A Parliament of Owls

The Daily Prophet

Monday, January 18, 1993

Harry Potter Spotted at Holyhead Match!

Yesterday appeared like it was just going to be ordinary, but quite a good day for the quidditch match between the Holyhead Harpies and the Tutshill Tornados. The sun was shining, and while the cold was a bit biting, there was no wind to drill it into the bones of the spectators at Gogarth Stadium.

The game started quickly with the Harpies taking an early lead that would last them the entire match. At sixty-eight minutes in, Tutshill chaser Sampson Minks crashed spectacularly into the stands at midfield, injuring three Holyhead fans and himself. The crash also started several smaller fights between the fans of each team, who thought the crash was intentional. The three Holyhead fans injured in the crash were completely healed before the end of the day.

As the game had to be temporarily stopped, one of the arriving healers looked into the luxury box that Minks had passed by prior to his crash. Who did she see standing in front of her? None other than Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived. When the healer reported her sighting to the game's announcers, and the sighting was relayed to the crowd, chaos ensued.

It was quickly discovered that none other than Senior Auror Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody was providing security for Harry Potter and his entourage which resulted in close to a dozen fans being stunned or knocked out in various ways in their attempts to meet the most famous magical child of the age. Saul Partridge of Bristol had his skin turned green and sprouted antlers while he was being electrified and stunned. St. Mungo's has been unable to reverse the effects that Moody placed on the man.

When reached for comment, Auror Moody responded, "He should be back to normal in three to five days. If Mr. Partridge wishes, he can visit the Auror office between 5:00 and 5:03 in the morning on Tuesday or Thursday and I will swap the antlers for any other type of horns that he desires."

When our reporters reached out to Sampson Minks in the hospital, he laughed and said, "You know, some people have near-death experiences, I got to have a near-Harry Potter experience."

Following the Harpies' win, Harry Potter was reported to have gone to a post-game Meet & Greet with the ladies of the Holyhead. As when he was in the paper over the summer, he was accompanied by Lyra Cassiopeia Black, plus her bonded familiar, the talking demiguise, named Whiskers. Also in the entourage was the Steward of the Black family, one Penelope Clearwater: the fifth-year Ravenclaw Prefect at Hogwarts and a possible business associate of Harry Potter. Rounding out the group was second-year Hogwarts student Heromine Grangor and her muggle parents, Leonard and Carla. Reports from other attendees of the 'Meet & Greet' informed our reporters that Miss Grangor is the first magical child of an awakened squib line of Spanish descent. She is currently an only child, but we wish many more magical children for the happy couple in the future.

Mr. Potter and Miss Black were also seen engaged in mock quidditch drills over Gogarth Bay with Gwenog Jones and Angelica 'Gigi' Rivers - For pictures, please see page A4.

In related news, Minister Fudge has initiated a trade deal with the bonded familiar of Lyra Black, Sir Whiskers. The agreement will provide our illustrious Auror Corps with new invisibility cloaks. - For pictures, please see page A5

Cedric flipped through the paper to the middle of Section A to find a full page of pictures which consisted of Lyra with her hair fully unbraided flying back and forth across the quidditch pitch, and others of Harry swatting a bludger back and forth with Gwenog Jones. There was a third shot of Jones taking shots at Lyra while Harry defended her. All three sets of animated photos were taken from a great distance, but he could easily identify Harry and Lyra in each one. On the opposite page, there was a shot of Minister Fudge leaning over to shake hands with Whispers. There must be a bigger story to that picture than just the invisibility cloaks, but he could find that out later.

Now he knew who to thank for yesterday's amazing news. After being avoided by him all week, Harry Potter came to his dorm just before dinner the previous night. He apologized for being rude and said that he would like to try playing quidditch for the house team next year. Cedric had been in shock for a few seconds before jumping up and hugging Harry then running off to send a few letters.

The first one he sent to his father to update the man on the good news, but the second he stopped when he finished writing it as he had no idea where Newt Scamander was at the moment. After consulting his old head of house, Professor Sprout, she informed him that Mr. Scamander would be returning in early February and if he had any mail for the man to leave it with her and an elf would deliver it to his office at Hogwarts.

Now that he had another person to thank, he left the breakfast table and ran off to the owlery to send a letter to Gwenog Jones and Angelica Rivers. He must have written 'Thank you!' in at least ten parts of the letter while also inviting them to the first game of the fall season next year.

With a spring in his step, he then proceeded to his morning Care of Magical Creatures class.

Wednesday during breakfast was quiet until the owls descended on the Great Hall. Typically, in the morning, close to a hundred birds would arrive through the small windows at the top of the hall and descend to the benches to deliver copies of The Daily Prophet and other periodicals for those who subscribed, and fly off immediately to allow for the dozen or so owls that would arrive for personal mail. Those who were paying attention appreciated how the castle wards coordinated the delivery of mail in order of importance. The same thing would happen in the evening if there was a special edition printing of the newspaper.

