Cornucopia of colours (Open)

Effy had originally come up to send a letter to her family. Her mother often complained about her lack of writing home whenever she returned home, then again her mother complained about anything she could. Writing was just such a bore, especially when she already had to do it so much for homework. It didn't help that it was the end of the year and the made her less motivated to do things such as writing. The walk up had been a lovely one though and with the Autumn scent lingering in the air, she'd gotten distracted and unconsciously ripped the letter into tiny pieces that flew off in the wind without a second's hesitation on the journey up.
Standing right outside the door to the Owlery, Effy leaned up against the stone railing and looked out at the grounds, admiring the view. It was beautiful sight filled with magical shades of red, orange, brown, and even golden yellow. Autumn was always a beautiful season but there was something about in the magical world that just seemed to make it that much more special. Letting out a small laugh and sigh, she could faintly see her breath and it wasn't until then that she realized just how chilly it was. Her leather jacket was keeping her torso fairly warm, but she'd made the mistake of leaving her legs bare and not bringing along her gloves or hat.
"Bollocks." She muttered, rubbing her hands together and hopping a few times. Too lost in thought about getting warm, she was oblivious to the bird flying straight at her and was caught by surprised when it let out a loud screech. "Oi there!" She yelled out, followed by a string of swear words as she jumped out of the way.

She couldn't tell her mother what was going on right now. She had enough with taking care of her two year old sister, and she had to deal with her husband and work and all of that. Damitrius couldn't afford to have her mother do anything rash if she found out about everything that was going on in her life right now. Everyone kept blaming her for Sapphire's death and she honestly didn't understand why. She wasn't anywhere near Sapphire when she died, and she was her best friend, why would she even think of killing her? A best friend wouldn't kill the other, it would be like killing yourself. Which right now, didn't seem like a bad idea to her. But she knew that it was impossible for her to do that, no one would let her even attempt it.

Still, you can't get rid of the thoughts and the more you tried to forget them, the more they floated in your mind, waiting for a chance where they could come out and make you do something stupid. That was why Damitrius always wanted to have someone around her, even when she wanted to be completely alone. Today though, she was alone, no one would know that she had come up to the Owlery, and it was technically a bad thing. For all they knew she could be trying to throw herself out the window right now - it had crossed her mind before. That wasn't going to happen though, she was up there to send her mother the weekly letter she had been told to send through out the remainder of the year. It wasn't to her father, she never sent him anything, the letter was for her mother, as it always was.

She entered the Owlery and gave a low whistle, she hoped no one else was in there right now and even if they were, she hoped they didn't get scared. Her owl swooped down from a perch on the other side of the Owlery and it landed on her arm, the talons gripping, and pinching, her skin slightly. Damitrius winced a bit but didn't make any sudden movement to frighten her owl, "Hey Ash." she told the male snow owl. "Do me a favor and take this to my mum please?" she gave the owl the letter and it flew off with the letter in its mouth. Damitrius watched it as it disappeared into the horizon.

Effy mumbled a few more curse words before finally regaining her balance and all. Leaning up against the stone wall of the Owlery, she tucked some loose strands of hair behind her ears and folded her arms. Her eyes were glued to the owl that had nearly hit her and she watched it become a small speck in the sky before completely disappearing from view. "Now if only I had wings..." She sighed, closing her eyes and tilting her head back as she spoke to herself. Usually she kept the self talking in her head, but nobody was up here as far as she knew. Even if somebody was lurking nearby, it didn't matter, people usually came to the conclusion that something was wrong with her anyway.
"Or better yet, a broom..." Muttering that last part, she opened her eyes and looked down at what remained of the letter. She'd completely torn up the envelope without knowing it and all that was left now was an odd disfigured triangle shape of paper. Guess mother would have to e patient and wait a little longer. "Was a rubbish letter anyway." She said aloud, pushing herself off the wall and walking into the room of owls as one flew out, mail in beak.
"Well hello lovelies." She smiled, looking up at all the birds. It didn't take much longer than a second for her to pick out her own owl Loki. Opening her mouth to call him over, she stopped as it finally registered that the owl that had flown past her had mail, meaning she wasn't alone anymore. Looking around, she realized there was a girl standing there and looked her over. She was mildly familiar, and Effy figured they must have had classes together and probably had a few this year as well.
"Oh." Effy hadn't meant for it to sound so disappointing originally, but she wasn't going to waste her breath taking it back or correcting it. Turning back towards Loki, she made a little clicking noise with her tongue and held her arm out as he flew over and gripped it tightly. She pulled out a small treat she'd gotten on her last Hogsmeade trip and held it up to his beak for a second or two before he snatched it out from between her fingers.

