Disclaimer: I lay unclaim to any and all things related to Harry Potter, and I reserve the unright to sue any of you who copy any of un-my creations.

That being unsaid, on with the story!!

A/N: before I begin, I would just like to ask a little favor. If you hadn't noticed, I currently have a hem hem 'lack of a good title.' If anyone has any ideas for a title, say so in a review. I know, there's not much story to go on, but there ya go. I think it would get more readers if I had a good title. Or you could just say whether the current title is what got your attention. Well, thanks anyways.

NOW on with the story!

Chapter 7-Beautiful Flight

Tap tap tap.

"Go away, lemme sleep 5 more minutes."

Tap tap tap.

"Alright, I'm up." Harry opened his eyes and was about to roll over in bed, but he wasn't in bed. He was aready standing in the hallway of 12 Grimmuald place. Outside the window he was next to there was an interesting-looking bird. It was covered with what appeared to be white plumage, but when Harry opened the window to let it in, the feathers glistened like pearls. The bird was just bigger than a parrot in size, but its beauty was stunning. Along with the plumage, the creature had a black beak with a grainy shine to it, like that of raw lead. Harry looked into the eyes of this obviously magical animal and was surprised to be looking at eyes the exact emerald green of his own. You're a beauvol. The bird gave the tiniest of nods. When Harry finally managed to tear his eyes away from the beauty of the bird, he realized that it had a note attatched to its leg. He hastily removed it and read:

Harry

This bird was destined to be yours. It was born the day you became Voldemort's downfall. Its name is Avii (pronounced a-vee).

Enjoy, and happy birthday.

PS-sorry your gift is late.

Harry finished reading the letter, and after getting over the surprise of seeing Voldemort's name in writing, he turned it over, looking for some sort of signature, but he couldn't find one. Deciding he would have to keep the bird for now, he reached out a hand and offered it to his new pet. It stepped onto his hand and climed up his arm to rest on his shoulder.

He made his way back to his room, wondering how the heck he got out of it in the first place. I must have been sleep-walking. He set Avii on the foot of his bed and sat down to observe it. A beauvol, Harry thought, taking out the letter. He scanned it once again and a sudden frown overtook his features. There was no mention of a beauvol anywhere on the parchment, and Harry was sure he had never heard of one before. Hagrid's taste in magical creatures meant that something this small and elegant did not make it into the classroom. He looked at the bird again. It was staring at him, and at once Harry felt the peircing glare of its eyes going right through him. Looking straight back at it, he watched as it turned from its pearly white to a shocking, emerald pearl color that nearly matched its eyes, and back to the white again.

Harry sensed what it saw. The bird had percieved Harry's aura, and changed colors accordingly. Apparrently, Harry's aura matched the glow of his eyes. There was something else Harry could sense, but he couldn't identify it exactly; he only knew there was something else the bird now knew about him. A thought jumped out at him, a thought from nowhere in particular: A beauvol is among the rarest of birds, and its abilities include reading a magical person's aura and changing to the color of that aura. This is the reason....The thought faded away.

The bird jumped...no...fluttered over to Harry's shoulder, and as Harry felt the bird's feet give his shoulders a tight squeeze, he also felt himself drift back off to sleep.

OOO

In the morning Harry awoke to yet another surprise. He was still holding the letter in his hand, and the bird had settled itself on the perch next to Hedwig. Yet another dream come true. Sort of. He had been so sure that the beauvol had been part of his dreams, just as he was sure the changes his body had made on his birthday were a dream, yet there was the bird, real as can be. He called to the bird.

"Come here Avii." It spread its wings and Harry was in awe at its beauty, yet again. The grace of its flight was like nothing he had ever seen before; it looked more like the wind was lifting the bird and carrying it to its destination. It landed on Harry's shoulder and gazed at him innocently. "I suppose we should get up and eat. You up for it Avii?" The bird shifted its weight and nodded.

Harry got up, and he walked towards the door, which slid open on its own accord. Harry was too accustomed with automatic muggle doors to notice anything. Add that to the fact that doors seemed to open for him all the time anyway, and Harry was easily able to dismiss it for being abnormal.

Upon entering the kitchen/dining room, Harry was greeted by Mrs. Weasely, Ginny, and Hermione. Once again, Ron was missing from the group. "Good morning, all. Look what came to me in the night."

