Round Two
It’s been a little while since the boar incident.
Soon after Dobby the mistaken inferi was freed, he declared his undying loyalty to Harry Potter.
Thus, leading Hedwig, Harry, and now Dobby to have become an unfortunate travel trio.
Alas, the boar was left behind as a parting gift.
Luckily, having a crazy and obsessed house elf around seemed to be a small gift from whatever god Hedwig didn’t piss off, because he found their campsite almost immediately after apparating back to the woods.
It wasn’t really a tent anymore, not surviving the storm in the slightest.
Looks like Harry’s summer homework would not be completed.
Currently, they’re out in the middle of nowhere.
Hedwig and Harry are gathered around a small fire that Dobby built, taking a moment to eat before sleeping.
Hedwig is happily devouring a rat that was ever so graciously put in her lap by her new loyal servant.
A rat Dobby hunted for Hedwig.
Harry didn’t understand why Dobby knew how to hunt rats, and was left no further educated after Dobby’s explanation.
One of the Malfoy ancestors had gone insane after accidentally becoming a cannibal and craved the flesh of small creatures.
It didn’t explain why Dobby came running back to camp with the rat hanging out of his mouth instead of hand, or why he didn’t just create a basic trap, but who was Harry to judge.
Hedwig was happy and not currently planning the worlds destruction.
Night soon fell and Harry wormed his way into the shredded and hole-ridden tent.
He gave up and used it as a sleeping bag.
Hedwig couldn’t help but notice the way Harry snored. His loud and sudden breaths would not let her attention go elsewhere.
She glanced at Dobby.
She shouldn’t have done that.
Dobby laid a few feet away from Harry, his body still and eyes wide open, staring at Harry in an unnerving and unsettling manner. His breathing was quiet and shallow.
Dobby's stiff body and wide open eyes gave the impression that he was actually deceased rather than merely sleeping, making the whole scene seem even more sinister. Even in sleep, Harry could not escape being watched by Dobby's obsess-ridden gaze.
Feeling watched, his unblinking eyes glided over to Hedwig’s with the ghostly pallor of an intruder creeping in the shadows.
She wasn’t totally convinced he wasn’t an inferi.
—
Harry got his messenger bird from Hogwarts.
It was Addressed “Mr. H Potter, Woods.”
It wasn’t really helpful. At least no one knew where they were at?
(Even them.)
Round two.
It was already a week before he had to go back to Hogwarts. He thinks that he got his letter a bit late, but oh well.
When Harry remembered that Dobby had his letters from his friends, he tried to coerce him into giving them to him.
Dobby started sobbing randomly again and told Harry that he would never be able to see those letters again.
Ominous…
Harry did not get his letters back.
He made Hedwig steal some paper from some nearby store and he wrote letters to both Ron and Hermione, pretending that he’s been at his relatives the whole time and that they wouldn’t let him communicate. Dobby went with her to steal, wanting something other than a potato sack to wear.
He managed to coordinate going at the same time as Hermione’s and Ron’s families.
Now, here they are, walking into Diagon Alley yet again.
Walking down the road, they made quite a sight.
Heads turned to stare at Harry, whose hair was stuck in an unusually stiff and vertical position after accidentally being electrocuted by Hedwig earlier in the day.
When he looked back, he saw people hurrying away.
He knew it was because of Dobby.
Dobby looked like a creepy clown in his new clothes. The baggy shirt and baggy pants too long and all black, making his gaunt frame look even more like a scarecrow.
His green eyes stood out from underneath the holes in the sack like mask he’d sewn out of the leftover potato sack.
Dobby stole the clothes from a fucking morgue.
Hopefully not directly off of a dead guy.
He smelled like rot, furthering Hedwig’s theory.
Hedwig has also been working on her look, leaning towards walking more than flying. Her talons made a loud click-click-click sound as she went. She also practiced a loud and eerie hoot that she once heard from a horror movie (she knew she had to copy it).
Harry the electrocuted, Hedwig the creature you wouldn’t want to see under your bed, and Dobby the gangster.
The passerby’s who merely rushed around them felt a sense of dread and foreboding, as if something sinister is lurking at the corner of their vision.
This is how they walk up to Ron’s family.
"Come on quickly now! Ron, you need to stop arguing with your sister, and Harry - Oh wait, Harry, I didn't see you standing there! What are you …doing."
The Weasley clan stares.
Mrs. Weasley looks concerned and slightly panicked.
“Hey… mate.”
“Hi.”
They look like a gaggle of crazies, like something you might find in a mental institution or in a child’s nightmare rather than on a busy sidewalk.
Unless it’s in New York, of course.
Regardless, she ushered them all into the store.
The store where Gilderoy Lockhart is handing out autographs.
Except for Hedwig, she snuck away in the midst of the bustle.
“It can’t be… Harry Potter?”
Harry is just standing there when someone grabs him by the front of his robes and hauls him through the mob to the front of the line, manhandling him with such ferocity that he feels like a ragdoll being tossed around by a child.
