Cerae made her way up the winding steps to the owlery, the path was now familiar enough for her to wander up it with her eyes closed. But she knew better than to do that, as that would only lead to an embarrassing accident. She was in her seventh year now, and had made the trip almost weekly every year. She smiled, almost grimly, at the thought. She was close to her family, her five brothers and her dad, and found her time spent at Hogwartts hard at times. She always missed her brothers, her father even more. You would think, after seven years, that spending time away from them would be easier, but it never was. She sighed heavily, entering the room, her own tawny owl swooping down elegantly as it recognized her. "Hey there Baby," she greeted it, her voice soft as she stroked its beak. The owl was perched on her now outstretched arm as she made her way to the window. "I've got another letter for you, you know where to go." She smiled, not wanting to let her owl go. It was strange, but she loved spending time up here in the owlery with her owl, Baby. It was the closest thing she had that was connected to her home.

AJ hurried off to the Owlery to send a letter off to Florent. He had some exciting news. His long legs skipped two steps at a time as he climbed his way up the rickety stairs. The cool air hit his lungs while he half-ran. He turned the corner into Hogwarts post office, AJ first noticed all of the Owls. Whenever he was up here in pained him not to be flying among them. His eyes scanned the room before noticing a girl. She looked familiar, but most everyone did now. He had met so many people over his seven years at the school.

"Hullo," he said. She must have not heard him come in for she seemed startled. "Don't worry, I'm not some crazy NDE supporter who is going to hex you for no reason." He smirked at his comment.

Distracted, Cerae had not heard another student enter the Owlery. She was carefully tying the letter to Baby's outstretched leg. When she was finished she picked up her owl, stoking it on the beak one last time before it flew at the window. She watched Baby disappear into the distance. It was at that point that she heard a voice. Turning around in surprise, her eyes sanned the room to find the source of the voice. It didn't take long for her eyes to fall on AJ. The surprise must have been evident in her face as he wuickly assured her that he wasn't going to be hexing her. Of course, she hadn't expected him to, but even so she found herself somewhat relieved.

"Hello," She greeted, laughing at his next words. "Well that's a relief! I'm not either. So I guess that makes us even." She grinned and realized that she recognized the fellow seventh year, although she could not place him. "I know I know you.... But I honestly can't remember your name. I'm sorry...." She added, desperately trying to place him. She was sure she'd had classes with him before, so why couldn't she remember his name?

He smiled at her, she was cute. "Andrej, or AJ. Seventh year Ravenclaw. And you? I'm terrible with names." He extended her hand for a shake.

She was one of those faces he wish he had the courage to talk to, but never had. And now that girls are the last thing on his mind, he has no trouble talking to them now. He watched the owls in the Owlery stretch their wings a bit then his eyes fell back into hers. He smiled again.

His name rang a bell. She knew she'd seen him before. They'd definitely been in classes together over the years, that was pretty much inevitable as they were both seventh years. Cerae was sure that they'd probably had a conversation a couple times before as well. She found that she was somewhat relieved to discover that he did not remember her name either.

"Cerae Browning, seventh year Gryffindor. Seems I'm terrbile with names too, so no worries." She grinned and shook his hand. Briefly, she wondered if he'd recognized her as well. She realized, with a slight pang, that after seven years she was still meeting people in her year, making friends that she should of made years ago. And now her school years were coming to an end. She pushed those thoughts out of her head, she still had a year left, and now wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

Her name was familiar, he remembered making note of it upon first meeting her a few years ago. The memories were all coming back. He smiled, thinking how nice it would be to become friends with her in his seventh year. He remembered her being smart and funny in classes.

"Excited for your final year? I know I am."

The final year was challenging at Hogwarts, NEWTs were horrible, and the pressure of what comes next drove many to loads of sleepless nights.

Cerae paused a second, some what surprised by the question. She knew she shouldn't be surprised, but she was. Perhaps it still hadn't quite sunk in yet that this was her final year. In all honesty, she'd been trying not to think about it. She wasn't sure she was ready to leave yet.

"I'm excited. But I'm also freaking out. Actually a better way to describe that is scared as h*ll. But you know, I gotta enjoy it," She laughed, shaking her head. She supposed that that as more of an answer than AJ had bargained for, but she didn't care. Her words rang true. It was going to be a fun year, she would be sure of that. But she wasn't sure that she was ready for what came after Hogwarts.

