A Good Day

[Avery Marshall]

Avery Marshall sat herself down on one of the benches on the right side of the courtyard. In the little time she had now been at Hogwarts she had only just tried to explore the inside of the castle, reassuring herself of the fact that she'd definetely explore he grounds later. However for now the weather was nice and she just wanted to sit outside for a bit, not doing anything really. Avery had to admit that she had been feeling a bit lonely since she got to Hogwarts, even with so many people around. She was used to being surrounded by friends, but right now she hadn't even tried to make new friends yet. At this moment she missed her little brother even more, but the thought that they could spend a lot more time together from next year on made things better. Perhaps she was at fault for not having any friends yet, perhaps she should try a bit harder, but she was sure that would happen sooner or later. There's almost no one who goes through seven years of studying at Hogwarts without having even one friend.

Avery felt the sun burning on her face and smiled. It was still early, but it felt like it was going to be a good day. She followed the students walking by with her eyes, scanning them. Some of them were heading back inside, others were joining her at hanging around the courtyard. There were a few older ones, who looked like they most certainly were fifth years or older, and a few students who seemed to be around her age. Some of them might even be her friends one day, you never know do you?

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

Such a lovely day to be spent inside the castle's walls so as soon as he was done with his early class, Ulysses pushed the heavy doors of the main entrance and he was showered by the dazzling sunlight. Just hanging at one of the benches of the courtyard was really relaxing. The four houses' fountain was located in the center of the paved yard. Lion, snake, badger and raven were all spraying gracefully arcs of water, coming down in a rectangular basin. Many students were sitting on it while engaging in conversations with classmates but Ulysses went straight to a corner where the shade of a tree was cast on a bench. He took of his pack and placed it next to him as he sat down. From there he could see the whole courtyard and the people passing by or deciding to linger a little longer. It was somewhat interesting to discreetly observe strangers when they were unaware of it. He was going to do that for as long as he was waiting for Hoodini to come.

Name after the famous illusionist, Ulysses pet owl was tending to bringing the day's mail around that time. The ravenclaw was expecting today's issue of the Daily Prophet along with the letter from his family. His muggle parents had get used to this unfamiliar way of communication but Ulysses was curious to see how exactly his parents did manage to fasten the little roll of parchment on the owl's foot. It was a defiant bird and Ulysses had the suspicion that the particular owl was never really tamed but regardless it was just put for sale. He was getting bullied by the owl most of the time he was receiving letters or packages from home but he was justifying this behavior for having his pet for a short time.

His light, green eyes were scanning the cloudless sky when a shadow appeared against the blue. Like a black arrow swooped down and zoomed towards his direction. Ulysses recognized his pet owl but it didn't come his way. Instead, the black barn owl landed on the bench next to a girl around Ulysses' age and dropped the Daily Prophet that was carrying in its beak. Then stretched its feathered leg with the parchment tied around it and prompted the girl with a screech to take it off. Ulysses' face burned with embarrassment but he was putting up with this behavior most of the time. Hoodini was enjoying delivering what he was carrying to every other person around but Ulysses. It was deliberately done by the bird, a display of contempt. Hoodini rotated its head to see his owner and Ulysses could there was mockery in these black eyes. "Excuse me." he interrupted as he walked to the girl. "I'm so sorry if he disturbed you. He was supposed to deliver this to me." he gestured at the paper on the girl's laps and glanced annoyed at the owl. "Go away dipstick! Leave her alone!" he tried to shoo the bird away from the girl but Hoodini refused to move out of spite. He left a high pitched screech and stubbornly insisted for the girl to untie the parchment.

 

[Avery Marshall]

Pushing away the thoughts about her brother and making friends Avery smiled, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on her face. It didn't surprise the girl that more students were making their way outside, the weather was lovely. Still observing the students around her Avery was startled when something was suddenly dropped on her lap. She frowned when she noticed it was this weeks edition of the Daily Prophet and it was only then that she noticed the movement besides her and she turned her head the the left only to find that a big, dark owl had landed next to her. Well at least that explained the Daily Prophet. As the owl screeched and stretched its leg Avery frowned. She had never seen this owl before and was pretty sure that it wasn't her he had to deliver to. The sudden sounds of a voice made her look up and she looked directly at the boy who was now standing in front of her. "It's fine." She smiled at him as she handed him the paper, which was followed by a chuckle at the boys failed attempt to get rid of his owl. Or a least it seemed like his owl.