He's too taken aback by the suddenness of the situation to put up too much of a fight, and the whole thing is so surreal that all he can do is hang on for dear life and wait for whatever strange, unknown fate awaits him.
The strange famous guy yanks Harry forward by the scruff of his filthy weeks old shirt and pulls him close, smiling for the reporter to take a picture-only to make a disgusted face mid-flash, the smell of rot reaching his nose.
The photo bomber was none other than a demon, or at least what looked like one, with a twisted wicked smile on its face. Dobby, the loyal defender of Harry Potter, appears right beside them.
The demons presence wasn’t just a shadow lurking in the distance, its twisted, malignant face was front and center, lifting its suspicious mask up slightly to reveal its teeth.
(The picture will later be displayed all over the front pages.)
He does not want to deal with this today.
Harry turns on his heels, pushing through the crowd to leave.
On their way out, they run into Draco Malfoy, who puffs up, ready to yell at whoever bumped into him, only to turn around and see them.
With one look at their unhinged appearances, he backed up very quickly, visibly uncomfortable.
Dobby stood there breathing open mouthed and heavily, similar to your average child that just does that for absolutely no reason.
His eyes were wide and unblinking again, fixed on some unknown point in the distance, as though fixated on something only visible to him, or maybe it was something that only existed in his mind.
As soon as Draco realized who he was dealing with, he quickly called for his father, Lucius, who instantly emerged from the shadows in the store.
Lucius quickly ushered Draco away, with Draco following behind looking increasingly uncomfortable, and the two of them quickly left, their tails literally and figuratively between their legs.
Dobby looks disappointed.
“Dobby… where’s Hedwig?”
Dobby looks around and shrugs.
Oh no.
He knows better than to let her out of his sight in public.
They exit the store, only to come face to face with a stampede of people running away.
Hundreds of birds flew through the air like an angry swarm of bees, their flapping wings creating a torrent of air, blowing away those that stood in their way.
Hedwig unleashed all of the creatures from Eeylops Owl Emporium.
Hedwig was top and center, leading the pack.
She let out a thunderous roar as she led birds of all kind, some large, some small, some maybe not even birds.
The sheer destruction caused by Hedwig was awe-inspiring to behold. The bird's fluttering wings sent dust particles and dirt flying everywhere.
Their cries were deafening, their feathers and dung covering the area like a thick carpet.
Some man in the distance fell down, slipping on a puddle of bird shit. You could see an arm reaching up for mercy before he became one with the crowd.
Someone screamed out, “My eyes! My eyes!”
The bird's droppings hailed down from the sky as though a volcano exploded, turning the area from a pristine place into an uninhabitable wasteland. The mess was everywhere, covering every inch of ground and every object in sight, almost as though the birds had unleashed a plague upon the land.
—
Departing for Hogwarts was a terrible ordeal, for both Hedwig and Dobby refused to uncling from Harry.
Dobby stuck to his leg and Hedwig on his shoulder, drawing blood.
Harry just decided to board the train with them.
Walking through the hallways after arriving at the school, students turned to stare at them.
Some laughed at the strange sight, others look terrified, teachers just unsure of how to react.
Ultimately, the one thing that they could all agree on was that there was something terribly wrong here.
Harry tried to look dignified, but it was hard with a demonic owl on his head and a questionable being stuck to his leg.
Hey, Harry was just happy that Dobby didn’t hump his leg like a dog or something.
Hedwig threw nasty, filthy looks at everyone who was staring. She was waiting for someone to cross the line and make her angry.
It’s been too long.
She craves violence.
Unfortunately for everyone involved except for Hedwig, Snape was unanimously voted by the staff to tell Harry Potter that he could not bring his own house elf to school.
(In the background, you could see the teachers peeking and Dumbledore holding a camera.)
Snape stops 10 feet away from Harry and addresses him with a sneer.
“Potter.”
Snape takes two more steps back.
“Shouldn’t you know the rules by now? Or are you openly breaking them?”
He hissed out some spit.
“Just like your father.”
He delivered that last statement with such venom and hatred, there was no room left for confusion.
Unfortunately, the intimidation factor was decreased when Snape backed up another foot.
Hedwig’s eyes locked on, the anchors being dropped in the ocean.
Her favorite prey.
Snape could feel the little fucker assessing his weaknesses.
His palms were dripping.
A bead of sweat formed above his left eyebrow.
His legs formed into a fighting position.
There was an obvious tension. The pressure could be felt building up with every passing second.
Hedwig’s wings began to creep upwards.
Dumbledore popped up behind Snape and put his one hand on his shoulder, the other one holding the camera.
Snape screeched like a banshee, his high-pitched squeak sending chills down their spines. In an instant, he flew off in a cloud of black mist, leaving only a lingering smell of burnt rubber behind.
Dumbledore's laughter was just as sudden and unexpected as Snape's disappearing act.
His high-pitched laughter was like the cackling of a mad man, his eyes twinkling with a wild light. It was bizarre and it made Hedwig wonder if perhaps the old man had finally lost his mind, his sanity flying out with Snape moments before.
Snape.
He best watch out.
Hedwig was feeling… bored.