𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐔𝐒 2008

Endangered Familiar

Author: ravenpan
Title: Endangered Familiar
Pairing(s): H/D
Rating: PG13
Summary: After the war, all he wanted was some peace and quiet. What he got, was a penguin that brought the exact opposite.
Warnings (if any): EWE
Total word count: 7920

Endangered Familiar

The war had ended, the rebuilding was nearly done, and Harry Potter was finished. He was finished with being splashed across newspapers, finished with being stopped for handshakes, photographs, toasts in pubs. Even in Muggle London he had trouble finding privacy, with all the Muggle-born helping the muggles with their reconstruction as well.

All he wanted was some peace and quiet.

Harry went as far away from the United Kingdom as he could imagine. There may have been places further, but they were likely to be far too cold, and he thought he rather deserved to be comfortable on his holiday.

That was how he found himself in the Galapagos Islands.

With a penguin asleep on his foot.

Harry looked down with a sigh, waggling his foot slightly. The little bird had no intention of moving, however, and just opened one sleepy silver eye at him before nestling in more determinedly on his foot.

It had to be one of the oddest creatures he'd ever seen. When Harry thought about Penguins, he thought about the sort in those muggle films, the tall sleek black and white tuxedo sort. This one was only just under forty-something centimetres tall, a bit runty among the others. Harry's heart had gone out to the poor thing when it was caught in a crevice on the beach, with a few bigger ones pecking at him.

One thing Harry really didn't like was bullies. He glanced around and, seeing no-one human, pulled his wand from the seam in his shorts, flicking it at the bigger penguins and shoving them gently away from the trapped one. He had to repeat this several times before they fully scattered.

There was a squawk as he approached the trapped one, kneeling down and peering at it. He reached out to try and get it loose, but it snapped at him with a sharp beak, glaring with silvery eyes. "So, they pick on you because you've got funny eyes, not because you're tiny?" Harry asked softly, shushing it as it struggled again in the crevice. "Oh settle down, I'm not going to hurt you. I'll make you a deal. You don't bite me, and I'll help you loose."

The penguin squawked at him again and snapped its beak.

"You're a feisty little fellow, aren't you?" Harry sighed, exasperated, and sat down just out of its reach. "Well, I'll just sit here until you get tired of being stuck."

Six hours later, the bird was still glowering at him, snapping any time he made any movement, even to get more comfortable. Harry transfigured a few stones into a comfortable chair and lounged, watching it. "You know, eventually you'll have to let me get you unstuck," he told it conversationally. It was easy to imagine the squawking that met that statement was filled with epithets of 'no I don't, you great big human thing!' Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"You are an angry little thing, aren't you?" he asked.

The penguin ruffled a bit and glowered at him.

"I don't blame you," Harry replied after a long silence. "Trapped, terrorised...." His voice trailed off as he sat back in the chair he'd transfigured, losing himself in thought as his eyes tracked the shoreline, watching the waves beat against the rocks, the other funny greyish penguins on the beach. "I'd be angry, too," he said quietly.