Carter headed to the owlery. He might as well get in as much visitation as possible before the end of the term. Apollo, Carter's owl, may very well be spending the summer with Josh. He admitted that he'd miss his owl over the term break, but Apollo would have a much better time anywhere but where he would be.

Plus... he wasn't really exactly sure where he'd be. He had finally decided that his former summer plans were completely out of the question... now he just had to decide what he really wanted for himself. There was now, officially, nothing to hold him back. In fact, everything seemed to be pushing him out of the door of Hogwarts faster.

Once in the owlery he spotted Destiny looking very confused. Ehhh... that wasn't out of the ordinary.

"You can use Apollo if you'd like." he offered. Apollo would probably love a job since he wouldn't have much of one over the summer.

Chewing slightly on her lip, the Slytherin stared at all the owls, who seemed to be staring back at her. She may have been looking for one when she got in here, but now it was a full on staring contest. It...was....ON!

EEEEP!

Jumping a mile, she automatically grabbed the strap of her school bag, fiddling with it excessively as she stared at whoever else was in here with here. She was certain there was no one here when she came in. She was also certain that no specific Gryffindorks were in here either, but low and behold...there was one. Meh. Carter.

"Apollo?" she asked, glancing at the owls again. Look what he made her do! She lost the staring contest.

What was Destiny doing? Having a staring contest with the owls?

...

On second thought. That was probably exactly what she was doing.

"Err... yeah. Apollo. My owl." he said tilting his head slightly. "I know I haven't sent you a letter in awhile... but you can't have really forgotten an owl that once swooped through your bedroom window." Could she? He had memorized everyone's owls so that he knew exactly who had written him before he even opened his letter.

"You were in here to send an owl... right? Or... do you often come in here just to stare at the owls...?" he asked cautiously. Did he even want to know the answer to this question?

She most certainly didn't remember any owls from Carter. What was he on about?

Reaching up to run a hand through her hair, she had a moment of panic when she realize it was a third of it's original length! But it did cause her to remember...oh. She was still Destiny. Wait, Carter and Destiny were sending owls to one another? Since WHEN!?

"Right. Apollo. I remember." she nodded slowly. Would Destiny have remembered? There was no way she was telling CARTER that she was actually Evelyn, yet she couldn't help but to scoff quietly at the suggestion that she was just here to stare at owls. Course she didn't come here JUST to stare at them. "Sending an owl actually. Which...which one is Apollo?"

...Seriously.

Carter was lost in thoughts of what would have happened if Destiny would have lost her memory. Would he have had to recite her whole life story? How exactly would he have described the love potion fiasco? What about when it came time to talk about the 'Patroclus' part of her life...? How would she have taken that? He'd also have to find Evelyn... there were parts of Destiny's life that he was not okay with talking about. That part being Evelyn.

He sighed in relief. Luckily Destiny hadn't forgotten. That would have been a bit weird...

"He's right..." Carter said looking around, "uhh... he's right..." Where was his owl? He gave up looking and decided to go with 'PLAN B'. He whistled and yelled out "Apollo!"

Soon a screech owl landed on his shoulder. "Found him." he said with a cheesy smile.

This owlery was way too big. Or maybe all the students at Hogwarts were too spoiled? Either way... there were way too many birds in here if he couldn't even spot his own owl.

Did being a Gryffindork automatically make one lose half their brain? Had Carter really forgotten what his owl looked like?

Cringing as he yelled for his bird, Evelyn looked up to see which one would be flying down, but apparently, it came from the direction she wasn't looking. Wha? Aw okay, there he was- O____O. That's the owl? That was the owl she was supposed to use? That THING looked like it was going to bite her hand off! Her WHOLE hand!

Twitch. "Huh, yea...there he is." she grinned, waving her hands up in the air as if this were some shocking surprise. "So umm..." How was she, supposed to do this? No-Name usually took the letters in his mouth. Did Apollo do the same? "How does he..." Letter. Where did the letter go? Leg? Wherever it went, it wasn't going to make her stop poking the owl with the letter, because that's what she started to do.

