Chapter 13: Mother Owl

Hedwig didn't know what she was thinking as she landed on the fence of the paddock. These big guys could stomp on her without a second thought for crying out loud! So why was she coming over to them after she had seen what they could do? But still, she couldn't help herself as she looked at them all close up as they talked to each other, the big gray one named Buckbeak was tossing his head around angrily.

'Great ugly brute?!' she heard him snarl. 'Did you hear him? Well, he sure didn't look so pretty when I got through with him!'

'That was brilliant,' the chestnut one laughed.

'Yeah, but something tells me that this can't be good for you,' the inky black one added.

'Must you be so damn depressing?' the bronze colored one retorted. 'If you ask me, he had it coming!'

Finally, the pink female said, 'Enough boys. Unless you want me to scratch your eyes out.'

'Must you be so hard on us, Rosie?' the chestnut demanded.

'Hey,' Buckbeak said, looking up and finally noticing that she was there. 'Looky here… we got company.'

The others all looked at her and Hedwig ruffled her feathers confidently.

'Who are you supposed to be?' the bronze one asked, almost in a teasing voice as she looked over them all.

'What?' she retorted back at them, 'Is it a crime to enjoy the day?'

'No,' Buckbeak said lightly, 'That I don't mind. It's when you start gawking at me is when I get angry.'

'I wasn't gawking,' she answered coolly. 'Just wondering what you were arguing about. I saw what happened and I just wanted to make sure that you didn't hurt my owlet.'

'Your owlet?' the pink on, called Rosie, repeated with a chuckle. 'You mean one of the humans? I don't see it…'

'You better not have meant that brat that I just gave a hard lesson to!' Buckbeak warned, tossing his head angrily and his front talon digging deep into the ground.

'Of course not!' she answered as she walked along the fence so that she could get closer. It was hard to talk to them when they were tethered at one end of the paddock. 'I meant the boy that you let ride on your back.'

'Oh,' Buckbeak answered in understanding. 'That black-haired one.'

'Yes, him,' she answered as she got close enough to hear them clearly without them shouting, but still just out of their reach. 'You almost scared me out of my feathers when you took off with him on your back!'

He snorted a little as his friends laughed behind him.

'Now now…' Buckbeak laughed a little. 'Just teasing him a little… and I don't see what the problem is anyway. He's not the idiot who's crying like a baby now is he?'

'That really was pathetic,' the chestnut one nodded. 'Did you hear him? I'm dying! It's killed me! Oh, I just wanted to shut him up.'

'He has that effect on everyone,' Hedwig admitted and she told them about how she was back in the pet shop when he came in and she bit his fingers.

Buckbeak laughed. 'Well, looks like you're a good judge of character. He'll never make it in this world if you ask me. I swear, left on his own, he'll be dead in a week!'

'I give him even less time than that,' the black one spoke up with a slow and calm voice.

'And what about Harry?' Hedwig asked. 'What do you think of him if you don't mind me asking?'

'Ah, your boy?' Buckbeak asked. 'He's still naïve… got a lot to learn if you ask me. But he's got what it takes. You just have to have an eye for things like that. And I do. At least your boy had the common sense to use manners.'

'That I get,' Hedwig said with a chirp of laughter, 'But… why did you take him flying like that?'

He laughed. 'I doubted what you said about him being your owlet, but I can see it now. But you sure do talk like a mother owl.'

'Shut up!' she retorted and they all laughed at her.

'Ah, but seriously, I did it because in order to get anywhere in this world you gotta have backbone,' he answered, 'Call it curiosity. I just wanted to see how far I could push him. I have to say that I'm impressed. Normally, they turn tail and run long before they get far.'

'And we know how hard it is to impress you,' Rosie told him smugly as he let out a chirp of laughter.

'I know,' the chestnut said. 'I mean, I ate like five dead ferrets the other day and I didn't hear so much as a 'congrats' outta you!'

They all laughed, and even Hedwig joined in with them.

After that day, she had gotten to know all five of them very well—in fact, she often came by to visit with them and talk. The bronze colored one she learned was named Freefall… she could see why when she had watched him go flying a few times—he had this habit of just tumbling to the earth before spreading his wings out at the last second and soar gracefully off. The chestnut's name was Proudfoot… and out of all of them, she supposed that he was indeed the most proud. Though he did have a teasing side and liked to poke fun at all the others. Rosie especially.

Though her real name was Rosewood, they all just called her Rosie. Now she was sweet when she wanted to be, but her personality made it clear that she didn't take crap from anyone… she could snap someone's wing in half when she wanted. Though Buckbeak was the leader of their little group, they all heeded her words more than they did with him.

And then the inky black one was named Blackjack… which he didn't seem to care one thing about what happened. He had a bit of a doom-and-gloom personality to him. But he was good to have around, to make moody jokes and for the others to poke fun at him.

She enjoyed their company much more than most of the owls in the owlery. They at least liked to have a good time and poke fun at everyone else. However, over the next few days, Hedwig couldn't help but notice that Hagrid seemed to be beside himself with worry. She would notice how he would look out the window at them, his eyes straying to Buckbeak like he thought that he would disappear if he looked away for too long.

She pointed this out to her new friends, but they all told her the same thing… that he always did worry over them and they shouldn't be concern. She did try to put that out of her mind when they were together, and she also learned to enjoy the company of Crookshanks from time to time.

