I Want to be Your First Choice, Harry Potter

Chapter Forty Five

I hated every moment of saying goodbye. I did my best to hold back my tears while giving Harry a last hug and kiss goodbye at the train station but my emotions got the best of me.

I'm all settled into my room at home now. It's only the night that we got home and I already want to write to Harry. Unfortunately I have to wait for him so I can give Hedwig my letter.

I already had dinner with my parents and told them all about my school year. My dad was a little suspicious of Harry but my mum assured him that Harry is a good guy. She likes Harry a lot which is good. After dinner we played a game and had lots of fun just the three of us.

I've just finished brushing my teeth and unpacking. I'm sitting on my bed that I had made nicely over winter break. I'm sure it went untouched. It's all so familiar to me. The lavender walls covered in different album covers. The flowy white bedspread with a folded pale pink blanket at the end. The nightstand with a mint green alarm clock and the mini lamp that I've had since I was born. Of course my favorite part is the wall of pictures above my desk. I got a Polaroid camera for my birthday the summer before fourth year and I have taken at least a hundred pictures of everyone, the extras are in the drawer of my nightstand. Most of them that are up on the wall are Harry and I, next is probably Ginny and Hermione and there are a few of everyone in our friend group. There's maybe two of my friends from home. It's like any other teenage girls bedroom but it's special to me.

I decide it won't hurt to start to write my first letter to Harry when I hear a knock at my door. My mum opens the door slightly and I put my notebook and pen down.

"Yes mum?" I say.

"Before we get to bed we wanted to show you one more thing down in the living room." She says. I spring up and head downstairs with her. "This took a lot of convincing of your father, but you've gotten exceptional grades every year and you do everything you are asked so we agreed you deserve it." She says. There is an owl in a cage sitting on the coffee table. I go over to it, it's light brown on the top side with white specks but on the underside it's white with black specks. It's beautiful. I hug both of my parents immediately and thank them a million times.

"Is it a boy or girl?" I ask.

"It's a boy." My father says. "What will you name it?" He asks. I have no idea what I should name it.

"Hmmm I want to spend time thinking about it, I'll sleep on it and tell you in the morning if that's ok." I say.

"Of course." My mum says. It's later than they both normally stay up so they head up to bed. I do the same but plan on staying up while in my room. I bring the owl with me, I put him on my seat and study him from my bed. A great idea pops into my head. I should name him Geils after the song that Harry and I danced to in the common room. It's by the J. Geils Band and it's now both of our favorite songs. Yes this is perfect, I'll name him Geils. I know it's stupid but I go over to him and tell him his name.

I get my notebook and pen back out to start writing my first letter to Harry.

Harry,

You'll never guess what happened. So I got home and had a wonderful night with my parents, then right as I was about to go to bed my mother came into my room and asked me to come downstairs. Long story short I got an owl from my parents and I named it Geils after the name of the band to our favorite song but I'm sure you got that already. (It's a boy by the way) anyways there isn't much to tell you about yet since it's only been a few hours since I've been home but I miss you so much and I can't wait to hear from you no matter what it's about. I'll probably have some trouble sleeping though if my owl doesn't quiet down. Hopefully my father doesn't make him stay downstairs or something.

Love,
Gabriella

I figure that's enough for my first letter, like I said there isn't much that's happened so far and I don't want to bombard him with love letters like some crazy girlfriend or something. Not that he'd get annoyed but I'm a little worried if the Dursley's find out that he has a girlfriend they'll burn all of the letters they find sent to him. I kept two of his sweatshirts for over the summer so I get one out of my closet and put it on to sleep in. I usually get cold at night and I like all of my sweatshirts. I have tons of them but his are better to me for some reason. I can't describe it, just the fact that it's something of his and he gave it to me maybe.

I know Harry stays up way later than me so I figure it's ok to send the letter now. I write Harry's name on the outside of the letter then tie it with a piece of beige string and go over to Geils' cage. I slip the piece of paper through the metal bars and he takes it with his beak. Most owls are already trained to know where places are but I pull the sleeve of my sweatshirt up and put it close to him then tell him to find Harry. Then I open my window slightly and open the cage and let him go. I want to wait to make sure he gets back alright so I just sit on top of my covers and begin to read the very famous book, "The Diary of Anne Frank."

After about thirty minutes of reading my eyes start to get a little sore. Probably since I'm reading in the dim light. So I put the book away and look out the window to wait for Geils. Everything about this night reminds me of summer. The warm, sweet air, the noisy animals and bugs, I can tell just who is still awake and who is in bed by the bedroom lights that are on around my neighborhood. I know all of the kids in my neighborhood, it consists of a bunch of families with children and teenagers all different ages. It's a beautiful night tonight. It makes me wish I could show it to Harry, I can only imagine what he's doing right now. Definitely not admiring the night and how it reminds him of all the good memories of summer that he doesn't have.

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I'm like 99% sure that's not how an owl works when you first get it. Like I'm pretty sure it has to be trained to go to Harry's house but that would be a little bit extra to explain lol.

And if you want to know how to say Geils' name it's like "guy uls" that's the best I can describe it.

Also a lot of you might be confused why her room has a bunch of random colors in it. I was about to describe one of those really popular Pinterest rooms but then I remembered it's the 90s so I wanted to describe what an actual 90s bedroom would look like for a girl like Gabriella.