Henric needed to be alone for now so he walked up the steps to the owlery to visit his pet owl,Horace Jr. Yes...he had named his owl after his adopted dad's name...and yes...he treated his owl like his own little brother...so what.

Henric grabbed the treats and held it up for him."Horace...you're lucky you don't have to go to school, you don't lose housepoints, get into pointless fights, be a laughing stock or teased at, no made up rumours, no moaning mytle...especially her..no...and liking someone who probably hates me right now..."he mumbled to his brother. He sighed and stroke his feathers,".. you just have to worry about the letters be delivered on time and food been given always...huh,Horace?"he asked his little owl.

One thing that Natalia regretted about last summer was that she never had the chance to adopt an owl. At first, she didn't realize that she needed one, necessarily. But after arriving at Hogwarts and seeing majority of the students owning one, Natalia recognized the conveniences of sending letters and messages to families and friends.

As for now, Natalia could only borrow school owls to communicate with her parents. It was rather nice of Hogwarts to provide these lovely owls for the students who didn't have other means of communicating.

The first thing that Natalia noticed (or smelled, rather) when arriving at the owlery was the horrendous odor. Attempting to cover her nose with her sleeves, Natalia gingerly tip toed across the stone floor (possibly covered by owl excrement) toward the owls' resting place. Ahh, which one should she choose for the mission?

Before Natalia could make a decision, she spotted a boy standing near her and talking to his owl. It was always amusing to see people talking to their animals.

"So you'd rather be an owl?" Natalia interrupted the boy's conversation with his owl. She carried an amused smile as she spoke, walking to a beautiful tawny owl that Nat had laid her eyes on. "That would be quite interesting."

Startled,he turned to the voice behind him."Woah...you gave me a fright!"he exclaimed. WAIT..did he just say that? He thought he sounded girlish. He quickly cleared his throat and deepened his voice,"Ahemm...I m-mean...yeah...I don't think its bad being an owl...why not?"he replied with a shrug.
"They're cool and brilliant...what's not to like about them,right Horace?"he chuckled a little and stroke his brother's feathers. He knew the student, she was Natalia Woolf, a fourth year like himself.
"Sorry, I thought I was alone here...I'm Henric by the way...and you must be Natalia Woolf from Gryffindor,you're here to visit your owl?" he asked her.

Not bad being an owl? Natalia begged to differ. "As long as you don't mind the smell." The Lioness wrapped her letter on the tawny's owls out-stretched leg as she responded to the boy. "But I do! So I will never want to be an owl." Scratching the owl's feathered head, Natalia gave the little creature a little word of encourage before allowing it to soar out the window.

Anyway...

"Hello Henric." Natalia nodded in greeting. Her eyes grew wide as the boy mentioned her name without Natalia introducing herself. HUH. "HOW DID YOU KNOW MY NAME?" WHAT ARE YOU o.O He probably caught her name during a lesson or something, but Natalia was always super self-conscious about her personal information.

"And I don't own an owl, sadly." The fourth year gestured to the window where the school owl had flown out due to her orders letter. "If you're an owl one day, I'll adopt you." Beaming whimsically, the Lioness tapped a finger on her chin, as if in deep thought. "I will rename you Monoceros." It means unicorn. c:

Henric shook his head and whispered to his owl,"Don't listen to her..girls like to smell nice all the time...she's just jelly you're able to fly and poop wherever u want," he muttered softly,sniggering.

Henric shrugged,"Oh I'm right then, I overheard some of the students call you Nat in class..so I assumed it stands for Natalia or Natalie..and I chose the latter coz' its more common I think?...And the professors in this school always call us by our surnames..so I put them together..tadaa-"he blabbered. It was not like he was weird or anything.

"Was there something I shouldn't know about? You seemed surprise that I knew your name?"he asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Adopt me? No way, I'll be living in the wild and out hunting instead of being a pet of someone.Sometimes he would let his owl roamed free and he wouldn't worry about him at all. He guessed that owls had the natural instincts to survive on its own. He continued,"...and what kind of name is Monoceros?"

The fourth-year Lioness squinted with prudence as the boy whispered to his owl. What, she was standing right there! It was as if Natalia was invisible all the while Henric had time talking to his owl. HELLO?! "Yeah, girls just like to smell nice all the time!" Natalia mimicked with a high-pitched voice, rolling her eyes in exasperation. He would liked to punched, apparently. It it weren't for all these gorgeous owls watching, Natalia would have definitely thrown in some karate already.

"Oh." Natalia shrugged in response as the Hufflepuff boy gave an explanation. "That's alright then." As long as he wasn't some sort of a stalker. "Nope, nothing wrong." The fourth year forced a chuckle. "As long as you found out the normal way, hehe." HEHE. Yeah, as long as he wasn't a stalker...

