Corned Beef the Owl

Harry was sitting on his usual chair at the dining room with a mug of coffee on the table in front of him. But, Harry was not paying attention with his (already) cold coffee; instead, he was staring at the spoon stirring the coffee by itself. He was thinking of what happened last Saturday.

Flashback

Hermione just came back from the comfort room and sat back down to his chair. She was looking sick.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm al−" said Hermione and she grabbed a tissue and cough onto it. Harry leaned forward to look but Hermione vanished it.

…

"Was she vomiting−?" thought Harry but he was interrupted by a sound of feet running down the hall and his cousin, Mark, went in.

"Hedwig just came with this," said Mark holding a white envelope.

From Harry's seat, he could see a red sticker sealing the envelope. It's the same envelope that he kept receiving for seven years every summer. The letter that changed his life, the letter that made him see the truth and the letter that introduced his true home− the letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Mark approached Harry and handed him the letter. He opened it and got the letter inside.

Harry strolled his eyes toward the supplies list.

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3

Monster Book of Monsters

Universe of Numerals

"Don't tell me your taking Arithmancy?" said Harry turning back to Mark.

"Why not? Take Arithmancy or listen to the old fraud while she guesses your death," replied Mark who was making his own mug of coffee and preventing Harry from seeing that he's making one, because−

"You're not allowed to drink coffee! Your mother told us! Take the hot chocolate!" ordered Harry just before Mark could drop the coffee powder in his mug.

"Oh come on, Harry! My mum's not here!" said Mark with the spoon of coffee powder still above the mug ready to dive in it.

"Don't make let that happen!" threatened Harry.

Horror-struck by what Harry said, Mark put the spoon of coffee powder back to its jar and pushed the jar away and grabbed the hot chocolate powder jar instead. He was stirring his mug and went at the side of Harry and read the parchment that Harry's currently reading, over his shoulder. "What's that?"

"Oh, it's a Hogsmeade form…" said Harry. "Third years and the above levels are allowed to visit the most magnificent village that I've ever seen during my years. I remembered myself visiting the same village. Ron, Hermione and−"

"You. Harry, I've heard that so many times! It's just like your jokes!" said Mark sitting on a chair at the upper-left side of Harry.

"Do you want me to sign this form? I'm your guardian now," said Harry warningly.

"Okay, go on with your tale… I want to hear it over and over again."

"Just joking. Okay, I'll permit you." Harry swished his wand and a quill and an ink bottle flew toward him and settled on the table beside Harry's coffee. Harry grabbed the quill and dipped it to the ink and signed the form. Mark looked delighted. "Just bring me some Honeydukes products back here, okay?"

"Bring you what?"

"It's a candy shop in the village… They're really mouth-watering…"

Mark looked as excited as ever. "Okay then…. Where's Sirius?"

"Here," said Sirius who just turned up at the dining room door stretching his arm and yawning. "Morning!" he greeted as he grabbed his wand and flicked it towards the mugs and one of them flew towards the coffee jar and a spoon flew over and put some powder on the glass and stirred it with hot water. The mug flew towards the table across Mark. Sirius moved towards it and sat. "Hogwarts letter?"

"Yeah," said Harry taking a sip from his mug. He felt that it was already cold and tapped his wand and some smoke started emerging from Harry's coffee.

Sirius took the Hogsmeade form and read it. "Oh, you've signed it."

"Yeah…"

"You know what, Mark?" said Sirius, folding the form. "Hogsmeade is the most magnificent village you'll ever see! And I should tell you, Hog's Head is a pub where students are allowed to order even adult liquors." Sirius gave a wink to Mark.

"Yeah… But, you should avoid it too, though… Sort of a dodgy place…" said Harry and he turned back to Sirius and said, "You know what, Sirius? This Mark here is taking Arithmancy."

"You're not!" said Sirius who almost splattered his coffee down his clothes in hearing Harry's news.

"What's wrong with Arithmancy?" asked Mark.

