in the market for a strigiforme || pau!

[Isabelle Ine Iolani]

the anticipation leading up to isabelle's fourth year at hogwarts met her at every waking moment. oh, how isabelle missed care of magical creatures with professor pavlo ponikarovsky. how isabelle missed playing quidditch amongst the houses. and, how isabelle missed chatting with house elves during late nights as she hid in the kitchen beside the hufflepuff common room away from prefects scanning the halls.

her love of creatures prompted her to do much reading about owls from the order strigiforme. after all, since she couldn't play with professor proikarovsky's creatures during the summertime, she would need to adopt a creature-friend to keep her company! it only made sense.

the small frame of isabelle ine iolani approached eeylop's owl emporium after a week of constant debate with herself. while her mother reinforced the idea of saving galleons, don't spend money on this, don't spend money on that, isabelle grew tired of using hogwarts school's owls all the darn time. the previous night, the brown-skinned fourteen year old tossed back and forth, deciding the best ways to spend this money.

however she convinced herself it was sometimes inconvenient waiting for hogwarts owls to return. so many other students relied on the school-owned owls that at times, the wait was so long to send letters and packages out into the post. so, that brought her to the barn-like doorframe of the eeylop's owl emporium, a shop her mother would probably frown upon.

but... the owls looked so adorable! isabelle's brown eyes grew larger as she approached each cage, fascinated by the beauty and even adorable-factor contained in each perch. which one would she get? oh, and there were so many options! there were gorgeous fluffy owls, brown owls, white owls, even white and brown owls! the young girl couldn't decide.

she placed her hand on a thin bar of one of the cages, seeing if the owl inside would react to it. humorously enough, it simply tilted its head and blinked. isabelle giggled. "so cute, you!" she spoke in her american accent, absolutely sold on the owl's modest behavior. now, if only she had enough galleons for it.

she pulled out her pocket wallet, and began counting the sickles and knuts she had leftover after purchasing school supplies. surely her mother wouldn't mind too much...

[Winifred Gwyllt]

Wini bustled into the crowded little shop full of owls, her eyes wandering along the cages. She stopped for just a moment to admire a beautiful imported Western Screech owl. "Oh, I really don't need you but you are quite the sweetie aren't you?" she cooed softly to it, giving it a little scratch under the beak through the bars.

Forcing herself to walk away, she made her way to the little treat display and picked out a bag for her own owl, a handsome barn owl named Berta. Her eyes landed on a familiar face as she went to checkout. "Well, hello there Isa dear!" she greeted her with one of her signature smiles. "Getting an owl of your own this year?"

[Isabelle Ine Iolani]

isabelle started counting galleons out of her black felt pocket-wallet that had a badger sewn on its side. the sign in front of the owl's cage read 25 galleons. her mother would probably kill her if she found out that pricetag, but isabelle was sure she could lie just a smudge...

her neck craned over the small felt-wallet as she counted galleons, slowly holding coin after coin in her palm. in the midst of counting ...11...12...13..., isabelle heard a shortened version of her name from a rather perky and incredibly familiar sounding voice. isabelle drew her attention upwards, pulling her neck back into its upright position as well.

"miss wini!" isabelle squealed with delight, and the shapes of her eyes narrowed as she smiled at the witch. isabelle dropped her galleons back into her felt wallet, stuffing it into the pockets of her robes as she hopped over to give winifred gwyllt a hug. after a couple years of quidditch, as a beater no less, isabelle had made many trips to winifred's office after quidditch practices, sometimes even after games. her arms wrapped around the woman's body, and then she stepped back. "yes i am getting an owl!" the fourth year answered quite matter-of-factly. "that elf owl right over there!" isabelle pointed at the large-eyed skinny owl with some leopard spots on its brown-feathered wings. "what are you doing here?" isabelle looked curiously at the witch, her eyes wandering to the treat bag in winifred's hands.

[Winifred Gwyllt]

She returned the fourth year's hug and peeked over at the owl she pointed out, "Oh a lovely choice! Elf owls were very popular back in North America in the big cities when I was there. Probably still are. Great for short distances and most muggles never noticed they were owls since they're so little. They just saw something fly by way above and didn't give it a second glance."

She placed the treat bag on the counter and pulled out her money pouch. "I just thought I would stop in and grab my sweet Berta some snacks while I was getting all my other shopping done. We staff have to do our own before school shopping too you know," she said with a chuckle. "Though I won't deny, it's never near as much of a hassle these days as it was when I was your age."

[Isabelle Ine Iolani]

the sounds of owls cooing and hopping around their cage filled eeylop's owl emporium. but, people entering and exiting the shop, along with children and adults alike talking to the owls or with each other, added to the euphony. it was hard to stay so concentrated on conversation with so much noise going on in such a small space.

"it's so cute!" an enthusiastic isabelle chimed, looking over again at the elf owl that she would soon be able to call hers. she turned her attention again to miss wini, who seemed to be very familiar with the elf owl variety. "is it what you call an, um..." her voice trailed off for a moment, trying to think of the right word. "a pygmy owl? is it one of those? pygmy animals are so cute!" when growing up in colorado, her family owned pygmy rabbits.

"maybe my mother had one!" she offered, clearly excited to hear these owls were from north america. if her mother had fond memories of elf owls, then maybe she would be less angry at isabelle for splurging and getting one.

isabelle listened to miss wini, chuckling with her. "it's very weird seeing hogwarts faculty outside of hogwarts," isabelle admitted with a small smile, tilting her head downwards in embarassment. "but it's always nice to see familiar faces! it feels there are so many people i don't recognize here at diagon alley..."

[Winifred Gwyllt]

"I suppose that is the category it would fit into. There are so many species it's hard to keep track of," she giggled. "And your mother very well may have. I was told that they became popular as more people started to pack into the Americas and our kind needed to keep things as discrete as possible. Actually, if I'm remembering right, there may be a city or two that only allow daytime delivery by the smaller types of owl. Probably somewhere like New York City. The wizarding population there though is highly accustomed to muggles and actually interact with them frequently. It's fascinating really."

She nodded in agreement to Isabelle's Diagon Alley comment as she handed the money to the cashier. "That is one thing about Diagon Alley...you never know who, or even what, you will see. It's one of the few major shopping centers in all of Great Britain so everyone flocks here. I kind of enjoy it myself. Well, when I'm not in a rush," she said with a small roll of her eyes and a smile. "Anyways, I must get going dear! I'll see you soon. Stop by and tell me what you've named that little one when you get a chance! It's nice to see you when I'm not having to heal something or other."

She winked and gave her a little wave as she turned and began weaving her way through the crowd of the shop and back into the even more crowded street.