Harry Potter :: Raised by a crow
The room was located near the top of an openwork tower that stood near the edge of the cliff over the sea. Tall but narrow windows formed almost a half of the room's walls, while another half of the walls couldn't be seen behind tall bookshelves filled with various book and scrolls that covered almost all aspects of human and not human knowledge. And while normally this airy library room was a very nice place to spend one's time, the dark clouds and strong winds outside were making the room a bit less welcoming. Still, a dark-haired green-eyed boy was sitting cross-legged in a big plump armchair, which stood near the center of the room, and was reading a big and rather old scroll in the lights of several light-blue floating magical spheres. This boy was just a couple of weeks away from turning eleven, and his name was Harry Potter. And this tower was the place he called home for the last five years...
"Harri, we need to talk, alright?" A young and feminine voice that belonged to his mentor, guardian and friend spoke next to him, making the boy look up from the scroll he was reading. Just in time to his mentor sit on the armrest of the armchair.
"What's up, Anha?" Harry asked.
"Your eleventh birthday is soon and invitations to various magical school will be arriving soon." The young woman, now known as Anha, replied. "And, to be honest, I want us to move to Britain: I think the invitation from Hogwarts might be something quite interesting for you." Harry tilted his head to the side, while raising his eyebrow questioningly.
"But... Do we have to? I like it here, it's my home." These words made the woman smile. "And I can learn with you from the books." Anha shook her head.
"You know that I can't teach you everything, nor the books can. Sometimes you need a living teacher and not just one to get all of the knowledge and wisdom you might need..." She paused, before using another argument: "And I've heard that Hogwarts has one of the best magical libraries in Europe. The chance to study the books there isn't something that should be dismissed this easily. I myself too would like to have a peek at the knowledge stored there." Harry nodded, silently telling his guardian that he will think about this.
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Two weeks later Harry found himself sitting in the pub called 'Leaky Cauldron' in London downtown as he and his mentor were having their breakfast before venturing into the local shopping district for the things Harry would need during his school year at Hogwarts: yes, Anha managed to convince him to accept the invitation to this school above all others that he had received in the recent days.
"Still, did we really have to come all the way here? Osaka Academy of Magical Arts looked like a great place. This one looks like something taken right out of the middle ages." Yet, Harry wasn't exactly happy with having to integrate into the society that appeared to be stuck in a Victorian epoch.
"That may look like it, but you shan't judge the things by their appearance. Hogwarts indeed possesses one of the greatest magical libraries in this semi-sphere, and yet, should it prove to be what you fear it is, we still can have you transferred to Osaka's academy after this school year ends." The green-eyed young wizard nodded, agreeing with his mentor. "Now, if you are done with your meal, we shall venture into Diagon Alley for your school supplies." Anha said then. Nodding again, Harry did his best to finish his breakfast as fast as he could while still using proper manners.
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Morning of September the 1st, 1991 found one Harry Potter walking with a crow perched on his left shoulder along the Hogwarts express in search for a place where he could sit undisturbed and have some enlightening reading... Apparently though, he had arrived quite late as it seemed that a good deal of the cars already had at least one person in each of its compartments. In the end, though, the green-eyed wizard found an empty compartment for himself and wasted no time in occupying it, while also silently thanking Anha for sealing all of his things away for him – he was not yet at the level where he could try and do complex containment seals on his own.
Unfortunately for Harry, his peaceful reading didn't last long and not even five minutes after the train had left the platform 9¾, a red-haired boy entered his compartment and proceeded to claim to be his best mate, blah, blah, blah... The young Potter replied with a silence and a penetrating gaze that could make almost anyone uneasy. The redhead was no exception and after about ten seconds made a right decision of leaving Harry the hell alone, though he still could have had slid the compartment door closed after he had left...
The peaceful solitude for Harry lasted barely ten minutes after the redhead's leave as another boy decided that he didn't need as much as a knock on the door, forget and invitation, to enter the compartment the Potter heir was occupying. This boy had blond hair and an overall appearance of a spoiled brat from the extremely wealthy family. And once the said boy, whose name turned to be Draco Malfoy, had opened his mouth, Harry also learned that he was a racist blood-supremacist. So, the green-eyed young wizard had no problems with showing him out of the compartment, even if Draco's two goons didn't really agree with their boss being kicked out...
For the next half an hour the young Potter heir was allowed to have some peaceful reading, but after that his compartment was invaded once again. This time it was a bushy-haired witch, almost definitely raised in the non-magical world, who was asking, whether he had seen someone's pet toad or not. He told her that he haven't and everything might have ended here, but then the witch noticed the crow that was still perched on Harry's shoulder.
"You know, you're not allowed to bring anything but an owl or a cat or a toad as your pet, right?" The bushy-haired witch asked him as she, consciously or not, invaded his personal space to a great degree. Gently pushing the intrusive witch away, the green-eyed wizard straightened himself, before replying.
