#18 - Feathers and Ink

The owl gave an affectionate hoot, and accepted the sealed letter from Reena. It stood dutifully alert, lingering for a moment longer to ensure it didn't miss any special instructions. Then, confident it had everything she needed, it lifted off and flew out one of the windows high above. It was at such an angle she could watch it slowly fade into the distance.

The letter was sent. Now all she had to do was wait, in hope of a reply.

Lucas left the castle with determined strides, which faltered as he stopped to admire the lush grounds. He sighed, apprehensive beyond words, but vowed to follow Amara's advice and give it a try. Reaching into a pocket, he lifted out a map of the school. He hadn't used one of these in a long time, but always had excess as he sometimes stole them from first years then sold them new ones when they got lost. Good times.

'Okay. This is clearly not going to work, but...' He huffed, trying not to psych himself out of it again. 'What the hell, why not? Let's give this a try. Pointus Reena Ashworth.'

He almost dropped the map in surprise, when the spell actually worked. Not to the best it was capable of, but it tracked a path to Reena. She was in the Owlery. But... how? This spell, useless to him for years except lately when he needed to find where his girlfriend had disappeared to if she wasn't brewing potions or starting fires in the common room.

He and Reena were... friends? Not good ones, as the spell wasn't all that impressive, but it had worked. That meant there was something there. He had a friend?

Nope. That was too much introspection and emotion for what was supposed to be a chill morning of free time and whatever he felt like doing. Reena had left him a message with Amara, so it was more than a little ironic that Reena was at the Owlery -- considering he'd gotten a lecture from Amara about she herself not being an owl. 

Lucas made his way up the steps to the Owlery, dread growing with each one. Merlin, he hated this place. He peered cautiously into the tower, spotting Reena doing... whatever it was she was doing.

'You know,' he said as as a way of greeting while her back was turned. Lucas leaned against the doorway, after checking it was clean enough to do so. 'It's pretty bold, asking Amara Seabrook to deliver a message. Even if it was to me.'

Lucas gave her an impressed yet wary look.

He doubted she even realised how big a deal that was, and the sheer audacity of it. The fact that Amara then followed through was even more impressive, but he left that part out.

'So. You're here?' He criticised her choice of location, pulling a disgusted face at the flooring... and well, everything else. 'Why? I almost forgot how gross it is. Not that it's why I avoid it but...' He shrugged, no longer able to stand leaning against the entrance from the sheer though of the place.

Any feathers she found on the floor were just grossing her out, no way she'd put that anywhere near a potion. Her gaze wandered upwards towards the nest boxes of owls and locked eyes with a rather wary looking tawny one.
If it looked wary however, it had to know this process and Reena felt confident to shoo the owl into a standing position to search its nest underneath it.

She flinched her hand back at the sudden sound of a voice.

"Lucas!", she exclaimed as she turned around to see him leaning against the door, a rather cool, laxed pose.
"You spooked me."

Reena chuckled as she registered the meaning of his words. He seemed impressed.

"Well, you did get it, didn't you?", she said, although made a note not to push her luck with Amara in that regard. She hadn't entirely thought it through but felt her dicision to leave before giving Amara a chance to respond had been the right one, judging by how wary even Lucas seemed to be of her reactions.

As to why she was here...

"I don't have my own owl to send letters," she explained with a shrug. "So I have to come here now and again. But yeah, it's pretty gross. Just thought I'd snatch a feather while here."

She turned back towards the tawny owl to see if there was a feather to be stolen when she suddenly noticed something strange.

"Wait, were you looking for me? How did you find me?"

'I did,' he confirmed, then grew uncharacteristically uncomfortable when she asked how he'd found her. What year did they learn that spell? One of the early ones, right? Hopefully she'd forgotten about it? 'Oh, you know. A spell. I have my ways.' He tried to shrug it off.

He wasn't sure why she was there to snatch feathers off owls, which seemed rather cruel but he wasn't about to judge her. When the Tawny caused a fuss though -- if Reena looked over, she'd notice Lucas was gone.

No way was he dealing with angry birds right now. He lingered a few steps down from the entrance to the Owlery, waiting for any sounds to subside. It was clear that Reena was on her own, but he figured she could handle it. They may be friends, according to some silly spell, but not enough that he was going anywhere near bird crap for her well-being. It's not as if she was about to die in there.

Not that he was convinced that would get him in there either, to be honest. The Owlery was higher on his places to avoid than the 7th floor platform near the Gryffindor common room. That's how much he hated it, and those pesky cursed letters from home.

'Another reason I loathe this place,' he said, popping back into view once things had calmed down. 'Why don't you have your own owl?' Lucas wondered.

He didn't have his own either, but it was safer for the owl that he didn't. It'd have been set on fire by now, since he still refused to answer a single letter from home or his various pushy relatives. In fact, he was wary just standing in the vicinity of the Owlery as if it might have an owl show up with one then and there.