When Lorelei had received her letter from Hogwarts, her mother, Ori, had been incredibly excited to shop for the items she needed for school. They’d decided to make a girls trip out of it, just the two of them (with her father’s detailed instructions on shopping in Wizard London, of course). Her dad, Nathaniel, would take her younger sisters on a day trip of their own, leaving her mother and her with some welcome alone time.
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The two of them had stumbled through the first few items on the list before hitting a rhythm and ducking in and out of nearly every store up and down Diagon Alley, crossing items off the list as they went. Finally, the two of them came to a pause outside of a shop as they looked at the very last listed item together.
Students may also bring an Owl OR a 
OR a Toad.
“I’m not really sure what the correct option is here. I’m sure you want a pet, because, well, I know you.” Ori chuckled a little as she said the last bit, looking down at her daughter. “But I don’t know what the most practical option would be.”
Lorelei had done some considering of her pet options (her mother had been right, she ABSOLUTELY wanted an animal companion during her time at Hogwarts), but hadn’t narrowed down a species yet. “I’m honestly not sure either, I was just kinda thinking we’d go into the pet store and see if a certain animal really spoke to us?” She knew her mom was just as big of an animal person as she was, and this offer would be very enticing to her.
Ori’s eyes lit up as she nodded enthusiastically, and the two of them walked together into the Magical Menagerie.
❀·❀·❀
It took a couple of aisles of methodically and carefully reading the descriptions besides each animal before a specific creature caught their eyes. Lorelei was a few steps beside her mother, examining a small frog, when a shift in Ori’s tone caught her attention.
“
Ohhhh… Lorie, look at this little one.” She picked up her pace and stood next to her mom, crouching over a little bit to look at the small owl perched in the center of its cage.
“It’s adorable!” She responded. The owl, small and fluffy with an intricate dappled pattern tracing its feathers, tipped its head towards her in a sort of acknowledgment.
Ori must have moved over to reading the information about the animal, as she began reading facts about it aloud. “It looks like this is a female Morepork owl, or… Ruru…” her voice changed with the last word, taking on a cooing quality that caused Lorelei to look up at her mom. She recognized her tone as the way she spoke Māori, and it had caught her slightly off guard.
“Wait, is her breed from Aotearoa?” She asked, using the indigenous word for her mother’s heritage land of New Zealand.
“Yes, I believe so.” Ori responded, and she looked between her daughter and the owl before continuing. “Oh, I have an excellent feeling about this, my darling.”
Lorelei smiled softly at that remark, “I think our search here is done, I truly can’t imagine finding a more perfect pet than this one.”
“The very last thing is choosing a name for this little one then. What do you think?”
The young girl turned her focus back to the bird and tried her best to look deeply into its eyes, hoping the perfect name would surface itself in her thoughts. She closed her eyes, trying to think of something, and drew a complete blank. She turned back up to her mom and responded with a slight grimace, “I’m so sorry I have no idea.”
“That’s okay darling, you don’t need to name it immediately, you can have some time to think about it!”
“Do you have any ideas? Maybe something Māori, since you recognize this species from home?”
Her mother paused at this question, her face turning more contemplative as she considered her options. “Anahera is one of my favourite names, there’s also Manu, which means bird, but that’s typically more for a boy than a girl.”
“Anahera would be a great option.”
It still didn’t feel exactly right, though.
Ori’s face lit up as she reached a sudden epiphany. “What about Kīri? Kiri is a beautiful name, and if you elongate the first I with a macron, it means a type of bird!”
That was
perfect. She tried the name out, and the little owl ruffled its feathers in response, glowing with the introduction of a title. “I love you, Kīri! And thank you mom, so much, for today and for my amazing new pet.”
