“Yes Dad” Harry smiled, looking up from his Herbology textbook, which he was reading in preparation for Professor Sprout’s ‘Back to School’ usual quiz.

“Hagrid has informed me that Hedwig, Xiao and their chicks are ready to return to the main Owlery.”

“Cool!” Harry beamed; he had missed his familiar these last two and a half months but, as magical owls were homicidally protective over their nests, Hagrid had advised them to keep their distance until the chicks had reached their second month.

Severus smiled in return “I thought that, as our owls will now welcome us, visiting the chicks would be a pleasant way to spend our final afternoon together.”

“Sure, Dad.” Harry unfolded himself from his bed and, closing his notebook, followed his father to the owlery.

When Harry and Severus reached the owlery, Hedwig and Xiao flew to greet their humans, and, behind their noble, graceful forms, bobbed three little owlets, all wittering joyfully. Severus transfigured a couple of chairs and they sat, thus providing comfortable laps on which the fledglings could land.

Although the mirror which Hagrid inserted into the back of the nest box had given Harry some idea of the owl’s colouring and personalities, seeing the baby owls in the flesh was a different matter entirely.

The first owlet, who Harry had always thought most resembled Hedwig, he could now see had lovely, bright icy-white plumage, abundantly flecked with purple-grey markings. ‘White owl’, as Harry had mentally christened her, was easily the most graceful of the three and landed smartly on Severus’ lap, her intelligent, paynes-grey eyes moving inquisitively between the man and boy.

Next to arrive was ‘Grey Owl”, small and sleek with broad, inky markings splashed across her smoky feathers, forming a vivid contrast against her shining amber eyes. ‘Grey’ circled Harry and Severus carefully before plopping down beside her sister.

Finally, ‘Variegated Owl’s’ tumbling flight brought him barrelling into Harry’s stomach like a tiny, very fluffy bludger. Hedwig clicked her beak and Xiao bumped his head against the side of Severus’ in clear exasperation.

“Hey, little owl” grinned Harry, tentatively reaching out and stroking the owlet behind the bushy, dark tufts which stuck out from his pale face like wing-mirrors.

“He looks rather like a bulls-eye sweet” smirked Severus, referring to the plump owlet’s snowy white feathers, which were generously tipped with deep grey, creating a sombre candy-stripe effect.

“Yeah, he’s dead cute” smiled Harry, gazing lovingly into the owlet’s huge, primrose yellow eyes. “I think Nev would love him.” Hedwig chuckled and nibbled Harry’s hair affectionately.

“I agree, he seems a very affectionate creature. I believe Hermione would like the white.” Severus said, stroking the pale owlet’s silky feathers

“Yeah, she’s well pretty.” Harry agreed.

“Indeed. Have you thought how to, ah, introduce young Master Weasley to the final owl, if he should choose to accept your offer?” asked Severus.

Harry looked contemplatively at ‘Grey’, who cooed gently.

“Fred and George have written a note saying that, if Ron wants the owl, they’ll come with him to meet me whenever.” Harry replied “They said not to be worried though, ‘cos Ron’s a sucker for cute animals, even though he pretends he’s not.”

Severus snorted with laughter, causing the babies to ruffle their feathers in surprise and earning him a stern nip from Xiao.

“Hush, old fellow, your babies are safe” Severus murmured, stroking Xiao behind a head-tuft.

oOoOo

When Harry entered the Great Hall an hour later, it was to find Slytherin table thronging with his recently returned friends. Draco, exuberant from a week spent at his indulgent father’s robe-tails, chattered nineteen to the dozen, regaling everyone who would listen about trips to the ministry, helping his father choose dress robes, visiting the Natural History museum and Harrods and all the amazing and strange muggle sweets he had to share when the children returned to the Serpent’s Nest

Blaise was in a less than chipper mood; Balthazar had been rather awkward on the train, insisting on taking up the entire floor of their carriage, so as to soak up the sunshine, rather than coiling around the luggage racks, like any decent snake would do. The anaconda, it seemed, was large, lazy and stubborn and Blaise was only saved from lugging the heavy, less than ergonomic serpent up to the castle by a chance meeting with Hagrid, who took to Balthazar and offered to carry him down to the Serpent’s Nest.

Vin was full of news; his face glowing with pleasure, the large boy told them that he had been apprenticed to Mr Selwyn when he finished Hogwarts. His dad and Mr Selwyn hadn’t seen eye to eye for a while because of their political views, Vin tactfully explained, but this half-term they had met up during a soiree at Malfoy Manor and, after a few tentative overtures of friendship, decided to let bygones be bygones. As Mr Selwyn was an artist and Vin loved painting, art had been one of the main topics in that first, uncertain conversation and, on Mr Malfoy’s suggestion, Mr Selwyn had invited Mr Crabbe and his son to visit one afternoon, in order to exhibit Vincent’s portfolio. Mr Selwyn had been impressed and, after chatting with Vin, had invited him to attend a couple of Mr Selwyn’s commissions and, by the end of the week, both had been so pleased with the other that Mr Selwyn had offered Vin an apprenticeship.

