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When Harry woke up, he figured everything that'd just happened had been a dream, that the potions 'mishap' had simply been the result of a lack of rest in recent times. As he looked around, he realised that couldn't be farther from the truth. It hadn't been a dream, for… Hedwig was beside him and as clothed as she'd been when last — and first — he'd seen her. He couldn't help but look at the beautiful creature before him, her long, whitish hair, her slender figure, and most stunningly of all, that perfect beauty she possessed; there seemed not so much as an ounce of imperfection, as had been the case with Fleur and the other Veela he'd seen.
It was like their bodies were sculptures made by the Romans or Greeks, but sure as day, she was real, and soft, and warm. Harry couldn't help but swallow as he reaffirmed his hold around her. When they'd fallen asleep, she'd insisted on being in his arms, held, and she'd kissed his jaw for as long as he could remember, that being until sleep had claimed him.
Is she a Veela? He asked himself as he continued to allow his eyes to roam her body. I reckon she could drive just any bloke mad with a look.
That look she'd given him the day prior and the utterance of the word 'mate' had only aided in making him go mad over her at the time everything had happened. It didn't help the matter that she fit so perfectly in his lap; really, how could he say no to her?
More importantly, he supposed, what was she? It didn't make a lick of sense to him how she'd seemingly been trapped as an owl for so long, nor did it make a lick of sense to him how she'd been freed — he knew well enough it was the potion he'd been working on, but how'd that work?
Harry made to rise, but when he did so, he found that he couldn't. Not only did his legs seem to be tangled around hers, but there seemed to be many extra linen on his bed that he distinctly remembered keeping in the closet. It was like a nest had been formed with the number of blankets now atop his bed, mixed together with the pillows thrown in the mix for good measure.
It seemed Hedwig had formed a nest, of a kind, and the thought made him snicker.
Said snicker, however, caused the lightly-sleeping girl beside him to wake. He watched as her eyes fluttered before ultimately opening, a sleepy quality to her otherworldly visage. Harry couldn't help but smile down at her, especially with his arm still wrapped around her, the girl's body firmly against his own.
Woman, he corrected himself when a sultry smile formed on her face.
"Harry," she said, her voice practically a purr even when she said it in a testing fashion. "Mate — Harry. You freed me."
In an instant, and as she'd previously done, Hedwig all but jumped him, her lips kissing along his jaw and neck to her own contentment. And as before, that same, pleased sort of sound came from her and Harry was as a captive under her care. Whereas, earlier, he so badly wished to speak with her, he found himself no longer capable of doing so. It was like a lurid fog had overcome his mind, and try as he might to throw the effects of it off himself completely, he couldn't. Merlin, it seemed stronger than the Imperius had, and far stronger than the effects of any Veela allure he'd felt.
"Hedwig?" he asked, moving his mouth away from hers as she tried to connect their lips once more; when he did so, she nipped at his jaw, the bites, her form of pout, though she licked the spot she'd bit immediately afterwards.
"Hedwig," he said again, and this time, after one last, lingering kiss, she stopped her show of affection and withdrew so as to gaze at him, her amber eyes staring into his green ones with a playfulness, affection and, to a degree, a look of pleading.
He was almost powerless to resist the gaze she sent him, but he swallowed after looking her over.
"What happened?"
Hedwig cocked her head at him and slid up his body, her arms wrapping around his own and squeezing so as to ensure he'd not go anywhere. Once she was content in the knowledge that he couldn't do so, she spoke; she had an accent that he'd not taken much notice of previously… for obvious reasons… but it wasn't like he could place it.
"I was trapped."
"How?"
Her eyebrows furrowed as her mouth pouted off to one side — it looked like she was thinking extensively, remembering, maybe, or trying to. Eventually, a look of remembrance seemed to flash across her face and then her eyebrows returned whence they'd come.
"There was a boy who liked me, and his mother hated me for it," Hedwig said, the words coming slowly as she seemed to remember in real-time. "She was not so powerful a witch to be frightened of, but she was a full and grown witch, and I'm not. That matters in some places. She cursed me, kept me trapped in a form… until you released me."
It was what he'd been working on then, or rather, the collective thereof. Still, he couldn't help but wonder, and as he wondered, he couldn't help but to ask. "How'd you know all that would work?"
Hedwig smiled as a person caught in the act of doing something they weren't supposed to oft did. "I only hoped the potion to give a person an animal form would unlock my human one, for a time, at least. Just long enough for you to know and help me — I thought I'd wake up in my alternate form."
