It's the return trip that matters
*Pov a certain Snallygaster and Hoo-hoo in the morning before Harry finds them*
"Newt should be coming back for us today, right?" Asked the Snallygaster, who was nicknamed Gaster.
"Yeah, the sickness I smelt on him would only last him till today," replied the Hoo-hoo, who was nicknamed Hoo.
They watched Silas open the shop to customers hoping that there wouldn't be any greedy bastards trying to buy them today. Silas was a decent 2-legged magic user, he was also decent at fending off the greedy buggers, but it was just a matter of time before someone tried to just take them. Although if that happened Hoo would just flash the two of them back to Newt, or Gaster would flash the two instead if the humans took precautions against Hoo flashing.
Little known fact that Snallygaster's can flash, it's where all of the fire ability of the dragon's they're related to went. Not to mention that they're related to Occamies somehow, which is weird since Occamies live in the Far East and Asia not America. Although it would explain the ability to flash as well because Occamies were born of a particularly adventurous Hoo-hoo and a Moke. Either a Hoo-hoo got adventurous again and tried a Dragon this time, or more likely a Occamy was adventurous and went after a Dragon, and the mating flight somehow managed to end in America.
Never mind, Dragon fire ability and Hoo-hoo ancestry from an Occamy would do it. The potent fire ability mixed with the dormant flashing ability would cause the flashing ability to resurface. Especially since Snallygasters can shrink slightly if they are stalking prey to make themselves stealthier or grow slightly to help them subdue prey quicker. They can't grow or shrink too much, so it makes sense that the 2-legged magic and non-magic users hadn't noticed it yet.
"I just realized why we can talk to each other pretty easily," Hoo laughed quietly.
"Why?" Asked Gaster curious.
"We're distantly related. An adventurous Hoo-hoo had a tryst with a Moke and that resulted in the birth of Occamies. And an adventurous Occamy must have had a tryst with a Dragon and the mating flight somehow managed to end in America to create Snallygasters."
"Why does that make so much sense? Cause Mom had bragged about our ancestor being an Occamy who banged a Dragon so well that they ended up in America."
The door opened and they quieted instantly looking at the door to see what 2-leg had come in this early in the morning. They watched as the young male went over to the owls, looking at them before deciding that since none of them cared about him, he didn't want one of them. They then watched as the young male shrugged before casually looking at the other birds making his way back toward them.
They noticed the exact moment the young male saw him. The young male with his round glasses, messy black hair, and a lightning scar on his forehead had turned from the Diricawls towards them and frozen for a moment, his bright green eyes widening in a mixture of surprise, shock, and awe as he saw them.
Now this is a curious 2-leg, they glanced at each other noticing that the other had also caught on to the curious nature of this particular 2-leg. The young male hadn't immediately tried to buy them as soon as he saw them, and he had only looked entranced by them. Infact the young male didn't even notice in his drift towards them that Newt had come up behind him. Newt was looking back and forth between the young male and them for a moment before he seemed to decide something.
“They’re incredible, aren’t they?” Newt asked the other, making them preen slightly and watch in amusement as the other jumped and whirled around. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Newt apologized to the other.
“It’s fine, I probably should have been paying better attention to my surroundings,” the other shrugs, “But yeah, they are pretty amazing. Especially if they’re both what I think they are.”
Now that got their attention, does he really know what they are and didn't immediately try to buy them?
Newt seemed to also be curious, “Oh? And what do you think each is?”
“Well, the one looks like a Snallygaster, and the other looks like a Phoenix about to burn just with unusual coloring.”
Gaster snickered at Hoo cause the other 2-leg didn't know what Hoo was even though he knew what Gaster was.
"Shut up," Hoo rolled her eyes at Gaster.
“Close, one is indeed a Snallygaster, the other though is a Hoo-hoo, they are a Japanese firebird, which is indeed closely related to Phoenix’s and retain all of the powers of Phoenix's and the same diet that’s strictly herbivorous, they just range in color and aren’t just scarlet and gold. They’re also a great deal friendlier and bond with wizards easier, however they’re still rare because they are picky with their mates. He is indeed getting close to burning though.” Newt explained to the other.
"She, not he. Also, am I really getting that close to burning?" Hoo asked Gaster as they briefly ignored the conversation in front of them.
"Yep, you're looking pretty rough. A day or two more is probably when it will happen."
