The Boy Who Does Not Belong Here (part 1)

Ch.3 Hufflepuff

Simon did not see more than a glimpse of Wilhelm after their talk on the Quidditch field. They did have their Potions lesson together on Thursday, but for some reason Slughorn had decided, that he is supposed to stand next to their table the whole class and chitchat with Wilhelm about the most bizarre subjects. Even Wilhelm looked like suffering and Simon was just a bit furious. Why could he not have an opportunity to actually talk with Wille?

After they finished the Potions, Wilhelm was in such rush, because they finished couple of minutes late (not because of Professor Slughorn again...) and Wilhelm only had less than ten minutes time to hurry to the Astronomy tower. Not the easiest task, if asked from Simon...

The Friday morning started as normally as every single day in Hogwarts, but Simon almost shit in his pants, when a huge Eagle Owl landed on his breakfast plate out of a blue. First, he had not expected any mail and second his mom was only confident enough to use Simon's small Boreal Owl called Luna. It was not exactly normal for muggles to post their things with owls...

But this huge thing standing in front of him was definitely not Luna... The owl just offered his leg, where a small piece of parchment was neatly tied. With shaky hands, Simon untied the letter and immediately after he had removed the paper, the owl just casually started to peck at his breakfast. Simon did not even realize to shoo the creature away, just opened the parchment.

With a neat handwriting there was:

"Hey Simon! Can you join to study with me in the library after classes today?

-Wille

P.S. The owl (who is probably now eating your breakfast) is Otis. He is my owl, huge as hell but tame as a sheep. Let him eat some, otherwise you will not get it to leave. He is greedy for food :)"

Simon had to read the note three times, before he understood it. Wille was asking him to study in library today! A smile started to creep on his lips, when his eyes once more ran over the words. His started to look for Wilhelm from the Hufflepuff table and not even a minute later he spotted to boy. The boy was already looking at him, while anxiously biting his thumb nail. Simon just smiled more widely and nodded to the boy, making Wilhelm to leave his poor thumb alone and smile. Simon could also see a slight blush creeping on Wilhelm's face, when they still held the eye contact. Merlin the boy was so endearing!

Their little moment was broken by Ayub, who abruptly sat in front of Simon.

"What the hell is that thing on your breakfast plate and what happened to Luna?", he asked looking stunned. Simon had actually forgot the existence of the owl for a moment, but the bird had just kept on eating his food with no worry of the surrounding world.

"Oh, that is Otis! He delivered me a letter. And nothing is wrong with Luna. This is not my owl...", he said, keeping the Wille's letter safe in his hand.

"Well whose is it?", Ayub continued while starting to eat.

But as Wille had said, Otis was seriously greedy for food. Before Simon could answer, the owl removed himself from Simon's plate to Ayub's and continued its brekkie. The look on the Ayub's face was so shocked, fork frozen in the air, that Simon just burst in laughter. He did not notice that during his giggling, Wilhelm had walked next to them and removed the owl from Ayub's plate.

"Sorry about him. He is one of a kind. Maybe a bit retarded... And he eats a lot. Sorry if he was a problem", Wilhelm spoke politely, but did not took his eyes off Simon. Boys just smiled to each other, like being inside a little bubble. With short nod, Wilhelm started to walk away from the Hall and Simon could literally not tear his eyes from the other boy. He probably had way too dreamy look on his face, because he startled when Ayub opened his mouth.