He laughed when she said she was scared as hell. He didn't think graduating from Hogwarts was a terrible thing. He was quite looking forward to it. He supposed it helped knowing he wanted to be an auror, or eventually teach Transfiguration here at Hogwarts.

"It's not too scary. NEWTs will be tough, but that's the entire school year away."

He couldn't help smile as he watched her shake her head. The way her hair fell in her face.

"Yeah, so do you have any other letters to mail off then? Or do you just enjoy hanging out in the Owlery?"

"It's not the NEWTs I'm worried about. Who cares about a stupid test?" So perhaps that was a bit of a lie. She was worried about NEWTs, but to her they were nothing compared to the fear that she felt of what would happen after Hogwarts. "Nope. I'm more worried about what I'm going to do with myself after Hogwarts. I suppose I need to be thinking about that, huh?" Cerae shrugged, deciding that she would not dwell on that right now. She had plenty of time to dwell on that later.

Laughing, she told him, "Well I actually make a habit of just hanging around here.Just kidding, I just mailed a letter to family and then I was gonna go. But conversation struck up, which I might add is a lot more interesting than wandering around trying to figure out what to do with myself."

Not worried about NEWTs? The truth was AJ wasn't really he had top marks on his OWLs and was terrific in Transfiguration, which was the only thing he cared about.

"Yeah, you could always become an Auror?" he suggested. "With the NDE uprising, and Dark Wizards tearing up the streets, I'm sure they could use all of the help they can get."

He smiled, "That's not to say you wouldn't be accepted if they didn't need help. You know?" he was tongue-tied. "I would love to be an Auror. Or really, a Hit-Wizard. Capture the most wicked darkies around."

Cerae nodded. He had a good point. She'd love to be an auror, and she thought that maybe she could be good enough for it. She was in shape, thanks to her brothers, and had a quick mind. She knew how to defend herself. It was definitely something to look into, she decided. She'd thought about it before, but she always figured that she'd never be good enough for it. It wouldn't hurt to try, would it?

"That's a good point. I would definitely love to do something like that. I've thought about it before, I just worry that I wouldn't be good enough, you know?" She couldn't believe that she was admitting all this to AJ, but that was Cerae for you.

"that would be so cool," She admitted enthusiastically. It seemed as if AJ had it all planned out. She was almost jealous that he was so certain of his future.

"Some of the professors are aurors you know? You could always talk to them."

He wanted to warn her other professors were NDE supporters as well, but kept that to himself. "So, you miss home then? That's usually the only reason send letters."

AJ had changed the subject back to what she was originally in the Owlery to do. He himself still hadn't givin his letter to Florent to an Owl yet. He walked over to one of the school ones and whispered instructions to it. Off if flew into the distance. AJ wished he could fly with him.

"Really? I didn't know that. Do you know who?" Cerae asked eagerly, she figured that by getting to talk to the professors it would really help to get her started in the right direction. She was seriously considering this auror thing now.

At the change of subject, it was obvious that Cerae sombered up a little. "Yeah. I come from a big family, and we're all really close. I miss them like crazy when I'm here," She admitted. Of course, she always found it hardest within the first few weeks of school.

Curiousity rose as Cerae watched AJ send his own letter. It was none of her business, but she was curious too. "A letter to your family as well?"

"The Defence Against, and the Potions professors." he answered her first question. He was used to referring to them by their first names with Florent.

He had a small family. Muggleborn so no others here with him. They had recently moved back to Poland. "You could say that. He's like a brother to me." He said referring to Florent.

"If you're interested in being an Auror, you might want to meet him. He's in that line of work." He smiled at her.

Cerae nodded, "thanks. I'll keep that in mind." She grinned, honestly glad that she'd run into AJ. Perhaps she would go and speak to those professors, and who knew, maybe in a year she would hold a position as an auror.

She nodded, of course she had five brothers of her own. Her own best friends, she hadn't needed to find any replacements for them. "That's cool," She stated, for once not sure what else to say in response to that.

"Really? That's awesome. You seem to have a lot of connections!" she pointed out with a laugh.

