ALMOST HUMAN - by Ellis King
A/N:Okay, I know that this is a very strange idea, but hopefully with your reviews and my (ahem) wonderful updating skills (don't be angry please please please please! However if you are desperate, and i hope you will be desperate, than just email and ill write that chapter up pronto!) we will get through this quickly and pleasantly! I make it sound like a chore, don't I? Truth is, I love to write, but sometimes i get writers block. Okay, i get writers block a lot. But if you like it, I will keep writing it!
Enjoy!
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Disclaimer: If you truly think I own these characters, you need to find a psyco ward and fast!
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Part I: Changing
She peeked out from the bars on her cage. He was sitting on his bed reading the latest Daily Prophet. His black, unruly hair fell over his glasses and he kept pushing it back irritably. She chuckled softly to herself, If he would let someone cut it…
"Hedwig?" I told myself to stop laughing in public. "Hedwig did you just… chuckle?" In response she just hooted and flapped her wings once or twice. Pecking at the bars, she hoped he would forget it and simply let her out so she could think. She seemed to be needing to do that a lot…
"…to be going out a lot these days, Hedwig. Getting a bit plump, maybe?" He laughed to himself more than to her. "Somehow I can't imagine another baby Hedwig. Just you and me is all I can handle." He let her out then, opening the window extra wide in a jokingly gallant gesture. "No more of that, now, Hedwig. I'm not built to carry around two cages." With a last look at his soft smiling face, she flew off into the night.
Sickeningly precise houses aligned the ground beneath her as if mocking her. Yeah, I'm sure you're more confused than you look; you can't fool me. She sighed. But probably not as confused as me. Sadness and anger came out from her in waves. Why should she have to keep up this façade? Did she really need to? Didn't she want to? Oh, botheration. She was flying in circles around a stupid tree with no possible prey. That was one thing she could do without. Eating animals was one thing, but eating live animals? She had tried once to eat plants but found the results the next day were unsettling. No pun intended. But she knew that once she could be permanently human again, if she could be permanently human again, she was indefinitely becoming a vegetarian.
She swooped down to the ground and smoothly landed right below a widespread tree. She found the reaching branches soothing; as if they were protecting her from the dark creatures of the night. She brought her wing up to her bright yellow eyes that most said were strangely human. Taking a deep breath, she willed it to change. Slowly but surely, she watched as pale fingers began to form from the feathers. She brought up the other wing and willed that one as well. The pain she ignored; she needed to be human, if only for a minute. She willed her face next. She reached the new slender hands up and felt her nose and mouth. It quirked in response. After, it was her legs, then her arms, and then her torso. The wind whipped around her completely bare skin, but instead of feeling the chill, she felt free. Free at last. Now don't go singing muggle songs in your head. You've already got too much buzzing around there… She stood. Her legs were unsure at first, but they quickly adjusted. They always did.
She looked up towards the sky. Her long black hair fell around her shoulders. She never had any reason to cut it, since she only got these few moments in this form. Her piercing eyes swirled with violet, but still held a tint of yellow. They always would. Her skin was as pale as the moonlight. With all those feathers covering it, and her never going out of doors during the day, it would be.
She turned around and around, dizzy and happy all at once. But unlike her owl form that never got dizzy, her human form fell down onto the soft grass. As she lay there, re-gathering her senses, her happiness slowly faded. She felt as her bones began to turn hollow. Her torso got shorter and shorter and her whole body became covered in brown feathers. Only for seconds was she ever allowed that joy of being herself. Eventually, all her features became that of a fowl.
Heaving a well deserved sigh, she pulled herself off the ground. She was aching all over – the result of the night's work. Her stomach growled then. Ah, she thought, the irony of the world. I'm hungry just as I turn into the form of a carnivorous cannibal. She lifted her wings. She was so very tired, and she had only changed for a few moments. She could never keep going at this rate. It was slowly destroying her. Each night she wanted it for longer and each night she could do it for shorter and shorter amounts of time. Pretty soon it would be impossible.
She flapped her wings and soon she was airborne. She flew through the branches of the tree that had hid her from the prying eyes of the world. Thoughts flitted about in her brain, but one stood out above the others. Would she ever get to be herself… permanently?
"You were out for a while last night, Hedwig. Any troubles?" He had left her cage open so she flew out and landed on his shoulder. Inside she was panting. Nuzzling into his shoulder, she told him he needn't worry without having to use any words. He smiled. "Oh I know. You're a good bird." Hedwig sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that week. At least he thought she was a good bird… if nothing else.
Harry had been in a frenzy for hours now. School was going to start in two days and as usual, his room was an utter disaster. For the amount of time he had spent thinking about going to Hogwarts, he hadn't spent any of his time preparing. Luckily, Mrs. Weasley had bought his books on her visit to Diagon Alley. Hedwig herself had brought the thank you letter that also included their plans to meet at the train station on departure day. She signed inwardly. Too much sighing, Hedwig… She was exited to get back to Hogwarts, but the school held a sort of loneliness for owls. She was used much more as a post owl there too, which would take up most of her energy. A bird's strength and endurance did not accompany her transformation. She had a bird's jobs to do and a bird's life to live, but she had to do it on the meager muscle of a human. Confound it all!
"Drop these in the rubbish bin, will you Hedwig?" She went over meekly and took a few sheets of used parchment from his outstretched hand, but not before nipping his finger and looking meaningfully at her cage. In all the bustle he hadn't cleaned it yet. She felt helpless and angry that she couldn't do it herself but one can't do much with wings and feathers and all those sorts of useless things. He laughed and nodded. "Sorry Hedwig. Forgot! But do throw these away." She took them obligingly to the bin and peered out the window as she passed it. It was a sunny day. Not hot, not cold, but the exact temperature that made you want to lie in the grass and look for shapes in the clouds. It's as if the world was determined to be perfect just to show her how imperfect she was. Well you go ahead and be nice and pretty because I'll just ignore you. Harry thinks I'm a good bird. So there!
Finishing her task she lept back into her cage. At first, the cage had seemed like a prison; holding her back from a life she'd never get to have. But now they were protection. A mask – no one need ever see her as who she was… Faith.
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