{ dorcas } first meeting

[tiberiusmclaggen]

Thankfully, the weather was starting to warm up. Ever since Tye had been a little kid, he'd never quite been fond of winter-time and the snow that it brought. March meant the beginning of spring, and Tiberius McLaggen wasted no time going outside into the spring air on a Saturday morning.

The world was quiet and still as the sun rose from the lake's horizon, casting an orange glow over the Giant Squid (who was doing his morning laps). Birds chirped in the distance and Tye quietly thought about the good fortune he'd had to wake up early.

Tye made his way over to the steps of the Owlery, the morning frost crunching beneath his boots, and began to make the climb up to where his owl, Baltimore, had perched for the morning. As he reached the top, he dusted off his jacket and pushed open the creaky wooden door.

He climbed more steps until he reached the top of the Owlery, only to find that he wasn't alone. She had her back turned to him, her black hair falling past her shoulders, and Tye wondered who she was. She was a mystery from behind. He edged around and made his way over to Baltimore, hoping not to disturb the woman in his company.

The space was limited up here. Baltimore sat close to where the woman was standing, and when Tiberius reached out to his pet, he accidentally bumped into her.

"Oops,"

[/color] he said, wincing at his own clumsiness. "Sorry. Didn't mean to bump into you,"[/color] he said apologetically, hoping he hadn't caused any harm. "Are you visiting your owl, too?"[/color] he asked after a moment of silence fell between the two of them.[/blockquote][/justify][/font]

[dorcas]

Dorcas had been awake for a couple of hours. She'd gotten ready in her dorm and snuck down to the common room. She'd fallen asleep in her bed not long after dinner last night and slept straight through the night. She hadn't even heard her dorm mates come up to bed and she hadn't even pulled the curtains around her four poster, someone had done it for her by the time she'd woken, she'd find out who and thank her dorm mate. It had been a long time since Dorcas had been so exhausted that she'd just washed on her bed like that, all the late nights of doing homework were finally catching up to her, how would she ever manage if she did go for Ravenclaw quidditch tryouts?

Deciding she'd best send an owl to her parents Dorcas figured now was the perfect time. There wouldn't be anyone up and about and the Owls should be back after their nights of hunting, maybe getting ready for bed. Dorcas felt a little guilty about sending her owl off to her parents after he'd had a night out but he was an owl, he had the luxury of doing nothing for most of the year, a few trips back and forth were not a great deal in the larger scheme of things, were they? Naah.

Dorcas wrote her letter to her parents and left the Ravenclaw tower. She headed straight for the owlery and spotted her owl at once, it was hard not too when the great lump of a long-eared owl hooted and swooped down towards you only to landed upon your shoulder.

Dorcas smiled and took Beetle onto her hand before placing him on a perch. She had a very affectionate owl but his talons were a little too sharp, she thought about maybe getting them clipped but he needed them for hunting and he did a pretty good job of keeping them neat and trim. How she did not know.

"Juuuuust a sec Beet." Dorcas unravelled her letter to her parents and leant it against the wall of the narrow tower, finding a spot that wasn't completely covered in owl droppings. She added a quick note at the bottom of her letter and rolled it up again as she head the door to the owlery open up for someone else. Dorcas had not expected anyone else to be up this early let alone out in the cold, even though the mornings were certainly a lot warmer than they had been in the depths of winter.

Dorcas sealed her parchment and was about to hand it to Beetle as she got knocked into by the other person. She lost her balance slightly but regained her footing quickly, she looked to the other person as he apologised and shrugged it off, it had been nothing. "Ah, it's nothing." Dorcas smiled and took a small step back so as to let the guy reach his owl a little easier, as he spoke Dorcas just smiled and handed her letter to her owl who took off into the air.

"I probably should visit him a little more often" She said, watching her owl fly off, "but no, today is sending a letter home to mum and dad day." She said, her voice filling the silence around them but things weren't silent for long for more than one reason. The first was the soft hoot of an owl up above them somewhere, another reason was the ruffle of feathers, probably the same owl as before probably having found him or herself a comfy spot to sleep for the day and the last reason things weren't quite so quiet for Dorcas was because she could hear her heart beat in her ears. This guy looked absolutely adorable! How had she not spotted him around the castle or on the Hogwarts Express before?

"Gotta keep the parents up to date with everything or they start to worry." She said. All though those noises had only taken a second or two Dorcas could still feel her heart beating hard in her chest though why she did not know. It could have had something to do with being in close proximity to a ridiculously cute guy.

[tiberiusmclaggen]

There was a gush of air and the girl's owl took off in one big motion, heading out the window and over towards the lake. Tye grinned. "Well, if it helps at all, I should probably send more letters to my parents, but instead I just hang out with Baltimore here,"

[/color] he said, gesturing towards the owl in front of him.

Oh, god. He'd just made himself sound like an absolute loner who only hung out with his owl. "I mean, I do have other friends,"[/color] he blundered, shutting his eyes in his own awkwardness. "Not saying that you aren't good company, little guy,"[/color] Tye opened his eyes and scratched underneath Baltimore's beak. He was making an idiot of himself in front of a girl that he'd only just met. What was with him this morning?

He knew what she meant about parents being worried, though. Tiberius' parents were part of the Order, and so they were fairly familiar with the state that the Wizarding World was in. That, and combined with the headlines of Rio Connors' death, made Tye make a mental note to send a letter to his parents that afternoon.

Still petting Baltimore underneath the bird's beak, he glanced sideways at the girl standing next to him, trying to place her face and forget about the attacks that had happened the day before. She was absolutely stunning - there were no two ways about it. "I'm Tiberius, by the way,"[/color] he said after catching himself staring at her for long enough to be considered awkward. "But most people just call me Tye."[/color] Baltimore clicked his beak in annoyance, wanting Tiberius to pay him more attention.

