arts magical

[occluminous]

Bella has been living in the dorms for two days when the term properly starts. The buses begin arriving and discharging the students who didn't need to arrive early just in time for them to join the early attendees for lunch. Bella is sitting at a half-full table, reading her Charms textbook and prodding at one of her notebooks with the hazel wand. The vine one is still in her hair; she uses it for most things (to the extent that there is a 'most things', but she's getting a jump on her assignments) but she's giving the hazel a try for this particular charm. It's supposed to make the notebook refuse to open for anyone but her. Poke. Poke. "Claudo!"

Her notebook snaps itself shut abruptly. She opens the cover, closes it, passes it to the girl on her right and gets her to try, observes that it does not open. She puts the hazel wand back in her sleeve.

Comments

[occluminous]

"I can use tentative conclusions, too," Bella points out. "They'll at least give me something to go on even if I can't - trust my weight to them."

[nobodyelse]

He shakes his head.

[occluminous]

"Nothing you can put in words?" sighs Bella.

[nobodyelse]

He nods.

[occluminous]

"Oh well." Bella finished eating a while ago. "After lunch do you want to see our room?" she asks Tony. "I took the bottom bunk, I hope that's okay."

[sparksflying]

"Sure," says Tony.

[occluminous]

"I didn't bring any decorations or anything, or a lot of stuff besides school supplies, but I have an owl so her stuff is in there. Do you guys have familiars?"

[sparksflying]

"I've got an eagle," says Tony. "Her name's Nike."

[occluminous]

"An eagle, ooh," says Bella. "Does she do letters or is she just a pet? My owl's called Euterpe."

[sparksflying]

"She'll do letters if she feels like it."

[occluminous]

"Is that usually?"

[sparksflying]

"I haven't had her that long."

[occluminous]

"Has she ever done a letter or do you just figure she would if she were in the mood since that's what being in the mood means?" laughs Bella.

[sparksflying]

"I asked."

[occluminous]

"...Do magic eagles talk? Euterpe's pretty clever but she can't exactly answer questions."

[sparksflying]

"She doesn't use words, but she can make herself pretty well understood."

[occluminous]

"How? Maybe I need to pay closer attention to Euterpe."

[sparksflying]

"...I dunno, she just... does stuff," says Tony.

[occluminous]

"Maybe she'll show me sometime," says Bella.

[sparksflying]

Tony shrugs.

[occluminous]

"Euterpe makes musical little noises. It's why I named her that. I thought owls just hooted till I was in a shopful of them."

[nobodyelse]

"I wanted a raven," says Sherlock, "because ravens speak, but the shop was out and there hasn't been time to go back."

[occluminous]

"That's a pity they were out," says Bella. "Are you going to go back later? Can you mail-order them? I wonder how mail-ordering a mail-delivering bird would work. Maybe you borrow somebody's owl and then later you get two owls back, with a receipt on your new owl's leg. How much do ravens know how to say? Is it like parrots or are they really smart?"

[nobodyelse]

"...The way that they speak is similar to the way that parrots speak."

[occluminous]

"That's an awfully complete sentence," observes Bella. "Did I say something insensitive about parrots? Are parrots smart?"