Chapter 2
At the Owlery
There is nothing more satisfying than after a long hunting trip or a delivering a letter than taking a long rest in the Owlery, which was "home" to me for six years at Hogwarts.
The Owlery is this huge, stone building right outside the Hogwarts castle, with large open windows for the owls to fly out of at their pleasure and little nooks for every owl lined with straw and perches. The ground is covered in straw and owl droppings and is very cold, though owls don't mind the cold.
Most of them, we hung out, talking to each other, sleeping, occasionally heading out for a hunting trip or just to stretch our wings. (We technically didn't even need to hunt, since we were fed twice a day, but no owl wants to eat owl food their whole life.)
Except in the morning. The morning was mail delivery time. All the owls would soar into the Great Hall at breakfast time with letter or small packages clamped in their beaks, and dropped them into the hands or plates or their owners.
I didn't actually deliver a lot of letters that first year of Hogwarts. I mean, come on, I may be an owl, but I honesty didn't expect Harry's, let's just say, less than perfect family to actually send him letters and presents from home.
I often felt sad for Harry, when all the other kids around him were getting send long, fat letters and elaborate gifts and sweets from their parents while he did not. So usually, at mail time, I would pay him a visit anyway, usually giving him an affectionate nudge with my beak. He usually let me nibble some toast or bacon, and then with a hoot, I would head back to the Owlery. I was always glad to see Harry, as he was with me. I'm sure if I were a human and he could understand, I would be chattering a mile a minute. "Hi, Harry! Have a good sleep last night? How did that Potions test go? (Harry often complained about Potions.) Harry, you won't believe all the drama at the Owlery!"
Oh, yes. Owls have drama, too.
Between the three female tawny owls, who all looked the same except for Artemis' long eyelashes, (Cho Chang's was Artemis; the Patil twinses was Athena; and Pansy Parkinson's was Astrid ), there was always gossip. About the other owls, about the other animals (Mrs. Norris, the caretaker Filch's cat, was especially hated) and about the students most of all. Truthfully, I could never stand for much gossip myself.
And then there was Draco Malfoy's eagle owl, Thorondor, the one I described as being too good for the rest of us. And he was! He was so arrogant; flapping around like he owned the place and talking loudly about the "glories from his past." Now that was really something, because Thor was born in a freaking pet shop.
He would usually convince a few of the gullible school owls to listen to his nonsense, made-up stories that usually made him the hero, but I could never stand it. He was so annoyingly arrogant.
Sometimes visiting owls, usually the parents' owl of students delivering them something, would stop by at the Owlery for some free food and water and to chat, since sometimes it was a long fly and they needed a few hours to a few days to rest before making the long journey home.
One of them was Lady, Neville's gram tired-looking gray screech owl. I really did like Lady. She was old, older than most of us (though not quite as old as Errol, the Weasley family's owl, who spent a lot of time sleeping), but she was very good company and always stayed to talk. And she was there quite a bit, since Mrs. Longbottom didn't trust her grandson and was always sending him letters, making sure he remembered things. One day, though, she came flying right through the Owlery for a quick lap of water and then back again, calling, "Sorry, I can't stay to chat-Neville's gram's sent him a Howler."
Having to deliver a Howler was a dreaded thing among owls, because if you didn't get it to them right away it would start smoking and then screaming with you carrying it in your beak. Once Errol was so startled he dropped the Howler, and the Weasley twins never got it. It took Errol at least a week to recover from that one. Poor Errol was always having to deliever Howlers because the Weasley twins got into trouble at least daily.
But every owl, in my opinion, deserves to get to live at Hogwarts instead of in a owl store or locked in a cage at home. And even wild owls aren't the same as "magic owls". They aren't quite as smart.
So...not that much happened first year...so that's why this chapter kind of sucks...well... that's all for now. I've got to go catch some dinner. (Yep, back at the Dursleys for the summer.)