The Houses Competition: [Y7] Round 6: Spring Awakens
House: Hufflepuff
Class: DADA
Type: Standard
Prompt: [Animal] Owl
WC: 2913
Content warnings: An animal is injured somewhat severely (but recovers).
As the sun began to rise over Diagon Alley, a barn owl sitting in a spacious cage in Eeylops Owl Emporium smoothed her feathers and looked down at her three chicks.
"Tell us a bedtime story, Mama?" begged the youngest.
She cocked her heart-shaped face down at the little chick, all fluff and down.
"Which story would you like?"
"Oohh, I know! I know!" shouted the middle chick, "tell us about Hedwig and her adventures!"
"But you know that story," the mother chided.
"Tell it again, please!" The chicks said in chorus.
"Ok little ones, listen closely."
Once, a long, long time ago, a young owlet was born in this very shop, just like you three. She was covered in snowy white feathers and dreamed of long flights over distant lands. After she had learned to fly, a boy came looking for a companion. And Hedwig knew this was the boy she was supposed to fly with, so she rapped her talons on the bars of her cage until she got the boy's attention.
The boy noticed Hedwig, and he took her home. She learned the boy was called Harry. At the boy's house, there was a lot of yelling, and Hedwig wasn't allowed to leave the small room where she lived with Harry. She began to worry that she'd never take those great flights she'd dreamed of.
Then one day, Harry loaded Hedwig into her cage and into the backseat of an automobile that drove them to a busy station. Harry stopped to talk to a large red-headed family with an old Screech owl, and then he ran his cart—with Hedwig in it right at a wall!
"But they broke through the wall like it wasn't even there.
And on the other side were dozens and dozens of children with owls and cats and rats and even a toad. Belching smoke in the middle of the platform was a giant red train that Harry and Hedwig got on. Harry took Hedwig onto the train and into a compartment with a boy from the red-headed family that carried them right to a castle with a large lake and big fields to fly over, just like Hedwig always wanted.
"What happened at the castle?" demanded the youngest chick.
"Yea, I want to hear about the dragons!" demanded the middle.
"Alright, alright, be patient little ones and let me tell the story."
At first, Harry sent Hedwig mostly to take letters to the groundskeeper, a kind, giant man who loved animals. He had a large hound that barked at Hedwig, but it was worth it for the feeling of the cool air under her wings as she soared over the fields of campus.
Then one day, Harry came to her. Hedwig could tell he was concerned. He asked her to fly further than she had ever flown before, to a faraway place called Romania. It was the furthest the young owl had ever flown. First, she flew south right over London. I've heard she stopped in this very shop for food and rest to prepare for the next step in the journey.
After Hedwig left London, she had to pass over the water to the South. It was the young owl's first time flying over open waters, and what a time it was because a great storm was forming over her path. The sky cracked with lightning, and pouring rain made her feathers heavy and flying difficult. Hedwig considered turning back to rest but had become disoriented in the heavy winds. When she crossed the water, she arrived in a place called Calais, almost exhausted. An elderly witch found her waiting at the base of a tree, too tired to even flutter up to a branch and took her inside. Hedwig stayed with the woman for three days before heading out on the rest of her journey.
You know, little owlets, that it is our privilege as messenger owls to see the great cities of the world, and Hedwig saw many on her journey. Hedwig flew over Brussels and Nuremberg and particularly enjoyed Vienna and Budapest, but did not have time to tarry in any of them before she finally flew to her destination in Romania.
Nestled in the valley between two mountains, from a distance, Hedwig could see flying creatures, but they weren't owls. They had scales so smooth the sun glinted off them, leaving beams of red and black throughout the valley. The smallest ones were not so much bigger than she was, but the largest were many times the size of the biggest men she had ever seen and spat fire from their gizzards. Hedwig was careful to avoid them as she circled down into the valley.
There, she found a man dressed all in leather whistling at a black scaled creature as it looped around his head. Its tail nearly hit her as she ducked below the creature at the far point of its circle to land on the man's shoulder.
"Oh, hello there. One second," the man said as she landed. He gave a long, high-pitched whistle, and the creature flew off.
"Sorry about that. I imagine dragons must be awfully intimidating the first time you fly with them."
Hedwig cocked her head to the side. She liked it when humans spoke to her as if they were having a mutual conversation, even though she couldn't speak back.
"I'm Charlie," the leather-clad man explained, "I work with dragons. What have you got here?" He untied the scroll attached to her talons and read the label.
"Looks like it's for me." Charlie spent quite some time reading the contents of the scroll, his brow becoming increasingly furrowed.
