It was late afternoon on a Monday, and after a grueling day of what felt like ten eternities worth of classes, Kella ran for the door, eager to embrace the world outside of the castle. It was cold outside, to be sure, but not nearly as cold as it had been toward the beginning of the month. That had been the kind of cold that made her shiver even with her coat on! She'd still needed a coat today, but the afternoon seemed just temperate enough to go without her bulky gray mittens, which were just evil prisons for her hands. She had a lot of energy to release, and she could not possibly expect to get it all out while her fingers were trapped in bondage! Instead, she kept the mittens jammed into her pocket, which created a protrusion that jutted out at her side, both mittens threatening to burst out and get lost somewhere on the soggy grounds. Kella was none the wiser as she ran her victory lap, her loose hair getting blown around by the wind. There was a strand of hair stuck to her cheek, but she fought it away with a mighty shake of her head. She'd run out onto the grounds straight from class, so she didn't have a ball to kick around, as she often did – only books, which were fun to kick, but for a different reason. She threw her bag to the ground and raised her hands toward the sky, but before she could propel her body forward into a joyous handstand of celebration, she heard a thud.

Kella froze, her hands held high, looking like she was proclaiming her innocence, the most perplexed of expressions coming over her face. She dropped her arms in one unceremonious swoop and, sucking on her bottom lip, turned around. Before her, stuck in the hard and muddy ground, was a small, rectangular wrapped package, one corner stuck firmly into the soggy grass. She glanced up, squinting into the mild afternoon sun, as some anonymous owl made its retreat toward the owlery. “That's funny,” she remarked to herself, giggling as she squatted down to inspect the package. She lifted it up. It wasn't heavy, and the whole thing fit easily into her two hands. One corner was covered in mud and had a rogue blade of grass stuck to it, but it was otherwise unmarked. Kella jumped back up to her feet and walked in a wide circle, but she didn't see anything else on the ground but a brown, speckled owl feather, which she also picked up.

She held the box next to her ear and gave it a shake, the way a curious child might a Christmas present. Something moved inside, but it wasn't obvious what the concealed object was. What was she supposed to do with it? She didn't think it was for her but, if it wasn't, why had it been dropped right by her school bag? This was not a mystery for a lone girl to solve on her own! She was relieved to see a figure approaching, and she called out to them. “Hey!” she shouted, scooping up her school bag and jogging in that direction, waving the box in her hand. “Hey! Is this yours? It fell on me just now.”

Lucas was glad that his classes were finally over for the day. After the hike yesterday, he was a little more tired than usual and he knew the next day was going to be longer. He had failed his flying class the semester before and was going to start remedial flying the next day. This was going to be his last chance for a while to enjoy doing things right after school.

It was yet another beautiful day. The hike yesterday had been amazing and he decided to go out and enjoy the weather again. He didn't know how long the nice days would last. It seemed like the weather recently couldn't make up its mind on what it wanted to do. How was he to not take advantage of a wonderful day like this? He stepped outside and felt the sun warm his cheeks. Being albino, he didn't get to go out in the sun much. A little wouldn't hurt him too bad he didn't think though. That warmth was incredible. He was snapped out of his moment by someone yelling at him.

“Hey!” she shouted, scooping up her school bag and jogging in that direction, waving the box in her hand. “Hey! Is this yours? It fell on me just now.”

He looked toward the girl confused as she was running toward him. He looked around and didn't see anyone else close by. He recognized her from class, but didn't really know who she was. She had to be in a different house than him. She was asking if something was his? Hmm. Could this be a potential mystery to solve? If it was, "Auror Lucas" would certainly take the case! He hitched his bag up on his shoulder and walked toward her so she didn't have to jog the whole way to him. When they reached each other, he looked at the package and the odd feather in her hands. It wasn't from his or the Knight's owl that he recognized.

"Nope. That's not mine. It's kind of weird that it just fell on you if if's not for you though. Maybe a mystery gift to you from someone? If it's not yours, maybe we can try to find out who's it is."

“Maybe it's a present!” Kella guessed brightly, popping up onto her toes and looking down at the little box with renewed verve, unable to prevent herself from giving the package another good shake. Christmas hadn't been too long ago, so she still had gifts on the brain, but it had been long enough ago that little wrapped boxes had gained their novelty back. She dropped her bag back to the ground, where it landed with a thump at her ankles, all of her attention focused on the far more interesting parcel she'd picked out of the dirt. She used one short fingernail, covered in chipped red polish, to absently pick at a piece of shiny cello tape, which was keeping the brown wrapping paper from slipping off of the box. She wasn't trying to open it, really, though the impulse to do so was great. If it wasn't hers then it wasn't hers, and until she knew for sure whether or not it was, she didn't think that peeling the paper off was such a good idea.