The newspaper delivery went smoothly, but then there was a bit of a scuffle between several owls as a large group flew straight toward Harry and Lyra. Maybe it was due to the competition between the owls to be first or that they were told their deliveries were more important than the others, but for whatever reason, the group of owls began to fight over who got to be the first to deliver to the two children.

When feathers began to fly, Professor Kettleburn stood up from his spot at the table and cast a large and particularly strong Immobulus spell, which slowed all the birds down so they barely moved and floated in the air. The hall watched in silence as he marched down from the staff table between the Scamanders and Hufflepuffs. Stopping under the flock of birds, he reached upwards and his mechanical arm extended high into the air to carefully pluck the birds down one by one as he told the students at the Scamander table to make room around Harry and Lyra for them.

There ended up being only five owls for Harry, and one for Lyra. Four other owls needed to deliver to other students, but just got mixed up in the fight.

Lyra opened up her letter to find a letter from Angelica Rivers of the Harpies:

Miss Black,

Since the game, and your flight with me afterward, the team has received an overflow of letters from our fans about the pictures that ended up in the newspaper and your amazing hair. When your team starts its practices, have your captain contact us with your training schedule. I would love to come and assist in the training, as well as a few others from time to time. We would bring our own photographer to document our activities. Please let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Angelica 'Gigi' Rivers

Lyra squealed in excitement, then passed the letter to Harry and bounced up and down as he read it, then snatched it back and took it to Cedric who also squealed in excitement before the two of them ran off to write a response. The rest of the hall looked on with confusion.

After his sister ran off, Harry opened his first letter from the largest and most regal of the owls to find just a short message:

To Harry James Potter:

This message is to confirm the appointment with Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, for January 30th, 10 a.m. No response is necessary.

Sincerely,

Eugenia Fiddlewood

Executive Assistant to the Minister

British Ministry of Magic

Seeing another letter with the seal of the ministry, he took that next:

Mr. Potter,

Thank you.

-Amos Diggory

Putting that in his pocket, he moved on to the next letter, which was in a muggle envelope with stamps on the outside. It had been quite a long time since he had seen a muggle letter and it reminded him a bit of Charlie the mailman. Examining the return address, it was from an Elizabeth Manning in London. Harry scratched his head at the name and slowly opened the letter. It was written on lined notebook paper with a purple pen.

Harry,

I hope you remember, this is Liz from Tower Records in London. It took me a while to convince my mother to let me write this letter, especially because she couldn't find any record of your school, Hauge & Ward's Academy. Your 'escort,' the one in the cool jacket, gave my mom the card, so unless she printed up cards from an imaginary place, it has to exist, right?

Well, I was hoping you could let me know the next time you are in London so we can meet up and hang out. I don't think I'm going to be up in Scotland any time soon. Can you tell me about your school? What kind of classes do you take? I like chemistry classes and I'm on a swimming team at my school, here in London.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Liz

Harry stared at the letter. He had no idea what to do with it, not that he had forgotten the girl, but his mind had flagged it as just an insignificant event. Now it seemed to have gained a bit more prominence. He added this as one more thing to add to the list of things he'd need to ask Brandt the next time he saw the man.

Moving on to the next owl, he opened it up to find just a large circle drawn on the parchment, and written inside the circle was written:

Tap your wand here. -GJ

He had enough lessons in dealing with the unknown from both Alastor and Brandt that there was no way he was just going to follow the instructions. So after he took the one remaining letter from the last owl and stashed it in his pocket without opening it, he took the mystery letter up to the staff table to the defense teacher, Professor Lockhart.

The man saw his approach and said, "Good morning Harry! Seems like the life of a celebrity is catching up with you. This is why I have a secretary to answer all of my fan mail, otherwise, I would never be able to eat in peace." Looking at the parchment in Harry's hand, he asked, "How can I help you?"

Harry placed the paper in front of the man, and said, "I know enough not to do this, I thought you could check it for me."

Lockhart's face grew serious, "You were right to bring this to me. I have a wealth of experience in dealing with booby-trapped letters from people who may have been under the impression I had wronged them in some way or another…" he leaned in closely and whispered, "Mostly jealous husbands…"

Straightening up, he spun his wand over the paper, leaving a trail of golden sparks which settled on the paper. He performed another action which had the sparks turn blue, then purple, then they disappeared.

"There are two objects hidden inside the parchment," Lockhart informed him. "I can't determine what the objects are, but the larger one has some traces of magic in it, but nothing harmful, as far as I can tell. Just to be safe, step back please."

