Kim and Richard entered the Entrance Hall. They are going to the owlery to send some letters back home and at the same time, both of them are eager to explore the castle.

"So, do you miss your parents a lot?" he asked her.

Kim never thought of that thing before. She crossed her eyebrows and tried to think if she does. "Surprisingly, yes I do." she answered back without even having control of those words. "Before I went to the train, everything about my family is not that good. So, at some point. I really wanted to go far away from home." she ended, still thinking of what could have happened if she wasn't invited to study at Hogwarts, therefore, staying in her family situation longer.

Kim went to the owlery before but just once. She tried to remember from her little head where the way is. To hide this, she asks "How about you? Do you miss them?" By the time she ended her second question, she saw a girl who came from their right side, holding a letter. She might have received a letter. The owlery MUST be there. Looking at the pattern of the wall, she realized that they are going in the right path.

"You'll see them again soon, during the holidays" he replied, trying to comfort her. She then asked him whether he missed his own parents. "My mother... She died when I was younger. She was very sick." he replied, trying to hide the sudden pain in his voice. Even if it had been already a few years since he lost his mother, it was still difficult for Richard to talk about it. He tried to remember her, but her face was becoming more and more blurred as years passed. Chasing these thoughts from his mind, he pursued, more confident: "And my father... Well I saw him yesterday, before coming here, so I still don't miss him."Kim seemed to be hesitating for a moment, but then pursued her path and Richard followed her. "And coming here is really a nice change." he added, trying to smile again.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for asking. I.." Kim tried to think what to say next but she don't have any words in her head right now.

"Well, let us just talk about, uhm... do you have any pets?" Before she can stop it, these five words left her mouth. She then, thought that it is one of the best words she can tell him, to snap Richard from his own nightmare.

"Don't worry, you couldn't have known" he replied. She asked him about his pets. "We have a dog and an owl back home. I haven't got any pets myself for now, but I'm planning on buying my own owl when I visit Hogsmeade. Do you have any? And have you already been to the village?" he inquired.

"I am planning to buy my owl too! I think owl is the most useful pet a person can have but I'm planning to buy next year to have enough galleons." Kim said.

Richard asked her if she ever visited Hogsmeade. "I just saw Hogsmeade when I went down from the Hogwarts Express but it was so dark I didn't see it like how others describe Hogsmeade. Hope we can go there when we are already in Third year." she said happily.

Kim and Richard are drawing nearer to the Owlery. Kim checked her pocket if she still have her letter. Then, they climbed up the stairs where the Owlery is waiting for them. "Be ready with your letter," she said to Richard.

"Yeah, me too. I've heard Hogsmeade is really... magical." he replied with a smile, as they were climbing the stairs of the Owlery. Richard felt a cold breeze run through his body. When they reached the circular stone room, he understood why: none of the windows had glass in them, probably to let the owls come and go freely. Something cracked under Richard's foot. He looked to the ground, and saw that it was covered in straw, with owl droppings and regurgitated mice skeletons everywhere. "Charming place" he joked while he was carefully advancing towards the perches in front of him. He looked at Kim, who was standing at one of the windows, giving her letter to one of the owls. Her brown hair seemed golden under the light of the setting sun.

After releasing the bird, she turned towards Richard, who immediately looked away, and started fixing his own letter to the Black Owl nested in front of him. "So, what town do you come from?" he asked after giving instructions to the bird and letting it fly away. He watched it cruise through the sky until it became a minuscule black spot in an ocean of red.

"I'm from Boston. How about you? Maybe your town is just near mine," Kim said as she watched her chosen owl flew away.

"How fascinating this place is, don't you think? We are so high that we can almost see everything. I could just stay up here for a day without getting bored," she said, looking around the scenery that encloses the owlery.

Richard and Kim went silent for a while, breathing the cold, clean air that surrounds them. Kim pulled her uniform closer to her to defend her body from the cold breeze. She fixed her Slytherin pin, the one that helped her from DADA class, and her hair, that the wind messed up.

"So, where do you want to go next?" Kim broke the silence between them as she tilted her eyes from the scenery to Richard. "I'm finding this tour fun."

"Really?" he replied, surprised. "I'm from Cambridge, so our towns are actually not very far one from another." he added while contemplating the view from the window. The surface of the Great Lake just beneath them was reflecting the setting sun. On one side, one could see the apparently interminable Forbidden Forest and on the the other one, snow covered mountains were stretching as far as the eye could see. "Yes, it's truly... beautiful" he said, looking at Kim. They remained silent for a while, enjoying the moment.

