Halcyon Birds

[Kylie Ortiz]

Anticipating her best friend feeling a fair amount of stress before the Brightstone weekend even began due to her class load, kylie had decided to invite Flavio if he would like an escort to his first trip there as a Hogwarts student. She wasn't sure what he would want to do while there but she knew he was a little more shy than the majority of his peers and relied on Pia a lot so Kylie hardly wanted him to miss out on all the fun. She'd spent a little time with him before and just like she thought of Pia as a sister she treated him like the little brother she never had. As agreed they would meet by the gates towards leaving Hogwarts so the witch brought with her a big thermos of coffee knowing that if she was to be her pleasant and perky self throughout the whole day she would need copious amounts of it because she had not slept much the night before due to her thoughts of a competitor turned team mate at a duelling club she had joined all the way in Europe. She worried that perhaps she wasn't practicing enough because all she had here was the SDA and they weren't as strong as she wished with people breaking rules all the time. It was hardly the place she wanted to train because that would allow her to train incorrectly. As worried as she was over her sport, Kylie wanted to give the first year a fun day so she thought only of things to do while they were there. Knowing that there was a park, she wondered if he might want to go and play. Perhaps there he could see some ducks and if not ducks there would certainly be other birds for him to feed. Either way they would have fun, that much Kylie would make sure of for Flavio.

 

[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

Flavio's weekend began to look up when Kylie invited him to brightstone in Pia's place. His sister was stressed about her class load and going with Kylie was really his only option because he would not dream of going to Brightstone alone. Not when it was his first time in Brightstone as a proper student and especially not when he was likely to get lost without someone to hold his hand and guide him along the streets. Flavio had been to brightstone before but never alone and never was he able to spend enough time exploring the place, getting to know it because there was always an agenda to why he was there. An agenda that only meant a quick visit, an in and out type of deal with never any prolonged time in the town. That day was different, with the only agenda being to have fun and it caused Flavio to smile as he walked to the school gates where he organized to meet with Kylie. He saw the girl's silhouette from a distance and sped to a jog to catch up with her. "Morning Kylie!" Flavio exclaimed confidently as he knew he could speak to her in his first language and wasn't limited to speaking English where his confidence always dwindled. "Where are we going to go first?" He asked her, excited to finally begin his first proper day in Brightstone and to find out where Kylie would take him.
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[Kylie Ortiz]

As Flavio appeared to Kylie she gave him a big smile and bent down to his height to greet him properly. “Good morning sweetie,” she said in Spanish to keep the boy comfortable and then stood up straight. She took a sip of coffee while he asked her what they were to do and wondered much of the same because as an only child she hardly knew what an eleven year old wanted to do. She could barely remember being eleven herself because so much had happened since then so instead of having every little detail planned out she figured they would wing it. “How about I show you around and any place that looks interesting to you we can go in?” she asked him beaming at the little boy before adding, “Maybe we can pick up some bird seed and see if birds will fly into our hands too?” She knew that many would and as it was spring it was the best time to do that too because there would be little chicks around too. The Ravenclaw had also brought her purse with her so that after their day was over she could get Flavio whatever he might want to end their outing on a positive note because a boy as lovely as her best friend’s brother was deserved to be spoiled at least once in a while and thankfully she didn’t have to pay for anything herself.

 

[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

Flavio already had two older sisters, but he could not help but want to think of Kylie as another one. She was so kind and welcoming to him, ready to forsake her own weekend to escort him through the streets of brightstone in Pia's place. He smiled up at her, eyes brightening as she spoke about what they could do that day. Knowing the buildings in the town would be helpful in the future. Flavio knew that one of his birthday presents was a box of candy from a store named honeydukes that was apparently somewhere in brightstone so he at least wanted to visit it for the sake of his curiosity. As she mentioned the possibility of feeding birds he nearly jumped on the spot. In addition to visiting the candy store Pia told him about, it would be a fun way to spend his first proper day in the small town and hopefully walking around in search of places to feed the birds would acquaint him with the unfamiliar streets. Not wanting to wait a second longer Flavio stepped forward and held Kylie's hand as he often did with Pia. He hoped she wouldn't mind the contact as he said "Lead the way, sis." and waited for her to lead him towards brightstone so their day could finally begin.​

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[Kylie Ortiz]

Kylie looked down at their hands as Flavio reached out for hers and she smiled dotingly. He was a sweet kid. She couldn’t imagine that a lot of siblings fought when she considered how great Pia was and how gentle and sweet she could already tell Flavio was. It almost made her wonder why her parents had only bothered to have her but then again she liked having one bedroom to herself and as much freedom as she so desired excluding the fact that her parents were less than keen on her sport of choice. “Leading the way,” she said with a playful little skip in her step whilst still being careful not to spill any of her precious coffee. She hoped to make this a memorable trip to Brightstone so as they made their way to the high street she said, “Here is the Borley Mansion.” Not wishing to give the child a fright so said, “It’s haunted so you’ll see a lot of Gryffindors go in and leave with their tails between their legs.” She gave him a wink to show she was just teasing the other Hogwarts House without going into too many details. Although she was a fan of the horror movie genre she was not going to ever go inside there and would be hard pressed to believe that Flavio would either so while they had slowed their pace slightly they hadn’t stopped because there was still so much to show.

 

[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

Flavio kept up with Kylie's pace and kept his hand safely holding hers as they walked along the path towards brightstone. He smiled to himself at the pleasantness of it all before turning his head to the 'borely mansion' Kylie talked about as they passed it. The mere appearance of the building sent a chill down his spine and he subconsciously squeezed Kylie's hand as he watched the building. Haunted houses in his story books did not match the appearance of the borely mansion by far. No, the building in real life was intimidating and furthermore terrifying than anything Flavio could have imagined and the idea that students even tried to enter the building for fun perplexed his mind. As they continued to walk and the building was further and further behind them, Flavio returned his gaze to the world in front of him and saw what could only be brightstone village in walking distance. "Is that where we're going?" He asked as he lifted his free arm to point at the village just to be sure they weren't walking further than he expected and that they wouldn't need to pass another terrifying house. The thought of a candy store and feeding birds was more appealing to Flavio than ever now that the borely mansion was safely behind them.
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[Kylie Ortiz]

Kylie felt bad that she had seemed to give Flavio a scare, that wasn't really her intention as she'd never been inside herself. For all she knew it could be a house with particularly annoying ghouls but from the stories she'd heard of it the Ravenclaw did double this so she returned his squeeze. It wasn't too long before the familiar Brightstone Village appeared before them and this was when she answered, "Yes." As it was early and she didn't want the boy to gorge himself on candy which she had a feeling he was excited to pick up she instead asked, "Was there anything you needed for school before we go do the fun stuff?" She doubted so because she could tell that Pia would very likely have him covered but even so. If not she wondered if he wanted to go to the park or fiddle around the shops, perhaps even feed some birds. This day was about him and tomorrow she would enjoy her own little Brightstone escape, not that she wasn't enjoying herself but there was a different sort of fun she could have by going to enjoy her very first taste of fire whiskey as an adult and pick up the watch her father would give to her. While she knew he would've preferred to give it to a son she was all her father had so she would enjoy the belated birthday gift anyway. She hoped that she would be able to be joined by at least one friendly and older face on that day but today she gave Flavio free reign.