Girl's Dorm - Lessons and letters

Carys sat on her bed, the open fire of the girls' dormitory warming the room from the biting cold out the january weather outside. Carys shifted her bare feet on the soft blue covers of her four poster bed as she stared at the book infront of her. Her brow was furrowed, her normally loose hair scrunched back into a messy bun on top of her head, showing every sign of meaning business.
Classes were well under way after the Christmas break and as usual History of Magic was making no sense to Carys. She still had 5 inches of parchment to write and she'd already been using the biggest handwriting she could without it being too noticable. She flicked over a few more pages, hoping fruitlessly for some miracle answer that would somehow get the facts to stick into her head. She aimlessly wondered if there was some sort of charm for that.

Carys looked around the room, her attention span waning. Nobody else was in the dormitory, nobody to distract her. She opened a chocolate frog, making sure to catch it quickly before it hopped away. She discarded the card inside, it would only remind her of the historical witches and wizards she was meant to be learning about.

"Pudge?" Carys called gently, between bites of chocolate, hoping her fat, lazy cat was somewhere around. "Pudgey." She sighed and fiddled with a loose strand of hair around her face when Pudge didn't show himself.

The room was still and quiet, apart from the gentle crackling of the logs in the fire when a sharp tapping noise broke the relative silence. Carys looked around to see her parents' owl Zephyr flapping by the window.

"Hey, boy," she spoke softly as she opened the window and the old swooped into the room, scattering snowflakes over the floor before landing to perch on the footboard of her bed. Carys bent to untie the letter from the owl's leg, patting him on the head and offering him an owl treat from her pouch in her bedside drawer.

Serena had just finished her book out by the pond. She was terribly cold. She had forgotten to put the warming spell on. Her normally straight red hair was blown all about. Serena put it into a messy ponytail trying to keep it somewhat in order. Her clothes were a little damp from the ground but nothing that was too noticeable unless someone was looking. She brushed it aside just figuring that she would change into some different more relaxing clothes when she got inside.

Somehow she managed to stay warm reading her book. She thought it was because she always gets lost into her book. She smiled to herself as she approached the main doors. She had already finished most of her homework when she spotted this book in her belongings. She didn't know how it got there. But she thoroughly enjoyed it.

She waved and said hi to a few students making her way to the Ravenclaw common room. Hopefully there would be space by the fire and she could warm her chilled bones there. Christmas break was a long one. Serena ended up staying in the castle and away from everyone. Memories of faces would pop into her head. She felt quite odd with it, but decided that she would eventually find out who keeps popping in her head,

She made her way in to the Ravenclaw dorm and no one in the main room. She was glad the front spot in the fire was open. She decided to go and drop her belongings off on her bed. As she made her way to her room she heard someone call out. But what they said Serena had no clue. She brushed it off. As she entered her dorm she saw a brown haired girl that she had seen on occasion but not really talked to. She saw her bend over to get something off of an owl.

"Hello. That's a beautiful owl." Serena has always had a thing for owls.

Carys turned as she heard a voice from behind her. She greeted Serena warmly, having shared a room with her for a few years, but strangely, never really having had any opportunity to talk with the girl, at least not on their own. They had of course sat in lessons, at the house table in the great hall and shared odd comments between their roommates. But nothing more substantial.

Carys looked at Zephyr, her parents' owl, when Serena gave mention of him.

"Thanks," smiled Carys. "He's not mine really. My brother, Owen bought him for our parents so that they can keep in touch better." She patted Zephyr softly, stretching out her arm and letting the owl hop on. "They're muggles," Carys added as an explantation. She blushed slightly at her admission. "Both my brothers are wizards though, they went to Hogwarts too, Gareth's off in Mongolia at the moment for Gringotts." Carys felt like she was digging herself a hole. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her parents, on the contrary, she loved them dearly. But she felt ashamed of herself, for leaving them, for not being like them, it was all confusing. Carys coughed slightly making Zephyr click his beak grumpily.

"He's a good owl though," Carys went on, choosing to get the subject back to Zephyr. "He loves it out in Wales, he has miles of countryside to fly over there. And the sea of course." Carys smiled dreamily thinking of her home. She couldn't deny that she missed it. "There's not another house around for miles, so he can fly about whenever."

Carys flopped herself down onto the bed, Zephyr squeaking indignantly at being moved so suddenly. Carys smiled up at Serena, realising that she'd been babbling away.