Michael woke up to an Alarm clock that was emittinug squealing sound and causing his pillow to jerk around under his head.  He didn't like this alarm clock much, but he had to admit it was effective, most days it woke him up, and the rest of the dorm room as well, unless someone had silenced it for him, or his cat had decided to knock it behind the table that it sat on, he didn't know why it wouldn't work back there but it never went off if it was back there, probably somthing to do with the charm that was on it.  He slipped on a robe and got out some freshly cleaned clothes out of his wardrobe and proceeded to go through his morning ritual of shower, brushing his teeth and deciding if he wanted to shave or not.  He didn't have a wizards razor, so if he did do so he would inevitably end up with several knicks on his chin, leading to him not shaving very often.

Deciding on not shaving this morning he decided to go down to the Great Hall and get his breakfast, he was also expecting a package from his mother, she had wrote that his Birthday present hadn't arrived yet and it would be late.  He wasn't sure yet what it would be.  His mother was usually practical about his gifts though. 

Arriving in the Great hall he took an empty spot at his house table and proceeded to fill his plate with various foods, fairly heavy on the meat products, his breakfasts at home usually consisted mostly of fruit so he took every opportunity to eat his favorites while at school.  He looked up towards where the owls would be coming in but it didn't seem to be time yet.

Fauna opened the doors to the Great Hall, more awake than any sane teenager should be. She walked between the tables, stifling a laugh at one student who unknowingly dripped oatmeal onto her lap, and looking to see if anyone was at the Hufflepuff table yet. There were very few Huffles seated so far. Most of them were younger than her.

She walked by the Gryffindor table and saw one boy staring at the ceiling. It was Michael, a sixth year she knew from some of her classes. Fauna stood beside him and looked up too.

“The sky’s a bit cloudy today. It’s kinda fun to cloud watch though,” she said, keeping her eyes upward.

She could just make out a fluffy white castle, a squid, and some kind of canine with open jaws. Fauna frowned. Perhaps it was a werewolf? It was the full moon tonight.

“Did the paper arrive yet?” She murmured, finally glancing down at him and pulling her hat more snugly over her ears.

LE OUTFIT

It seemed that this particular morning, the headband was stubborn and not going to comply so the brown knitted flower beret would have to work as Addie put on the rest of the outfit. Fauna had waken her up ten minutes prior to waking up. She was not like her stepsister who seemed to be like a rooster ready to alert the world it was morning. Addie preferred to let the sunlight spill into the room and find herself in that environment.

Looking at herself twice over in the mirror, Addie began to grab her satchel but only to find that the pocket watch wasn't in there. Her eyes widened and immediately went into a frenzy search, waking up the others in the dormitory. "Sorry, sorry!" she cried out as they were grunting angrily for her to make less noise. The watch, had she remembered, was on the nightstand. Her eyes soon found it and grunting all annoyed as she stuffed it into the bag.

The walk to the Great Hall took no time at all and soon, she was looking upward to find the clouds and noticing they were in various forms this day. Hmm, a good thing for some, but not for all was all Addie thought at the moment as she took her feet nearer to the Hufflepuff table. She soon saw Fauna, the perp for all her ill morning. Not really, but it was fun to imagine as such.

"By Jove, don't you know how to keep it down a bit when you get up, dragon lady?" she teased lightly as she smiled to Fauna and then looked to Michael. "Hullo," was all she could muster for him, sadly, as she was soon looking up at the ceiling as well. "Has Aeolus come in this morning? He's been rather timid lately. I hope Alfie hasn't hurt him."

Michael was still looking up at the cieling when Fauna walked over to him.  He had been drawn in by the odd shapes in the clouds.  There was a dragon, a car, and one that almost looked like the Headmaster's profile.

“The sky’s a bit cloudy today. It’s kinda fun to cloud watch though,”

Ya, I was just noticing that, does that look like the Headmaster to you, he pointed up at the cloud that he thought looked kind of like the Headmasters profile and chuckled to himself.

"I don't think i've cloud watched since I was a very little"

"Did the paper arrive yet"

"Not yet, I was just looking to see if the Owl's were on their way in, expecting a package"

"Hullo,"

Michael looked over at the girl, she was wearing an odd hat.... actually they both were not that he had looked closer.  He had just slipped on a plain hoodie, T shirt and jeans, with the usual under clothing, at least he had bothered to smooth his hair down so it wasn't unruly, he was getting due for a haircut.