Poke. Poke. Pokepokepokepoke.

Carter raised an eyebrow. Had Destiny always been afraid of his owl...? Perhaps a few terms ago it had been smaller. He couldn't quite remember.

"Oh. Right." he said plunging a hand into his bag. He felt around for a few seconds. He then snapped a tiny pouch around the leg of his owl. "It's got an Undetectable Extension Charm on it." he said proudly. The pouch was large enough on the inside to fit a shoe box.

o__O Why was Destiny poking his owl? He watched for a second before holding her hand away. "Uh. That's not helping..."

Maybe it was for the best that he hadn't written Destiny in awhile...

"You can go ahead and just drop it in." he instructed.

Regardless that she hated Carter, for reasons she actually couldn't quite remember, Evelyn thought that the little pouch with the undetectable extension charm was rather smart. However... "What are you sending that requires an undetectable extension charm?" Hehe. Hmmmmmm?

o_O WHY WAS HE TOUCHING HER HAND!? Get it oooooff!

TWITCH!

Hastily shoving the letter into the pouch, she eyed the owl for a moment before eying Carter, moving her hands behind her back. No touch-y the hand. No touch-y the hand unless you don't want the hand. Or a black eye. "Thanks...For letting me borrow Apollo." Yea that's right. She was in Destiny form. Meaning she could be nice to him without him even knowing! She didn't want to ruin their real not so friendly friendship or anything. That would be awful!

Carter turned a little red. "Presents." he said trying not to sound to embarrassed. "Girls do enjoy a good sized gift..." he said running a hand through his hair. He couldn't very well tie a teddy bear to an owl of the very same size. That wouldn't make any sense.

"No problem." he said with a smile. "I'm sure he's excited to finally have something to do." he said glancing at the owl. "I'm afraid he won't have much of anything to do over the summer. I think I might ask Josh to keep an eye on him. Apollo would be bored out of his mind if he came back home with me."

Did girls enjoy a good sized gift? She was pretty satisfied with the necklace Josh gave her, and it didn't involve extension charms. Who cares though. Carter turned red. BWAHAHA! Wait...wait ew. Girls...did that mean his girlfriend? She did NOT want to talk about his girlfriend. Talk of summer was way better.

"Bored?" Seriously? What's the point of an owl if you weren't going to use it? "Not planning on sending any owls to your friends or girlfriend?"

Carter ran a hand through his hair. This was quickly getting awkward. Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned anything.

"Uhh... no. No I'm not." he said turning slightly more red. "Josh said he'd be fairly busy this summer." He opened his mouth to mention that he had no idea where Patroclus was and how to get in touch with him before he thought better of it. Destiny wouldn't appreciate hearing that.

"Mina is going to be spending as much time as possible with Evan. Plus, she'll be at her cousin's in muggle London. So if I really needed to talk to her I could use the telephone." And Marie. Well... she hardly cared what was going on in his life.

And now to even more awkward part. "Caroline... uhh... broke-up with me... thought I wasn't worth the trouble..."

"So. Like I was saying. He'd probably want to be anywhere but stuck in Surrey. Plus. It would be better that way. Won't have to worry about my sister finding him."

Yeah. This summer wasn't going to be anything like he thought it would be. Stupid runes ruining everything.

Josh was going to be busy this summer?....Whaaaaa?

She pretty much ignored all the rest, hearing only a few snippets of what was being said. Something about Evan spending time with telephones, Caroline getting into trouble, and something about Carter not wanting his sister to find him. Uh huh. Exciting. But...Josh? Busy? What was he going to be busy with? Was Rae doing something she didn't know about? If they were remodeling the house, Evelyn was going to hide out at Destiny's place if that were the case. Then again, why hasn't Rae told her yet?

"That's terrible..." she muttered slowly, nodding every so slightly as she stared at Apollo, mind completely elsewhere. Blink. "So, did Josh say what he was up to this summer? Or just that he was busy."

