[Tate] But the owls, so many owls, I’m never alone

Emmett checked the piece of paper in his hand and then looked up at the building before him. Yep, it was the right address. At the edge of Hogsmead the owlery wasn't the most noticeable building in the vicinity, but now Emmett knew what it was he could see the telltale signs of feathers on the window ledges and a large scrape along the wall he could see behind the counter, through the window by the front door. It was here that he was due to meet one Tate Atherton, in precisely - he checked his watch quickly - two minutes.

The Proffesor had been wandering around Hogsmead for the past 15 minutes, having arrived at Hogwarts half an hour ago to check out his new office. It was all very nice, but he needed to remember to bring in a large tank for all the animals to go in when they were being used during lessons. It would need to be able to fit several rabbits and also Guinea fowl into it... and Guinea pigs (the aftermath of the guinea fowl transfiguring). Maybe it should have multiple compartments in it, so there could be multiple animals contained in it at once...

But, enough of that. Checking his watch again, Emmett decided that being a minute early wasn't too bad, and swung open the door, stepping inside the owlery. Immediately he could smell the owls, and it brought on a wave of nostalgia. He was here to purchase a screech owl, the same breed as his former owl, Oliver. Sadly, Oliver had passed away in Emmett's third year, and he hadn't had an owl since. Remembering Oliver always made the man sad. He'd loved Oliver (he was basically his only friend at the time) and he missed him. Lots. With Oliver he'd lost his sociableness, his childhood innocence and the last of his human friends too... it was a sad, sad time for the younger Emmett Markham. The Ravenclaw hadn't been able to get over Oliver for a long time. In fact, he still hadn't properly gotten over him, but at least now he didn't start crying whenever he thought of the owl.

The reason why he was purchasing a new owl was simple: now he was moving to Hogwarts his wife had told him he should really look into getting one, so he could keep in contact with her and his daughter. No owl would replace the Olicer in Emmett's mind, but he did need a way of sending letters, and it would make Ruth happy to know she could contact him / he couldn't contact her without having to rely on the Hogwarts owls or the delivery service. Emmett was determined that this new owl would be a screech owl.

Shutting the door behind him, Emmett looked along the rows of owls lined up in perches as he walked to the front desk. There didn't seem to be any screech owls in sight, but Emmett had only skimmed the middle row of the left hand side. The Proffesor was sure that the owner of the owlery would know where the screech owls were. 

It had taken Emmett a long time to find the owlery, as it usually only supplied large customers like delivery services. But after scouring several advertisements for owlery's the man had concluded that this was the only likely candidate to be selling screech owls - after all, they were very good at delivering letters and small parcels. No owl to get too large a parcel, however screech owls could probably take one of the bigger sized parcels. They are also very obedient and have a great sense of direction. This owlery also seemed like it took good care of it's owls, and Emmett respected that.

As he reached the front desk, Emmett tore his head away from the lines of owls and turned to the woman whom she assumed was Tate.

"Good afternoon. I'm Emmett Markham, here to see Tate Atherton?"

Lyrics in the title are from the song 'Owls' by a The Handsome Family

@Tate Atherton   

The owls were going crazy today, only because it was feeding day. Tate Atherton always did two days for feeding day. It was fun something because she would just let tons of rat and mice lose in the owlery and let them go crazy. They enjoyed the hunt and sometimes they would enjoy it more than anything else. Letting them hunt by themselves helped the birds seem free. She would let some of them loose if she did not fear them escaping. Many of her owls still needed trained. The trained owls would be let out a lot of the time and always returned home. Even when people first get owls she always recommend not letting them fly around til about the second week of having them so they would understand where they live and their new home. As the bird almost dive bombed her head, she started yelling at them like a mother. "Don't you dare attack your mommy." She glared at them.

Tate heard a voice and someone enter in the front room. That room was still covered in feathers but at least was a little normal compared to the rest of the owlery. The building was located at the end of Hogsmeade a little further away from the other business. There was a large tower that had windows everywhere, which Tate ended up putting wire's in to keep them in the home. There was a hallway connecting to a small building where she would do all her business transactions or sales for birds that were already trainable. There was a man she did not know there in that building. She quickly closed the door behind her, waited a second to make sure none of the owls were following or mice and then entered the second room, "Sorry- feeding day. These bloody birds want to murder me. Yes- I am Tate Atherton." She chuckled. She felt something on her shoulder and put her hand up and a small baby owl was perched there.

"Oh you little bugger you," She smirked at it and just left it there. He was happy to be hiding in her multicolored hair from any other owls hunting. "What can I help you with, Mr. Markham?"

The owls seemed to be going crazy from the sounds that reached Emmett's ears, but the red-haired woman that had appeared explained that it was because it was feeding day. Emmett gave a wry smile as he held his hand out for the woman to shake, after he had confirmed that she was in fact Ms Atherton.

"Oh, I remember the joys of feeding an owl. I used to have an owl, and boy did he love his food." Mr Markham laughed, remembering the good old days when Oliver was alive. The Screech Owl was one of the greediest creatures that the man knew, including his older sister, which young Emmett had insisted was saying something. When Emmett began to get the food out for Oliver he used to dive-bomb downward from wherever in the dormitory he was perched - the Ravenclaw liked to feed his owl himself, so he usually stayed in the dorm. His dorm mates didn't tend to mind, at least they never said anything, as Emmett's bed was by the window so Oliver didn't tend to come in any further than where his master slept, and never made a mess. He slept in the owlry and hunted at night or when Emmett was in lessons, but other than that he stayed on the blue covers of the windowsill of the tower, and would sit next to Emmett while he did his homework or read.

"That's actually why I'm here. My owl, Oliver, he died many years ago, may his soul rest in peace... I was a third year, at Hogwarts. Which, as you can probably tell from the colour of my hair, was many hundreds of years ago." The 54 year old joked, but not light-heartedly. If he joked about and made it seem like a laugh, maybe talking about Oliver wouldn't be so upsetting and sad? The animagus was trying to put up a bold and light-hearted front but seemed to be failing badly, as Tate could probably tell from his tone of voice, the sad look in his eyes and his slightly slumped shoulders that he still hadn't got over it.

"I'm looking for another owl, but I would like it to be a certain breed. Do you have any Screech Owls here? I heard from a friend that you usually supply larger companies, like Owl Delivery Services, with owls, and as Screech Owls are often used for carrying large packages I thought you might have one?" He asked, gazing around at the owls and peering through the door behind Ms Atherton to catch a glimpse of the birds that were going crazy back there.