“I found this, too,” she added, picking up the brown feather, which was covered in a few striking cream colored speckles toward the very top. “I don't know if it's from the owl that dropped this, because maybe it's from a different owl. It was just on the floor,” Kella explained simply, giving a shrug. She was holding the feather upside down between her forefinger and her thumb, twirling it around right in front of Lucas's face. “We don't have any owls at my house. My mum just sends post from the post office sometimes. It's always a different owl every time.” That meant that if this little box was for her, then the owl feather wasn't a very good clue – but if it was for somebody else then the feather was a great clue! “What should we do?” she asked eagerly, glad to have both a mission and an accomplice lined up, bouncing up and down a few times on those springy toes of hers. “Should we find the owl? It went toward that owl tower place, with the owls in it.”

Rowena was having a wonderful morning. She'd slept in and she wasn't too sore from the previous day and her Mum had even sent her a bunch of herbs from the garden. But she wasn't sure what to make with them first!

She grinned at the sight of Lucas and a...Hufflepuff? A Hufflepuff whose name she didn't quite remember. "Lucas! Want to help me make potions? Mum sent stuff." Then her manners caught up with her and she gave the Hufflepuff an awkward little smile. "You're welcome to come too. I don't think we've been introduced! Rowena Knight."

This was followed by a careful little curtsey that couldn't really hide the smudges of dirt around the bottom of her skirt. Rowena was bad at clean. There were just too many interesting things outside.

Classes were finally over for now and Aoife rushed to the owlery. Today was a bit cold, but Aoife could see the signs of spring arriving, assuming she wasn't just imagining them of course. Today was the day her mother had promised her that she would send her daughter some new recipes she had gotten from Feeny's bakery. Aoife went down the stairs, hopping down every other step until she reached the bottom.

Hey, there are others. She thought, observing the three other students. They looked around her age, but Aoife had never been the best when guessing ages. She stared at them silently before noticing the Hufflepuff's painted nails. Aoife smiled.

"Hi!" She said, walking up to the girl. "I love your nails, Red's my favorite color, well one of them..."

“Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute,” Kella interjected, the words tumbling quickly from her lips. The excited hufflepuff was trying to break in and gain some control of this little band of chattering classmates before mystery solving time turned into potions and nail polish time – neither of which sounded quite as interesting to her as her paper wrapped package of unknown origin. She couldn't help but to try and take charge of this small but chaotic collection of potential detectives, at least for the moment. First of all, she wanted to get this all sorted, and second of all, she really wanted to run up and down the stairs of the owlery. Kella didn't particularly care if the others ran off to do other things instead. She did, however, want to make them all aware that they had a mission, should they choose to accept it. Why anyone would choose homework (or what she could only assume was homework) over a mission was well beyond her, but she wanted to put all of the options out there. She was in no rush to introduce herself. It wasn't like her name was going to change if she didn't spit it out right away. That was a rule of thumb she appreciated – when there's no rush, there's no rush.

“First, I wanted to tell you all that I have this box, and it just about hit me in the head a minute ago, and it has no name, and no address, and no anything at all, so I looked around and I just found this feather for a clue, and we were going to try and figure out if it's for me or not,” she explained very succinctly, the way she might address a group if she were orchestrating some kind of game and wanted to jump right into it. She clearly had some experience with this. “You can help me if you want, but you don't have to. I just thought I'd tell you that. And, anyway, I'm Kella,” she said, addressing the ginger haired girl, “And I like this color, too,” she tacked on, addressing her fellow housemate. She released a huff of a sigh, satisfied that she'd said everything that needed saying. “Does anybody want to come and help me?”

"Hit you on the head? Did it hurt?" Aoife asked Kella, eager to skip doing homework and go on whatever adventure this might lead to. "Did you try shaking it? What does it sound like when you shake it?" Aoife moved closer, as if she was about to grab the box out of Kella's hands and shake it herself.

All the while, Aoife still glanced at Kella's chipped nails, red was her favorite color, followed closely by yellow. Aoife suddenly remembered a time one year ago when she asked her mother for nail polish. She had gotten in, but her mother couldn't afford the good kind and the nail polish didn't go on evenly and chipped very easily.

