The Owlery

"Well, I suppose," Dee said, frowning. "But try not to nearly kill yourself. I'd be really sad, you know. If you ever die, I might even cry. Maybe." She smirked at him before laughing lightly. "But who knows? Maybe I'll become a Zookeeper or something like that. And I'll get eaten by lions or tigers or bears."

"I'll do my best, as long as you try not to die as well. I'd hate losing my best friend, and I'd really like to not break my streak of never crying." He pursed his lips as he tried to picture Dee as a Zookeeper. "You at a Zoo with all those animals? You'd fit right in."

"I'll try not to, but you never know what could happen." Dee shrugged. "Hey!" she exclaimed, smacking him on the arm. "You'd fit in more than I would, I think. You're a complete prat, you know that?" She grinned at him jokingly.

"I know, I know. It's something I've grown to accept over the years," he retorted with a joking grin. "Not like you're much better, though. Why else would we get along so well?"

Dee huffed. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe opposites attract? Or maybe we're long lost twins. I always wanted a brother. Maybe you were lost at birth. I want you were my sibling. I don't like Astoria very much," Dee said with a shrug.

Jesse laughed and leaned back against the stone wall. "I still don't believe she's your sister. You're way too awesome to be related to that." He stroked his imaginary goatee with a small grin on his face as he looked over at Dee. "Long lost twins. I like it. That would explain why we haven't hooked up in the past six years."

Vee walked into the owlery, a letter to her uncle Marius in hand. She took a second to gaze outside. The day was beautiful: fat white clouds in the air and a gentle breeze making ripples in the lake. She called down her owl, Egbert, and proceeded to tie the letter to his leg.

Aidan had seen her before, maybe even talked to her, but he still knew very little about Victoria Black. He had heard how she had broken her ankle, and know her owl's name. Egbert. Maybe she WAS a bit peculiar, but in his lonely state at this new school, friends, no matter who, might be a good first step. He approached her as she tied her note to the owl's leg. "Beautiful day, huh?"

Vee jumped a little when hearing a voice behind her, seeing has there had been no one there a second ago. "Oh! Hi! Yes, it is beautiful, I was just admiring the view... The clouds look as if they want to be turned into s'more or something." She grinned. She didn't know this boy well, he was new. His name was something like England or English... What was it? Oh right, Engel. Aidan Engel

The friendly smile on his face few wider, if a bit bemused. She certainly was a bit peculiar, but isn't everyone? "Do you have s'mores here in england?"

"Of course we have s'mores!" Vee laughed at the look on Aidan's face. "Oh, I don't know if we've met. I'm Victoria Black, but I prefer Vee. My stuffy, old-fashioned mother named me a stuffy old-fashioned name." It was nice to laugh for once, it had been a while.

"Nice to meet you, Vee!" He was happy that he could still make people laugh, even if it was directed AT him. "My name is Aidan, I'm from America. I'm new here. Im still getting used to stuff."

"Oh don't worry, I wasn't laughing AT you. It just felt nice to laugh. My life has been... Less than a barrel of laughs lately." Vee frowned at that. She didn't want to complain to other people. "I live near London, with my mum, but I used To go to Beauxbatons. I left in third year because I found the girls too snobby and it wasn't my type of school at all." Her mother had sent her there to make her into a young lady, but it hadn't really worked. Vee still loved to play pranks on people

His smile grew wider yet, when heard of her transfer. "So we're both transfer students. Im from the Wolfsbane School of Wizarding Arts. Its in Alaska. No fun to get there, or go there." He could tell, even through her smiling guise, that Vee had seen some troubled times lately. Suddenly, the suppressed awkward teenager in him took control. The words just came out in a jumble. "It'll be OK." He paused. "Whatever your problem is, i mean. Y'know, if you have any..... problems." Again he paused. "Not that I'm saying you have problems or anything." He scratched his head and blushed.

[I just started metally laughing incredibly hard at that last post.]