"It seems my youngest brother has found himself in a jam already. The kid has just barely started school. We'd better let him know help is coming, huh girl?"
Hedwig chirped her agreement. Charlie took her into a small hut nested at the edge of the field. Inside a small oil lamp lit a table cluttered with parchments and diagrams of the strange creatures — dragons, Hedwig now realized. Charlie dug around the table until he came to a small strip of fresh parchment and a pen. Writing so quickly he smudged ink behind his hand, he wrote a note, rolled it up, and tied it back to Hedwig's talon.
"Fly fast girl, time is of the essence," he said, offering Hedwig a strip of jerky and a pat on her feathers before she flew off.
The flight back to Harry was as long and exhausting as the trip to Romania had been, and Hedwig yearned for a warm perch at the school's owlery. But familiarity with the path buoyed her tired muscles and she pressed on back the way she came. She stopped briefly at the house of the elderly witch, who was overjoyed to see her strong and confident. Hedwig would have liked to tarry, but she rested there only a day before heading back to Harry as fast as the winds would carry her.
You might ask, little owlets, what happened next. Harry would tell Hedwig some weeks later. The giant groundskeeper with the big dog had somehow hatched a dragon in his wooden cabin. If not for Hedwig's tireless flight, the creature may well have grown so big as to burn down the building, and perhaps threaten the very school. And then where would we be?
The mother owl stopped for breath. Her chicks jostled over each other.
"I want to see a dragon!" insisted the smallest.
"I'm going to be even bigger than a dragon when I grow up," crowed the smallest as he raised his downy featherless wings, "and even faster, too."
"Ma?" asked the oldest, who had always been the quietest of the bunch, "do you think Hedwig was scared when she saw the dragons?
"I think she probably was, little one," the mother replied, "but I think she probably knew how important it was to keep Harry safe and help him learn his magic, and that was worth being afraid for."
The oldest cocked his head thoughtfully, "Could you tell us about the time Hedwig was attacked by the bad witch? I think she must have been very scared then?"
"Alright, huddle in you three."
When Hedwig was about five-years-old she had grown strong and confident. Now, she often carried letters long distances and to strange places for Harry. One of her favorite people to carry letters to was a man who could turn into a dog. She had met this man when he was living in a cave because the other wizards would harm him if he was seen. But by the time Hedwig and Harry had been together for 5 years, the man had moved to a small house hidden in London.
He was tall and skinny, with black hair that never seemed to be nicely groomed. When he turned into a dog, he had shaggy black fur and a loud bark of greeting. He would feed Hedwig jerky and treats when she delivered him letters.
One day, Hedwig was returning with a letter from the man to give to Harry. The weather had been foggy and damp on the flight from London to the school, and she was eager to land in the Great Hall and see Harry. But just as the school came into view, a giant Screech owl veered out of the flock of birds preparing to deliver messages to the students eating breakfast below. The owl dove at Hedwig and nipped at the talon where the man had tied his message.
The two owls fought in midair. Hedwig weaved and dodged trying to get down to Harry, but the bigger owl clawed and bit. At one point, Hedwig heard a sickening snap from her left wing and started to spin towards the ground. The bigger bird dove after her, hooting loudly.
On the ground, the screech owl stood gloating as Hedwig tried to ignore the pain in her wing. The minutes ticked by ever so slowly. Eventually a short witch dressed all in pink walked up.
"Ah, yes. Thank you Rickets," she addressed the screech owl, "You may return to my office now." The larger owl left.
"Now, dear," the woman's voice was sickly sweet as she approached Hedwig, "I'll just take that scroll and you can be on your way, hmmm?"
Harry had told Hedwig about the new Professor, a cruel lady who dressed in pink and hid a vile disposition hidden under sweet words. He would not tell her where the scars on his hand had come from, but Hedwig guessed it was the fault of this woman. She was determined to escape.
Hedwig waited until the woman reached down before summoning just enough energy to reach out and peck at the woman's fingers. The hand jerked back,
"You vile bird! There will be –" but Hedwig didn't hear what the woman said. She was up in the air, twisting in circles as she held her bad wing as close to her body as she could and moving quickly towards the castle.
She stopped on a window ledge and looked in. She recognized the Great Hall, but it was empty. Breakfast must have ended. Spent of the energy it would take to fly and with the pink woman nowhere in sight, Hedwig hopped from window to window looking for Harry.
When she found him, Harry opened the window to let her in. A ghost lectured obliviously at the front of the class. Harry examined her wing, looking increasingly concerned.
"Professor Binns, I'm not feeling well." He announced loudly, before smuggling Hedwig out of the classroom. They traveled through a maze of hallways until they arrived at two stone gargoyles. Hedwig was feeling increasingly light-headed.