Wait, why am I thinking about nail polish at  a time like this? There is a mystery now! Aoife snapped out of her flashback. "Can I see the feather?....Please?" Aoife added as an afterthought.

Lucas smiled at Rowena when she came up to them. It was nice to be friends with her and her sister now. Rowena really was starting to feel like a sister to him. Sure he had sisters, but none this close to his age that he could actually do things with.

"Hey, Rowena. I would love to play with potions with you, especially if your mum sent some good stuff this time, but there is another problem right now. There is a mystery that needs to be solved and I think I'm going to help out. You know how I am. I'll totally come play when I'm done with this though."

Another girl came up to them and started chatting about... nail polish? How does nail polish have anything to do with what was going on? Girls. He would never understand them. At least she helped get the girls name out. Kella. Right. That was it.

"I'll go with you, Kella. We can go up there and see if we recognize the owl and see if it maybe has a not attached to it or any special marks or anything. I'm sure we can figure something out."

Oooh, mysteries were fun. Rowena had read some of the mystery books that Aunt Teagan had given Mum, and she'd liked those. Even if she didn't understand all the Muggley things in them. "Of course, Lucas. And I'll help."  Her nod made her hair bob up and down with it, and a strand tickled her nose until she wrinkled it.

"Do you have any idea what's in it? Shook it? Weight?" Her head tipped to the side as she peered at the package, attention successfully diverted. At least until she heard a mewling noise and felt a soft tug on her skirt. "Boudicca you can't...the owls...you were supposed to stay in...."

The kitten just offered up a plaintive look until Rowena gave in and scooped it up in her arms. "You'll have to stay like this and not tease the owls. They're for mail, not for poking."

“It didn't hit me on the head really, just almost,” Kella explained, addressing the question efficiently once it came up. She was already bouncing on her toes, eager to do something, but she figured it did make sense to fill everybody in on the details. Clues were important in these sorts of situations, after all, and if she left something out then she'd put her whole team at a disadvantage! As badly as she wanted to take off like a shot and tear her way up those owlery steps, she had to be a team player first. Plus, she wasn't entirely sure what she'd do when she got up there. Owls still creeped her out.

“It sounds like something in a box,” she told her housemate when she asked what it sounded like. It wasn't the most prolific answer she could have come up with, but what was she supposed to say? This wasn't like Christmas presents, where you could guess what was inside based on whether it sounded like what you asked for! This could have been anything in the world! She held it up to her own ear again for another shake, but both Aoife and Rowena had more questions about the feather and the box, so she paused. “I'll pass them both around and we can all see them both,” she suggested, handing off the box. It wasn't particularly heavy, and it seemed to have one small but solid object jiggling around inside of it, which slid a bit if you were to pitch the box to one side or the other.

Once the box was out of her hands and passed to the first year next to her, it freed Kella's facilities up enough that she noticed the little kitten in Rowena's arms. Scarcely a second later, the hufflepuff had relocated, turning the circle into more of a clump as she came to examine the creature. She may have been a little spooked by owls, especially big groups of them, but not by individual kittens! She leaned down a touch, looking at the thing straight to center. “Is this cat yours?” she asked curiously, though the answer seemed rather obvious, even to Kella. “It's pretty cute,” she admitted, peeking at the tiny face. “Is it afraid of the owls or something? I am, too, a little bit, because I never had a pet before. Not even a fish.”

That first year happened to be Aoife. She took the box before shaking it hard, her ear pressed up close to the box. It rattled quite a bit, making Aoife wonder if she had broken something in it.

"Why don't why just open it?" She asked. "I'm sure the person who this belong to won't mind. Or we could always wrap it back up after we open it." Of course, the person probably would mind that his or her mail was being tampered with, but Aoife had a habit of not thinking things through.

After her suggestion she passed the box to the next first year, she noticed the kitten and squealed. "Wow! You have your own pet? Lucky, and it's a kitten too...Though I think I'd prefer a grown up cat."

Mysterious box falls from the sky, and they're busy cooing over a kitten, thought young Roland Dylanis grimly as he contemplated the scene he was walking up toward. The young lad was on his way to the owl aviary on the grounds, wearing a thick wool cloak and clothing to better help him with the cold, to send a letter to his grandparents when he happened upon this cute little scene happening before him. A few first years seemed to have stumbled upon a box and were in the middle of investigating it before getting distracted by, of all things, the redhead's pet kitten. Smirking a bit to himself, Rou silently made his way toward the scene when he noticed a brunette with short hair begin to handoff the box in order to join in on the cooing.

