Harry took a massive dive from the top of the astronomy tower, at high speed he raced through the battlements of the southern wall of the castle and then picked up even more speed as he dove even lower and rounded the owlery tower before picking up height again and spread his wings to land on the window sill of one of the library windows. It was a clear and cold December afternoon in Scotland. Although he had a perch in Daphne's dorm room, he also maintained a nest below the roof of the astronomy tower among a few other crows that lived there. He often preferred the wide view and the freedom that this place offered to the damp Slytherin dungeon, but he often found Daphne at some point during the day to hang out with her.
The life amongst the Hogwarts crows was interesting, but often he found the live going on inside the castle even more compelling. Together with the other crows he usually engaged in fun activities like teasing incoming postal owls, scavenging, exploring and playing in the wind around the castle towers. Communication with the other birds was limited, crows usually communicated things that were important to them like 'shiny stuff' when they found an interesting object or 'danger' when they approached too close to a hippogriff. They could even talk about some simple tactics when teamwork was required. But for more advanced ideas, Harry found that he simply lacked the crow words to formulate them. He also doubted that his crow friends would have the ability to understand these ideas. In short, Harry was becoming more convinced that he indeed still was a human somewhere inside, but this did not mean he had the ambition of returning to a human form. His life had been much better since he turned into a bird and he saw absolutely no reason to go back to a life of chores and bullying at his old family.
Over here he did not only have his daily crow activities, he was also able to enjoy the activities going on inside the castle. The dark haired Slytherin girl walking around the castle with a crow on her shoulder had become a familiar sight at Hogwarts. In most classes, Dread was allowed inside the classroom as long as he did not make too much ruckus, so quite often he could be found sitting on Daphne's desk there as well. Tracey swore that the crow was oftentimes more quiet and attentive during these lessons than some of her classmates, even though obviously a crow would have absolutely no idea what they were being taught. But Harry enjoyed the lessons where there was practical wand work involved the most, magic simply buzzed around in the air when the students were practicing like that. He liked the charms classroom specifically, all the students practicing at the same time usually caused quite a chaos already and the teacher, Professor Flitwick, tolerated him flying around.
Last week he had tried something new during one of these lessons. The students had been casting tickling charms at each other, which were visible as small blueish lights in the air. When Tracey had cast the charm at Daphne, Harry could feel the charm like usual, but this time he decided to grab it with his claws in the air. He felt the energy of this charm and by squeezing he was able to snuff it out before it reached its target. Tracey and Daphne had been stunned at the time, but since nobody else noticed, they had decided to investigate this new found ability later.
Scanning from his place outside the library window, Harry quickly spotted the reason he had been drawn to this place, Daphne and Tracey were sitting at one of the tables near the windows. They usually picked a place where he would be able to easily find them. By pecking the glass, Daphne noticed him, opened the window and ushered him inside quickly before the librarian could complain. When she sat down again to continue her studies, he hopped to her lap, one of his favoured spots during such activities and nested there. Daphne stroked over his back, while she talked to him quietly.
"There you are, Dread. Did you not feel like joining the lessons today? Well, you are just in time, I was just researching some things about you. Tracey and me also have a mission for you later."
Daphne was flipping through the book which she had found in the library, it was titled "Deepening the familiar bond" and had been written specifically for wizards and witches that were bonding with a magical creature. While "The practical guide to bond with your familiar" had had some useful tips and tricks in the early stages of her bonding with Dread, she had started to doubt the accuracy of the book. Simply put, the way in which they had developed their bond over such a short period of time, should not have been possible according to the guide.
The guide had described three stages. Stage one where closeness was created and the familiar developed his natural attributes more, for example things like lifespan, strength and speed of the animal could increase. In stage two the mental connection between the owner and the familiar deepened, they became more aware of each other's mood or feelings, the familiar could locate its owner easily and the human could give small simple missions to the animal. Most wizards with a familiar never went beyond this stage.
The third and final stage was called the symbiotic stage, the most important feature was that the familiar actually started to improve the abilities of the magical human. This was particularly the case if somebody had bonded with a magical creature. The animal itself could also develop his magical abilities further.
Daphne was pretty sure she had reached this stage with Dread, which of course was great. The problem was that it should have taken years of meditation with the animal nearby to reach this point and that it should have been more difficult since crows were non-magical creatures. She was pretty sure her spells felt more powerful and controlled when Dread was nearby and she suspected the way in which her confidence on a broom had increased was also due to her flying familiar.
And when dread had caught a spell during their charms lesson last week, she had lost confidence in the practical guide completely. Catching spells was not an ability that a crow possessed naturally. She had decided that a trip to the library to find more advanced books was in order.
The book 'Cawing through the ages' had described some historical witches with crow familiars, for some reason women seemed to have an easier time bonding with these birds. There were some ancient Celtic witches that had crow familiars, but the book had contained stories from more modern history as well. The most described ability that could be developed seemed to be the crow's so called third eye, were the mental bond with the bird could be deepened to the point where the human could actually observe the world through the bird's eyes. In some cases witches had even been able to see glimpses of the future like this and the bird had been popular with ancient seers.
However, the ability to catch spells had not been described anywhere. Which had led Daphne to the book which was currently in front of her. Listen Dread, she whispered, I will read you something:
To reach his ultimate level of power, bonding with a magical creature is essential for a wizard. The benefits which the symbiotic stage provides cannot be matched by any known ritual. The pursuit of the magical familiar and deepening of the bond with this kind of creature should therefore be an absolute priority to any wizard that wishes to dominate within his generation. Especially since the magical abilities of such a creature can contribute in a clash between competing wizards.
"It sounds like witches do not get to dominate in the book you got there, it only talks about wizards. And are you insinuating that Dread is a magical crow somehow?" asked Tracey who had overheard Daphney reading to Dread.
"Well, I don't know, but at least this starts to explain what is happening between Dread and me. Ooh you are such a magical bird, aren't you?" Daphne said while ruffling through the crow's feathers, the crow just nested deeper in her lap and enjoyed the attention.
"Anyway, were we not going to send your magical champion on a pranking mission?" Tracey asked.
"Yes, let's go and make clear to him what he has to do." Daphne answered.
After the events of her first flying lesson, she and Dread had been the target of a number of pranks. Even though she had persuaded Dread to return the stolen remembrall to Neville Longbottom the next day, the Gryffindors had become convinced that she was a future dark Slytherin queen or something like that. The Weasley twins had apparently decided to put her on the list of people that deserved a regular pranking. Her quills had been replaced by hiding quills that could never be found when you wanted to note something down, they had placed a sticking charm on her shoulder, so when Dread had landed there he was unable to take off, they had coloured her shoes red and gold,... Daphne had been trying to ignore the pranks and just deal with the consequences, but Tracey had convinced her that at some point you had to strike back. They had prepared for weeks and this evening operation 'double trouble' was on!