The Raven II
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JKR, various publishers of the HP series. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: I feel guilty enough for leaving you hanging for so long.
Chapter 14 (uploaded 6/17/05)
Hedwig followed Draco's owl to the unplottable Death Eater headquarters. As the eagle owl landed in front of the dining room window, Hedwig spotted the big black raven in the shadow of his tree and landed next to him. "Hello, Professor."
Snape's shiny black head popped up from the nest. "Hedwig, you remember me," Snape said with a sigh. He turned his head as the eagle owl tapped on the window pane for attention.
"Of course, Professor. I had the whole summer to get to know you. Where's my Harry? I feel his proximity, but I don't see him."
"There, through the window. He's in a cage, covered by the black cloak. He's finally calm, but he was a right royal panic earlier, when the Dark Lord's snake wrapped himself around the cage."
"Oh, Harry, what have you gotten into this time," Hedwig hooted softly.
"What brings you here, Hedwig?" Snape asked.
"Hermione has sent a package with Malfoy's owl and had me follow him to make sure it got delivered properly," Hedwig stated. "She only verbally addressed it, to you or to Harry, and told me to stay out of sight."
Snape noticed the window opening. Lucius could be heard drawling, "Well, what have we here? My son is sending me sweets?"
Draco's owl screeched as he flew out of reach of the senior Malfoy, "Hey, that's not your mail!"
Hedwig flew into action toward the commotion. "I can't let the package get misdelivered!" she screeched.
Snape followed the white snowy owl through the open window, also screeching, "Harry, get ready to fly!"
Lucius Malfoy soon found himself fighting off three birds with flailing arms. As soon as he whipped out his wand, Snape attached himself to the stick and started pecking and biting at the hand that held it. Between yelling obscenities and throwing out curses, his spells were being misfired all over the room.
"Lucius, what's all the racket about," Voldemort called out, as Death Eaters came rushing into the dining room. Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband ran in first and found themselves on the receiving end of a petrificus totalus spell. Peter Pettigrew ran in behind them and just managed to dodge a spell that ended up setting a chair on fire.
"Damn," Snape croaked, "missed the little rat." The big raven was flung into the eagle owl, knocking it into unconsciousness. "Humph, got him!"
Harry started screeching, too, "What's going on? Someone let me out of here!"
"I'm coming, Harry!" Hedwig cried, as she successfully avoided a spell. But Peter reached the cage before Hedwig did and yanked off the black cloak. Unfortunately, the movement pulled the cage off the end of the table, sending it crashing to the floor.
Hedwig watched as Pettigrew threw the cloak over Snape and Malfoy's owl and decided the best thing to do was to get Harry out of the house, so she grabbed the cage with all her might and flew out the window with it. Landing in the apple orchard, she set down on the ground, before collapsing on top of it from exhaustion.
It was dark when Hedwig woke up. The door to the cage had been damaged when the cage fell and Harry was injured. "Harry? Wake up, love," Hedwig hooted urgently. "Harry, no! Please be alive, oh please be alive," she prayed, as she tugged on the cage door with all her might. Finally the cage rolled and the little raven fell half-way through the door.
"Hedwig?" Harry moaned, "I'm thirsty."
"Thank the gods," Hedwig sniffed, "that's a good sign."
"Owww, I can't move my wings, and my head hurts" he started to hyperventilate.
"Shhh, it's okay. I'll find help for you. Slow your breathing, dear. It's going to be alright." Hedwig paced in front of her baby raven. "First things, first. I'm going to move you into a tree where it's safer from predators. Then I'm going to find water for you while I figure out the next step. Ready?" Harry's eyes watered from the pain, but he managed to nod his head, just before slipping into unconsciousness.
Harry woke up in his nest, under Hedwig's wing, as she tried to feed him water from a leaf. "Wake up, Harry," she nudged. "That's my big bird, take a little sip. Yes, there you go."
Harry nuzzled into Hedwig's comforting breast, "I'm not a baby, Hedwig. But thank you."
From the tree, they could hear Lucius raging inside the house, though they couldn't make out exactly what he was yelling or who he was yelling at.
"Harry," Hedwig hooted. "I'm afraid I can't carry you all the way back to Hogwarts. London is closer. There's a place there which specializes in injured ravens."
Harry put his head down and yawned, "Whatever you think best, Hedwig. I trust you."
----- ooOoo -----
Severus's fight ended when the cloak was thrown over himself and the owl. All the yelling stopped, all he could hear from under the black cloth was panting and hissing. 'Hissing! It's the snake!' Panic started to set in as he imagined getting swallowed whole, and he started flapping his wings, trying to get free. Suddenly, the cloth closed in all around him. The blood rushed to his head, he growled as he as turned upside-down.
"Enervate!" he could hear Lucius saying. The eagle owl screeched as it awoke. "Silencio!" After some scratching, he heard instructions. "Deliver this to Headmaster Dumbledore. I want a reply, understand? Oh, hell. Finite incantatum!" The owl managed a weak "meep" before it flew out the window.
"Rudolphus, get ready. If Dumbledore doesn't deliver my son to me, we're going in and getting him. What the hell is he thinking by sending candy?"
"What shall we do with the raven, Lucius?" Pettigrew asked, waving the black bundle in the air.
"Kill it," Malfoy scowled, "I've had it up to here with ravens and bloody birds!" He drew a line in the air at the level of his neck.
"I'll take it," Bellatrix volunteered. "I'll pound the hell out of it and feed it to Nagini." The makeshift bag of raven whimpered as if it understood what was being said.
Peter thought for a moment, "No, it's okay. Snakes have to swallow their food live. I need to practice the killing curse, anyway." He practically ran out of the room as the raven in the bag started croaking.
"Pettigrew! Um, I mean, Peter…err, Wormtail. Don't kill me. I think you can understand me, I know you're an animagus. I'm a wizard. Let me go, I'll make it up to you. Do you hear me?"
----- ooOoo -----
To be continued…
A/N: Special thanks and owl treats to everyone who reviewed: EAV, Silverthreads, excessivelyperky, Yzliose, Serena R. Snape, Ms. Padfoot, Wren Truesong, the musician, ShadowedHand, shadow, sakura saisaka, Ezmerelda, HarrySlytherinson, Vyxagallanxchi, Stahchild, abraxis, Sweet-single, Elsa2, Pleione, Qem, zafaran, Icestar4621 (twice!), Princess Arica of Rivendell, Nenya, Bekah17.
I think I'll blame Arica and Beckah17 for getting on my case to update. It's their fault this chapter is short and has two cliffhangers. Yeh, that's it, that's the ticket. (wink) Seriously, I didn't want you to think I had fallen off the planet and abandoned my stories. Real life has been very busy these past few months. But I notice it's not just me, the stories which I follow have been slow to update, too. Perhaps muses have gone on strike?
Abraxis: Thanks for reading and reviewing all my stories. That was a happy happy day.