After wondering around the the towers for about ten minutes, Jessie finally managed to find the owlry! "Oh," she puffed. "Here we are, Reepicheep! Your new home!" He flew off of her shoulder to the nearest nest. The other owls hooted at the disturbance of their sleep. "Oh, sorry," Jessie whispered apologetically. She fed Reepicheep an owl treat and watched as he flew around the high ceiling for a little while. She would enjoy getting away from the stress of school and coming to visit Reepicheep.

Vickers opened the door to the Owlery with Dolly's food bag in hand. He stared up at the silo-like interior and the little nooks where the owls would lodge themselves when they sleep or groom themselves. With he exception of the general shape it almost feels like the aviary he has at home. "Dolly..." he called out for his pet cockatoo. There was an awful lot of white owls from where he stood and was a little difficult to pick out his own umbrella cockatoo.

Adam had been meaning to send this letter for about three days now, and each day he had found some reason as to why he wasn't able to trek all the way to the owlery, but today he really needed to send this letter. Bounding into the room with quite a bit of intent Adam wasn't prepared to have someone standing right in his path. As usual here was Adam running into someone because he wasn't paying attention.

"I am so sorry," Adam said apologetically after colliding with the boy. Thankfully he looked pretty sturdy and hadn't sent the boy to the ground. "Are you alright? I should have been looking where I was going..."

Ella entered the Owlery and looked around. This place was filled with owls and she was straining her eyes to find her own among the crowd. "Jasper? Come here Jasper?" Ella smiled as her beautiful owl emerged from the group. He landed on her finger and as she reached down to stroke him, he nipped at her finger. "Ouch! Jasper!" She knew he was probably upset with her. She had been so busy with classes and meeting new friends that she hadn't been around much. "I'm sorry Jas, I promise I'll come more often!" She gave the bird a loving smile. "It's not exactly like you're alone here! Look at all these owls. I hope you're making friends!" Jasper flapped his wings and Ella took that as a good sign. "Well I'd better be going! I'll be back with a letter soon so get ready for a nice long fly!"

Alyssa entered the Owlery first hoping that she hadn't lost Oakey along the way up here. She quickly walked over to her Snowy Owl, Shannia. "Hi Girl, how are doing?" Alyssa asked her owl, ruffling her feathers. She reached cleaned out her water bowl by pointing her wand at it and saying "Scourgify". Once the bowl was empty and clean, she filled it with clean water with the "Aguamenti" spell. She lay the bowl of her owl, so that she could drink from it. Then she took owl food pellets out of the bag she had in her jacket pocket and fed them to Shannia, talking to her as she fed her the food and waited for Oakey to show.

Oakey sworn he knew how to get to the owlery. He turned the corner and made it through the door. Oakey looked around and found Alyssa who seemed busy with her owl. Walking towards her waving not wanting to interrupt her conversation. But before he could get a word out to Alyssa he felt something land on his head. Heyo Valentine Oakey said turning his eyes up looking at his eagle owl.

Alyssa was talking with Shannia when she heard someone else walk into the Owlery. Then she heard the person speak and she recognized that it was Oakey. "Oh hi, Oakey. You're here to visit with your owl too? It's beautiful. This is Shannia, my Snowy owl," Alyssa introduced Oakey to her owl.

Vickers was staring up at Owlery trying to spot his own ivory colored pet when he felt someone run into him from behind. Which effectively knocked the wind from out of him and nearly sent him toppling face first.

Nearly. The benefit of gangly legs was that they could sometimes be at the right place to keep one from falling over.

He coughed slightly as he tried regain his breath "I... I'm ok" he replied as he shifted his eyes to look at whoever hit him. Oh it was a Gryffindor. "I'm sorry I didnt know I was in the way." he mumbled shyly as he looked to the ground.

Noticing that the boy seemed rather out of breath from the collision, Adam felt absolutely terrible. And here the boy was apologizing to Adam when he was the one that had so rudely come bounding right through the doorway without thinking that someone might actually be standing there. "No, no, it was completely my fault," Adam replied with an apologetic smile. "I feel horrible. Sometimes when I have something on my mind and get going I might as well become a bulldozer." Adam chuckled somewhat nervously, noticing that the boy's glance was to the ground rather than at him. Knowing his luck the boy probably thought that he was insane, that or overly hyper. "Uh...I'm Adam by the way. Adam Fitzgerald," Adam offered after a moment, extending his hand to the boy.

