Outside the four walls

[Elbio Aiello]

Elbio Aiello was finally belonging somewhere. The castle of Hogwarts in less than a month, had became his new home and place that he could house his prospects for his new life. Used to another kind of lifestyle of fast changing locations and of no permanent place to call home, he was still having a difficult time to consort with his new environment. There were times that the castle's walls looked like narrowing around him. Even outside the castle, in the grounds, he was still feeling confined within the invisible walls that were determining the school's boundaries. The announcement that they could visit the neighbouring village during the weekend, acted like a balm to his soul. So early at Saturday morning, he passed through Hogwarts' gate and followed the path to Brightstone.

He wasn't alone. He might haven't made any good friends yet but he always had his pet owl, Blizzeta. He had found the little owl when it was just a wounded chick in a provincial city of Italy, when he and his brother were moving to avoid the authorities. Ever since the creature had became his new companionship when he had to stay alone for hours, when his brother was receiving his auror training. The shops were just opening as he entered the quiet streets of the village. After a short stop at Honeydukes, from where he supplied with a bag of sweets, he headed to the park which was completely deserted so early in the morning. He left the bag of sweets on the root of an old tree, before shoving a marshmallow in his mouth. He let the owl roost on the lower branch of the tree as he was taking off his jacket and drew out of his pocket a sling and a glowing, round, blue stone. "Okay! Let's see if that time spent in Hogwarts owlery has taken its toll on your skills." he said and with that, Blizzeta soared into the sky with a loud hoot.

Elbio placed the stone in the sling's, leather pouch and swung it, rotating it slowly twice to let the projectile seat in the pouch. With a flick of his wrist, he released the tab at the precise moment and the stone shot into the air. The ural owl dove towards the glowing projectile and followed its arced course. Before starting losing height, Blizzeta trapped among her claws with an elegant flip in the air. The bird returned back to him with a screech and landed on his extended arm, dropping the stone in his open palm.
"Nice work! Here's a little something for you." he praised his little friend and took out of his pocket and owl treat that Blizzeta pecked and swallowed greedily. "Should we try once more?" he asked his feathery friend, who flied up high again with a hoot of approval. He placed again the stone in the pouch and started swinging it. The tab slipped off his thump before completing the second rotation and the stone was released earlier, getting more height and distance from what he had calculated. "Oh damn!" he uttered as the projectile flew far away at the other end of the park. His owl didn't attempt to catch the stone this time. It knew it was out of its league and it didn't want to waste its energy unnecessarily. He bit his lip and placed his hands behind his head as he was hoping that it wasn't going to hit the person that was entering the park.

 

[Tatiana Dementyev]

On a family holiday visit, Tatiana was allowed to roam the village in which her favorite aunt and her family reside in. She took her chances to get out of the house and away from her older brother too. He was such a pain, whenever they were out of their home he would do everything in his power to bother and make her feel like she had to follow all his rules. Skipping her way outside of the house, Tati remembered something as soon as she enter the village. She been in New Zealand once before this, together made it twice. Will she get lost? That sounded like a big chance she would! Tati looked around, blue eyes scan the village, the only figure her eyes would meet is that of a boy and his owl, no other children were out. It was early so there was a given chance everyone else was still inside enjoying or preparing for the long morning.

Tati slowly walked behind the boy, if he was the only one around it make sense for her to make a new friend out of the boy. And he look just about her age, she also follow in pursuit to have a better look at his adorable owl. He lead her to a hollow deserted park, but a park was fine with Tati! She however stop following and hid away from the boy. Tati shy manners kept her away from the boy a little while. He was sure fun to watch from behind a tree. He had so much energy and he went in sync with his adorable little owl. In short second time she grew tired of watching the boy tossing the rock, so she descended from out of the tree entering the park not knowing he had let out the second rock for his owl to catch. It went flying really high, high and in the same direction she made her appearance. It was to late to react now, Tati looked up and the rock stone her right in her left eye. The blonde step back, losing her stepping she fell right down her backside. Tati let out a loud groan, the pain made her eyes teary eyed. Tati couldn't hold it in any longer, she shed fresh set of tears and started to whimper, she covered her face embarrassed for being easily target and hurting easy.