Phew. That was a lot better than he thought Destiny would react. He was almost positive that she would have been laughing the whole time. He was particularly grateful that she hadn't commented on the fact that he had only mentioned three people. He didn't really want to have to explain why he had only been planning on writing three people... all of which he wouldn't end up writing at all.

"It could be worse." he said trying his best not to sound like he was really as hopeless as he was.

...Why was Destiny so interested in what Josh was doing? She must have been under instructions from Evelyn to snoop around anytime the word 'Josh' was used in a sentence.

"I didn't ask." he said with a shrug. Maybe he should have? "I think he might just be staying with relatives or something..."

Could be worse? "Yea." she agreed, nodding her head, yet STILL her mind was elsewhere. "Could be worse. You could have more than three friends." And than he'd even have more of a terrible summer 'cause there were more people he wasn't owling.

...

He DIDN'T ASK!?

No. No, stay calm. "Relatives, huh?" HMMMMM. "Any particular reason?" Even if he just said he didn't ask, Evelyn was going to dig up as muuuuuuuch information as possible whether it was there or not!

Carter blinked. "No... that would be better. But I suppose I should just get used to it. We're not all going to be together after next year." Although... you could hardly call the group 'together' anymore. They hadn't all gotten together since... what was it... third year? Which was a shame. He'd always liked being a part of a big network of friends. The thought of being on his own terrified him.

"Have you thought about what you are doing after school at all?" he asked her. It would be good to know he wasn't the only one freaking out about it.

He shrugged again. "No idea... why are you so interested?" he asked. "Did Evelyn put you up to interrogating everyone who mentions Josh?"

"How would that be better?" she asked, sincerely curious about that now, and it actually got her mind back to the conversation they were having instead of Josh and his summer. "You'd rather lose contact with a bunch of people instead of a small handful?" While she really didn't care how many friends he had, his mind puzzled her.

She wasn't expecting him to ask HER questions either. Hey! SHE was the interrogator here! Not him. "No, no, none of that. I'm the one asking the questions here." So yes, in a way, Evelyn was putting Destiny up to interrogating everyone who mentions Josh. Carter just so happened to be the unlucky one. "You should find out then. And...then tell me." Because she said so.

What Evelyn didn't know though was that perhaaaaaps...her time was up with this polyjuice potion. Hazel eyes?

Really? Carter knew Destiny didn't get it sometimes... but that was pretty obvious. He had practically told her that he was currently friendless. Ehh... maybe it was better that she didn't notice what he said. "Nevermind." he said hoping to squash that conversation quickly.

... Okay. That was... unexpected. She didn't usually do that... did she? Maybe she did. Carter vaguely remembered a conversation where she refused to answer any questions because she was dressed like Sherlock Holmes.

He blinked twice. "Alright. Alright." he said hoping to quiet the girl down. "I'll do that next time I see him." Or not. He doubted Destiny would hound him if he never got back to her about Josh's summer plans.

He continued to watch her. Evelyn must have some crazy kind of hold on the girl. And while he was watching her something strange happened. Her eyes changed color. At least he thought they did. But that was impossible.

He rubbed his eyes. "I could have sworn I just saw your eyes change color." he said still rubbing his eyes. "I must be allergic to something in here." He was pretty sure hallucinating was a side effect of owl allergies.

Hmph. GOOD. Otherwise if Destiny didn't tell her sooner or later what Josh's plans were, she both had to go ask Josh herself and prank Carter, and she really didn't want to do either. There were too many finals she had to study for.

Glancing at Apollo again, wondering why the Gryffindork hadn't made him fly off yet, her eyes widened at what she just heard. Eyes...change color? Rubbing her own eyes as if would fix them, she suddenly panicked. For the love of Merlin, why NOW!? In front of him?

o_______________________O

Yup, that was starting to look like her hair.

Looking up to Carter, seeing that he was THANKFULLY still rubbing his eyes and panic was being written ALL OVER her expression, she looked around, first noticing that her skin was becoming a bit more tan, and looking for something to hide behind. What, the owls!? Good Merlin, she was starting to THINK like Destiny! Wait...think like Destiny. She had to say something Destiny would say to get out of there.

