Author's Note

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; all characters belong to the talented J.K Rowling.

This was just kind of a cute little chapter about the snidget before they go off to Hogwarts. I'm excited to finally have the egg hatch. I love snidgets; I wish they had been mentioned more in the books, or even hopefully in one of the next fantastic beast movies. I've only ever read maybe one or two fanfics that have them in as a pet or companion. Which is sad, they're so cool.

So enjoy, hopefully the next chapter will be up by tomorrow. Please review like always.

~Briane94

Chapter 7

Egg Shells

It was only what felt like minutes later that Laurel, Hermione and Ginny were being woken up. All of them groaned in annoyance at being woken up so early. Tiredly getting dressed, Laurel put on her shirt, before realising it was on backwards and groaned again. It was too early.

After quickly packing up everything up magically, Mr. Weasley led them quickly to a line of wizards and witches that had to decides make an early start to get home as well. It was a quiet trip, all of them too exhausted to talk, only concentrating on moving their feet as they slowly made their way back to the Burrow. It would have been easier to apparate, Laurel thought, longingly thinking about her bed.

As they came within seeing distance of the shabby house, a cry echoed throughout the house, causing everyone to wince as what was to come.

"Oh thank goodness, thank goodness!"

Mrs. Weasley, still in her bedroom attire, was waiting for them in the front yard, her face pale and strained, clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet in her hand.

"Arthur - I've been so worried - so worried -"

After calming Mrs. Weasley down, they all went inside to discuss the recent events. After reading the paper, Mr. Weasley, along with Percy, decided it would be best if they went into the ministry. With Mrs. Weasley still too upset to cook anything after a cup of tea with fire whiskey, Laurel got Hermione and Ginny up and they started cooking food for everyone. Harry even helped, cooking the bacon while Laurel set the table, Hermione made the tea, and Ginny cooked the eggs.

It wasn't the best breakfast they'd ever had, but it was food, and they were all hungry. Laurel had even made toast for everyone.

After breakfast, they were more awake now and Laurel, Harry, Hermione and Ron went up to Ron's room to talk.

"Oh my god!" Laurel suddenly exclaimed, stopping on the stair case. Harry ran into her, causing her to fall forward.

"What's wrong", Hermione called from the below.

"I completely forgot. My mother doesn't know what happened, she'll be reading the newspaper by now", Laurel fretted.

"Why don't you quickly go back home, and let her know what's happened. We'll meet you in Ron's room", Harry said.

"Good idea, I'll be back soon", Laurel said while grabbing her necklace. Muttering her family motto, she quickly disappeared from the Burrow, much to the shock of Ron and Hermione.

Softly landing in the main living room, Laurel quickly walked to the kitchen where her mother was most likely to be.

She had just walked in as her mother picked up the paper, reading the headline as she spilled tea.

"Mum. Hi I'm alright, so is Hermione and Harry and Ron." Laurel said as she sat down next to her mother.

"Oh thank god. I just saw the paper", her mother said, hugging her only daughter.

"I can't believe it. At the world cup. Where was the security?" her mother fumed as she read the article quickly.

"I don't know. It happened so fast. No one knew what to do", Laurel said, righting the teacup and wiping up the tea with a cloth.

"I'm glad you came home and let me know. God knows what I would have done if I'd seen the paper before you got here".

"Ehh yeah", Laurel muttered looking down, not mentioning the fact that she had almost forgot to come home and let her mother know she was alright.

"I'm so glad you're alright dear. Will you still be staying at the Weasleys for the rest of the summer", her mother asked.

"Yes, unless you don't want me to?" Laurel asked, hoping her mother would let her stay.

"Of course you can. I know you're safe now. That's the main thing. I know you'll be fine staying with the Weasleys. I don't know how Molly and Arthur do it, one child is enough trouble", her mother said, ruffling her hair.

"Mom!" Laurel groaned in annoyance as her messy hair.

"Come, I'll see you out", her mother said, putting the paper down and getting up. Laurel followed her to the fireplace.