They tuned back into the conversation as Newt with a mischievous twinkle in his eye says, "I wouldn’t mind passing them on to a nice young wizard who clearly appreciates them. What do you say?"
They watch the other wizard, now that's a new term, splutter at the offer, “Wha...? Me? You don’t even know who I am, hell, I don’t even know who you are! And you’re just giving me rare creatures? I don’t even have the first idea of how to take care of them! What if one gets sick? Or injured? Or even just gets startled? I wouldn’t know how to calm it down or treat it!”
They look at each other and nod in perfect agreement, now that just seals the deal, this young wizard is the only one they'd accept to take them. Doesn't care about their rarity and cares about their wellbeing. They saw that Newt noticed the exchange and agreed.
“That’s exactly why you’re fit for the job. You care, and you didn’t just immediately say yes just because they’re rare creatures. You would rather them be with someone else who would be better suited to taking care of them.
But I think you’ll do just fine. I wrote down booklets on how to take care of them for the future owner, they have every scenario I’ve come across written down along with the general care, see I’ve been looking for someone I could trust for a while. And you’re the only one that has passed my test Mister Potter,” Newt chuckled.
“Correction, you know me, I don’t know you,” the newly dubbed Mister Potter stated, looking blankly at Newt as Silas bustled over toward them from the back.
"Mister Potter? Like the Harry Potter that Newt keeps groaning about in connection to an Albus's foolishness?" Asked Hoo as they checked back out of the conversation.
"It must be, how else would Newt know his name and us not know his face?"
"Also do you feel the draw to connect with him too?"
"You too? Thank fuck, I thought it was just me. What does it mean?" Asked Gaster.
"Have you ever heard about familiar bonds? I think it's one of those."
"At least I only have to share with you, I can deal with that," joked Gaster.
"Yeah, I don't think that I could deal with someone I didn't know either," Hoo replied as they turned back to the conversation.
“Oh, finally old fella, I thought I was going to have to force you to pass them on next time you got ill enough to bring them here!” Silas exclaimed, does this mean what they think it does?
“No, no. I’ve actually been looking for a bit now Silas, I just didn’t find anyone that passed my test before today.” Ah, so Newt's been testing others too, and it does mean what they think it means.
“I came looking for a post owl and to wander around before the other owl shops opened and suddenly I’m being considered for being the new owner of two magical creatures,” Harry buried his face in his hands. Gaster and Hoo start snickering toward one another at Harry's despair.
Newt patted Harry on the shoulder trying to comfort him, “At least both of them like delivering mail, so you don’t really need a post owl anymore.” That's true, they puffed up at the thought carrying the mail since Harry wouldn't need a boring old owl anymore.
Harry groaned, “Of course they do. The fates like to play with my life too much,” he picks his face up from his hands and looks at the ceiling complaining, “I already completed your stupid prophecy, why is my life still a crazy mess?”
That gave them pause as they looked at each other. Harry had been chosen by a prophecy? More than that, he completed a prophecy? That's almost unheard of. Wait, was he that "Chosen-One" from the newspaper? He's got to be, he defeated a dark one? No wonder Harry has the two of them to balance out his magic, if he was strong enough to defeat a dark one.
"Holy shit. How did Harry survive this long without us?" Gaster asked.
"I don't know, he must have been using a lot of magic to hold something back or something. He should have died as soon as he became an adult without us," Hoo answers in a state of disbelief.
They tuned back into the conversation again as Newt said their nicknames.
“First to name you guys,” Harry says looking at us as we stare at him intently.
Harry looks at Gaster first, pulling out a small rectangular device from his pocket and messing with it while seemingly considering things to himself. Eventually Harry seems to make up his mind, "Doncaster."
"Fuck yeah! That's a kickass name!" Gaster now Doncaster approves. Hoo doesn't say as much but she agrees.
Harry seems to understand the approval and looks towards Hoo next. Tapping more on the device and considering more. It takes slightly longer than it took to figure out Doncaster's name but eventually Harry makes up his mind, "Kageki."
"Holy shit, Harry named me according to my ancestors! He named me Shining Shadow!" Hoo now Kageki shouts excitedly in approval. Which Harry recognizes and repeats their new names to himself before turning back to the other wizards as Kageki and Doncaster ignore the wizards again.
"We have fucking amazing names! Harry also named me after one of the forests of my homeland."
"Nice, it seems that he took our homeland's into account when he named us," Kageki observes.
"I feel like we got lucky to have him as our familiar," Doncaster agrees before they both get jolted slightly as Newt passes their cages to Harry.
