1. Thanks a lot to FemaleDemon for helping me with grammar here, and to IWantABetterWebsite who provided valued feedback in a comment and then helped me find the better way to write this chapter.
2. I wonder if anyone ever really reads these notes.
3. Any error here is mine and not from my reviewer. If you spot anything or have a doubt about grammar used or plot just PM me, I'm always swift to answer.
4. Enjoy.
After three long years of smelling the freshness from its trees and soaring through its skies, Hedwig had come to realise that America was slightly underwhelming.
It wasn't an unpleasant place by any means. The Pacific Northwest had everything an owl needed to live. The leaf-covered soil was always muggy and filled with life, and the woods were so packed with pines and other trees that the vibrant scent of bark was inescapable. Even so, after imagining America for so long as this magical continent full of energy and parties, Hedwig felt kind of cheated. It wasn't that much different from Britain after all.
Granted, the trees were of a different variety and she had discovered animal species that she wasn't used to seeing back at home — Merlin, did she hate those raccoons! That being said, her surroundings were pretty similar to those around Hogwarts. She could still find shelter on the top of the trees and there was plenty of prey to feed on. It rained a dreadful lot as well.
Maybe things would've turned out differently if she had chosen to live in a city like Las Vegas. She'd heard they had brilliant buffets over there.
Used to have.
The world was a different place these days, and one couldn't be certain which buffets existed and which ones had vanished. Muggles were being hunted and plenty of them now lived in secluded areas, hiding from Voldemort's supporters. Luckily for them, a great number of wizards still opposed that noseless man, because magic had been crucial in keeping those muggles alive.
Hedwig still remembered that day. Black Breakfast, as she had come to think of it. Some nights, the memories still haunted her dreams. Some parts had turned foggy with time, but others had stuck to her mind as some kind of fungus. Hedwig couldn't for one forget the motionless body of the boy who had used to be her master, nor the sticky green goo that had used to be Lucius Malfoy's head. It had taken days to wash that one out.
It had all happened so fast. The Magical Ministry fell within days, and with it the whole of Britain. Europe followed a few months after. And soon, bigots and thugs came out to support Voldemort, as if emerging from the very sewers. The magical secret was unveiled as muggles unleashed open war against Voldemort. They seemed to have an advantage at the beginning, for they were tougher than expected; however, muggles had found it hard to defend themselves against the Imperius and other trickery. More often than not, their weapons would be used to unknowingly attack other muggles, or even friendly wizards. All the while, Voldemort tore them down from the shadows.
That was the state of the war as far as Hedwig knew, which, in some places, was a war mostly in name now.
As she silently flew back to Amazon's Distribution Center, Hedwig couldn't stop but think of how she had ended up where she did.
It had been a quiet night, two years after Black Breakfast, that the owl had decided to try fate in America. She had had nothing but ill-luck in Britain. Her attempts of locating Hermione had proven unsuccessful, and it was more than likely that the girl was already dead. The remaining Malfoys had found out that Hedwig was responsible for taking Lucius' eye out, which was unfortunate, as they now had this daft crusade of killing every snowy owl in sight. A bad decision for Hedwig's health, certainly.
They have bird seed for brains, those Malfoys, Hedwig thought begrudgingly. Why did they even care so much about the late Lucius' little eye? Without a head, he didn't have much use of it anyway.
Whatever the case, at least Hedwig was safe from stupid grudges on this side of the Atlantic. Owls were valued and respected where she lived, which was the reason why she got her current gig.
When the most basic muggle structures fell, so did their traditional shipping and delivery services. A muggle man named Jeff partnered with some wizards to keep his old company alive through magical means. He recruited as many magical owls as he could find, so he was able to coordinate the delivery mail and packages between the remaining muggle-friendly communities. And Hedwig was one of those owls.
After gracefully gliding into the Amazon building, Hedwig took her usual perch by the window. There were over a dozen perches in that small room, which the humans in charge liked to call 'The Owls' Landing'. It was a cosy place for an office, and the humans kept it clean and thoughtfully illuminated. Nevertheless, Hedwig missed the loud screeches from the Hogwarts' Owlery and — as bonkers as it sounded — even her thoughts of the bird crap there were nostalgic.
Maybe Hedwig didn't miss the crap in the proper sense, but the idea of home it had given her back then. The owl had accepted that the feeling wasn't going to return though. This was her home now, a place of lively office chats which smelt like fresh coffee all the bloody time.
Hedwig noticed that most of the other perches were unoccupied at the moment, so she guessed her colleagues were currently in assignments.
