinkled his nose before taking a small bite out of it and chewing. His face contorted with the strange taste of the bird treat and it took some effort to swallow. "But...you may wish to consider changing this," he held up the treat to indicate, "to something a little more natural, like worms."

He reached up again and scratched the owl's neck above its shoulder with affection. "After all, he is a growing boy."

"You don't? Well, good to know! Nice name, Jacob. So is your nickname Jake or anything like that?" Chelle asked, glad that at least someone could brighten her mood.

"I'm in Ravenclaw! It's my favourite, so I'm happy! What about you?"

Arya looked from Robin to Allison, looking into the girl's blue eyes. She smirked and rolled her eyes playfully, "I won't tell your mom Allie."Arya tilted her head and began to play with the ends of hair.Watching Allison walk around the owlery she listened to Sabel. "I guess it makes sense..."She returned her gaze to Sabel. He's words weren't exactly comforting but it made sense, a little.

"Yea, I noticed that there giving out a lot of those coupons for Hogsmade. Wonder why?"She quit playing with her hair and was petting another owl who seemed to beg for affection. "Transfigurations was fun. The professor was great, can't wait for the next class."

She was now runing her wand gently through the owls feathers. Causing him to doze off slightly. Looking to Robin and Sabel she watched him taste the owl treat. Giggling at his facial expression she made her own face, "Eww, I can't believe you did that Sabel! I suppose your gonna try the worms as well?"She could tell that Robin was growing on him. And how could he not? After all Robin had fixed his hair...well sorta.

Just going to send a letter and visit my owl, right...? Yes, right.

Annie was too sad anyways, to think about something else to do at the Owlery. She had to send that note to Diana and from the Saenz Residence, her cousin would send it to Manhattan to Em. There was something Anna needed to tell her cousin about: her first week and how disastrous it became with her missing journal.

Snif...snif...

Her owl, Mice...what an irony of a name, really...came down towards Annie, looking for her petting and that small amount of food the other hand held. Yummeeh!! She quickly fed him and sat nearby to hold him for a while on her arm.

Too much to think...too much to say.

Quite a few people seemed to be visiting the Owlery right now. Kiri could hear low murmuring while she was still outside the draughty room. She wondered vaguely whether the owls, which in Kiri's experience preferred silence, would be annoyed. But the Hogwarts owls were very smart things, so they might not care that much. Besides, at least one of them would have to be awake - Kiri had a job for it.

Climbing the last few steps, she extracted a letter from a chest pocket in her robe and rechecked the address. Yes, it was all in order. Term had only started a few weeks ago, so Emiliano would be surprised to receive a letter from Kiri, but she had only written him once over the holidays, and that had been before she'd got the Quidditch Captain's badge. That was news she'd been dying to tell him.

She hoped he'd be pleased. She was fairly sure he would. Nodding to herself, Kiri pushed the heavy door to the Owlery open and stepped inside. It was certainly windy, up in the tower and without windowpanes (so that the owls could come and go), but in the late-summer afternoon, the temperature was still high enough that Kiri, in her rather thin blouse, wasn't cold.
Kiri didn't know any of the other students, but she waved at them quickly anyway before wandering off to one side. A large number of school owls were dozing on their perches high above Kiri's head. "Erm... 'scuse me, please," she said quietly to a girl who was feeding an owl. Kiri needed to get past her.

Ivory timidly set foot into the owlery, casting a weary glance overhead. Back home, where pigeons ran amock, it wasn't quite the smartest move to walk under a room full of birds for fear of being well, bombarded by unwelcome falling debris. High in the rafters and on perches and roots everywhere were owls of all sorts, but surprisingly there did not seem to be a bit of droppings anywhere. Marveling at the sheer cleanliness of the tower, she took another step forward.

Oh, how beautiful some were. Like that small elf owl that was nesting on some boy's shoulder as two girls ruffled his feathers and attempted to feed him.

For a fleeting moment she wondered if it would've been a better idea to ask for a small owl from her parents, it sure would've fit in better around here, or at least help her to. Ivory let out a sigh, if only she'd been able to bring her miniature dragonich along but at the moment her grandparents were arguing its legality at the ministry. Oh well.

