As Senara shut the door to she shack she was staying in, she berated herself. "Why did I do that? WHY? Stupid, Stupid! STUPID! They almost found out about me…" But I want them to find me, right? "No. Not yet. I'll talk to them in my own time." But that meal was so good… "Well, I won't be doing that again." She shook her head to clear it. What she had said had been mostly true. That had been her exploration day and she had explored. She had first found the little village; it must be Hogsmeade since it was so close. Then she had found Hogwarts. Hogwarts, with its tall, tall towers that seemed so inviting and yet terrifying at the same time.
She sighed. She would have to actually go up to Hogwarts, and soonder would be better than later. But maybe the village was a better place to start. Yes, she would actually go into the village tomorrow and interact with people, it had been a while, she thought. She was beginning to feel hungry again so she headed out, just to the hillside, to get another snack. After that was done, she sat in the snow and watched the sun set and the moon rise before heading back inside. The moon was nearly full.
By dinner, the gyrfalcon appearance had reached all but the completely oblivious and was the center of conversation at the House tables. "Hey, did you hear about the big white bird?" "I heard it had a six-foot wingspan." "Who'd be stupid enough to let out mice with something like that around?" snippets such as those could be picked apart from the general babble.
Remus was grinning into his goblet as James and Sirius were guffawing relatively quietly.
"Stupid? I still think it was bloody brilliant," said James.
"Right you are, right you are," Sirius replied, still giggling a bit.
The serious overtone of that morning had worn off after some fun experimentations in Herbology and Potions. James and Sirius had managed to get their plants to bid eachother and then Sirius melted his cauldron right as James exploded his own. Professor Slughorn had not been very happy about that and had given each detention for the coming week.
"I can't wait for the Hogsmeade visit tomorrow," said James. "More chocolate, mmm…."
"Don't forget that Zonko's has just stocked all its new seasonal tricks," reminded Sirius. James, Remus, and Peter nodded, smiling almost smugly.
"We have to go get our usual butter beer too, though," said Remus. "This is probably out last visit before the holidays."
"Here, here!" the others replied hearily before returning their concentration to the task at hand, food.