WC: 1037

Prompts: soul (word), obliterate (word), "Do you really need to do that?" (dialogue)

Hedwig looked at the little boy in front of her, the way his shoulders were hunched and his shirt hung off of his body, but the way his eyes were still alight with a fire she'd never seen before. He had a good soul, she could tell that much.

She could already feel herself growing comfortable with the boy, which surprised her for having only been in his presence for a week, but she was happy. She could tell that in the future, she'd die for this boy, her owner.

Hedwig let out a screech of frustration, immediately feeling guilty when Harry shushed her. He was just as worked up and annoyed as she was, but it wasn't him that was locked in a cage that was in a larger cage. He let her out at night, let her fly around the small room and stretch her wings but during the day, he locked her back in her travel cage to protect her from the horrid people that her owner lived with.

She wanted to obliterate them all. She wanted to scratch out their eyes and bury her beak into their guts. She wouldn't though, she knew that Harry wouldn't appreciate it.

An owl could dream, though.

The rat looked appetising. It had looked appetising from the first time that she'd ever seen it, pulled out of a ratty pocket and placed onto the ginger boy's lap. She'd held off, knowing Harry would have difficulty making friends if she chewed on their pets. She also had better restraint, she told herself as her eyes narrowed in on the pathetic rodent.

Crookshanks had the right idea, chasing it around and trying to treat it as a chew toy. However, Hedwig saw the conflict between Crookshanks' owner and the rat's. She didn't want that to occur with her Harry.

Besides, she had enough to worry about with the news of Sirius Black hunting him down. There wasn't a lot an owl could do as a protection detail, not a lot besides flying in the way of a curse.

Hedwig didn't even bother keeping the agitated look off her face as she stared - glared - at Harry. She was a perfectly good owl, his perfectly good owl. She flew damned well, quick and agile, and always delivered a letter to the correct person. So, why on Earth wasn't he using her?!

He sent the letter off with a plain, brown owl that belonged to the school before he made his way over to her and smiled gently, running a finger down her feathers. She turned her head away with an annoyed huff and flutter of feathers.

"I'm sorry," Harry said, his tone soft. "It's for your safety."

She turned round and bit him, causing him to bleed. It wasn't the first time he'd used a different owl, or apologised to her, or been bitten. It was a pattern they both knew would be repeated.

"Do you really need to do that?" he grimaced. He wiped his bloody finger on his trousers before shuffling closer and encasing her in a hug. She squaked indignantly, eyes and beak wide and feathers ruffled, before settling down into his embrace and nipping at his ear good-naturedly. "It truly is for your safety," he reassured, reminding her of her disuse and bringing a glower back to her face.

He was hurt.

Hedwig mentally rolled her eyes from her perch as she realised that Harry got hurt on a regular basis and it wasn't anything to worry about, but she was still worried regardless.

He was in school, and even though he'd been hurt in the safety of the school many times, this was different. It was a teacher hurting him, a really foul, toad-like teacher. She tilted her head; actually, he'd been hurt by a teacher every year since coming to school, even if the whole werewolf incident had been an accident. Maybe it was different because she had more power in the castle than others had before her.

Harry hissed as his cloak rubbed against the wound on his hand. Even with the healing process beginning, it was still tender. She nuzzled her head under his chin, hooting at him affectionately.

"She's horrid, Hedwig," he admitted in a whisper. "She's truly the most foul person I've ever met. I think she might be worse than Vernon."

Hedwig pulled away from her owner, her wings flapping to show her disagreement and he chuckled, understanding her. "Yeah, I don't think she's reached that level of foulness. Not yet, at least."

She watched the cruel people leave the home that they'd always lived in, a familiar building, and felt sorry for them. They may be narrow-minded and not have a clue about anything, but they still didn't deserve this to happen. Nobody did.

Hedwig watched as more people entered the abandoned home, straightened herself to be more alert when her Harry hissed out in pain as the familiar witch tugged on his hair. Then, she watched as her Harry got lost in a crowd of other Harrys. If she was any other owl, she wouldn't have a clue who her owner was, but she'd watched this man grow from a boy, and she knew.

She hooted at him when he looked over in her direction and tilted her head good-naturedly when he grinned. It had been a while since he'd shown outward signs of anything but sadness.

She watched her Harry change clothes until they were all identical, and then she followed the group onto the street where they took to the skies. It felt good to fly so unrestricted, weaving around the Harrys until she was flying behind her Harry.

She watched as cloaked figures appeared from the cloud cover and started firing curses; her heart raced for her Harry was in the middle of everything! How could she protect him when everything was in shambles?

She saw the cloaked figure raise his wand, point it at her unprotected and unaware owner and dove in the way.

The Killing Curse struck her instead of Harry and she died happy, knowing that she protected her owner to the best of her abilities. Just as she knew she would.