A small squawk and flutter of wings made her glance up as the reason for her visit swooped down in a quick dive from the highest rafter. Just when she thought her dear Gavin was going to splat against the floor, he pulled up at the last second and came to rest on her shoulder.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she turned her head as he nuzzled her cheek. She watched as he slowly furled and unfurled his black speckled wings against his snow white body. For a Gyr falcon, he was small for his size but that suited her just fine seeing as she wasn't exactly so tall herself. Coming in at about 4'3", the last thing she needed to worry about was an oversized bird.

As if reading her thoughts, Gavin let out a loud squawk, right in her ear.

"Oh, Gavin. Gosh, don't be upset. You're not oversized..." This obviously seemed to upset him more because he simply squawked again.

"Okay fine...just...well you're perfectly proportioned and exactly the right size?"

He let our a few chirps at that one that caused her to smile.

So what if he wasn't an owl, he was exactly right for her at the moment even if he wasn't Simbad.

Allison frowned as Sabel tried the treat. Really why on earth would he do that? However the second his facial expression changed Allison bit back a laugh. "A worm? And what, you think I'm going to hunt them down?"

Allison began to walk around the owlery observing all the different owls in the room. What was weird for her was seeing a random bird that didn't seem to belong in the Owlery. It looked like a falcon. About to point him out to her friends among the other owls a girl walked in and the creature reacted to her presence immediately. As she usually did, Allison took in the girl's every feature. Noting that girl was even smaller than her, Allison gave the girl a hesitant smile.

Putting pause in her head to the talk of coupons, Allison walked over to the girl and her gigantic bird. Not knowing how to introduce herself she gave the girl her biggest smile, "Allison Scott, and that little fellow on my bro's shoulder is Robin. My white elf baby owl." Thinking that perhaps introducing them all would fit better Allison scratched her head and continued, "Arya, first year Hufflepuff. Sabel, fourth year Gryffindor. And again, I'm Allison Scott. First year Ravenclaw...and you seem to be in my house as well."

Sabel blinked at the two girls as he held the treat in one hand, the other massaging the owl's back.

"What?" He let out a small chuckle. "You can't tell me you haven't tried eating dog, cat, or bird food before."

By the looks on their faces, they hadn't. He blushed a little bit as he stuffed the treat in his pocket. Apparently he was the only one that had. "In some countries maggots, crickets and ants are delicacies." He pointed out to Arya. "I've...yes I've tried a worm before...kinda..." Maybe that wasn't the best topic, so he skirted around it. "I'll gather them from the garden, or the pathway or somewhere. It'll be better protein for dear Robin here."

And then there was a falcon rushing across the owlery to reunite with its owner. A small smile touched his lips as he watched the two, glancing at Allison who took up the task of introducing them. He held up one hand in greeting. "Hey."

Nicoletta came up to see her owl. He seemed well enough. Huh, must've found himself some mice. "Demetri!" she called. "C'mere! I've got a job for you!" Demetri hooted softly and flew over to her. She ruffled the black feathers on his head. "Take this to Vi. She'll be waiting. Remember, she's at Beauxbatons!" Nicoletta pulled a piece of green yarn out of her pocket and used it to attach a letter to Demetri's leg. She gave him a strip of raw meat from the great hall and fed it to him before he left.

As Ivory ran her fingers over the soft feathers on Gavin's breast, she looked around and noticed one of the girls from the small trio giving her a smile, and was startled to see her begin to walk over. Warmth rose up into her cheeks as she remembered her last experience in the menagerie attempting to make conversation. This time would be different , she promised herself. She would not stutter and she would be as friendly as possible and not shy at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zieko

Putting pause in her head to the talk of coupons, Allison walked over to the girl and her gigantic bird. Not knowing how to introduce herself she gave the girl her biggest smile, "Allison Scott, and that little fellow on my bro's shoulder is Robin. My white elf baby owl." Thinking that perhaps introducing them all would fit better Allison scratched her head and continued, "Arya, first year Hufflepuff. Sabel, fourth year Gryffindor. And again, I'm Allison Scott. First year Ravenclaw...and you seem to be in my house as well."

