'Dear Mom:', Jesse wrote thoughtfully, whispering each word as he wrote it on the piece of parchment. Dotting the colon, the boy turned his head, checking for any other students that happened to be up here. Whatever happened, Jesse did not want to get caught writing to his mom. True, she'd forced him to, but he wasn't about to admit that to anyone, especially if they asked. Satisfied that he was alone, Jesse turned back to the parchment and continued to write, slowly filling up the page with his untidy scrawl. He read the partially-finished letter over several times: the first, to make sure all of the information contained within was accurate. Second, to make sure that he could say all that needed to be said. Third, to make sure all of the language in the letter was appropriate for his mother. Of course, if any other student had even caught him thinking that, Jesse wouldn't hear the end of it for weeks. Sighing, he pushed the parchment away from him and looked out one of the openings in the Owlery.

The sun's rays were just beginning to tint the horizon with pink - this was one of the many reasons that Jesse had woken up so early. Of course, he also hadn't wanted anyone else to be there while he was writing to Mom, but the Gryffindor always had kept a love for the early morning. Looking up into the rafters, he noticed that all of the owls were either still out hunting or asleep. This gave the situation an eerie silence that made the sunrise even more enjoyable. Jesse looked over the grounds, not seeing one moving thing. The Whomping Willow sat dormant on its area in the grounds, the giant squid was nowhere to be seen, and even the birds were respecting the awing power of the early morning. A crisp cool wind swept into the open tower, ruffling Jesse's hair, as well as many of the owls' feathers. However, they all remained sleeping, preserving the magical moment. 'I really do have to get back to my letter, though.' Emitting a soft noise that was halfway between a sigh and a groan, the eleven-year-old boy pulled the letter back, hunching over as he continued to write. Aside from protecting his private writing, Jesse's position in the Owlery was very close to ideal. He was able to see the entrance to this part of the tower, as well as out onto the grounds. He was covered.

Now that the letter was all but complete, Jesse stood up, leaving his parchment pinned down under the ink bottle. Regretfully, he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, breaking the silence. This wasn't enough to wake his owl, so the boy stepped up, standing on his toes to playfully jostle the tawny bird. She opened and closed her beak several times, then gave him a reproachful look for waking her up so early. "Sorry, I had to." Jesse apologized, gesturing to the sunny opening in the tower where his letter lay. He gave the owl a treat, which seemed to cheer her up considerably, and walked over to the letter once more. Glad that the letter was almost over, he looked up across the grounds one last time, and signed the parchment with a flourish. Still hunching over the wet ink, he read it over once more when the sound of footsteps reached his ear. Then Jesse saw a head emerge from the entrance, and he turned around, slightly stunned that anyone would be in here this early. The boy made a strange sight indeed - a little tired but energetic, had only thrown his robes on over old clothes that he slept in, and had an owl nibbling his ear. Jesse made a point of keeping his back turned to the letter, staying between it and the newcomer. Whoever this person was, they weren't going to find out.

Jesse watched the girl slowly walked towards the rafters, talking to her owl. She looked rather tired, as he felt, but he quickly rubbed this feeling out of his eyes as she approached. It didn't look as though she'd seen him yet, but it was only a matter of time. He didn't think that he could safely send off the letter that he'd written without her questioning what he had written in it. Instead, he remained in the same position that he currently occupied, with a owl perched on his shoulder and robes only thrown over his dirty clothes. However, she looked rather odd herself - wearing pajamas and fuzzy slippers - he couldn't be embarrassed, but was nevertheless. Looking at her once more, he noticed she seemed to have noticed him. As he'd expected, she was a little embarrassed as well, so this took some of the spotlight of of him. He glanced quickly from her bedraggled appearance to the letter in her hand, and immediately put two and two together - she was doing the same thing as him, though if for the same reasons Jesse was unsure.

Raising his eyebrows with a smile at her, he dismissed the thought of laughing immediately. That would be mean, and besides, it wasn't like she couldn't say anything about him either. Instead he just continued to smile. Meanwhile, he busied himself tying the letter to the leg of the owl, but didn't stop it biting on his ear - the pain was waking him up. When a particularly hard bite startled him a little, the Gryffindor boy gave the owl a little shove and watched him fly out the window, dropping several feet before getting wings under and flying off towards the address on the letter. Turning back towards the girl, he suddenly recognized her. She was Eliza, from his Herbology class. She looked rather different in a different light, because it'd been a lot different in the Herbology greenhouses.

"Oh.  Erm...hi?" Jesse nodded at her and smiled, shaking off the awkwardness. "Hi? Hi." He grinned at her again. "I was sure I'd be all alone this early in the morning..." Jesse nodded again. He'd had the same thought himself, and he confessed this thought now. "Yeah, me too." Gesturing to the letter in her hand, he decided to make his business public. "That for your folks?"

