The giant of a man Hagrid stepped inside Eeylop's Owl Emporium; the few people inside the poorly lit store looked up at him then back to whatever they were doing. If anyone cared to look, they would see a bespectacled, eleven-year-old boy standing awkwardly behind him.
"You really don't have to, Hagrid," he said in a quiet voice. He was small for his age and looked even smaller in his overly large clothes. His bright green eyes looked very large behind his taped glasses. His messy black hair fell every which way and over the thin, lightning-shaped scar on his forehead which could reveal to everyone in the shop who he was. He was Harry Potter.
"I know I don't, Harry," Hagrid said, "but it's bout time yeh had a decent present. Just pick one out and I'll get it for yeh."
"But-"
"Dun' worry about it," Hagrid said in a pacifying tone. "It's yer birthday present."
Harry sighed and looked around at the owls. Tiny owls twittered madly and flew circles in their cages, blindly unaware that someone might take one of them home. They wouldn't notice till it was too late and would still fly in circles and twitter madly. He stopped at a few of their cages but none of them stopped flying so he never got to look at them well enough.
He looked at the larger owls, the medium sized owls as the largest ones in the shop might be too much for him to handle. Tawny, Eagle, and Barn owls puffed their chests proudly and tried to look impressive. He stopped at their cages and petted the ones that moved close enough to the bars. He smiled at all the owls he stopped at, even the ones that didn't notice.
Harry wandered to the back of the store, away from where Hagrid was talking with the shopkeeper, who had just finished making a sale. Here the owls were discounted. A few who were asleep woke up and poked their heads out from under their wings. Harry could see that these ones were old owls that hadn't been sold. Female owls hooted dangerously at him, protecting their eggs from the intruder; these ones didn't have price tags. He wandered farther into the back.
Parakeets and other small birds squawked, some letting Harry pet them. Goshawks and ospreys and other birds of prey merely looked at him and he didn't approach their cages; they looked too mean. Hanging from the ceiling fast asleep were black and brown bats. These birds (and bats) weren't meant to deliver mail; they were for show or protection. He moved to the owls again.
Sitting in a unobtrusive spot, unnoticed by Harry the first time he was in the discounted section, sat another owl. It was female, though not nesting; Harry wondered how he could have missed her. She was the only snowy owl in the store.
She had come to the store with a number of other snowy owls; they had sold slowly because they stood out so much. She was the last one, her price lowered over and over again till she was cheaper than the old owls that sat around her. She no longer thought she was going to be bought, as did the shopkeeper, who had put her in the spot. He hoped that the person who would notice her would buy her. He didn't want to sell her to a post office; she was much too pretty for that. But no one noticed her and she stopped caring.
She had been sleeping till a whiff of a sickly sweet scent floated by her. The sickly sweet scent was one that a creature gets when it hasn't eaten well in a long time and the body begins to devour itself to survive. She woke up, confused. It wasn't feeding time, and even if it were, the shopkeeper fed all of them the right amounts of food, even the ones that didn't sell.
"Hello."
A soft, melodic voice, untouched by maturity, filled her ears. She twisted her head around and a small boy filled her amber gaze. Thin fingers of one hand lightly grabbed the bars of her cage and jade green eyes peered owlishly and curiously at her from behind taped spectacles. She realized where the scent was coming from. The boy was so small compared to others his age he had seen, and he didn't seem to have had a decent feeding in months or years, judging from the scent.
"Harry, did yeh find somethin' yeh like?" a loud voice asked and a giant man walked into the back, stooping because of the empty cages that hung from the ceiling.
'Harry' turned around and smiled. "Yeah," he said, in the same soft voice. "I like this one." He pointed at her with his other hand.
The giant looked down at where Harry was pointing. "She's purty, but a bit showy. She won't go unnoticed."
If the snowy could snort, she would have.
'Harry' didn't let go of her cage. She leaned forward shyly and gave an affectionate nibble on the finger. She heard him laugh lightly. "She's perfect. I want this one, Hagrid."
"Yeh sure, Harry?"
"Positive."
She saw the shopkeeper, who even though he stood over six feet seemed dwarfed next to 'Hagrid'; her cage shook slightly as he removed it from the hook and given to 'Harry'. 'Hagrid' looked at the price tag and fished in his large overcoat for some gold.
"What're goin' name her, Harry?" 'Hagrid' asked as they left the shop and 'Harry' had stopped stammering his thanks, which he had been doing for several minutes.
'Harry' paused, thinking. His face was still very red. "I don't know," he said, not stammering. "I'll have to think on that for a while. Maybe I'll find a good one in my books."
The giant chuckled. "I'm sure the right name'll come teh yeh."
The snowy fold her head under wing and started to drift into sleep. She was sure too that the right name would come. Because she was his owl now. And because he was hers to protect; to watch over and keep him safe. To make sure that he ate his meals so his body would stop eating itself.
She'd keep him safe, watch over him with her amber eyes, because he was her Harry to protect from now on.
My random ramblings. I don't own Harry Potter either; but J.K. Rowling is very nice to share.
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