Hi Alyssa, nice to meet you Shannia. Oakey smiled to Alyssa's owl. Had she fogotten that he wanted to meet her up here. To start on their "Wandering Around Hogwarts". He decided to remind her. Hey, do you remember that I wanted to meet you up here? he started then he heard a hoot. Oakey looked up to see that Valentine was certainly giving him an evil eye. OH RIGHT! This is Valentine, my Eagle Owl.

Valentine starting non-stop at the mention of his name.

Admittedly there was a part of him that was inching away in case the other boy was the spiteful type and pull something sudden which has happened to him lots of times but he finally looked up when the Gryffindor introduced himself. Glancing at the boy's extended hand he paused before taking it hesitatingly "V-Vanderbilt. Vincenzo Vanderbilt I mean..." he replied in return. "Most people just call me Vickers... but its ok with me if you want to just stick to Vanderbilt." he mumbled rambling.

Dolly was set to IGNORE Master BugEye because she is just TIRED of the boring stuff he usually gives her. She picked up treats left by the other students for their Owls. Why couldnt Master BugEye with those large eyes come up with good stuff like those?

Then there was a boy who ran into him. Oi! The cockatoo leaped off from her perch at the tallest part of the owlery and started swooping down in a spiral descent. She landed perfectly at edge of the small table where students would write stuff at the last minute "SQUAWWKK!!!" Ok so that really wasnt very eloquent of her, but she had to voice out her disapproval. Nobody pushes Master BugEye around except her!

Vickers turned at the sudden sound of loud squawking "Dolly!" he smiled, shuffling through her food bag for some dried fruit.

The boy had gotten so quiet at the end of his sentence that Adam had a hard time understanding him without leaning his one ear forward a little bit. Adam thought he was shy but in all honesty he had nothing on this kid! Thankfully with Adam's not so subtle face lean and his not too shabby hearing, Adam was able to catch out that the boy usually went by Vickers...hmm...that was a new one, but hey, he liked unique! "Nice to meet you Vickers..."

While Adam was about to break into another stream of apologies for running into him and inquire more into how long he had been at Hogwarts since he didn't look familiar and what house he was in when a rather loud squack went piercing through the air, causing Adam to instinctively raising his hands to cover his ears. He stopped mid way, thankful that the bird had ceased with the noise as soon as Vickers called it by name, which was Dolly if he had heard it right over all the racket.

"Wow, what a gorgeous cockatoo," Adam said admiringly. "I have to admit outside of pictures in books I've never actually seen one in person."

Vickers looked back at Adam and smiled "She's an umbrella cockatoo." he said as he lifted the crown of feathers above her head just a bit, to show the reason behind the species' given name "She's a rescue. I found her abandoned under a tree during one of my walks... starved and molting. So I took her home-- I have an aviary you see, and among all the birds I care for and drops by she was the only one that didnt leave. " he smiled pensively as he stroked her feathers.

Dolly was listening to humans talk. Talk talk talk. She actually enjoyed hearing them talk. Then she can try to mimic them then confuse the heck out of them. Specially strangers. She likes messing with strangers hehe.

She eyed the new boy carefully. Stranger he was oh yes-- but he called her gorgeous. That word she understood real well. "I am! I am!" she squawked back, fluttering her feathers expressively.

Brows raised, Vickers glanced back at Adam "She seems to like you." he grinned, petting her feathers pack into place. "How about you... do you have a pet Owl around here?" he wondered looking up at the fowls lodging overhead.

"Wow," Adam said as he listened to the story about how Vickers came to acquire the bird, admiring the feathers and the appropriate little crown the bird possessed on the top of her head. It really was an incredible bird, no doubt about it! "That is awesome that you help all of those birds," Adam said with an appreciative nod. "I'll have to admit I'm not all that familiar with what goes into taking care of birds, but I would think any animal would have its own share of work, so that's awesome that you're willing to take the time to do it!" Adam stared at the bird for a couple of moments frowning slightly. "It really is terrible to think that the bird could be in such a horrible condition. It almost makes you wonder what happened to it that it got so weak...does he...err...she...have a name?" Adam asked with a warm smile.

