It was Friday evening, and Ambrose Pepper decided it was high time to break out of the castle, despite the cool November weather and the shorter days. He had rounded the day off with History with Professor Jowd, some of his classmates sloping off to Ancient Runes after. Ambrose had headed for the Gryffindor Common Room to get out of his uniform as quickly as he could, it had been a long, tedious day, and he'd only just escaped his frequent detention with Professor Storm the lesson before lunch out of luck.

Eventually, dressed in a warm hooded jumper and jeans, Ambrose had slipped his feet into his boots and had headed out to be amongst the animals that Professor Hagrid now looked over. There were no classes last thing on a Friday here that he had ever encountered, but he still skirted round the edge to ensure he didn't interrupt one, just in case. He didn't ever want to be on the wrong side of Hagrid, who he had a soft spot for.

He headed past pens, pausing to stop and put straw back where it had come over the fence, or to cheerily greet all manner of unusual or grotesque form that slithered its nose into view, doing a round first of all to see which of the animals were about and might need their bedding attended to. Empty hands down here were often filled.

At the end was always a big empty pen and he wouldn't have taken a second look at it, only he spotted one of his classmates peering into it, writing something down.

"What the...?" Ambrose muttered to himself, and stopped. That was a bit weird. Moira McBoid wasn't the most chatty of the girls, but Ambrose held nothing against her. She also studied Creatures, though in the three and a bit years they'd studied in the same school, and the same classes, it was doubtful the two of them had ever had a proper conversation. Mostly attempts to locate Winnie, as Moira was her dorm-mate.

Curious, he shoved his hands in his pockets and headed in Moira's direction, approaching quietly, not wanting to scare or disturb her.
"Hey Moira, funny place to stop to write, everything ok?" Ambrose asked politely, his tone friendly.

The entire day Moira had gone through her classes looking forward to when they would be over. Sitting through Ancient Runes was the longest part of the day, because it was the very last class. It wasn't so much that Moira wanted  to be done with her classes - really she enjoyed most of them and some of the professors were quite humorous at times - as it was she just wanted to finally study the creatures she hadn't gotten a chance to study yet.

Once Ancient Runes was over she went and dumped her school stuff on her bed, got her usual notebook and writing utensil and then headed straight outside to the pen, picking up a bag of uncooked meat along the way, that most students asked about. To them, it was just an empty pen, but to people like Moira, she knew what the pen contained. Leaning against the fence she watched the Thestrals move about, including the young one they had with them. Smiling faintly she began taking her notes.

She was just about to reach for a piece of meat when a voice greeted her. Looking over she recognized one of her classmates, a boy named Ambrose Pepper. Even though she shared was in the same year as him she admitted she didn't know much about him. In fact, she didn't know much about most of the fourth years. "Hello. It's not really a funny place." Reaching down she took out a slab of meet and tossed it into the pen. The colt got to it first and it wasn't long before the meat was entirely gone.

Seeing the look of shock on her classmate's face she understood he was among the majority of students who couldn't see them. Knowing he'd end up asking anyway, she always seemed to get the ones with questions, she explained, "Thestrals."

"Hello. It's not really a funny place." Moira replied, as if it were the most natural thing to be gazing into an empty pen. All Ambrose knew about it was that some students had been attacked by a werewolf near here while doing a detention last year.

Thinking Moira had gone completely bonkers, Ambrose stared in surprise as she threw a piece of raw meat into the pen. But before his eyes it shot across the floor, up into the air and vanished in chunks.

"Thestrals."

Moira pre-empted his astonished expression and gaping mouth with an answer. However it didn't fully answer his question at all. What were thestrals when they were at home?

"Thestrals?" Ambrose asked, "What are they, invisible?" He peered back to where the meat had appeared from for her to throw. "Invisible carnivores?" He put a foot on the bottom rung of the fence and peered over. "Or are they like reaaaally small or something?"

He climbed down and came to stand beside Moira, peering down at the rest of the meat, and trying to sneak a look at her notes.

Ignoring his continued staring at her she glanced at the Thestrals and made another note. At least, she ignored him until he made it clear he had no idea what Thestrals were. Now it was Moira's turn to blink and stare at him, though at least her jaw didn't drop and her expression only conveyed a weak puzzlement. As often as she had seen him around other creatures and animals how could he not know what Thestrals were? Then again, it was unlikely he did as much study and research as she and he didn't come across the names of animals he didn't know unless he saw them.