...

"Stay away! I don't want to catch whatever you're allergic to!" she yelled, turning towards the exit and holding up her bag to try and cover her darkening and growing hair. Seriously? That's what she could come up with? With her bag in front of her face, she stopped for a moment and turned back to Carter when she remembered... "Can you send that owl to a Ryan Chambers? 'KAYTHANKSBYE!" And then...then she left.

Slightly slipping on the ground too.

Carter was busy rubbing his eyes when Destiny suddenly yelled at him to stay away. He opened his eyes to tell her that she couldn't catch allergies. But she was busy slipping heading away. She was covering her face with her bag. That was... not a very good way of protecting oneself from allergies... if they were contagious.

"Um. Sure. No problem." he said waving a good-bye to Destiny. Not that it mattered of course. She wasn't watching him.

He then turned to Apollo. "Well you heard her. Ryan Chambers." he instructed his owl. It flew out of the window and out of sight.

Ryan Chambers. Why did that name sound so familiar?

And with that he too left the owlery. He needed to find Josh and see if he could owl-sit for him. And apparently he needed to find out Josh's summer plans too.

Luna walked into the owlery she had to send a letter she had clutched in her hand ''Snowy'' a small white owl swooped down she petted him and gave him a treat then she handed him a letter ''It's for Danny okay?'' then he nodded kind of and went off

Presley followed Luna up to the owlery, letter in hand. It was more of a note really. Just a short one. She whistled for Mercury, who was sitiing by the window, and flew over to Presley. She handed the owl the note, and he took it in his beak. "For dad," she told him seriously. "And be quick about it."

After packing his things down at the dungeons, Mordred made his way all the way up to the Owlery. Letter in his hand, he tried not to think too much of the stairs that he still has to take to reach his destination. Panting, he paused to wipe the little beads of sweat on his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. Summer was definitely here.

As he reached the Owlery, he scanned the tower for Xchylar. Without calling his pet, Xchylar made a smooth descent on his young master's shoulder. It held out its foot, ready to take Mordred's letter. "It's for Father. Be sure he gets it right away." the boy told his owl. The owl gave a soft hoot as if to reassure Mordred that he won't fail.

Mordred went near the opening of the tower and the summer breeze greeted his face. The boy cannot help but smile at the thought that he was going home soon. "All right, go on." Mordred gave Xchylar his go signal, and the owl flew off from his shoulder and on to the open space. The boy watched his eagle owl fly majestically in the clear blue sky.

She turned to Pres,

''Great all sent you wanna go some place?'' she asked Pres

Presley smiled at Luna. "Absolutley. Where?"

Vashti had been delaying sending this letter for awhile. She'd written it ages ago, but her pride kept getting in the way of actually sending it. And then she'd been given her own owl, and now the term was coming to a close and she'd be going home soon...and she knew it was time. It had to be sent before she left Hogwarts.

So here she was, envelope in hand, a couple owl treats in her pocket, searching the owlery for Calandra. Finally she spotted the eagle owl sitting just a few feet away.

"Hey, Cally," Vashti said, pulling out an owl treat before she even reached her pet, offering it to her. She wasn't sure whether Cally was still mad after the incident with the Polyjuice Potion several days ago, but the owl seemed okay now. She took the treat, gently nipping one of Vashti's fingers as she did.

"I've got a letter for you," the Ravenclaw continued, holding up the letter. Calandra's orange-yellow eyes stared at it for a moment before hopping onto her owner's arm once it was extended. "It's for my mum. And Marcus too, I guess." She wasn't sure whether she ought to add that part - it was only one letter, and Marcus and her mum probably spent most of their time together, so odds were Cally would wind up delivering the letter when they were both around. Still, a part of the letter was for him, so he needed to read it.

The owl obediently clamped her beak down on the letter and waited until Vashti had walked over to the open window to fly off. The fifth year watched her owl until she was too far away to see... then she sighed and turned to make her way out of the Owlery and back to her common room.