Looking at her one more time, Jesse again successfully suppressed even the urge to laugh. True, she was in her pajamas in front of a boy her age, but this was probably awkward enough for her without him saying anything. So, instead, they just carried on the conversation. Surprisingly, she didn't seem embarrassed about the fact that she was writing to her folks; in fact, far from it. She just seemed to accept that they wanted her to write, so she would. Jesse smiled, noticing for the first time that she also had a robe on. At least she could look half respectable if she tied it. And people managed to ignore the fuzzy slippers. Recognition seemed to burst into her mind as well, probably recognizing him when they'd informally met in Herbology. Although, Jesse thought, she knew his name but he had no clue what to call her. Nevertheless, he ignored this, deciding to put away the introductions for when they could both take each other seriously. Jesse studied her face, puzzled by her appearance. She reminded him, in a nostalgic sort of way, of his little sister. They didn't look particularly alike, but the Gryffindor boy supposed that his feeling of loneliness and her innocent appearance made him think of his favorite person in the world - Anna. Sighing slightly, he looked up again as she broke the morning silence.

"Oh.  Yeah." She said, glancing at her letter. So, after all, she was a little embarrassed about writing to them. However, if the color of her cheeks changed in the slightest, Jesse wouldn't know; the sun had finally bloomed above the Forbidden Forest, heralding the new day. A burst of warmth washed across his back, although soothingly accompanied by a cool wind. This wind, although it made Jesse wrap his arms around himself, shuddering slightly and bending over a little, refreshed him. Autumn winds did that to a person. Turning back, he watched the girl silently make her way to an open window and release the owl towards it's destination. He quietly wondered why she hadn't come over here - it was probably the closest window - but he remembered the proverb, "Each to his own", and recited it in his head to clear the uncomfortable feeling. "I was supposed to send it last night but I forgot.  My parents would go nuts if they didn't get a letter within five hours of my scheduled time." He matched her eye roll, shrugging slightly. Then he nodded once, adding "Yep. My parents would too." He then augmented this with a reasonable imitation with his mother at her worst: "If you don't write to me every day for the rest of your life..." Jesse's mockery trailed off, ending in a slow chuckle and a smile.

"Yours too?" She gestured in the direction of the owl that he'd sent off moments ago. Waiting a moment for the question to sink in, Jesse sighed softly and nodded. "Yeah." It was rather funny. He'd thought that, because of the place he was in, writing to his family wouldn't have been accepted. That, when someone entered the Owlery, he'd be caught for sure. Instead, he'd met someone with exactly the same motives, and here he was admitting to her what he'd done. 'Though, if you put it like that,' thought Jesse, 'you make it sound like a murder mystery.' Smiling again, he shook his head with the wonder of it all.

This girl was, well, interesting. Jesse didn't like thinking of all girls that way, but it always seemed to turn out so. She was difficult, just as Charmaine in Honeyduke's had been - not embarrassed by her dress, not embarrassed for sending a letter to her folks, not embarrassed whatsoever. Jesse smiled again, feeling the sun's increasing heat. This time, though, it was accompanied by a brisk October wind that ruffled his hair and made him wish he'd brought a sweatshirt up here. The girl laughed at Jesse's mockery of his mother, and he shrugged amiably - she had sounded quite like that the last day before Hogwarts. Yelling at him, asking if this thing was in the right place, questioning Jesse's packing skills, telling him to get good marks, attend classes, and write. So far, he'd done everything that she possibly could have asked for - what with friends, classes, and his family, he hadn't had time for mischief and adventures. Glancing back at the girl that he'd met in Herbology, he saw that her laugh had faded and that she was ready to speak. He quieted down obediently, wanting to hear her words.

"Parents can be such a pain, can't they?" Jesse nodded very seriusly, up once and down once. After a moment of silence, he cracked a smile, and began to laugh softly. "Yeah," he responded, waiting a second before going on. "My mum, honestly..." His voice trailed off, as she probably wouldn't want to hear what he had to say about his mum. Smiling again, he waited for another response. Thankfully, as he was having a time of containing his laughter, she spoke again: "Well... I suppose I should get back to the common room before anyone else sees me like this." Nodding and again struggling to not laugh, Jesse thought of offering to go with her, but rolled his eyes at himself, puzzled that he'd even thought of that. What would he look like if seen walking down to the Gryffindor Common Room with a girl in fuzzy pink pajamas and bunny slippers. He didn't even want to think about it, so instead he looked back at the girl, remembering that he was in his own house.

However, her next words mortified his insides. "Would you like to walk with me?  Or do you have something else to do?" His guts felt like they were twisted into a knot, and he forced a smile as he mock considered her question. If she had simply asked 'Would you like to walk', then he could have just responded 'no thanks'. But that stupid moral compass of his. Lying wasn't good, but it could certainly get you out of some tight spots if used correctly. Unfortunately, Jesse seemed to be physically opposed to this untruthful tongue, and so the second part of her question forced him to accept. "Erm... Sure. Gryffindor, right?" He hoped against hope that this was a correct assumption, because it would be even more petrifying to walk all the way across the castle, or downstairs to the Slytherin Common Room. Jesse didn't know where the Hufflepuff Common Room was, but he had a feeling that would be bad too. However, it didn't look like there was a choice to the matter. He stood up, brushing collecting dust off his day-old robes. Wherever she'd go, he'd reluctantly follow. Until, of course, they got back to the Common Room. Then he was going straight back to bed.

  Sorry if it's not very good - I have a bit of a block at the moment.