"You know it would almost seem like he doesn't like you very much." Avery smirked, a bit amused by the fact that the boy couldn't handle the owl, which now screeched again. It seemed like it was still insisting on her untying the parchment from its leg. The eleven year old curiously looked at the owl, wondering if the animal was just really stubborn or the boy had actually done something to make the owl dislike him. Didn't seem like someone who'd treat an animal wrong though, but you never know. She had never had any trouble with their own owl, but his personality seemed different from the owl which was still next to her. "So do you want me to untie the parchment for you, or are you gonna wait for the right moment to do it yourself?"

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

Fortunately the girl looked amused rather than irritated and this evoked a goofy smile on Ulysses' features as she handed him the paper. "Thanks." he said grateful and then glared back at his owl. "I think he actually hates me." he stated the obvious. "I read somewhere in a book that male owls are quite competitive with individuals of the gender." he began talking about the most possible reason of why his owl was behaving like that. "It makes sense. He always delivers my letters to random girls. Thanks to him, I have made acquaintances with half the female population of the castle." he chuckled. Half the castle might have been an exaggeration but most of the times his letters were ending up in some girl's lap or worst, in their cereal bowl. Usually, an apology from Ulysses' part was enough to resolve the misunderstandings but in case of those girls spattered with milk from a paper tossed in their cereals, nasty looks and swear word were coming his way, if not hexes.

He glanced at the girl when she asked him if he was able to get the parchment from his owl himself. He narrowed his eyes down at Houdini who had settled down next to the girl. Ulysses slowly sat down on the bench, keeping some space from his owl which was between them. His fingers carefully attempted to reach the bird's foot but Houdini pecked his hand and hopped on the girl's lap. "Come on! Give me a break!" he sputtered with clenched teeth and shook his hand in pain. The owl's insolent behavior continued as its opened its beak to regurgitate an egg-shaped pellet down on the bench between Ulysses and the girl. A straightforward warning to Ulysses to keep his distance. "Disgusting bird!" he groaned and pushed the pellet off the bench with the tip of the paper. "I'm not getting that parchment any time soon." he shook his head defeated. "Could you, please? Houdini seems to like you." he noticed while exchanging glares with the owl on her lap.

 

[Avery Marshall]

Avery looked at the boy curiously. His relationship with the owl sounded rather amusing to her, she could never imagine her own owl to be that stubborn or competitive. That might be because the owl was getting old and Avery wouldn't be surprised if it died anytime soon. "Well that seems like either an effictive way to get to know someone, or a very good way to immediately get on someones nerves." The girl laughed. She could very well understand that some of the students would get irritated by an owl suddenly dropping something on their lap and screeching untill someone would undo the parchment of its leg. With an owl like that it seemed like you always had to be prepared for any type of reaction.

The eleven year old watched as the boy sat down on the bench, carefully trying to get the owl to let him take the parchment. However within a second the owl had moved himself onto Avery's lap and she sighed. It must be very tyring to have to go through something like this every time your owl comes to deliver you something. "Sure." Avery nodded as response to the boy asking her to untie the parchment from the owl leg. She went to untie the parchment and smirked when the owl gladly extended its leg so she could easily reach it. "Here you go." She smiled as she handed the boy the parchment and waited for the owl to move away.

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

An awkward smile spread broadly on his face. He really hoped he hadn't get on her nerves though his owl was trying too hard to achieve this. Thankfully, she looked eager to put him out of his misery and proceeded with the detachment of the parchment. His owl only cooperated with the girl and stayed still while extending its foot. "Thanks again." he smiled back grateful and took the parchment from her. "Your job is done! Fly away now!" he attempted once more to shoo in vain his owl pet. The girl must be feeling uncomfortable by that time. Hoodini spread his wings and jumped on Ulysses' head. Another display of dominance that the ravenclaw was pretty familiar with. He sighed as he searched for something in his pack. He found an owl treat somewhere in the bottom of it and threw it in the air. Wings spread again and the owl took off to seize the treat with its talons in midair. It landed on top of the fountain's badger statue to savor it. "Good riddance!" he breathed and cast a last harsh look at his owl, making sure it wasn't going to return and attempt to humiliate him again. "I'm so sorry for that and, thank you for not beating me with the newspaper in the first place." he chuckled, referring to the Daily Prophet he was now holding. She had reacted considerately when she could have just bristled with this. "What's your name?" he asked. While his owl was never going to stop mistreating him, Ulysses could at least use the situation to his advantage and maybe make new friends.

