can I get a hoot hoot? Who: Remus Lupin + Anyone! When: Night time Where: Prospect Park, Brooklyn What: An owl apparently resides in one of Prospect Park's trees and Remus is about to find out if he can be its new friend. Rating/status: ~G?/tbd.
Working in the library had proved to be more than beneficial for Remus. Not only did it feed his wallet and his ego for actually being eligible for paid work, it also fed his mind with information.
During the hours that were quiet or when he was alone, he took the time to read about the city he was in, its history and other factors which he thought might be important. So far, he'd found that this whole displacement hadn't happened before and they had recently just risen from an economic crisis and was still recovering from it so it was senseless that they should demand workforce from alien communities such as Remus' as if they didn't have any more. But American Muggle history wasn't all that he cared for. He was keen to look for anything pertaining to wizards (that did not involve mythology and persecution) and the current ticket he was looking at for a possible escape: an owl.
In fact, it was because he was caught reading a history of owls in America that an enthusiast had offered to supplement him (in the end, Remus had to cast the Confundus Charm on the poor man because he can only be interested on the feet of owls for so long...) and in so doing, had divulged that a screech owl apparently resided in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Now this had given the wizard an entirely new idea. After all, inquiries to the New York falconry had been only a little bit helpful and there was no possibility of adopting one, visiting it, and then setting it off with a message.
So he figured...rather than go through all that complicated Muggle process, why not go to the owl directly? By himself? That's how wizards do it!
The idea was good but daring, Remus thought. In times where he was quiet during dinner or tea time, if it wasn't Ginny, it was him thinking about the hypothetical owl. To own it would be illegal and while Remus had good confidence that he wouldn't be caught kidnapping and owl, he still wouldn't risk it. Besides, as with a cat, it could become dinner if he didn't escape from the flat during transformations. And besides, who would care for it? How would it feed and who would be willing to clean up its litter? The flat would be too small for it.
So he thought...why not leave it in the park but own it? Owls had some animal intuition that recognized witches and wizards the way cats do, he knew this, so he just had to somehow make a point that he was going to own that owl. An hour later, he thought of a plan.
That night, he was going to put it to the test. After dinner, he changed into some light summer clothes and then took a taxi to Prospect Park. He liked how many of the parks had markers in his memory now: Central Park was the park with the sudden space ship, Bronx Park was the park he and Sirius played in, now Prospect Park was supposedly the park with the owl...
He carried a box with him as he walked inside the dim park, illuminated only by some lamp posts and the half-moon overhead but he didn't stay too long with the road. The owl-enthusiast had given him directions and reminders of where to turn and pass and he followed this as faithfully as he could remember (although twice, he went back to where he came -- once, when he got lost, the other when he was about to intrude a couple's passionate moment...).
More than half an hour later, Remus would find himself at the foot of a stone bridge curtained by thin trees and among them, he could hear the almost-tremulous song of what sounded like an owl.
He held his breath; so there really was an owl! Clutching the box, he started towards where he thought he heard it come from and he wondered if he should have brought Sirius or Lily all along, but he wanted to be sure of his plan and the results before he dragged either of them to his mess. He stopped before a bald patch of earth in-between he and a twisted tree and there, in its mouth, he found the golden eyes of what was unmistakably a screech owl. Remus couldn't believe his luck.
The box came into play now, and as he set it on the ground, he let the container vanish by a swish of his wand and the bodies of three dead rodents (ones he'd caught in the library earlier) laid motionless on the ground. He stepped back as he slipped his wand back in its catch near his elbow.
And down swooped the gray-feathered animal, hopping closer to the first rat and then in a blink of an eye, it had captured its head, unforgiving predator that it was.
Remus smiled at this sight and at the way the owl devoured his offer of friendship. As it hopped towards the second one, he approached the busy bird and watched it attack the next rat. He felt complacent now, things had gone well.
"Hullo there, friend," he said to it as it let half the rodent's body droop from its vicious beak. "Shall I call you Godric?" Yes, Remus had this down to the last letter.