Liber Fatalis: Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Very Happy Birthday Indeed
He woke up a few mornings later when something nipped his ear affectionately. Cracking open his eyes, he saw a blur of white. It took him a moment of fumbling to get his glasses on to realize the white were feathers and the feathers belonged to an… owl?
It cooed at him as he sat upright. The snowy owl jumped onto his shoulder and nipped at his ear again, making him giggle.
“I see your birthday gift found you.” Arabella said from the doorway. “A bright one she is. Her name is Hedwig, so the shop owner said when I bought her”
“My birthday gift?” Harry squeaked as he stroked the owl carefully, not really knowing exactly what the right way to petting an owl was. But with the happy hoot the white owl gave him, he couldn’t help but figure out he wasn’t doing a bad job at it.
“Child, don’t tell me you forgot that today is your eleventh birthday!! It’s nearly as sacred as your seventeenth birthday!” Aunt Bella looked slightly scandalized. Harry was a bit shocked. Harry was quite good at remembering when his birthday was – he even would go as far as to make sure he had some time on that day to himself to have his own little special celebration to himself. However, with recent events with getting ready to go to wizarding school and his own little introduction to the magical world, he had lost track of time.
Harry watched in awe as his birthday gift flew out of the room after giving him a last affectionate nip. He felt a bit strange to have been given a gift from someone. Though he had spent many years wishing for a birthday gift – for it to actually come true…
“Thank you Aunt Bella.” Harry ran out of bed and gave her a tight hug. She hugged him back as well, a bit taken back at his strong reaction with his gift. But living so many years next door to the Dursleys made her understand why he reacted this way. This boy was starved from affection and was surprised whenever it was given to him.
“Come on birthday boy, let’s go have breakfast. We got a full day ahead of us. It isn’t much a celebration if we stay inside all day, right love?”
Harry’s eyes widen. There was more to this than just an owl? Aunt Figg chuckled when she saw the expression of surprise and squeezed his hand slightly, eyes twinkling.
“So I remember how you told me the Dursleys took Dudley to the zoo for his birthday. How about we go to the zoo as well… except one that’s a bit more… exotic.”
Harry was already racing her to the kitchen table.
—
They arrived to the Wizard’s zoo by hitching a ride off of the Knight Bus. The Knight Bus was a strange bus that would pick up wizards or witches after the flick of their wands. The two bus drivers were really funny to listen to, although slightly in awe at the fact that he was Harry Potter. Harry felt a bit strange at the attention they showered on him. Aunt Bella shooed them away for him though, telling them to leave her charge alone unless they wanted to be hexed so hard that they’d be seeing stars for the next week.
The zoo was amazing. While there were a few animals that he had seen before at the Muggle zoo, at the Wizard’s zoo, there were so many magical animals that he had never even heard about let alone seen. There were Griffins, majestic animals with long wings. He watched in awe as the adult Griffins were trying to teach a young pup how to fly. The pup would be taken up high and then he would jump from his place, flapping and failing to keep in the air. He would always be caught by the other adults who watched him carefully so he wouldn’t hurt himself.
There were different sea creatures as well. There was a Lochness like the one he always heard about that lived in some lake in the north. Harry giggled when a male attempted to sing a ballad to a female in order to woo her heart. The sound reminded him of Dudley whining.
“These here are Cornish Pixies,” Aunt Bella told him as they walked to the next barrier. The habitat that these pixies lived in was a forestry area. The small blue winged creatures were looping around in their habitat, flying together as a group. He watched in awe as they stopped before him, looking at him with curiosity.
One pixie broke away from the group. She had a coy smile and was a bit lighter than the other pixies. She came as close as the barrier would let her before she indulged in a staring contest with him. Her eyes filled with a strange intensity as he could feel her looking deep within him.
And, out of the blue, she did something that surprised them both - she stuck her tongue at him. The group behind the wayward pixie giggled at their comrade’s actions before she zipped back to rejoin them. Together, the group flew into the thickness of the forest.
“Pixies are one of the naughtiest creatures – they like to cause mayhem all around. Though that was surprising – I never saw a pixie tease someone the way they just did to you. I think they liked you.”
“Really?”
Arabella nodded, ruffling Harry’s messy hair. “If it was anyone else – they would have ignored them.”
Harry grinned then, looking into the forest and spying the pixie that stuck her tongue out at him peaking at him from behind a leaf.
“What’s in the next room?” Harry asked as the two of them walked on. The pixie continued to watch him as he walked on with his keeper, her eyes held a mischievous glint to them.
