I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.
Extended Family
Chapter 106 – Feathered Avenger
Starts during Harry's sixth year, starting around chapter 121 of Family.
"Since you have a patrolling partner, do you really need me along?" Padma asked with a big smile.
Harry chuckled and reached up to scratch Hedwig's belly. "I don't mind if you need the time to do something else."
"No, I don't want to be fussed at by the Head Girl," Padma laughed. "Plus now I get to spend some time with Hedwig too."
Hedwig cheeped thickly, looking plump and proud.
"Don't talk with your beak full," Harry chided her gently.
"What is she eating by the way?"
"A newt." Harry grinned. "She's been eating them as snacks more often and sitting on my head to transfer the positive energies."
"Because of N.E.W.T.s?" Padma smiled. "That's so sweet of you," she cooed to Hedwig.
"She sure is the best," Harry agreed.
"Besides, I enjoy patrolling with you. Terry got a girlfriend and she's all he wants to talk about these days. I'm happy for him but I can only withstand so much terrible poetry." She flushed, "Please don't tell him I accidentally let that loose."
Harry bit back a laugh. "I won't. Good for him though. And maybe he can get better at poetry."
"I hope so, for his and her sake. I'm not that close to the fifth year prefects. For the seventh years, Daniels is okay, snooty and quiet though and for a Ravenclaw, that's saying something. Cho has been really hard to get along with lately though."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. She's under a lot of pressure with all the N.E.W.T.s she's taking and then adding Quidditch responsibility on top."
"Ah, sorry," Harry said sheepishly. "That's partially on me."
"Not really. I mean, yeah, you guys won your game but there's always going to be a loser and a winner." Padma shrugged. "It's not just that. She has something to say about your 'girls'. Whatever that means."
Harry sighed. "Last year, Angelina gave her the eye after trying to Wronski Feint me into the ground."
"You mean when she tried to plow you?" Padma's eyes twinkled.
"No, not that," Harry laughed. "But yeah, Angelina gave her the eye and so did Alicia and this year when she said I didn't have my girls to hide behind, Katie decided to punish her for saying that."
"Oh Cho," Padma sighed. "She's a lovely person most of the time but loses her mind when it's related to Quidditch."
"I don't know anyone else like that," Harry deadpanned and they laughed. "I don't mind really."
"Well sadly, you're the target of her ire lately. She's been a bit rude when she talks about you. Don't worry. Michael, Terry, and I think you're swell and Luna doesn't tolerate it at all. She's been fighting with Cho over it too so Cho doesn't try to say anything when Luna's about. The firsties and secondies you've tutored like you too."
"Maybe I should apologize or something," Harry sighed. "I feel bad for causing trouble."
"You're not," Padma said firmly. "She's venting and it's not entirely fair but you're not the cause. You've got nothing to make up for." They continued walking in companionable silence for a moment. "Is something wrong with Hedwig?" Padma asked, looking up with a concerned eye.
Hedwig was sitting still on Harry's head, the tail of the newt sticking out of her mouth and she was looking at Padma with a serious expression. Once caught however, she hastily gulped the rest of the newt and hooted innocently, opening her eyes wide and blinking slowly.
"Maybe she was eating too fast," Harry said, looking up. "You okay Hedwig?"
Hedwig hooted comfortably and wiggled down, settling firmly on Harry's head. When Padma and Harry resumed their conversation, she looked up where Ravenclaw tower was, her eyes narrowing.
-0-
Cho shrieked; something flew by her at high-speed made her flinch away from the table. She blinked, looking left and right. "What was that?!"
"What was what?" Marietta Edgecomb asked.
"Something just zoomed past me! You really didn't see it?"
The people sitting around her shook their heads. "I wasn't paying attention," Marietta said. "Sorry."
"No, it's okay. I didn't think I imagined it though." She looked down at her plate. "Did you take my bacon?"
"No. You yelled at me when I did it as a firstie and haven't done it since." Marietta rested a hand on Cho's forehead. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Cho grumbled, pushing her hand away. She served herself more bacon and she ate, lost in thought.
"I wonder what got the firsties giggling like that," Marietta mused.
"Who knows?" Cho said absent-mindedly.
-0-
"Hey! Watch it!" Cho shouted, ducking and shaking her fist. "Bloody owl!"
"That was really close," Marietta said, having flinched back and hitting the wall. "What's an owl flying through the castle now anyways? They usually only fly into the great hall or the owlery."
"No idea. Maybe it's lost or going to one of the teachers." Cho stopped and patted her hair. "My pin! Where did it go?!" They searched the ground around them. "I know I was wearing one today!"