"Everything's well there, Whitewing?" a big-nosed man asked her, once on her perch.
Whitewing they called her. It wasn't a bad name per se, but she already had one. A name she was fond of. A name she hadn't found a way to share with these silly humans.
"You know her better than that, Chad," said a dark-skinned woman who was in charge of the Owls' Landing. "Whitewing always delivers in time. Isn't that right girl?"
Hedwig felt odd. On one side, it was impossible to hear someone calling her girl and not remember Harry with sorrow. On the other, she couldn't say no to a good scratch under the chin.
"She better, or Jeff would go crazy all over us with his foolish metrics. Him and his stupid Two-Day Shipping!"
A steady hoot was Hedwig's answer. It was her way of telling them she could handle all the Two-Day Shipping deliveries in the world, as long as they gave her proper time to rest and limited themselves to a reasonable area of coverage.
"You're free to go, Whitewing," said the woman, Prisha, after registering Hedwig's return on a whiteboard. "Go get yourself some food."
Hedwig gave them her best attempt at a nod, then flew out of the window.
It was a dry afternoon, which was her preferred choice for hunting. Her feathers weren't the best for flying under the rain. It didn't take her long to find a country mouse and beat a pesky raccoon to it. The raccoon extended its hand as she passed and almost scratched her wing in doing so. Merlin, did she really, really, hate raccoons!
Once done with her meal, Hedwig returned to their concealed community. It was a small set of buildings in the middle of the state. A wall and magical wards protected its two or three hundred houses from intruders. It was officially named Secure Post 17, but it sounded too cold, so people usually referred to it with the more homely name: The Post.
Brilliant choice, if they asked her.
There were some wizards in town, which made building and healing tasks easier for the muggles. Still, the majority of the people there were non-magical, or as Americans liked to call them, no-majs. Plenty of the activities in town were done solely by muggles. Like the single bakery, which served the whole Post. Hedwig was fond of it because Bradley, the baker, usually had bread leftovers to feed to her.
Once satisfied with her time in the woods, Hedwig made her return to the distribution centre. There, she noticed that more owls were back at their places in the Owls' Landing. She hooted in recognition at the ones she was more close to, Proudwing and Spottedwing. Yes, the humans were that lazy with names.
Proudwing was a big barn owl which Hedwig followed with her yellow eyes whenever he flew about. Unfortunately, he had refused Hedwig's advances so far and she had to accept that he was just not into snowy owls at all. Actually, local snowy owls were only seen around winter, which was when Hedwig could try to release some steam shamelessly. Not that it could result in any offspring though, she had long discovered that the spell that got her on the arse back on Black Breakfast had left her essentially barren.
"Hey guys, working hard or hardly working?" asked Kevin, the maintenance lad, as he came to take a snack in the Owls' Landing with Chad and Prisha. He even had the nerve to wink at them.
Hedwig frowned, hooting loudly at Kevin and flapping her wings. Then returned to eat her birdseed.
It was coffee break, and, since Prisha had installed a coffee machine in the Owls' Landing, those three humans usually spent the break next to Hedwig. They were going on with their usual boring conversation, which Hedwig couldn't possibly care less about. Even so, Hedwig remembered she had cared but little about human conversations before. She had ignored valuable talk of war and dark wizards once. Maybe, if she had paid more attention all those years ago, Hedwig wouldn't have let her master open that blasted package. Maybe, she should've pecked Harry's eye out, if that was what it would have taken to keep him from doing it. Harry Potter would be looking like a pirate these days, but he would still be alive.
Out of an odd sense of regret, the owl decided to see if she could follow the humans' conversations. Thinking it might do good to stay in the loop. Nonetheless, once she heard them talking about the best way to cook curry, she went back to block them out. If a new war was going to explode because she didn't know how to properly prepare curry, so be it.
Spottedwing turned to the opened door. She was a grey owl, a feisty one. If the office wasn't such a chaotic place that day, Spottedwing would be out there flying over the cubicles. But today was Prime Day, a day of special pricing that Jeff had invented himself to keep some level of engagement. Everyone in the office was busy trying to juggle the increased number of orders, which only meant that Hedwig would be having tons of work in the upcoming days.
"So how's Bobby?" Chad asked Kevin.
"Busy, as you can imagine," Kevin added, half-heartedly. "My brother is the Post's celebrity this week. He's barely had time for me."
"It's not a small feat, to go all the way to New York and back, what with the current state of things," Prisha replied.
Kevin shrugged. "I guess so."