Not to be outdone, Pansy loudly complained that, despite it being only March, Hermione had already started badgering them about revision time-tables and useful extracurricular texts. However, Tracy and Milly defended Hermione, saying that they appreciated her help and thought that Hermione was very kind to draft timetables which were geared to diminish their weaknesses and support their strengths. Daphne, on the other hand, teased Pansy with the suggestion that the only reason that the pureblood didn’t want to revise was to provide an excuse for getting lower marks than Hermione.

Whilst Pansy and Daphne bickered, Theo happily compared his revision timetable with Hermione, suggesting a couple of texts which might be useful to add to the ‘Personal Studies’ which they had been making by using ‘Escribo’ to copy useful paragraphs to their notebooks. Draco, somewhat disturbed by such dedication, saw it as nothing less than his duty to save their brains from exploding by interrupting Hermione and Theo’s conversation with the news that he had two copies of the finished portrait, one for Theo and another for Harry, in his room and that kind Mr Selwyn had also used his pensieve to create little sketches of Hermione and Blaise. The boys were delighted but Hermione looked rather nervous and, after a while, began casting covert glances to the reflection of her somewhat out-of-proportion teeth in the blade of the silver knife.

Noticing Hermione’s concern, Blaise started a conversation on how portraits were infinitely preferable to cameras because they caught the spirit of the person. Vin happily joined in, describing how he always hated his photos because, somehow, the camera always caught him with his eyes half shut or his face twisted in a daft expression. Then Daphne explained how her grandfather, who was a celebrity photographer, had to sometimes take two hundred photographs of the same person to get one which showed them at their best. Greg asked what a ‘celebrity’ was and Hermione and Daphne, with occasional help from Harry, told their friends all about film stars, television presenters and pop musicians.

oOoOo

The first week after half term passed before Harry could really note that it had started, stuffed with classes, visits to Hagrid’s Hut, Parseltongue lessons and, sweetest and best of all taking his friends to visit the baby owls. All the children were enthralled by the idea of seeing the tiny owlets, even Pansy, who was in a sulk, couldn’t manage to completely ignore Harry’s description of the babies and, when Harry invited kindly her, only required a little pressing to join them in the Owlery.

Naturally, the trio of owlets were much admired. Theo, Draco and Greg firmly gave the verdict that ‘grey’ was the best-looking owl of the three, on account of her dark colouring and smouldering orange eyes. Hermione, to Harry’s delight, was very taken with ‘white’, as were Milly and Vin. However, Blaise, Daphne, Neville and, surprisingly, Pansy, firmly championed ‘Variegated Owl’, who, in Pansy’s words, was “too sweet”.

Harry then revealed that, as Hermione and Nev didn’t have owls and his owls didn’t have humans, he had decided to give them one of the Owlets for their very own. Hermione was ecstatic and immediately begged Draco the use of his owl, so that she could ask her parents. Neville grinned from ear to ear: as much as he loved Trevor, a toad wasn’t a very useful familiar. The other first years all agreed that it was a very good idea of Harry’s to give an Owlet to Hermione, who definitely needed an owl, and a nice thought to offer one to Nev, who they all liked. Even Pansy was good humoured about it, after a fashion, teasing Neville that he and his owl would suit each other very well.

Neville decided there and then to christen his owlet ‘Hotchpotch’, a word which his Grandmother often used and which he particularly liked. Hermione was rather more hesitant but, on Vin’s suggestion that ‘White Owl’s’ colouring was rather alpine, shyly suggested Heidi to Harry. To Hermione’s surprise, the other Slytherin first years immediately recognised the title and agreed that it was a very good choice: Spyri was a well known author in the wizarding world, being the child of a squib and a muggle, and, therefore, was often read by the curious.

Heidi and Hotchpotch appeared rather pleased with their new names, bobbing their tiny heads as Neville and Hermione spoke to them, brushing their feathers with gentle fingers. ‘Grey’, of course, was far from being at a loose end; although some children occupied themselves with fussing over their own owls, those whose familiars were absent gave her plenty of tender attention.

Harry beamed at Hedwig, pressing his cheek to the top of her round, soft head “Your babies are going to be really happy, girl” he promised. Hedwig chuckled, looking over at ‘Clumsy’ being cradled in Neville’s gentle hands; she had been rather worried about that owlet, who was less than graceful and, even more embarrassingly, rather forgetful, but his appointed human appeared very taken with him. ‘Elegant’ also seemed in good hands; Hedwig knew that the brunette girl-human was very clever and kind. All they needed was a good home for ‘Curious’, as Hedwig and Xiao called their grey daughter. However, all these children already had owls. Hedwig really hoped that Harry would find a nice human for her final owlet.

oOoOo

On Saturday morning, Harry stood in the Owlery, nervously awaiting the arrival of Fred, George and Ron. Although Harry wasn’t worried, his Dad was lurking under his invisibility cloak, he was rather nervous. His Dad’s revelations a week ago had made Harry even more determined to bury the hatchet with Weasley; his brothers were decent blokes so, surely, Weasley must be alright underneath?