"I thought I saw it earlier." Marietta looked up. "You don't think the owl took it, did you?"
"No, that'd be absurd," Cho said. "Why would an owl steal my pin? Not to mention I don't think one could just snatch it off my head midflight. I'll go back and check the classrooms later."
-0-
"This is getting ridiculous!" Cho threw the newspaper aside. She had been eating when an edition of the Daily Prophet fell on her and she had flailed for a second in surprise before throwing it aside. "I don't even have a subscription!"
"That's so weird, is someone pranking you?" Hank Anderson, a fellow seventh year Ravenclaw, asked. "Isn't that like the third time lately?"
"Yeah and-where's my breakfast?!" Cho growled when she looked at her empty plate. "I'm really starting to get pissed off here!"
"Okay, you lot have been laughing a lot lately," Marietta said to the laughing firsties and secondies. "Care to share the joke?"
"Isn't it obvious?" one of them asked back.
"No, if it was, I wouldn't be asking," Marietta sniffed.
"Are one of you responsible for messing with Cho?" Hank asked severely.
They all shook their heads.
"I don't think it's them," Marietta said quietly. "They sit down the table and they don't have the guts."
"When I find who's responsible, I'm going to destroy them," Cho seethed. She put her hand on the table and started patting around. "My hair pin! Another one's gone! I just put it there! I'm not going mad, am I?!"
"Did it get mixed with the newspaper?" Marietta shook out the pages of the newspaper. "I don't see it."
"Wait." Cho picked something up that fell out of the paper. She held it up to the sunlight and her eyes narrowed. "Wait a second." She whipped her head around, glaring at the Gryffindor table. She got up and stomped over. "Harry Potter!"
Harry turned and flinched at seeing an incredibly angry Cho striding towards him. "Hi Cho. Uhm. Is everything alright?"
"No! Nothing is alright! What game are you playing at?"
Harry looked helplessly at his friends sitting around him. They gave him equally blank looks and shrugs. "Uh…I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."
"What's this?!" She held up the object she pulled from the newspaper.
"It's a feather," Harry said with uncertain confidence. "White and speckled black. Might be one of Hedwig's?"
"So you admit it!"
"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"You've been setting her on me and harassing me lately!" She jabbed him sharply in the chest.
A loud screech made everyone flinch and Hedwig dove in, snapping at Cho's finger. She landed on Harry's shoulder, feathers mantled and wings spread wide. She glared at Cho and hissed angrily, clacking her beak.
"I've never set Hedwig on anyone," Harry said frostily.
Cho gave Hedwig a wary look. "You've never told her to attack or harass anyone?"
"I have never told her to do anything. She's very independent and I ask her to do things for me." He looked up at his owl. "Hedwig, have you been bothering Cho?"
Hedwig tucked her wings in and fluffed her feathers. Her eyes opened wide and she blinked innocently at Harry, tilting her head.
"She has! She's been…hey…that's my pin!" Cho pointed at a hair pin tucked into Hedwig's chest feathers. "She's wearing my pin!"
"She probably found it and didn't know who it belonged to," Harry protested. He reached up and took it out. "See? If it's hers, she gets a bit nippy. She probably was waiting for me to get it and see if we can find who owns it. Isn't that right?"
Hedwig bobbed her head up and down and cooed as she nuzzled Harry's cheek with her head.
Cho took the pin back. "You swear that you didn't tell her to snatch my breakfast or take my pins?"
"I swear," he said earnestly. "I don't know why she would steal your food. She gets plenty from me and from anyone here. Luna feeds her bacon. Maybe she accidentally took some from the wrong plate?"
"I guess…" Cho glared once more at Hedwig before walking away.
"That girl's insane," Ron said softly.
"See, even you don't think Hedwig would do that," Harry huffed.
"Oh no, I know Hedwig would mess with someone like that. I'm just saying I don't know if Hedwig is actively messing with her right now, and that she's nuttier than a biscuit with nuts in it."
Hermione snorted. "I agree with Ron. We know Hedwig is capable of doing what she has been accused of." She snorted again at Hedwig's insincere look of surprise. "But, it's unfair for Cho to come after you like that and accuse you of it. Everyone that knows you would know you wouldn't sink to that level of interaction."
"He never had to," Ginny snickered. "He had Fred and George to do it for him."
"Hey, I never asked them to do anything like that for me," Harry protested with a laugh.
"No you didn't, but they never shied away from doing it," Ginny giggled.
"That's so rude of her," Mirabelle sniffed. "Blaming sweet Hedwig like that."
