Merry Christmas to all!

I hope you are all having a wonderful time with your family, friends and loved ones. Thank you all for reading and commenting. Hedwig's story is about to get a bit serious and more mysterious, but I promise to keep the lighthearted nature and innocence of Hedwig that you all love.

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Year 1: Hedwig and the Origin of Species
■□Chapter 4: Hedwig’s Coeur

Hedwig awoke the next morning to the sound of obnoxiously loud crunching. It sounded like the sound one would hear if a small child jumped on a nice crisp leaf. Fluttering the sleep out of her wings, Hedwig turned her head to see Errol there eating something hard and white.

“Good morning, Miss Hedwig,” the dust mop said with a loud crunch. “Would you fancy some? Gives one lots of protein.”

Hedwig peered over and saw what looked like the skull of a mouse. This bird really should be flying backwards the way his mind was working. No, Hedwig did not fancy a breakfast of mouse bones for breakfast.

“No, thank you,” she said preparing herself for takeoff. “I’m on…a diet. No mouse bones.”

“Suit yourself,” Errol shrugged his feathers as he continued to chomp away. “All the more for me!” Hedwig shook her head. Errol certainly was a very very strange owl.

Feeling the warm morning sun wrap her up in a sunrise blanket, a gentle breeze ruffled her feathers and the scent of freshly baked lemon Danishes filled her beak. Perhaps she would pay Harry a morning visit. From what she understood, today classes began a she wanted to make sure that he didn’t oversleep. However, it became very clear after she took to the sky that she had no idea where Harry’s dormitory was located among all the towers of Hogwarts castle. Looking around, Hedwig decided to try one of the open windows. Having flown through the narrow porthole, Hedwig now found herself in a vacant room with nothing but a grand mirror with elaborate engravings. No beds. No Harry. Clearly, she was not in the right area. Still, while she was here, she might as well take a look around.

“I wish I could read human,” she pouted as she fluttered in front of the strange words carved at the top. Having no idea what it said, she fluttered back to the ground and looked into the mirror where she saw her own reflection. Oh! She really needed to fix her feathers a bit. As she reached her head back a bit to fix a few feathers around her wings, Hedwig noticed another figure make its appearance in the mirror. Her eyes widened as she saw a young boy with a lightning bolt scar and piercing green eyes smile back at her.

“Harry!” she chirped. She immediately turned around but was startled to find that there was no Harry there. To be more specific, there was no one smiling at her. Her head snapped back to the mirror so quickly that she lost a few of her white feathers and saw that Harry was still there smiling at her. “What? Why?” she peeped in confusion.

“You shouldn’t be in here, Owlet,” said the thick voice of Artemis from the window pane.

“Artemis,” Hedwig gasped fluffing up her feathers from the surprise arrival. “What are you doing here?” Creepy stalker owl.

“I was making my usual morning flight when I saw you fly in here. Figured I ought to make sure you stayed out of trouble,” Artemis said coolly as he fluttered down to the stone floor. He slowly hopped Hedwig, but made sure to stop well before he could see his own reflection in the mysterious mirror. “What do you see?” he asked avoiding her gaze and the mirror’s.

“Harry, just Harry,” she said shyly unable to take her golden eyes off the mirror. “What is this mirror?”

“So, it has happened to you,” he said ignoring her question. “You have been given your Coeur.”

“My what?” Hedwig tweet. What was it with all the owls at Hogwarts being a few feathers short of a feather duster?

“Your Coeur,” he repeated. “Owls that are given a chance to become magical familiars, like yourself, may also be given a Coeur if the stars are aligned correctly. Most owls will never be lucky enough to find that special connection that comes with a Coeur. We are all seeking it though, even non-owl magical familiars. Always seeking it…hoping that one day we will feel it…”

“Feel what?”

“That spark. The warmth that comes when we find the witch or wizard that we know we will dedicate our lives to. You feel it in the instant they touch you for the first time.”

Hedwig looked at Artemis and couldn’t help but think that he spoke from experience. Still, how could a grumpy owl like him have a connection with anyone outside of the poor mouse that became his breakfast? She looked back at the mirror where Harry was still smiling at her through his circular glasses. She probably should have thought that he was even more crazy after hearing him talk about some magical connection with a human, but it all made sense. In fact, it was even familiar, like she already knew what he was talking about. She had felt that spark with Harry when he had first touched her that day when sausage fingers had given her as a birthday gift to Harry in Diagon Alley.

“So, this means that Harry is my Coeur,” she stated rather than asked. Her aureate eyes remained steadily focused on the Harry in the mirror. “What must I do?”

“Protect him. Make sure that nothing bad happens to him which, in your case, will be a very difficult task considering who is hunting him.” Artemis stopped and turned his tail feathers towards her. “If you fail…”

“What?” Hedwig said blinking her eyes for a moment.

“There was once a young owl that was given to a very gifted young witch. This young witch was incredibly bright, brave, and kind. She always brought treats and good wishes to the owl. They were together for four long and happy years before…”

“Before what?”

“Before she died,” Artemis said bowing his head. “The owl’s mistress had been kidnapped and was being tortured by dark wizards. The owl flew to her rescue and tried to protect her by attacking the dark wizards, but the owl was no match for them. One of their wings was cursed and, as they lay there on the ground writhing in pain but with their eyes locked on the young witch they were supposed to protect, they used the killing curse on her. The owl saw the light leave her young eyes and her gaze forever etched in the owl’s heart. The eyes of their failure…the owl had failed their Coeur.”

The two owls stood in silence. The only sound in the room was the gentle breeze flowing through the window and blowing bits of dust around.

“What, what happens if an owl fails their Coeur?” Hedwig finally asked almost too afraid to know the answer.

“There is a sort of invisible string that connects a witch or wizard with their magical familiar. Were this string to be cut, that familiar becomes only half the being they were. It is almost as if a part of their soul dies with their failure,” he said sadly now looking into the mirror himself and shooting a quick, but unnoticeable glance, at his left wing. “A magical familiar only gets one chance. Fail, and there is no moving forward, only backwards.”

“Artemis,” Hedwig said cautiously looking into back at him. “What do you see in the mirror?”

Artemis let himself look into the mirror and his eyes showed the sorry of a father who has lost a child or of a lover who has lost their other half. Hedwig and Artemis stood in front of the mirror in silence looking at that which their hearts desired most.