Almost shortly after the words left his mouth the bird squawked slightly, leaving Adam to be slightly confused, but relaxing when he noticed that Vickers seemed calm. "Well that's a good thing," Adam said with a little chuckle, mentally making a note that the bird was indeed a girl. "I definitely would not want her to dislike me." Upon the question of whether or not Adam had an owl he gave a small shake of the head. "Well...I guess it's partially mine since I use it, but the owl really belongs to my grandfather. His name is Hank and he's a bit on the older side, and prefers to keep to himself. Needless to say getting him down from his perch to send letters and such is not an easy task. But I do have my own chocolate lab named JB that I got last year. He's probably one of the most energetic animals you will ever meet in your life. I swear, he never gets tired," Adam said with a small shake of the head and a little chuckle.

Jen loved it up at the owlery. This was the one place that she could just sit up here and think cus not many people came uphere. Plus she loved to see her family owl Ruby. "Ruby!" She called down. A barn owl came flying down and sat next to her. Jen stroked her feathers.
"Good bird." Jen said.
"I got something for you." Jen said as she handed the owl a dead mouse. "Your so pretty Ruby

Vickers shrugged casually "Birds take care of themselves mostly-- they're wild birds so they like their freedom. All I really do is make sure they always have food and water and to clean up regularly because it can get pretty messy if left alone for too long." So the mess in the Owlery-- yeah Vickers is used to that. Although he will keep his opinion to himself on the upkeep. Suffice it to say he thinks it can use some improvement.

"I think the only time I ever kept any bird in a cage is when they're too weak or injured to fly off, and thats mostly because the food and water is dedicated to them and the cage is to keep the other birds from taking it." he glanced back at the Gryffindor boy before adding "I dont mind taking care of them, even if they're wild and they come and go as they please. They are pretty amazing and amusing to watch, but I'm also fascinated with flight, and this is another way to observe them up close without them thinking I'm a threat."

He tried offering the dried fruit and nut again to the pretentious cockatoo before continuing "Her name is Dolly-- named her after that Muggle country singer 'cause she can look like her with her big hair..." he chuckled, as the cockatoo eyed him and he gazed amusingly right back. "Unfortunately pet birds have a high abandon rate, mostly because people dont really know what to expect from them. They think they're like dogs or cats that just happens to have wings. Birds are a different kind of demanding and they can go into bouts of depression, specially those that are caged. Cockatoos specially-- they're far more feisty than parrots." he said sadly just as Dolly bit then spat out the rest of the dried fruit. "When I found Dolly she was under a tree, so maybe she was an abandon case, or maybe she had a nest and was part of a family. I saw what looks to have been the remainders of a nest, but I didnt see any other cockatoo in the area." He had suspected poachers, but he didnt have proof so he kept that to himself.


He listened to Adam speak about his owl, the Ravenclaw looking up occasionally wondering which among all the birds overhead was Hank. But it was the next sentence that got him to snap his head back at the Gryffindor boy "You have a chocolate lab?" he asked eagerly "So do I-- I mean I have a lab-retriever, his name is MacArthur. And yes they are very energetic-- and destructive if they're bored or they dont get around enough." Which he knew Mac had a tendency to do, but so far the dog had been on his best behavior. He wasnt sure how long his luck with hold out though. "By the way, are we allowed to walk our dogs around the grounds? Mac has been whining a bit and I can feel that he wants to roam, specially he can see the grounds from the windows."

Adam listened thoughtfully as Vickers explained how to take care of the birds, looking around the room slightly as he mentioned the whole upkeep business. Personally Adam wasn't sure as to whom the responsibilities of keeping the Owlery clean were, but whoever it was clearly had a hard time staying on top of it. He understood birds were messy and given the number here since most students owned an owl or a bird of some kind, he figured it would be a very tedious and very unrewarding job. Clean up, then two seconds later have another mess. "I imagine the cleaning is probably a killer," Adam said, looking down at the floor and trying not to think too hard about what he must be stepping in. "Although maybe it's not that bad if you stay on top of it," Adam said with a gentle little shrug.