"Remember to write. I love you, enjoy the rest of the summer", her mother said, as she hugged her goodbye.

"Love you to, bye", Laurel said, releasing her mother and walking into the green flames.

As she landed in the Weasleys fireplace, no one seemed to have noticed her arrival, so she quickly ran back up the stairs. The Weasleys were all still in the kitchen, well what was let of them, with Ron upstairs and Mr. Weasley and Percy at the Ministry. She heard them quietly talking as she walked past.

Not even knocking on the door, Laurel made her way into Ron's room as everyone looked up at her.

"I'm back. I got there just in time to stop a major freak out", Laurel said.

"That's good. It's just horrible for everyone waiting for their families to come back", Hermione said as she petting Croakshanks in her lap. Meanwhile, Pig was in his cage again, making a lot of noise.

"Ron, honestly, do you let Pig out at all. He needs to spread his wings and learn how to fly properly", Laurel lectured as she let the small owl out of its cage.

"Now go, have some fun", Laurel said gently as she let the owl out of the window. Pig hooted at her in thanks, and excitedly flew out and dropped a meter before hatching itself on its wings.

"You see, he'll come back after he's tired and not cause such a racket," Laurel promised.

"I guess it's worth a try", Ron muttered, peeved at Laurel telling him how to look after his pets.

Just as Laurel was about to said something, a small noise stopped her.

"Did anyone hear that?" Laurel asked, looking around the room.

"Hear what?" Harry asked. The noise sounded again, and Laurel thought it sounded like a chirp.

"That", Laurel said.

""No", Ron said, confused.

"Shhh everyone", Hermione said. They all silenced. Again the chirping was heard.

"It's coming from you Laurel", Harry said.

"Me?" Laurel said, confused. "The egg!"

Carefully, Laurel took the egg out of her pocket and held it flat in her hand for everyone to see. There were a few small cracks on the shell and the chirping got louder. She placed the egg on the ground.

"That's why you could hear it before us, Laurel. The egg was in your pocket", Hermione concluded.

They all watched silently as little by little, the egg cracked even more, before the first piece of shell fell away. A small curved peak peeked out from the whole, chirping.

"Aw," Hermione gushed.

"Come on, you can do it", Laurel muttered softly. The hatchling went back in and a bigger piece of egg shall broke away. Slowly, the Snidget broke out of its egg, chirping as it struggled. Now that it was fully out, Laurel could hear the chirping more clearly, it was somewhere between a hum and a chirp, like nothing she'd heard before.

Once it was fully out, Laurel asked, "Hermione, can you find the blue box from my bags, it's got everything I'll need please".

"I'll be back in a second".

"Ron, could you get me a soft cloth and some warm water please", Laurel asked.

"Sure thing," Ron said, getting up.

Harry and Laurel watched the little bird as it fluttered its featherless wings weakly. Once it was cleaned up they'd be able to see the small creature better, but with membrane and other stuff that Laurel didn't want to know about all over it, and on the floor of Ron's room, it wasn't the prettiest of sights.

Once Ron and Hermione were back, Laurel gently wet the cloth Ron had given her, and wiped the hatchling clean. Laurel had read in the textbook that the lady at the Magical Menagerie had given her, which explained that a snidget was an altricial species of bird,where the young are born or hatched helpless, as opposed to precocial bird species, meaning that they were more developed upon hatching, with their eyes open and having feathers already.

Gently placing it in the soft cloth she had bought for it, Laurel wrapped it up and put it in the small nest that would its home.

"Do you think it needs to be fed straight away?" Hermione asked, as the hatchling continued to chirp.

"Um, I think so. I'll see if it wants some honey", Laurel took out the jar of honey she had ready, and using a special blunt syringe, she pulled some honey into the tube and carefully and slowly put the blunt syringe at the chicks beak and watched as if on instinct, the bird opened its mouth and latched on. Laurel slowly released the honey from the tube, and once the bird was full Laurel gently pulled the syringe out of its beak. It seemed to instantly go to sleep after that.

"Wow that was cool", Ron said.

