Chapter 2- The Road Less Traveled By (or Advice From An Owl)
Harry laughed and turned back to wave goodbye to all of the children in the window. His home for the last 9 years loomed over him in the midday sun.
"Goodbye!" He yelled. He could hear their muffled responses.
Mrs. Dursley rolled her eyes. "Now, I've got you a job down in the city- Are you listening?!" Harry snapped his eyes back to the Orphanage keeper.
"As I was saying. I got you a job in the city, an acquaintance of mine needs an extra hand around his shop. You'll be getting room and board from him." She began to lead him to the gate.
Scotland was nippy this time of year, and the snow hadn't yet melted, but the March sun tried admirably. This created a slushy mess that soaked through Harry's ratty, too-big boots, his too-big trousers, and... well his too-big everything.
It was all hand me downs, previously owned by the woman's son, Dudley. He was a whale of a boy, and most of the money the woman got to run the orphanage went to buying him any sweet his stomach rumbled for.
He rubbed his hands together, the chill soaking through his gloves, and then burried them in the pockets of his very large jacket.
Mrs. Dursley all bit shoved him out of the gate.
"You've been a thorn in my side for years, acting all high an mighty, and all of that funny business... You won't do any of that around your new boss, are we clear? You're an orphan, a freaky one at that, and you'll never be anything more. You'll earn your keep, or you'll be on the streets, Grunning's will see to that, it's a respectable establishment."
Harry was only barely paying attention to what the horse-like woman was saying. He was far too busy fiddling with his necklace. He'd had it since before he could remember.
He had been found wandering the hillsides when he was only 8, and he had had only a pendant on his person, with the name of a town that didn't exist. He had been a mystery, baffling government officials. Pretty soon he had been all but forgotten, shoved in this run-down building with an ill-mannered and equally run-down woman and her horrid husband, who thankfully wasn't there most of the time. Sadly, he worked at the place Mrs. Dursley had gotten him a job at.
Lucky him.
"I have family though... and I'll find them." He sounded fierce, determined. And he was. Harry could hear her cackling. She slammed the gate and turned, walking back into the house.
He heard her talking to her self. "The freak thinks someone would actually want him, he'll learn!"
Rolling his eyes, Harry turned. The sun was high, and the air was cold. He'd need to hurry, or with his luck he'd catch his death in the melting snow. Heaving a sigh, Harry set off down the country lane, a spring in his step.
He came to a road sign after a few hours, the sun climbing across the sky and shining weakly behind the clouds that promised a storm. Though there were two roads, there was only one sign. It proclaimed the name of the town he was meant to go to, a boring village with boring people. The other road was unmarked.
This was getting interesting.
He took off his scarf, which was beginning to make him overheat. He shoved it in one of his pockets, the end trailing into the snow.
"One sign leads to misery, a dead end job for a dead end life," he mused. He looked up the other path.
"The other... who knows. Adventure, maybe?" He started off down that way, then backtracked.
"But maybe..." he sighed and collapsed on a snow pile. "Someone send me a sign!"
He heard a hoot. Startled, he looked up.
There was a snowy white owl sitting on the sign post.
"An owl, in broad daylight?" He stood. The owl swooped down, snagging his scarf in its beak and taking off down the unmarked road.
"H-hey!" He ran after it. The bird landed, hopping down the road a ways.
"I can't believe it. An owl wants me to go down the road." He perked up and grinned.
"Who am I to turn down such a sign, hmmm? Two paths diverge in a... uh... snowy place? I will take the one less traveled by!" Chuckling at his horrid poetry, Harry hurried after the owl.
On the way, the owl never deserted him. In fact, it was perched on his shoulder as he walked. He had long since reclaimed his scarf, which was wrapped around his neck. The sun was no longer directly above, and the chill had started to seep back in.
"Hedwig. I think I'll name you Hedwig. She's the patron saint of orphans... I think..." he shrugged and continued on his way.
He stopped to rest once, sharing a bit of a sandwich he had packed with the owl.
"Do you know what lies at the end of this road, Hedwig?" The owl gave a hoot, which Harry didn't understand, of course.
"My name's Harry, by the way. At least, that's what Mrs. Dursley decided. It's boring, I hate it. I wish I had a cool name, like Blaise."
The owl hooted once more, which made Harry giggle. "A woman of few words. I find that comforting after Mrs. Dursley's shrieking." Another hoot. He was growing to like his new companion, the beautiful creature she was.
Definitely too smart for an owl, though, but be it far from him to look a gift horse in the mouth.
AN: Two chapters in a day! Kidding, I have 7 waiting, and 8 in progress. I'll probably have them all up, I might not, you never know.
A few friends have asked if I want to keep this mostly like the movie, but I am going to add a few scenes of my own. Obviously, since they don't go to Paris, I have to make an improvisation for the night out. And there will be a few added scenes as well, such as a plot bunny I had for a drunk Harry and a bunch of our favourite redheads.
Felix out-