There was a pattering of footsteps and George burst in. “Hello Harry”

“We’ve brought you…” continued Fred, poking his head into the owlery.

“Our little…”

“Ronniekins.” finished Fred, shoving the beetroot red Ron towards Harry

“Lay off, guys” Harry grinned “Um, hello Wea…, er, Ron.”

“Hi” Ron replied truculently, glaring at his brothers.

“Um… so… do you want to see the owlet?” Harry asked, forcing a smile.

“Whatever.”

George elbowed Ron in the ribs and walked over to Harry “C’mon, Harry, show us the goods”

“She’s an owl, not ‘goods’” muttered Ron. Fred winked at Harry.

Harry smiled and led the three boys over to the perch, on which Hedwig and Xiao were roosting, with their three owlets sandwiched between them.

“Cool owl, Harry” George said, pointing at Xiao, who opened one eye and clicked his beak irritably.

“That’s Xiao, he’s Dad’s” Harry grinned.

“Guess the dungeons bat would have to have the most badass owl in the school” teased Fred.

“Oi!”

“He’s a crow, not a bat, Fred. Haven’t you seen his animagus” grinned George.

“A Black Eagle, actually” Harry said, a bit cross. He didn’t like people taking the mick out of his Dad.

“Fair enough…”

“So which one is for Ronniekins”

“Knock it off George” sniffed Ron.

“I’m Fred” laughed George.

“Whatever”

“I thought the Grey” Harry suggested tentatively, offering his finger as a perch for the little owl.

Ron’s expression lightened a little. The grey owl was definitely the coolest.

“Would you like to hold her?” Harry asked kindly, offering her to Ron.

“Okay” Ron replied, lifting up his eyes for the first time and looking at Harry’s face. He opened his hand and ‘Grey’ gently shuffled forward, blinking up at the young boy with gentle amber eyes.

Ron smiled at the little owl and stroked her soft, downy head.

“So, Harry, how’s the Exploring going?”

“Not too bad, we’ve found a couple of interesting passageways and I’ve finally visited the kitchens” Grinned Harry “The house-elves are dead nice.”

“Yeah, Mum would really like one” George grinned “All we’ve got is a lousy old ghoul.”

Harry grinned and Ron, who was rather sensitive about his family’s finances, said grumpily “Yeah, well, it’s alright for some.”

“Harry nodded, Mr and Mrs Malfoy have house-elves but I don’t think I’d like it much. It feels kind of wrong keeping, y’know, slaves.”

“Yeah, but house-elves enjoy working for wizards” chucked Fred.

“Maybe they just think they do” said Harry solemnly.

“How’d someone like you end up in Slytherin” Ron scoffed.

“Y’know, Slytherins aren’t all evil, Ron…” sighed Fred.

“The firsties seem alright” continued George.

“Yeah” Harry nodded earnestly “Most of the Slyths are really nice and Slytherin, he’s got a portrait, is really funny.”

“What” Ron gasped “You talk to him?” he asked appalled.

“Sure” Harry shrugged “It’s not as if he’s Dracula or anything.”

“Who?” Fred asked, looking confused.

“A really evil vampire in a book” Harry explained “Salazar’s dead nice. Y’know, the only reason he was worried about muggleborns is that so many of them used to become Witch-hunters.”

“Witch-hunters weren’t so tough” Ron sneered “All you have to do is cast a flame freezing charm.”

“That was only invented way later.” Harry said, rolling his eyes “Besides, the magical Witch-hunters knew all of the wizard's tricks. They sneaked up and killed people outright.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, and there were way more of them than us. Did you know that Slytherin’s family were all killed by an army of muggle warriors?”

“No way!”

“Yeah, there were so many of them that the mages’ couldn’t cast quickly enough and got their wands cut in half of broken.” Harry explained “It was alright, though, cos the wizards were abusing Slytherin and the muggles, Gryffindor's family rescued him. They took Slytherin and his mum in.”

“I never knew that” said Ron, looking amazed.

“Yeah, Slytherin didn’t hate muggles at all, he really liked them” Harry added, nodding earnestly.

Fred smirked “Well, got to head off. Detention with Filch over some dungbombs..”

“So, we’ll leave you guys to it” added George.

“Bye” Harry grinned.

“Yeah, bye. So, um, Harry, did Slytherin tell you anything about the Chamber of Secrets?”

“Oh yeah, apparently it’s in Hogwarts somewhere” Harry evaded “Slytherin got the basilisk to protect Hogwarts from the muggle army.”

“Cool! So there really is a monster?” Ron asked, his blue eyes alight with interest.

“Yeah, a basilisk.” Harry replied, smiling “It’s okay, though, ‘cos he’s really nice… according to Slytherin, that is…”