"Yeah for a first meal it ate a lot for such a small bird", Harry said.

"What are you doing to name it?" Hermione asked, curious.

"I don't know, I never thought about names".

"Wait, don't you need to find out if it's male or female", Ron asked, looking at the bird in hopes of seeing what gender it was.

"Well, I'm fairly sure this snidget is female, the book says the males have brighter features and bigger beaks, even after just hatching. But I'll get her checked out once we go back to the magical menagerie, I did promise to let them take a picture of her".

"What about Ruby, for its eyes", Harry said.

"..." Laurel thought for a moment, it wasn't a bad name, but wasn't right, "That can be the backup name".

"Goldy," Ron suggested.

Laurel shook her head, didn't fit.

"What about Piper", Hermione said.

"Piper," Laurel tested the name. She loved it.

"Piper it is".

"Knew you'd go for Hermione's name," Harry joked as they all looked down at the sleeping Piper.

~O~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~O~

The next two weeks were a struggle for Laurel, Piper woke her up constantly during the night, needing to be fed every twenty minutes or so. During the day everyone helped out, especially Charlie, who was interested in her snidget and its growth. Laurel would hand Piper off to Charlie in the early hours of the morning, and get a couple of hours of sleep without any interruptions and Charlie or even Mrs. Weasley would feed the hatchling for the next couple of hours.

By the two week mark, Piper Laurel could already see the soft downy golden feathers on the snidget and the bright red eyes had fully opened. It had also started to become rounder and more golden in its feathers.

By week 3, Piper was almost fully grown, and had started to try and fly, with little results. She didn't need to be fed as much now that she could eat more during each feeding, so they only needed to feed her once every two hours, which was a relief for Laurel.

Besides feeding and taking care of Piper, the rest of the summer was spent playing Quidditch with the Weasley brothers, or studying with Hermione. Laurel wasn't really good at Quiddich, but it was fun never the less just goofing around. Everyone always had a big fuss about it when she got the ball and would try, and fail, to score a goal. Laurel had come to the conclusion that Quidditch just wasn't for her.

Once Piper was 3 and a half weeks old, Laurel decided it was time to take her for a little trip to Diagon Ally. Piper had grown all her feathers, surprisingly fast, and now looked fully grown, if only it wasn't for the inability to fly that is.

Laurel scooped Piper up in her hands as the bird hummed at her.

"Now Piper, we're going to be using the floo network, I know you don't know what that is, but it will be weird for you as it's your first time", Laurel said, trying to prepare the snidget for the journey. One thing she had found out in her readings was that snidgets were highly intelligent, similar to that of owls. They could understand what humans were saying and follow directions. She tucked Piper in her pocket, making sure that she was secure, before grabbing her bag and meeting everyone down stairs for their last trip to diagon ally. Ron was the only one that hadn't bought his school supplies yet, so they would be going with Molly as well.

"Ready", Laurel said as she walked into the living room.

Waiting her turn, Laurel fussed over the snidget, hoping that it was safe. Most creatures were fine to use the floo network. But Piper was still just a chick and Laurel was nervous.

Stepping into the fire, Laurel held one hand securely over her pocket which was occupied by Piper, and spoke, "Diagon Ally".

In seconds, she was spinning around before handing on her feet in the leaky caldron. Walking over to Hermione, Ron and Harry, she was relieved to see that Piper was fine, if not a little bit ruffled.

They waited shortly for Mrs. Weasley, before Hermione and Laurel split off to the Magical Menagerie while Ron, Harry and Mrs. Weasley went off to the bank.

As they walked, Piper pocked her head out from Laurels pocket, curious at all the new things she was seeing. Piper struggled to get out more, and Laurel had to stop the over excited creature.

"You can't fly yet, you'll plummet to the ground and get crushed", Laurel said in exasperation.

"I think maybe she's feeling left out," Hermione said as she petted Piper. So far, Piper had taken a liking to Hermione the best, besides Laurel of course. Piper also liked Ginny as well. Maybe it had something to do with them all sleeping in the same room, but so far she was more affectionate with the females in the house.