He laughed at her comment. He had been working on gaining connections, Florent was the most important one. "I suppose." He said cooly, "If you ever need to meet somebody, might as well come find me. I guess I seem to know a lot of people.

AJ smiled. "It seems like you might be an important figure in the future. I'm going to have to keep you close to me." he said, meaning to compliment her.

"So it would seem." She grinned, and laughed softly. "I'm sure, then, that I'll be looking for you at some point. So you better not forget me this time around." She was jpking around of course, but she was sure that she'd be looking for him at some point. It seemed he knew everyone, and that could really be helpful considering she really didn't know anyone.

Raising an eyebrow at his next comment, she stated," Me? Not likely." She laughed, there was no chance that she was likely to be an important figure. She realized he was trying to compliment her, and she appreciated that, but she didn't see how she would be important.

"I don't think I would forget you this time around," he told her. The previous times he had seen her was in class, no proper meeting ever took place. Now that they were in a conversation, he would remember her for quite a while.

"How could I forget you?" his smiled widened.

The Owlery was empty, aside from the birds. He felt at ease with another person for the first time in a long time. AJ had opened up to others he had met earlier in the year, but this conversation didn't seem forced to him. Not yet anyways.

Cerae grinned, honestly glad to hear that. "Good." was all she said, though still grinning. Of course she'd only ever seen him in class before, they may have greeted each other out of politeness before hand, but that was all their friendship had entailed to. At least now they were more than acquaintances and maybe even had the promise of meeting again.

Cerae's grin widened, and had she been like so many other girls, she might have blushed, but that was very unlike Cerae. "I have no idea. I mean, I'm not a very forgettable person, so really it's just impossible to forget me." She was joking of course and found herself laughing at her own words.

He was glad to see her sense of humour. Her smile was great, he couldn't help stare at it. Even in this horrible lighting her eyes glistened. AJ shook his head, snapping out of these thoughts.

"Hah, of course you're not." He shoved his hands into his robes. Fumbling around with his wand. "So..." the conversation wasn't dead, he had loads to talk about. AJ was nervous for some reason.

He couldn't help grinning.

Cerae was still grinning, well she was pretty much always grinning anyways. But even so... She looked down at her feet momentarily, before looking back at Aj. "I'm glad you agree" She said, still joking around with him. She felt the change of the tone of conversation, almost sensing AJ's nervousness, and she wondered what it was he was nervous about.

"Would like to take a walk or something? I mean, I love the owlery and all, but it gets a little stuffy, and to be honest I kind of prefer being outside to the owlery." it was just a suggestion, and she understood if AJ didn't want to go, or if he had somewhere else to go, but she realized that she was hoping that he would go with her.

A walk? Of course he wanted to go for a walk with her. "Sure," he said cooly. He turned towards the stairs.

He walked in front of her, so when he glanced back he was eye level with her. He skipped steps as he walked, slowing down to let her catch up. The air outside was cooling, but was still a perfect day.

"Where to?" he asked when they hit the bottom of the stairs. He turned and stopped on the spot, she bumped into him. He smiled as he caught her from falling.

Cerae followed him to the stairs, quite happy that he'd agreed to go on a walk with her. She was definitely quite happy to be getting out of the owlery, the room was small, and Cerae needed open space. She hated being indoors when she could avoid it.

Cerae was pretty much on AJ's heels, skipping steps as often as he did. He didn't need to slow down much to allow her to catch up. When he stopped at the bottom of the stairs, she hadn't been expecting that, and had crashed straight into. At that, she blushed, embarrassed by her own clumsiness. "Sorry!"

She said sorry with a smile. But he enjoyed catching her. "Don't make it a habit." he joked, "Next time I may just let you fall."

They walked around the grounds, she never answered where they were going. He walked next to her like he knew her for ages. Comfortable, never feeling awkward. They laughed and joked about little things. She had a nice laugh.

"So, anything interesting about yourself I should know?"

Cerae laughed, "Well in that case I'm going to have to be more careful. I'll warn you now, I fall a lot. Not on purpose. I just do stupid things and then in an act of stupidity I fall...." She shook her head, deciding that now was the best time to stop talking, certain that she was saying far too much at this point. She seemed to have a habit of rambling on.

