Around 2:30 in the afternoon

Alvis sat in the corner of the common room, tucked off to one side close enough to the first to catch a bit of warmth but far enough from the center that he wouldn't bother anyone by spreading out a bit. He had a number of books stacked on the table in front of him, including one that lay open, but at the moment his attention was focused on two stones: the white, egg-shaped bird statue resting on the table in front of him and the pointed turquoise pendulum he dangled directly above it.

The pendulum spun on its plain tin chain, its point wavering only slightly with the movement of the air. But that was all. There was no magic in it, no supernatural influence at all. Just a plain white rock. And Alvis's arm was getting tired.

He sighed, reeled in the pendulum, and let his arm fall back to the table. He glanced toward the open book. The bird it showed, its body taking up half of one page while its tail occupied a quarter of the next, was the same as the bird in the statue: a caladrius. The rest of the books in the stack were on mind magic -- legilimency and occlumency and general theory, none of which he could wrap his head around. There was a connection here, he knew it. If he could only figure it out.

He heard footsteps approaching from one side and ducked his head, knowing it was probably another student trying to get to the bookcase he was sitting in front of. "Sorry," he said, picking up his book. "Am I in your way? Didn't mean to block the shelf. Give me just a second to clean up and I'll..." He finally looked up, realizing who it was. His cheeks flushed pink. "Oh. Zoe. Hi. Um. What's up?" God but that sounded dumb.

It had been a bit of a slow day. Zoe didn't have much to do, and spent most of the morning playing with Rose, even going as so far to have Lily bring some lunch to her dorm so she could, for the first time in a while, eat with the fairy. This had tired the creature out, who settled down for a nap.

The Ravenclaw came down the stairs into the common room, her book bag containing a few things she figured would keep her busy. A couple spellbooks for random wandwork, one book on fairies, several objects for if she was to practice said spellwork, and a cat toy or two, as Snowy followed at her heels. She began to walk to the exit, when she noticed Alvis. Zoe looked over the things on the table and, curious, changed her course to the table he was sitting at.

Alvis noticed her quickly. "No, Alvis, you're not," she replied, starting to pull out a chair opposite him. It didn't take him long to realize it was her, and Zoe smiled when he blushed. It was so adorable how he- wait, what? "Hi Alvis."

At the top of her head were a pair of wings, stretched out. At first it may have looked like a hair clip, but if one looked more closely they would have noticed the wings belong to a sleeping fairy. Most of the Ravenclaws knew about Rose, several by being pranked.

"I'm fine, not really doing anything." She put her book bag on what little space was available of the table. Zoe glanced over everything there, trying to make sense of what her housemate was doing. "What's all this for?" The small bird statue attracted most of her attention, but the Ravenclaw knew that Alvis wasn't in Care of Magical Creatures. It took her a few seconds to recognize what the bird was. "Is that a, what's it called.... caladryas? Oh, wait, caladrius, that's it."

When Zoe mentioned the bird's name, Alvis did a double-take. "Yeah, it is. How did you...?" He blinked. The thin wings of Zoe's hair clip were twitching, independent of any movement she made. Looking closer, he realized that it wasn't part of her it all -- it was the fairy she'd been caring for, the one that caused so much trouble around the House. "Oh. Creatures. Right. I forgot about that."

He took off his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose, and sighed. It wasn't even noon yet and he already felt tired. And it wasn't a normal sort of tired either, it was the blasted headaches. He could feel one threatening to come on in the twinges behind his eyes. Still, having Zoe around made it better, if only a little. Her presence was comforting, like a warm blanket on a cold day.

"I was just...practicing. For Divination. And, well, other things."  He untangled the pendulum's chain from his fingers and lay the chain out carefully on the table, using his shirt to polish up the pendulum itself. "All of this is...complicated. I'm not sure where to start. It's just some things I've been trying to figure out."

