Birds of a Feather [Ciara]

Heather sighed as she paced the entrance of Diagon Alley. She was grateful for the school year to finally be over. As of right now, she was officially going into her fifth year,  which meant she was now an upperclassman! No more stupid first years holding her back in class or second years asking the same question over and over again. The third years were a little better, but only slightly. They were all beneath Heather, of course, but now that was changing. She’d finally be in classes with other people worth being around. People who could ask intelligent questions and get results in class. And, perhaps best of all, her professors would finally stop giving her little baby lessons and start teaching her some real magic! Now that she thought of it, Heather was almost wishing it was September already just to get that all started. But, first things were first, such as why she was here in Diagon Alley so soon after school let out.

She didn’t really plan on buying school supplies today, it was much too early in the summer for that. Instead, she was meeting a friend of hers she’d not had nearly enough time to catch up with over the last few months of her fourth year. Keer should be here any minute, Heather thought to herself as she adjusted her necklace. Ciara always made Heather a little nervous. First, the girl was every bit as confident as Heather, which was a rarity in the younger girl’s experience. Then, there was the minor detail that Heather was dating Ciara’s cousin. She wasn’t quite sure whether Ciara knew that or not, or how close Ciara and Conall were as family. She knew some families got very…aggressive, towards anyone interested in a relative, but Ciara didn’t seem the type. Not really anyway.

Lost in thought as she was, Heather almost didn’t see her friend at first, weaving through the already crowded main thoroughfare of Diagon Alley. When her pale blue eyes met her friend’s darker gaze though, she immediately approached with a rare smile growing across her face. “Ciara!” Heather called out in greeting and falling into step beside her friend. “How have you been? Big plans for the summer yet?” She knew they were here to get some basic shopping done, but Heather was always keen to talk. After all, if the Regans were having a big party this summer, how would she end up with an invite if she didn’t know about it?

Everything seemed off. Perhaps she'd been gone from home too long, but when Dom picked her up from the train station and took her home, all she could think about what how different everything felt. She had no way to really explain it, but her world felt like it was going to rock once more. It was no secret that Ciara's life up until a year prior had been rather shaky. Numerous deaths in her family and strange revelations had all but caused the Hufflepuff to come crumbling down, but now she felt as if everything would pale in comparison to something big.

The first few weeks of the summer holidays had been spent in her room, or trying to catch random relatives to see how they were doing. It was the first time that she realized just how distant her close knit family felt. Etain was married and expecting her first child, and Aeric, well, while she hadn't exactly seen her older brother since she returned to Ireland, she had met his... thing. His female person friend thing. Oh had it set her on edge, but Ciara Regan was a very polite young lady and she had kept her feelings to herself. For now.

Luckily for the Egyptian, her savior came in the form of Heather Hollingberry, and boy was she happy to oblige her friend's request to meet up for a shopping trip in Diagon Alley.

As she'd gotten ready that afternoon, she opted not to tame her unruly curls and wore an outfit that was much more suited for an outing in Egypt than a day in dreary London. But, c'est la vie. After taking a detour to check the owl post for news on her OWLs results, she finally arrived at the entrance to Diagon Alley and waved at her friend as she spotted her. "Heather, hey! I've been pretty good. No big plans yet, but you know how things can change." Pausing, she wondered if she should share her odd feelings with the girl, and then decided against it.

"How about you? Are you excited to be starting fifth year soon?"