We Dance With Owls PV Marissa North Finished

The hike was tiring. Marissa was not exactly the most fit, but she did not complain. James seemed fine and cheery, flying up the stairway to the Owlery. Last time she had been to the Owlery was when she met up with her twin sister, Claryssa. They had not spoken in a while, which did upset Marissa slightly. Anyways, Mari finally made it up the steps and into the large circular room with James. Dancing. She forgot they were here to dance! Quickly enough, she gave herself a quick mental pep talk and a slight confidence booster. The fire from earlier still had her shaken, a few tears slightly threatening to come out but Marissa held it together.. for James' sake.

Marissa looked up to see owls basically everywhere, which creeped her out a tiny bit. Their large eyes staring down at the two students as if they were judging or spying. She chose to ignore it and looked back to the bright smile James appeared to have on his face. Music. Great, awkwardly dancing in silence was not on her bucket list. She could sing.. but she would end up messing the lyrics up.. or missing something. Mari had sung in front of someone before, but that was when they snuck up on her. Deciding to meet in the middle, Marissa started to hum along to the tune of 'Make You Feel My Love' by Adele. She had no idea if it was a good enough song or not, but she held out her hand as she began to hum the song.

James hadn't expected Marissa to comply with his comment about no music the way she did. Her humming sounded really sweet though.
James cocked his head with a curious smile. “What’s that song?” he asked.
He listened intently, straining his ears to recognize the tune. It reminded him of a few months ago when he had been doned fox ears that did indeed twitch and move with his hearing. The thought was embarrassing, especially because Marissa had been one of the few people who had seen him with ears and even a tail. Ebony had been one other (James realized he hadn’t seen her in a while) and Max Avery, who was the probably the only thing James wouldn’t be missing over the summer away from Hogwarts.
James shoved the thoughts away and resumed his mental quest to figure out the song.
“It sounds pretty.” he said.
Oh, and another thing. James had had enough liking and crushing for one first year. He decided to focus a bit more on schoolwork next year, rather than trying to be a romantic teenager. It sounded weird anyway, now that he thought about it.
“Is that… hmmm…” James gave up. He didn’t know the song.

James did not take her hand, which she felt slightly awkward about. Marissa quickly put her hands behind her back as she finished her song. She was surprised he did not know the song, since Adele was such a famous singer. "A-adele. S-she's q-quite a g-g-good singer." She went red instantly as the stutters were hard. Marissa was somewhat comfortable around James, but either way her muteness was challenging to come over. It would probably take a lot of practice and time until the stutter would either be minimised or gone completely. That in itself was a dream for her.

Now that she stopped singing, it felt more awkward. But that was probably just her.. and her awkward aura. Marie shuffled slightly, looking down to her blue shoes. She was obviously in the same outfit as before, which felt weird in a way. It reminded her of what happened only hours before, the fire and then the panic attack. That was not one of her best moments, especially in front of James.. of whom was probably scared out of his skin. Marissa quickly shook away the thoughts and tried to smile at James. Mari was probably more on the smaller height of their age, only standing at about 4'4". She looked back up to James and gave him one of her signature shy smiles.

"Oh!" James exclaimed. "Oh, o-. Yeah, I know Adele! I know a few of her songs like Rolling in the Deep, Hello, and..." James trailed off. Was it really that impressive that he, a guy, knew and liked Adele's music? He knew that someone like his dad would not think so.
"I mean, sure, yeah. I've heard of her." Dang it, he was being so weird now!
He was supposed to be up here dancing with Marissa... calm down, he told himself. James kicked a leg back and forth, letting it sweep across the floor. His hands were folded behind his back and he was looking at the ground. He tested a look up, and saw Marissa flashing her shy smile. James found himself smiling back.
“Um… so…” James didn’t even know what he was trying to say, if anything. “If you don’t want to dance we could, you know, just hang out a bit?” The truth was, he was suddenly nervous about dancing with Marissa. Scared, even. Which was more than just weird.
“Unless you still want to?” he ventured. “I don’t mind either way.” He honestly didn’t know whether or not that was true.
Oh gosh, stop me now!

Marissa simply tilted her head. James was being shy. Of all people being shy towards her, James would last on her list. The awkward movement, talking and aura around him was quite amusing for her. He kept babbling on about what they could do, which showed Marissa even more on how nervous he was. Slowly but surely her shy smile turned into a bright smile, in which then turned into laughing. She was not laughing at him, she was laughing somewhat with him. James being shy and nervous was something she would never expect, which Mari found amusing. This was probably the first time she properly laughed in front of James.

