Owls on a Mission

Sawyer has been so happy at Beauxbatons and he had been having so much fun that he had forgotten his promise to Noah to write him about the place. When Teddy had returned from her first year at the magical school she refused to tell anyone about her experiences there and she did the very same thing for her second year as well. Poor Noah was going insane with curiosity. Unfortunately they all knew too well that there was a good chance the boy wouldn't get to come to the school for already five Johnson kids were passed up for having magical abilities. None the less he had promised to tell the young one about the school and he never went back on his promises so now he was writing to his little brother.

The Montagnard has never used an owl to send a message so therefore he had never been to the owlery but after just a few moments of exploring he found the tower on the grounds. Once inside he went over to a window ledge to write a letter. Taking out his ink pot and quill he started scribbling across the parchment and hoped that his brother would be able to read his wriggly handwriting. When he was about halfway through writing the letter Sawyer heard loud foot steps coming up the stairs and into the owlery. Curious the boy turned around to see who the new arrival was.

Finlay clutched the letter he planned to send to his mother in his hand as he walked up the steps to the owlery. After his run-in with Osmund he wanted to tell her everything that had happened. Not that he was a whiny brat running to mummy, he just wanted someone to talk to about the matter and he didn't have any friends at school yet. As he entered the owlery he spotted another boy about his age sitting on a window sill and writing. He hadn't expected to see anyone else there and gasped. "Um, hello. My name is Finlay." He thought that most people wouldn't be as friendly with the emotional turmoil he was experiencing, but he always tried to make friends, no matter what. "What's your name? What year are you in?" He questioned.

Sawyer looked up to see a boy about his age enter the small circular room. He seemed quite friendly in fact he even started out the conversation by quickly introducing himself and asking for the other boys name and year. Well that was really ambitious of him, in fact it was even a bit odd. He had never met anyone so eager to get to know a stranger so quickly, but it wasn't a bad thing, it made the other boy mysterious and a bit intriguing Sawyer. A small smile came to his lips as he examined the boy for a moment try to judge how best to approach this conversation. "Hey there, pleasure to meet you Finlay. The names Sawyer and I'm a second year." He answered with a small smirk, he knew he couldn't go too high with his lied year or it would be unbelievable. He continued to write his letter after that short introduction.

After a few moments though he looked back up and asked, "So what brings you out here today? I mean besides sending a letter, like is this an urgent message that needs sending out right now or it might compromise the safety of everyone at Beauxbatons?" He asked with a smirk that seemed to be a permanent thing for the young boy these days.

"I'm a first year." He smiled. As the other boy went back to his letter he stood there awkwardly. He had been hoping to make a friend besides Percy, as he was feeling terribly lonely and homesick. When Sawyer continued talking he grinned and started giggling. "Of course. I'm here on behalf of the school. Giant pixies could invade at any moment." Finlay thought that the boy was rather funny and they might become friends,which he could really use. He just hoped the drama with Osmund didn't ruin his whole year

Sawyer looked back up from his letter to talk with this stranger. He told him he was a first year which he hd already decided must be around the boys age, it also made him realize that he had lied ut his own age for no reason but so ever besides that he had felt like it at the time. But he did smile brightly when the other boy giggled at his honesty sad attempt at a joke Sawyer had thought of much better ones before but it seemed to find this boys fancy. Finlay seemed like a really nice guy so he supposed it wouldn't hurt him to be friendly besides he hadn't made ant friends this term really. "Well I guess if you are an important messenger I should tell you that I'm not really a second year, I'm really a first year. But don't let me slow you down from sending off that letter I would hate to see the palace over run by giant pixies." He answered with a smile nodding his head at an owl that had come over to see Sawyer. "Here ya go I even caught you a special owl its the fastest in whole owlery." He said cheerfully. He found himself often making jokes when they werent really needed but what is a better way to break the ice with someone new but to make jokes. That way at least they would know going in what your personality is like so they dont get surprised later and sat youve changed or something.