Already, winter had begun to bring its icy glare to Hogwarts. The grass that spread out in a fan across the grounds was no longer soft under food but had become hard and crunchy with the coating of frost clinging almost desperately to the blades that still shone with a summer that felt so long ago. The ground frost was something unavoidable and, for Daedalus, the best indication as to when to start wrapping up warm. His mother’s letters had been urging him to do so weeks ago but he’d defiantly refused and had in doing so gotten his self the flu which had left him bedridden for a few days and once again saw his parents at Hogwarts, one desperately urging him to get better, the other wishing death upon him. Could you tell which was which?

But to receive a letter meant that it was customary to return one and his mother had been badgering him for some time now as to health and though he was reluctant to respond he knew that eventually he would have to and so he composed a short, somewhat blunt letter telling of his unsettled health and his schoolwork which he hastened to add he was already behind in. He then expressed his desire to go to Italy imminently and signed his letter off with his full name rather than the shortened version that his mother enjoyed. With that tucked into the excessively padded trench coat he’d been given, Daedalus shrugged on his outdoor wear and left the dungeons, passing a rabble of scantily clad fourth years that had clearly come back from Hogsmeade and, if the flush of their skin was any indication, regretted the scantily clad part of their dress.

The wind seemed to pick up as soon as Daedalus was clear of the castle walls. Instinctively he sunk back into his coat and buried his hands deeper into the pockets, his skin left scratched by the sharp edges of the envelope. Much to his relief it was not a particularly long walk up to the Owlery. When he arrived though, he found something completely unexpected. Well, first of all his cousin which was a disaster whichever way you shook it and then a Slytherin who Daedalus recognised from the common room though could neither remember her year or her name – not that it was particularly important to him, mind you.

Sighing in a long-suffering manner that was highly typical of his manner, Daedalus strode into the Owlery, choosing to address neither of them and instead busy himself with Oriana, his owl who had been quick to swoop down to him; perhaps that told more about his writing habits than anything else. He clearly wasn’t in the Owlery often. Such is life though, he thought, or, rather: death.

(Sneakin' in, like a pro. :3)

Damitrius stood, leaning over the edge of the window slightly, at first looking at the horizon where her owl had long since disappeared at, then she looked down at the ground from where she stood. Her body shook a little as she took in the distance from the ground to where she stood and backed away from the window. A sigh escaped her lips as she turned back toward the inside of the owlery, where she finally noticed that there was someone else in there with her. She blinked a few times, without saying anything to the other girl who was there, but she hesitated in leaving the place too. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do right now anyways.

As if things couldn't get any worse Daedalus, her cousin, soon walked in there with them. Damitrius winced a bit when he came in and she lowered her gaze to the floor as he pretty much ignored both of them and she brought the tips of her shoes together, rubbing one against the other. She didn't know what she was supposed to do in there with two Slytherins, it didn't matter if one was her cousin, she highly doubted that he would want anything to do with her now - if ever - so she wasn't going to bother talking to him unless he addressed her first. The other girl wasn't someone she would even bother with really, Damitrius tended to keep her association with Slytherins to a minimum if she could help it.

Usually, she would've walked out of there by now, but for some reason, she refused to budge from where she stood. Her head was still lowered to the floor as she watched her shoes, her head sinking into the Gryffindor scarf she had decided to wear. Damitrius' eyes darted from one side to the other, looking at basically the entire floor along with the other two's shoes, before they came back to her own and she tried to find something to say. She finally said something but it was muffled by the scarf covering her mouth and she didn't bother with saying it again.

Effy's eyes wandered over to the door as yet another person appeared. Looking him over, just as she'd done to the girl, nothing really sparked her interest. He was Slytherin, but not somebody she knew personally, or at all really. Letting out a bored sigh, she turned back to her owl and gave him a kiss on the head before walking over to where he'd been previously perched. "There you go." She set him down and gently pet his feathers.
Pulling the sleeves of her jacket over her hands, she leaned up against one of the windows and folded her arms. She wasn't yet ready to return to the castle or for the walk back down to the grounds, and besides, she was a bit bothered by the fact that she barely knew anything about the two other students in the Owlery. It was just a guess, but she almost sure they were both in her year. Pulling a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her pocket, she lit one and took a long drag off of it.
Shoving the cigs back into her pocket she finally blew out the smoke, and watched it dance and twirl in the air. Inhaling some more smoke, she turned her attention to the two other students, and tried to think of anything she knew about either. Nothing came to mind, but she noticed there was some sort of tension or something between the two. Twirling the cancer stick between her fingers, her eyes shot over to the Gryffindor as she heard what she supposed was mumbling. "Hmm?" Effy raised and eyebrow, taking a step closer to the girl.