It was snowing but it was a light, steady snow that gave the whole world a soft and magical feeling.  Eva took a deep breath and then took pleasure in the way the cold air pricked at her nose.  Liza, her owl, hooted and ruffled her feathers irritably.  "Cheer up, sourpuss, it's not like I'm making you fly all the way to Germany in this weather.  I don't even have a job for you.  Can't I just enjoy your company for a while?"  Liza gave her a sour look and seemed to hunch into her own feathers as if to say, "Not when it's cold!

Eva sighed.  She loved Liza like she loved all her animals but the Hogwarts policy to only allow owls, cats, and toads was a load of bollocks.  Liza carried letters and slept in the owlery. She didn't make good company, not like Poppi.  He'd always been the best of company, going everywhere with her, wrapped around her neck like a living scarf.  And unlike Liza, Poppi was an excellent conversationalist.  Outside of Care of Magical Creatures class, the only proper conversationalists at Hogwarts were often unfortunately human.

Coming around a low wall, Eva realized she wasn't the only one out and about this afternoon.  A tall skinny guy petting a cat was out here too.  "Oh," she said.  "I didn't realize.  Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Raine’s cat and Zel had become odd friends over the school year. Though, you could probably say that Zel was odd friends with many of the pets that students had. Owls, rats, felines. He loved them all. He even loved all of the strange and potentially dangerous creatures that he had dealt with in Care of Magical Creatures. He picked up Maurice and held him close, allowing the cat to snuggle and purr. “Oh-oh no! You’re not interrupting anything!” He exclaimed in surprise.

He recognized her as one of the Durmstrang students. Her accent was a familiar one—German. Like many members of his family. He gave her a smile, “D-Do you like it here?” Zel inquired, scratching Maurice behind the ears. He was trying to be sociable—especially to the foreign students. Zel felt like it was part of his responsibility as a prefect, even though that wasn’t explicitly in the job description.

“So…” Zelig paused, “Are you from Germany? My father’s family is Bavarian.” He spoke softly, thinking to himself that he was awful at small talk!

Eva's face lit up immediately when the boy began to talk.  Another German!  Between her French school and her British exchange, she didn't get to talk or even think about home as often as she'd like.  "I'm from Rothenburg," she exclaimed, tickled pink that he'd know what she was talking about.  "What a small world!"

She shifted Liza to perch on her left arm so she could extend her right for a handshake.  "My name's Eva, what's yours?  If you're family's from Germany, how did you end up at Hogwarts, if you don't mind me asking?  I, of course, ended up at Beauxbatons because Ma's French.  It's quite different here, especially they're rules about pets."

Eva blushed when she realized she was running off at the mouth in her excitement.  "Sorry," she apologized self-conciously. "I've got a bit of tendency to talk too much when I'm in a good mood.  Who's this then?  Is she yours?"  Eva reached out her fingers gently to the cat, offering to allow the beast to rub its jaw along them if it so desired. 

“My dad’s from Altotting. Bavaria.”  Zel nodded, “I’ve lived in Cardiff most my life though. My mom’s Welsh.” Zelig shook her hand.

“I’m Zel Trumble. Nice to meet you, Eva.”  She asked so many questions, he was beginning to feel overwhelmed!
“Er, uh—“ He stuttered, “Well. I was born in Cardiff, lived in Altotting for a bit. Then I moved back to Cardiff six, seven years ago? My mum’s a Hogwarts alumni, so…” Zel shrugged, “my little brothers go here too. My little sister will next year.” They were more Welsh than German, and they didn’t remember much about Germany, as they had spent most of their lives in Wales.

“Funny thing is—we’re all in different houses. Mum was a Slytherin. I’m a Hufflepuff, Emeric is Gryffindor, and Luc as is Ravenclaw.” They were all so different.

Zel looked down at Maurice—“Err, Oh. It’s a he. He’s not mine, he’s my friend Raine’s.. But Maurice and I are pretty close.”

Eva smiled apologetically as Zel fumbled to answer all of her rapid-fire questions.  She really hadn't meant to put anyone on the spot like that, it sort of all just popped out.  "Not so different from me, then," she said about how he ended up at Hogwarts. 