Finlay frowned a bit at the boy's confession. There was really no need to lie to him except to be spiteful. Considering they had just met it made him weary of the boy. He decided to shrug it off though to think about later and grinned as Sawyer went along with the joke. He smiled and clicked his tongue at the 'special' owl, stroking its feathers. He attached his letter to its leg and sent it on its way before turning back to the other boy. "So who are you writing to? Is it top secret too?" He laughed. He pushed the hair away from his eyes as his cheeks flamed at the lame joke.

Sawyer could tell that the boy was not very please with his little white lie about his grade. It wasn't like he had said it be mean to the other boy, in fact he wasn't even sure why he had said it. Surely it didn't hurt anyone that he did it and it was all set straight now anyways so all was well right? He let Finlay use the owl that was sitting next to him and watched as it flew off. He then turned around and asked Sawyer what he was writing about, using the lame joke Sawyer had used only moments before. "Oh yes this is very urgent I must tell my little brother about all of the things that happen here at Beauxbatons or he might explode into a million tiny pieces." He answered with a grin, he was actually kind of proud of himself for telling the truth and making it sound dire.

Finlay frowned at the mention of brothers. His good mood immediately vanished. Again Osmund was ruining his day, without even being there. "I wish my brother would explode into tiny pieces." He sail bitterly. "I'd be so much better off." He sighed and flopped down on a seat, scaring away the owls near him and scattering feathers. He looked down at his shoes, hoping he hadn't scared away his only chance at a friend. His hope was that he and Osmund would get along and his brother would introduce him to his older friends and help him transition to school life, but that obviously wasn't happening. This year was not turning out as planned.

Sawyer wasn't sure what to say in response to Finlay's confession that he would like to see his brother explode into a million pieces. He had on more than one occasion wished misfortune on one of his siblings so he could kind of understand what he was thinking but he was always on the other side of this. People didn't tend to try and comfort him or make him change his opinion so he had no idea what a person was so supposed to say in a situation like this. So he just resorted to what he always went with when he didn't know what to say. "Well you wouldn't want him to do that, cause then technically there would be more of him. And imagine if someone learned to make a whole person from just a piece wouldn't that just be horrible?" He said simply. When all else failed turn to making a joke.

Finlay shuddered at the mental image of a million Osmunds wandering the earth. That would truly be awful. "That's horrible. I can't stand one of him, let alone a million. Besides, I don't think anyone would want that." At this point Finlay was seriously considering returning to his room to be alone, or as alone as he could be with a roommate. He had come to school with the intent to make friends, but given the options he was rethinking it. He had always been a social person but school was quickly changing that, ironically, considering he was surrounded by new people.

Sawyer didn't know what he was supposed to do now, he never really got much experience with talking to new people especially new people that seemed so upset. He had already tried to make a joke of it and cheer him up some but that didn't seem to work out very well for he still looked upset. He just sort of stood there for awhile in silence not sure what he was to do now. He just continued to write his letter until it was finished and he sent it off in the leg of an owl. He even watched it fly away for awhile until it was out of site before he turned back around. "There's no need to have such a long face. If this brother of yours that has you so down is an older student here than its probably not even worth the trouble. Obviously I don't know the situation but I do know that when my older siblings have me to the point where I want to scream I just tell myself that they aren't worth my heart ache. Of course more often than not we work it out and its all better." He said surprisingly very serious which was odd for him. "Or you know you could call that owl back and let the giant pixies get him." Sawyer added not wanting this boy to think he was dull and boring. Why couldn't he just make new friends easily like everyone else.

