It was a breezy Sunday evening that found Harry lazing around in the common room, his trusty owl companion at his side. After everything that had happened last year; Voldemort's return and subsequent terrorising of both magical and muggle locations, Harry had prepared to face Voldemort, and his nemesis had the same thing in mind. That summer, when all his friends had seemingly left him, one letter descended upon him.
An invitation to duel the Dark Lord himself.
Obviously, it was a horrendous idea to even toy with the notion of having a one-on-one with the most feared dark lord since Grindelwald; but Harry hadn't been in the sanest of mindsets. And so he accepted and met Voldemort, all alone. Harry's nerves were on fire and he couldn't keep a calm hand as he raised it towards Voldemort, who raised it in return along with a cruel, scornful glare. With no hesitation, Voldemort made the first move, a grandeur point of his wand as the Avada Kedavara spell left his lips, his feet pushing forward.
Unfortunately, he hadn't noticed the banana peel.
One tumble and one self-aimed Killing Spell later, Voldemort was no more.
Harry was left in a daze, his mind trying its darnedest to comprehend what the hell just happened. A futile attempt if there ever was one. After a while, he simply left the premises, and after coming home and entering his room, he went to the window and threw a wad of paper at a particular bush in the back garden.
"Ow!" The expected reaction came, and he waited for the person to reveal themselves. A fiery tuff of hair was the first thing he saw, before an aggravated face entered his perception, "What the bloody hell was that for!?"
"I'm guessing you work for Dumbledore, right?" She started to respond, but Harry wasn't in the mood to even deal with anything more than he already had.
"Doesn't matter. Anyway, tell Dumbledore this; I just killed Voldemort with no spells used. Thank you and have a nice night, I'm going to sleep." He promptly closed the window and got ready for bed. Honestly, did they really think he wouldn't notice someone watching him from his window when he was stuck all day there? Especially the alcoholic scent…
That left the order member befuddled. The pop afterwards told Harry that she had left, presumably to tell Dumbledore of what he said.
What happened the next day was all a blur for Harry. Dumbledore had popped up and asked him if he would like to move to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place immediately, which he said yes to in a heartbeat, and it was there where he met the rest of his friends and that apparently it was Dumbledore who had told them not to send him any letters. That irked him a bit, but he was mature enough to understand…
And if anybody told him what happened to Dumbledore's bowl of sour lemon drops and why there was a small faint smell of pee in it, he would answer with a shrug.
Dumbledore seemed to have believed him but still insisted that Voldemort was somehow still alive, which worried the Boy-Who-Lived, mainly because he couldn't handle something that absurd happening once again, as his mind would implode from the sheer stupidity of it all.
So, after a few months of hanging around Grimmauld Place, it was finally time to return to Hogwarts.
Taking a look around the common room, Harry was a bit perturbed. Every year there has been something to derail his wish for a normal school year; whether that be a psychotic man wearing a turban to hide Voldemort on the back of his head, a giant snake and a tween with too much angst, or time travelling nonsense that almost made him break down just thinking of the logistics of it all. But for some reason, nothing out of the ordinary has happened.
Well, one thing was odd.
Hedwig had been strangely sick lately, which greatly worried Harry. The Dursleys had not been an ideal place for his owl - heck, even to him - to live in. And even though Grimmauld Place had given Harry a smidge of freedom, Hedwig had to stay in his cage, as a snow white owl in a busy neighborhood complex wasn't what people would say is normal. Maybe that all compounded to Hedwig's current state; she was jittery, not to keen to eat anything, and she let out a few small hoots of sadness. Harry had tried taking her to Hagrid, but even he was at a loss to her state.
So he tried his best and kept Hedwig by his side. Opting to let her out her cage and lay next to him on the common room couch. Most of the other Gryffindors had already gone up to their rooms.
It was a drowsy Harry that looked down at the sickly Hedwig. He gave her a small pat and whispered, "Get well soon buddy. I'll take care of you until you get better."