A mewling came from under the table. Zoe's cat. Alvis slipped his glasses back on and leaned over to offer the cat his hand. He wasn't entirely sure how to deal with animals, but he knew better than to touch a pet without pet's permission. He smiled up at Zoe, nodding to the accessory in her hair. "Looks like your little fairy-flower's tuckered out. No pranks tonight, I hope? Does it give you much trouble?"

Zoe nodded. "That and Mum sometimes talks about them. They brought one in on the floor once for a really bad case of poisoning when they couldn't get an phoenix tears." Mum always said how they kept one vial, just one, no more, on the floor for poisoning that couldn't be cured with any sort of potion or bezoar. "She said it was really beautiful, all white."

Ah, Divination. Zoe had never taken much of a liking to it, never having found talent for such prediction. She could understand others emotions and often understand their actions that correlated with such emotions, but not their futures. The Ravenclaw had always found more alignment to the math-based Arithmancy.

Zoe glanced under the table when Snowy meowed, and smiled as she watched her white cat begin to rub against the hand. The cat always knew who was trustworthy. "She likes you. That's what she does when she wants to be pet." Snowy purred at the boy.

Laughing, Zoe replied. "No, not anymore. She hasn't been mean to me since the first week I had her. I think I've occupied her enough, Rose isn't causing much trouble anymore. Well, except for the third years getting their hair tied in knots two days ago. But that's been it. Well, the fairies did fill people's handkerchiefs with pollen on Monday.... forget I said anything," she concluded with another laugh. Rose's wings shifted in her sleep.

She scooted her chair closed into the table. "So what's so complicated about this? Maybe I could help." The girl smiled at the boy, then looked down at the little caladrius. "Caladriuses- I mean -driai, they're related to phoenixes, right? Like Aurora Birds.[1]"

1.	Lexicon Page

That's right -- Zoe's mother was a Healer. Of course they'd use caladriai on occasion, it's what the bird had been bred for. Alvis stroked Snowy's head a bit while Zoe talked, then scratched the cat behind its ear and sat up, chuckling at the antics of the Puck fairy. "Well. At least you know how to handle her. That's good." It would earn her a good grade, no doubt. And, for whatever reason, she seemed of the little thing. Its mischievous cuteness suited her.

At her offer of help, his eyes trailed back to his statue and the books. He wasn't sure what help she could be, but he did want to talk about it. He'd been thinking about it all off and on throughout the entire semester. It would feel good to share it. Besides, if there was anyone he could trust not to laugh, it was Zoe.

"Yeah. They are, though they're further removed than the Auroras. They've got as much dove in them as anything else." He pushed the book across where she could see it better, pointing out the information on the page and tugging out a sheet of parchment, on which he'd made several notes about the birds in question.  "I don't know much about animals in general, but....well, caladriai are special, for me. At least, I think they are."

He glanced up uncertainly, not quite meeting Zoe's eye. He wanted her near him, to get to know her better, but he didn't want to invade her privacy to do it. "This is going to sound weird, and I mean really weird. I don't think it's going to make much sense, either. Just. Promise you won't laugh?"

Zoe leaned into the table slightly to look at the picture in the book. Under the table, Snowy purred at the petting, before jumping onto Alvis's lap and settling herself. It surely seemed like he was studying it, but for what? Was this some obvious Divination thing that she just wasn't getting?

She looked up when he did, noticing how he slightly missed her eyes with his gaze. Zoe didn't do the same. Quickly, the Ravenclaw began to get an odd feeling about what'd come next. Usually when there was the whole 'don't laugh' thing it was something very private. Zoe knew well the 'don't laugh' secrets.

At first Zoe leaned back into her chair a bit, glancing around the common room. No one was in it save the two. She leaned back in, this time closer. Her face inches from his. He could have whispered it and she would be able to hear. They were supposed to get this close for secrets, right? "I won't laugh. Promise. What is it?"

