Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Those rights belong to J. K. Rowling, as far as I'm aware.
…
Spiral, plummet, strike so true.
Jade and emerald, riches too.
Hair unkempt was her demise.
Memory of her future prize.
…
She was always too smart, especially for her kind.
Those of her kind usually just lazed around, looking for mice or needlessly making noise, turning their heads left and right like an animated clock.
Not her, though.
She on the other hand made no needless movement. She was, from her perspective, the only one of her kind with a brain large enough to think properly.
But the entrance of one man changed her life forever.
She first saw a massive brute, striding into the shop with his curious gaze. He wandered about, grabbing at this and that, but never deciding upon anything in particular.
The shopkeeper just stared in amazement, as if it was all magic.
Heh, but it was. For this was a world of magic and lore, and she would soon be at the center of it.
When the massive brute finally made his way over to her cage, she straightened up, feathers rustling, into a more formal position. Her beady eyes stared back into his curious gaze, but their ephemeral stare-off soon came to a close.
He grinned.
... Ew.
The brute stated something in his human language. He picked up her cage and swung it over, carelessly, toward the shopkeeper. She squawked in protest, righting her position so that the ignorant brute wouldn't kill her. She wasn't ready to die just yet.
To her frustration, the shopkeeper just stared as if this brute was the most majestic thing he'd ever seen.
The brute asked the shopkeeper something, again in his language.
The shopkeeper righted himself, scratching his head, and stated something else in return.
The brute lifted his arms incredulously, again forcing the poor bird to rectify her position, and exerted his protest, but the shopkeeper glared back and solidified his position.
The brute yelled indignantly, raising havoc in the shop.
The shopkeeper yelped, raising his arms in fright, and screamed something back to the brute, probably to his favor.
The brute smiled warmly and took out some coins, muttering while counting.
He lay down a pile of bronze and silver coins, but then scratched his head and added a few more coins which he quickly took back.
This is when she first realized that certain humans had a smaller brain capacity than her.
Satisfied, the brute left the shop, carrying an unsatisfied and miserable companion along with him. She feared for the future and hoped that she was not destined to die bashing her head into a cage.
But then she saw him.
At that time, he was only a petit, scrawny, and awfully thin boy, jade green eyes sparkling in interest. His messy onyx black hair is what truly enticed her. It seemed perfect enough to substitute for a nest, she decided, but in her cage she could not reach it to her eternal disappointment.
It would remain that way forever.
When the boy eagerly reached for her as if she was the most beautiful thing in the world and whispered her name in a quiet voice, she was mildly curious.
Curious to see if this boy was worthy of her attention.
All the other humans utilized her kind to send paper to each other.
As if she was some kind of messenger, she thought to herself in disgust and amazement.
But this boy didn't see her as that. She was his first friend, she later found out to her own surprise. He treated her accordingly.
He loved her as she was always there for him, through the nights of Erebus and days of Lux.
For this, and this only, she decided that she would stay with him, maybe even rarely send paper to other humans like others of her kind would.
To her pleasure, he treated her very well. He brushed her feathers in just the right spots, making her squirm with joy. He shared his secrets with her, although she didn't understand much of his human speech, only the generalities. He was her friend.
She soon found out, however, that he would probably be the only courteous human she would ever meet.
The girl her owner interacted with was kind enough to her, but ignorant, assuming that she was as stupid as the other mindless creatures that the humans utilized as pets. Her own cat pet was very ugly and eyed her predatorily, often, as if she wasn't watching.
The boy her owner interacted with was obviously stupid, maybe even more so than her kind. Although loyal, he was very mean to the girl and her owner on several occasions, but her owner stayed friends with him for whatever reason. The girl even became intimate with him later on!
She would never understand the stupidity of these humans, she decided.
The boy also possessed a rat that he kept with him for a few years. The rat was very suspicious, but the humans were forever ignorant and her attempted warnings only brought confusion and drama.
Oh, the drama...
It was too childish to even speak of.
There were also those relatives of her owner that were alarmingly unkind to her owner and her.
They forced her owner to constantly keep her in a cage and in a cupboard! She still had nightmares of what she saw in that godforsaken place…
There were other beings that her owner interacted with, but most were unimportant. They pointedly ignored her and she did the same.
One old man, however, caught her beseeching gaze on several occasions and seemed to catch on to her intelligence. However, to her eternal dismay, he didn't mention it to her owner! At least he kept his horny fire bird away from her.
That… bird was blessed with affection and respect from all the humans, but it was the most unintelligent and vile creature she had ever the misfortune to encounter!
Was this how true glory was achieved?
Through mindless stupidity?!
If so, she wanted none of it!
More importantly, she focused on rectifying her owner's hair into her nest, but whenever she attempted to even fly up onto his head, he laughed and swatted her away.
How insulting! As if her attempts at continuing her family line were a joke.
No matter how she tried to assert her disappointment though, he ignored it.
She was happy though, as was her owner.
Although he faced many a journey and experience, he survived and learned, and her future nest stayed safe.
The years quickly past and her owner became increasingly worried. Stress levels rose and his state exponentially worsened.
His eyes became fidgety and anxious and his skin became more pale than she believed humanly possible! He was also always accompanied by other, also increasingly wary, humans.
Drama and events became increasingly worrying, to the point where she almost lost interest in nesting in his hair!
She immediately revoked that statement. She would NEVER lose sight of her ultimate prize: her owner's beautifully unkempt hair.
One day, during the summer, her owner's vile relatives left.
She would have been ecstatic and celebratory, but the parting was grim, frigid, and worrying.
That night, more humans came over to her owner's establishment. They talked for a while before drinking some liquid that made all of the humans look like her owner.
She almost died when she saw all of that beautiful unkempt hair.
Her true owner… at least she thought it was him, took her and went over to the brute.
Yes, it was him.
She would NEVER mistake the true hair, her ultimate prize.
Her owner and the brute mounted a flying vehicle and up they went.
The sky was a cacophony of colors.
Emerald struck there, garnet here.
They flew as quickly as possible, but then the stupid brute was struck by a stream of colors and seemingly lost consciousness.
Thankfully, her owner took control and saved them from death by collision.
She sighed in relief.
Her ultimate prize was alive and well.
Her owner flew the vehicle back to the sky and onto the path of hopeful safety…
To their shared surprise, a sudden streak of sickly emerald, the color of her owner's eyes, flew towards her owner.
Following her instinct to protect her prize, she immediately flew up, blocking the hostile streak from harming her owner.
The streak struck true and she absorbed it, accepting her fate.
Her owner cried, facing her as she plummeted down.
Falling.
Wind.
Lightning.
Streak.
Grey.
Black.
White.
Night.
Rain.
Sky.
Ground.
Collision.
…
Her last memory was one of her best. Her dream, her always: her future nest.
Maybe she sacrificed herself for an honorable goal. For all she knew, her owner would save the world from a racist, misogynist, dark lord. Maybe her death had purpose.
As long as she had the memory of her would be nest, she was happy.
Hedwig was happy.
…
Death.