Entering The Owlery

[Haycee Marie Mandrake]

Once again, Haycee lead the small group through the halls of Magical Horizons, this time on their way to the Owlery. The Owlery was a place Haycee had been only once before - she had sent a letter to her friend back home telling her of how she was doing at Magical Horizons so far. She hadn't sent a single letter to her family, and had recieved just as many letters from them. She turned a corner with her new friends still behind her, and finally reached the door to the Owlery. "May I present to you - the Owlery." Haycee announced as she opened the Owlery door and let the rest of the group in. "This is where you can send and recieve letters - if you have anybody to send letters to."

[Cadderly]

"Whoa." Cadderly exclaimed as he stepped past Haycee and into a conflagaration of feathers and bird droppings. "There are so many of them."

He stared upwards at the many perches, each holding their own occupant. Round, shiny eyes gazed solemnly back at him, and a few hooted at him, as if saying hello, and would he please try to keep it down?

Cadderly spotted a care worn desk, looking rather put upon by its frosting of bird droppings. He walked over, and, thankful that he was wearing gloves, opened it. Sheets of parchment, insta-quills, and assorted owl treats met him, all smelling rather musty, but there wasn't any mold to be seen. Cadderly pulled out a sheet of paper, a quill, and stuffed a few owl treats into his pocket.

"Haycee, I'll need your full name, if you don't mind. My Mom is going to have to send a letter to your parents, or something." He said, returning to the group. "Make everything legal, you know?"

[Haycee Marie Mandrake]

Haycee frowned at the thought of them sending a letter to her parents. What will they think? Isn't there some way we could do this without even letting her parents know? Haycee thought for a moment, trying to see a way out of it. Her fear was that if her parents were notified, they might not agree with it and even try to somehow take her back against her will. This was becoming a bit more dangerous than Haycee thought it would be. "Cadderly, I'm starting to think this isn't such a good idea. I mean, what if my parents don't go for it? What if they get mad enough to pull me out of Magical Horizons?" They could do that too - take her away from Magical Horizons and then she'd be worse off then when she started! Haycee looked at Cadderly for help.

[Andy]

Andy turned to Haycee. "Haycee, what are you going to gain if you never try? I mean, seriously, now." Andy found a spot on the wooden floor that seemed to be lacking in bird droppings and set her books down there. Reaching into her satchel, Andy pulled out two quills, two rolls of parchment, and a bottle of ebony black ink. "Here," she said, extending a roll of parchment and a quill to Haycee and removing the top of the ink. "You write your parents. Be kind, but firm. Don't ask them their permission; simply state where you're going. Also, see if you can figure out some way to make it sound like this arrangement will benefit them somehow.

"I'll write my Aunt Elaine. She works for the Ministry of Magic in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. She's had a lot of experience with Muggles. I'll ask her to mail this to your parents via the Muggle postal system. Just write your parents' address here," said Andy, extending a small scrap of paper. "I expect your parents aren't used to Owl Post?"

(OOC: Cadderly, I love your new avi. ;D)

[Haycee Marie Mandrake]

Haycee laughed. "Oh no, of course not - if they saw an owl coming through their window, they'd probably try to shut the window or shoo it away and not even notice if it had a letter or not." Haycee thought about what Andy had said for a moment. She did have a point - if she didn't try, how was she to ever know if it would've worked out or not? "OK." Haycee took the parchment and quill and thought for a moment. How should she word this? She needed to be creative and like Andy said, convince them that they would benefit from the arrangement as well. Haycee began to write, but couldn't get past 'Dear Mom and Dad'. Does that sound too nice? Haycee wondered. "Oh, and here's the address." Haycee wrote her address on a spare piece of parchment and handed it to Andy so she could write to her Aunt Elaine.

[Cadderly]

"Hey, that's great, Andy!" Cadderly said, beaming at the Slytherin girl. "And don't you worry, Haycee. If your parents take you out of Magic Horizon, I'll- I'll..."

Cadderly had to pause to think of something magnificent enough.
"I'll fly over on one of my Father's broomsticks, invade the house, bat-bogey hex the heck outta both of your parents, and whisk you off to my house!" He actively pantomimed this through the room, somehow managing to avoid the piles of bird droppings.

Having finished, he threw himself down upon a clear section of the floor, and began his own letter. "That said, it'll probably be easier to do it this way. My Mom has some connections of her own in the Ministry, she'll be able to contact someone who can handle a muggle to wizard family adoption. Now, what's your name, Haycee?"
Cadderly smiled over at her, awaiting her answer.

((ooc: Thanks, Andy! Made it myself!))

[Andy]

Andy laughed at Cadderly's plan of action to insure that Haycee could stay in MH. Referring to the second half of Cadderly's plan, Andy said, "You know Haycce, that does make more sense. Cadderly's mother helping with the adoption, I mean, not the part about invading your house and hexing your family, no matter how tempting it may sound," Andy continued with a smile. "If you still want my Aunt Elaine to forward your letter to your parents though, I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

[Haycee Marie Mandrake]

Haycee laughed at Cadderly's plans for his parents if they didn't co-operate. "Well, Cadderly, you're certainly a true Gryffindor. You'd have to be pretty brave to do all that." Haycee stopped for a moment at looked at her friends. They barely know me and they're willing to do all this for me. It was very touching - she never in her life known anyone who was so willing to help her. Haycee smiled and then sighed. "Ah yes, my name. Well, for now I'm Haycee McMahon, but hopefully not for much longer!" Haycee liked the thought of getting rid of her last name and being adopted - she could have a new life and wouldn't have to be a McMahon anymore. It seemed her future was now full of hope and endless possibilities. "And thank you, Andy, yeah I think I would feel better if your Aunt Elaine forwarded the letter." Haycee put her quill down for a moment and took a moment to smile at them both. "Thank you so much for doing this - both of you." Haycee said, grateful for all of their help.