Mrs. Weasley looked up from her cooking. "That's a magnificent bird, Harry, who gave it to you? And what kind is it?"

"Well, I don't know who sent it, the note that it came with wasn't signed. Actually, the note was rather-" He stopped, seeing the look on Hermione's face. "What's wrong with you, Hermione?"

"Harry, do you have any clue what kind of bird that is?" Her eyes were bulging out of her sockets, and she looked extremely frightened.

"Yeah, its a beauvol. Her name is Avii, but I don't see why you should be so-" He stopped again as a thought formed itself in his mind. The beauvol is a very loyal bird, and each bird is destined for only one owner. Before that owner is found, the creature is quite formidable. It is violent with any human that attempts to touch it, and its primary method of violence is fire-skin, the ability to transfigure its own skin skin into a blanket of fire...That was it.

"Harry, get that thing away from you! Do you know what it could do to you?" Hermione made to swat the bird off his shoulder, but Harry held out his hand to stop her. She froze in place.

"Hermione, I know what it could do. But the note it came with also said that Avii was destined for me. Here, look." He handed over the note, but when Hermione didn't make any motion to take it from him, he asked, "What's wrong? Don't you want to see it?"

"Eh-ahn-oooh!"

Somehow, Harry managed to interpret her meaning to "I can't move!" and took out his wand to take off the jinx.

"Harry, how did you do that?"

"Do what? I didn't do anything, did I?"

"Yes, yes you did, you froze me by just sticking up your hand!"

Harry looked around the room, now, remembering that there were two other people in there with him, both of whom looked very puzzled. "Did I do that?" All three ladies nodded their heads. "I guess I just lost control of my magic. It's happened before, you know. I blew up my aunt before third year without meaning to. That's probably what happened here."

Hermione looked skeptical, but let it go. It was one of those looks that said, "I don't believe you, so I'm going to look it up in a book and prove you wrong."

"Hey, Harry, where did you get the bird?" Ron had just joined the group in the kitchen.

"It delivered itself last night. Her name is Avii. She's a beauvol."

"Cool. I've never heard of a beauvol. It's very lovely, isn't it?" Harry nodded.

"I'm going to write to Dumbledore about this," Hermione said decisively.

"Don't bother. I'll just tell him when he comes to give me occlumency lessons.

"When have you had time for those," Ron asked, eyebrows raised.

"Only every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Honestly, Ron, how slow-oh," he paused as he realized how little he had told his friends thus far. "I haven't told you about this yet. I'll tell you after breakfast, though, I'm starving."

And so the trio plus Ginny ate quickly and made their way to Harry's room afterwards.

"So what's the deal with occlumency, Harry? I know you mentioned lessons in your letter, but I haven't seen you go anywhere long enough to actually have a lesson." Hermione, ever inquisitive, jumped straight to the questions.

"Well, you wouldn't have, would you? Dumbledore performs a little charm before every lesson. It has the effect of stopping time." Pause for effect. "What actually happens is that we start moving really fast. So it feels like we've been doing something for an hour, but we really only pass through about 53 seconds."

"Wicked! Hey, do you think he would teach us that trick, Harry? Think of what we could do..." He spaced out here, apparantly thinking of all the trouble he could get into if he were able to stop tim.

"Don't even think about it, Ron. I've already asked Dumbledore, and he said it was regulated by the ministry."

"And a good thing, too, or blockheads like this one could do-things-with that extra time." Ginny spoke up, noticing the look on her brother's face.

"I wouldn't do anything illegal!"

"I'm sure. Just the way you were staring I could tell the kind of things you would do." Ron opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it and just shrugged. "That's what I thought."

"So Harry, are you going to tell us more about this bird, or what?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, last night I must have been sleep-walkng, because I heard a tapping, and when I woke up, I was at the window in the hallway. Avii-"

"Avii? Is that its name?"

"Yes, Ron, where were you before breakfast?"

"Sleeping."

"Oh." He distinctively remembered telling Ron his bird's name, but overlooked it. "Well, Avii had a note with her. Here, I'll show you." Harry went for his pocket, but the note wasn't there. "Must've left it in the kitchen...Accio Letter!" Harry muttered, not even thinking about grabbing his wand. "Oh, wait, that won't work...where's my wand?" Just as he was pulling his wand out of its new holster, he heard a slight whizzing noise, and found that the letter was making its way towards him. He reached his hand out to catch it and unfolded it. "Here, you read it." Hermione gave him a questioning glance before taking the letter.