Katie had looked coolly at Cho throughout the whole incident. "Still, no reason for her to come over here and yell at you for it." She shook her head and returned to her breakfast. "There's one tiny flaw with your reasoning though, come to think of it."
"What?" Harry asked.
"Luna spends most of her meals here with us," Katie pointed out.
"I still sit at the Ravenclaw table here and there," Luna said, lowering her copy of the Quibbler. "And I do feed Hedwig at any table."
"That's fair," Katie smiled.
"Harry, may I ask Hedwig to deliver something for me?" Luna asked.
"Of course. Do you have any other deliveries to make?" Harry asked. He smiled when Hedwig shook her head and nibbled on his ear. "Off you go then."
Luna skipped out of the great hall with Hedwig riding on her head. When Luna left however, she walked around the corner and slipped into a small alcove. "If she wants to blame me for something, might as well do the crime to fit the accusation, yes?"
Hedwig bobbed her head eagerly.
Luna giggled. A few moments later, she walked into the Ravenclaw common room and entered her bedroom. Once alone, she lifted her shirt and Hedwig fluttered out and landed on her bed. "Cho's room is up the hall and to the left at the end. Have fun!"
Hedwig cooed happily and nipped Luna's fingers lovingly before she silently flew out of Luna's room.
-0-
"I like how Hedwig spends more time here in the common room," Mirabelle said happily. "She's a perfect cuddle bud."
"She loves you," Harry smiled. "Especially since you helped make her a little nest here in the team corner."
"She deserves it." Mirabelle got up to fluff the blankets and the pillow that she and Lyla had used to make a nest for Hedwig. As she unraveled a tangle of blankets, she stopped. "Uhm…Harry?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm not saying Cho's right…but she might not be wrong."
Harry looked up at that. He walked over and groaned softly when he saw the collection of pins tucked away in the nest. "Please tell me that you and Lyla have been sharing hair pins with her."
"I wish I could," Mirabelle said. "I might start though. She's really cute in them even if she doesn't need them."
Harry sighed. "Speak of the owl." He waited for Hedwig to flutter into the common room. "Hedwig, care to explain how you got these?"
Hedwig flapped her wings and made grasping motions with her talons and pecking motions with her beak.
"Okay. So you found them?"
She nodded.
"All of them?"
She waggled a wing, flipping it up and down like a person would their hand.
Harry rubbed his eyes while Mirabelle giggled. "Are they all Cho's?"
Hedwig shrugged and tilted her head.
"Right. Okay. If they belong to Cho, please return them. I'm assuming you did this for me, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm reasonably sure this is some form of payback. I appreciate it and love you but please return them. Will you do that for me?"
Hedwig looked up thoughtfully before nodding.
"Thank you," he said with deep relief.
-0-
"Here comes trouble," Ron muttered the next morning.
Harry turned from his plate. "Hello Cho."
"Hello Harry." Cho took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for what I said about you. I want to apologize."
"I didn't even know what you said but I accept your apology," Harry said bemused. His friends were either snickering under their breath or rolling their eyes at Harry and Cho. "I might have deserved it, maybe. You saying things, not the apology."
Cho smiled weakly. "Well, no not really. It was more me being rude." She held up a small envelope. "Am I going to be getting my hairpins back piecemeal like this?"
"I honestly have no idea," Harry said truthfully.
"Right, you don't know anything about it," she sighed and left the Gryffindor table.
Harry turned to Hedwig who was munching daintily on a piece of bacon. "Are you seriously mailing them back to her individually? Wait, you didn't deliver anything to her this morning before you came over."
"Plausible deniability I imagine," Luna said blandly as she peeked out from behind her magazine. She blinked owlishly at their blank looks. "If Hedwig was responsible for the initial stealing, to maintain anonymity, she could be sending them back with third-party owls."
"I love you," Katie said and she giggled with delight when Hedwig nuzzled her back.
"How would you be paying for that?" Hermione asked. She laughed when Hedwig ripped a piece of bacon in half and deposited half in her hand. "Of course. That's wonderful."
"Why did she apologize? Aside from it being the proper thing but why risk it if Harry didn't even know she was talking like that?" Mirabelle asked.
"Probably because while she couldn't prove it, she figured Hedwig had a hand in it, or a wing," Ron said. "Figured this might be the way to call her off."
"I'm surprised she didn't try getting a professor involved," Ginny remarked.
"She tried," Luna said. "She was complaining about it the other night. Apparently Professor Flitwick said unless she had irrefutable proof, there was nothing he could do about it. When she said she had strong belief, he replied saying that he recalled a moment where many told him that they had strong belief in the absence of thievery in a remarkably similar incident of things going missing and at least hairpins were not socks and shoes."
