Writing letters wasn’t something they often did. There wasn’t many to write to save their immediate family and the few friends. One of those friends happened to be Cicero, whom they had met through Winged Horse Racing activities. There had definitely been a strong sense of competitiveness between them, especially on Cicero’s part, and for that reason they didn’t think that the other fellow had liked them very much. To make a long story short, the two had, in the end, became friends. Dhruv suspected it might be because their demanding job had dissuaded them from racing too much. Regardless, they’d ended up with a close friend.

The sealed letter in their hand was addressed to said close friend. The penned contents? Just a summary of their first week as professor of Hogwarts. All that was needed now was an owl to make the delivery.

Which to choose?

Maisey had planned on writing a letter to her parents like right after the feast. She had had way too much fun at the feast, went to bed and definitely forgotten about it until after she woke up, she had quickly written the letter while she ate her breakfast. Telling them all about the train ride, the boat ride across the lake, the ceiling of the great hall, and the sorting. She told them all about her house, Slythetin, the people she had met so far, her housemates, the yearmates in her house, and her dormmates.

She told them everything, every detail, honestly it was probably the longest letter she had ever written. She used her free period of the day to drop off her letter to parents. She folded it into the shape of an envelope, heading up toward the Owlery, not having any idea where she was going because how was anyone supposed to get anywhere with those moving staircases and long corridors? She had overheard someone talking to their friend about where the owlery was. On the seventh floor… and here she was climbing up the spiral stairs of the little tower into the owlery.

Her owl, which she named bubbles, was up here right? She assumed all owls went to the owlery to stay. As soon as she was through the door bubbles flew down and landed on the perch closest to her. With a smile and pet on the owl's head she took the letter out of her pocket.

The idea of sending letters via Owl Post was still quite amusing and seemed old fashioned to the petite eleven-year-old, even after receiving them from her older sister for the four years she had attended Beauxbatons. However Aurora loved animals and had been extremely excited to have picked out her own Little Owl from Diagon Alley before heading to the school and knew one of the first things she wanted to do was to write a letter to her mums.

Thankfully there weren’t many stairs for the Ravenclaw to walk up between the common room where she had been neatly writing her letter to the Owlery on the seventh floor. It seemed quiet and peaceful up there, surrounded by the gentle hooting of the residents. She wanted to visit with Ariadne but she hadn’t been able to find her that morning so off she went alone. Carefully opening the door so as to not disturb any of the birds, she entered the room to be met by the sight of another first year who had clearly had the same idea as her. It was a little chilly up here from the breeze that was blowing through from the lack of windows. She pulled her cardigan a little tighter around her body to keep off the chill. Aurora’s owl Flora (yes as in Sleeping Beauty), flew down and circled her head before landing on the perch beside her with a little hoot. The first year had been reminded to bring treats with her to bribe her own owl only the others had seemed to notice and it wasn’t long before a small group had joined, swamping the poor little owl who was half their size.

“Aren’t they amazing?” She commented to the other girl casually. “It’s like we are back in the past! Except we are using owls and not pigeons and they know where to go all the time and they’re magical.” If there was one talent that Aurora had it was that she could make a conversation about anything to absolutely anyone. Her Ma always said she took after her Mum more, it was rare for Layla to ever be sociable.

Maisey feed bubbles a few treats before petting her owl on the top of the head. When she heard someone else come up to the owlery too. She turned and seen that it was another first year girl. She smiled at the girl and went back to her owl. But just for a moment, when she heard what sounded like multiple flutters of wings she looked over and laughed at the sight.

She clicked her tongue to get the attention of some of the owls that landed over with hers. Showing them the treats a few of them flew over to her. Bubbles hooted annoyed that she had to share her treats. ”There’s plenty for you too, bubbles.” turning, she gave the owl a look then a treat. She quickly turned around to the other girl when she spoke. The Slytherin smiled and nodded. ”Yeah. They are, with their own little personalities and everything too.” She said with a small smile. ”I’m Maisey by the way.” It was probably a good thing that she wasn’t at all shy, it really would have made this trying to make new friends stuff hard.

Aurora quickly realised her mistake in not picking up enough treats for ALL the owls to enjoy when she received what she perceived as annoyed looks in her direction from those that had missed out. That was if owls could be annoyed but it certainly looked that way to the first year. Thankfully the other girl called some of the owls over towards her direction before poor Aurora and Flora got completely swamped or even worse covered in owl poop!

The eleven-year-old gave her owl a little tickle on the head before turning back to speak to the Slytherin. “I think mine is only interested in food and head scratches” she giggled. It sounded like a pretty good life to the Ravenclaw. Besides, being the smallest of the owl species meant that she had to fly twice as hard to get to where she was needed and therefore would need extra energy for her flight.

“I’m Aurora and this is Flora” she pointed at her owl.

Dividing out the remaining pieces of owl treats in her hand with the owls that made their way over to her. Feeding them one by one they flew back up to their higher perches.

The slytherin turned to the other girl and grinned. ”Mine definitely enjoys her food. And doesn’t like sharing it.” Giving bubbles a little tickle under the chin. With a laugh she turned back to the girl and her owl as she introduced herself and her owl. ”I’m Maisey, that’s bubbles.” nodding her head towards her owl and smiled.

”Sending a letter home already too?” Noticing the letter she had as well. At least she wasn’t the only one to go ahead and get those first letters home sent off as soon as possible. Honestly she was just a little homesick and getting it written helped her out a lot with that.