"Adelia right" he said to the girl standing next to Fauna

She blushed when he had said her name and it seemed she was in a fantasy reality. It always seemed to be that way when a boy spoke to her - after all, she was single which caused Addie to constantly to act weird when they said something. The real world crashed back when she realized that Michael was waiting for her to answer. Adelia immediately cleared her throat and tugged the beret as she looked to Michael as though he'd speak again.

"Sorry," she mumbled, chuckling as her cheeks tinged a pinkish hue before continuing to speak. "Yeah, it's Adelia, but Addie works too." They had been at Hogwarts for the same amount of years - heck, Alfie was in the same house as Michael! Oiy. What a bunch of complications this day was starting to show. The boy had said he saw a likeness to Greyfriar, so Addie tilted her head backwards to look and see if she could find him.

Sure enough, the grizzly teddy bear's (Addie was for certain the Headmaster was a softie somewhere down inside) face was there. A giggle escaped her lips as her finger pointed him out. "Yup, there he is! Coo, who'd thunk it?" Looking back down to Michael, the grin showed up soon enough. "You have my brother in your house. Alfred Delacroix, but he hates being called Alfred so you may know him better as Alfie." Or the Little Terror, she thought for only a moment.

Fauna’s face split into a grin when Adelia popped up next to her, and she shrugged guiltily about the noise she’d made earlier. It hadn’t been her fault that two heavy textbooks had toppled out of her bag and onto the floor. If she had just remembered to zipper it…

Fauna patted her backpack as if to reassure herself it still rested on her shoulder, and then turned her attention back to Michael. Her eyes widened when he told her he hadn’t watched clouds since he was little.

“Really?” She sat down next to him, her tone incredulous. “That’s just… oh, that’s sad.”

Fauna looked up at Adelia in surprise when she suddenly became shy. She glanced between Adelia and Michael and wondered, a small smile on her lips. Far on the other side of the table she spotted Alfie and gave him a cheery wave, but he didn’t seem to see her. The first year sitting beside him went red in the face though.

Finally she heard the sound of hoots fill the Great Hall and looked up. “Paper’s here!” She announced happily, catching it in the air and giving the owl a coin. “Oh, and there’s Aeolus,” she nudged Adelia.

Fauna opened up the newspaper and the smell of parchment and ink filled her nose. The headline on the first page grabbed her attention: Bad Augury Bodes Darkly for Remembering Day. She started reading the article at once, as quickly as she could, though it took her much longer than the average person.

When she finished she set the paper down and glanced up at the clouds again. The canine form she thought she’d seen earlier was gone. Fauna bit her lip and stared into space, clearly troubled.

Michael looked down for the clouds when he heard an incredulous

"Really"

"Ya, I used to do that quite a bit with my mom when I was little, but, well my parent's are busy people, Muggles you know"

He looked over at Adelia now noticing a pinkish hue to her cheeks.  "The pink really brings out her eyes" he thought to himself, "I wonder why she is blushing though"

"Sorry, it's Adelia but Addie works to"

"Addie it is than"

Michael started to say what he could call her when he realized that no one really called him anything other than Michael

"You have my brother in your house. Alfred Delacroix, but he hates being called Alfred so you may know him better as Alfie."

"Oh yes, I know Alfie, um..." Michael didn't want to say that the reason he knew Alfie was because the kid had successfully ruined 3 of Michaels Essay's over the course of the last year.  "He's a very.. energetic, kid, we're glad to have him." 

That last part was true, the kid did seem to be a true Gryffendor, but he was very energetic

Michael looked back up when the owls came in and took his own copy of the prophet fron an owl and placed some coins in the little purse tied to the owl's leg.  He didn't open it right away as he was still expecting another owl but by the time the last of owl's had entered he didn't see any coming in his direction.  He couldn't help but wonder what his mother was sending him, he hoped that what ever it was she didn't have any trouble getting into Diagon Ally, she would need to get an owl there to send it to him."

Sighing a little he opened up the paper and scanned over the headlines.

The trio's conversation continued onward, especially with Michael mentioning her brother. Addie could only imagine what terrible things that the urchin had done and that caused enough curiosity from her to speak up about it. "If he's being a prat, which won't surprise me one bit, jinx him. You have my permission, just don't tell anyone," Addie commented with a grin plastered onto her face suddenly.