Harry took a step back and his professor pulled up his magenta cloak in front of him like a shield, then reached over and tapped the paper. As Lockhart tapped the circle, the parchment burst into flames, which didn't feel hot, or damage the surroundings. When the fire subsided, there was a small rolled-up parchment and a quidditch beater's bat laying on the table. Harry was just about to reach for the parchment when Lockhart stopped him and cast a couple of other diagnostic charms on the items before letting him pick them up.

On the parchment was written:

Potter - Here's to a long and successful quidditch career. - Gwenog Jones.

Harry passed the note to Lockhart and picked up the bat. On the other side was the golden signature of Gwenog and an etching of a harpy claw.

"Impressive!" Lockhart said loudly. "You do seem to attract the older witches quite well. Though, I suggest that when you thank her, you tell her not to be so mysterious in the future. I've incinerated letters I thought might be cursed in the past. After the first time you've been covered with boils from opening a letter too quickly, you make sure to err on the side of paranoia."

Since most of the school had witnessed the situation when he brought the letter up to the defense professor, he spent the rest of breakfast showing the bat around to other students who approached him. Just as he was about to leave, there was a strange chattering noise from the windows as the silhouette of a monstrous bird flew up to the owl entrances, but couldn't get through. The bird tried another hole, then everyone watched as the outline of the giant bird flew away from the windows.

Harry started to get up to leave when there was a scream from outside the hall and a girl ran into the hall yelling, "It's a monster!"

Professors Lockhart, Kettleburn, Babbling, and Sprout ran out towards the door as all the students backed away from the entrance. There was the clattering noise that the bird had made before, and someone nearby Harry whispered, "Sounds like a machine gun."

The four professors who were at breakfast all drew their wands and pointed toward the door as the giant bird walked into the great hall. It was close to six feet tall, with legs that were long and skinny with four toes on the bottom. It had a large body of gray feathers, an enormous pale beak, and golden eyes. Strangely enough, it was also wearing a pendant around its neck made from shiny black metal, it was a circle with a vertical line through it and small spikes sticking out at four points.

"Is that a diricawl?" one student asked.

"The legs are too long," said another.

Professor Kettleburn spoke up, "It's a shoebill, they're from central Africa."

The bird stalked its way closer to the students, making a chattering noise that scattered many of them to the sides of the room. Professor Babbling approached the bird cautiously and stood in front of it, examining the pendant. She cast a few diagnostic spells on the bird, as it stretched up taller than she was.

"The pendant is a portkey," she announced, "and it's a Ghanan rune for perseverance. So it's here for a purpose."

Harry suddenly made the connection and announced, "I think it's here for me."

Breaking through the bunched-up group of students in front of him, he approached Professor Babbling and the tall bird. She stood in front of Harry as the bird leaned over and made the strange chattering noise again, then extended one wing, which had to be about four or five feet long, and revealed a golden scroll container attached to the side of its body. Professor Babbling carefully removed the container and passed it to Harry. Before he could open the container the bird walked over to the table and started to look around for food. It started pushing around the meat but couldn't decide what it wanted.

Professor Kettleburn called for an elf and whispered something to it before it popped away and returned with a basket of fish, still alive and flopping around. The shoebill turned around and approached the basket, eating one fish whole, then taking its time with another. The entire room was watching intensely as it finished the second fish, then slowly marched out of the room. Another student screamed and ran away as it exited. Then the entire student body in the great hall ran after it.

When it got to the courtyard, it spread its massive wings and leaped into the sky. Once it was over the Permissible Forest, there was a twist in the air as the portkey pendant must have been activated, and the bird vanished.

Professor Sprout called out to everyone, "You all have ten minutes until your first class, make sure you're on time!"

It wasn't until lunchtime that Harry got to read the last two letters he got. The one he had stashed before approaching Lockhart had the Black family Coat of Arms on the front and 'Narcissa Black' written on the back of the envelope. He took a few seconds to debate waiting until Lyra was there to open it, but decided he could read it first and then see if he needed to tell his sister about her mother's letter.

Dear Mr. Potter,

I am writing to let you know that, following our meeting, I spent quite a long time trying to figure out where I went so wrong in my life. I do not think I would have done anything differently in my marriage to Lucius as we were in love at the time. Though in the later years, when Lyra did not show any signs of being magical, I should have stood up to my husband and kept him from causing Lyra any pain, and made sure she wasn't sent away.

I took your warning to heart, and I am desperately trying to understand the plight of an abandoned child. I am currently traveling and will return when I believe that I have fulfilled your mission for me and you will see that I sincerely wish to be part of my daughter's life.

