DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.
~ Early Morning Disturbances ~
Dominique Weasley showed up unexpectedly and uninvited to Teddy Lupin's house at 12 Grimmauld Place, only to find that Teddy was apparently still asleep and his little flock of baby hippogriffs were gathered in the front hallway.
One of the hippogriffs trotted over to Dominique to half-heartedly beg to be petted.
Normally they would be all over me... what's got them so down, I wonder?
Dominique scooped up the 'griff and walked over to where the rest of them were gathered. All at once, the whole flock burst into a cacophony of loud cheeps and squeals, jumping up and down and clicking their little talons on the hardwood floor.
"Excited to see me, after all?" Dominique asked.
After a few moments, they quieted down. They seemed... disappointed, somehow. The one in Dominique's arms cheeped sadly.
Teddy stumbled down the stairs, rubbing his eyes, and said, "I thought I heard something."
Dominique turned to look at him.
"They're acting weird," she said, indicating his pets. "Do you have any idea why?"
Teddy shrugged.
The baby hippogriff that Dominique was holding started to squirm to be let down, so she carefully lowered the animal to the floor. If a hippogriff could be said to have a determined expression on its face, this one did. It marched over until it was standing right below the portrait of Walburga Black and opened its beak and-
"Cheep. Cheep. CHEEEEEEEP!"
The humans both winced and covered their ears at the shrill sound of the animal's shrieking, although its broodmates did not seem bothered in the least by the noise.
Dominique noticed that the baby hippogriffs all seemed to be looking at the painting expectantly, although the witch in the portrait had remained miraculously silent this entire time.
She pulled Teddy's hands away from his ears and said to him, "They're sad. I don't know how you got the portrait to be quiet, but I think they think it died or something."
"Well, technically, I am dead," Walburga piped up from her place on the wall.
The hippogriffs broke into a chorus of excited squeaking. Dominique couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"What's so funny?" Teddy asked, nonplussed.
"Ha ha, I think they like her!" Dominique choked out between giggles.
Teddy noticed that the portrait was giving him an odd look.
"Hey, I never told you couldn't talk," he told his long-dead relative. "As long as you're going to be civil about it, feel free."
~end~