Dear Snuffles,
Hope you're okay, the first week back here's been terrible, I'm really glad it's the weekend. We've got a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge. We're all missing our biggest friend, we hope he'll be back soon. Please write back quickly. Convey my congrats to your Moon.
Best,
Harry
Harry reread this letter several times, trying to see it from the point of view of an outsider. Harry did not want to ask directly in case it drew too much attention to what Hagrid might be up to while he was not at Hogwarts.
Considering it was a very short letter it had taken a long time to write; sunlight had crept halfway across the room while he had been working on it, and he could now hear distant sounds of movement from the dormitories above. He sealed the parchment carefully and crept out of the boy's dorm and descended the stairs.
'I'm-- I'm sorry... I didn't mean to!'
The voice might have frightened him a bit. He turned his head slightly to see the girl he loved, her hair dislocated, flowing from the arm of that armchair, one hand on her tummy and the other hanging over her head, a book dropped down. She muttered in her sleep. Harry smirked at her, he adjusted her blanket and kept the book on the stool beside and left out of the portrait hole.
(A.N: I'm not good at giving sleep descriptions XD)
'I would not go that way if I were you,' said Nearly Headless Nick, drifting disconcertingly through a wall just ahead of him as he walked down the passage. 'Peeves is planning an amusing joke on the next person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor.'
'Does it involve Paracelsus falling on top of the person's head?' asked Harry.
'Funnily enough, it does,' said Nearly Headless Nick in a bored voice. 'Subtlety has never been Peeves's strong point. I'm off to try and find the Bloody Baron. . . . He might be able to put a stop to it. . . See you, Harry. . . .'
'Yeah, bye,' said Harry and instead of turning right, he turned left, taking a longer but safer route up to the Owlery. He thought about the Quidditch training they were having this eve--
Something brushed his ankles. He looked down and saw the caretaker's skeletal gray cat, Mrs. Norris, slinking past him. She turned lamplike yellow eyes upon him for a moment before disappearing behind a statue of Wilfred the Wistful.
'I'm not doing anything wrong,' Harry called after her, she was off to report to her boss, yetHarry could not see why. he was perfectly entitled to walk up to the Owlery on a Saturday morning.
The sun was high in the sky now and when Harry entered the Owlery. His eyes scanned for Hedwig 'There you are,' he said, spotting her somewhere near the very top of the vaulted ceiling. 'Get down here, I've got a letter for you'.
With a low hoot she stretched her great white wings and soared down onto his shoulder.
'Right, I know this says 'Snuffles' on the outside,' he told her, giving her the letter to clasp in her beak and, without knowing exactly why, whispering, 'but it's for Sirius, okay?'
She blinked her amber eyes once and he took that to mean that she understood.
'Safe flight, then,' said Harry and he carried her to one of the windows; with a moment's pressure on his arm Hedwig took off into the blindingly bright sky. The Owlery door opened behind him. He leapt in shock, and turning quickly, saw Cho Chang holding a letter and a parcel in her hands.
'Hi', said Harry automatically. 'Oh . . . hi,' she said breathlessly. 'I didn't think anyone would be up here this early. . . . I only remembered five minutes ago, it's my mum's birthday.' She held up the parcel.
'Right," said Harry. "Nice day," he said, gesturing to the windows. His insides seemed to shrivel with embarrassment.
'Yeah,' said Cho, looking around for a suitable owl. 'Good Quidditch conditions. I haven't been out all week, have you?'
'No', said Harry.
Cho had selected one of the school barn owls. She coaxed it down onto her arm where it held out an obliging leg so that she could attach the parcel.
'Hey, has Gryffindor got a new Keeper yet?' she asked.
'Yeah', said Harry. 'It's my friend Ron Weasley, d'you know him?'
'The Tornado-hater?' said Cho rather coolly. 'Is he any good?'
'Yeah,' said Harry, 'I think so. I didn't see his tryout, though, I was in detention.'
Cho looked up, the parcel only half-attached to the owl's legs. 'That Umbridge woman's foul', she said in a low voice. 'Putting you in detention just because you told the truth about how — how — how he died. Everyone heard about it, it was all over the school. You were really brave standing up to her like that'.
Harry half-smiled at her. He didn't know what to say. Cho tied the parcel firmly as the Owlery door suddenly opened. 'Aha!', said Filch, taking a flat-footed step toward Harry, his pouchy cheeks trembling with anger. 'I've had a tip-off that you are intending to place a massive order for Dungbombs!'
Harry folded his arms and stared at the caretaker. 'Who told you I was ordering Dungbombs?'
Cho was looking from Harry to Filch, also frowning, 'I have my sources,' said Filch in a self-satisfied hiss. 'Now hand over whatever it is you're sending'.
Feeling immensely thankful that he had not dawdled in posting off the letter, Harry said, 'I can't, it's gone'.
'Gone?', said Filch, his face contorting with rage.
'Gone,' said Harry calmly.
Filch opened his mouth furiously, mouthed for a few seconds, then aked Harry's robes with his eyes. 'How do I know you haven't got it in your pocket?'
'Because —'
'I saw him send it,' said Cho angrily.
Filch rounded on her. 'You saw him — ?'
'That's right, I saw him,' she said fiercely.
There was a moment's pause in which Filch glared at Cho and Cho glared right back. He stumped off down the stairs. Mrs. Norris cast a longing look at the owls and followed him.
Harry and Cho looked at each other.
'Thanks', Harry said.
'No problem,' said Cho, finally fixing the parcel to the barn owl's other leg, her face slightly pink. 'You weren't ordering Dungbombs, were you?'
'No', said Harry.
'I wonder why he thought you were, then?' she said, as she carried the owl to the window.
They left the Owlery together. At the entrance of a corridor that led toward the west wing of the castle, Cho said, 'I'm going this way. Well, I'll . . . I'll see you around, Harry.'
'Yeah . . . see you.'
Harry wondered. Cho is his forever crush, Will he fall for Cho again?, Eventhough Cho was a year older than him? Why did he love Y/n? Wasn't it true love? Will Cho like him back? What will be Y/n's mindset after a break up? What if Y/n wasn't the one for him?
xxxxxxxxxxxxx