For the first time, Alvis really understood the concept of keeping a cat around for comfort. Her weight on his lap was warm and her fur was pleasant to the touch. He found himself stroking the animal without thinking about it, even as he leaned over the table with Zoe. My, but they were quite close now, weren't they? And her focus was entirely on him, concerned about his secrets...

Alvis averted his eyes again. She was being kind, looking at him that way, but she shouldn't want to, she didn't understand what looking him in the eyes could mean. Hell, he still didn't understand it completely, but Zoe was still too kind, too important to be subjected to...whatever it was he did, ruffling through people's minds. Alvis focused on the statue, using it to orient his mind and his story away from her.

"Last summer, on the egypt trip -- the one the school arranged, remember? -- I took a bit of a fall." Into an ancient haunted tomb at the behest of a semi-sentient magical carpet, but she didn't need those details. "I hit my head on the landing, got laid up for two days. Concussion. It messed with my vision, too." Hence the glasses, which he adjusted subconsciously, pushing them up his nose.

"The Healers said that was all that happened, that I was lucky. But even since then things have been...different. My headaches are worse, they come more often. And sometime, I get this image, just a flicker, of a bird -- this bird, a caladrius." He shook his head as though dislodging water from his ears, trying to focus his thoughts. "I'd never been outside the country until Egypt. And the wizard population in my village is tiny, mostly retired Ministry folk. There's no way I could have seen one of these, but I remember it, I remember him, and that he was important. He meant something to me, once. But every time I try to think about it--"

Aaaand there was the headache, right on cue, lancing from temple to temple like an electric shock. Alvis bit down on his tongue, suppressing the pain down to a wince. Snowy the cat gave him a reproachful glance as he stopped petting her to reach for his bag, digging out the bottle of aspirin.

"-- the headaches come back," he finished, tapping the pills into his hand. "And then I lose track of everything all over again. Does...Does that sound crazy?"

Zoe noted how he never met her eyes. Probably just nerves. They were quite close, after all. Had she leaned any further in her chair she would have been able to touch foreheads with him. These thoughts floated through her mind, and the Ravenclaw quickly rid herself of all of them to better concentrate on what her housemate was saying.

Nodding at the question about the Egypt trip, Zoe listened to what happened to Alvis. That's right, she vaguely remembered hearing of what had happened to Alvis on the trip. Though, on the trip she hadn't taken much mind to it, more of her attention focused on the disappearance of Snark.

She instinctively pulled back when Alvis did. "You alright?" There were the pills again, the ones the girl had watched him take back when she had pink hair.

Zoe first smiled in response to him. "Of course not. It's probably just a childhood memory Alvis. I don't remember everything from my childhood. Maybe when you were four or five someone brought a caladrius to your village." She paused. "Then again, the headaches are a little odd. Especially since they always come when you try to think about it. Almost like the headaches are trying to.... block it."

She looked at him, but not into his eyes, but more as if she was trying to see through him. "The only thing I know that could block memories are Memory Charms or False Memory Charms." Another thought came to her, and Zoe smiled as if she figured something out. "That would explain why they started after you experience head trauma."

"Have you ever thought of Legilimency Therapy? Or an attempt at memory extraction? They offer both at St. Mungo's on the fourth floor." Mum could even set him up with an appointment. Alvis seemed pretty confused over this, Zoe wanted to do all she could to help.

Memory charms. False memory charms. Alvis shuddered, folding in on himself ever so slightly. He'd thought of that, once or twice, but never wanted to linger on the possibility for long because it raised as many questions as it answered. Why would anyone want to block his memory of a bird? Hell, why would anyone want to block any of his memories, especially the ones before Hogwarts? Who on earth would use a memory charm on someone whose age was in the single digits?

"I've thought about going to Mungo's," he admitted quietly, tracing the grain of the wood with his finger. "But I'm kind of scared. What if it is a memory charm? The things that that happen to people who break those..." Like Bertha Jorkins, during the war. Like a dozen other horror stories he'd stumbled on, of those who'd shattered their own minds. "I'm crazy enough as it is. I can't imagine how bad it'd be if something actually got broken in there."