Luna's smile was sharp and pointed. "Apparently, Cho could not reply to that." Her smile softened when Hedwig nuzzled her. She hugged the snowy owl and kissed her on the forehead.
"Do you need help for postage?" Harry asked Hedwig. He wrapped up a bundle of bacon and gave it to her. "Such a good owl, taking care of your fellow post owls."
Hedwig hooted happily.
-0-
A year later.
"Should we be doing this?" Julius Daltons whispered to his fellow fifth year Ravenclaw prefect.
"I told you, it'll be fine," Leslie Yeens whispered back. "There's no way we'll be caught. We're using a Weasley product and since he was friends with them, he can just blame them or their brother or sister. Don't you want to get back at him?"
"Not really," Daltons hissed back. "And you only want to get back at him for Cho and Quidditch."
"Both are good reasons. Don't you snitch on me."
He glared at her. "I won't."
They entered the prefect offices and using Daltons as a shield, Yeens knelt down and started doing something to a chair.
"What are you doing?" Daltons asked.
"Last night I exchanged the Head Boy's chair with ours," she whispered back. "So I could add the charm parchment. Then later I'll say, 'oh looks like there was a mix up' and move it back. He'll get a big kick out of this when he sits in it."
"This is going to end terribly," Daltons sighed.
"For him," Yeens said smugly.
"What is the matter, Hedwig?" Daphne asked. Hedwig had flown in to deliver a message and was sitting on her desk. She had playfully nipped and bit at Daphne's quill while Daphne was writing, but had abruptly stopped, head turned completely around.
Hedwig's head swiveled back and she hooted softly, blinking benignly but her beak clacked a little in between hoots. Once Daphne went back to writing, Hedwig walked to the edge of the desk and hopped off, spreading her wings and flapping lazily, pushing herself through the air. She wormed her way into the closet and rooted about for a moment before waddling out, dragging something.
Flying silently, she delicately placed the thing behind Yeens and then roosted on top of the shelf behind the girl, waiting.
"Done," Yeens said with satisfaction. She rose and took a step back and stepped on the bottle that Hedwig had left behind her. A loud crack broke through the air as the bottle broke beneath her foot. "What the-"
A wave of thick liquid spilled from the bottle, far more than one would expect the small bottle to contain. When Yeens stepped down, she slipped and flew back, knocking Daltons over. The liquid spread and things began to slide about willy-nilly.
Daphne took one look and flicked her wand. The carpet on the ground moved and the edges rose to become dams to block the spreading liquid. "The Slipping Solution! Someone go to the Potions classroom and get the bottle of unsolvent! Everyone else, stem the flow or else we will have no peace for ages!"
In the ensuing chaos, Hedwig fluttered to the back of the chair and cleanly ripped the charm parchment off the chair, completely unnoticed. She was about to drop it in the wastebasket but wheeled away, a new idea in her mind.
By the time the prefect returned with the unsolvent, Harry came and helped clean things up. "How did the bottle get out here?" he asked, cleaning up the remnants of the bottle and solution. "I thought it was in the evidence closet."
"Perhaps someone was moving things out and dropped it," Daphne offered.
"Hmm, we should try to make sure it doesn't happen again," Harry mused. "That could have been bad. Is everyone okay? Anyone that needs to go to the Infirmary can go. You look a bit bruised, Yeens."
Yeens shook her head, hiding a wince. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You look like you tumbled hard a few times."
"I'll be okay," Yeens said, trying to look tough.
"If you're sure," Harry said.
"I'm sure. Oh wait, looks like our chairs got mixed up. How did that happen?"
Harry chuckled. "All the chairs move about the room. The only reason I know that one is mine is because someone put the Head Boy symbol on it."
"I never get any recognition," Daphne sighed. "Someone indeed."
"I told you I don't need a special chair," he protested, laughing. "But I appreciate it. It's a nice chair." He wheeled over the one behind his desk and exchanged it with his. After he pulled the Head Boy chair back, he sat down easily.
Yeens' eyes glittered with anticipation but when nothing happened, she looked incredibly disappointed. She hissed under her breath, glaring at the chair. "Bloody faulty product. Should have known better than to trust a Weasley item."
"That's odd. Weasley things always work," Dalton said, also staring at the chair. "Are you sure you put it on right?"
"Yes," Yeens said shortly. "I'm going to write a letter and get a refund." She pulled her chair out and sat moodily. She screamed when the chair made a loud roaring sound, shaking violently. Then it bounced up high and when it landed, it bounced higher and launched her out of it. She flew into the air and landed on her rear heavily. The chair then spun and cackled loudly, shooting off lights and colored smoke.
