Bird Feeding pv: Ruby Cazares

@Ruby Cazares We're right outside the stables.

The Middle Courtyard of Hogwarts was much too trimmed for Oliver’s liking. The grass was short and stubbly, and almost electric green, when all Oliver needed at the moment was to reach his hand down into a long tuft of yellow grass, brushing it the wrong way and feeling the way the fibers rubbed up against the dulled nerves beneath the rough skin of his hands. So, he made his way down towards the Stables. Not inside, not yet. He just wanted to get near to the familiar noise and smell of the creatures for now. He had a bit of seed in hand. A few robins and one large, squawking, wobbly crow had landed on the lawn to accept his offering of food. He had laid his History of Magic textbook on the stones next to him in order to focus on what he considered to be a bit more important at the moment.

The sky was violently blue, with only a few streaks of wispy clouds trailing across its flawless face. As the birds shuffled and pushed for the last of the seed Oliver threw on the ground, he lifted his gaze towards the heaven, squinting as the light hit his eyes more directly.

The sun was warm and welcome on his face. There was no difference between the sky here or there, it was one continuous thing that connected the entire earth. This thought comforted the slight ache of homesickness that had begun to creep over his heart in the past few days. He would write a letter to his parents, but he wasn’t sure whether they would be in Bedford or Siena, and he didn’t want to make a poor owl waste a trip. He wondered how the owls were trained. He had tried to lure an owl or two he had seen perched up in the trees down to the ground with a mouse or a rabbit before, but he could never entice them. In fact, as much as he adored creatures, he never found himself the type to be able to tame a wild animal with a good deed or a sweet morsel. No matter how many birds or mice he saved from cats and tried to keep in his closet, they always ran away from him. He liked to think that they knew he had the best of intentions, but they just thought it wouldn’t work out for one reason or another.

The crow who was pecking at his shoe at the moment seemed enticed though. Oliver held out his hands submissively, to prove that he had no more food for the bird. The black ruffle blinked with void-like eyes and an affronted look about him, before hopping back, clacking his beak once, and jumping away, squawking all the while.

Oliver sighed, leaning up against the wall as he watched the fluttering form flap back into the impossible blue of the afternoon.