As the girl spoke, Ivory concentrated on not letting the red flush in her cheeks spread to her hair.She hoped she got it all. If Allison, as she introduced herself, noticed she didn't mention it which by far made her a saint in her book.
That's all she needed, her possible new friends seeing her hair turn red and then asking embarrassing questions about her sadly lacking abilities that she just couldn't answer. Better they asked about books or music or games...as her mind rambled on thinking on topics of future conversation instead on concentrating on the present one she almost missed Allison's last comment....Ravenclaw as well. Well, golly that was just marvelous.
Realizing that she hadn't even gotten her pleasantries out of the way, she tried to smile as brightly as possible.

"Right, I do seem that. That is... umm, I not only seem it, I am....and so are you,so that's just great."

Happy to have just gotten that sentence out of the way she continued without skipping a beat. "I'm Ivory by the way, and this little fellow," she said indicating the white falcon on her shoulder, "is Gavin, and I'm first year too, 'tho I'm sure my height gave it away."

She stuck out her small hand in front of her before her shyness could get the better of her; concentrating on her nails, changing them from the short result of worrywort nail biting to clean, decently long, nicely shaped ones.

"Nice to meet you."

Nicoletta heard a girl talking behind her. What did she say her name is?... Ivory? "Cute owl you've got there. Mine just left. I'm Nicoletta, second year." she introduced herself. Nicoletta twisted her finger around the purple ends of her blond hair.

Allison wasn't sure what it was that changed of the girl's appearance, but not really caring she took the girl's hand and shook it fiercely. Looking back at Arya and Sabel she released Ivory's hand and pulled the girl towards them.

"We were just talking about classes. I haven't seen you around just yet. Ivory you haven't been missing class have you. It won't do our house any good." Shaking her head Allison ignored the fact there was a Hufflepuff and Gryffindor among them. "I was think yall, maybe tomorrow we could hang out at the library and do our work. Professors, are such as crazy as the people I've met. Each one assigning homework! Thank Merlin Professor Vindictus didn't assign anything, to think our homework would be investigating the aspects of a broom would be so weird!"

Fiddling with her robes Allison gave Sabel a half-smile, "You didn't get detention right? I mean you were only trying to get Keeley." Giving Ivory a quick nudge in the ribs she explained, "Just incase you missed it. Cause I totally did. During Flying I was too busy concentrating on flying higher that I had to hear later that Sabel here, practically told our Head of House to cool his horses. Some poor girl fell from her broom, and Sabel was making sure she was ok." Giving Sabel another bright smile she continued, "So nice of you. I'd have given you points, but of course Professor Vindictus didn't see it like that. Point is the class was awesome, and I was wondering if you were okay Sabel. Nothing bad happened right?"

Mice was already biting Annie's finger when she noticed no food was in it to feed her owl. "I'm sorry..." She whispered to the black and brown feathered one, as she took another bunch from her small pouch. For once, Copito wasn't her company, he had decided after so many days of searching for the journal, that he should stay inside the dormitory and sleep those many hours. After all, he'd be chasing the owls and that was not pleasant at all.

Although the place, so peaceful and yet windy, Annie's mind was still trying to figure out where was her diary. The little notebook had to appear!! Two weeks it had been and nothing had appeared yet, not a single notice she had recieved, which made her go insane. She wanted to tell Phantom all the amazing things that had happened so far, like the fact that she got to play soccer for a little bit during Muggle Studies class and at Transfiguration, she learned to conjure flowers and butterflies. So pretty it had been. Sigh...

And again, her concentration was taken back again, but this time from a girl who needed to walk in further into the owlery, and Annie was on her way. "Oh, my bad..." She said, walking apart from the stone she stood against, letting the girl take her way in.

But then it hit her. Hadn't Annie met this girl before? After taking a few glances at the older girl's face, she finally realized it was Kiwi...Kiri! Yes, the Slytherin girl that accidently sent a football against Lorelai at Muggle Studies and who Annie exchanged just a few sentences with. "Kiri...right?" She had to make sure it was her...