He didn't now what Monoceros was? Natalia shook her head in disbelief. It was time to show off her expertise. "Monoceros is a constellation!" The Lioness clarified, her eyes gleaming with powers of KNOWLEDGE. *BEAMS* "It means unicorn in Latin." In case he didn't know. He probably didn't. *BEAMS*

Henric held out his hands in mock surrender, he really didn't understand girls sometimes. Why they always got so riled up whenever he tried to be funny.Oh well..he meant nothing more, he had no problems girls being all clean and stuff. He liked girls to smell nice...Leah smells nice...woahh...what...() He was not supposed to think about that! What was wronged with him?! He couldn't stop thinking about her...but he needed this feelings to blow over soon. It was hopeless to think he could impress Leah.

Henric erased his train of thoughts and returned his conversation with Nat. He wondered if she was a transfer here too...had he seen her before since their first year?Annndd... what did she meant about finding out her name through normal means? Unbelievable...who was this girl?
Henric gave her a slight frown before deciding to just let go of the matter."Uhh..fine then..."he responded.

Monoceros was a constellation? Ohh...he didn't know that.Thus, was his reason for not being good in Astronomy. Another subject to add in his list of weakest subjects. Wait! UNICORN?!
"You want to call me "Unicorn?"he asked her, perplexed. Did he looked like one? Oh..his dad would love to tease him all about it if he ever found out a girl wanted to call him a unicorn.

Yeah, you better surrender. Natalia cocked her head up with a victorious smile.

Noticing the slight frown on his face, Natalia simply returned one in a mocking manner. "Yep. Very fine." He was okay, right? Nothing on his mind?

"Yes, Unicorn. Monoceros... Unicorn." Natalia nodded with a smile, confirming the definition of Monoceros in case Henric didn't register it through his head the first time. "I've always wanted to name something Monoceros, not necessarily you-" No offense, but Henri did not have much resemblance to one. "-but it's just a nice term, don't you think?" Yes, he better agree with her. AGREE.

"What year are you in?" Natalia wondered if she had seen him around the halls or in lessons. She probably had, but the the often dissociated Lioness was often forgetful at times.

Henric squinted his eyes at her...she was a peculiar one alright. Well, as long as he wasn't called a unicorn outright in English. Monoceros...hmm...he guessed it was a appropriate name to call an animal. He shrugged in response, he rather not disagree with her, she looked like she might hit him with a club or something if he did. "I'm not oppose to it,"he told her. If she had a pet owl, she could name it whatever she wants...he had no problems with that. Nope.

"I'm in my forth year,you're sure you haven't seen me before? Not even last term?"he asked her back. Hmm..his deduction was right...she was probably a new transfer student here. Had she been here since their first year? Nope, he didn't quite remember her during the sorting ceremony this term and the previous terms too. He wondered where his brain went to during the start of the term feast. Probably 24/7 been distracted, thinking about all the food he missed eating in Hogwarts.

Natalia pondered more deeply, searching her memory for a time when she might have possibly seen this boy in class or in the hallways. "Maybe..." Maybe it was just that Natalia wasn't observant enough. "...wait, I think I might have seen you in class!" Yep, she definitely remembered now! "Yes yes. Henric... Henric..." Except that she couldn't recall his surname. "...Henric from Hufflepuff." Because from Hufflepuff was definitely his surname. Yep.

"I wasn't here last year." Natalia raised a curious eyebrow. If Henric was here at Hogwarts last year, he had not noticed that Natalia didn't attend Hogwarts last year or the year before that? "I transferred here this year." It was finally time for some mature conversations, now that the naming-her-future-owl-unicorn had faded away.

Still, unicorn rocks.

Henric chuckled."Yeah..I'm Henric from Hufflepuff, my last name is Nicolei though...Henric Nicolei to be precise,"he told her. Horace Jr. picked on his hand for more crackers,"Ow..Horace...I'm giving it to u, hold on will you..." Henric shook his head and let the bird eat his fill."And this hungry man eating bird here is my brother owl,Horace Jr."he introduced his bird to her.

"Oh, you're a transfer?" he asked her,no wonder Henric didn't recall her from his anywhere except in class this term. He would have known right if she intended Hogwarts. Nope...he wouldn't...he was that oblivious.

Henric also realised that there were a lot of transfer students this term. He wondered what school she transferred from,"Cool...where did you transferred from?"he asked her.

Ahhh... and Horace Jr. A cute little thing. "He's cute." Natalia admitted as she cocked her head as if to say "hello" to the little creature. The Lioness stretched her hand and was about to stroke the owl's feature until she remembered her common courtesy. "Can I pet him?" When did Natalia become so self-conscious about asking permission? Only sometimes.