They watch as Harry asks Silas what things he might have for them and Silas waves them towards a back corner.
“Great, I’ll take a look and see if any are up to Doncaster and Kageki’s standards,” Harry said as he walked over to the back corner.
"Wait, we're going to get a choice? Yes!" Doncaster and Kageki exclaim at the same time super happy and excited.
“Alright Doncaster, we’re at the nests,” Harry said slowly walking back and forth in front of the nests so that Doncaster could examine them, “Any catch your eye?”
"Dark grey? That's a maybe I could possibly camouflage into it. Black? Fuck no! Too dark, I'd get seen in that! Green? Hmm, that's also a maybe. Blue? That's even worse than the black! I'd stick out like a sore wing!" Doncaster proclaims.
Harry had been watching and set their cages down and grabbed the grey and green nests to bring them toward Doncaster for closer inspection.
“Alright Doncaster, grey nest?” Harry asks picking only Doncaster’s cage back up to circle the nest. “Or green nest?” Harry asks switching to circle the green nest before setting the cage down between the two nests.
"The circling was a nice touch. Hmm... grey or green? The grey color somehow almost exactly matches my scales," Doncaster observes, "The green on the other hand is just a few shades off, slightly too light in coloration," he decides turning towards the grey nest, "This one! This one is much better!"
“Grey nest it is then,” Harry nods while using his magic to shrink the nest to put it in his pocket for now. Harry picks both cages up again and walks to the perches before setting Doncaster down and beginning the same process for Kageki.
“What do you think Kageki?” Harry asks.
"Ugh, light colored wood, I hate that stuff. I'd stick out like a sore wing on that stuff," she turned her beak up towards it, "Now dark colored wood on the other hand, that I could work with."
Harry seemed to notice and pulled all of the dark wood perches forward for closer inspection and started walking around them again. It was then that Kageki noticed it, the most perfect perch of all existence, "That one! That one right there! Beautiful black base with a beautiful purple place to rest!"
“Why do I have the feeling you just picked the most expensive stand?” Harry asked rhetorically as he shrunk the stand down and put it in his pocket before picking both cages back up and moving over to the counter to pay for the nest and stand.
"Probably because she did," Doncaster chuckled.
"Just because I know quality doesn't mean that you need to pick on me," Kageki huffs back.
“Find things for them both?” Asked Silas as Harry set both cages down to take the nest and perch out of his pocket so that he could pay for them.
“Yep, how much?” Harry asked.
“Wow, Kageki sure knows how to pick them, he certainly picked the most expensive perch of the bunch, as for Doncaster’s pick he also picked a pretty expensive nest, a black walnut nest that looks pretty grey. I’m going to say about 130 gallons for the both, the perch is about 85 gallons and the nest is about 45 gallons.”
"Oi, I'm a she, thank you very much!" Kageki squawked slightly in offence before teasing Doncaster, "Hah, you picked an expensive nest too."
"Yeah, but mine was only around half the cost of yours," he shoots back before becoming concerned, "That's a lot of money, how is Harry going to pay for it all."
“Alright one moment,” Harry says as he grabs his wallet and fishes out the required amount missing the shocked looks from the 2 familiars.
“How much money do you have that you have that much in pocket money?” Asked Silas surprised while he counts the money as he puts it in the till, “I thought I was going to have to look after these while you ran to Gringotts.”
"That's what we'd like to know too," the familiars mutter at the same time.
“I don’t know. A lot probably, I just got all my lordships after taking an inheritance test,” Harry answered, shrinking the perch and nest and putting them back in his pockets before picking up the cages.
"Did I hear that right? Did he say lordships? As in multiple lordships?" Doncaster asked in shock as they tuned out everything else again, " I heard that it was rare to even have a lordship, much less multiple. And I heard that if you had a lordship, it usually meant that you were pretty wealthy."
"I heard the same thing you did," Kageki confirms, "He wasn't even fazed at having to spend that much money either, so he was probably already pretty wealthy beforehand. How much wealthier is he now? Also did you catch that he had to take an inheritance test to learn about all of his lordships?"
"I did. Wait, does that mean he's an orphan? From what I've overheard about lordships they usually pass down father to son, although the mother sometimes has one that can pass down. The only reason he would need an inheritance test for lordships is because the parents weren't there anymore," Doncaster ponders.
