The bit where I imaginatively title the post, "Letters"

Ariadne had an owl to post.
It wasn't a matter of choice; she'd been demanded by her brother that she write to him at least once a week for the next year. Having failed with this minimum, she decided that once a month would be satisfactory.
She attatched the letter to the owl's leg when she was aware of someone entering the Owlery.

Melanie walked slowly up the steps to the owlry, holding her letter in her hands. She had forgotten to write her (awfully annoying) brother back for weeks and she knew that if she didn't write him soon, she was dead.
So she had decided to suck it up and write to him, even though she didn't have much to say.

When she entered the owlry, she looked around for an owl but instead saw someone much more entertaining than some stupid (but cute) owl.
"ARi!" She screamed - in a greeting, when she noticed Ari and all but jumped on the girl "HELLO!"

Ari almost jumped out of her skin.
"Mel!" she greeted through stunned laughter. "Hello, lovely, how are you doing?"
She hugged Mel cheerfully.

"oh, I'm doing fine, you?" She then waved her letter in front of Ari's face "Or you know, so-so ... I'm worried about sending my letter .. I'll probably get a howler back." She said with a frown. "Who are you owling?" she then looked at the letter Ari had been putting on one of the owls.

Chrissy fiddled the letters between her hands, it didn''t contain important information. It was just an emotionless letter to her parents, about nothing special. Chrissy didn't even know if they actually read her letters, but they made her promise to write them monthly updates. She thought they did it just to make sure she was still alive, it wasn't like they cared how she was doing.

When she entered the Owlry she noticed two girls already standing there, she hadn't socialized much since she got her, mostly staying to herself. The girls seemed to know each other and being in a conversation and when Chrissy entered they both looked up.

Melanie looked up as she heard someone enter the Owlry.
She recognized the girl from few of her classes, she looked at Ari and then back at the girl.

"Hello," she said quite cheerfully and smiled at the girl. "You are Chrissy.. L-Leto right?" She said struggling a bit to remember the girl's name, "First year.. Slytherin?"

Chrissy nodded as the girl guessed her name, or at leasy Chrissy presumed she guessed because she had never told it. She entered the Owlry and whisteled twice, her large snowy owl came flying to her and landed on her shoulder. She smiled as she carefully stroked its head.

"You know who I am, but who are you?" she asked both girls as she continues stroking her owl's head.

"I'm Ari," Ari introduced herself. "Ariadne Ellingham. It's a bit of a mouthful really, that's why Mel calls me Ari." She was rambling again. "And this here is the lovely Miss McKinnon," she said, indicating Mel.

Melanie bowed playfully "Oh, yes! I am indeed Miss McKinnon! Miss Melanie McKinnon, or Mel as I am called by everyone! I have the middle name Leah, but I never talk about that, and I do not have the middle name Marlene as Ari here once thought," she playfully nudged Ari "I am a Ravenclaw, and Miss Weird name over her - is a Gryffindor."

She gave the girl - Chrissy, another smile. "If its not to forward to ask... May I ask who you are owling?"

Briony sighed lightly and made her way up the long flight of stairs to the owlry, it wasn't her favourite place in the school mostly because it smelt awful but besides that it was quite a nice place to come and think. The owls wings rustling was quite relaxing after a while. Ears pricking up when she reached the top, Briony peered around the door seeing some of the girls from the school huddled there.

Nodding slightly to them she made her way over to her black falcon, one of the perks of being a teacher here was that she could have any animal not just an owl to deliver her mail. Slotting the letter into the small pouch that it wore about it's foot Briony stroked Byron's head giving him a few scraps of bacon from the dinner table.

"I'm owling my parents," Chrissy said coldly, not going in much detail. She hated her parents, they were awful people and did nothing else than making her feel horrible. Chrissy attached the letter to her owl's paw and walked to the window, patiently waiting for it to fly away. "See you soon," she whispered to it and it flew away and Chrissy walked back to the other two girls, noticing her Head of House entering.

"Hello Miss Blake," she said with a nod of her head, before turning to Mel and Ari. "And who are you owling?" she asked.

"Okay," Melanie said softly to the girls answer, she noticed the cold tone in her voice so she guessed that she really didn't want to talk about it, so she let it lay.

She looked up as Professor Briony Blake entered the Owlry "Good day, Miss Blake." She said with a smile.