 

[Avery Marshall]

Avery let out a small sigh of relief when the owl finally decided to get off her lap. She didn't mind the owl next to her on the bench, but it jumping on her lap and screeching again had been a totally different story, although she didn't show much of it. I felt good that she had found a way to keep calm under it. She had never seen an animal so stubborn and dominant. Her own owl would never do that, but that might be because he was getting rather old. "It's okay, it's not really your fault and I'm not that agressive." She smiled at him, which was true. She wasn't the agressive type of person, although she was a very hot-headed person from time to time and at those moments no one would be happy to walk into her. "My name's Avery, I'm a first year Slytherin." Avery responded to his question. "What's yours?" Observing the boy she was wondering what House he would be in. She guessed he could easily be a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw, but at Hogwarts anything was possible and people could be sorted into houses you'd least expect them to be sorted in.

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

With his owl finally flying away, Ulysses felt much more comfortable now that the possibility of being further abused seemed to have been gone. Her comment of the girl about not being that aggressive, evoked a soft smile on his lips. He put the paper and the letter, that managed to get from his owl thanks to her help, in his pack to read both later. The girl introduced herself, also telling him her house and year. Ulysses had guessed she was a first year but her house was a tough prediction, having already excluded the possibility of being a Slytherin, just for being so tolerant and nice to him. This remind him that he shouldn't be biased and that stereotypes existed be proved wrong. "Nice to meet you Avery." he said genuinely. "It's Ulysses. I'm second year, Ravenclaw." he told her his house also for telling him hers first. He wondered for a moment what house he looked like he would be in from a person's perspective that was meeting him for the first time. Possibly he looked like a Hufflepuff until someone was going to find out how much he liked learning new things and reading. It was a distinct characteristic to all Ravenclaws. "How's Hogwarts so far for you?" he asked her, although she was for such a sort time a student of Hogwarts. For him the first days at Hogwarts were overwhelming as a muggleborn introduced to such a plethora of information. Enchanted starry ceilings and moving portraits weren't once part of his every day life.

 

[Avery Marshall]

Ulysses, now that was a name Avery had never heard before. It wasn't a common name, at least not in the area she came from, but she liked it. She had always found it interesting how people could come up with such original names. "Nice to meet you too, I like your name!" The fact that she turned out to be right about which House the boy would be in didn't surprise her. Some people really showed the traits of their Houses. She wondered if people would place her in Slytherin when they first met her, but that would probably depend on the situation in which they met. "It's great!" The girl smiled happily as she answered his question. "I mean it's fun to be around all these people and the lessons aren't that bad yet, but that might be because most of them have been introduction lessons so far. What did you think of your first year here?" Avery though it might be good to hear someone's story about their first year, maybe that way she would know what to expect from it. Untill now she had been having fun though, being at Hogwarts herself was far more interesting than hearing the stories from her parents! She had alreay had a few lessons and they didn't seem to be that bad, however she was looking forward to some other classes they hadn't had yet. She was certain of the fact that she wasn't going to get bored at Hogwarts for now. ​

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

Another awkward smile escaped through his lips when she told him that she liked his name. It was indeed unusual for someone living his whole life in New Zealand to be named like that. "Thanks. It's Spanish. My paternal grandparents are from Spain." he revealed how he ended up with this name. He was actually named after his paternal grandfather. "I think it is the Latin name for Odysseus. You know, that guy from Greek mythology." he continued but also realized he was going to start rambling the way he did when he knew something he had read on a book and wanted to share it with someone. Most people weren't interested to hear his trivial knowledge so he had learnt to stop in time before getting them bored or annoyed.

It wasn't so simple for an eleven years old to leave their family and stay at a castle with complete strangers. Avery seemed to have the same first impression as he did, a little bit more reserved than his, which confirmed his initial estimate, that she was from a wizarding family unlike him. He recalled that the very first day in Hogwarts, he was exploring the castle's corridors in search of dragons. The same day he found out that dragons were as dangerous as portrayed on movies or fantasy books and weren't any in school's premises. "I was kind of lost at first because I've never seen boats sailing on their own or candles floating in the air but eventually it felt so familiar even for a muggleborn like me." he pointed his thumb to his chest. He was fine telling people that he was of no magical background. Some people were afraid to reveal that because purebloods were disrespecting muggleborns but Ulysses thought that this was the purebloods' issue, not his. "I guess you've grown in a wizarding family and having house elves cleaning the house isn't something new to you?" he wondered. "I was scared to death when I woke up one day and found on elf cleaning the dormitory." he confessed with a chuckle.