With those final words, Harry let sleep take him as his conciousness faded…
Missing the white light that had emitted from Hedwig.
As Harry slowly awakened by the sunlight, he tried to raise his hand up to cover his eyes and get a few more minutes of sleep. He felt resistance and clumsily cracked open his left eye to see what had stopped his arm; had Hedwig move up whilst he was sleeping?
Only to be met with the face of a small female child.
Harry blinked.
He used his other hand to remove the dirt from his eyes, closed them as hard as he could, and opened them up, expecting to see his feathery friend.
The small child was still there.
"Gaaah!"
Harry shot up and jumped over the couch, peeking from the other side and awakening the unknown child that had laid next to him.
The child woke up with a small moan and rubbed both her eyes tiredly. She then scanned her surroundings before meeting Harry's green irises. The child stood up and frowned at him.
"Harry? Why are you back there?" Harry eyed the weird girl suspiciously and examined her further. Her hair was snow white, and her clothes were rather peculiar; a pure white sunday dress with little black spots that increased in frequency as it went to the bottom of the dress. But what made him eerie of her was her eyes; yellow orbs along with a thousand yard stare.
"Wh- who are you? What did you do to Hedwig?" The small child pouted at his hurried inquiry and crossed her arms.
"What are you talking about? I'm Hedwig!"
Harry blankly stared at her as if she had grown another head, before stating plainly, "You aren't Hedwig."
"Of course I'm Hedwig, watch!"
The child spread out her arms, climbed to the armrest of the sofa and jumped…
Landing straight on her face.
With a wince, he quickly went to her side and gingerly helped her up. Her face red as she teared up in pain.
"Bu- Why didn't I…" She looked at her arm before screaming in complete horror, "My wings! Where are my wings!?"
"Shhh! You'll wake everybody up!" He covered her mouth and muffled her screaming. Harry watched the stairs, waiting to see if anyone had heard the child screaming. Fortunately, he didn't hear any footsteps coming towards them and he attempted to calm the panicking girl.
"Look, I don't know what's going on, but obviously something's wrong. So how about we go to Dumbledore, and we figure out why you're here?"
'And what happened to Hedwig.' Harry added as an afterthought.
The strange child looked up to him, before softly nodding. Harry smiled, relieved that she had finally calmed down, and stood up, "Come on, I think Dumbledore should be awake by now."
Patiently, he waited for her to stand up. As she stood, she only reached up to his waist. Her dainty little fingers reached up to his, and he complied, holding her hand and smiling down at her. They then set off together to find the Headmaster.
Unbeknownst to both of them, someone had woken up and witnessed the whole thing.
"Ohh~ Wait till' Parvati hears of this!"
Fawkes squawked loudly at his master as he examined a lemon drop from his precious bowl of the sour sweet.
"It is rather peculiar, I have changed the bowl, the contents, and even ordered from another country altogether. And yet, the stench of urine still remains. You don't suppose someone has put a curse upon me, do you Fawkes?"
A cheerful trill was all the response Fawkes had given, opting to not tell the old man the real reason why his bowl of lemon drops were stained with the scent of piss. One because he did deserve it, and two… Well, it was quite amusing for the phoenix.
A small knock emanated from the door and Dumbledore softly tossed the candy back to its bowl and coughed to clear his voice, "Come in!"
The door opened to reveal Harry Potter and the small child he was holding hands with, a peculiar sight to the Leader of The Light as his eyebrows raised in intrigue.
"Hello Harry, a pleasant morning to you, and a pleasant morning to you as well." Dumbledore said, using his usual jovial and grandfatherly tone to greet Harry and the child he had with him. The small child waved at the Headmaster with energy.
"Good morning sir." Harry returned politely, "I'm here to… Ah… Present a conundrum of a problem, sir."
Dumbledore smiled with mirth at Harry's choice of words and nodded in understanding, "Ah yes, I have come across a many conundrums throughout my long life, and I am happy to give some insight to give some guidance to solve your conundrum. I presume it has to do with this little bundle of joy?" Dumbledore said, standing up and walking across to stand in front of Harry and the child.