Shaking her head some as he peered at the ground. "They're not small. They're a breed of winged horse." She let him peer at her notes all he wanted, it was just the Thestral page after all. Grabbing another slice of meat she tossed this one to the mother, who darted forward and snatched it up mid-air. Smiling faintly she wrote something else down as the mother ate.

Honestly, she didn't want to tell him what one had to do to see a Thestral. That would bring up more questions than she was comfortable with. Moira had been able to see them most of her life and still she didn't talk about it. She couldn't.

The meat rapidly disappeared from midair as an invisible beast consumed it. Ambrose gaped.

"They're not small. They're a breed of winged horse."

"Winged horse? Invisible, winged horses are eating that raw meat?" Ambrose exclaimed, staring into the always-empty pen, at least it was always-empty to him. There was definitely something in there, and it could reach the floor to eat and also reach up as high as his head with its mouth at least, so that did put it in the horse type size in terms of mouth location.

"How would you know if one was missing if it was invisible? Why don't they just fly away - after all, these invisible things have wings?" He reached his arms out over the fence blindly, as if trying to feel for them.

Moira watched his continued amazement and didn't answer his question right away, instead watching as one of the thestrals took an interest in Ambrose's outstretched hands. In fact, the creature trotted right up and nudged his hand with it's nose. Shaking her head some she reached over and pet it. "They're not invisible to everyone. Only people who have seen death can view these creatures. And they don't fly away because they're tamed and know they are safe here, not to mention free meals."

Pulling out another slab of meat, she had two left in the bag now, she fed it to this one curious thestral. What she really wanted was to get a closer look at that foal, but Moira knew better than to go into a herd pen with a foal. Even the gentlest animals could turn vicious if they thought their young were in danger. So she contented herself with watching from the outside of the pen.

Puzzled, Ambrose looked again into the pen,
"How come you can see-- oh." He clapped a hand to his mouth. "Sorry, thinking aloud." Death you idiot. His mind hissed at him as he didn't know where to look.

"Ok, so what do they look like? Do you have a drawing or something? Are they the same size as horses? Are they hairy? How big are their wings?" Ambrose rapidly listed off questions about the invisible beings in the pen, complete with hand gestures of size - most comically the wingspan where he flapped his arms a little like wings. 

"This is fantastic, invisible animals who appear only to those who have a particular experience, how could I ever have missed this?" The Gryffindor exclaimed, and hopped up on the fence, legs dangling down the outside of the pen. For one who couldn't see them, he was of course rather excited, forgetting to consider that the opposite was a rather more sobering experience altogether.

In all honesty, Moira was rather surprised when he stopped asking the question she did not want to answer and changed the subject to what they looked like. Turning her head and blinking at him her surprise was semi evident on her face before she took the topic change in stride.

"Well,  a lot of people don't like them, actually. Aside from what it takes to see them, they're sort of reptilian in appearance, and their wings are leathery, like a bat." Tucking her pen behind her ear she flipped towards the front of the Thestral notes to a few sketches she had done. She wasn't great, as far as being an artist went, but what she did draw was accurate at least. "Like this." She turned it to face him after he had hopped up on the fence.

"Oh, and do be careful. They are tame and rather gentle, but they have a foal in there and who knows how they'll react."

"... they're sort of reptilian in appearance, and their wings are leathery, like a bat."

"Like a bat?" Ambrose screwed up his face, trying to visualise a horse crossed with a bat and a lizard.  To Moira it must have looked like he'd eaten a really disgusting flavour of Bertie Bott's beans.

Catching sight of Moira turning her book round to him, he dropped the odd expression and peered down from his perch on the fence to see her sketches.

"Like this."

"Ahh!" He exclaimed. "Now that sort of makes sense. I can see how the whole lizardy thing works - was trying to imaging them with lizard tales you see."

"Oh, and do be careful. They are tame and rather gentle, but they have a foal in there and who knows how they'll react."

Ambrose peered over his shoulder suspiciously, wondering if they were just behind him, ready to push him off the fence, their gigantic wings unfolding above him and their lizardy noses inches from breathing in his ear.

"Are they very close?" He asked tilting his head at what looked like empty space behind him. "Those were great drawings by the way. When did you do them?"