The longing was clear in their faces. Sometimes Hedwig forgot these humans had known a different life before this lockdown as well, before Voldemort. Now they were essentially quarantined in a small village.
"And how's the Big Apple?"
"Unrecognizable, by what he says. The Statue of Liberty is gone. There's another one in its place," Kevin said, lowering his head.
Hedwig wondered what this new statue was, but no one dared to ask Kevin about it. It could be one of Voldemort supporters on this side of the sea, or it could be one of Voldemort himself. Hedwig almost shivered imagining the former Statue of Liberty but with his noseless face.
It was then that Jeff came into the Owls' Landing, all of a sudden, effectively cancelling the coffee break. "There's an urgent one. We need Whitewing."
Prisha turned to Hedwig, "How are you feeling, girl? Ready for a new trip already?"
A confident hoot told the woman that the owl was ready.
"What's the package?" asked Chad.
Jeff pressed his lips together before a casual shrug. "Who knows? It's concealed. Some secret magic thing. It's for the war effort."
Everyone stood up, hurrying to their tasks.
It took Jeff about three minutes to leave and return with a purple squared package, the size of a small watermelon. All labels were correctly set on it. It was bound for Atlanta, so Hedwig was ready to complain if anyone so much as mentioned Two-Day Shipping.
They didn't though.
All of a sudden, and just when Hedwig was all ready to leave, a loud commotion erupted outside. Three men in black, who Hedwig had never seen around in the Post, stormed from the reception's way.
"Where is it?!" one of them yelled.
Jeff turned to Prisha and Chad, "Get her ready. Now," then he went outside.
Hedwig's human friends exchanged troubled looks. Kevin and Chad walked outside to get a better look at the situation while Prisha quickly went over the package's straps.
"You know what I mean! The purple package. Where is it?" Hedwig heard one of the angry-looking men booming.
"I don't know what you're talking about. We have a lot of packages here. But, unless this so-called purple package has your name on it, I don't think I can help you," Jeff replied.
"I don't have time for this!" one man pulled out a wand, and Hedwig's eyes grew even bigger. "I'll get that fucking package now or I'll start practicing an ass-flipping curse on some guys here. I'm not joking. It ain't pretty."
Arse-flipping? Was that a thing? How did that even work?
"I'll give you up to 3," the man warned.
Hedwig noticed Prisha moving her trembling hands faster, but not by much. She didn't want to catch the newcomers' attention. Outside, Hedwig saw Kevin pulling out his own wand, discreetly.
"1… 2…3..." the man counted. "Have it your way. Rursus Culus!"
It was all chaos. Kevin and a wizard from the Accounting Department engaged the attackers as they were about to fire. The mean-looking man was pushed against a desk and his spell hit another attacker instead. In a glimpse, Hedwig realised with terror just what an arse-flipping curse did.
"Oh Fuck!" the man who was hit squealed in pain. His trousers and pants tore away, and the flesh of his arse was flipped from the inside out.
Why, triple hooting fuck.
"Oh my God! Oh my God!" Prisha exclaimed, racing to close the door frantically.
"It's over there, isn't it? In that room!" the attacker's voice echoed outside.
Hedwig turned with panic to Prisha, whose eyes had expanded at once. The owl couldn't speak English, but there was no problem letting Prisha know that she didn't want her small arse flipped either.
The other owls in the room started hooting loudly. As if they wanted the attackers to find them. Those daft birds...
Fortunately, Kevin and the head accountant were giving a hell of a fight, for the attacker hadn't come in yet. Nevertheless, horrifying yells echoed. Hedwig's heart was pounding wildly against her little chest.
How many arses had the men flipped by now?
The other owls were definitely cowards, because they flew out of the window as soon as they could. Proudwing ate his pride and was the first one out. Hedwig would have considered joining them, but Prisha was still fastening the package's straps and it was better to let her finish.
Then something hard hit against the door. Hedwig and Prisha jumped on their places.
"Oh God!" the woman wailed, closing her eyes. She appeared to be praying.
Then a man entered, but thankfully it was the mad arse-flipper. It was Chad. He had a terrified look on his face as he closed the door again. Hedwig was able to see fire behind him in the few seconds the door was opened.
"Holy fuck! It was— It is— Fuck! Someone just flipped Jeff Bezos' ass!" he announced, breathing heavily. "Well, I think it was his. Can't really tell but… I mean— It's ugly!"
Prisha opened her mouth, but Chad interrupted. "What the hell are you going about? Finish those damned straps already!"