"So, where do you want to go next?" she asked. "I'm finding this tour fun." "I'm glad you're having fun" he replied with a smile. "But I can see you're freezing, so we should probably get back downstairs. Besides, I think it's almost time for dinner." he added.

"Honestly, I do feel cold," Kim said, slightly laughing. "and very hungry," she added. She imagined some great food served in the Great Hall where every students hungrily presses their spoons and forks into the meat in front of them.

"I should just get something to cover the coldness. I'll see you in the great hall," she said. Kim smiled at Richard then, she went on her way down to their common room.

"Wait, I can give you my..." Richard shouted, but Kim had already left. After one last look around the Owlery, he slowly climbed downed the stairs and then silently made his way towards the Great Hall. When passing by the Entrance Hall, he noticed four giant hourglasses standing against the wall. Intrigued, he approached and examined them. They were apparently filled with some sort of gems, which were of different colors in each hourglass. On each one, one of the animals symbolizing the four Hogwarts Houses was engraved, along with a magically drawn number. Figuring that the amounts of gems represented the points won by each of the Houses, he saw with satisfaction that Slytherin was currently leading, with ninety-five of them. When he glanced at the Gryffindor one, three rubies fell from the upper bulb into the lower, bringing their total to eighty-eight.

Cheerful, he entered the Great Hall, heading towards the Slytherin Table. He glanced around the room, trying to see if Kim had already arrived, but she apparently still wasn't there. Taking a seat, he found an edition of the Evening Prophet on the bench. While waiting for dinner to begin, he quickly went through it to see if anything important had happened.

Kim entered the dungeons where their common room is located. She tried to walk a little faster since Richard is waiting in the Entrance Hall but the figures and the symbols in the wall never failed to amaze her, or sometimes, even to confuse her.

She made her way to the living room, then to the girl's dormitory. She opened her cabinet and started to pick a jacket that would suit her uniform. In the end, she chose the long, black kind-of-a-robe jacket and wore it as fast as she could. Before living the room, she noticed a newspaper lying on her bed: her first issue of the Daily Prophet. She grabbed it and decided to bring it to the Hall.

Kim made her way to the Entrance Hall where almost all the special events happen, and also her favorite time of the day, dinner. She tried to scan the four long tables, having to forget which one is Slytherin's. At last, she noticed Richard on the far-western side of the room, reading a newspaper which from her view, she the title of it: The Evening Prophet. She emerged from where she stand towards Richard's direction and sat beside him. "Anything important?" she asked.

Richard took his eyes of the newspaper as someone had just sat next to him. "Well, nothing really important, it seems that the situation has calmed down since the election of the new Minister." he replied to Kim. "There?" he inquired, seeing that she was carrying an issue of the Daily Prophet.

He then remembered something he had seen several minutes ago. "Did you see that we are leading?" he asked. "The House Cup" he precised, as Kim interrogatively raised her eyebrows. "There are four giant hourglasses in the Entrance Hall showing the points won by each House. We are first with 95 points, 7 more than Gryffindor. I told you we were going to make a great team." he added with a smile.

"About the Daily Prophet? I haven't read it yet. I just think that they delivered it a little late than I expected it to arrive," Kim answered.

Kim scanned some of the pages of the newspaper, looking for some very important things that are happening in the wizarding world, but none of it caught her attention.

Richard, at that time, noticed that the points of Slytherin in the House Cup has the highest amount of the four. "We are first with 95 points, 7 more than Gryffindor. I told you we were going to make a great team." he said. "Really? I haven't really looked at it for ages. Well, I really am glad that I have a company in Slytherin and I am greatly thankful that that someone is a friend who I can turn to anytime," she said, smiling as she remembered how she met Richard just a couple of hours ago.

The food appeared out of nowhere in their table with the shiny utensils for them to use. Hungry, Kim cannot choose what food should she get, until she saw a girl in the Gryffindor table getting some fried chicken with gravy sauce into her plane rice. Kim did the same and checked on what Richard's food are.

Suddenly, all sorts of dishes appeared on the table. Taking a few moments to choose what he wanted to eat, he finally took a tasty looking beefsteak and some baked potatoes. Taking his fork, he watched with contempt a boy at Gryffindor's table greedily devouring two chicken wings at the same time, one in each hand.

After taking his first bite, he turned towards Kim and said: "I forgot to ask you. Do you like playing Quidditch? Because if you do, I think it would be great if we could both join the Slytherin Team."

"My father wants me to be a seeker so he really trained me to be one," Kim answered after swallowing her first bite. "He said being a part of quidditch team would be a great honor but do you really think joining quidditch is a great idea?" she asked.

Kim poured some pumpkin juice on her goblet and started drinking.

"And if we do join, how can we practice?" she added.