Moira blinked at him and tried to picture Thestrals with lizard tails. It really just didn't work though. Shaking her head she closed the book again and heard his question about them being close. Looking over at the Thestrals she started to answer him when he said how he liked her sketches. This boy was just full of surprises that day it seemed. Aside from her dad and teachers she couldn't much remember anyone complimenting her on  anything. Aside from Paetyn of course, but he complimented her on everything so that didn't count.

"Um, no, they're not really all that close. As for the drawings I try to keep a record of what everything I study looks like. I did these when I was in the library the other day when I was reading the book on Thestrals." Looking towards the Thestrals again she had a bit of an idea. "Even though you can't see them... would you like to pet one?"

"Psh." Ambrose waved a hand at Moira's comment about the drawings being no good, "Art is all about interpretation isn't it?" He smiled kindly. It was nice to speak to Moira, she was actually quite a fascinating girl.

"Pet one?" Ambrose was surprised. "Sounds fun, do they like a scratch then?" He hopped from the fence and landed with his knees bent, before turning on the spot to stand directly beside Moira. "Do they bite? Horses give the worst bites, bruise like hell." He screwed up his face remembering how the jaws of horses would leave huge ugly purple bruises.

"Will they come for the meat?" He peered down at the pile Moira had. "No wonder there's a bad smell by here particularly in summer with them eating that." Ambrose laughed.

"The drawings are... accurate. That's all I need them to be." Moira didn't require the drawings to be good or spectacular. So long as they were accurate and portrayed everything correctly they way they were supposed to, then that was all that mattered.

"Another reason people don't like Thestrals... is they're attracted to the smell of blood." Pulling out one of the last two slabs she held it up until one of them came over. It didn't take long and two seemed to be racing for it. Passing it to Ambrose she pulled out the last so they'd both get one she made them get close enough and then let them have it.

Rubbing one's head she took Ambrose's hand and pressed it to the creature's nose, letting him get a good feel for it. Then, still covering Ambrose's hand, she moved up between the eyes to behind one of the ears. "There. He's enjoying that."

"Another reason people don't like Thestrals... is they're attracted to the smell of blood." Moira explained and dangled one of the pieces of raw meat over the fence in mid air. He watched as she stared intently into the pen, and then suddenly reached it towards him.

To his surprise there was a playful tug at the meat and he saw Moira put her hand up and appear to rub thin air. She seized his hand gently but firmly and pressed her hand over his to something invisible. His eyes widened.

"What - how?" He uttered, thought he knew, Moira had already explained. Her soft hand pulled his hand upwards and as he gaped he could feel the head beneath his hand, and was that... that was an ear!

"There. He's enjoying that." Moira confirmed, Ambrose glanced at her with a relieved expression. He wouldn't see those teeth coming that had cleared up the meat, what with them being invisible.

"Wow, they really are like horses, and this is so strange not being able to see them. My head can't work it out. I can't see you thestral, but I'm glad you're enjoying it all." He addressed the invisible beast beneath his hand.

Ambrose Pepper smiled broadly and looked sidelong at Moira McBoid. Never in a million years did he think her hand would be pressed to his on a thestral's head when he had made his trip from the castle.

"This is incredible." Ambrose continued to say, still rubbing the thestral's head. His fingertips examined the textures and the details of the scale that he could not see.
"Thank you Moira, I'd never have known all of this if it weren't for you." He enclosed his other warm hand over hers and smiled happily at her.

Moira let her hand continue to guide his, so he didn't accidentally poke it in the eye or something, while her other hand stroked it's cheek and neck. To most wizards and beings who could see them they were hideous, but not to Moira. Thestrals were different yes, but that didn't make them any less fascinating or beautiful, at least to her. Granted she was a little bit bias when it came to any type of winged horse.

Feeling his second hand cover her first pulled Moira out of her thoughts, she often got lost in them as she was used to entertaining herself, she looked towards him again. "You're welcome. Glad to have been able to teach you about them."

Ambrose chuckled in a good-natured tone.

"Move over Professor Hagrid, Professor McBoid is in the house." He squeezed her hand in his a moment, and then dropped his hand from over hers. She wasn't smiling in return, but she didn't seem too taken aback by his gesture. A part of him had feared that she might jump away as he did that, especially as it was forward on Ambrose's part.

"Do you spend a lot of time down here?" He asked tentatively, "With the Thestrals?"