"Are birds typically aggressive in trying to take each other's food?" Adam asked. He figured since the ones Vickers was keeping were wild that they were probably used to fending for themselves, not to mention the natural predator instinct of taking advantage of the weakest ones. "I mean, I suppose they're used to having to fight other birds over food, but I wasn't sure if you were providing enough that they would still have that aggressive instinct." As Vickers began to go into all the details about his interest in flying, Adam admired Dolly's wings, giving the bird a smile. "It really is incredible the way they're naturally designed to be able to fly the way they do. And no just that but that there are so many kinds of birds and all of them are slightly different," Adam commented thoughtfully. "Do you just study birds with flight, or do you study unnatural mechanisms of flying like planes?" Er...Adam realized that he had no idea whether Vickers had a muggle background, and prepared himself for a somewhat blank look in lieu that the boy had no idea what he was talking about.

However Adam's fears about not knowing muggle references wore off when the boy commented on the reason behind Dolly's name. Adam chuckled along with him. "It does seem very appropriate. Plus she's got quite a set of lungs," Adam said, admiring the sound the bird was able to make when she wanted to. The laughter faded slightly as Vickers got more into the hard part about owning birds, and the fact that birds were indeed very different then other pets. "I can imagine it would be hard for them to be stuck in cages when they're used to the open air, and able to go wherever they want whenever they want. I think birds have the most freedom of just about any animal really," Adam said with a thoughtful nod.

Considering that the boy had quite a collection of birds Adam had to admit he was a bit surprised by the boy's enthusiasm about him owning a chocolate lab. "Yeah, he's a little rascal," Adam said with a chuckle. "I got him in Diagon Alley with one of my good friends last year before school started. He lived with me here last year...I kind of magically altered a doghouse so that it was more like a regular house...you know, like those magical camping tents you can get? That way he had a bit more room to move around when he was stuck in the dormitory." Adam gave a little smile remembering them hanging out in there last term. "But...yeah, he's living with my grandpa now. I figure since my grandpa has a huge backyard he has a bit more leniency to let himself go as wild as he wants," Adam said with a chuckle. "But so far as I know you can take your dog on the grounds. At least I always did last term and no one seemed to mind or comment," Adam said with a shrug. "How old is your lab?"

Jen walked up to a person.
"Hey do you know how owls know where to take the letters? I mean, they can't read right?"

Lana knew it was time to see Hermes and time to finally write home. She missed her parents, but she was still a bit scared to be sending an owl to them. She had promised to do her best here at Hogwarts, but she wasn't even trying at all and she didn't want to disappoint her parents.

Frowning a bit, she made her way into the owlery and looked up at the rafter and gave a low whistle. Hermes had to be there somewhere and she just hoped that he could find her and not some other owl that might not like her. She really didn't want to be attacked by an owl now.

From the rafters, a small tawny owl flew toward her and wooted happily. Seeing her baby, she smiled and lifted her arm for him to perch on. "Hey gorgeous, I'm here to see my pretty baby. I've missed you."

It was true, she was really neglecting her owl; but at least she was here now.

Laura hadn't seen Lana for ages, and had given up on seeing her until the summer, seriously why did they come too Hogwarts before then, they would be together loads but now they hardly spoke too each other, was Lana mad with her for some reason.

Laura had decided it was time to see Beaky, why she had called her owl that she had no idea but it just popped into her head when she got the owl and so that was the name it had gotten, she was going to send an owl to her dad telling him that life at Hogwarts was okay.

Laura suddenly realised she wasn't the only one here, her sister was also in the room, Laura quickly snuck up on her sister and then she put her hands over her sister eyes whilst saying. "Guest Who?"

Lana smiled as she continued to listen to Hermes wooting. She was pretty sure that he wasn't mad at her and was just excited to see her now. She seriously had to remember to come visit her baby more, she wasn't all that far away and it was kind of nice in there. Well aside for all the owl droppings and all.

Looking up, she spotted Beaky and waves with her other hand. Hermes and Beaky were nothing a like and that kind of remembered her how Laura and herself were like. They were so different at times, but in a good way. Yes, it was good that they were different.

In the middle of her thought, she suddenly couldn't see and began to freak out. On the verge of screaming, she heard a voice and knew it was Laura just trying to play a trick with her. Shaking her head, she tilted her head slightly and smiled. "Are you Fat Friar?"

Laura took her hands of Lana's head and walked around to where she could see her before pouting. "I am not fat and I'm not a Friar." Laura sighed, seriously why was Lana being mean too her. "I'm thinner than you." Laura laughed before giving her sister a hug. "I've missed you loads." Laura sighed. "Are you mad at me?"

