Harry Potter sat in the window of his bedroom, watching Hedwig, his owl, flying across Privet Drive. She was on her way to The Burrow, where his wizard friends, Ron and Hermione, were. As he thought about his best friends, his heart grew heavy, and he put his head in his hands. 'At least' he thought hopefully 'this will be my last time at the Dursleys'. Harry had kept fresh in his memory that when he became 17, he could leave, and that was in 38 day's time. A large brown owl delicately tapped its beak against the glass by Harry's head, waking him from his miserable daze. He looked up and opened the window. The owl proudly stuck out its leg, and Harry untied the letter attached.
WE'RE OFFERING YOU A ONCE IN A LIFETIME TRIP TO ALBERT WIZARTSTEIN'S AMAZING CHOCOLATE WORLD! BUY 5000 OF OUR 4 SICKLE PRICED PRODUCTS AND YOU'LL BE ENTERED IN A SPECIAL DRAW! JUST FILL IN THE ORDER FORM BELOW!
Harry scowled and quickly scrawled 'PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST' on a piece of parchment, attached it to the owl's leg, and sent the owl into the night.
"ANY MORE RUDDY OWLS AND I'LL DEAL WITH YOUR RUDDY PET PERSONALLY!" thundered Uncle Vernon from the living room downstairs. Harry flinched. He had been on the receiving end of junk owl post all summer and to make it worse, Aunt Petunia had been tearing her hair out just thinking about what the neighbours thought. Harry closed the window and leapt into bed without even changing his clothes.
Several weeks on Uncle Vernon's words still rang fresh in his head. After a restless night's sleep which contained terrible dreams of blood, Owls, and Snakes, Harry yawned, stretched, and opened his eyes. He immediately twisted his head to look at Hedwig's cage, as he had done ever since the night that Uncle Vernon had threatened him about her. And, as it had been every day, she was nowhere to be seen. Hedwig had disappeared without a trace, and Harry was starting to get worried. 'Where is she? Has Uncle Vernon hurt her? Or worse, killed her?' Harry thought over and over again. In the end, he couldn't cope with it. He ran downstairs and into the kitchen.
"Uncle Vernon, did you kill Hedwig?" He burst out upon entering. Aunt Petunia screamed and ran into the living room. Uncle Vernon, however, looked positively delighted.
"Of course not, why would I waste the energy when your silly bird can kill itself?" He replied in the most sickly sweet voice he could manage.
"Probably did something stupid like fly into an electric cable". Uncle Vernon smirked, and Harry, fighting back tears, ran up to his room, and slammed the door.