Withdrawing her hand from Hades, Aurora tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear. A little red head appeared from the collar of her robes. "Ah, Mr Owl, this is Salvatore, please be nice to eachother." she said as Sal climbed out of Aurora's robes to peer at the owl. Aurora went back to stroking the owl's head.


Salvatore heard a hoot and poked his head out of Rora's robes. What? An owl? Why?! He'd been sleeping quite nicely in Aurora's body heat and then she'd moved to entertain a bird? Oh well, he raised his head to look at the feathery thing and, deciding he needn't worry about it, curled up on Aurora's shoulder, watching the owl warily.

Mr. Owl?! He was Hades!

Oooh but what could that little creature be? Ah, Salvatore. Aww, it was so nice that the girl was feeding him! Yes, that had to be this Salvatore. Food for Hades!

But... as he was still looking at his dinner, the owl heard footsteps.

After wandering around the grounds, Helena suddenly found this nice place. She might as well relax, if Hades was nowhere to be... "Hades!" There he was! With... Aurora?

The girl smiled at the younger Slytherin, but before she could say anything, she quickly grabbed Hades and held him in her hands. "You're SO not doing that!" Yes, she knew her owl well enough to figure out what he was about to do. No no no. He had plenty of food at the owlery.

Aurora raised her eyebrows at the owl. As if that could happen, Sal wasn't as docile as he looked.

"Ahh, so that's who you are! Hades!" Aurora grinned. "Hey Helena, I think your owl has taken a fancy for Salvatore... not sure whether he wants to do that to be quite honest. Sal can be... vicious." she laughed. "So did he run away?" she nodded to Hades.

"Hey," Helena finally said, grinning.

Hmm her owl was actually going to eat Aurora's pet, most probably, but she didn't say that out loud, or else the girl might hex her owl. Hehe. Anyway, Hades rested on Helena's hand for a few moments, then flew away again, but this time towards the owlery, apparently. "Yup, he just flew away from me. But it looks like he found you," she said, taking a seat on one of the empty chairs, next to Aurora.

She wasn't going to sit over there, to risk getting dirty. Nope.

"Bye Hades!" Aurora waved as the owl flew away. "Yup, no-one's ever going to eat you are they Sal?" she addressed the lizard who was currently climbing down the front of her robes.

Hmph. Sal really wanted to fight that owl, he was so bored today. Oh well, he climbed down the front of Aurora's robes to curl up in her lap. If he was lucky she'd cast a little fire for him in a bit.

"Well, I like animals, maybe he noticed." she smiled, brushing a feather from her robes. "He's very cute." she observed as she wiped some dirt off a little flowerbud with her finger.

"LOOK!" she grinned, pointing. "It's so beautiful!" The little red flower bloomed at her touch, growing a little larger. "It's a tangere florem, they bloom quickly at the touch of a human, otherwise they take months!" she grinned, touching a couple more of the red buds.

Helena couldn't help but giggle. Yup, Hades was her cute, little owl. Not that little anymore, since he grew up a lot lately, but he was still her baby. Hehe. "I have him since he was like," she held up her fist, "this." Tiny like that.

Before she could say anything about the adorable creature that was moving around Aurora, her attention turned to the flower she had shown her. "Really?" She mumbled, as her eyes went wide. How come she had never heard of that beautiful flower?

"Yeah, my Uncle Rufin works in the environmental department at the ministry and has his own greenhouses and stuff so I go and help him sometimes." She left most of the buds for other students to discover and stroked the open flowers. "Sometimes it's the only way to get away from the family." she laughed. Salvatore moved uncomfortably in her lap and she looked down at him. "Later Sal, we'll go back to the common room and you can sit in the fire there." He crawled back up to her shoulder and disappeared into her robes. The open flowers wiggled at her touch. "Smell them, they're amazing." she said, making a mental note to ask Professor Bentley what fertiliser she fed them on.

She had an uncle working at the ministry? Maybe he knew Helena's uncle. Hehe. But it wasn't quite likely, since they didn't work in the same department.

Helena's eyes went wide as she heard Aurora say something about 'sitting in the fire'. What kind of pet was THAT? But anyway, back to the flowers. The girl listened to Aurora and bent down to smell one. She also couldn't help but touch a few, and watched as they opened. EEEEP!

"I should add some of these for my bouquet," Helena giggled, referring to the one they had to make for Divination.

Aurora laughed "Don't look so startled, he's a salamander, they like fire."

