Hungry Owl

Hester stepped into the owlry where Aphrodites had been staying. She scanned the small, stone room and cooed softly. She spotted her eagle owl up in the rafters.

"Come here," she called softly. The owl swooped down and landed on her outstretched arm. Hester flinched. The bird had sharp talons. "I have a letter for you," she said, as the bird nipped at her ear.

She attempted to tie the letter to the owl's leg, just as she had been told to do. Aphrodites jerked her leg away and hooted indignantly.

"You tired?" asked Hester. Of course she got no answer from the owl.

"Hungry." she said suddenly. "You'll want something to eat. "But I haven't got anything..."

Terry climbed the stairs, still tired. Pierre had said, in exchange for her being allowed to use Mello, his raven, and play with his Puffskein, then she had to feed him and stuff like that every morning. In one hand she held a box of owl kibble (the clerk said that it worked on ravens too) and in the other, Puff was bouncing excitedly from her hand to her shoulder. Paying no mind to the Grffyndor who was already up there, she whistled for Mello and offered a finger for him to perch on.

"Come here, vou pretty birdy," she cooed, moving Puff away from Mello's shark beak. "Bad Mello! No eating Puff." Quickly dropping the coral colored Puff to the hay strewn ground, she fished out a few pellets, offering them to Mello, who was staring at Puff hungrily. "Vhat did I say about eating Puff?" she demanded, glaring at the bird.

He glared back.

Hester watched the Ravenclaw girl enter and begin a conversation, or battle, with a raven and another creature, some magical creature, she guessed. She saw that the girl had some owl kibble with her.

She didn't usually ask people for favours, but since she had no food with her, she decided to pull together her Gryffindor courage and ask.

"Excuse me," she said quietly. "I was wondering if-" She stopped. She wasn't sure how to ask. "Uh- Well, I was wondering if you could spare one of your owl kibbles?" She hoped that she wouldn't seem rude.

Terry turned to the girl. "Uh, sure." Pierre would get mad at her later, but she had bought them with her own allowance so why couldn't she give them out? Fishing out four pellets, she dropped them in the girl's hand, shoving some down Mello's beak. "Why don't vou have some?" she inquired curiously before remembering her manners. "Oh, and I'm Terry Berbatov."

She scooped up Puff, placing him on her shoulder as Mello nipped around in he box of kibble.

Hester smiled, grateful.

"Thank you," she said. "I bought my owl, but I- I forgot about the pellets. I'm not so great with animals. I love them-" she paused, remembering. "Well, most of them. But I've never had a pet."

She held out one of the pellets for Aphrodites, who snatched it up in her beak and gulped it down.

"I'm going to place an owl order for some," she said. "But she was hungry before she took the letter... I send it to the owl emporium, don't I?"

Then she realised that she hadn't told the girl her name.

"I'm Hester," she said.

"Understandable. I keep on losing my iguana under my roommates beds." Terry nodded.

"Ves, vou send- Mello! Bad birdy!" Terry shouted, grabbing the bird's body as he lunged for Puff. "I swear, vou don't like pellets very much...." she scowled angrily at the bird. Chucking it out the window, she smirked as it flapped desperately for leverage before swooping down to Pierre's shoulder below where he was talking to another Hufflepuff.

"What's vour last name? I think I've heard of a Hester, but I'm not sure."

"Alderman," said Hester. "Is that a... What is it?" she asked, pointing to the creature that wasn't a raven, the one that kept getting almost eaten. She had never seen anything like it before. Then she paused. "You have an iguana?" she asked, excitedly. "That's awesome!" She liked reptiles. Much more than large, furry animals, any way.

"Nope, never heard of that name. Are vou a half blood?" Terry asked curiously. Now, is she was a Muggleborn, forget it.

Terry looked at Puff. "Oh! Puff is a Puffskein. He's my cousin's but I like playing vith him. Mello is Pierre's too. I feed him so I can play vith Puff." she explained, searching her pockets for Iggy.

"Dang it.....I must've left Iggy under Dree's bed..."

Hester felt shy again. Why, with the people here, did the conversation always turn to blood status?

"I'm a muggleborn," said Hester, looking the girl straight in the eye.

She wasn't sure what else to say, so she waited for Terry's reaction. She hoped that it wouldn't be bad.

She looked at the creature, the puffskein. Magical creatures were so... different.