There was a silent 30 seconds while the others read.

"That's wierd. 'Destined to be yours.' That must mean..." Hermione faded off, getting lost in her own thoughts.

"Would you like to share with the rest of us?" Ron had an annoyed tone. "Honestly, Hermione, I hate it when you do that."

"Huh-? Oh! Well, I was just thinking. I've read about the beauvol before. There was a limited amount of information on them because they're so rare. All I can remember is that if anyone but their intended owner tried to touch them, the things go berserk and erupt in flames. A kind of defense mechanism. At least that's what the book said. Nobody really knows anything about them because there is only one owner per bird. And there have only been about four on record, ever."

"That's mostly right. Only, they don't erupt in flames as a defense mechanism. It's called fire-skin. They transfigure their skin into a sort of fire blanket. And it's more because they only want their true owners to touch them. Plus, they usually have the exact same eye color as their destined owner." Where did that last bit come from? I didn't know that before, Harry thought as he finished.

Hermione was looking at him as though she was just struck by lightning. "Is that right? How did you know that? But the book said..."

"We could always test it. Here, come try to touch her." He set Avii on the perch and looked up expectantly at Hermione.

"Alright..." As Hermione approached the bird and stretched her hand out, Avii began to smoke. With about two feet in between them, she burst into flames and stretched out her wings threateningly. Hermione brought her hand back with incredible speed, and Avii promptly quit burning and turned back to the beautiful white pearly glow she had before the threat. "It-it appears you would be right, Harry. But that must mean-"

"That I was destined to be this bird's owner," Harry finished for her. "If I told her it was okay, she would probably let you touch her, but I wanted to demonstrate." Hermione glowered at him. "What? Would you have believed me otherwise?"

"I guess not. Still, it's quite incredible. They're just so rare."

"If the book was wrong, how do you know so much about them, Harry," Ron asked.

"I don't know. This stuff just comes to me. Like before, when I just let her in the house, I suddenly knew that she was a beauvol. It's crazy. Oh, and there's something else that she can do as well. Go ahead, Avii, show them. Try Ron."

The bird turned to Ron and placed that piercing stare on him. "Just watch," Harry instructed. After a few seconds, the bird flashed a brilliant metallic red before turning back to its previous color. "Any idea what that was?" When no one answered, Harry continued, "She was reading your aura. Apparantly, yours is red."

"How do you know that's what it was doing?"

"Like I said before, I don't know. She did it to me last night, and the answer just came to me."

"What color did she change to, Harry?" Ginny spoke up.

"You know, curiousity killed the cat, Ginny." Seeing the aggravated look she gave him, he chuckled and said, "Only joking, don't take everything so seriously. Mine was green."

"Do it again, Harry, I want to see for myself."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Don't believe me, Hermione?"

"That's not it. I just want to see it again."

Harry nodded. He looked over to Avii and felt her gaze strengthen. After about a minute, she changed into a cool blue color.

"Hey! I thought you said it was green!"

"It was!" Harry was getting a tad aggravated, now. His attention was diverted from the others by Avii, who had turned another color-a deep, swirling red. Harry was awestruck. She was still looking at him when she turned, yet again, only this time to purple. Harry started to calm down, and the bird at last changed to the emerald green of last night. "What the-" ...its abilities include reading a magical person's aura and changing to the color of that aura. This is the reason that it may only have an owner who's aura is ever-changing. "Ever-changing aura? What's that?"

"Harry, what's going on?" Hermione sounded worried. "Are you sure your bird is okay?"

"Yes, Avii is fine. It's just-do you know what an ever-changing aura is?

"Sounds self-explanatory. An aura that changes a lot. I've never read anything about them, though."

"I think I've had enough for today. I need some time alone, if you guys don't mind." The others agreed and left the room queitly.

A/N: Nice long chapter. Not my best work, but hey. REVIEW PLEASE!!! Tell me what you think about Avii. I made her up from scratch. For a full description of Avii check out my other fic, "Rare Beasts and where to find them." If I come up with any more magical creatures, I'll add to it, so it will be my archive for my creations. D