Family letters pv Flac Flintshire Closed

Taking two steps at ones Flac sprintet up to the owlery, only slowing down slightly, as his feet started slipping away on the ice coated stairs. In one hand he had a letter out of parchment, in the other some owl treats.

Bevor he could reach the top of the stairs his high speed let him slip away with one foot. He hung in the air one second - or so it seemed to him - trying to get his balance back, but then fell, stretching out his hands to stop his fall, but only able to protect his face. One of his knees hit the stone pretty hard and he wailed quietly. Than he waited a short time for the pain to become bearsble,his cheek laying on the cold stone beneath it. When his knee stopped to ache, he sat up and inspected the damage. His trousers were ripped, exposing the scraped skin underneath, but there was no bigger injurie palpable and he could move his leg just as usual. Slowly he stood up and as the weight came on his leg he was relieved it did not hurt as much as he feared. Flac turned and glanced at the parchment he dropped during his fall and his enthusiasm over the news he was about to share returned. Quickly the boy picked up the letter, not bothering about the owl treats, and continued his way up, only slightly limping but with dust and ice on his black cloak.

On top of the stairs he bursted through the door, wich scared a number of birds that flew towards the windows. "Oh, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized to the birds.

While Flac was laying on the stairs, Opeila was able to calm herself down. At least a little. Her hands weren't shaking as bad anymore and she swallowed the tears that were about to escape her control.
Carefully she folded the letter and put it in a pocket on the inside of her cloak.

Taking a deep breath she turned around to leave the owlery when she saw a few owls taking off... startled by the Hufflepuff who just entered the owlery.

Opeila was only too aware, that probably anyone would be able to see the signs of the recent panic attack in her face, not to mention her still slightly shaking hands.
Quickly she turned away from the door again and walked towards the window. She grabbed the railing so tightly, her knuckles were shimmering white, to hide the shaking.

"Oh, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.", the boy said to the startled birds. Opeila could only just stop herself from letting a weird giggle escape her. The boy was talking to the owls. Was he really expecting the birds to understand him?
On the other hand Hardin never seemed to have a problem understanding human language.
Why the hell was she thinking about owls now? She just received a more than serious letter from her father and she was thinking about Hardin seeming to know, what she was saying.

@Flac Flintshire

Someone giggled. Irritated Flac glanced around, searching for the person the noise was coming from and found a girl, probably the same age as he was, standing in front of a window, facing the glassless arch, her brown looking hair blowing in the cold wind.

"Good afternoon.", he quietly, yet friendly replied to her laughter, then focusing on the task at hand: Sending a letter.

After a small owl with feathers of the color of dirt landet on his arm, he quickly tied his parchment to the leg of the animal, carefully avoiding the evil looking talons. "Bring this to Lucifer Parsons in London, right? I'm afraid I lost the treats for you on the stairs, but he will give you some, I am sure. Now, fly, it will soon start to snow and I don't want to send you into a blizzard." With these words he approached the window next to Opeilas, lifting his arm there to let the owl fly away into the cloudy dawn.

"Waiting for an important letter?" He asked next, as he thought clearly aimed at the girl next to him, but still staring at the owl he could barley make out in front of the grey sky.

"Good afternoon.", the Hufflepuff said, sounding a little irritated. Opeila didn't turn around whe she answered "Hello, Hufflepuff." She hated her voice for shaking from the shock, she only hoped for a moment alone, so she could cry for a moment before looking for a solution.
"Bring this to Lucifer Parsons in London, right? I'm afraid I lost the treats for you on the stairs, but he will give you some, I am sure. Now, fly, it will soon start to snow and I don't want to send you into a blizzard.", she heard him saying before he walked next to her and the owl departed. "Do you think, the owl understands everythink you say?" The mocking tone hidden in those words was hardly recognizable, she sounded to shook. And shook she was.

His next question "Waiting for an important letter?" almost made her laugh again. "I am, am I not?", was all she said. She was. She was waiting for another owl to arrive, that would bring her a message that everything was fine, that it was not as bad as it sounded.
But there was no owl coming. The sky was clear except the shrinking silhouette of the bird the Hufflepuff had just sent off.