"Hello Dumbledore! My name's Hedwig!" She said brightly, her smile all teeth.
Harry scratched his cheek and met Dumbledore's questioning gaze with a confused one of his own, "Yeah… That's the conundrum, sir."
"Hmm… I see…" Dumbledore slowly went down to his knees and smiled at Hedwig, "Hello Hedwig, would you mind telling me more about yourself?"
"Er… I'm Harry's owl. I deliver his letters and I get a treat every time I come to him when he's eating. My favourite food is bacon and toast!"
The smile on Dumbledore's face remained as he listened to her, "How wonderful! Would you like to have some bacon and toast right now? I'm sure you must be famished."
Hedwig's eyes lit up and she nodded her head fervently. Dumbledore turned around and called out to the thin air, "Gregory!"
A pop and a house elf appeared in front of them, scaring Hedwig and making her hide behind Harry, who patted her on the head to calm her down.
"Good morning sirs and madams, what is Gregory do for you?"
"Ah yes, can I ask for a plate of bacon and toast, perhaps some eggs and baked beans, along with some pumpkin juice for the child." Dumbledore gestured towards Hedwig, causing Gregory to stare at Hedwig, causing her to jolt out of fear and hide even deeper behind Harry's legs.
"Gregory will get food." The house clicked his fingers and with a pop he disappeared.
A few moments later, a short table and some cutlery, a plate, and a small cup appeared. The plate was filled with the aforementioned food, the portion size a smidge smaller than the usual food that appeared in the Great Hall. Hedwig tentatively took a step out of her protective shield - also known as Harry's legs - and she neared the table nervously. Her eyes sparkled at the plate of food but dimmed when she eyed the small goblet full of the orange colored liquid the students seemed so fond of to drink. She carefully took the cup and gave a few cautionary sips of the juice, before nodding in satisfaction and began tucking in to her food.
"So, I assume you don't believe that child is your pet owl Hedwig?" Harry nodded and started to explain his and Hedwig's situation.
Dumbledore listened aptly as Harry recounted the events that befell his pet owl; her unknown ailment, his sleeping with his pet owl beside him only to wake up with the mystery child the next day.
"How odd. I must say there is never a dull moment when it comes to you, my boy." Dumbledore's eyes sparkled as he took a small jab at Harry, who only sighed.
"Sometimes sir, I feel as though fate has made me her chew toy." Harry's resigned tone had Dumbledore let out a small laugh, before they both looked at Hedwig still consuming her breakfast.
"With your account, I believe that that is the only explanation, I'm afraid. It seems your pet owl has somehow transformed into a human being." Dumbledore then took out his wand and waved it, letting a transparent phoenix come out his wand and leaned in to whisper a message.
As it flew away, Dumbledore spoke to Harry, "I'm sure you have many questions, and believe me when I say I am also quite intrigued to solve this little riddle. But for now I think it best that we make sure that this little news stays under wraps, less we bring more complications to an already quite convoluted problem."
Suddenly, a knock gained the attention of the two wizards - Hedwig still busy with enjoying her scrumptious food - and Harry opened it to show Professor McGonagall.
"Hello Albus, I just got your message and-" She stopped in her tracks as her eyes widened at Harry and widened even more at the small child that occupied the small table at the side of the room.
"So it is true!" Professor McGonagall let out involuntarily, which caused Dumbledore and Harry to whiten a bit.
"Ahem, excuse me Minerva. But has word gone around about…" Dumbledore airly waved at both Harry and Hedwig.
Professor McGonagall nodded and added, "The Great Hall has been filled with talks of these two."
Silence filled the room with that statement…
Hedwig gave a little burp and covered her mouth.
"Excuse me."
A/N: A spanking, brand new story! This one will be a short one; won't go above double digit chapters. Please leave your thoughts and leave a review!