He blinked at her. So all the other potions she'd accidentally broken in the process of getting submerged in the Animagus one hadn't been quite so deliberate. Merlin, she was lucky he hadn't tucked away anything dangerous around it, and luckier still everything had seemed to turn out completely fine.
She has my type of luck.
"I could send a letter to Hermione," he offered, making to get up as he'd done previously.
And as she'd done before, Hedwig didn't allow him to do so. Instead, she was focused on ensuring that he remained in bed with her, their little nest piled up around them, obscuring much of the rest of the room on account of the heaps of blankets. If that wasn't enough, as he looked around, she'd seemed to use the various pillows from couches and chairs to make a sort of boundary, and the curtains were nice and firmly fixed shut to prevent any sort of light from shining in.
He thought it'd been night still, but there was a chance that wasn't the case.
"Stay."
He was tempted to tell her that there was work that needed doing, that he had things to see to, but how could he? Hedwig, his companion that'd stayed alongside him for so long, was here beside him, and she was the way she was meant to be. Somehow, the mix of potions that she'd fallen into, had fixed whatever magic had done to her, and now she was left to pick up the pieces of her life.
The more he thought about it, the sadder he felt for her. There had to be no shortage of people that she'd cared for previously, when she'd not been held captive in the body of an owl. There was a chance she had parents or siblings, and they'd likely be looking for her… he had to help her find them even if he'd be sad to see her go.
Especially after the form their bond had taken — maybe he could have them come to him instead. If she herself had said that the country they were from didn't treat them nicely, he knew his would; he'd enforce it himself, if need be, but he doubted that'd be the case with many of the problematic people no longer willing to risk what remained of their wealth and 'prestige' as they'd call it.
"What do you prefer?" Hedwig asked, blinking at him with her head still cocked to one side.
"What?"
"Mate or Harry?" she looked around their little nest and looked back at him. "Our nest shouldn't be empty forever, that's why I like Mate more."
Nest. Oh. Harry blinked when he understood just why she'd made the nest, and then he blinked some more. He hadn't expected that, though he reckoned he understood in hindsight.
"Harry, at least in public," he said, the last few words spoken aloud when he noticed her pout. "And Hedwig? How old are you? Did you have a name of your own?"
"Name," she repeated curiously, her eyebrows furrowing together as they'd previously done. "Freja! Yes, Freja, and I'm near your age, but I can't remember how old I am… no," she shook her head, and the next words she said made him feel so very bad for her. "It's been so long since I had a birthday."
He was just about to ask her about her family, another topic he imagined should be discussed, when she all but flew from the bed, such was her quickness. She did so with ease and with dexterity that made even him jealous, but that jealousy very quickly mended when he was given a wondrous view. One she'd not so much as made any attempt to cover since she'd been liberated the evening prior.
"Breakfast!"
And like that, she tore off, sprinting out into the hallway of their otherwise empty home.
Harry went right after her… only unlike her, he stumbled out of the nest she'd formed, landing with a thud before he was up and gone.
When he finally made it to the kitchen with Hedwig — Freja, maybe, he still wasn't certain what she preferred — and after he'd gotten a robe around her, breakfast was an easy thing to get going. As for what they'd have, the favourites of both; eggs, bacon, toast, a few pastries that were left over as well as some sweets.
Harry wouldn't say no to anything she asked for. As far as he was concerned, she was owed a week, no, months, definitely months, to do whatever she wanted to. She'd missed out on the bulk of her teenage years sort of like how he had, only in a vastly different way, and if he could give her something, anything, that might make up for that, he'd do so without so much as a second thought.
That was why he'd even gone so far as to allow her to sit in his lap; a noble sacrifice if ever he'd made one.
"Mate?"
"Hedwig… Freja?"
When she heard the latter name, she turned and kissed him square on the lips, pulling back to reveal a pleased look on her face. "You say it pretty," she said before she turned back to the table, partially, her gaze lingering on the plate of bacon in such a way that he was able to see both the plate and where her eyes were focused.
He snickered. Her love for bacon had remained, though he didn't remember her ever being so cuddly.
Harry very nearly waved his hand, but instead, he leaned forward whilst using one arm to secure her in his lap — with the other, he grabbed a piece of bacon and held it aloft for her to take. She did so immediately, and when she gobbled it down, she giggled, reclining against his chest.
"More?" she asked, her tongue swiping across her bottom lip in a fashion that he doubted was meant to tease him, but Merlin did it.
He reached out again, but she tutted and intercepted his hand, securing it around her as she wiggled atop him, until she was fully astride his person. It took no more than a second for her to mould her lips to his thereafter.