Her smile morphed straight into being just pleased with the boy and what he said.  The information about the family's placement in a variety of houses was completely unsought and she liked that he offered it.  Her personal opinion that variety within the family was a good thing.  If there wasn't enough of it, then the few that ended up slightly odd were considered an anomaly to be brought back into line.  At least, that's how here family treated her brother Chaz, and even herself to some extent.  She chose to say only, "I never really understood the house system here.  People are people."  She winked at Zel.

She scratched Maurice behind the ears and grinned as the cat leaned into her fingers for more attention.  She had a way with animals.  "It's nice to meet you Maurice." 

Liza hooted indignantly from her perch on Eva's left hand.  "Oh hush, you!" Eva chastised the owl.  "There's no need to be jealous."

“Oh, it’s okay dearie~” Zel cooed at the owl, offering out his hand for her to jump on. He would give her attention! He loved animals.  He had always had a way with them—and while some were a bit more hesitant to be around him since he became a werewolf, most of them were very okay with them. It was like they could sense that he had no ill will towards them, and that all he wanted to do was show them love and care for them.

COMC had always been his best subject. He was passionate about cute little critters, as well as the large, scary, but also cute critters.

“Maurice and I spend a lot of time together.” Well, Zel spent a lot of time with Raine—and that gave him ample time to get to know Maurice. They also spent a lot of time together without Raine! "I wish I had a pet though.." Even a toad would be nice.

Eva took a deep, bemused breath at his quiet nature and interest in her owl.  She knew how he felt, of course.  Animals were far easier to relate to than people but Eva had learned young that there was no substitute for basic social skills.  Her mother had seen to it.  Perhaps if she'd been left more to her own devices she'd have turned out more withdrawn like this boy. 

She urged Liza over onto Zel's hand and breathed a sigh of relief as the weight on her arm vanished.  Even after all this time of carrying Liza about, the weight was exhausting after a bit.  She missed Poppi desperately.  The snake was a good companion and nice and light on top of that.

In exchange for passing over her owl, Eva scooped up Maurice and cuddled him against her chest.  "Why don't you have one?" Eva asked curiously.  "I know Hogwarts is pretty strict on the type of animals you can bring with you but surely there's something you could get?"

“My mum doesn’t like pets.” Zel said simply. He had begged and begged for a cat, or even a toad growing up—to no avail. She said it was too dangerous, with a werewolf sister. Besdies, where were they going to get the money to feed another mouth? Even though their family wasn’t poor, money was stretched thin when there were more than five mouths to feed on any given day.

But his mother was in Azkaban now.

His stepfather was doing... Whatever it was he was doing.

Zel was more concerned with figuring out what to do when summer came, rather than getting a pet—as much as he loved them. He couldn’t warrant getting a cat when he had concerns over whether or not his family was going to be steady and stable when school was out. It felt like they were barely holding on right now. His little brothers were relying on a teacher to help them, instead of going to straight to him, and that hurt. Zel took the blame for that, he was the reason his mother got sent to Azkaban. He made the reports, he took action against her.

“But, maybe when I graduate I’ll get some cats of my own?”

"That's too bad," Eva replied genuinely with a soft tilt to her head.   Maurice chirped and pushed off her chest to propel himself towards the ground, she watched him go a bit sadly.  "Well at least you can live vicariously through your friend's animals at the moment.  That ought to hold you over."  She grinned openly.  Her eyes twinkled with mirth.

"You wanna walk a bit with me?"  She jerked her thumb in the direction she'd been heading.  "I've just been exploring the grounds and, don't tell anyone, but edging my way closer to the Forbidden Forest.  I've been hoping to see something a bit more interesting than what we get in class, you know?"

Truth be told, she was somewhat disappointed by her time at Hogwarts in that regard.  She'd wanted to have experiences that she couldn't have back in France.  So there was nothing she couldn't have learned at Beauxbatons and they would have let her keep her snake.

"How do you like your schooling here?" she asked Zel idly, bringing her thoughts up.  "Hogwarts is a nice enough place but... I dunno.  Maybe I haven't gotten involved enough.  Seems like so much of what's happening isn't in class at all."