Closed O Romeo, Romeo

[Ondine Physwick]

It wasn't that Ondine was ungrateful for her owl. Her ma had been awfully kind to find Romeo for her, and he was quite handsome, if a little slow (his last owner had surrendered him for stealing other people's mail out of their letterboxes). It was just that Ondine had specifically asked for a raven. The school approved of them, the menagerie stocked them, and she knew for a fact her uncle Bertie had brought Lucille with him when he'd come to teach. So why had Ma bought her an owl?

Ondine knew why. Ma didn't trust her. On the one hand, she had a point. Ravens were notoriously difficult. Clever as toddlers, moody as teenagers, and equipped with sharper weapons than you'd entrust to either. On the other hand, Ondine had always had a way with animals. She knew how to handle snakes, spiders, and salamanders. And Lucille had warmed up to her quite quickly once they'd got past the rock-throwing stage. Ondine only had a tiny scar. You could barely even see it.

She sighed, put down her quill, and stroked Romeo's chest. The poor owl had been waiting over an hour for her to finish her letter, but she didn't know what to write. "Dear Ma," she said. "I sort of made two friends, but I don't think they really like me. Dear Ma. I should have brought some trousers. Can you send me a pair? Dear Ma..." The owl blinked at her, expectant. "I don't know. Can't you write it for me? I bet a raven could have written it for me. O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith had finally tackled the task of writing her letter to home. It had been a long process of thinking her words through and how much to share of everything. She couldn't very well tell her parents her newly found friend had fallen into the lake and she had almost followed him in an attempt to get him back up. Oh no had she written such things into those pages one, or worse, both of her parents would have made the trip just to get her back home. So she had purposefully left those details out, only telling the small things, such as how her first classes were, she made friends and all about her long long trip there.

After the long battle with her quill and paper she was now faced with the dreadful climb to the owlery. Sure it was one thing to make the climb to the Ravenclaw common room everyday, but it certainly was another to make it in the chilly air and icy wind. Though back home winters were brutal so the young girl was used to such conditions, but she wasn't exactly well prepared clothing wise. Hugging her robes tighter around her body she started the climb.

Nearing the top Lilith could make out the distinct voice of another student. She seemed to be talking to someone, only there was no response. Was she okay? Perhaps she was confused? Having a panic attack? Every scenario raced through her mind as she hurried those last few steps. As soon as her green eyes landed on the scene before her Lilith felt a smile tugging at her lips. "Ah, I am sorry to intrude, though I must say it is lovely to see another person that would much rather speak to animals." Her voice came out rather meek to her own ears as she stared at the familiar looking girl. She had seen her in classes and the common room if she was not mistaken. "My name is Lilith." Her voice gained a little more confidence at that introduction. Something about the fellow witch spoke to her and she decided that she would very much like to at least try to befriend her. After all they seemed to share common interest and habit, animals and talking to them.

 

[Ondine Physwick]

Ondine startled so hard she stood up, which in turn startled Romeo, who started to panic. He had never been particularly good at delivering mail, but it turned out he would have been a fantastic guard-owl. Sensing the intruder had frightened her, he launched himself off the table with a flurry of paper and barrelled across the room. "Romeo, no!" Ondine shouted. But the stupid sack of feathers wasn't listening. If anything, it encouraged him. If Lilith didn't duck, she was about to get a face full of claws.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith certainly felt bad as she saw that she had frightened the girl and her owl. She had seconds to react as the owl made its way towards her, not thinking much her hands shot up to catch the bird. A normal reaction would perhaps have been to duck, run away or even start screaming and panic. But she just found herself taking hold of the bird and trying to keep it away from her face. She wasn't afraid of the bird, she knew he must have been startled and trying to protect his owner, which she could admire. "Ah, I am terribly sorry to have frightened you both. I did not mean to." Lilith said as she carefully ran her hand over the birds soft feathers. Taking a few unsure steps toward the girl with white hair with a peculiar brown streak on the side she offered the bird, or what felt more like a brick in her arms with the tense body. "Here, I am sorry again, your owl is rather beautiful though and has a strong sense of protection it seems." Lilith let a small smile grace her features as she waited for the girl to take the bird back.

 

[Ondine Physwick]

Romeo always looked a bit confused, but he had never looked quite as confused as he did when Lilith plucked him out of the air. He stared at her in owlish disbelief. That's not how this is supposed to work. I'm a predator! I'm the one who's supposed to do the plucking.

Ondine watched all of this with a growing look of awe. Even Uncle Bertie would have been impressed, and there was very little that impressed him, other than himself. She took the stunned bird, who relaxed slightly in her familiar hands. "He's never - done that before!" she stammered. "He's a nice owl. Ma said he was a nice owl. Never hurt a fly - just a few mice, and a sparrow, once." This was dreadful - just dreadful. First impressions were everything, and Lilith's first impression of Ondine would be that she had no idea how to control birds. Nothing could have been less true! She was wonderful with birds - owls, and cockatiels, and kākāriki, and ravens too, probably, if Ma would give her a chance.

Ondine put Romeo on the windowsill and gave him a firm nudge of encouragement. He flapped off. "Sorry. Sorry. I'm Ondine - Ondine Physwick. How do you do?" She thrust out an ink-stained hand.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith just smiled at the scene. She indeed was very peculiar and cute. "Ah truly don't worry about it. It is no bother, animals can act in strange ways when they are frightened." She would know. There had been many times that even her own pets had acted completely out of character when startled. Lilith couldn't help but let out a soft laugh at the girls nervous ramble. "Truly, it doesn't matter. It is all fine so don't worry about it." She kept reassuring.