"I went to Shanghai Pudong Wizarding Academy..." Natalia explained to the Hufflepuff boy. "...in Shanghai... China..." In case he confused it with Shanghai, Australia. "... Asia... Earth... Solar System..." In case Henric was not aware of those information before. "... in the Milky Way galaxy, which is in the Virgo Supercluster..." But of course, he should know that already; he lived in it!

"Anyway!" Away with the awkward transition. "It was a good school, right in the middle of the city. The school campus is not very big like Hogwarts, but there are a lot more students." If one was to ask Natalia which school she preferred, she would have to say Hogwarts, because it was way less crowded and a lot more student-teacher orientated.

"So what about you?" The Lioness turned back to Henric and his owl. "Have you been here all your wizarding education life?"

Henric nodded and shrugged,"Yeah sure, you can feed him if you want too,"he offered her some live bugs in a can and held it up for her. He grinned innocently and waited for her response. He wondered if she was squirmish with insects and creepy-crawly things, he hoped she wasn't...he just saw her sent off her owl a moment ago, she would know the importance of a well balance diet for an owl,right?

He couldn't help raised an eyebrow at her,of course he knew where Shanghai was. He learnt geography too, you know. And...what was with her always mentioning about the galaxy...not a moment ago she wanted to name her animal after a constellation. He didn't need to guess what was her favourite subject was, no doubt it was Astronomy. Professor Flamsteed would gain another 'stellar' student, yup.

"Shanghai Pudong Wizarding Academy...woah...nice... I've only known a few schools besides Hogwarts, that was about it...do you missed going there?"he asked her. Having lots of students, surely meant that she had a lot of friends there too.

"Me? Yeah...I've been here since first year, a lot has happened since then..."Henric told her. Did she know about the unfortunate demise of his schoolmate last term? It was still saddening news to him, he didn't know the student personally but everyone in the school felt the lost.

Feed him? Natalia only wanted to stroke his fur but FEED him; she didn't even know how to feed owls. When Henric offered a can of live bugs to feed his owl, Natalia impulsively took a step back. Noticing Henric's probably good-to-nothing grin, Natalia held her head up and snatched the can out of his hand. Scared, huh? NOT A CHANCE. They were just little insects innocently squirming in the container, nothing to be afraid about. Natalia flashed the Hufflepuff boy a very victorious beam.

"Is this what Horace eats everyday?" Natalia gingerly uncapped the lid, holding the can as far away from her face as possible. So, how should she feed him? There was no way she was going to reach down that can and grab out an insect with her hand. Tilting the can to extract the content out would be way too risky, in case she unintentionally spilled all of the content and the bugs would be EVERYWHERE. It came down to her last option: to lay the can in front of the owl and waited patiently for Horace to dip his beak down and eat his snack. Owls did that, right?

Did she miss going there? "UMM..." That was honestly a difficult question to answer. After some pondering, Natalia responded with a mere shrug. "Sometimes... not really. A little." The fourth year glanced and admired Horace's pretty feathers for a while before continuing. "I mean, I had some really good friends. But overall the school is waaaaay to competitive, academically, mostly." Aaaand... some of her classmates back in her former school were quite... aggressive.

"Oh, so you must know a lot about Hogwarts then, with this being your fourth year." The Lioness's eyes shone with some interest at the mention. A lot as happened? Great, she'd like to know more. "What happened? What happened?!"

Yup, she was scared alright by the way she stepped back when he held up the can for her...or not. He was still grinning when she snatched the can out of his hands.Not bad...she was a Gryffindor after all.

"Yeah,Horace eats anything really but his favourite is definitely the ones in the can you're holding right now,and he love to take them alive," Henric shrugged and watched her trying to open the can on her own. He was trying his best holding back his impending laughter but at the same time,he felt bad for giving her such a task. She could just give the can back to him but he didn't think her pride would let her.

"Ohh....must be hard for you then...academically-wise...but yeah, if you can handle the pressure over there, I think you be fine here,right?"Henric nodded understandably, he couldn't imagine himself attending her last school, his class position would probably dropped drastically and on top of that, O.W.L. examinations were nearing...He didn't care how many times he had said this, he was NOT looking forward to it!

Henric shrugged,"Yeah well...let's see...first year, I was mostly bedridden, can't remember much...Hogwarts was struck by a blizzard or somekind, second year...uhh...lets just say fairytale books had come to life...and last term...well..."Henric paused and winced at his owl gobbling up the unlucky grasshopper in the can.
"A student from Slytherin house ventured into the forbidden forest with two other students from...uh..your house... I'm not sure why they were there in the first place...but the student was killed...by giant arachnids, his name was Gregoire Bastion,"he told her sadly.