"Well, Divination is more interesting, you know… You can prefer to it as a vacant time too…" said Sirius while Harry nodded in agreement.

"Just predict your own death and you'll pass," said Harry still nodding.

"But, if I do that, I'll be wasting my time!" said Mark.

Harry shook his head mournfully. "No wonder you're in Ravenclaw."

"Yeah, no wonder why you're not in Gryffindor," said Sirius. "Mark sounds like Hermione, doesn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, I agree," said Harry who just stopped from nodding and nodded again.

"Speaking of Hermione, why is she in Gryffindor if she topped your batch?" asked Mark.

"Well, courage and nobility joined together will form a Gryffindor, which were all present to Hermione. She's intelligent, of course, but it's this two that she has more," explained Harry. "Intelligence is in Ravenclaw. Intelligence− ONLY. Bookish in other word." Harry grinned to Sirius who grinned back.

"Shut up!" said Mark, frowning. "You two are always making fun of me! Anyway, when are we going to buy my stuff?"

"You want later?" asked Harry.

Mark nodded with excitement as Sirius couldn't stop himself from laughing.

Mark was trying to ignore Sirius when the three of them heard a tapping on their window. Harry looked up and saw a familiar-looking owl tapping its beak on the window glass. Mark stood up and reached for the window, opened it and let the owl in. It flew directly to Harry and stood in front of him and he saw a letter tied to its legs and began untying it. He opened the parchment and he realized that the black and white-colored owl in front of him belongs to Hermione.

Dear Harry,

I suppose Mark has already received his Hogwarts letter, hasn't he? A neighbor of ours told me so. Our neighbor's daughter is starting this year. She's a muggle, like me. I've heard her parents talking excitedly and learned that they got no time to go to Diagon Alley today and they're daughter's insisting that they go now so I volunteered to come with her.

Are you going to buy the stuff today? If yes, send a reply using Corned Beef ("Corned Beef?" asked Harry as he looked at the owl and turned back to the letter.) and meet me at Diagon Alley this afternoon. If no, send a reply and I'll not meet you. ("Obviously," said Harry.)

Smiles−

Hermione

Harry grabbed the quill that he used in signing the Hogwarts form, dipped it again to the ink bottle and wrote his reply below the parchment of Hermione's letter.

Okay, meet you there, then!

See you−

Harry

Harry folded the letter and started tying it back to the owl's leg. But before he could finish it−

"Wait!" said Mark as he stood up from his chair and ran out of the room. Harry stopped tying the letter and the owl gave a questioning look at him.

Next moment, Harry and Sirius Hedwig hooting angrily and soon, Mark appeared again, panting, with one of his hands closed tightly− holding something. He dashed towards his seat and opened his hand with some owl treats. He offered it to Hermione's owl which ate it happily.

"You sneaked that from Hedwig, didn't you?" asked Harry. "I told you not to do that when she's around."

"But I love owls!" said Mark staring at the owl.

"Well, she doesn't like you, does she, Hedwig?" said Sirius.

"Well, every rule has an exception, you know," said Mark. He looked at the owl and noticed that it'd finished all the treats without leaving any trace. "Oh, you want some more, don't you? Wait, I'll get some more."

"Stop it," said Harry before Mark could run. "Do you want to lose a finger because of Hedwig? And besides, I have to send this letter back pronto."

Harry tied the letter on the owl's leg as Mark gave a frown. The owl flew out of the window and disappeared from sight.

"If you just have brought me an owl instead of toad−" said Mark.

"Well, we got Hedwig. One owl's enough for the three of us. Your mother told me too," said Harry.

Mark just gave a grunt and walked out of the dining room whispering under his breath. Harry looked at Sirius who just gave a shrug and sipped some coffee from his mug.

From the author: Hello there! Thanks again for the reviews… I'm sorry for not updating immediately… School's already started…. Yeah, I don't live in US or in Europe…. Terms here start at June…. So, well, thought you'd like to know! Ciao!