I spoke to my son, Draco, before I departed and reminded him that he has his own mission to fulfill so he may also be part of Lyra's life. Arcturus does not have high hopes for my son and believes he will do something foolish under the influence of his father. He has told me that he believes you have a limit to your tolerance of Draco's behavior and you will eventually resort to something much more permanent than the results of your initial confrontation.

I humbly request that as I try to do as you told me in pursuit of a relationship with my daughter, you try to have more patience with my son as well.

Sincerely,

Narcissa Black

Harry stared at the letter. Then he read it again. It seemed too personal to show it to Lyra, but he resolved that if he did have another encounter with the arrogant boy that he would show the letter to Lyra before taking action. After eating half a sandwich, Harry took out the golden scroll container, twisted the top off of it, and removed the paper inside.

Hey there Harry,

It was great to receive your letter here at school. Plenty of people here have heard of Harry Potter through our history classes and the children's books, but you are treated as an imaginary creature instead of a real person. So for other people to see that you exist was quite a story for me to tell.

That's an incredible power that Hami has granted you for your staff. When I am training with my father, Hami often roars to make us weaker so the training is more difficult and more effective when his power wears off. I have never seen him need to defend our family, but my father told me a story of a time when he was younger when he fought alongside his cousins and Hami and his roars empowered them to fight harder.

After our flight to Switzerland, the magizoologists and healers we spoke to slightly confirmed what Mr. Scamander and your sister had said. He is getting into the later stages of his life and he is approaching an age where he may not be able to father children of his own anymore. He may even realize that on his own.

Mr. Scamander put my father in touch with the group in Syria that is raising the Lamassu cubs and he is trying to arrange a meeting to discuss an arrangement or a way to purchase the cubs if Hami will want to foster them. I will update you on how that progresses.

I am sending this letter with one of the school's long-distance letter carriers. I imagine he will cause quite a stir when he arrives in Scotland. Please make sure the post office on your end sends a hardier bird next time, the owl that was sent before came close to being eaten by the local wildlife here. Let me know of any other developments with Hami's tooth.

Sincerely,

Erayden Duman

Harry smiled, this one he would show to Lyra. He looked at the golden scroll container and stashed it in his pouch for future use.

After dinner, Harry made his way up to the owlery to respond to a few of his letters. The first one he wrote was to Liz, adding to the outside of the paper the address he found on her letter.

Liz,

Yes, the school exists. It's in Scotland, in the highlands. We're not supposed to talk about its location. I know that sounds strange, but it is what it is. I guess I can tell you, the school is in an old castle, with a lake and a forest nearby. I also like science classes, but I'm more interested in herbology and zoology.

I have a meeting in London on the morning of the 30th. I'll need to speak to my escorts to see if I have time for anything else. I'll try to send another letter when I know more.

Sincerely,

Harry

Next, he sent a letter to Gwenog Jones.

Hi Gwenog,

Thank you for the beater's bat. I guess that is what I will try out for on the team. That's what people say I should do since I dented that bludger in the first week of school.

Your letter caused a bit of a stir because I thought it might be cursed. I ended up having Gilderoy Lockhart open it. He said he had experience with this kind of thing due to jealous husbands. Though jealous of what?

Lyra got a letter from Angelica Rivers saying she might come to help us with practices. I think our captain, Cedric, squealed as much as she did when he read it.

Please make sure to sign your name on the letters so I know they're from you in the future.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

Finally, he sent a letter to Brandt. Just as he started writing the letter, Hermes came down from his perch and sat there waiting for him to finish. He wrote:

Brandt,

I received quite a few letters today. The first was from the Minister's office confirming our meeting for the 30th at 10 am. The second was just a one-sentence message from Cedric's dad thanking me for joining the team.

The third was from that girl I met in London, Liz. I already wrote her back, and I did my best not to say anything about magic. I told her about being in London on the 30th, do you think I could meet up with her afterward?

I also got a letter from Gwenog Jones with a signed beater's bat inside it. But she put it hidden inside some kind of charm that required me to tap my wand on the parchment. She just signed it with GJ. From your lessons, I thought it might be a curse, so I took it to Professor Lockhart to check before I opened it.

The next letter I got was from Lyra's mother. It's nothing urgent, but I don't know if I should respond or not.

Finally, I got a letter from the boy we met in Istanbul, Erayden. He updated me on the situation with Hamidreza. He sent the return letter with some monstrous bird that scared all the students in the great hall during breakfast. It was awesome.

-Harry

Hermes puffed up his chest and allowed Harry to put the letter in for the Steward and he flew off. Just before he was about to leave, he thought of one more he should send.

Professor McGonagall,

I suppose you heard about the Shoebill bird at breakfast this morning. It was a return from the letter I sent to Uagadou. My friend there advised us not to send such small birds in the future as the one that came with my letter was close to being eaten.

Thanks,

Harry