Hello faithful readers so sorry that I haven't posted more chapters here for so long! I have been on a drabble spree recently and have not had more then five minutes to spare to sit down and write out anything more than 100 words Also have my own wedding to finish planning and get ready for - March 27!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this next installment. I have been meaning to write this up for a while now since the idea came to me around the same time as the previous chapter. Enjoy!

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Year 1: Hedwig and the Origin of Species
■□Chapter Seven: Follow the Leader


Hedwig wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting on that branch before purple carpet man finally decided to leave and head back towards the castle, but it was enough time for her feet to fall asleep and her talons to become cramped. She wasn’t sure she would be able to move them anytime soon. The ugly giant below her was beginning to become restless and would sometimes pick up rather large stones and throw them at one of the nearby trees.

Just then, Errol came crashing through the trees with his usual erratic flight pattern. Herwig let out a chirp when she saw the loony bird crash into one of the bushes. “Errol? Are you alright?” she called still until able to move her talons comfortably. Errol’s head popped out of the bush with his feathers a mess and a few small twigs sticking out here and there. “Perfectly fine, my dear Hedwig. Us owls can handle much bigger spills. Trust me, I once ran into a glass window trying to deliver a letter.”

Rolling her golden eyes, Hedwig tried to stretch her wings a bit, but they too had become stiff and her left one had lost most of the feeling in it. “Great,” she hooted stretching her right wing out completely. “Carpet head better not do anything while I am like this.”

“Ah yes, didn’t anyone ever tell you as an owlet that it is important to stretch your wings every 30 minutes or so? That way your wings will not freeze,” Errol said hooting rather loudly and flapping his wings for extra emphasis.

The troll took notice of this and locked his gaze on the brown owl. “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYFFT!” the troll roared reaching one of it giant hamburger hands towards the owl.

“Errol! Look out!” Hedwig screeched loudly flapping her good wing. The feeling was beginning to come back into her left one, but it wasn’t enough for her to be able to fly well.

“Oh dear!” Errol exclaimed flapping his wings. There was a loud thud and the next thing she knew, Errol was up in the air and the troll had left a rather large imprint in the ground where Errol had just been. The troll had managed to get a piece of Errol as a few of his tail feather were pressed a good six inches into the dirt. “That was close!”

Errol flew right in front of the troll’s face, and the troll followed his flight path. “TOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU!”

“What does that mean?” Hedwig asked nervously glancing at Errol who had just landed next to her.

“Well, I’m afraid that my troll is a bit rusty. Were the creature we are dealing with a gnome or perhaps even a crup, then I would be able to give you a much better translation,” Errol explained fluffing his feathers a bit. “I can speak over 6 magical creature languages you know. The first I learned when I ---“

“Errol! Move!” Hedwig chirped whacking the owl backwards with her right wing – and just in time. The troll’s hands were grabbing at the branch where the two had been sitting, and he had managed to get one of his oversized sausage fingers around Hedwig’s tail. Why did that owl have to talk so much. If she survived this, she was going to make sure he choked on one of his mouse bones. Errol managed to find his bearings before he became friends with a rock at the base of the tree. Flutter his wings a bit and trying to get some distance between him and the troll, he turned around to see that Hedwig was stuck, and the troll’s other hand was slowly reaching up. “Miss Hedwig! I do believe it would be best for you to remove yourself from your current position!”

“Try telling me something I don’t already know!” she said snapping her beak back. What was she going to do? She hardly could fly the way she was right now. Looking at the troll’s hand that had her feathers clutched between its fat fingers, Hedwig swallowed her pride and jabbed at the nearest one with her beak. The troll let out a loud groan that echoed in the empty forest, but still did not let go. Trying again, and this time with much more force, she jabbed her beak into the finger and found she had a new problem: now the tip of her beak was stuck in its green and smelly flesh.

“Miss Hedwig! Troll is not good for you! Didn’t anyone tell you that you could break out in owl pox?!”

All Hedwig could do was glare at Errol. Yep, he was definitely choking on a mouse bone later. The troll howled again and began waving his hand around in the air in attempt to remove Hedwig’s beak. Hedwig was being tossed around so quickly that she had to close her eyes to keep from becoming too dizzy or anything getting into her eyes. Being blind and unable to fly would make her a pretty poor excuse of an owl. Suddenly, she felt her beak break free from the troll’s finger and she went tumbling through the air towards the trunk of a tree. Opening her eyes now, she saw that the trunk was becoming dangerously close. Flapping her wings frantically, she attempted to regain balance, but her left wing refused to cooperate.

The troll, now very unhappy and with green goo oozing from his thumb, began to pull on his bindings. Hedwig somehow managed to regain enough feeling in her left wing to maneuver herself away from the tree trunk and fell instead into a nearby bush. Errol, seeing all this, hopped over to her. “Miss Hedwig! Are you alright?”

Hedwig was going to snap back with some smart remark, but all sarcasm escaped her when she saw what was coming at them. “Ugly!” she managed to yell.

The troll had now broken free of its bindings and was charging straight for them.

“Quick! To the Owlerly!” Hedwig commanded flapping her now back to normal wings.

“Roger that!” Errol chirped following suit.

The two owls took off as fast as their wings could carry them, weaving through trees, avoiding rocks being thrown at them from behind, and just all in all trying not to get killed. Finally, the two saw Hogwarts Castle and Hedwig chirped with a sense of relief.

“Almost there!”

She picked up speed, and Errol tried his best to match it zigging this way and zagging the other. They were close enough now that she could smell all the food in the Great Hall. Seemed like the Halloween Dinner had begun. Looking over her right wing, she assumed that they had lost the troll. To her horror, she saw that it was still tromping after them carrying its giant wooden club with it. Hedwig and Errol flew high enough to be out of reach of the troll, but that soon became a minor detail.

Realizing that the two little birds that had hurt his finger were too far away – and after making a few holes in the side of the castle out of frustration – the troll whacked the great door with his club. The door shattered into tiny splinters and the smells from inside came pouring out. Howling once more and dragging his club behind him, the troll entered the castle and vanished from the two owl’s sight.

“Errol…we lead that thing right to the castle!”