And Legilimency. That was a whole other level of crazy. Alvis shook his head again and took off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose as he willed the headache to pass faster. He sighed. "You're right thought. It's probably nothing. Just a silly childhood memory. I'm just obsessing again, that's all."

He glanced at Zoe's without replacing the glasses. He couldn't see the fairy's wings anymore, nor could he pick out the fine details in her face. But her best features were still visible, her nose and her eyes. They'd just been smoothed, like the soft focus on a camera.

"Hey...don't the other girls give you a hard time for...you know, talking to me? I' mean, you're...you're so..." Pretty. Kind. Brilliant. Confident. Fun. Brave. He gave a weak shrug and gestured to Zoe's general person, hoping she'd understand how much he meant. "And I'm...I'm one of those Ravenclaws." The eccentrics. The nutters. The Luna Lovegoods, without the credentials  and history that put her above criticism. "There's bound to be something you'd rather do than listen to me ramble about birds."

The stubbornness of Alvis annoyed her slightly, though it was probably just disguised fear. The reasoning allowed her to keep a level head. "I revoke my statement from earlier. Childhood memories don't cause severe headaches. And Alvis, relax. It's not that something's wrong with your brain." Half truth, something very well may be. The magic was damaging.

Zoe looked down at her housemates seemingly random collection of objects on the table. "But I'm pretty sure you won't find your answers dangling some turquoise over a statue, no offense. If it's troubling you this much, just go in and have a healer examine you. They won't judge you off of your condition. I can say from my own knowledge, if it is a memory charm, they've seen far worse cases." Maybe her mum might just accidentally find out about this...

A coy smile came over the girl's face. "Changing the subject, are we?" Zoe said, though a visible blush appeared. Was what he had just said a compliment? It seemed like a compliment....

"My my Alvis. Did Casey and Ambrose and those other people take away all of your self-esteem?" She leaned further into the table. "You're not one of any type Ravenclaws. You're a Ravenclaw, and that's it. A fine Ravenclaw at that." Was it possible she was flirting with him?

The Ravenclaw leaned back slightly. "And no, the girls don't give me a hard time." They all had their boys they were hanging around, now that Yule Ball hung in the near-enough future. "You seem so sure about my wish to not be around you that I don't seem to recognize myself, why don't you tell me what I'd rather be doing?"

Alvis pouted. If he could’ve seen his own expression he would have hated it, especially the way his cheeks puffed like a squirrel’s, but he just couldn’t help himself. “Turquoise is magically resonate. I’m a Sagittarius, it’s a good fit.” He wasn’t actually offended or anything. He just felt the need to stand up for his handiwork. It ran in the family.

As the subject changed his pout deflated and his cheeks heated up, a tomato-red blush crawling up from under his collar. His fingers closed around the statue, its familiar cold surface and smooth curves. Tell me what I'd rather be doing, she'd said. Did Zoe know? Did she know he felt what other felt, that he understood their secrets, that he got into their minds?

"I didn't mean it like that," he muttered, sliding the statue from one palm to the other. "I don't want to tell you to do anything. I...I just don't want people like Pepper dragging you into anything. No stupid rumors, no mean jokes. You don't deserve that."

Nobody deserved it, but Zoe least of all.

Alvis tucked the statue into his pocket and picked up his glasses again, polishing their lenses on the hem of his shirt. "Really, though. Casey didn't do anything to my self esteem, not really. Nothing bad. It's the opposite. He listens to me." Sometimes. On certain subjects. Which sometimes made him angry. "We just had a bit of a disagreement, that's all. He's really not..."