Sawyer's advice was obviously well meant, but if he knew the situation he probably wouldn't believe it. Finlay doubted the situation would ever be resolved. Parts of the advice however, seemed pretty sound. He decided to stop worrying about Osmund and focus on having fun during his first year at Beauxbatons. "Thanks for the advice. Going along with it, do you want to be friends?" The question probably sounded a bit odd, but he didn't have a clue how else to phrase it. If he could just make one friend though, this year would turn out a whole lot better and he didn't want to let the opportunity pass. Lying aside, Sawyer seemed nice enough and could make him laugh, something he valued immensely and could brighten his day. Perhaps Sawyer also had more friends he could introduce Finlay to.

It looked like Sawyer's oddly serious advice did some good for the boy for he looked to be happier than before. He even got a thanks in return for his advice and then oddly followed that up by asking if Sawyer would be his friend. Well the boy had already decided that Finlay was very straight forward with the things he said so why would this be a exception. "Yeah." Is his only reply and a smile. He had finally made an official friend this year, he had other people he knew but he wasn't sure if they considered the Montagnard a friend of theirs or mearly someone they met on time. "What is your opinion of pranks and such?" He asked kind of suddenly thinking about the recent prank of sorts him and his twin brother had pulled on one of the people he wondered considered him a friend or not.

Finlay considered Sawyer's question. He himself hadn't pulled ant pranks, or been victim to one, but he had observed a few and thought they were funny. "I think they're cool, as long as they aren't happening to me." He sincerely hoped that his new friend didn't intend to pull a prank on him, as that might put a damper on the friendship. Helping pull pranks did sound fun though, and he smiled. "Did you have a specific prank in mind? Or a specific prankee?" He wondered what sort of pranks Sawyer liked to pull. He hoped it wasn't anything too mean, but still funny.

This next answer from Finlay might hold the answers as to how well this friendship would work out for a lot of Sawyer's time was spent with pranks and things very similar to them. He smiled at his answer which was probably one of the best answers to that question ever. As long as he wasn't the prankee, which until recently could have been very possible for the young boy never really thought about who he was pranking it was just whoever happened to be there at the time usually. "Well currently I don't have anything in the works cause I'm kind of trying to focus on the up coming end of the year exams but I'm sure next year I'll have a ton of new ones that I wanna pull. As for prankee's its usually just whoever is around unless you have someone in mind you wanna see pranked." He answered coolly happy to see his new friend so interesting in the idea of helping him with his pranks.

Finlay was relieved that the other boy didn't seem to want to use him for pranks, but cringed internally at the thought of exams. It wasn't that he didn't test well, the entire idea of exams just left him feeling drained, even when he knew he would do well. The thought of the approaching summer break did make him feel a lot better though, and he smiled. At the question of if he had anyone in mind to prank an idea formed in his head. "Do you remember that brother I mentioned? Maybe we could think of something for him." He really didn't want to make Osmund hate him more, but he really deserved a little surprise at this point.

Sawyer smiled in return to Finlay's suggestions of a prankee. "Ah yes this mysterious brother of yours that you've only mentioned slightly. I might need to know more about him sometime to think of a good prank for him. This summer you should send me some owls so we can talk about him and his prank." He suggested. Since mentioning the exams that he had to take in a few weeks he remembered that he was to go and study with his brother after sending the letter off. "Well it was nice to meet you but now I must be off to do some exam cramming. See ya around mate." He said with a friendly smile before putting his ink pot and quill away and leaving the tower and started off towards the palace.

"Alright. Maybe we could meet up during summer vacation too." He was overjoyed at the mention of sending owls over the summer, and even more so when Sawyer called him mate, though he was disappointed that he would now have to head off to his dorm alone. Finlay hoped the other boy would take his suggestion of getting together during the summer, as his own house was extremely boring. His mother tended to stay out most days until late at night and he had no siblings at home to keep him company. He supposed he could take up a hobby, or maybe help come up with pranks for the following year, but he really wanted company, which he clearly wouldn't be getting from his dearest brother Osmund. If Sawyer decided he didn't want to meet up over break Finlay would be doomed to another summer as boring as the rest.