The woman nodded and did so.
Hedwig was relieved when the last strap was finally in place. She gave a last look back as Prisha told the owl with both hands to leave at once.
And Hedwig left a burning place. Again. She was just flying to the air with the purple package firmly set on her claws, when she heard the door open once more. As she left the struggling Post, Hedwig remembered hoping that her annoying curry-loving friends were alright.
o0o0o
For a whole hour, Hedwig didn't allow herself to look back. She focused entirely on flying, driven by adrenaline and fear. Her wings were strong and, even when the package was indeed the size of a small-watermelon, it thankfully didn't weigh half as much. Hedwig made good progress because of this.
With every flap of her wings, her surroundings changed. The forest turned thicker, and quieter too. By the time Hedwig stopped and dared to glimpse back, it was already dark and the lights from the Post couldn't be seen anymore.
Hedwig didn't take long to resume her flight. The attackers might as well be on her tail, so to speak. She had to put as much distance between them as possible. It was not until she had flown something over fifty miles that she thought of looking for shelter.
A suitable place to spend the night wasn't hard to find. However, her sleep was short and uneasy. In the morning, and after checking that no one was around, Hedwig went on with her journey. East and South.
She thought a lot about her friends that day. Chad, Prisha, and even awkwardly annoying Kevin. She hoped they were alright and that their arses were still in their places. Maybe the attackers didn't do anything to them. Maybe they thought there was no point once the package was out of their reach. However, Hedwig knew that was wishful thinking. Voldemort hadn't stopped his attack at Hogwarts after Dumbledore's death.
With a feeling of uncertainty, Hedwig continued her way. The owl flew day and night, around high mountains and over green fields. Thankfully, once sorted, it was easy to come in and out from under the package straps, though she never let the ruddy box far away from her sight. Hedwig occasionally stopped to look for a good prey, or to drink from a nearby river. Yet, she went on with her mission.
At times, she wondered if there was any point of pushing Post may have fallen now, and its location could've been disclosed. It could be that there was no place to return any more, and that Hedwig was homeless again. What was the point of carrying on?
It's like Black Breakfast all over again.
By the third day of her trip, Hedwig had decided to put all those thoughts away. She was a delivery owl. She had the task of getting mail to those in need of it. She was too bloody good at that job at that. After all, she hadn't been three times Employee of the Month for nothing.
That was how, with a new resolve, Hedwig decided what she was going to do. First, she would deal with the package. Whatever mysterious rubbish it contained, Hedwig was going to make sure it was delivered on time. As always. Then, once her mission was carried to a satisfying conclusion, she would go back to the Post. She needed to find out if it was still there. And after that… Well, she imagined step three would be clearer by then.
By the time she crossed the cornfields in the middle of the country, Hedwig was already more relaxed, even if a bit cautious. Her days passed mostly between flying and making wild theories about the package she was carrying. By the sounds and swaying of the box, it had to be some sort of liquid. Whatever magic gimmick it contained though, it had to be important enough to flip arses for it.
It's for the war effort, Jeff had said.
Hedwig really hoped so. Someone needed to right the wrongs that had been made. To fix everything that had been broken that day. Maybe it was a potion to give humans invulnerability, or the power to turn evil pricks into mice just by staring intently at them.
At any rate, Hedwig was doing good by delivering it, so she pressed on.
Normally, it would have taken Hedwig something over a week to reach Atlanta. However, with the cautious detours she had taken and the package's weight, two extra days passed before she crossed from Alabama to Georgia.
It was a silent and dark night, but that was no obstacle to Hedwig. With her owl vision and the uncanny sense of orientation given to her by magic, she pushed forward with unwavering confidence. Not only did she know where her destination was, but also the right path to find it.
A magical GPS, Chad would call it.
Before Hedwig could form even the traces of a nostalgic thought, something caught her attention. She heard the wind whooshing, even though the air had been motionless for hours now. At first, it had sounded like a whisper, but it kept going louder and louder. When the sound turned too suspicious to ignore, Hedwig turned back.
Her small heart almost did a backflip when she saw them.
Two men were following her in brooms. They were being discreet, but Hedwig's senses couldn't be underestimated. The owl knew who those men were at once. They were the ones who attacked the Post. The ones who wanted the package.
Hedwig swallowed a nervous hoot.
Her good luck had run out. It was true that Hedwig knew her way and that she was very close, but she felt completely knackered too. That didn't deter the owl though, the package was too ruddy important and she couldn't allow herself to get caught. Shel hurried up as much as she could, aware that her white feathers and the landscape didn't provide much cover.