As they walked inside the shop, a young lady greeted them, "Hi, welcome to Magical Menagerie, how can I help you today".

"Hi, I'm looking for Mrs. Willock", Laurel said.

"Oh yes, she's out back, I'll just go grab her", the lady said while walking out back.

As they waited Laurel looked around. There were rats playing hop scotch, snakes, cats, ferrets, toads. So many different types of animals.

"I can't believe Croakshanks used to live here. It's so loud", Laurel commented, thinking about the poor cat being inside a cage for so long.

"I know I just had to get him after finding that out. It broke my heart seeing him like that. And now he's got so much freedom", Hermione said smiling happily.

"Ladies, how can I help", Mrs. Willock said walking behind the counter, "Ah I remember you. The lady with the snidget egg, Laurel was it".

"Yes, hello and this is my friend Hermione".

"Nice to me you," Hermione said.

"Like promised, I brought in the snidget, this is Piper," Laurel said, introducing them. She gently took Piper out from her pocket, as the tiny bird fluttered its wings and flew into the air for a couple of seconds before handing again on Laurels hand.

"Still young I see. I'd guess about 3 weeks old", Mrs. Willock said, petting the snidget gently as Piper hummed in that funny way.

"Yes, three and a half weeks old, but she hasn't been able to fly yet", Laurel said.

"That's perfectly fine, give it another week and she's be up in the air, sometimes it takes a little bit longer. I would like to run some spells, check it's healthy and put on some standard spells to protect the snidget from any diseases and such it might get. You call her Piper, so she's a girl. I'll double check for you".

They watched at Mrs. Willock picked up Piper, who wasn't much fussed at it, and put her on the bench. Waving her wand in complicated movements, they watched as they enveloped Piper as the snidget ruffled it feathers in disagreement at the treatment.

After a couple of minutes, Mrs. Willock was finally done.

"Now, you were right, the snidget is a girl. Perfectly healthy, you've done a good job raising her. Not many people could have taken on the responsibility of a hatchling, especially one as rare and valuable as a snidget. I would suggest adding in some exercise time for Piper, help her wings get stronger. Maybe less time with you carrying her around and move time leaving her to fly at her own will. Make her come to you".

"Okay, we can do that", Laurel and Hermione shared guilty looks. They were always picking Piper up if they went somewhere, or to put her back in her little nest.

"Thanks for bringing her in. I'll just get a couple of pictures of her. And then we're done".

When had said a couple of pictures, she had actually meant a thousand. Laurel and Hermione stood there for at least half an hour before the shop keeper was finally finished. She had pictures of Piper hovering for a few seconds, drinking water, walking around, side views and front views, aerial views, and close up pictures of her eyes and beak as well as her wings and feathers.

"Come on Piper", Laurel cooed, "you can do it". She watched as Piper flapped her wings in quick succession and hoovered before quickly flying up onto Laurels shoulder.

"See, she knew you weren't going to baby her, and so she put in the effort to fly. That's progress already. Keep that up. And stop by any time", Mrs. Willock said, waving as she left.

Laurel was scared that Piper would fall off her shoulder as they walked, but surprisingly Piper had amazing balance and stuck to her like glue.

"You want to check out the book shop before we meet up with Harry, Ron and Mrs. Weasley. We still have time", Laurel asked.

"Of course," Hermione said.

As they walked, they saw a couple of other students from Hogwarts, and waving or stopped to talk for a couple of seconds. Once person though, that they did not want to talk to, just happened to be inside Flourish and Blotts.

They were just browsing through the defence against the dark arts section when a loathing voice interrupted them.

"Why if it isn't the mudblood and the blood traitor", Draco Malfoy said, walking over from behind a stack of textbooks. Draco Malfoy, Laurel didn't understand what his problem was, he always seemed to want to start a fight. And calling her a blood traitor was one thing, but calling Hermione that filthy word was entirely on another level.

"I'm surprised to find you in a book shop Malfoy, I didn't think someone with as low intelligence as you would find anything useful in books", Laurel said in scorn. Piper fluttered angrily, sensing Laurels emotions.