[Cadderly]

"My pleasure!" Cadderly replied, grinning like the Cheshire cat at Haycee for a second before continuing his letter. After a few moments, he stuck the end of the quill in his mouth, and held the almost finished letter up, re-reading it. He nodded in a approval, and put the paper down to add a few last sentences.

You always told me that we should do our best to help those in need, and I believe this is the best way to help her, Mother. I hope you understand.
Love, Cadderly

P.S. I think I left my dragon-skin gloves at home. Could you please send them over with the returning owl?

Cadderly blew on the parchment to get the ink to dry, then rolled it up. He heaved himself to his feet with the bonelessness of all young boys, and walked over to a distinguished looking screech owl.
The owl regarded him for a minute, then stuck out a leg. Cadderly tied it on firmly, but not too tightly, then gave the owl the treats he'd taken from the desk.

"Take that to 845 Trefflewhiff Avenue in the countryside, please." he asked politely. The owl withdrew its leg, and blinked at him. It reached around to straighten a few feathers, and, with a flurry of soft-edged wings, was off. Cadderly turned to the girls.

"Well, that's done. All we need to do now, is to wait for the return owl." he said, rather smugly. "I don't think you'll ever have to worry about your parents again."
Cadderly felt glad that he'd managed to do something to help Haycee.

[Haycee Marie Mandrake]

Haycee watched as the owl flew away. Her fate was now sealed. Everything was now in place; it was just a waiting game now. "So, what is your house like, Cadderly?" Haycee asked curiously.

[Cadderly]

Cadderly was happy to give a bit of a description. He thought his house was fascinating.
"Well, it isn't as big as Magic Horizon, obviously. It's probably about the size of the Entrance Hall ten times over. Quite a bit of it's underground actually as it used to belong to vampires. My great-great-great-grandfather on my Father's side chased them all out, and moved his own family to live there. Above ground, there are about two floors, and that's where we all have our rooms, the kitchen, dining room, and lounge. Below ground, there are about three floors. The very bottom floor is hard to get to. It used to be where the vampires would spend the day. Now, it's the family mausoleum." Cadderly paused, and held up his hands to reassure her. "Don't worry, you don't need to see that part if you don't want to. There're two floors above that are really big, and really cool. There full of nooks and crannies, and rooms stuffed with ancient junk. We still sometimes find a room that no one's been in since the Vampires were chased out. Usually there's nothing really interesting in them, but sometimes we find treasure!"

Cadderly leaned back against a vacant wall, remembering one such time. But he soon continued in his description. "There's a huge room on the second to lowest floor that my great-great-grandfather turned into a ballroom. There aren't any windows with it being underground, but my great-great-grandfather was really good at illusions, and he put a permanent charm on sections of the wall, so they looked like windows. The things you see in them vary, and it's sometimes fun to dance in a room that look like its floating in outer space. That's one I'll be sure to show you, Haycee. Besides that, we store a bunch of stuff down there, there are so many rooms. Outside, we have the Stables, my great-grandfather built that himself. He really liked magical creatures, and Hippogriffs were his favorite. He bred, raised, and sold them. Horsefeathers and Quillton are the last of them, though my Uncle says he'll give me my own when I'm of age. He continued the Hippogriff business when my great-grandfather died, but he moved it to an unplottable ranch. He'll probably offer to give you one too, once you're part of the family! There's a pond on the Grounds, and it's a great place to swim. I'd stay out of the Garden though, the Jarvey's have pretty much taken that over."
Cadderly stopped talking to see if Haycee had understood all of that.

[Tori]

"Wow," Tori said speaking for the first since they left the library. "Man that's a big house. Magical Horizons is my home." Tori said still taking in the information. Then all of a sudden owl droppings hit her shoe. As Tori looked up it was her owl. Fireflies. But Tori quikly turned her head to Haycee waiting for her to say something.


(OOC>< I am really sorry I have been Awol the last few days. My comp broke down. It was so stupid. But my dad fixed it. So I'm back.><

[Andy]

"Wow, that's awesome," Andy said at the end of Cadderly's description. A smile crossed her face when she heard Tori's last comment. It seemed to her that the usual cheerful tone was coming back in Tori's voice. "I'd definitely classify MH as my home, too. I'd stay here twelve months out of the year if I could, but, anyway, are you sure about this, Haycee. Not to rain on your parade or anything, but this is a big change, and you can't just change your mind if you, for some reason, not saying that you won't, don't want to stay with Cadderly and his family anymore," Andy said with genuine concern.

(OOC: Oh, well. It's all good. You're back now.)

[Haycee Marie Mandrake]

Haycee listented intently as Cadderly described his home. As big as the Entrance Hall ten times over? Used to belong to vampires? The family mausoleum? It was very clear that this was going to be very different from anything Haycee had ever experienced before. When Cadderly finally finished his description, Haycee was at a loss for words and unsure of how to respond. She let Tori and Andy speak first. She listened to Andy's concerns and was again struck with fear - still afraid of what her parents reactions would be, but now her bigger fear was how she was going to adjust to her new home! "Cadderly..." Haycee said slowly. "I'm muggle-born and until I came here to Magical Horizons, the muggle world was all I knew. It just seems like...a lot to be thrown into."

[Tori]

"I'm on your side Haycee. But think about it. The muggl-world was all you knew," Tori said slowly. "It was all I knew too. One big jump was to come here. Now you don't have to stay here for the holidays. Or be afraid of your parents." Tori thought before saying what she was about to say. "I don't have parents to go home with on the holidays. You just don't want too. But now you can come home to people who will soon love you. If yout and Cadderly's parents say it is ok of course."