They were pulled out of their shock when they heard Harry say, “Hi, can I get the green and grey dishes inscribed with the name Doncaster, while the purple and black dishes are inscribed with the name Kageki?”
"Well at least he figured out our preferred colors," Doncaster joked.
"I think he just figured that those colors would be fine since they were the colors that we liked on our nest and perch options."
"Probably, but at least we didn't have to tell him a hundred times for him to notice."
"That's true," Kageki agreed.
“Thanks, have a good day,” Harry said, as they tuned back in. Harry grabbed the bag and then grabbed the cages before leaving the store.
"Alright guys, we're going to apparate back home to #12 Grimmauld Place," Harry said looking down at the two in their cages before with a twist of magic they were suddenly in a new place.
“Home sweet home,” Harry set the cages down before opening them up, “what do you say we find a good place for your nest and perch guys?”
They looked at him before leaving the cages and exploring the living room of this new place. Kageki took off and flew around the room a couple of times exploring the set-up of their new home before coming to rest to the left of the fireplace. Meanwhile Doncaster ran around the room exploring on foot because he was quite a bit bigger than she was and didn't want to accidentally fly into anything, before he decided that the right side of the fireplace would suit him.
Harry shrunk both cages and placed them on the mantel before grabbing out the perch and nest from his pockets. Harry placed the perch down on the left where Kageki indicated with a clawed bop to the ground before she hopped back, and the nest on the right where Doncaster indicated with his own clawed bop before he hopped back.
*pop
“Young Master brought familiars. Kreacher never thought he’d see the day,” remarked an old crotchety house elf that popped in.
“Oh, uh, this is Kageki,” Harry introduced, “and this is Doncaster. Kageki only eats plants and Doncaster only eats meat. So I got separate food and water bowls that are labeled,” Harry explained while setting the bowls by their respective owners.
Kageki and Doncaster eyed up Kreacher assessing the house elf.
"Very dedicated soul," Doncaster approved before going back to testing his nest.
"Very loyal soul," Kageki approved before going back to testing her perch.
“Kreacher will be getting the familiars, fruit and meat and filling their water dishes up now,” Kreacher said as he snapped away with their food and water bowls.
The two familiars get bored with their perch and nest respectively and wander over to rest on the couch beside Harry and see him contemplating 2 letters.
“Newt said that you’ve both delivered letters before, do you mind having a flying race to deliver a letter each to the same person?” Harry asked them.
"Ooh, I love a good race!"
"Me too! You're about to burn so don't be too upset if I win!" Doncaster claims.
"Bitch! I can beat your scaley behind with ruffled feathers any day!" Kageki boasts.
*pop
They pause watching Kreacher place their filled food and water dishes by their nest and perch.
"Food break?" Doncaster asks.
"Food break," Kageki confirms.
And they go over to their food for a well needed intermission.
"Bro, that was so good, Kreacher really knows what he's doing," said Kageki after she finishes her last bite and sip of water.
"I know right? Just the fuel up we needed before a race," Doncaster agreed as they excitedly flapped over to Harry to accept their letter.
“Now hold still for a moment while I place a spell on the two of you so I don’t get yelled at for muggles seeing you,” Harry told them after each had gotten their respective letter.
“Muggles de natura celare verum, Muggles de natura celare verum,” Harry cast on both once they held still.
“Alright, you’re good to go. The letters are for Minerva McGonagall,” Harry told them before opening the window for them and then they were off like a flash darting through the window and off towards where they felt Minerva McGonagall resided.
They flew fast and hard leaving behind any shit talking since they were racing now and had to focus entirely on doing their best.
It was a good thing that Harry had taken precautions against any Muggles seeing them since they were going an unprecedented, 134km/h or 83mph. Which, if any bird watcher would have seen it, they would be absolutely baffled because the fastest bird in Europe only goes about 97km/h or 60mph, which is a great deal less than the two familiars are going.
The whole trip took about 5 hours for the familiars to finally have the castle in their sights. When they spotted it, they were neck and neck, Doncaster just a few wingbeats behind Kageki. It turned into a sprint from there which Doncaster with his larger wings was able to turn to his favor. Doncaster entered the Headmistress's office just a few wingbeats ahead of Kageki.
"Hah! I win!" He claimed flapping to rest down gently before stretching out his neck for McGonagall to untie the letter from around.
"It's the return trip that matters," claimed Kageki calmly as she flew in the window landing on the desk and stretching out her leg with the letter tied on it towards McGonagall.