He stopped, thoughtfully regarding Zoe's soft-focus features. After a moment of mulling over, he smiled slightly. "You know what, never mind. I'll never convince you about anything regarding Casey." He shook his head and lifted his glasses to the light. They were still covered in smudges and fingerprints. He went back to polishing them. "Let's talk about something else. Something about you. What do girls talk about?" Besides boys. Or make-up. Or clothes, though Alvis doubted Zoe would be that "into" any of those topics. She was too clever for that sort of thing.

Zoe found it weird how he worded his response. He didn't want to tell her to do anything, as if he could actually determine her actions. It was probably just miswording. Alvis was only human. The rest of what he was saying made more sense. "Don't worry. I haven't heard of any of that hear-say." It was sweet he was so considerate.

"I guess that's a safe bet," Zoe said, laughing. "Though I might listen to what you have to say about Casey. Honestly we just got off on the wrong foot, a very wrong foot..." That first train ride had not been pleasant. "I still find it funny that it seems our elves get along better than we do, yet they are the very reason we started not getting along."

"Depends. Do you want to know what girls talk about, or what I talk about?" A smile crossed her face. "I'm not as girly as I could be, Alvis. I'm sure you know that. But I guess there has been talk of Yule Ball lately, dates and the likes. I already have my dress robes for the dance, Ayla and I went shopping over the summer."

Zoe lifted a finger to the small resting fairy. Rose stirred, then reached up and took the finger. The girl moved her finger up, pulling the fairy into the air above her head, before letting the tiny creature sit in her other hand. Rose looked curiously at the various items on the table. "What do you boys talk about then?"

“You know, I still haven’t met Lily.” Alvis cleared a bit of space on the table in case Zoe needed the room. Without quite realizing it, he also shifted his chair around the table, closing the distance between them so he could better hear her.

“It’s funny. Dingy was around the first time I talked to Casey, too. I gave him a bit of a start while he was polishing armor in the Gallery. Then he tried to bash his head in with his pot so I had to take it away.” He hummed thoughtfully, absent-mindedly tapping his cheek with his finger as he turned the memory over in his mind. “They’re interesting creatures, house elves. I’m not sure I’ll ever get entirely used to them.”

Talk of the Yule Ball and dress robes gave him a bit of start. Oh yes, that was coming up, wasn’t it? It hadn’t even crossed his mind. Though he listen attentively, he was privately glad that Zoe didn’t feel the need to describe her dress robes to him. He’d overheard girls talking about clothes before and it always struck him as the most boring topic in the world.

“Wow. It’s good that you’re so prepared. I hadn’t even thought about the dance. It’s right around the corner, huh?” He chuckled awkwardly and shifted the books around to provide better defense in case the fairy got restless. on a whim, tickled its stomach with the feather-tip of a quill.

“I don’t think I’m a ‘typical guy’ either. I mean, with Sasha it’s always science and muggle stuff, like how computers could work around here. With Casey, well, it’s mostly work of some kind. Usually Runes. Other than that it’s pretty much just…Quidditch.” Ugh, that left a bad taste in his mouth. Both of Ravenclaw’s games this season had been good enough, from his end, and they certain weren’t doing as bad as Hufflepuff. But still, it’d be nice to win once and while.

“So, nothing all that interesting I suppose.”

"Really? I'll have to introduce you to Lily sometime." Zoe paused, getting the expression one gets when they consider schedules in their head. "But I understand what you mean. I'm not totally used to elves being... house elves. It's one thing to have someone act like a maid, you know, someone you'd hire. I don't like how house elves hurt themselves It doesn't seem right, but that might just be because I associate self-harming with suicidal thoughts." Alvis seemed a lot less concerned on the topic. He didn't have an elf, though, so it was excusable.

Rose was a bit groggy as she sat in Zoe's hand, but the feather woke her up. The fairy began laughing her strange buzz-like laugh, tipping forward into the moving feather. The tip brushed across her delicate face and Rose squealed, scrunching up her face and rearing back. Her head snapped forward with a little sneeze. Zoe smiled, which only caused Rose to cross her arms in frustration.