Not missing a beat, Rou slipped through the gap between the girl and the first-year she was handing the box off to and was able to nick the box right from her hands. Continuing his walk, Rou lightly sniffed the box and gave it a small shake to see what might be inside. Shrugging, Rou instead opted to toss the box back over his shoulder toward the first year the brunette was previously handing the box to.

"Probably nothing more than some trinket someone threw out. Seems to be less interesting than the kitten, though," Rou said as he walked away, loudly enough so that the group of squeeing kids could hear him. Pulling his cloak tighter around himself, the boy pressed forward toward the aviary.

Of course the girls were making a big deal over Rowena's cat. If there was anything he learned from tagging along with the Knight girls so much it was when there was something 'cute' there was a fuss to be made. He didn't think he would ever understand the appeal of it. Sure the thing was fluffy and nice, but not something to dwell on like this. Especially with a mystery to solve!

He rolled his eyes and was waiting his turn to examine the box when the other boy came and grabbed it. That was sort of rude! He crossed his arms and tapped his foot as the boy walked off. When he threw it behind him, Lucas ran after it and picked it up off the ground.

"Girls like cute, fluffy things. It's in their genes or something. The kitten may be more interesting to them and this may be some little trinket, but it could be a special trinket for someone. A special gift from a parent or grandparent or sibling to let a student know they're missed and loved. Or something to make school a little more bearable. Or maybe even a gift from a secret admirer! This trinket, or whatever it is, has a home and that home needs to be found."

Lucas turned on his heels and started back to the group of girls. He shook the box, but he didn't hear anything to give it away. He wondered what was in this box and who it was to go to.

"Okay, ladies. I know the kitten is all lovable and cuddly and what not but we have more pressing matters to tend to. We need to go to the owlery and see if this owl is still up there."

"Yes! I got her for Christmas." Rowena was perfectly happy to show off the kitten, though Boudicca just mewled and then curled up again in her arms. "Her name is Boudicca. And she's not scared of the owls. She tries to watch them whenever they bring mail. Sometimes I think she wishes she could fly."

This was followed by her petting the kitten, who responded by shifting a little and closing her eyes. Rowena looked over to Lucas. "Yes, we must find the owl! I'll just bring her with, she should behave." She tapped her leather boot on the ground. "I would be sad if I lost a package from Mum."

With her hands full of kitten she couldn't really point, but she started walking towards the owlery anyways. "Do you think the owl will still be there?"

Kittens were distracting, even in the face of important missions – that was the truth, and Kella had been just about to acknowledge it and try to get everybody back on track. She'd only wanted to look at the kitten a little! No matter how long she looked it was just going to look like a kitten, though, so she didn't feel the need to stand around staring at it for hours. Before she could say anything, however, interloping Roland was putting in his two knuts, and Kella just looked at him, taken aback. “You don't have to help if you don't want to, but whatever you do, you can't be mean,” the hufflepuff girl insisted, looking at his back as he stalked away. Sometimes she felt bad for him, she really did, but it was harder to help someone when they insisted on acting all cross and surly even when you were being perfectly nice. It made her think that he was happy like that, which just didn't make sense! Who didn't want friends? It was weird.

Lucas was clearly far more eloquent than she was (surprisingly eloquent, actually – though Ravenclaws were full of all sorts of hidden secrets. They fascinated her), and he hit the nail right on the head with his little declamation. This was an important mystery! “What if somebody has been waiting for it for a long time, right?” she asked Lucas, adding to his list of reasons in her own way. “It could be something they need, because they forgot it at home.” Kella had already received her own 'you forgot this' package a number of days earlier, so she understood that phenomenon perfectly. Sometimes these things happened. “Do you know what? It would be funny if somebody forgot their toothbrush?” she asked, cracking a smile, “And they went all of this time without every brushing their teeth? They probably wouldn't even have any left by now,” she giggled, amused by the very thought. “But it could also be medicine or something, too, so we should be quick.” This little spontaneous mission was gaining importance by the second!

”Do you think the owl will still be there?”

“Yes,” Kella said confidently as they all walked toward the entrance to the tower that housed the school's owls. “It just flew that way. I saw it!” Unable to resist, she jogged ahead so that she was at the front of the cluster of first years. She just wanted to get there already!