Now he liked to come and go whenever he saw fit, and never stopped to chat for long. But she had grown to enjoy his sarcastic and teasing remarks. But lately, he seemed to be growing more and more interested in going after Scabbers the rat. She could hear him making plans, just bidding his time until he was sure that the boy's dormitory was empty so that he could go up there. She couldn't understand why though… sure, she was as curious as the next owl over what Scabbers was, but… come on, the cat was becoming a little obsessive over it.

'Now, it's not me who wants him,' Crookshanks told him with a purr, one night when she spotted him hunting on the edge of the forest and asked about his deal with the rat. 'I'm doing it for a new friend of mine.'

Now what sense did that make? After all, why go to all the trouble to hunt for a single rat when this forest was filled with mice and all sorts other critters?

But she ignored it all for the most part and things seemed to be surprisingly quite over these next couple weeks. Something that she loved so dearly. However, she always made sure to stay as far away as she possibly could from Hogwarts borders. After that first encounter with those horrible things, she wasn't anywhere near keen to ever have a second. All in all however, this year was turning out to be much safer than the last one… at least it was.

But on Halloween night she heard some disturbing news. Apparently Sirius Black had tried to force his way into Gryffindor Tower. She overheard some of the owls talking about it when she was just about to go to the Great Hall to visit Harry. Her heart at turned cold at the thought and she was practically a white blur as she took off and sped to the Great Hall. She didn't thing she breathed in once until she saw him at the table, looking tired, but unharmed.

She nibbled his fingers a little harder than she normally did, but all in all, a sense of relief swept through her when she saw that he was unscathed.

*Days Later*

She had tried to go to the Gryffindor's Quidditch practices for a long time—watching them fly around and train always took her mind off everything that was going on. However, the next few weeks went on, the weather had become strong winds and heavy rain so that it was almost impossible for her to even stay on her perch to watch them.

Finally, it had become so hard for her, she had to stay inside almost constantly. So she missed everything up till the day of the Quidditch match. She was determined to go out and see the game, but thanks to the miserable weather, it had grown dangerous for any owl to try to fight their way through it.

The other owls told her flatly not to go when she tried to leave the owlery.

'But…' she began angrily.

'If the weather was any different,' a large Tawny said in concern, 'We wouldn't stop you. But look at it?' he jerked his head to the window and she turned to see the rain falling so hard and fast she knew that she would never be able to stay airborne for long.

'I'm sorry,' he sighed. 'But it's just one game. You could get killed in these winds. And it's been growing colder and colder out there. If you try to leave now, then there's a chance that you might not make it back in one piece.'

Now Hedwig knew all this. She knew that going out and trying to watch her owlet play would be dangerous. But she had been there for every one of his game up till now. She felt bad enough for missing the training… but missing one of their real games? Yet, she knew that there wasn't anything else that she could about it now right?

The last thing she wanted was for her owlet to feel bad if she got hurt and unable to help him when he might need her too. So she nodded and settled into her perch as she watched the rain fall. She hoped that the rain would stop enough for her to go and see at least parts of the game. But it wasn't until late that night did she discover what happened.

The rain had slowed to a light drizzle at long last, and a few other owls came swooping into the room after a quick hunt—she had just assumed that her owlet helped to win the game like he always did and they were safe and sound in the tower once again. That was what she had been thinking off until she overheard them talking about some kind of accident at the Quidditch game—the Dementors appeared.

Feeling as if her heart froze inside her, she turned quickly to them and squawked at them what happened. They looked surprised by her outburst before they told her what they overheard some of the students say. Apparently one of the players fell from his broom when the Dementors came gliding onto the field and is now lying in the hospital.

Hedwig stumbled a little as she tried to keep herself from falling off her perch. She completely ignored everyone else as she went soaring out into the cold night air. She didn't care if she got sick from all this… she had to see for herself who it was in the hospital, but deep down, she already had a very good idea to who it was who would be waiting for her.

It only took her a few minutes for her to find the right window to the hospital. It was very dark and late, but she could see who it was who was inside and lying in bed.

'Harry…' she moaned when she saw him lying in one of the beds, staring up at the ceiling with a sick-looking expression. She tapped sharply on the window with her beak to get his attention, and he looked over to see what was going on. She watched as his eyes widen in surprise as he slowly raised his head from the bed.

He leaned over quite a ways to be able to slide the window open and she hopped in. 'What happened?! Are you hurt? Did those things go near you again?' she demanded angrily as she fluttered to his mattress and he smiled a little when he saw her.

Naturally, he didn't answer any of her questions as he gently ran his fingers over her feathers and she felt herself calm down at his touch.

"Hey Hedwig,"he said to her tiredly.

He looked terrible. All pale and shaking, his eyes slightly red as she let him pet her feathers—but he was still smiling at the sight of her. He didn't say anything as she hooted softly for him in an effort to calm him down and give him some comfort. They stayed like that for at least an hour before he couldn't fight sleep any longer and slowly lay his head back down on his pillow and closed his eyes.

She looked sadly at him, watching over him all night until the first rays of sunlight began to poke through the windows. She didn't move once until the woman walked in and tutted angrily when she saw her sitting on the bed railing. She picked Hedwig up rather roughly before she sent her flying back out the window.

But Hedwig didn't care. At least she was able to give him some form of comfort for a little while.

For the next few days, she would come back, to make sure her owlet was recovering well from his encounter. She was able to get the whole story soon enough though. She remembered when he had passed out while they had been on the train… she shook her head. She was never gonna miss another match again.

(How is it? I always did like to think that maybe she might've come into the hospital wing to visit Harry if she ever found out what happened. My friend told me not to put this in because it 'didn't happen in the book'. But… it never said that it didn't now did it? Anyway, hope you enjoyed it.)