She then noticed that Briony had a falcon instead of an owl. "Oh my, that is one pretty falcon!" she said in amazement, she loved falcons.

"Hey Miss Blake!" Ari said cheerfully to the teacher.
"I'm owling my brother," she told Chrissy. "He demands I keep him posted about Hogwarts. It's because he's fascinated with ghosts, and he wants to know all about them." She rolled her eyes.
She saw the falcon Mel was talking about and sighed wistfully. How she longed for such a bird.

Briony listened to the conversation that the girls were having and sidled over to them with Byron hopping up onto her shoulder, he seemed to like the attention he was getting from Melanie and Ariadne. After all, he wasn't used to such attention from her, only the food that she gave him, this was a rarity.

"His name is Byron, you can stroke him if you want."

Briony looked sternly at the falcon as he began to ruffle his feathers, cocking his head to the side as if he wasn't too happy about that, but the gaze she gave him stopped him instead he dug his claws into her shoulder in a defeated manner.

"My house has a ghost in it, his name is Finley...he can be a little...boring sometimes but normally he is peaceful enough not to disturb me."

Ari smiled at Professor Blake, as she stroked the falcon. "Finley," she commented. "That's a cool name for a ghost. My grandmother has a ghost, but she's called something pretentious like Perpetua-Elspeth." She shrugged and grinned.

She stroked the falcon carefully. "He is so amazing!"

"I wish I had a ghost ... Ghost are so .. fascinating ... There used to live a ghost in my grandmothers house, but when she died he left to live somewhere else... I think he was in love with her." She said with a giggle before walking to the next owl she saw and fasting her letter on her foot. "Have a safe journey," she said with a smile as the owl flew out the window.

"I really hope I don't get a howler back," she said with a sigh as she stared after the bird.

Ari laughed at Mel's story and stroked the falcon cautiously again. He was a gorgeous bird but she was all too aware of the large talons he had.
"Who would send you a howler, lovely?" asked Ari to Mel, her eyes a little wide.

Briony smiled and she too stroked the feathers of Byron, she often forgot what a lovely bird he really was, she never took the time to appreciate him, she supposed she really should have. Raising her eyebrows at Melanie, Briony couldn't help but grin gently, it seemed as if they had something, however basic in common.

"I hope you have been behaving Miss McKinnon." Briony said with a joking smile

"I always behave!" Melanie said with a devious smirk on her face. "But seriously, this time I swear I didn't do anything... I just... forgot to write my insane brother? He has this new girlfriend and in the last letter I asked him like 1923 questions about her, which he all answered and asked me around 698 more questions and said he would kill me if I didn't answer soon.. and well, I forgot." she shrugged. "So yeah, he's really the howler kind of guy... I'll probably be dead before first lesson tomorrow." she gave away another shrug.

She then turned back to the beautiful bird. "How long have you owned it?" She asked, still with the same amazement tone.

Briony smiled gently at Melanie, happy that she was abiding by all of the school rules and that she wouldn't have to punish her, and although Briony found her information interesting she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when she told her so openly about it. Her eyes moving back to Byron a small grin appeared on her face as she remembered the first time she had ever seen Byron.

"Well, I've known him for years, since I was a girl of about your age, but I don't own him no. He's a wild bird. He just so happens to deliver my letters should I ever need him."

With a throw away wink Briony added.

"He's a sucker for a piece of toast."

Melanie nodded to the professor, she seemed fun to talk to, she cursed her self silently for not taking any of her classes.

"I see," she said with a smile, "It is gorgeous though," she commented about the bird. "Our family has an owl ... she is rubbish." she said with a laugh. "She is called Perntenette ... Yes, my idea. Don't you find it lovely?" she frowned. "I named her when I was six, she is always called Pern now," she shrugged.

Briony listened slowly to what Melanie was saying, she sounded like a very nice girl, a little too open but she supposed that would change with age. As she grew up. Letting Byron fly off her shoulder and out of the open windows around the Owlry, watching him as he flew away she hoped that her letter would reach it's destination safely.

"It is a lovely name, do you have any other pets Melanie?"

Briony was interested in animals, they could be useful, if you trained them up right. She wondered for a moment why she was interested but shrugged this thought away, it was only a light conversation between students.

"I have a cat, her name is Marcy, she's probably catching mice somewhere in the castle."