After a few seconds of joy, Marissa slowly calmed down for her laughing fit. “Y-you’re being s-shy.. l-like m-me!” She smiled brightly again, hoping that James would not find it offensive or take her reaction in the wrong way. “I-I th-thought I w-was meant to b-be the sh-shy one.” Mari giggled once more before gently taking James’ hands and leading him to the middle of the room. “W-we can d-dance if you w-want. O-or talk.” She smiled encouragingly up to him, hoping that he would not be so nervous or awkward as before.

Okay, here's the thing. James was in an odd situation. He was in a room full of owls at the top of a magical castle turret trying to dance with one of his friends without any music. But the oddest thing to James was in that moment, Marissa was laughing at him!
James looked at her in confusion. He had heard her giggle, but never like this. This was different. She was actually laughing.
Did I do something wrong? OR is she laughing at some owl behind me? Do I have food stuck in my teeth??? Wait, no, I didn’t eat anything at the ball… What on earth could she be laughing at me about?
“Y-you’re being s-shy... l-like m-me!” she said, beaming through her laughter. “I-I th-thought I w-was meant to b-be the sh-shy one.” James felt his face turn red. He suddenly realized she was right…
Marissa stepped forward and gently took James’ hands, leading him to the center of the room, or the dancefloor.
“W-we can d-dance if you w-want. O-or talk.” She said, smiling encouragingly.
James tried to take steady breaths, but soon, he couldn’t help but smile. And then laugh a bit with Marissa.
“S-sorry.” he said. “I guess I’m not as confident as I might seem.” He joked. “We can dance AND talk.” he suggested. “Maybe we’ll get a symphony of hoots from the owls for music while we dance.”

Marissa glanced up to the owls again after James had mentioned them. It seemed as if more had gathered around to watch them, or that is how it felt for her. Some were beautiful creatures, but others seemed like they could gobble her up in seconds. She shook away those thoughts and looked back to James who looked still shy in a way, but let out a laugh and a smile. Thank god he did not take it the wrong way. That would have ended badly if he did. Mari smiled slightly again, happy to see James relaxing. She found it slightly weird that she was the one trying to comfort someone and try to make them feel confident. New territory!

Dancing and talking. That’ll be a challenge, especially how Marissa was not exactly the best of dancers. All the images of her failing, tripping or messing up words flooded her mind. Mari tried to push them away by concentrating on what was in front of her, which was James. She shuffled awkwardly for a moment before putting a hand on James’ shoulder and then with her other hand, holding his free hand. She gave another shy smile towards him before staying in her new position.

As Marissa put her hand on his shoulder, James put his on her waist as their free hands grabbed hold of each other. Marissa was still smiling, which was really nice to see. James smiled back as well.
James started leading. He stepped forward and back, going slow to start so that Marissa could follow comfortably.
After a few steps, James decided to start a conversation, or at least start talking about something.
"So, um..." he mused, not entirely sure what to say. "Owls, am I right?"
WHAT WAS THAT!?
"I mean," James tried again, "do you like owls? I think they're cute sometimes. But they can also be fierce... I honestly don't know what I'm talking about." James admitted. He let a bit of a nervous chuckle escape from his lips.
He didn't know much about owls. Just that they could be shy of humans or something like that because they were nocturnal. And they could be cute sometimes, but he already said that. Actually, now that he thought about it, his mental descriptions of owls kinda fit his friend in front of him, Marissa. But was that weird? To be thinking about and comparing his friend to an owl? Wow, James had some odd thoughts.

Marissa tried to keep up with James. It made it obvious that he had danced like this before, since he was leading most of this dance. She was not the best, probably tripping at times or stepping onto his feet. She did not know but tried to concentrate on her foot work. James tried to make small talk.. by mentioning owls in a parculiar way. “O-owls are co-cool. They can t-turn their h-heads 279 de-deg-grees. It w-would b-be cool t-to do th-that.” She mentally winced at her stuttering. It was surprising on how much she had came out of her shell, especially towards James. Marissa rarely spoke to anyone else, she was too busy trying to keep up with all the lessons and homeworks. She rarely thought about socialising, especially when she was selectively mute.

The dancing carried on, Marissa glancing up to the owls at times.. which probably did not help with her confidence. “Be-beautiful cr-creatures. Maybe o-one day I co-could take care o-of them. V-very in-interesting.” Marissa had always been fascinated with animals, but when she was introduced to the magical world.. she was drowned with thousands of more creatures. All were more fascinating than the next. Mari had a goal to learn about them all!