A short, rather round woman stood before Coda and Brendan. She wore a knee-length yellow dress and green heels that added about an inch to her height and made her look like a sunflower. Her mousy brown hair fell over one shoulder and stopped at the underside. The room they stood in was decorated with motivational posters and spellsheets which almost made it look not too different than a no-maj classroom, but of course the walls were still made from the stone of the castle, and despite the room being in the middle of the building, three enchanted windows filled the room with warm sunlight from the outside.

"Mrs. Smith, can we talk to you for a second?" Brendan scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I've got a minute," She flipped her transfiguration textbook closed and looked over her desk at the students, "Shoot."

"Hypothetically speaking," Coda started, slowly, "If an owl got lost from delivering mail in the Scotland and ended up in America, how would one get the owl back to Scotland and contact the owner to tell them it's okay without actually going all the way across the ocean?"

The teacher raised an eyebrow with a smirk, "Sounds pretty specific for a hypothetical. I guess we could use floo powder to get the bird back to Scotland. As for contacting the owner, owls aren't the only birds that can carry letters. Actually, our school has a tern specifically for long distance mail like this. You didn't think a country as big as America only keeps owls to get our mail around, did you?"

"Oh, thank G-d," Coda sighed in relief, "And how might one...get access to this tern?"

"I'll help you. Let me see the owl. Is it okay?"

"He's in the Thunderbird girl's dorm," Coda nodded. "He came with a letter from a Thorn Blackwell at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts? Well, that shouldn't be too hard to get him back at all, then."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. The schools communicate all the time. Our school was kind of based off of Hogwarts, you know."

"Yeah, we learned that in history class, first year."

"Alright, go get the owl and I'll see what I can do about getting him back to England."

"Wait," Coda stopped, "I mean, he's fine, he's getting better, but..."

Mrs. Smith frowned, "I'll see what I can do about getting him back to health too then, yeah?"

Coda nodded and headed to go get him. Brendan followed her out the door and all the way up to the common room, waiting there for her to come out of the girl's dorm with the bird. The girl's dorm was a large, round room lined with bunk beds that were fitted with cranberry and blue bed sheets, the school colours. Coda went over to the top bunk on the bed closest to the door and gently scooped the sleeping bird from the piled comforter that she hadn't bothered to lay out that morning. She almost tripped on a suitcase that was poking out from beneath the bottom bunk and the bird squawked and flapped his wings in her face, but she was able to catch herself and the bird before either of them hit the ground. She met Brendan in the common room and they made their way back to the classroom with the owl. By the time they got back, the teacher had cleared her desk of books and papers and told the two to set the bird on the desk so she could have a look at him.

"He seems fine to me, just maybe a little tired. Has he been eating?"

"I haven't tried feeding him," Coda admitted, "I just found him this morning."

"Oh, well, I'm no veterinarian, but he's probably starving after a flight like that. The first step to helping him is going to be getting him something to eat. In the meantime, I've got a new mission for you two. Why don't you start on that letter to his owner and I'll work on getting you that bird?"

The kids looked at each other and nodded. At least they would have something to do now, Coda thought. It was nice having a teacher who was so understanding of Coda's need for adventure and new experiences. Mrs. Smith was her favourite teacher, and Transfiguration was Brendan's favourite subject so when it came time to ask one of the teachers for some help, there was no question as to who it would be. The two students spent the rest of the day agreeing on exactly what they would be writing in the letter back to Scotland. Coda decided that she wanted to write more than just what was going on with Thorn's owl; she wanted to ask questions about Hogwarts, and what it was like. What exactly differed and what was the same as school in America. She wondered what parts of Ilvermorny came from the British wizarding school, though she could guess some things. For instance, most American no-maj schools didn't have houses. She wasn't even familiar with the term before coming to Ilvermorny.

Dear Thorn,

We found your owl and are sending him back to Hogwarts as soon as he's better. He's not hurt or anything, just tired after a long flight. A really long flight. He made it all the way to the America! This letter is being sent by Coda and Brendan from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and we hope to hear back from you. Neither of us have ever talked to a person all the way in Scotland. What is it like there? Is it colder? Do you have houses in all of your schools or just the wizarding kind? What are the houses like at Hogwarts? We're both in a house called Thunderbird, which in supposed to represent the soul and favor adventurers. We learned that our houses were actually created after the houses at Hogwarts, so now I'm curious. This letter might take a while to get to you, but we hope that it does in time to ease your worries about your bird.

We hope to hear from you again,
Coda Cabin and Brendan Forester