Hedwig fell off her perch, shrieking with laughter, the sound and sight of her rolling on the floor with deep merriment lost on most of the people inside the room.
"Are you okay?!" Harry asked, jumping out of his chair while the majority of the prefects there laughed uproariously.
Yeens teared up, partly from pain and mostly from humiliation. "I think so." She could not hide the wince when she felt pain shoot up her spine. "Actually, no I don't."
Harry waved his wand. "Looks like you fractured your tailbone. I can do a temporary heal and some pain numbing but you really should go to Madam Pomfrey."
"Yes please," she whispered. "Thank you."
"There you go," he said kindly when he finished casting the spells. "Daltons, take her to the Infirmary please. Everyone else, head out on patrols. I'll check the other things in here with Daphne to make sure there aren't any more surprises."
"I do not believe I have ever seen her so amused," Daphne said, smiling down at a still laughing Hedwig. The owl was rolling back and forth, kicking her legs wildly.
Harry flipped the chair over and saw the piece of parchment stuck to the bottom. He sighed when he inspected it. "The Catapulting Chair Charm, guaranteed to send the sitter flying." He shrugged when Daphne gave him a look. "They send me a catalogue."
"Hmm, so someone was hoping to embarrass you," Daphne mused as she bent down and scooped up a still giggling and kicking Hedwig. "Yeens would be the most obvious culprit, considering how her chair was switched with yours."
"Why didn't she booby trap my chair then? Why did she agree to swap them back?"
"That is the question." Daphne's eyes opened wide when Hedwig hopped out of her arms and flew to the chair in question. "Oh! Hedwig caught her and swapped them?" she gasped when Hedwig ripped the parchment off the chair easily.
Hedwig dropped the parchment onto the ground and nodded, waving her tail feathers moodily at the Ravenclaw desk.
Harry's grin was from ear to ear and he picked her up and hugged her tightly. "My hero," he gushed with utter sincerity. "I love you."
Hedwig cheeped back and tugged on his hair lovingly.
"Someone deserves a very big dinner," Daphne praised, scratching Hedwig's head. "Should we do something to Yeens then?"
"Failing the prank and getting pranked so obviously in front of everyone is punishment enough I think," Harry said. He opened his arms a little and Hedwig waddled up his arm and climbed onto his head. "I'll just try to be a bit more careful just in case. Plus I have my watcher with me."
Hedwig hooted importantly, fluffing up her feathers and looked smugly vigilant.
"I'm going to make you a BL-no-T for dinner, a really big one." He smiled at her happy hooting and her wiggling dance.
"That's a bacon and lettuce sandwich without tomato," he explained to Daphne. "It's a sandwich from the States, a lot like a regular bacon sandwich of ours. Hedwig likes toast with mayo and butter and crunchy lettuce with her bacon sandwiches sometimes. She doesn't like tomatoes normally. Would you and Tracy like to join us?"
"That sounds delicious. Yes please."
-0-
"Hedwig is the most spoiled owl," Tracy said later with a big smile. "Not only does she get a sandwich made to her specifications, it gets cut up into small bites for her."
"She deserves it," Harry praised.
Hedwig munched on her bite of sandwich and wiped her beak fastidiously on the napkin hanging off the holder beside her.
"Such good manners," Daphne smiled.
"I can't believe she tried to prank you," Hermione said, shaking her head. "She can lose her badge for that."
"We can tell her that if she tries again," Harry said. "I'm content with how it played out. Something tells me she won't try again."
"If she tries again, a few choice words and some unfortunate nicknames will stop her," Daphne said with a feral smile. "Something like Half-Arse Yeens or some such."
Hedwig daintily ate another sandwich cube and sighed with satisfaction. She preemptively stopped someone from troubling her chick, had revenge in return, enjoyed a very amusing sight, and was now eating a delicious bacon and lettuce and no tomato sandwich with her chick and his friends. Life was grand.
-0-0-0-
Ghostwriter - Yup, she always had the potential to do great and was taken seriously.
poka - It's always strange when a character becomes greater than anticipated, Mistress Castor in this case. She was just a funny name before to be mentioned in passing and yet here she is, written out. I'm sure there will be a chapter that kind of explores the Spinnet dynamic. Maybe.
odonnellsoo99 - I always thought Alicia to be an interest character in this setting. Caught between two different mindsets and dynamics, and gorwing into her own yet showing how the past still effects a person. Hedwig editing the note was a fun random thought.
DOOOOOOM Lord of Waffles - I got the idea after seeing the start of the Wheezes and was glad how it came out.
alix33 - She rented.