"For the divination bouquet? Maybe you should ask Professor Bentley first. I mean, they're pretty rare." she stroked more flowers. "But I suppose this is a good healthy bush. I don't really know, I just learn what I'm told." laughed Aurora.

They... like fire? "Alright," Helena said, trying to smile. But only the thought of sitting in the fire... well, if they liked it, she had nothing to complain about. Hehe.

"I'll surely ask her," the girl agreed with a nod. And if she got the permission to take a couple of them, they'd make her bouquet the prettiest. "Did you make your bouquet?" She asked curiously, wondering to whom is she going to give hers. Because... you know, girls don't give flowers.

Aurora shook her head "No. I think I'd get a bit carried away. I received one though. It's in the dorm now, making everything smell amazing. Not sure my manducare likes it though. They prefer to be the centre of attention." Aurora thought of the little blue plant who snapped at people who walked past. Probably a good idea to try the camomile tea thing that Professor Bentley had suggested.

"These flowers would sound good as music..." she said softly, watching them sway in the breeze.

Ah, not again. Helena was starting to believe that she was the only one who was NOT receiving one. But anyway. What plant was she talking about? Hmm. The girl didn't ask anything, since she was a bit embarrassed and didn't want to sound like a fool. Probably some other plants.

Helena giggled at Aurora's next statement. Good as music? Definitely.

She finally sat down next to Aurora, kiiiind of not caring anymore whether she might get dirt on her robes or not. Ahh it was that annoying silence that Helena hated so much. Oh! "Do you have any other pets?" She asked, all of a sudden remembering about her poor Ezra, who was still... in that terrible condition.

Stupid Transfiguration lesson.

"They'd sound like 'dee diddly diddly diddly dee dedo dee'" she sang a sprightly little tune. "I'll get my violin and play it in a minute. Or maybe it'd sound better on a flute?" she was already writing the counter melody in her head. Plants, potions and music. Her three loves.

Aurora realised that she'd fallen silent, imagining the little melody.
"Oh yes, there's Sage, my owl and the big fat lazy grumpy blob of fluff that calls itself a cat back at home. But Merlin, my Uncle's Arctic Wolf, is the most beautiful creature!" She grinned, "I love animals, I don't know loads about them though. Wish I did."

... how many instruments did she play? o___O

Helena felt kind of... stupid, since she could play only the piano. And Aurora here looked like a true musician. "Flute," the girl chose, taking another glimpse of the pretty flowers. The flute sounded more... tied-to-the-nature, if that made any sense.

"Arctic... wolf?"

Say whaaaat?!

Well, Helena could always agree that it must be the most beautiful creature, but still... a wolf? "Isn't it... dangerous?" If not, Helena's definitely going to ask for one for her birthday. Hehe.

Aurora nodded, "Yes, I think you're right, maybe flute for the closed buds and it could be soft and all like... 'Daaaa, dummm, mmmmmm, la laaaaa, dee daaaa' and then there could be like... a crescendo and then a violin solo with the 'dee diddly diddly diddly dee dedo da' bit and the flute playing long notes under it... I need a piano too, I never bothered much with those lessons, gave up after a few grades. They help though. Do you play anything?" she asked the girl, here eyes shining with the music in her head.

"Yep, Merlin the arctic wolf." she smiled, "Of course he's dangerous, but anythings possible, Rufin tamed him with love and magic and stuff." Aurora shrugged. "But he doesn't stop being a wolf, he's still dangerous if you don't treat him right." she said, remembering the huge vat of dittany that Rufin had to use the first few weeks of owning Merlin.

Umm... she wanted to make some kind of symphony of the flowers now?

"I do play the piano, but I don't have any here," obviously. The one she played at home is biiiiig. "Do you have your violin and your flute?" Since those were way smaller than Helena's piano.

"Merlin?" The girl repeated, giggling. That was an interesting name... for an arctic wolf. She also couldn't help but blink a couple of times, as she noticed how relaxed Aurora seemed to be at the idea of having a dangerous arctic wolf.

She was sure of it now. Her parents will never get her one.

"You should try the Room of Requirement, I went in the other day looking for somewhere to write and there was a big grand piano in there." she said, it had been a beautiful piano. Steinway. "Yep, they're in the dorm. I'll bring my violin down and play that tune later." she said. "I need manuscript parchment actually. Do you think they sell it in Hogsmeade?"

Aurora nodded; Uncle Rufin always had liked the more traditional names. "Yep, he's adorable really. You just have to make sure you're nice to him." she laughed.


ooc: I actually wrote this piece of music last night, it's only short but it's so pretty!!

