Two shining, yellow eyes watched unnoticed from the fringe of the dark forest. Big ol' castle, wossname? Hogwart? Hogfart. Back here again after missing Drea. Nearly met her in Diagon if it weren't for that wizard's mind spell. Instant buffery feedback of a nature. Secondly: find wizard guy who did this to Drea and kick him in the groin equivalent.

Certainly ain't doing another lake crossing again. Too many merpeople and squids and kids fishing that send you off the the zoo. Nope. Gotta go 'incog-neato'.

The eyes vanished. From the forest a black rabbit lopped onto the lawns. This had been Drea's favorite form as a youngling though Beverly hadn't been a rabbit for a while. Kinda forgot things. Did rabbits make any noise?

The rabbit made a chewing motion with its cheeks. "Cluck cluck cluck cluck." Wait, that was a chicken. Or an Easter bunny. The things humans dream up. Imagine a bunny spreading chocolate eggs. Where did they come from, does the bunny poop them out?

"Mba-aaa-ahhhh!" The goat bleating was loud and carrying.[1] That was kind of good. There was a spasm as if the bunny was trying to turn while remaining rooted to the spot. Beverly's ears fell flat. Nuts. Copying an animal's noise was easy enough. But she still couldn't manage a goat. And she'd been practicing with horns and antlers.

Probably best to just shush up until a way was found into the castle. Or finding Drea. Silly girl hadn't been sending her letters for a while, would have to sense this out. Beverly bounded towards the outer features of the castle, eyes skimming for people.

1.	Straight From the Diaphragm

Though it was the middle of September by now, it was still nice outside. Windy, but nothing a jumper couldn't fix. Hannah was taking full and cheerful advantage of this fact, aware that all too soon the mild Scottish fall would turn into bleary rain and howling winds. She rambled down to the grounds with her schoolbag slung over one shoulder, wandering this way and that, not paying much attention. Even on days like this, most students stayed in the courtyards or went down to the lake - but here was a long stretch of green, a veritable no man's land because it didn't have anything more interesting in it than grass and the occasional spot of heather.

She ambled to a stop, swinging her bag and squinting at the sky. She ought to do homework, but that was so dull. Fit to distract herself, her head bounced down and she ran her gaze over the surrounding grounds in any effort to prolong the inevitable. A black spot darted about in the distance, and Hannah smiled in sudden joy to realize it was a bunny.

Being very quiet, Hannah clasped her hands in front of her and watched it. She bit her lip, eyes wide, shy grin delighted. She did love the wild rabbits here, and didn't want to scare it away. She stayed very, very still.

Dessa was wandering around the grounds aimlessly, feeling rather paranoid, seeing as how the last time she'd been outside on the grounds a fight had commenced among the first years that landed a bunch of them in trouble. She was even feeling a little bit homesick, for perhaps the first time since her arrival. She knew it was slightly irrational, which was probably why the feeling hadn't plagued her until now. Still, despite the steady correspondence she'd been keeping up with her father, as well as friends at home, particularly Ella, she would've given anything right now to be wandering aimlessly among the quaint strip of shops in Oulton Broad.

So yeah, these were the kinds of self-pitying, sticky, generally unpleasant thoughts that were running through her head when Dessa spotted the bunny. Even from this far away, it was unmistakeably rabbit-ish, although it moved a little oddly. Automatically, Dessa's steps lightened as she began to move slowly toward the animal. At home, she and Ella would often wait around their respective backyards on lazy summer days, until some innocent little woodland creature would slip it's way out of the woods, nose in the air. And then they'd slowly, slowly creep closer, keeping their eyes on the ground because Dess had read somewhere once that direct eye contact indicated aggression to animals.

And then, if they could get close enough, they'd kneel down and stroke the little animal's ears. So far, only five instances in all their years of this practice had gotten to that point. If the animal bolted, they'd chase it.

Out of the corner of her eye, Dessa saw another girl also slowly sidling closer to the rabbit. She vaguely recognized her from the common room, so she figured it to be another Gryffindor, although obviously an older one. She hoped the girl wouldn't scare the bunny.

Sprawled beneath large tufts of of autumn heather were splotches of grey uniform worn by a sleepy brunette with the gold and red tie of Gryffindor hanging around his neck. If one looked closer they could see a book hidden beneath the brush and the boy's shoes toppled into another patch of heather as his toes lazily stretched from inside his red socks. But the rustle of shoes brushing and thumping over grass made the boy to dully open his blue eyes as he turned to see his familiar energetic blonde housemate.

Without much consideration or thought for who else might be around or if he might scare off any animals or small woodland creatures, Erik noisily stretched in the grass, yawned and then sat up as he harshly rustled the heather bush around him. With petals and grass falling from his hair and his tie slung over his shoulder, Erik directed his drowsy gaze at Hannah; then he quickly gave an energetic and carefree smile coupled with a loud greeting.

