Chapter 4: catching a stick
Crow never stayed in the same place too long, he liked his freedom too much to remain in the same location. But ever since he had caught the little, golden ball. His travels had become slightly more purposeful. While before he just flew were the wind took him on that day, he now preferred places with the feeling.
It was the feeling he had first sensed after he captured the shiny ball. A warm, shiny glow which seemed to emanate from the object. He knew that gold was always shiny, but this ball seemed to have something extra. After a few days in his nest, and after pecking it a few times, this special shine had started to diminish, until only the normal golden, shininess of the ball remained.
When he had resumed his travels, he had noticed that some places seemed to possess a certain quantity of this special glow, this golden feeling. He felt particular attraction to these places. That is what brought him to the big house with a huge garden he was visiting today. He had chased a few smaller birds around in this garden and was now resting on a branch. Then he noticed two small girls entering the garden.
Daphne was excited, this was the final summer holiday before she would go to Hogwarts wizarding school. But the closer the day came when she would finally be able to start doing magic, the longer the days seemed to last. She did not even have her own wand yet, they would buy it later in the summer.
Today the anticipation had become too much, when mother announced that she did feel a little bit unwell and was going to lay down for a few hours that afternoon, Daphne saw an opportunity to finally do some real magic. She had snuck in mother's and father's room and had taken her wand. Father was at work and the house-elves had not noticed. She was only unable to fool her sister, but that was not a problem, Astoria was probably even more excited than she was. She had joined her sister in the garden, where Daphne could try to perform some magic unnoticed.
"What are you doing to do, Daphne? Change the colour of your hair? Enlarge a spider? Summon a hippo? " Astoria asked excitedly? "I am going to levitate this feather." Daphne replied. "Ooh, that is so cool!" Astoria squeaked.
According to the first year charms book, which was of course in their family library, levitating a feather was one of the first exercises they would be doing at Hogwarts. It would not be too risky to try this harmless spell right now already.
Raising her arm and holding her mother's wand in position, she started the movement described in the book, while encanting "Wingardium leviosa". The feather, which she brought along, did not move at all. But Daphne could feel something, the wand in her hand did send a strange feeling through her arm. She decided to try once more: "Wingardium leviosa". This time the feather actually twitched! Astoria gasped, "Come on sis, you are doing it!".
Daphne closed her eyes for a moment. Slowly breathing in and out she focused on the feeling she had felt when casting the spell. She opened her eyes and cast the spell one more time: "Wingardium leviosa!". The feather shot up in the air! "You did it Daphne, woohoo!" Astoria called. "Yes!" Daphne called back, "This feels so good!". She raised her arms in the air to cheer, but then disaster struck. She heard a faint noise and suddenly the wand was pulled from her hand.
Crow had observed the girls with ever greater interest. Both girls had that special glow that had become the goal of his adventures. But when he noticed the stick in the biggest girl's hand, it felt more like sparkling than glowing! Especially when the girl had started swinging around the stick it started giving waves of the golden feeling he was looking for, he simply had to have it. When she raised her hand above her head, he saw an opportunity. He dove down from his tree and grabbed the stick with his claws. The girl had been so surprised that he easily pulled it from her hand and started flying away.
"Noooo!" he heard the girl behind him cry. The smaller girl started chasing after him, calling "come back stupid bird!". But of course she would never be able to catch him. Meanwhile the bigger girl had sunk on her knees. When she saw him fly away over the garden, she wailed "Please crow, please. Do no take mother's wand. Please crow.". She hid her face in her hands and larges tears started to drop in the grass of the garden. Astoria stopped running behind the bird, realizing it was pointless. She slowly returned to her sister and wrapped her arms around her head, trying to comfort Daphne.
When crow heard the pleas of the girl, he initially ignored her. He was a crow, master of all he could see, he took what he wanted. But then the tone of the girl reminded him of something, something which had been tucked away in his mind. It was the tone he had used a long time ago, when he was a sad, little boy. It was the sound of him pleading to his aunt for some extra food, to his uncle for a warmer coat, to his cousin for not beating him up,… The pleading had never worked for the little boy called Harry. But crow could never have imagined being on the other side of this story. The human feelings and thoughts still remaining in the bird's mind gathered and influenced it's decision. Slowly crow turned around and flew back towards the girls.
Daphne sat on her knees sobbing. Astoria tried to comfort her: "I am sure mommy will not be too angry". But Daphne knew this was a lie. How could she have lost the most important object her mother had in her life? How could she have been so careless? How could she go with her mother to Diagon Alley in a few weeks time to get her own wand, when she had just lost her wand? That's when something fell on her shoulder and she heard the crow caw. Snapping her eyes open, she saw her mother's wand had dropped down on her shoulder and now lay in the grass. She immediately grabbed it and hugged it close to her chest. The crow flew away and landed in a tree in the garden, looking at the two girls.
"Oh, Morgana. Thank you, thank you for returning mother's wand." Daphne mumbled. "Thank you mister crow", Astoria called out to the bird, "We will leave you some food!". Both girls slowly made their way back inside, vowing to keep this episode a secret from their parents. Daphne snuck back in her parent's room and left the wand on her mother's nightstand. After that she went to the kitchen to get some raw meat on a small plate from the house elves. She went to the garden and left the plate in the grass. After she went back inside the bird came down from his tree and snacked on the meat.