THE OWLERY

Josiah looked down at her. "Er... thanks?"

"You're welcome!" she said with a nod, turning back to the gaping window in the wall.

"It's alright... I actually like it!" Emily said, smiling at her. "Do you want to see my drawing?"

~

"Hey, who's that from?!" called the good natured voice of Zack. He had coincidentally come up here to deliver a letter to a Muggle friend of his, when he saw Josiah up here, with a letter himself.

"Uh.. sure. You draw?" Leah asked, and set the owl off with the letter, then going up to Emily. She totally ignored Josiah, even though she knew he were in there.

"Yeah, I do!" Emily said, a bit proudly at her talent. She handed her the sketch of the mountains she doodled earlier, except this time it was all cleaned up, colored, and shaded. "I drew this for my parents back home."

"Why didn't you give it to them?" She looked at the sketch. Unfortunately, Emily was actually really good at drawing.

"That's what I'm doing right now!" she exclaimed, looking for a nice school owl to send off her with.

"Oh, no one!" Josiah said quickly, stuffing the letter into his jean pocket. It took quite a bit of effort, since he was wearing skinny jeans.

"Oh, I see." Zack paused to laugh, and he buried his own hands in his pockets, which was a much easier feat for him, since he was not wearing ridiculously skinny pants like Josiah's. "Sometimes when parents write a lot, it gets annoying. My family are Muggles, so they want to hear back everyday, and they nag me if I don't."

"Yeah, parents are annoying like that. My mum sent me this really angry letter the other day. She's a redhead, and she certainly fits the stereotype for a temper."

"Oh, that's great," Leah said. "Do you have your own owl?"

"Oh, no." Emily shook her head. "I wish, though. We just have our family owl. I think that if I save up enough money, I might buy one. But owls sure are expensive!"

~

Zack laughed. "That's one of the nice things about having Muggle parents-they don't know about those Howelr things, so they won't send letters that actually YELL at you."

"My mum doesn't really believe in Howlers," Josiah laughed, shoving the letter from Anthony deeper into his pocket. "Says they're a waste. You're just embarrassed for a few days and then everyone forgets about it."

"Yeah, we have a family owl too.. I had to use the school owl, though, because I think Cam took the owl or somebody did."

"Aww... I'm sorry." said Emily earnestly. "You better get it back from him."

"Hey, mate, I'd better get going. I've got stuff to do," Josiah said, and walked off.

And that stubby girl in the oversized robes and Slytherin scarf began to trail him like a strand of goldfish poop.

After a little bit, Josiah happened to realize that someone was following him. Something just felt wrong, so he had turned around and seen... her.

"Hi!" he greeted politely, and turned back around.

"Hi!" she answered, continuing to follow him once he'd turned around again -- though, perhaps knowingly, she created more of a distance between them.

Josiah was just wandering aimlessly through the castle, and when he checked over his shoulder and still noticed her, he figured he may as well ask what was going on. "Do you need help with anything? Finding something?"

Louise shook her head. Her scarf had fallen just below her chin, showing off her pretty little smile. "No! I'm alright!"

"Are you following me or something?" Josiah asked bluntly.

And with the same blunt force, Louise chirped out a "Yes!"

"Um... don't you have anything else you need to do?" Josiah was feeling increasingly awkward. This was just weird.

"No. Nothing."