"Yeah, Yule Ball's coming up next month." Zoe hadn't asked anyone yet, of course. It was obvious to her that she needed a date, one of the Hufflepuff girls would set her up if she didn't. Maybe there was someone to ask. The Ravenclaw looked up at Alvis, feeling her face grow warm with the thought. Maybe... someone in the same room as her. No, no... Zoe bit her tongue.

As Alvis finished, Rose eyed the quill that she had been tickled with. "I guessed as much as Quidditch. Boys and sports seem to go together. Though that might just be a-" Zoe glanced down at Rose, whose right hand had taken on a sinister purple glow. The fairy smirked. "Rose!"

Rose didn't seem to pay mind as she flung her hand forward, sending a purple cloud of dust at the quill. The quill tip started to grow in size, becoming three times as big as it was before exploding. Ink splattered everywhere, Rose taking to the air to dodge a shower of drops. Zoe gasped as ink landed on her nose. "Merlin! Rose, how could you?" Zoe turned to Alvis. "I'm so sorry, she hasn't used her magic for anything in a long time, she's usually better at taking jokes." Looking back at Rose, Zoe pointed at the fairy then pointed to the girls dorms. Rose pouted, and Zoe sharply repeated the motion. Rose obeyed, her shoulders slumping as she flew off.

Zoe groaned, shaking ink off of one of her hands. "Damned jinx dust." She drew her wand with her cleaner hand. "Tergeo." She began her partially successful attempt to clean ink off of the table and objects on the table, paying special attention to Alvis's things. "Again Alvis, I'm sorry. I don't mind if you leave to clean yourself up."

Alvis couldn't help but chuckle at the fairy's sneeze. For all the trouble she caused, the little thing was unbearable cute at times. He moved to pull the quill away, but only drifted it to the left a few centimeters before warmth spread across his face, distracting him.

It wasn't his. For once, even while talking with a pretty girl, he hadn't any reason to  flush. His mind flew to the exercises Mr. Gries of Beauxbatons had set him to a few days prior, reigning in the part of his mind that skimmed the emotions of others.

He was so wrapped up in his momentary distraction that he didn't notice Rose's prank until Zoe shouted the fairy's name. Alvis caught the barest glimpse of his quill-tip expanding rapidly before it exploded. Since it'd been pointed his direction, Alvis got the full brunt of the blast, black goop spraying his face, his things, and the front of his shirt. The only thing that was spared was the stack of books at his side, of which only the top cover sustained any real damage.

Startled to stock-still silence, Alvis blinked behind the ink-stained lenses. Then, even though he knew he shouldn't, because it would only encourage the little beast and that would probably go against everything Zoe had been trying to teach it, he laughed.

He couldn't help it! It was funny. Zoe was funny, all flustered like that, and even cuter than her pet as she fussed, trying to clean them up. Rose was funny, sulking back off to the girl's dorms like a scolded toddler, probably already plotting her revenge. And Alvis was willing to bet he looked pretty funny too, covered in black from from forehead to waist. Even his glasses were splattered with mess.

"Don't...heh...don't worry about me. I'm fine. I'm used to it. Well, I'm used to ink stains. And explosions. This is just the first time I've had them combined." He chuckled, removing his glasses -- heh, looks like all the polishing had gone to waste -- and wiping them on his sleeve. All that managed was smearing the lenses with black goop, which set him giggling again. He must look absolutely ridiculous, splattered everywhere except for the mask where his glasses had covered his eyes.

"I'm sorry! I know I shouldn't egg her on, but it is kind of...hee hee...really kind of funny. I guess I was asking for that one, huh?"

Cleaning up did seem a good idea, though. He nodded in response to Zoe's offer and gathered his things safely to the side, where they'd be out of everyone's hair but he'd be able to retrieve them later. He lifted the ink-smeared glasses to his eyes, thought better of it, and held them out to Zoe. "Could you? My aim's rubbish without these."