Vox Corpis [Harmione]

Chapter 16

Harry yawned and slipped down further in his chair. Hermione glanced across the table at him, looked shrewd a moment, then put her nose back to the grindstone, as it were. They were back in the Granger library, once more trying to tackle the last bit of History of Magic homework. Hermione seemed to be making typically impressive headway, but Harry was bogged down. He was of the opinion that he was too tired to rightly focus on the history of magic. Between their late night outing and broken sleep, Harry could do with a decent nap more than he could the Wizengamot ruling of 1429 addressing the period prank of hexing muggle mules to hop. Apparently quite the disaster for the poor muggles at the time. It had Harry going cross-eyed with boredom.

Hermione looked reproachfully at him now and then, but she seemed to grant him clemency, as it was her idea and her urging that had them up at odd hours, and she didn't nag him about staring off into space instead of working on his essay.

Harry, head propped in his hand, was sagging and starting to doze off when a loud bang jolted him upright in his chair. Hermione squeaked and her quill scratched a black line down the center of her scroll. "Bloody hell!" she cursed as Harry turned at a second, sharper thump.

A flurry of flapping wings at the window had Harry up and out of his chair while Hermione tried to assess the damage to her homework. The whole time Harry was crossing the room she was talking to herself, "Just brilliant, and I can't even do a scourgify to right this mess. I'll have to wait until term to spell this out. Could just rewrite the whole thing, I suppose, oh bother..."

Harry reached the window, opened it, and a ball of feathers zoomed into the room. Harry ducked the darting bird even as he recognized the animal. "Pig!"

Hermione looked up, her eyes widened, and she dove under the table just in time to avoid getting a face-full of Ron's owl. Pig flitted and cavorted around the room, hooting happily and, in his mindless enthusiasm, running right into a bookshelf. In his scramble to resume his wild flight, his talons dug into the spines of several books and they were yanked off the shelf to clatter to the floor as he flapped back into the air.

"Pig! Get down here this instant!" Hermione cried and made a leaping grab for the bird. Pig hooted and dodged out of reach.

Harry clamored atop the desk, Hermione gasping and trying to pull their homework parchments to safety, and he flexed his hands in readiness. When Pig made a dash within reach he lunged and snatched, and his seeker skills held true and Pig screeched and wriggled in Harry's hand.

Hermione brushed her hair back from her face with one hand, her other arm full of crumpled parchment, as Harry jumped down from the table. Pig kicked his legs wildly a moment then stilled and hooted on his back, splayed talons held stiffly in the air. When his legs were still, the owl proved to have a note tied to one of them.

"Hey, looks like a letter from Ron," Harry said as he pulled the parchment free. With a sideways look at the little bird in his grasp, Harry carefully opened his fingers to release Pig. Pig laid motionless a moment, then cart-wheeled out of Harry's hand and landed with a graceless thunk on to the table top. Before the neurotic owl could think of taking flight again Hermione shoved their bowl of study snacks, moist tea cakes, at the animal. Pig, apparently hungry from his long flight from Romania, gratefully stayed put to eat ravenously.

Harry unrolled the letter as Hermione rounded the table to stand beside him. "What's Ron say?" She titled her head to read the letter even as Harry did so as well.

'Hey, guys! Sorry I haven't written you sooner, but it's been so crazy around here. Romania's great, you really should have come, Harry. Some of the blokes here talk on and on about your tangle with the Horntail during the tournament. Even Charlie was impressed, and that's saying something that you impressed dragon-keepers! Told them you're always doing wicked stuff like that! With my help, course. Ha! We've done loads of stuff; this dragon-keeping's harder than it looks! Don't know that I'd ever want to do it for a job or anything, but wow, talk about a story for the summer! No way Dean or Seamus's summer will top mine this year.