"You're up awfully early for a Saturday morning,"[/color] he commented, returning to scratching Baltimore under the chin. "Couldn't sleep?"[/color] He wanted to talk to her, to get to know her better. After all, it was hard to find good company this early in the morning, and Tye didn't want to screw it up.[/blockquote][/justify]

[ ooc: it's awful & short. i'm so sorry. D: i hope it's enough to work with.. ][/font]

[dorcas]

Dorcas kind of thought this guy seemed like a bit of a loner. The way he spoke of spending time with his owl, it seemed like he preferred the contact of animals rather than humans, but Dorcas didn't mind, in fact she could sort of understand where he was coming from but then he mentioned that he had friends and Dorcas laughed a little. "I don't doubt that you have other friends but I think it's nice you spend time with your owl, I'm sure it's relaxing for both of you."

Dorcas enjoyed watching the owl get scratched under his beak, he was clearly enjoying the attention and Dorcas had a soft heart, she liked to see animals happy. She was so engaged in watching the little bird that she didn't notice Tye staring at her.

Dorcas looked to Tye as he spoke, introducing himself. He had a nice name, not like hers. What had her parents been thinking? Honestly, it had Dork pretty much right there at the beginning. She used to be embarrassed introducing herself so some people knew her as Cas but over the years she got used to her name, it was different and she'd never come across another Dorcas.

"I'm Dorcas. Pleasure to meet you Tye." Dorcas looked to Baltimore as he clicked at his owner, clearly the owl enjoyed attention and Tye was more than willing to oblige as he spoke to Dorcas and resumed scratching beneath the owls beak.

"Quite the opposite, I had an early night last night, exhausted after a week or ten of almost no sleep. I think I fell asleep sometime close to returning from dinner." Dorcas was quite an open sort of person and didn't mind her morning company he seemed really nice and she didn't mind talking to him as though they were already friends. She hadn't been expecting anyone out and about so Tye was a very pleasant surprise. "What about you? What brings you out and about so early in the morn?"

[tiberiusmclaggen]

If there was one thing that Tiberius was learning fast, was the fact that Dorcas always had the right thing to say. Even if she did think that he was a bit of a loner, she never led on, and made a very sweet comment about the fact that he liked to spend time with his owl. "Thanks,"

[/color] he said, colour rising to his cheeks. "He won't deliver my mail if I don't spend time with him - cheeky bugger."[/color]

Tye couldn't believe that he was blushing. Tiberius McLaggen, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, and top of his class, was blushing at what Dorcas was saying to him.

Well, this was new.

He grinned. "I get that too, sometimes,"[/color] he said, turning his attention away from Baltimore and onto Dorcas. "I mean, after a really good meal, and already being exhausted, sometimes it's just nice to curl up into bed and fall asleep."[/color] Lord knew he'd done it plenty of times before.

Baltimore, obviously fed up with Tye not paying as much attention to him as he'd originally wanted, clicked his beak and flew up into the rafters, leaving Tye alone with Dorcas (amongst a dozen or so other owls). Tye sighed. He was going to pay for that in the morning by not getting his mail delivered..

"Why am I here?"[/color] he repeated the question, raising his eyebrows and leaning up against the stone wall beside him. "Well, Spring's my favourite season,"[/color] he said simply, hoping that she didn't think that he was a complete sissy. "And the weather's finally warmed up, so,"[/color] he folded his arms and shrugged.

"We could go for a walk out on the lake or something, if you want,"[/color] Tye hoped that he was being really smooth about asking a girl he'd only met five minutes ago to spend more time with him. "I mean, it's still a bit cold outside, but for the most part the weather's really nice."[/color] Tye was babbling. Again.[/blockquote][/justify][/font]

[dorcas]

Dorcas laughed. Tye's owl sure seemed to have a lot of personality. Not delivering his mail? That was pretty funny, though Dorcas made a mental note to stay on the good side of the owl, she'd hate to think of him pecking should she ever wrong him some how, though she had no idea how she could upset an owl, it was just a passing thought that was gone pretty quickly.

Dorcas didn't know what the feeling was that she was experiencing but she was glad to hear that Tye sometimes did the same sort of thing as her, that he too sometimes fell asleep pretty early after being exhausted. It kind of made her feel a bit normal, which as a teenage girl was a somewhat important thing to feel like from time to time.

Tye was starting to seem a lot different to all the other guys that Dorcas knew. He liked Spring and spending time with his owl. He seemed like a sensitive kind of guy. Dorcas hoped she wasn't being played but Tye didn't seem like the type of guy that was into games, he seemed far kinder than that.

"A walk? Dorcas said, seeming a little surprised that a guy she'd just met wanted to go for a walk with her, her slightly suspicious mind hoped this wasn't some sort of trick, not that she minded pranks, but things just seemed to be flowing smoothly between herself and Tye that if anything other than genuine conversation were to emerge from her little trip to the owlery then she'd be pretty upset. A joke she could take but being humiliated was devastating.

"That'd be nice." She said with a soft smile and a lingering feeling of humiliation and doubt hovering in the pit of her stomach as she was sure someone was about to trick her in some way or form. Boys didn't just ask girls to go on walks, did they? Boys in her year probably didn't because they were all immature but Tye was older, he was definitely a year or two above Dorcas and more mature boys didn't play games, or so Dorcas liked to think so she pushed aside her feelings of doubt and headed for the door of the owlery, ready for her walk with tye.

[/justify][/font]