Cursed South East and it's stupidly smaller trees.
It was a lost cause, but Hedwig tried to lose them anyway. She turned right, then left, then she dived and made a sharp change in direction. Still, no matter what she did, the attackers were only getting closer. Hedwig panicked.
"Give up, little owl!" one man shouted through the night air, "Just give us the package and we'll let you go!"
Hedwig considered doing it for a moment, but she dismissed it in a second. Many arses would have been flipped in vain if she did so. There was also a pang of guilt she'd been carrying since the Black Breakfast that didn't let her do as they said. It was really stupid, holding to her awkward sense of conscience at this time. Clinging to the package wasn't going to make Harry return, and the men would probably get it with or without her collaboration. Nevertheless, Hedwig just couldn't allow herself to do it.
Bravery was such a stupid thing, she thought. Bravery on a small owl with no business in the wars of men even more so.
Hedwig was a fast thinker, so she considered her options. Dropping the package wouldn't work. Those were wizards, they would find it in a tic. And even when she could see Atlanta's lights now, she wasn't going to make it before they caught up to her.
The first flash of light passed a couple of yards away from her, interrupting Hedwig's attempts at crafting a plan. The next spell threw all conscious thought out of the window. She put all of her focus on elusive manoeuvring. Hedwig was fast enough to dodge and dive under the shining blasts, still, the nasty spells kept coming. They kept painting the night as a festival of sinister colours. And, sooner or later, one of those flashes would be painting Hedwig too.
Such a sudden way to go. Blasted out of the night sky by some magic thugs on brooms.
When a green flash almost got her in the back, Hedwig decided she couldn't keep dodging anymore. She turned back and attempted the good old peck-an-eye-out tactic. She didn't succeed, but at least she scratched the cheek of one of the attackers, unsteadying him for a moment.
"I'll tear the feathers out of that fucking owl!"
Hedwig embraced her new tactic, trying to make the men fall off of their brooms, without letting them grab the package she was holding. It worked as a surprise, but not for long. They caught on her plan and the package didn't allow Hedwig for much movement. A wrong move and they would snatch it right out of her claws.
It was then that she got hit.
The orange spell smacked her left wing, making her sidetrack at once. Her feathers were a scorching mess, and the tender skin underneath her left shoulder was searing, releasing a burnt scent into the night air. Hedwig produced a high-pitch hoot, almost a wail. Despite managing to keep her hold on the package, altitude was decreasing at an alarming and bumpy pace. Hedwig was going down, it was only a matter of seconds now.
Then, a different set of loud voices came. A muggle gunshot echoed and Hedwig saw one of the attackers tumble into the night, hurrying some spell to save himself from the nasty fall.
"To hell with these no-majs!" he shouted, as he went down.
Hedwig couldn't understand much of what was going on. There was a struggle, and more shouting. She thought a local wizard had joined the muggle in the fight against the attackers. Yet she wasn't so sure. Maybe the distraction would have been enough to run safely away, after all, her destination was just on the outskirts of the city. Hedwig was badly injured though, and her sight was getting blurry.
"It's getting away!" one attacker yelled as the housing under them became denser.
After a new befuddling yell, Hedwig saw the spell, coming to her as if in slow motion. At first, she thought she had been hit, but she had jerked at the last second. The spell hit the package instead. There was an explosion of purple dust that covered Hedwig. She couldn't see anything, her eyes were purple and bloodshot at the same time. She couldn't breathe anything but the dust. Her senses were a rollercoaster.
Hedwig stumbled clumsily out of the purple cloud, with her insides feeling like fire. She saw her destination right away. The old house where she was supposed to deliver the package. How was she able to get so close in her condition? She had no bloody idea.
As a desperate last attempt, Hedwig used her remaining strength to fly there. No help was certain at that house, but it was her goal. Something felt inexplicably right about completing her task, even if she died doing so.
It was a shame the package exploded, she thought. In her altered state of mind, all Hedwig could think of was on Jeff's rules for returns. Could the client get his money back if he couldn't gather all the purple smoke to return it?
The house looked closer now, but Hedwig couldn't flap her wings any longer. She wasn't flying anymore, but diving at a blasting speed. Hedwig felt like giving up. She wished she could listen to Harry saying 'You did a good job, girl. I'm proud.'
The crash came a good couple of seconds before the sound of the broken window. Then came the pain. Defeated, Hedwig's eyes closed. The last thing she saw before passing out was the shattered glass all around her.