"Hmm... I don't hink I've ever heard of it." Vee said curiously. "Wha-" She began to say when he started speaking again, and then blushed. She had t realized her emotions were so clearl visible. But she'll have Aidan know that it isnt a guise. "I'm not sure you really want to hear my many woes..." She said to the boy

"I wouldn't mind, I promise you." said Aidan, attempting to regain control over his traitorous mouth. "And I'm sorry about that..... outburst"

"Well if you really want to know," Vee sighed and took a deep breath. "IbrokemyankleIdon'thaveadatetotheprommybestfriendhasn'tbeenhereforagesandMymotherisbuggingtheshitoutofme." She said quickly.

"Heh, that was impressive. I had heard about your ankle, but i didn't hear how it happened." Aidan prompted. He rather enjoyed talking to the curious girl, with her unique analogies. Just then, Aidan's Alaskan Husky Rumi bounded in the open door of the owlery, and tackled Aidan, taking him down in one fluid motion. Finally, he ended with a big, slobbery, face-length lick for his downed master. Aidan grimaced and wiped his face with his sleeve. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Everywhere!"

"It's a long story, involving Aunts, Uncles, and Nutella." Vee would rather not go into the whole story, because it involves her being a terrible klutz. "Aww!! your dog is awesome!" Vee likes dogs.

[Sorry for any typos, Rachel has a really bad typing thing on her laptop and my fingers are confused.]

"Huh, oh Rumi? At my old school, you can have a dog as your magical pet, so Hogwarts made an exception for me. He's part wolf!" Aidan said distractedly. He was still puzzling over that Nutella comment. He was rather hungry.... "Do you know when dinner is?" He wondered as he clambered up to his feet, nearly tripping over Rumi who constantly managed to be directly where his Aidan's feet were supposed to be.

Vee crouched down and began petting Rumi. Hopefully he liked strangers. "You don't even know when dinner is? Wow! You must be new!" Vee laughed. She thought EVERYONE knew that dinner was at 7:00. "Dinner is at seven" She told Aidan. "We should probably go down soon... And I'm not sure how kindly they take to dogs in the great hall." Vee added, watching him clumsily maneuver himself around Rumi. "I should probably update you on all the school news then, if you're this new!" Vee relished a chance to show people around and tell them about events, but she hardly ever got to. Usually it fell to more responsible people who had been students at Hogwarts for longer. Vee, after all, had only been here since her 3rd year.

Aidan looked over at Rumi, who had abandoned his post under Aidan's feet at the slightest hint of a head scratching. For some reason, Aidan resented that. "Sure. I hope you don't mind walking past the Ravenclaw common room on the way down. We'll leave Rumi there until after dinner. You can catch me up as we head down." He glanced down at his hand, having completely forgotten about the note for his friend August back stateside. "One minute, I have to send this..." He said, calling down a school owl.

[I might not be souper focused while writing this, I'm working on my CAPA portfolio.]

Oh dear... Aidan shouldn't be resentful, because that scares Vee. Luckily, she doesn't know it, at least as of now. "Nope, I will gladly walk wherever. I probably need exercise." She had dropped her exercise schedule a month ago, and was sort of regretting it. Vee watched as Aidan called down an owl, sent of his letter, and they began walking to the door of the owlery.

[dammit Maddie, now i feel like i should work on mine! I haven't even started mineeeee...... ps when we leave the owlery, how does that work? does someone write a link to where the convo continues?]
"I don't know, you look like your in pretty good shape to me. What do you usually do for exercise around here?" He fell into step with Vee. Taking one last look out the window, he murmured "Its still so beautiful out there."

"It's always beautiful on the grounds." Vee sighed. Hogwarts was her home, because there was no way in hell she wanted to live in her real home. "Oh... Well I like to swim in the lake, and I used to run around the grounds for a bit every day, but I gave up when they started piling O.W.L. homework on us." Vee and Aidan left the owlery. And I will continue this... wherever you text me to.

[Hehe now I feel like such a role model... What are you going in for? For some reason I find it necessary to ask...]

To be continued Here