Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from the Harry Potter stories belongs to J. K. Rowling.
A/N: The title is a play on the expression "Talk to the Hand".
June the 3rd was an absolutely normal day. Well, as normal as they get when you're a post owl living in a school for witchcraft and wizardry that is. Even by Hogwarts' criteria, however, that was still a dull, uneventful morning.
In the school's owlery, all the birds were enjoying a good day's sleep. Students brought all kinds of owls to Hogwarts, tawny, white or otherwise coloured, ranging from humongous specimens to ones that could fit in a palm. Scattered among them, the school owls were also enjoying the short peace and quiet they had between numerous errands; since most students did not have their own messengers, they delivered most of the mail.
At Hogwarts, however, tranquility was always short-lived. It was in the nature of things.
A student stormed into the owlery, slamming the heavy wooden door behind him. The resulting sound woke up even the soundest of sleepers.
Hooting with displeasure, the birds looked at the irate human in front of them and noticed the green patch on his robes, marking him as belonging to the House of Slytherin. They had never understood why people decorated their clothes with the symbol of prey. After all, snakes weren't even as tasty as mice, for example.
Draco Malfoy was angry with the world and the unfairness of it all, but his foul mood vanished quickly when he took in the smell of the owlery, snarling in disgust. To be honest with himself, he wanted nothing to do with the dumb beasts. If he valued his life, however, he had to find a way to collaborate with them as it was the only way he could send the message to the Manor.
His right hand, in which he held the letter, was shaking slightly. He willed it to stop. Not missing the fact that all the owls in the room had their eyes on him, he took a moment to compose himself and turned back into the dignified heir of the Malfoy line as he spoke:
"I would like to request a school owl for an important task." Not that he actually believed the dumb animals were actually sentient, but it was worth a shot.
Most of the owls decided to go back to sleep, not before hooting in indignation at being bothered for nothing. The stranger was nothing but annoyingly self-important.
Draco decided to wait for a few moments, but not an owl responded to his request. Slowly but surely, the calm façade was breaking, his nervousness starting to show through the cracks. He tried again, albeit differently. "In the name of the Dark Lord, I command you to obey me!"
If owls could raise an eyebrow, they would have done so. The newcomer was evidently oblivious to the ways of the birds if he was speaking like that to them.
The Slytherin was now pacing back and forth, eyeing the birds at the same time. The uncertainty was gone, replaced by a malicious tone.
"You will do as I say or else…" He left the threat hanging in the air.
None of the owls reacted.
After a while, he stopped in front of a great, brown owl with a silver ringlet around one of its legs that marked her as a school property. Draco glared at the bird.
"You, "he paused for effect, then continued speaking in a low, menacing voice. " You are going to deliver this letter even if it's the last thing you'll ever do. If you don't, I'll personally make sure ignoring me will be the last thing you've ever done. Understood?"
The owl blinked, and then continued to stare with her big, yellow eyes. She stretched one wing, then the other one, making herself comfortable on her perch. She was too proud to reply to threats like those and, on top of that, she was still light-headed from the lack of sleep.
Draco mumbled something about stupid beasts that couldn't follow the simplest of orders. To his astonishment, the brown-feathered bird hooted back at him. For the sake of the owl, Draco sincerely hoped that wasn't an insult addressed to him.
Human and owl stared at each other, none of them blinking. One pair of eyes with bags underneath it, gray and lifeless but for a feral-like glint of somebody who has taken a dive into insanity and lived to tell the tale. Another pair of eyes, colored a warm yellow and yet looking just as dull.
Minutes passed by.
The sixteen-years-old Death Eater was certain that the bird's will would crumble under his death glare and would realize that delivering the letter would be for its own good. He didn't want to think what would happen if the owl did otherwise.
Out of boredom, the she ruffled her feathers. What a waste of a perfectly good day for sleeping…
He had stayed calm long enough, he thought to himself. He had done that the entire year, lying low so that no one would be able to tell that something was wrong with him. No one to talk to, no one to trust. Keeping to himself all this time, spending hours in the Room of Hidden Things. He had had enough.
Therefore, when his left hand began twitching spasmodically, Draco Malfoy decided to give in to his murderous itch. He launched his hand at the bird, wanting to throttle it.
She flew backwards, positioning herself on a higher perch, thinking herself safe.
Annoyed, he took out his wand and started firing curses. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was being mocked at.
The next seconds could only be described as chaos, as dozens of bird began flying around the room aimlessly. To his dismay, Draco soon found out that it was much, much more difficult to hit moving targets than he'd expected. On top of that, his frayed nerves did nothing to help his aim.
He gave up; he hadn't forgotten that his life depended on that letter, but he simply couldn't muster the energy to fight anymore. He was sick and tired of fighting and plotting and never getting enough sleep...he sometimes wished things could go back to the way they were years ago.
The owls watched triumphantly as the intruder began walking away towards the door with his head bowed down and looking defeated. Justice was served and they could finally return to their well-deserved sleep.
Caught in his somber thoughts, Draco did not even notice when one of the owls snatched the letter from his hand and flew out the window...