Chocolate Frogs

Chapter 7

Amelia failed. She had let herself fall in a downward spiral of negative thoughts and overwhelming emotions. She let herself believe the lies that her mind concocted and cried herself to sleep last night. Waking up, she decided to try again. She needed a way to clear her head.

She walked by herself to the owlery to find Snowball cuddling with a similarly rounded but a little smaller barn owl.

"Have you found someone to moon about, too, Snowball?" She asked heavily as she ran her hand over Snowball's white feathers. "You have good timing considering it's winter - that means it's cuddle season."

Amelia pulled her robes closer to her. The wind in the owlery was colder than the corridors. Wanting to retreat back to the warmer areas, she gave Snowball a treat before sending him off with her letter. She was slowly walking backwards as she watched Snowball disappear behind the thick clouds that she didn't notice the boy standing by the entrance.

Amelia bumped into him, her back colliding to their sturdy torso. She froze in surprise and stayed still, waiting for the person to move around her.

But he didn't, he talked instead, "Cuddle season sounds a lot comfortable than how winter feels like." Amelia felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled, his warm breath tickling her ear.

She stepped away from him, feeling the blush crawl up to her face as she turned around to look at him against her will.

"Oh," she was relieved that it was someone familiar, "hi."

Benjamin stood by the owlery's entrance, holding onto the wall beside him. His brown hair was ruffled by the wind that was going through the place, and his robes perfectly concealing his body to keep him warm.

"Hi," he grinned at her, clearly amused. "You almost fell." He glanced over his shoulder to look at the flight of stairs behind him.

Amelia's eyes widened slightly, horrified at the thought of what would have happened to her if he hadn't been there to stop her from walking backwards. Walking backwards without checking for safety, that was a reckless thing to do, she scolded herself.

"Thank you," she said while she sighed in relief. "And I'm sorry for bumping into you like that and putting you in that position." He could have fallen and broken his neck!

He shook his head a little, looking down at her with the same amused grin he had. He was probably more than a foot taller than Amelia who stood at 5 feet and 2 inches.

"I'm just glad I caught you before you could fall." His eyes roamed from her face down to her feet before he looked over her head. "I like your ribbon."

Amelia reached behind her head absentmindedly, feeling the ribbon she used to tie the top half of her hair. It was a powder blue silk satin ribbon that was tied to a gift box from one of the presents she received for Christmas last year. It wasn't doing such a great job to keep her hair out of her face as it wisps of black hair floated with the wind.

"Thank you," Amelia said quietly, not knowing what to do or say. She tucked those stray strands of hair behind her ear as she cleared her throat.

"I see that we're sort of in-laws now," he mentioned while he walked around her and towards the owl coops. He was looking at the brown barn owl that Snowball was snuggling earlier, which was huddled in Snowball's coop. "The white owl lives in here, right?"

Amelia walked toward him and stood by his right side, looking at the same owl. "Yes, his name is Snowball. Is this tiny one yours?"

"Snowball, that's a cute name." he said quietly. "Although he really isn't as round as a snowball could be, is he?"