She was all prepared to continue talking to him when the hooting of the owls caught Adelia's attention. “Oh, and there’s Aeolus...” came from Fauna's lips and she soon extended her right arm for the pygmy owl to land. "Hello there, love," she said, stroking his plumage, finding comfort in her owl. No paper, no problem, but at least there was a letter from her parents. The uneasy feeling reentered her stomach as she knew the secret still gnawing within her.

Adelia quickly diverted her attention back to Michael. "I take it that everything is good back home and such?" she said for a moment as her eyes looked at Fauna reading the Prophet. Her eyes quickly glanced all over the front article about Remembering Day and simply blinked about it. The feelings arose once more as she watched her sister sibling (unbeknown to both Alfie and Fauna) look to the clouds on the ceiling.

"Is everything all right, Faun?" she mumbled, hoping she wasn't in too much distress, forgetting her own problems for the time being.


Aeolus

Absorbed in the paper, Fauna wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation around her until Adelia asked her if everything was all right.

“It’s this article,” She pointed to the headline and handed the paper to Adelia. “I mean… there might be nothing to it, but it kinda makes you wonder.” Fauna rested her elbows on the table and put her chin in her hands, not bothering to eat any breakfast yet. She tilted her head towards Michael and noticed he was reading his own copy of the Prophet.

Fauna remembered some of the lectures she’d listened to during Divination, about bad omens. Their professor did mention that like any other predictions, ill signs did not necessarily mean that you would keel over or be sent to the hospital wing in the next week. Many factors could change since the time of the prediction and the event it was supposed to foretell, so unless it was a prophecy, there was no real reason to panic.

She sighed and stared into the large platter of eggs across from her. All the Grim sightings and astronomy studies seemed to point to Remembering Day, however. The last thing they needed was for something sinister to occur during a very emotional time for a lot of people.

“I hope nothing bad happens on Remembering Day,” she mumbled miserably into her hands, already worrying about it.

Fauna refrained from mentioning the curious form she’d seen in the clouds just moments ago. It wasn’t a real sky, anyway, just an enchanted ceiling, so there was no point in worrying them.

“Michael…” She stared at him hopefully. “Do you think Grims mean anything?” Perhaps she needed a different perspective, or maybe he had a logical explanation for the sightings that had occurred. Fauna did believe in most of her Divination lessons, but sometimes she wondered if it was so easy to trust just because the lessons themselves came easily to her.

"I take it that everything is good back home and such?"

"I've been expecthing some post from my mom"  Michael put on a smile.  "I'm sure that everything is fine though"

Michael picked up the paper again and started reading the main article, about Remembering Day.

Michael must have been reading the same article that Fauna had just finished reading as he heard her say.

"I  hope nothing bad happens on Remembering Day

Michael didn't answer her as he was finishing up the article himself.

“Michael…” She stared at him hopefully. “Do you think Grims mean anything?”

Michael thought for a second on what exactly he did thing about them.

"Hmm, i'm not sure I would be the person to ask, I dropped Divination a few weeks into it, I didn't care for the subject much.  But as far as Grims go, I think they only mean somthing if you think that they do.  For instance if you see a Grim and believe in them, you'll start looking for somthing bad to happen, and generally you'll find somthing bad.  Do you follow what I'm saying?"

Addie was quick to take a seat next to Fauna, listening to her and Michael talk about Grims. She never had found herself one big on Divination, but it wasn't to say that she didn't believe in it. Addie was at times rather superstitious about certain things (such as making sure to eat certain foods for good luck at the beginning of the year) but then again, she didn't let it get to her too much.

Talks about grims were something though she didn't care for since her grandfather, Maurice, mentioned that he and his brother had seen (or had thought they had). Nothing came of it, mon chéri, so don't worry your little head off had been his response, assuring her that if one instilled fear about being overly superstitious then they'd cause themselves more distress than what was really needed.

Her hand went for the items around her, keeping sure to watch for the potatoes, among other things. Spreading pear preserves over a hot crumpet, Adelia bit down it, yelping for a second. Swallowing, she giggled for only a brief moment. "Sorry, it was hot," she commented before adding,  "Go ahead and continue...I'm listening."

It was obvious though her ears were listening while her eyes looked over to find her brother staring back at her with his tongue sticking out at her. Oh how she wished she could jinx him and get into no trouble. Alas, she wasn't seventeen - at least not yet.

Fauna nodded slowly. “Yeah, I see what you’re saying.” Michael had a point, and he’d explained it in a nice, reassuring way. She wished she had the ability to push away her worries and stop expecting the worst to happen everywhere she went. Her eyes scanned the article again. “It’s just strange how so many reports are coming in now.”