"Interesting? Oh gosh... I dunno. I'm a pretty dull person, what can i say? I'm kinda crazy, and I live under the same roof of six other guys. That's crazy enough! But I don't know...." She shrugged, looking at him, wondering what was interesting about her. "What about you though? I'm sure there's something interesting about you..."

There wasn't much he could tell with out revealing some of his secrets.

"Well I was born in Poland. My name originally had a Z in it, but my parents dropped it when I got here. My middle name doesn't start with a J. I got AJ from the first and last letters in my first name." He felt this was the most interesting in his life.

"My paretns gave my my grandparents old house in Kennington before they moved back to Poland over the summer. Since I was already of age in the wizarding world. I was muggle born."

AJ wanted to know more about her.

"Really? You don't have an accent.... Where did the z go in your name?" She'd tried to figure that out, but hadn't been able to place it. "That's really cool though!" She was surprised that he was from Poland. She wasn't sure what was interesting about her in comparison to that.

Listening to the next part, she looked at him, somewhat surprised. "Really? They gave you a house? Awesome!" As far as Cerae knew, she wasn't getting anything, and she was fine with that. She didn't want anything. But a whole house? That was cool, and, admittedly, she was a teensy bit jealous.

"Ok, well there's nothing all that interesting about me to be honest. I'm a half blood, my mum's a witch. But she left when I was really little, so I don't remember much about her. I have five brothers, and only one of them is a wizard. And I'm the second youngest. We're all really close. Hmmm... I'm from Dublin..." At that she brought out her Irish accent just to prove it. "I love being outdoors. Having five brothers, I'm extremely competitive, and slightly crazy. I'll do anything." She grinned, "I wouldn't call that interesting, but oh well. Is there anything else you;d care to know?"

"It was spelled A N D R Z E J. My parents thought the Z would confuse people. I think the J messes people up as well. "And yeah, my grandparents had moved here when my father was young. He moved back for college and met my mum. The paid for the house over the years, so I have it for free."

He wanted to know everything about her. "No, not in particular." he lied. "Loads of brothers? So, bringing home guys must be tough?"

Cerae nodded, "Yeah that makes sense. The Z really would confuse people. The J probably does confuse people, but that makes things all the more entertaining. Confused people tend to be pretty amusing if you ask me" She looked at AJ, still grinning of course. "that's really cool. Having a house tends to be pretty helpful."

She laughed at his next statement. "Let's say, next to impossible. My brothers are extremely over protective. I've never brought anyone home before, so I can't be sure. But I think it would be interesting by all means." She rolled her eyes, having so many brothers had it's ups and downs.

He smiled. Maybe it would be a challange, gaining their respect. Of course, only if anything ever materialized out of this.

"Yeah, I can imagine." He said smiling down at her. He was almost a foot taller than her. That wasn't saying much, he was a foot taller than most.

Of course, it would be a third of a meter here in the UK. Silly American roleplayers.

"Wanna sit here?" he asked refering to a tree by the edge of the lake.

OOC: Silly American roleplayers... wow

Cerae laughed, "But besides that, I have no idea what I'd do without em. After mum left, we all got pretty close you know? And I can talk them about anything... Well almost anything." She grinned. She could pretty much go on and on about her family for hours. They were all so close, even with most of them moved out at this point. That thought left her with a little pang. After Hogwarts it was just going to be her dad and her little brother and she wasn't sure she could do that to her dad, not yet.

She looked at where AJ was pointing, desperately trying to push those thoughts out of her head. "Sure!" she said, plomping down under the tree quite happily making herself comfortable.

They sat there for a long time, just talking about nothing. But nothing felt like something to AJ. He loved to hear her talk. She had the softest of voices. So cute. Though they were never really friends, he was feeling like they had known each other for a long time.

"Oh look at that!" AJ said, watching a bird fly over the lake. It was huge. He realized it was a giant owl returning. It was flying towards them instead of the Owlery.

"I think it's your letter?" he said. A few hours had passed already, it was possible. The owl landed next to AJ, dropping a letter in his lap.

He picked it up, "Thanks. The owl made a noise and flew off again. "Hrm...that wasn't the owl I sent out. No way did it make it to London and back." He opened the letter. Shocked.