"Why are you out of class, Potter?" asked the teacher Hedwig knew could turn into a cat, "please tell me you don't have another detention?"
"No, Professor," Harry's voice sounded fast and anxious. Hedwig wished she could comfort him, "My owl is injured. I need Professor Grubbly-Plank."
A spectacled witch rose from a chair and prompted Hedwig off Harry's shoulder. She was missing her right hand, her left leg below the knee, a chunk of an ear, and several fingers on her remaining arm. Despite this, her touch was gentle and skilled as she examined Hedwig's wing.
"It looks like this owl has been attacked, maybe by thestrals. I can hold her for a few days until she has healed. Best she not fly for a while, Potter."
The spectacled witch began to carry Hedwig gently from the room but stopped when the cat-witch reminded her of the scroll still attached to her talons and handed the note to Harry. Hedwig looked at him mournfully, hoping they would be reunited soon, and was rather peeved he could not care for the wing himself.
The spectacled witch took Hedwig to a cluttered office with a large cauldron and a fire blazing in the corner. She jostled some glass containers on a shelf and started mixing together the pastes inside.
"Open up my friend," she said, dangling a piece of jerky in front of Hedwig's beak.
Hedwig craved sleep but opened her beak for the jerky. She gave the professor a disapproving glare when she shoved in the poultice along with the meat but the effect was diminished when she fell asleep by the heat of the fire moments later.
Two weeks passed in this manner, with Hedwig waking up to bitter poultices and bits of mice and fish. At some point while she slept, the witch had craftily snuck a splint onto her injured wing and smoothed the feathers surrounding it. As the days went by, Hedwig felt stronger and began to flutter the wing. It wasn't yet strong enough to sustain flight and she felt like a little hatchling again as she hopped from shelf to shelf and fluttered back down to the furniture, but each day the fluttering became a little smoother and she felt closer to true flight.
"Alright dear," said the spectacled witch, "let's get a look at you." She began to fumble with the brace. Hedwig squawked and pulled her wing back in response but it was clear the witch was skilled in treating a variety of creatures by her deft movements. Soon the splint was off and the witch carried Hedwig to the door.
"Don't fly far now, just to the lake and back."
Hedwig took off, hooting as she did so. The cool air felt biting on the newly exposed feathers but the breeze under her wings felt like home. When she reached the lake, she did a quick hoot of exhilaration before heading back.
"Very good," the witch said. "Now wait here, I need to get somebody."
Hedwig did not know who she expected the witch to go retrieve, but she was rather surprised it was this creature.
The elf was hardly any larger than Hedwig herself, although it was challenging to judge his true size under the layers of multicolored hats and scarves stacked above him and the many layers of socks boosting his feet off the ground.
"This is Dobby." the witch explained. "He's going to return you to Harry now."
The elf gathered Hedwig in his arms and she hooted with embarrassment as being carried by such a strange creature. Her body obstructed Dobby's vision so they stumbled somewhat as they climbed the many staircases to the Gryffindor common room. At the portrait that guarded the entrance Dobby whispered the password and clambered in. Hedwig flapped around a bit to get them some lift so they didn't faceplant into the entryway.
In the common room, the fire was burning it's last embers. Harry was sleeping fitfully in a chair before it.
"Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby practically shouted.
Harry slowly fought his way to alertness. After he had determined who it was and had a rather confused conversation trying to understand Dobby's clothing choices and a place to practice magic, the house-elf left the owl and the boy alone together. Hedwig hooted softly and Harry brushed his fingers over her head.
"It's nice to have you back, Hedwig. I'm sorry you got hurt. I can't send you out again. It's too dangerous"
Hedwig hooted and glared — she very much wanted to take to the skies again and she was certain she was more than a match for the horned owl.
"I know," Harry apologized, "but there's too much on the line. You can sleep here tonight and go to the owlery tomorrow, alright?"
Hedwig hooted a quiet assent.
"Did Hedwig get to fly again?" demanded the middle owlet.
"Of course she did," chided the mother, "Don't you remember the story about how she brought Harry his potion book when she was six years old?"
"Oh, yeah," exclaimed the middle owlet bouncing around.
"But it was still dangerous wasn't it, Ma?" asked the oldest, "because Hedwig got killed flying with Harry?"
"It was very dangerous," she agreed, "but Hedwig was very strong and very brave."
"I want to be like Hedwig," yawned the youngest of the three.
"Perhaps you shall be," cooed the mother, "but now you have to sleep so you'll be strong and brave when the boys and girls come to pick out their owls."
The three chicks nodded and bundled down into the straw at the center of the nest and fell asleep.