Nothing like a visit to see your familair to cheer your mood. And time with Conrad was no different for Benny. Well with the exception that it reminded him that Gus was technically still in his care because Adi had left him and hadn't bothered asking for him back. But still...the Gryffindor perched in a relatively clean spot and waited as the owl made his presence known, the human absently scratching the bird as he tried to change his mood.

"You're still me friend...right Conrad?" he asked almost rhetorically but getting a positive-sounding hoot in response. Eventually stopping his attention with the owl as the creature seemed flustered, Ben switched to absently twirling his wand. It was then that he registered that the walls of the owlery seemed bare compared to the goings on of the castle thanks to Professor Quigley.

”Colovaria!” he cast, taking aim at the plain stone wall. Ugg....not all of it had turned red so the sixth year tried again for good measure. ”Colovaria!” There....there was the Gryffie pride!

In spite of the fact that Dot was carrying a bright red box with polka dots around the castle, she still felt like a super secret ninja spy. No one knew what was in her box, and no one knew where she was going to end up leaving it. Maybe if they knew, maybe they'd want to open the box themselves.

Or... or maybe they wouldn't.

Regardless, Dot was going to do Mr. Professor StarMan proud by hiding her enticing box in plain sight and then leaving it there to draw someone in. It felt BAD not to get to watch the joy of discovery... opening presents was the best part, wasn't it? At least she wouldn't know if she'd disappointed someone with her lame-o gifts.

Dot perched the red and white box right in the doorway to the owlery before scampering off to find her friends.

There weren’t many times this year that she had sent post to her family, it made her too sad to be missing family occasions. However her aunt’s birthdays were both in April, so she had cut a special occasion in her “no letters” policy and had sat down to write her aunts Boo and Leza a special birthday letter (their wife Mammy had also been included though her birthday wasn’t until July)...

However there was one problem.

Marsha didn’t own an owl - so she had to walk to the Owlery to GET an owl, to SENT the letter that made her home sick. Besides… who else could say that her Mum’s sister and her Dad’s cousin were married to their childhood sweetheart in the cutest trio to ever live? No-one more than likely; and she’d defend them until she was blue in the face if she had to. Hehe.

As she turned the last corner to the owlery, Marsha skidded her skipping to a hault. There was a box.

A bright red polka dotted box.

It looked so pretty, sneaking a look over both of her shoulder she checked to make sure no-one else was waiting to pick it up before she did just that. However, before she let herself open it; she ran up the tower and attached the letter to the leg of one of the school owls. As she watched it fly away, she skipped back down the steps and found somewhere to sit once she was at the bottom.

Grinning widely, she placed the box in her lap and began to open it up. How exciting was this? Her very own Astronomy box!

Inside the polka dotted box, Dot had taken great pleasure in choosing exactly the right things. The right LAYERING of gifts to create the best experience possible. First, when the lid was lifted, there was a little puff of smoke and glitter (charms! yay!), followed by a note that just said:

"The gift of IMAGINATION!"

And under that:

Just kidding... keep digging...

Beneath a life raft worth of tissue paper, there's a glittery pillow (for fabulous comfort), some bedazzled shades (for fabulous fabulousness), and a cupcake in a little plastic safety sleeve (for fabulous chocolateness). There wasn't a unifying theme, but there WAS plenty of glitter and good will.

GLITTER!

How cool was that? Marsha wished she had thought of that… Glitter was fun after all. Though, as she read the note she laughed. Her imagination was amazing, but gifts were better… everyone knew that. Oh, dig… digdigdig. Just keep digging! Just keep digging.

She hummed to herself as she lifted the tissue paper… and more and more tissue paper out of the box. Was anything actually in here or was it actually the gift of imaginat- OH! No… there were things in here.

Woah! LOOK AT THIS PILLOW!

Her eyes looked it over, as her fingers traced the ‘hello’ that was stitched in silver thread. Hehehe. ”Hello!” she said out loud, just in case. It seemed polite anyway. Even if it was only being said to the pillow that she was now hugging.

Undddeeeerrr that was…. a pair of gorgeous bedazzled sunglasses and a chocolate cupcake! They looked so pretty. Her own pair had broken a few weeks ago while she had been running around the grounds so these were PERFECT. Thank you mysterious gift giver. Lastly, it seemed that this gift-giver was thinking that chocolate was needed right now too. It would be amazing, she would eat it later after she had completed her history of magic homework. Hehe.

Silently, she wondered if she ever knew who had left the gift box for her.