Whoaa...that was a long line of chatter right there. He was tempted to put one finger in his ear and clean it out from all the ear wax that had been compacted inside with the constant talking. A smile spread on his face in amsuement; Kellen and the other guys never said so much with one breath...well...except for Chaucer.

First things were first however. He smiled at the new girl and held up his hand. "Sorry, I would shake but I kinda landed on some..." he spared a quick glance at the owl, "I have to wash my hands. But it is a pleasure to meet you." He provided Ivory with a small bow of the head instead, grinning as he straightened. "And is that a Gyr Falcon? He's beautiful."

His eyes flicked over to the blonde girl that had come up, Nicoletta, he believed she had said her name was. "Hi. Sabel Dakest." He held up his hand again in the same indiction he couldn't really shake and instead gave her a smile and pointed to the others. "Allison, Arya, and...Ivory."

His eyes flicked to Allison as she directed 'detention' towards him. Then he redened a little bit, shifting his feet. "No. I didn't get detention. And no, nothing bad happened." He shook his head a little and dismissed everything about cooling the professor and points. "I'm just glad Keeley was okay."

Ivory turned towards the girl behind her with the blond hair with purple tips. "Oh he's not an owl. He's a Gyr falcon. His name is Gavin. Although I guess he could pass for a skinny white one." She scratched his chin affectionately. "I'm Ivory a first year."


Ivory tried to keep up with Allison's fast pace as she was pulled towards her two companions.

As the boy, Sabel introduced himself apologizing about his coated hands, she gave him a tentative smile.

" Oh yeah," she said with a weary laugh replying to Allison's line of questioning. " Well, I"ve gone to class I just well," she decided to go for honesty in this regard. No sense to start out a friendship with half-truths.

"I'm a bit selfconcious about my wand. It's very old and does funny things....and I'm painfully shy at times so I guess I was just so quiet that no one noticed me."

Casting her eyes down in embarrassment, she decided to change the topic by turning towards Sabel. He was thus far the first boy who had directly spoken to her. Well, at Hogwarts that was, because obviously she had spoken to boys before,she wasn't a nun, I mean of course she had. Its just that this one was the first here at school, in a semi-social environment. If you could call this being social...

"Pleasure to meet you too." She said with a smile, nodding after he asked if her Gavin was a Gyr falcon. "I'm sure he thinks he's beautiful too, what with all the preening he constantly does."

Turning her attention back to Allison, as she continued on about homework and quidditch. She found herself looking at her admiringly, wishing she had the guts to simply walk up to a stranger and engage them in conversation. In fact, Allision reminded her much of herself, that is if she ever came out of her shell.

"That sounds great. I haven't even started on the homework."

This was great, not only had she apparently made friends but had also met some study buddies. At the mention of the flying lessons and the poke in the ribs, she inadvertently gave a groan.

"Actually, I did miss that incident we must have missed each other high in the air."
Her mouth turned down at the corners and she almost felt her hair darken in shade before she kept it in check. "I had really wanted to try out for the team but," she gave a rueful smile. "I overslept."

Arya was still runing her wand through the old owls feathers while she listened to Allison. The owl had dozed off but she could tell that her was still enjoying her touch subconsciously. "I think a study group would be great! I'll need some help with DADA homework. And we have to practice what we learned in Transfiguration, we could do the somewhere outside."She giggled at Sabel's comments, sure she tried and dog treat, but only cause her brother tricked her into it. "I'll help you lot for worms Sabel."

Arya looked up from the owl when she heard Allison introduce her to another girl. "Hey, I'm Arya..."The first thing that she noticed was the girl seem to be nervious about meeting them. But then she saw the girls beautiful flacon, stoping her stroking of the owl. She quickly picked it back up when the old owl woke and began to hoot in protest. Grining at him she turned back to the girl. "I love your falcon...eagles are my favorite. My mom's a muggle vet so I've seen them all. Where did you get him from?"

Seeing the falcon had reminded her of all the animals she had worked with back home. Which in turn made her think of all the animals she would get to work with here.She had never known anyone to own a falcon or any bird of prey that didn't work with them. But then again this was a magical school.

"He's beautiful. I have to go but mabey we can talk later." she said. And waved as she left the owlery.