"Maybe the owl doesn't understand the meaning of my words. But that's not important." Flac was answering thoughtfully, leaving some long gaps between his words and speaking slowly. "They get the way, you feel, whilst you are saying them. And that you are concentrating on them and nothing else. If you speak to them you can't shift your focus to something else, lose yourself in your thoughts and accidentally hurt them. I guess, that is the reason I speak to them. To the owls as well as to my dogs, to horses and every other animal."

Flac was satisfied with his answer and turned around to look into the owlery. The birds had calmed down again, resting on their nests, looking around with their huge, sleepy eyes.

Sometimes an owl flew through the huge room without making a noise. Flac felt comfortable and even a bit sleepy, not bothered by the cold wind, as his coat was shielding him from it.

"You don't have to wait here, you know? The owl will be likely to come to you anyway, if it is important. You can just go somewhere warm and cosy and wait for your - I assume - bad news."

"Maybe the owl doesn't understand the meaning of my words. But that's not important."
"If it isn't important, what is talking about then?", she asked, her confusion made her a little aggressive.
"They get the way, you feel, whilst you are saying them. And that you are concentrating on them and nothing else. If you speak to them you can't shift your focus to something else, lose yourself in your thoughts and accidentally hurt them. I guess, that is the reason I speak to them. To the owls as well as to my dogs, to horses and every other animal." That was true. She remembered Hardin always getting excited when her parents were fighting. The bird always seemed to feel what was going on. Opeila also noticed the owls here were calming down, as well as herself. She didn't know why, but hearing the Hufflepuff talking somehow comforted her. He didn't push her to talk about her problems like probably every other person would have.
"You have a lot of animals. How do you give enough attention to everyone of them?"
The cold wind coming through the window made her shiver, but she was determined to wait a little longer.

"You don't have to wait here, you know? The owl will be likely to come to you anyway, if it is important. You can just go somewhere warm and cosy and wait for your - I assume - bad news."
A bitter smile appeared on her face.
"Actually I am waiting- or hoping- for good news. I've already got the bad ones."

@Flac Flintshire

"Actually, in the moment I have not one animal with me. The owls we have belong to my parents and I could not bring my dogs, nor the horsies." He thought about it for a second, playing with his necklace while counting. "At home it is mostly my parents animals. There are the two owls, of course, then the old greyhound of tad, the Fwooper of my mum, the normal horses and the Granian and then of course, my two crubs. And, if you count them as pets, a horde of mice, some rats and hundreds of crows and seagulls. But they care for themself." Realizing that he had not answered the question, he added: "I was only responsible for the owls and the dogs and I think I managed to give them attention every day."

A bit exhausted by this long monologue he paused, pulling out a little bottle, in which a flame was trapped. By opening the bottle, the warm light fell onto my face and around me, battling the winter night that was starting outside.

"So." He then started again. "Let me get this straight. You got bad news and know hope, that it was a hoax? Or do you know, it will end well and just did not receive the letter yet to confirm it?" He tilted his head a little, the voice softer than the words he spoke.

"Actually, in the moment I have not one animal with me. The owls we have belong to my parents and I could not bring my dogs, nor the horsies. At home it is mostly my parents animals. There are the two owls, of course, then the old greyhound of tad, the Fwooper of my mum, the normal horses and the Granian and then of course, my two crubs. And, if you count them as pets, a horde of mice, some rats and hundreds of crows and seagulls. But they care for themself. I was only responsible for the owls and the dogs and I think I managed to give them attention every day." 

Opeila looked at him, surprised. "Wow, those really are many animals. But isn't that a little strange? If you own two owls, why didn't you bring one with you? Now you always have to use a school owl to send your letters instead of one that you know and trust."

When he took out the bottled flame Opeila stepped closer, maybe that would warm her up a little.

"So. Let me get this straight. You got bad news and know hope, that it was a hoax? Or do you know, it will end well and just did not receive the letter yet to confirm it?", he started again.
Opeila sighed. "No. This isn't a hoax, if it was, it would be very cruel. But since this letter came from my father.... He wouldn't write something like this to fool me. And about the ending... I hope this will end well." Her voice became quieter. "I've never hoped more for something."
She straightened a little and tried to smile. "So. I don't really want to continue calling you Hufflepuff. I am Opeila Seilun, first year, in Slytherin. And you are...?"