"Go away Malfoy, there nothing here for you", Hermione added, collecting the books she wanted, as did Laurel.

"As if I'd ever listen to anything you have to say mudblood," Malfoy said in his gloating voice. It was really getting on Laurels nerves.

"What's that thing on your shoulder Flamel?" Malfoy ask in disgust, spotting Piper.

"It's a bird Malfoy, can't you tell", Laurel said.

"No, that's a snidget. Where'd you get that", Malfoy asked, curious lingering at the edge of his scornful voice.

"None of your business Malfoy, now we're leaving", Laurel said, wanting to end the conversation. As they walked past, Malfoy grabbed Piper from her shoulder, holding her in his two hands while Piper frantically started to get away, chirping and humming in agitation.

"Give her back!" Laurel shouted.

"You're hurting her Malfoy", Hermione shouted. Their worry was for nothing, for Piper, having had enough of Malfoys handling, used her shark beak to peak at Malfoys hand, drawing blood. Malfoy gasped in pain, and releasing the snidget, Laurel thought she'd drop to the ground, but Piper caught herself and flew back up to Laurel, who caught her in her hands gentle and checked her over. Piper looked tired, and her heart was pumping harder them usual.

"It's okay Piper, I won't let Malfoy hurt you again, you did such a good job", Laurel said softly as she comforted her.

"That's what you get Malfoy, you had no right to touch Piper", Hermione was telling Malfoy off.

"That thing needs to be put down. It's feral, no wonder there going instinct", Malfoy said in anger as he nursed his bleeding hand. It wasn't even that bad.

Laurel rolled her eyes, "I hope you learned your lesson Malfoy, next time you pull something like that, you'll end up in the hospital wing".

Hermione and Laurel left after that, buying their books and heading off to the leaky caldron to find everyone else.

"I can't believe Malfoy, honestly, what would possess someone to just grab someone's pet without asking and then complaining because it hurt him", Laurel was saying angrily on their way back.

"Malfoy thinks the world revolves around him, he doesn't need to ask permission, he's a Malfoy" Hermione ranted, scoffing at the thought.

The rest of the day was pleasant after that. They had lunch at the leaky caldron with Harry and Ron, Mrs. Weasley left, wanting to get some chores done for the day. Ron had gotten his dress robes, and was moaning about how bad they were.

"They can't be that bad Ron", Hermione was saying.

"Really, really, you have a look then", Ron said. He pulled out what looked like a maroon dress, with lace around the collar and lace around the cuffs.

"Err what era is it from", Laurel asked, poking the velvet fabric.

"Its ancient I tell you. I can't wear this", Ron complained, shoving the robes back into a bag.

"Ron you're just going to have to deal with it. Your mom tried her best to get you nice robes", Hermione said matter of factly.

Ron grunted, looking away.

"Maybe once we're at Hogwarts we could make it look better. I'm sure there are spells to change clothes and such. As soon as well can get to the library I'll see what I can do", Laurel said helpfully. Ron perked up after that and ate the rest of his lunch.

Once they had all eaten, even Piper, they left Diagon ally for the last time until next year. Laurel and Hermione spent the rest of the night reading through their new books, while Harry and Ron played chest, and Hedwig tried to demonstrate how to land on a perch to Piper. It was quite cute, and they all stopped and watched as Hedwig would fly from one end of the room, trying to encourage Piper to do the same. After a few minutes, Piper finally worked up the courage to take flight and flew over next to Hedwig.

Hedwig fluttered her wings and hooted in accomplishment at helping the smaller bird to learn how to fly, while Piper excitedly hummed and chirped, puffing her chest up.

"Come on now, time for bed Piper, you to Hedwig", Laurel said lovingly. Piper flew over to her nest tiredly, while Hedwig hooted at her sternly, as if to say; don't tell me when I have to go to bed, before ruffling her feathers and flying to her cage.

Authors note

Thanks everyone for reading. Next chapter they'll all be off to Hogwarts, finally!