Adelia yelped and Fauna looked up, startled. She eyed the crumpet and her stomach growled. Breakfast sounded like a good idea, and perhaps she’d feel better with some food in her.

Scooping some eggs onto her plate, she glanced towards Alfie again to see him sticking his tongue out at his sister. Fauna giggled and made a very 'mature' face at him.

“I don’t think he likes us stealing all the food from his table,” she said, not letting that deter her from picking up a few pieces of bacon. “But this is the only chance I get to eat bacon without Ollie fighting me for it.”

Fauna glanced at the Hufflepuff table and saw, indeed, that the platter of bacon was nearly empty. She ignored the article about Grims for now and flipped to one of her favorite parts of the paper- the horoscope section.

“Pisces,” she read out loud. “Expect the unexpected today, but don’t count on getting any sleep.”

She raised her eyebrows, hoping her roommates wouldn’t keep her up late. Fauna found the section for Taurus and gave it to Adelia to read.

“Her birthday’s coming up soon, you know,” she told Michael with a grin.

Michael looked down the table and saw Adelia's brother making faces at her.  He smiled to himself and took a quick glance around the immediate area to see if any prefects or professor's were nearby.  Not seeing any he drew his wand out of the pocket in the front of the hoodie that he was wearing.  He aimed the want at the boy and shot a freezing charm at him using a silent incantation.  He winced slightly when it hit the gap between him and the boy sitting next to him, the boy was quite a distance down the table so he supposed he was lucky he hadn't actually hit anybody else.  He wasn't sure sure why he had done it at all though.  He put the wand back in his pocket and left his hand on the bench, he didn't want to draw any attention, he would casually place it back on the table when he reached for somthing.  Which he did when Fauna started knicking some bacon off the platter in front of him, he decided to take that moment to refill his goblet with pumpkin juice.

“Her birthday’s coming up soon, you know,”

"Hmmm.. he said casually, who's..." He knew that she ment Adelia though.

"umm.. When." 

The paper was handed into her hands and she began to look over everyone's horoscope while looking back to Alfie only to see her brother frozen in spot, tongue dangling. The giggling fit soon began, causing her to be unable to speak much less hold it back which eventually caused a snort to erupt from her nose. That caused in return a deep blush to the face and the newspaper to cover over her as she calmed down and tried to get the embarrassment to depart.

"Sorry, you guys," she said, putting the paper down to recite her horoscope, "mine said 'Someone close to you seems to be trying to provoke you to madness -- but it's just a bit of a difference of opinion. Their weirdness isn't really working for you, but you don't have to deal with it for long.' Madness, though? Hm. That would be you, Faun, or Alfie, but I'll choose  you and that piece of bacon." Snatching it, Addie stuck it in her mouth and began munching on it without thinking of possible repercussions that could arise.

“Her birthday’s coming up soon, you know”

Blinking, Addie soon was grabbing her goblet to hide behind that. Too much attention to herself right now. A little too much, she thought, but soon realized it wasn't all too bad and that she was being childish about it. The goblet clunked onto the table as she listened to Michael ask when. "It's in May." A brief pause and a grin appeared. "The day that Senor Patillas was birthed and that's your answer. As for your horoscope, Faun, you don't have worry about me. I wouldn't make you restless," Addie joked as she  returned to her meal, waiting for the events of the day to play out.

“Provoke you to madness, huh.” Fauna stared down the table at Alfie and his friend, who kept poking at his face and trying to unfreeze it. She giggled. “I think it’s the other way around.”

She took a bite of eggs and glanced down at the front of the paper again. “Is it really Sunday?” Fauna mumbled in confusion. “Crap! I thought it was Monday. I brought all my books and everything.” She gave Adelia a funny look, one that was slightly embarrassed but also amused. No wonder so many of her housemates were sleeping in.

Fauna ate in silence for a bit, grateful for the extra day to complete her homework. With any luck she’d find a good seat in the library since she was awake earlier than most students. In May the castle would be crammed and bustling with the various Remembering Day activities, which lasted for a week, and it was the biggest anniversary yet. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“Do you guys have family visiting for Remembering Day?” she wondered out loud, thinking she could latch onto Emma Foley if she visited, or Adelia’s family. Strangely, she’d never met Adelia’s parents. Fauna had always been too shy to invite herself over, and yet… it was curious. She shook her head and focused her attention back on Michael and Adelia.