Cerae chatted with AJ, and even found herself surprised that she was enjoying her time with him. That was pretty normal considering she got on better with boys that she did with girls. But even so, she found she was slightly confused in this area. The more she talked to AJ, the more comfortable she began to feel around him, as if they were old friends or something. Not a pair who had only just run into each other that afternoon.

Cerae watched as bird flew towards them over the lake. "What is it?" She asked, It wasn't long before she recognized it as an owl. But why was it flying to them instead of the owlery.

"It can't be for me. It was flying to Dublin, and it hasn't been long enough to fly there and back. Surely not." Cerae reasoned.

Her reasoning, she found was proven right as the bird dropped the letter on AJ's lap. She looked at the shock on his face. "What's up?" She asked, concerned and worried.

He opened the letter, seeing this:

"I know what you've been doing."

He was shocked to see this. Knowing somebody knew what he was doing. More importantly where to find him.

He looked over at Cerae, scared. "It's nothing don't worry. Dublin? So wrote to your family then?" His voice was breaking.

Cerae watched his face, and immediately she knew something was wrong. She wanted to snatch the letter from his hands and read it, but she knew better than to do that. She was curious, but apprehension overrode that.

She shook her head at AJ, obviously frustrated. "Yes I did, but that's beside the point. AJ, what's wrong?" She was stubborn and wasn't going to let AJ go on this one. She wanted to make sure that he was ok, and obviously, right now he was far from it. "What was the letter about AJ?" she persisted. She was no longer curious. Instead she was worried and even scared by AJ's reaction to it.

AJ was worried, but Cerae wouldn't undeerstand. Unless he told her the truth. But could he turst her? They had already shared secrets, but this was huge. "Well," he showed her the letter, "I've been sneaking off of Hogwarts grounds and apparating back to my house in Kennington quite a bit."

Of course he didn't say how he managed this or why. "I guess I should lay low..." his voice trailed off leaving the latter part of his sentence a mumble.

"No need to worry," his smile was now a crooked slant. The wind picked up a bit. He tightened his cloak around him and laid back, pondering what this meant.

Cerae was worried. That much was obvious. She'd always been there for people, and she wasn't used to having people hide things from her. But she knew better than to push AJ, despite the burning curiousity that she felt. She could think of a thousand questions to ask, but she bit her tongue. That was admittedly hard for Cerae, she'd been nosy all her life. She had to work very hard not to butt her nose in places it wasn't welcomed.

Looking at AJ with a mix of concern and curiousity, she sighed. There had to be more to it than that. But he wasn't going to tell her, she forced herself to at least try and let it go. "Well I'll try not to worry," She told him, somewhat teasingly, amazed at her own ability to hide the questions that she wished to ask.

"How do you manage to get off Hogwarts grounds? I can't imagine that's easy..." She asked, asking one question and avoiding the ones she really wanted to ask.

AJ realized he would have to trust her with the truth. "I...erm...I am an animagus. An eagle...golden eagle actually." He bit his lip, hoping she was going to keep it a secret. "But...don't tell anybody?"

He wasn't begging, but he needed to keep it a secret. "I transfrom secretly, usually in the owlery. Fly off far enough, and apparate to my house in Kennington."

He was revealing all of his secrets to a girl. His head was spinning, his hands were sweaty. AJ looked into Cerae's eyes, his heart dropped. He was falling for this girl already.

"Erm..."

Cerae's eyes widened in surprise as AJ told her how managed to get off the schools grounds. "Wow..." She managed to say, her voice low and filled with awe. " That's so cool. How did you learn to become one?" She asked her curiousity flaring up once more. A note of seriousness became apparent in her features. "I won't tell anyone. I promise."

She looked, catching AJ's eyes. She smiled, confused and curious. There was so much more to the person that sat before her, she couldn't even begin to comprehend what he spent his time doing. She wanted to know more, but wasn't sure what questions would be ok to ask.

"Erm?" She asked in response, onviously confused. What did he mean by 'erm?'

AJ looked at her and smiled widely. He wanted to do things, but knew a kiss would be too fast too soon. "So...are you...dating anybody?"

He asked, but quickly changed the subject. "I mean, you're such a great listener." He smiled, her eyes were so nice in this light. She seemed like an amazing girl. He wanted to get to know her better. He didn't want to rush into things like he did with April in the past.