Submission for Round 9 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Team: Cannons
Position: Seeker
Prompt: Signs of bad luck — Ravens
Word Count: 2170
Harry honestly didn't notice the birds at first. He was a little busy sorting through the aftermath of what everyone was now calling the 'Final Battle' and was more than a little overwhelmed. It wasn't until he was back at Hogwarts with Hermione and Ron to finish up their schooling — McGonagall had decided to allow students to return for an 'Eighth Year' — that he noticed the birds following him around.
Harry had no idea what sort of birds they were, just that they were rather large, and black, and sometimes it was only one or two, and other times there were at least a dozen perched around his general vicinity. He did get the feeling that they were watching him, but it was hard to tell with those beady little eyes they had. It didn't really bother him all that much, though, and he probably would have kept on as usual if it hadn't been for Draco Malfoy.
Malfoy was like a completely different person nowadays. Waifishly thin and pale, he hardly ever spoke a word to anyone anymore, except at the beginning of the school year, when he'd offered almost everyone a stiff, Pureblood bow and formal apology in a low, quiet voice. It was odd to think it, but Harry was sort of worried about the git.
About a month into the term, Harry was sitting outside one evening and soaking up the last bits of sun before they dipped out of sight. He'd brought one of his schoolbooks with him, and although it lay open on his lap, he hadn't read a word, unable to concentrate. He was totally alone in this little courtyard, mind completely at rest as he watched the spare clouds change colors with the setting sun.
His attention was diverted when Draco Malfoy unexpectedly intruded on his solitude. His pale skin and hair caught the light and glowed just like the clouds, and Harry watched, totally entranced, as Malfoy walked through the courtyard and almost went past without seeing him.
Right in the middle, Malfoy abruptly stopped and looked up, his eyes darting quickly about. Harry absently wondered what he was looking at, and then as Malfoy's eyes turned toward him, realized he'd been looking at the birds. Malfoy looked terrified, his eyes wide and startled, and for a few moments Harry was too surprised to react.
"You alright, Malfoy?"
This appeared to be the wrong thing to say, because Malfoy practically bolted from the courtyard in his haste to get away, leaving Harry sitting in befuddlement.
As per usual when Harry didn't know something, he went to find Hermione.
Predictably, she was in the library with Ron, who wasn't even attempting to pretend to study like he had been earlier in the day, and was now sitting with one arm slung over the back of Hermione's chair, contentedly twirling her curls in his fingers. He looked up at Harry's approach; Hermione did not.
"Hey, mate," Ron said, whispering so as to preserve the sanctity of the library.
"Something weird just happened," Harry told him, pulling a chair up for himself on the other side of the table. "I was sitting outside, and Malfoy came round and got spooked by all these birds — he just bolted."
Hermione did look up at that. "He ran away from some birds? What sort of birds?"
"I dunno," Harry shrugged. "Blackbirds? Or maybe crows? Or ravens? What's the one on Ravenclaw's crest?"
"Harry, that's an eagle."
"Oh. Well, right, of course." Harry paused. "Wait, why is an eagle on Ravenclaw's crest?"
Hermione sighed and threw up her arms. "Wait here, I'll be back."
She returned shortly with a large book, already ruffling through the pages, and set it in front of Harry firmly.
"There," she said, "which was it?"
The page she'd opened to had labeled illustrations of several black-colored birds along the side; Harry looked at them closely.
"That one," he said, pointing to the image that was an exact representation of the birds that had been following him. Corvus corax, read the label below it.
"The common raven," Hermione said, pulling the book back towards herself, "how interesting."
"Why? What's wrong with ravens?"
Hermione pursed her lips. "Ravens are carrion birds; they'll eat dead meat from anything. It's just an old superstition."
"They're omens of death, but it's only really bad if they caw at you," Ron explained, and then asked with somewhat more interest, "Did they caw at Malfoy?"
"Ronald!" Hermione hissed, as Harry thought back to the encounter.
"No, I don't think they did," he said slowly. "But he was terrified, either way."
Harry had specifically left out the fact that the ravens (honestly, how was he supposed to have known exactly what kind of birds they were?) had actually been following him around and not just happened to be there in the courtyard. Now that he was aware of their symbolism, he watched the little flock much more carefully, a bit nervous of what they might mean, despite Hermione's skepticism. The ravens never followed him inside, and he never noticed any flying about, but there just always seemed to be a few of the birds perched about wherever he went. Harry never got any sort of ominous feeling from them, although he did still get the sense they were watching him. Luckily, they never cawed at him.
That changed about two weeks after the encounter with Malfoy. Harry didn't see much of Malfoy outside of class and at mealtimes in the Great Hall, but he had wanted to talk to him and tell him that the birds, if they were an omen, they had been following Harry and not Malfoy, but the Slytherin seemed to have perfected the art of disappearing after class.
Harry finally saw him on a sunny afternoon in Hogsmeade, standing outside Honeydukes just as Harry was about to meet Ron and Hermione in the Three Broomsticks. Malfoy hadn't noticed him yet, and so Harry quickly changed directions, and was nearly upon him when two Hufflepuffs — third years, at the most — exiting the shop cut in front of him, and he heard a brief part of what the boy was saying to his friend.
"My mum says my aunt's been taken to St. Mungo's."
"That's awful! But Mungo's will patch her right up, I'm sure!"