"I've been there once." With Zara. Hehe. That room was just amazingly awesome. And maybe she should listen to Aurora, and go there again. She might find the music studio she had always wanted there.

Hmm in Hogsmeade? "They should have," Helena said with a slight shrug. "Or can't you just change a normal piece of parchment into... whatever you need?" Because magic was even more amazing.

Oh. If Merlin could be nice, it was a good thing then. Well... good for Aurora's uncle, since she's most probably not going to take him with her at Hogwarts, so Helena could meet him.

"Yeah, it's pretty! Sometimes." she grinned. She'd have to go back there again sometime.

"I guess, but I think it'd be easier just to have a... sort of book thing of it. To keep it all together." she said, shrugging and refusing to admit her lack of talent in the area of inking charms.

Christopher heaved an exhasperated sigh. She just didn't seem to understand the situation he was in. Her mind was too child-like and innocent to grasp the concept of something so horrible and hard. "Vi...." he said wearily, the look in his eyes were so tired; as if he hadn't slept for one hundred years. "We can't just rely on faith everytime. It can only get us so far before we're stuck again." He wished she would understand that real life was different than the storybook princess tales she'd believed as a child. And seemed to still believe in now.

Way to be a debby-downer Christopher James!
 

As she could hear how the conversation was starting to get very serious and rather sad Violet slowly wrapped her arms around her legs and brought them to her chest. When he said her name Violet looked at him and saw his eyes, they looked very upset. Violet bit her lower lip and then said slowly,"Chris...I'm not trying to look at it in a fairy tale sort of way..I am a real person and I understand certain things..But when I say faith, I mean that maybe once in a while it never hurts to have a little optimism...Especially in situations like this..You can't just always think that good things never happen after something terrible..."

Thaaaaaat's angsty teenagers for you! ^_^
 

"Violet," he said, a pleading look on his face. "You don't know how hard I've been trying to! Positivity, optimism, happiness! I'm trying my hardest, more than anything to obtain it again! But Violet, I'm not the same anymore. Things are so different! I'm just wrapped up on all of this despair, and nearly nothing is making me happy anymore. I'm just a downright depressing fool." Christopher just wanted so badly to be happy. Now he was constantly miserable, and it made him feel even more lousy knowing how poorly he was acting and how the whole situation was affecting his friends, making them upset and sad as well as annoyed and irritated with him as well! "I'm sorry, but I just feel horrible. About everything. It's all my fault." he said, hanging his head.

Oyyyyyyy
 

Violet then looked at him with a pleading look on his face. Then she said,"Christopher, I understand that you're going through a hard time..And no I don't understand what it's like...But you just need to understand something Chris.." She paused and then went on,"What you need to understand that you don't have to go through this alone..You know that you have so many people here with you and are standing by you with everyone of their support..You need to understand that you're not alone.." Violet saw him hang his hand and that was when she moved her arm to wrap it around his shoulders and gently pulled him closer. She leaned her head on his arm lightly.

Oh Chrissy, you make me laugh. :D
 

Christopher leaned his head on hers, sighing for what seemed like the eightteen billionth time. "I know, and I don't know how to so greatly express my grattitude. I can't even begin to thank you enough. Ever. It's not fair that you have to deal with me when I'm being so ungrateful and selfish and depressing. I'm just so sorry Violet."

He glanced down at his bag, remembering something he'd meant to give her. "Hey, I know it's really late, but I got you something for Christmas. It keeps slipping my mind to give it to you.'' He fished around, until he pulled out a small box, carrying a small locket inside. "I know it isn't much, but I thought of you when I saw it. I would've tried to get you something better, that you'd like much more, but it was all I could afford. I'm sorry, once again, but I do hope you like it."

Hehehe and you love me for it :)
 

Violet looked at him and then said,"Chris, all you ever need to say is thank you..That's all that really matters to me.." Then she saw him suddenly glance towards his bag and then when he mentioned that he had to give her a gift that he never got to give to her. And a small smile crept upon her face as she tried to creep over his shoulder and see what he was looking for. Then she saw a small box and then she gently took it from him and then looked at him before opening the box to see the cutest necklace ever. When Chris said that it wasn't much Violet gasped and looked at him saying,"Are you joking? Chris...I love it...It's beautiful.." She gently kissed his cheek and said sweetly,"Thank you.." Violet then began to examine the details on it.