"It was not explicitly forbidden to bring other animals, and even then, she's not a pet, she's my familiar and more." Harry said, while gently stroking the crow's feathers.
"But..." The bushy-haired witch tried to object, but was met witch such a glare from the Potter heir that she couldn't help but 'retreat'. "Alright, but if you into problems for this, I've warned you!" And with those words she went away, likely to continue searching for that toad... Thankfully for the green-eyed wizard, after her visit, only a lady that sold various sweets had disturbed him for the rest of the train ride.
Once the train arrived to the train station in a village called Hogsmeade, the first year students were collected for the traditional boat ride to the castle by the Hogwarts gamekeeper, who appeared to have some giant blood in him, while the older student rode there on the carriages that appeared to move on their own... The boat ride went without any major incidents (aside from some boy finally finding his toad) and soon young Harry, who still the crow perched on his shoulder, found himself waiting with the rest of his yearmates for the sorting ceremony to begin.
After having to listed to a talking hat of all things sing a song, the deputy headmistress started calling the names of the first-year students. These students had to put the sorting hat on their heads and the hat would say to which of the four Hogwarts houses they'd go... After about two dozens of other students, it was finally Harry's turn to try the hat.
"There is only one place, where I can put a growing scholar like you, young Potter, and it is the great house of Ravenclaw!" The talking hat said, shouting the last word for the entire Great hall to hear, barely a second after it touched the young Potter's head. Harry just shrugged and, taking the hat off, went to join his new housemates at the Ravenclaw table.
Nothing of any real interest had happened during the feast, and after the said feast ended, the firsties were escorted to the Ravenclaw tower by the house prefects. While the common room was 'protected' only by a riddle-talking door knob, seeing that the house was welcoming everyone who values knowledge, Harry thought that this would not be a problem. And the Ravenclaw tower itself.. The young Potter instantly loved it for it was so much like his home – an airy tower with many bookshelves filled with the books containing priceless knowledge it in... Maybe his time here, at Hogwarts, won't be as bad as he thought it would be...
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It was a very early hour, barely after five in the morning, when professor Flitwick, who was the head of the house Ravenclaw, saw some gentle bluish light coming from the house's common room, and he decided to investigate it. The first thing he saw when he stepped through the doors were several spheres of light floating in the air, and while he himself, regretfully, never learned this particular branch of magic, the miniature man instantly recognized them as runic spells. To think that someone who knew those will be among the Hogwarts students... Finally tearing his eyes from the floating balls of gentle light, professor Flitwick started looking for the one who had cast them. And since there were only two people besides him in the common room (and one of those two was sleeping at the moment), the Charms master had no trouble in finding the one who had cast these runic spells.
The caster turned out to be a teenage-looking girl with waist-long silvery hair and red eyes. She was wearing what appeared to be a black-colored sundress with a completely open back, and just that. This girl was reading one of the tomes from the Ravenclaw library, while one Harry Potter was sleeping there with his head in the girl's lap... And professor Flitwick could have dismissed these two as just some night readers, if not for the fact that he had never seen this girl in Hogwarts before. So, drawing his wand, he silently and stealthily approached the unknown witch...
"Tss... My ward is sleeping." The silver-haired girl whispered when the Charms master got close enough to hear her – apparently, she had laid some detection wards around the sofa she and Harry were occupying.
"Your ward?" The miniature man asked, rising his eyebrow. "Who are you, miss?" And after a couple of second of thinking, he added another question: "And how did you get in there?" The unknown girl sighed quietly.
"My name is Anha and as of January 22nd, 1986 I'm official guardian of Harry James Potter." Now that he thought of it, young Harry had mysteriously disappeared from British isles in early January that year, and was never heard of again till this summer. "As for how I got there..." Anha continued. "I was there with my ward the whole evening yesterday." And to make it a bit clearer, she leaned forward and morphed a black feathery wing on her back into existence.
Now, most magicals would have thought that she was a crow animagus or something, professor Flitwick, even if his specializations were Charms and Dueling, knew better: bird animagi could not morph any new appendages, only change their existing ones. So, this girl was something else, and it took the miniature man a couple of seconds to recall what she could be.
"Are you, by any chance,a raven that guards libraries?" He asked. Anha nodded slowly, while the wing disappeared back into nothing but an unblemished skin of her back.
"My kind wasn't referred to as such since the great Alexandria library was burnt,.. At this time, living mostly in the Far East, we're are known as crow tengu. But yes, I'm indeed one of them." The silver-haired girl replied, while shifting into a more comfortable position to seat on the sofa as she returned her attention to the book she was reading, no longer paying her attention to the very surprised by this revelation Charms master.
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