Chapter Fourteen: Torque and the Owlery

Breakfast was pierced by a very loud screech. Everybody in the hall looked up at the ceiling to see what the noise was, but I had an inkling that it was someone I knew. The owls were all streaming in that morning to deliver mail, but there was a disturbance in the flock. Amongst the browns, whites, grays and blacks I caught a flash of rusty red. The missile was shooting around the owls, clearly bothered, taking on the acoustics of the room with a second scream.

¡°Torque,¡± I breathed, and stood up in my seat holding up my arm. Torque saw me immediately, and dove down. She landed heavily on my arm, and I winced when her talons dug into my skin, but at least she wasn¡¯t panicking anymore. I quickly sat down, taking myself away from the stares of the teachers and students. Jim looked at Torque and said, She doesn¡¯t go well with owls, does she? ¡°Nope, not too well at all.¡±

I fed her a bit of my bacon strip, then untied the envelope that she carried on her leg. ¡°Cool. My Pop sent me a letter.¡± I opened it straight away. It was a short one, saying just a few sentences.

Dear Kora,

Can¡¯t write long. Ministry has just gotten very busy indeed. Just writing to say that there has been a disturbance at Azkaban.

I gulped. Azkaban was the wizard prison, a place so far away from anything that if anybody escaped they¡¯d have a hard time getting away without dying first. That is, if anybody did manage to escape. Nobody had ever been able to do it before.

No one got out, but the cells that were interfered with were mostly the ones containing Richard¡¯s old cronies. You know what I mean. They¡¯re contemplating whether there is going to be an attack soon, and if he knows that you¡¯re at Hogwarts. So, be careful, alright? I¡¯ll see you this Christmas.

Love, Pop

I nodded, mostly to myself, and put the letter away in my pocket. What was that all about? You looked sort of strange for a bit. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing, Jim.¡±

Right after that, a fourth year from the Ravenclaw table stood up, holding the Daily Prophet in his hand. ¡°Azkaban¡¯s been broken into!¡± A flurry of voices followed as the students began to discuss it amongst themselves, and quite a few heads looked my way.

Jim understood. Ignore them, Kora. It has nothing to do with you. ¡°What? It has everything to do with me. I¡¯m the curse, remember?¡± He shook his head, but said nothing. Instead, he commented on Torque.

She needs to learn how to deal with owls, this bird. She can¡¯t spend the rest of the year hanging out in your dorm. We can help her. ¡°How?¡±

His idea was risky, but it could just work. School passed by, and we found Torque and took her up to the Owlery.

It was a big tower. Straw, owl droppings and tiny rats¡¯ bones covered the floor, and all the way up the sides and piercing the middle were wooden rafters and places that the owls could nest during the day. Arch windows were everywhere here for the owls¡¯ convenience. Torque noticed all the smell the owls had left behind and protested slightly.

¡°No, Torque,¡± I scolded, and set her on one of the lower rafters. ¡°They¡¯ve gone out for the night, okay? They won¡¯t be back till the morning. You¡¯ve got this whole lovely tower to yourself. See? You come in at night while they¡¯re out, then when they come back in for the day you¡¯ll be out already. You know owls, Torque.¡±

She was still worried, shifting from one foot to the other. When we tried to leave she leapt into the air and tried to follow us.

This isn¡¯t going so well, Jim said. ¡°What do you suggest, then?¡±

His next idea was crazy, but it could just work. That night when everybody was asleep, I quietly gathered my extra quilt and took Torque out. We went back up to the Owlery (¡°Lumos.¡±) where Jim was waiting, and I set Torque into a roost. She flapped her wings and soared up to the highest one, already content now that we were going to keep her company.

I sighed. ¡°I hope you¡¯ve found someplace that isn¡¯t layered with poo and skeletons.¡±

Are you kidding? Am I a wizard or what? I¡¯ve found a nice big roost up there where that window is. Look. Climbing up to that spot was pretty easy. The rafters served as good footholds and at some points, steps. The roost definitely was big ¨C it looked like a nest fit for a Hippogriff. I told Jim this, and he joked, The school probably wouldn¡¯t realize if a Hippogriff did come to spend the night. Mind you, there¡¯d be heap of a lot of owls missing the next day. He waved his wand over the roundish collection of twigs and straw. Scourgify! The dried owl excrements disappeared from sight, and Jim suddenly looked awkward. Go on. Ladies first. ¡°What? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re just going to sit on the windowsill, Jim. I¡¯ll budge over, and we can share. Sharing is caring, you know.¡±

He turned very red, but he did it anyway. Lucky our invented Hippogriff had widened the nest ¨C we fit perfectly. With a sigh, I looked out the window that was in line with our little roost and noted the stars that were outside.

¡°You¡¯re pretty good at finding good camping spots, Jim.¡± I am? ¡°You should be the camp coordinator for the Quidditch World Cup next time round.¡±

Torque cooed somewhere above us. I yawned, and said with my eyes closed, ¡°We shouldn¡¯t have any problem getting up tomorrow morning. The sun should come right through this window. It¡¯ll be annoying, but¡­¡± Yeah¡­we¡¯ll be up early alright. Then maybe we can explore the school before breakfast. I used to do that at the beginning of the year. ¡°No kidding. So did I. I wonder why we never saw each other.¡± I felt clouds of guilt come off him, and asked, ¡°You saw me a few times, didn¡¯t you?¡± Yeah, he admitted. But I could never really bring myself to come up to you. Stupid, really. I wasted so much time without you.

I was on the brink of sleep, but I kept it in for just a little while longer. ¡°You think so?¡±

Yeah. I¡¯m glad we got the chance to meet again. You¡¯re like the friend I never had.

Nice, I thought with an inward yawn, and fell asleep.

I dreamed of waking up on a dark chateau out in the middle of the ocean. I looked behind me and saw that the rocky island was made up of cliffs, stretching higher and higher until I could hardly see the top of them. Then I realized that the cliffs were actually towers, and that I was staring at a huge castle. Bats circled it, just like how haunted houses go, but the bats were different. There were thousands, and they created a creepy circle around the topmost tower of the whole thing. From that tower, someone was screaming in my head, and I knew that it was Jim up there. I woke up with a fright, and was immensely relieved to find the sun peeking up just over the horizon, reassuring me that I was going to be seeing the sun again after all, and bathing light on Jim who was still asleep beside me.

I had never seen Azkaban, but I felt like I just had, and it made me shudder when I thought of the prisoners concealed inside it. I hoped that never in my life did I have to go and see the place, and with a shock I found myself rooting for those who had been imprisoned for continuing the acts of my father¡­I had wanted them to be free.