Ondine what a lovely name, she thought to herself and looked at the girls extended hand. She took it into her own and gave a shake. "Nice to meet you, I am actually here to just send off a letter to my parents. I kind of have been pushing the task off and they must be worried by now." She went on to explain what brought her to the tower. "Ah, do you think there are owls for students who don't have their own ones to use? Or perhaps should I find another way to mail this to them?" Lilith wasn't sure if there were owls for common use amongst the students, gods she should have thought this through before making the climb.

 

[Ondine Physwick]

Ondine nodded - yes, animals were unpredictable when startled, yes - it wasn't her fault at all, no. Well, thank goodness that was cleared up. Romeo had already caused her enough trouble without being the reason Ma sent her a howler.

The handshake was a bit sweaty. Ondine wiped her palm on her skirt, hoping it was her own sweat. Then she realised how rude that might have looked and quickly pretended she'd been smoothing down her clothes all along. "Oh! You could have used Romeo," she said. "Although, last letter I gave him, he tried to eat. I wonder... Ma never said he'd been trained. Perhaps he doesn't know how to deliver mail." That would certainly have explained a lot. Ondine turned to look up at the owls in their nests. "There must be school ones. Not everyone can afford an owl. How to get one down - that's the real question, isn't it? Did you bring any treats?"

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith smiled at the offer of her using Romeo, she didn't have the heart to say that perhaps it be best she wouldn't. For she was not entirely sure her letter would ever find Finland, nor if any of them would ever see that owl again. She let out a laugh at the girls own observation of the fact that perhaps Romeo wasn't the best bird for letter delivery, but she appreciated the offer nevertheless.

"Ah that is fine and yes I uh, yes brought something, Here." Lilith took out the treats she had asked from the kitchens. She had no idea what owl's might eat so she had settled asking from the staff, sometimes animals were very particular about their diet. "Ah, let's try to get this over with then shall we?" She cast a nervous look at the other Ravenclaw.

"Here here bird, come here?" She started almost as if in question, for some reason she was afraid of doing something wrong and giving the wrong impression to her new possible friend. After a good few minutes of trying an owl flew down finally and Lilith was very much overjoyed of the fact. "Yay, mission accomplished." The first year said, turning her smiling face to Ondine.

 

[Ondine Physwick]

Lilith needn't have worried; Ondine didn't have a clue how to summon an owl, either. The birds at home were much better trained than these ones - or at least, they'd had more time to get used to her presence. She supposed it would be quite frightening to see dozens of new children turn up each year in what was essentially your bedroom. She stood there a bit uselessly while Lilith encouraged one down with a treat. Was it awful that a teeny, tiny part of her wanted another owl to dive-bomb her friend, just so she could see her catch it again? Probably. But she did, and she was slightly disappointed when the owl swooped down amicably instead.

"You've written your letter already, then?" Ondine asked. "I could read it, if you like. Check for spelling mistakes." The fact she might also get some inspiration for her own letter was pure coincidence, obviously. "Although - I'm sure you haven't made any! But you can't be too careful."

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith turned to Ondine with a amused smile. She wanted to read her letter? "Ah well, yes I suppose you could." She said opening the envelope and taking out the parchment all the while the owl was perching on her head no less. It was fine as long as it wasn't clawing her. Though it was a rather rough scalp massage.

"Word of warning though, it's a mixture of Finnish and English so don't worry about your reading skills, it's not you it's the mess of dialect we use between my family." She added awkwardly while offering her letter to her new friend. Lilith didn't mind her reading the letter, it wasn't like Ondine was a secret spy on a mission to collect every bit of information of her that she possibly could. Or at least she hoped that was the case.

 

[Ondine Physwick]

To tell the truth, Ondine was jealous. She'd always thought she'd had a way with animals, but no owl had ever used her head as a perch. Was there something wrong with its shape? Was it not inviting enough? Maybe the bun was putting them off. It was difficult to get into the mind of an owl, but a bobby pin up the bum was probably an unappealing prospect across the entire animal kingdom.

"Finnish," Ondine repeated, as she took the letter. "I've never met anyone from Finland before. Your language is very pretty. I wanted to learn it, but my ma said I should learn French first, and Latin, and then Spanish, and then I could learn Finnish, if I still wanted to. I haven't even started Spanish, yet..." It had not occurred to her that she could, in fact, teach herself whatever language she pleased in whichever order she preferred. Ma said Spanish before Finnish, and that was that. "Hm. I don't see any English spelling mistakes. Very good; well done." Sufficiently inspired, Ondine folded the letter and handed it back.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith smiled at Ondine, it was true Finnish was beautiful on its own way. Though the grammar was quite literally a hell. "Well if you'd ever like, I could teach you some Finnish?" She offered with a smile, the owl was now starting to get restless and nip at her hair, at least she didn't need to worry about a haircut, might get free bangs while at it.

"Thank you, hopefully this owl gets home safe, it is a long way. Come to think I probably should add to the letter they should feed the poor owl a whole meal. Though knowing my little siblings they will.." Lilith wondered out loud while taking the letter back and shoving it to her envelope. She then raised her hands to peel the owl off her hair, leaving behind a mess no doubt. Giving the letter to the bird she placed a kiss on it's head before sending it off. "That was cool, I never got to do that part myself before. I wonder how they find their destinations though...." She said turning to the girl. "Well Ondine, it was nice meeting you, I hope we can perhaps talk more often now even maybe hang out sometime if you'd like?" Lilith offered with a smile.