ROMEO [2] ⚡ harry potter

14

LURK
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"I hate you!" Charlotte cried with a laugh, dusting cinders off her shoulders as Zara landed in the chimney that connected Diagon Alley to the Floo Network. She'd sworn against wizarding travel her entire life, but now that Zara had shoved her into the fire, it wasn't all that bad.

They'd had a long chat that day, one where Charlotte wasn't able to control her tongue and she'd just shoved her honest feelings into Zara's face, how she felt ignored by her friend, and how she wished the girl would just write- as if it was such a hard thing to do.

See, with Harry it was different. He wasn't her boyfriend before, he had no obligation to write and frankly, he did write something, and not just last minute- but Zara was her best friend. She had no excuse.

But now they'd made up, like they always did, and were on their way to buy brand new owls, to make communication a lot easier.

"It was for your own good," Zara laughed as she stepped onto the cobblestone street. The alley was empty and dark, shops were boarded up and there were barely any people to be seen. Charlotte could've sworn she'd seen tumbleweed blow around the corner. Zara sighed. "I promise it used to be much more magical than this."

"I'm sure it was," Charlotte nodded. "But times change, and they'll change again. This war will pass soon."

They continued their walk towards a shop Zara had called Eeylops Owl Emporium, and still don't come across anyone, except for one strange man who stood with a cigar pipe in his hand and wore all black wizard robes, who stared at them as they passed.

They enter the shop and Charlotte's heart stopped. It was wonderful. There were birds of all shapes, colours and sizes, mostly owls but also swallows, and small robins that twittered around the room. One of the little red chested birds came to settle on her shoulder and she grinned, turning the Zara.

"Now, this is magical," she smiled, before wandering through the shop, browsing through cages of large birds, looking at different bird houses or containers, but also looking at the birds themselves. They spent a good half hour there but none of the owls were for her. They were all wonderful, but she wanted an owl she could bond with, properly, like Harry had with his.

Zara on the other hand, was different. She settled on a large black owl almost straight away, telling Charlotte that: "You ought not to be too picky. It's only going to be sending letters."

Her friend did not intend to bond with her owl, and Charlotte knew it would probably just be kept in the school owlery she'd heard about, and only ever used as a post owl, and not a pet. A shame.

Charlotte then dragged her friend to the next shop, 'Magical Menagerie' which had an array of pets inside. She found herself enthralled by a British Blue shorthair cat, that walked with his tail up straight and was pleasing to the eye, but when she tried to stroke him, he shrieked and scratched her arm.

The toads made her feel sick to the stomach, their croaking ringing in her ears long after she'd moved away from them, their slimy skin cool to the touch. When Charlotte and Zara finally reached the owl section, there were so many to choose from.

Plenty of barn owls, a couple of snowy owls too- skreech owls and many more but only one caught her interest. Away in the corner was a small cage, perhaps only thirty centimetres tall, and in it was a baby owl. It was small, with tawny feathers and large eyes and immediately Charlotte fell in love.