 

[Avery Marshall]

Avery smiled as the boy started to explain his name, she figured it was rather funny how people often started talking about their name and how they got it after they are complemented on it. "Spain? Do they still live there?" Once he stated it had something to do with Odysseus the girl nodded. "Yeah I know the story." She smiled, not really minding him being a bit talkative. Avery had never been one to ramble or keep talking for a long time, she much more enjoyed listening to others. Except for when she was with her brother, because when they would be talking it was certain that they would be noisy and no one would be able to interrupt their conversation.

The fact that the boy was a Muggle Born couldn't bother Avery. Ever since she was little her parents had raised her not to be prejudiced or biased when finding out certain things about people, like their blood status. "I think every first year gets lost at Hogwarts at least three times." She chuckled. For her it was true though. Since she had arrived at Hogwarts she almost immediately had lost her way, that's why she decided to just wander around the castle for a day or so to see where everything was. "Not exactly." Avery shrugged when the boy stated she had probably grown up with a lot of magic and house elves. "My parents kind of raised me both with magic and without. We never had a house elf, but my grandparents do have one he's the funniest thing." The girl smiled once again. Her parents had never found it necessary to have an elf around at home, but because her grandparents couldn't do everything for themselves anymore they got one. "Yeah, I guess you'll get used to that. They're friendly creatures, most of them."

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

Ulysses shook his head twice when Avery asked if his grandparents still lived in Spain. "Nope. They immigrated here when they were younger. I was born here, my father as well." he explained. He hadn't visited Spain yet but one day he would absolutely love to travel to his grandparent's country and get back to his roots. Maybe when he was going to reach adulthood he could travel for some time before eventually having a job. He had other things to explore for now. The castle was vast and full of secrets. He had spent a year as a resident and student behind its walls but he had that feeling that he had seen nothing yet and more things were awaiting to be discovered. "Tell me about it." he rolled his green eyes when she stated that first years got lost easily. He totally agreed with Avery. "I think I got lost more than three times in my first year. One day I lost my way in the dungeons. I asked an older gryffindor to help me. I think he gave me false directions on purpose." he frowned as he recalled that day back then when he spent his whole afternoon, wandering in the dark and damp, stone corridors of the dungeons that pretty match resembled a maze.

Interestingly enough, Ulysses found out that some wizarding families weren't spoiling their children with magic's provided conveniences. Having a house elf doing all the chores could eventually turn a wizard or witch depending too much on them. "I haven't met any in person. I just caught a glimpse of it before disapparating." he said, his tone clearly denoting that he would love to meet one in person. "I have a friend who is completely against their exploitation by us. I think she had been slyly planting clothes around the castle so they will get them accidentaly and get free. Then again...who's going to prepare our meals if they all get free..." he pondered, clearly not really in favor of the idea of releasing all house elves of the castle. Ulysses thought of bringing into discussion a more interesting topic, at least to him. "Do you play Quidditch? Planning to join Slytherins team?" he asked.

 

[Avery Marshall]

Avery nodded when she was told that his grandparents had immigrated when they were younger. "Ah, I see." She figured it would be fun to know your family originates from another country. How exciting it would be to go there and see where they had lived for years. Her own family, for as far as she knew, had been from New Zealand. Yeah, she was pretty sure she was nothing else than a kiwi. She didn't mind though, she absolutely loved the country and couldn't imagine herself leaving it to start a life in any other country possible. "Yeah, I think some of them just enjoy seeing First Years being lost." She smiled, having to admit that when she would be older she would probably have a laugh about it too. They had all been there in the end, so she didn't mind.

"I'm sure you'll get a better look at one of them sometime." The girl herself had always liked visiting her grandparents, even though they didn't do that a lot, because when they did that she would be able to see the House Elf. It was the friendliest creature, but sometimes it could be a bit grumpy. Actually reminded her of her grandfather sometimes. "There's more people like that." Avery stated the obvious, but she didn't care. "There will always be people who are against having House Elfs work for them, just as there will always be people who treat the poor creatures like they aren't worth anything." She shrugged. Ulysses asked her about Quidditch and Avery shook her head in response. She had always been pretty terrible at Quidditch, her brother had always been the better one of the two and she was sure he was going to try out for the team when he got to Hogwarts. "No, I think it's better for everyone if I just stick to watching it." She chuckled. "Are you in the Ravenclaw team?"​