Cleaning was a killer? That got the Ravenclaw chuckling “Well yes…. I do have to follow a schedule when it comes to cleaning, just like everything else in the aviary-- feeding, watering, restocking-- that sort of thing.”

Vickers nodded on the next question “Yes they are, that’s why I have to space out the feeding containers, making sure there are plenty of these around, more than it would seem necessary even. And when its feeding time I do make it a point to be around, break up any sort of squabble that erupts. Birds can be really nasty to each other. It’s the nature of some, it cant really be helped, but I guess from their general behavior they do realize that my aviary isnt really The Wilds and that things run a little differently” meaning if they want to take up a free meal, they have to play nice. Or get out.

Then the Ravenclaw’s face lit up “I’m actually interested in all forms of flight-- animals in their natural habitat, Wizarding magic or Muggle devices…. admittedly flying animals fascinate me more because of how they are able to achieve flight, its not just their wing structure or body to wing-span ratio, it’s the little things-- the feathers of birds are incredibly detailed, even down to the microscopic level you can see that their design are meant to optimize aerodynamics. And yet there are bats who can achieve the same feat bu their wing structure are completely different. Then you look at what Muggles try to do to conquer the skies. Some of them have tried to copy nature, yet half the time they go for something that’s counterintuitive.” Muggles, they don’t really make any sense… then again that’s a fact Vickers had learned to accept pretty early.

“I… I didn’t think of that….” Vickers said, a smile spreading slowly across his face as the idea took hold. “I’ve always used the Undetectable Extension Charm for my books and school supplies… I didn’t realize that I can also use it for Mac’s pet buggy. Good idea, thank you!” the boy smiled. Now there’s something he can work on in the dorms.

Awww so Adam didn’t bring his lab this term. BUT he did say he managed to get the dog around the grounds. Whether he can work that charm on the pet buggy or not, the lab-retriever would still prefer running around wide open spaces. “Mac is about two years old now I think? Maybe a little more.... I took him in as a stray coupla years back and he looked like he couldn’t have been more than a year old then.”

Then the Ravenclaw angled his head curiously at the Gryffindor “Don’t you miss your dog? A big reason why I brought Mac and Dolly to Hogwarts is that I would miss them so much and they made it clear that they didn’t want to be left behind.” Pets are adorable when they are happy, but can be heartbreaking too if they think they are being abandoned.

Presley needed some good attention. From somebody who wouldn't try to fix it, or give her advice, but would simply listen to her. With Leo hundreds of miles away, that left Mercury. She stepped into the owlery, and over to the windowsill where she usually sat when she wanted to be alone. She sat on the ledge, curled her legs up so her knees were pulled in to her chest, and whistled for her bird.

The loyal silver-coloured owl swept down and imediately nudged Presleys bag for a treat. Fishing one out she fed it to the owl, who then sat calmly on her knees. "Should I do it, Merc?" she asked hesitantly. "Last term he said to come talk to him this year, but his reaction wasn't super-positive. Especially after seeing that letter from Jacob with fathers incentive included." Bribe. But Pres couldn't bring herself to say it. Whatever her father was, he would not bribe someone to do what he wanted. He rewarded them for doing things that benefitted him, but he wasn't a sneaky dealer.

"I just don't know. He might think it's pushy of me to ask again. But I feel so bored in those classes. I'm doing sixth level work with Jacob. I am better than how they categorize us. But I don't want to seem like a freaky genius, I'm no Kurumi Hollingberry."

The owl cocked his head to one side, as if to indicate confusion. "You know, Kurumi. I've mentioned her. She's top in everything. Knows absolutely everything in the world and always answers first in class. She was made a prefect in her fourth year. That's never happened before. Not to mention she's on the quidditch team and everything. Everyone loves her. I'm so envious of her."

If Kurumi had asked Tate to be skipped up a year, he wouldn't have hesitated. He'd have done it in a heart beat. Presley had had to drag out all the tricks, and still only gotten a small concession. He would meet with her about it again. This year.

The owl seemed to nod, which steeled Presley's resolve. She would do it. She would go talk to Tate and try once more to convince him of her side. If he disagreed, that was that, and if he agreed, well she'd cross that bridge if she came to it.