It was a crisp September morning and Coda Cabin was the first to wake up in the Thunderbird* girl's dorm of Ilvermorny School for Witchcraft and Wizardry*. She had barely changed out of her pajamas before bursting out the door and down the stairs to explore the outside. She knew she wasn't supposed to be up and exploring the school on her own, but everyone else was asleep and she didn't see the point in waking anybody else up so early when she wasn't even leaving school grounds, and besides she'd had her wand with her and three years of schooling under her belt. As she stepped out the door to the pavilion, she grinned at the cool air biting her cheeks and the warm sun hugging her shoulders. She took in a deep breath. Perfect. This morning was perfect, she thought to herself as she stepped toward a little fountain in the middle of the stone pavilion, a perfect morning for an adventure.

The girl dipped a stubby finger into the water and watched the tiny waves break around it. She looked up, squinting in the morning sun, as she felt her cropped brown curls brush against her forehead in the wind. If this were a school day, everyone would have been up an hour ago, but nobody wanted to wake up at six in the morning on a Saturday. Nobody who didn't have anything to be doing, anyway. But Coda had set herself a mission. She wanted to explore every inch of the old fort and it's grounds. She had been boarding there since she was eleven, and yet she still hadn't seen every inch of the place. She was in no rush, but she was itching for adventure with every fiber of her being. Somehow, even a school that taught solely magic could get boring over time. It was too repetitive. Her wand even seemed to agree, seeming to want to break out of it's own wood, vibrating when she used a spell enough times in a row. When it had picked her on her first day at the school, somebody had told her that when that type of wand wood got too bored it had been known to explode. Coda didn't know how true that was, but she could believe it.

She had let her muscles loosen and her breathing slow, so when a loud fluttering noise suddenly beat against the rafters, she almost jumped out of her skin. Her first thought was that one of the Pukwudgies* that roamed the school had come for her, bad news given how they seemed to hate the students there (and she had heard stories of them doing awful things to humans), but when she turned to see a rather sick and weak looking owl, her brow furrowed in confusion. Slowly and carefully, she inched toward the poor creature and quickly noticed that there was something strapped to it's leg. A letter, she realised, and unstrapped it, opening it to see if she could maybe find who it was meant to be for and deliver it herself. She gently petted the large brown bird to calm it as she released the tie from it's foot and sat next to it, opening the letter.

Dearest mother,

I'm doing well! I can't wait for the next trip to Hogsmede, but it isn't for another month. Martha Bouvier hasn't let up though and I'm just about ready to curse her into another dimension. I love this school, but she makes living here almost unbearable. I'll survive, but I'm not making any guarantees that she will. Anyway, how are Albert and daddy? I miss you all already!

With love,

Thorn Blackwell

Coda's eyes widened upon reading this. Had this letter really come all the way from Hogwarts? That would exaplain why the bird looked so distraught. And just like that, Coda had a new mission. she had to get this bird back to health and get it back to Scotland...somehow. She looked back down at the bird, a small frown resting on her lips. How was she supposed to get him all the way to Scotland? And wouldn't his owner be worried by now? She flipped the Envelope searching for the address it had come from before remembering she couldn't exactly send a reply to Hogwarts through no-maj* mail, and she certainly couldn't send a bird. She supposed if the owl had made it one way, once she got it back to health it could fly back, but she hated doing that to the poor thing and besides that, that didn't explain how she was going to let the sender know that their owl was okay.

Coda froze at the sound of mumbling and the unmistakeable shadow of a pukwudgie heading in her direction. She scooped the bird into her arms and hurried back towards the door and through it just as the creature was turning the corner. To be safe, she didn't stop running until she'd made it back up the stairs and into the Thunderbird common room. She set the owl down on the seat of a large cranberry armchair as she tried to catch her breath.

"What are you doing? What- Is that a bird?"

The girl stiffened at the unexpected voice and turned around slowly. Standing there was a tall, lanky boy in dark blue flannel, his brown hair still a mess from sleep.

"Brendan!" she exclaimed, in a distressed whisper, "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I wasn't sneaking," he protested. "Where did he come from? He looks sick. Did you bring a sick owl into the common room?"

"Scotland."

"Scotland?"

"Yeah, he came with a letter that says it's from Hogwarts. Like, in Scotland Hogwarts. I don't know how he made it or what he's doing here, but I've got to get him back. His owner's probably worried sick."

Brendan inched closer to the bird, reaching out toward it carefully, "Maybe he got lost...like...really lost."

"That's what I think."

the bird squawked and lunged at the boy, but calmed when Brendan gently petted his side. Coda didn't know if the owl actually liked the petting or if he was just too tired to keep fighting.

"I'm going to nurse him back to health. I need to contact his owner, but I don't know how."

"Maybe a bigger bird?"

"Maybe...But how are we gonna get him back?"

"Good question."

She slapped his arm.

"What was that for?"

"you're supposed to help me!"

"Hey, I just woke up! I never agreed to any of this!"

Coda let out a long sigh, walking up to the bird and petting it gently. "Sorry...I just...I don't know what to do."

"Maybe we should tell a teacher"

The girl hesitated, but ultimately nodded. "I guess so." A part of her didn't want to. It was the same part of her that longed for adventure and wanted to sneak out of the girl's dorm at ungodly hours. Coda had a thirst for adrenaline and it was that thirst that made her wonder exactly how long she could keep this a secret. Still, she knew it would be best for the bird, and for the both of them, if they asked for a little help with all this.

-Thunderbird: One of the four houses of Ilvermorny, named after a legendary creature in certain North American Indigenous people's history and culture. It is considered a supernatural being of power and strength, and is generally depicted as a giant bird that can produce thunder. It is especially important, and frequently depicted, in the art, songs and oral histories of many Pacific Northwest coast cultures, but is also found in various forms among some peoples of the American Southwest, East coast of the United States, Great Lakes, and Great Plains (Wikipedia).

-Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: The oldest wizarding school in the United States of America

-Pukwudgie: A creature found in Delaware and Wampanoag folklore, sometimes said to be 4-to-5-foot-tall (Wikipedia). A short, grey-faced, large-eared creature distantly related to the European goblin. Fiercely independent, tricky and not over-fond of humankind (whether magical or mundane), it possesses its own powerful magic. Pukwudgies hunt with deadly, poisonous arrows and enjoy playing tricks on humans (J.K. Rowling).

-No-maj: American term for muggle, short for "no magic."