"Hi Hannah!"

"Hi Hannah!"

Playing to bunny nature, Beverly twisted her head to notice that there were two girls poised to watch her and a loudmouth boy who'd crept up behind. Beverly skirted away at an amazing speed...

...Running in a large arc until she could see all three of the kids together, some distance away. Her ears tilted and whiskers twitched as she sized up each of them. All students around Drea's age, roughly. A uniform with red and yellow. Yellow. That was one of Drea's house colors, wasn't it?

An almost condescending smile was on Beverly's bunny lips, another untoiced remarkable feature. She liked kids, they were always fun. But the children always had to make the first move before she figured out what to do with them. That was the rule.

An exasperated sigh burst out of Dessa at the boy's loud greeting to the other girl who had been sizing up the rabbit. She might have kept it quiet, but after that display, there was little point in trying to keep from scaring the rabbit away. Rolling her eyes, Dessa turned back to where the bunny had been--and was surprised to see that it hadn't moved an inch. In fact, it looked almost smug.

Dessa wondered if this might be some kind of "magical" rabbit, unlike those in the muggle world in that it didn't seem to have a problem with loud people.

After a few moments longer of deliberation, she decided it didn't matter. Now that she'd seen the rabbit stay put after the boy's yelp, she wasn't nearly as cautious as she scurried forward. Her eyes were, in fact, so trained on the rabbit, that she didn't even see the tree stump until she was eye level with it, spitting out dirt and batting grass from her eyes. No doubt about it, that rabbit was definitely looking smug now.

Hannah whirled on him, one finger pressed to her lips. "Erik! Shhhh! You'll scare it away!" But she couldn't smother her giggles at his rumpled appearance, the way he lazily yawned and lolled about on the grass. Boys. Honestly. It was to Erik's benefit that she thought it fondly.

There was another Gryffindor a little ways off who was also admiring the bunny, one of the new kids, whom Hannah didn't know well yet. She was taking a more proactive approach, stepping quickly towards the rabbit with a determined air. Hannah watched, paralyzed with indecision. She was torn between the childish part of her that wanted to sidle closer, coax the bunny with tasty flowers and a sweet coo, and the adult part that told her sternly, that will never work. You can't pet wild rabbits. They'll just run away. But if the other girl got to do it, Hannah'd be so jealous....

The girl tripped flat on her face; a hand flew to Hannah's mouth, as she was uncertain whether to be horrified or amused. The bunny quickly sped off, taking with it Hannah's hopes. She watched it go with a sinking of her heart... but then it veered, eventually hopping around to an equal distance from all three of them. It watched them with what seemed (to her) like interest. Not so wild, then. Or maybe just used to people.

She knelt, clutching at her skirt with one hand and extending the other. Her pink fingers fanned in offering, empty of anything but hope.  "Won't you come here?" she called softly, a little uncertainly, self-conscious but still determined.

Erik tilted his head curiously at Hannah who giggled at him a little before she looked out at another housemate. Erik lowered his voice a little and rolled over on his belly to get a better look, "Scare what away?"

Erik had high hopes, an merperson, a centaur, a professor pony--but it was just a rabbit. As Hannah beckoned towards it Erik sat back up, tangling his red scarf around his neck even more as he began rustling the bushes again as he reached for his bag, "I bet I have something it'll eat," the boy pulled out a box of every flavored beans before looking back at Hannah, "What's the chance it'll eat an orange bean and it'll taste like carrots?" Erik didn't even bother wondering if rabbits were even suppose to eat bertie botts beans.

These three were a hoot. When Beverly had dodged the shrunken tree stump earlier she hadn't expected one of the kids to trip. As the frizzy haired one spat out grass, Beverly convulsed with silent bunny laughter, squirming onto her back and kicking her paws into the air.

"Won't you come here?" came the soft call, pricking her rabbit ears. Beverly lopped back into a normal gait. By process of quick name association, Hannah seemed to be the gentle soul reaching out in a genteel way, while Eirk was being scolded for being loud. Putting on the cutest hopping she could muster, Beverly came back to sit close to Hannah's knees.

Nothing like a little affection and treats. Beverly was happy to be petted and fed, without going the full pet route, the púca in her still had some standards. Bertie beans sounded like one of the numerous candies Drea had described in her letters when she found out things about the Wizarding World. Her nose wrinkled up at Erik's face. Carrots. Cotton pick, when it came to all the lagomoprhic stereotypes carrots was the most annoyingly consistant. Should she eat an orange bean that wasn't orange, peach, apricot, nacho cheese, dirigible plum, sweet potato, yam, or frosting but carrot! little Erik might just get it spat back in his face.