One of the ravens from Harry's little flock, perched on the sign above Honeydukes, gave a great caw. It was quite loud, and Harry was surprised that the two Hufflepuffs had not even paused, continuing on down the path back to Hogwarts. In fact, it seemed like nobody had noticed the raven caw, not even —
Malfoy was gone. Harry cursed quietly and glared at the raven, who only cocked its head curiously at him before taking off with a flutter of its wings.
Harry thought very little about the raven's caw, and quite a lot about Malfoy's odd behavior, at least until Monday morning, when he happened to see the same two Hufflepuffs again outside the Great Hall at breakfast.
"But you'll get to go, won't you?"
"Yes," said the other boy, tearfully, "McGonagall's letting me use her Floo for the funeral."
Harry came to a dead stop in the entryway, a cold chill coming over him as he stared at them in shock.
It couldn't be, he thought frantically, it couldn't be. Hermione had said that it was only superstition! Ravens weren't harbingers of death, because Harry saw them everywhere and he was fine.
But that Hufflepuff's aunt hadn't been fine, had she?
And, a sneaky thought whispered, Harry wasn't exactly normal, was he? He'd defied death twice before, and not so long ago he'd held in his possession all three of the Deathly Hallows. He hardly dared to think it, but… was it possible that he was —
"Harry! There you are!" Hermione came up behind him, a slightly groggy-looking Ron trailing behind her. "Come on, we've just got enough time for breakfast before Transfiguration."
Harry allowed his friends to tug him along, grateful for the distraction, but after the last class of the day he made some excuse about wanting to go out of doors and went back to the dorms to fetch the Cloak and the Wand. The Wand seemed to warm beneath his touch, and although he had no idea if the Cloak operated under similar principles of ownership, he could have sworn it felt like it recognized him.
Buoyed by the feeling of the Wand in his hand and the Cloak about his shoulders, Harry strode confidently out of the castle and down to the Forbidden Forest. He couldn't recall exactly where he'd entered it on the night of the Battle, but after wandering along the edge for a bit, he decided to just go on in and hope he recognized something.
Beneath the trees, it was dim and gloomy, the leafy canopy overhead blocking out the majority of the late afternoon light. Harry glanced up briefly and saw more ravens than he'd ever seen in one place perched on every available branch. Tentatively, he cleared his throat.
"Why are you following me?"
He hadn't noticed before, but the Forest was preternaturally quiet, and his voice sounded abnormally loud. There was no response from the ravens, not that Harry had really been expecting one, but then one raven cawed and alighted from its branch, and gradually, all the others followed suit, taking off in the same direction. For lack of a better lead, Harry followed as well.
He couldn't tell what direction they were headed, or even whether they were getting any deeper into the Forest, but something told him he was going in the right direction. Harry stopped paying attention to his surroundings after a little while, focusing on making sure he didn't trip over any tree roots, and so it was a bit of a surprise when he looked up and discovered he'd been led to a small, grassy clearing.
The trees were less dense, a few patches of light cutting through them, and it was in one of these beams of light that stood a familiar figure, eyes closed and face upturned towards the sun.
"Malfoy?" Harry asked incredulously. Malfoy opened his eyes and turned to look at him with a smirk that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"You're a bit late, Potter," he said, with a bitter-sounding laugh. "I'm already dead, but I'm sure you've found some other means of finishing me off."
"Er, what?" Harry had absolutely no idea what Malfoy was on about.
"Please," Malfoy scoffed. "You can't tell me the ravens didn't give it away."
As if they knew they were being talked about — and Harry was certain that they did — the ravens perched around the clearing all rustled their wings, and one even gave a great caw. Malfoy flinched almost violently, but Harry thought that it sounded almost fond, and nothing at all like the ominous noise in Hogsmeade.
"I'm not really sure what you're talking about, Malfoy," Harry said, "because the ravens have been following me around — in fact, they led me out here."
Malfoy's brows furrowed, and he looked so comically confused that Harry couldn't help the laugh that slipped out.
"You think it's funny, Potter?" Malfoy snapped. "I've got to sneak around and drink blood from people for the rest of my life, and — Potter! Are you even listening to me?"
Harry was not. He had barely registered what Malfoy had said — Malfoy was a vampire? — when he spotted a dark glint from the grass at his feet. He knelt down and came back up with the Gaunt family ring cradled in his hand. Harry could hear his pulse pounding in his ears as he stared at it, and his whole body felt like it was buzzing with anticipation. Harry was vaguely aware that Malfoy was shouting something frantically, but he was filled with a sudden need to get the ring on his finger, and he slowly turned his hand and slid it on his right ring finger.
Immediately, the ravens all flew off of their perches and into the air, flying in a dizzying circular formation around Harry that he couldn't even begin to keep track of. There were so many of them that he could no longer see the sky or the clearing, but for a moment he saw a skeletal figure carrying a scythe and walking between the ravens' wings. It had no eyes, but Harry could have sworn that it looked right at him and nodded before disappearing without a trace.
The ravens slowly returned to their branches, and Harry was left staring at a shocked and bewildered Malfoy.
"What in Salazar's name was that, Potter?"
Harry looked down at the Ring on his finger, the stone in it no longer cracked, the Wand in his other hand, and the Cloak on his back.
"I think I'm the Master of Death."