A/N: House: Hufflepuff | Category: Themed | Prompt: Ministry of Magic | Word Count: 955

"Potter!"

Harry's head snapped up at the sound of his boss's voice and he quickly closed the case file he had been reading. He stood and took a moment to stretch his aching back before making his way to the Head Auror's office. The door was already open, so he stepped inside, knocking on the door frame to announce his presence.

"Sir?" he asked.

"Yes, could you run this letter down to post? It's classified, and I don't want to risk it getting into the wrong hands," Auror Calloway explained, nodding his head towards a letter that was perched on the edge of his desk before returning his attention to the files in front of him.

"Sure," Harry replied, glad for the opportunity to stretch his legs.

There had been a lull in activity recently, which meant long, tedious days filled with paperwork and reports. He was itching to do something, no matter how small, although he had hoped for a little more excitement than letter delivery. Still, he grabbed the letter from Calloway's desk and walked down the hallway to the lift, slowing his pace once he was out of sight of the Auror office.

The lift opened and he stepped inside, followed by another ministry employee. Harry silently urged the lift to move faster as the young woman beside him stared openly at him. He pulled the sleeve of his robe between his thumb and forefinger and rubbed it, staring determinedly ahead. After several uncomfortable minutes, the lift opened to his destination and he hurried out, letting out a relieved sigh as he left his admirer behind.

The post room took up the majority of the floor, considering the hundreds of owls it housed. It was chaos, with owls flying in and out of the windows at random and people bustling around trying to manage the incoming and outgoing post. Harry spotted the drop-off desk and set down the letter as he waited for the man behind the counter to notice him. It didn't take long—as soon as the man turned his head and caught sight of Harry he dropped, quite literally, what he was doing. The owl he had been holding to tie a letter to ruffled its feathers in irritation at the man for dropping him and flew out one of the windows while the employee rushed over to Harry.

"Mr. Potter, how can I help you?" he breathed.

Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes. He was still fairly new to the Ministry, and it was rare that he went a day without someone gawking at him. He hoped the attention would fade with time, but he wasn't sure how much more of it he could take.

"I just need this classified document sent out," he replied, pushing the sealed letter towards the man. He glanced quickly at his nametag, which read 'Steve'.

"Yes, yes, of course, you'll be needing one of our best owls, then. I'll get this taken care of for you, sir," he said.

Harry turned to leave, but as he did so, he caught sight of a familiar looking snowy owl. It was sitting on a perch away from the other owls and holding its wings in an odd position.

"What's wrong with this owl?" Harry asked.

"Oh, her? Broken wing. She'll never fly the same, even if it heals properly," Steve explained, shaking his head.

"So what's going to happen to her?"

"Dunno. Might have to put her down."

"What, just for a broken wing?" Harry asked incredulously. At the man's shrug, he continued, "Could I take her?" Steve raised his eyebrows at him.

"What do you want with an owl that can't fly properly? Ah, I guess it doesn't matter. Sure, take her," Steve said, waving his hand dismissively.

Harry grinned to himself. Steve's star-struck demeanor seemed to have disappeared at Harry's strange request, which suited him just fine.

"I'll be back to pick her up before I go home for the day," Harry promised before leaving to go back to the Auror office.

As Harry stepped out of the Floo, owl in tow, he realized that perhaps he should have discussed getting a pet with Ginny before bringing one home. It was too late to reconsider, though, because she had just entered the room and spotted him. Her smile faded into a confused expression as her eyes shifted from his face to the owl perched on his arm.

"Harry, why do you have an owl?"

"Right. Well, she was a Ministry owl, but she's injured and they were thinking about putting her down, so I took her. Sorry for surprising you with this, I just couldn't leave her," he explained, watching her face to gauge her reaction.

"That's ridiculous! I'm glad you brought her home," she said, going over to him to stroke her feathers. "No one here is going to discriminate against you for being injured," she crooned to the bird. Harry chuckled.

"So you're not mad?"

"Of course not! I've been wanting to get an owl anyways, and she needs us," she said, looking thoughtfully at the owl. "You know, she reminds me a lot of Hedwig."

"I thought the same thing. Part of the reason I couldn't resist bringing her home," he admitted. Ginny smiled sympathetically at him.

"Does she have a name?"

"Not that I know of," he replied.

"Well, we'll come up with something," she said thoughtfully.

"As long as it's not Pigwidgeon," he teased, grinning cheekily at her.

"Hey, Pigwidgeon is a perfectly respectable name!" she said indignantly, slapping Harry's arm playfully.

"What about Aspen?" Harry offered. Ginny nodded her approval and the owl hooted happily. "Well, that settles it. Welcome to the family, Aspen."