—
There was a book store near the exit of the zoo. Harry was bouncing off the walls in happiness when Aunt Bella told him that they could stop by in it before they left. Harry had been eyeing the book shop with a longing expression in his eyes and Arabella wished the boy would have at least voice his wants for once. But she was pleased to see how happy he was in the bookstore. He went through different books, telling her in an excited voice how he wanted to learn all about the animals he had seen today. While shifting through the books, he let a yelp and jumped back as a book tried to bite his finger off.
Aunt Bella looked at it in curiosity. “The Monster Book of Monsters.” The book growled at her before it tried to eat the neighboring book (something by a G-something Lockhart). One of the employees grabbed the book in frustration and tied it with a string.
“Sorry about that. To me this book is more of a sick idea of a joke rather than anything informative. I only wish the boss would stop stocking up on it. It destroys more than it makes in profits.” The female said, kicking the book slightly for good measure. She then looked at Harry, her eyes a bit surprised to see the lightening scar on his forehead. “Blimey, you’re Harry Potter.”
Harry fidgeted, looking around nervously. He had been causing quite a stir lately being who he was and the last thing he wanted to do was have a flock of wizards and witches surround him and fawn over him. It had left him unease. “Yeah…”
She laughed then, winking at him. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you’re here. Though do ask me if you need any help finding any books. I can always give you some recommendations…”
“Harry here has been looking for some books about magical creatures. Just a few general books that will let him learn a little bit about everything. This way he can always decide what he wants to learn more about after he learns a bit about them.” Arabella told the girl.
“And something about Cornish Pixies please.” Harry spoke up, lifting his foot away so the jumping monster book wouldn’t hit him as it tried to create havoc from its imprisoned state.
The girl glared at the book and muttered something about shredding it before she went to the book case to find something that would fit Harry’s needs. Soon, she had picked out three books for him: “The Handbook of Magical Creatures”, “So You Want to Learn About Magical Creatures” and “Cornish Pixies Unraveled”.
“These should do it. The two magical creature books do overlap slightly – however, the Handbook goes more in depth about the elemental creatures and So You Want is a bit more fun to read and has some stories and anecdotes to them. Cornish Pixies Unraveled is a thorough book filled with stuff such as origins of Pixies to how to raise them on your own. It’s pretty much everything you need to know all in one book.”
“Would that be all?”
“Yes and thank you.” Harry squeaked. He already was flipping through the pages and grinning in excitement at his new books. Arabella had to gently push him towards the front desk so the girl could ring him up.
—
The ride back to Pivet drive was a bumpy and chaotic ride as the ride to the zoo. The drivers were still the same two drivers from before that made such a racket while driving. However, Harry found this method still more comfortable than Flooing. Aunt Bella would grumble under her breath about how someone should to the two misfit drivers retake their certification test again. They must have bribed someone to get their license, she couldn’t help but conclude.
Harry was much too busy reading over his newly purchased books to pay attention to his surroundings. However, occasional jolts and lurches made his new reading fly off of his lap and sliding down the aisle.
“You would have been a Ravenclaw,” Aunt Bella told him. Harry looked up from the picture of a group of pixies weaving through trees.
“It was my house when I went to Hogwarts,” Aunt Bella briefly explained to him. “We were known to be studious and book loving.”
“Were my parents in Ravenclaw?” Harry asked curiously, book marking the page he had left off on. He decided that trying to read in such a shaky environment wasn’t yielding any progress.
“No, they weren’t. Your mother and father were both in Gryffindor. Gryffindors are mostly known to be noble but adventurous to the point of foolishness. Hogwarts is split up into four different “houses”, each holding a unique similar trait. I always felt that the entire notion of house separation that Hogwarts has is a bit of a joke. It caused too much rift between the study bodies. I really wish they would start encouraging more unity rather than sectionalism in Hogwarts.”
“But you don’t have to worry about that dear child, Beauxbatons is entirely different.” Arabella ruffled his hair.
Suddenly, the bus lurched forward once again. This time rather than causing Harry’s book to fly off of his lap (by this time Harry learned to hold it in his hands tightly), it had pushed one of the beds right into the wall, causing the bed frame to crash loudly and rattle.
“Privet Drive!” The driver yelled out.
Once the Arabella and Harry stepped foot outside of the bus, it had quickly whizzed by and continued on it’s route. The two of them were now left alone in the middle of the street.
“It’s about time we’re home. If I had to sit there any longer listening to those two blubbering fools that call themselves drivers talk while lurching the bus left and right, I would have stupefied them and take driven the rest of the way home myself.”
“They were worst at driving than Uncle Vernon.” Harry said skipping up the stairs to the front door. Arabella smiled. She was glad that the boy had loosened up a bit to be able to make such comments about his uncle without fearing that there would be some sort of punishment to his words.
The house felt them at on the porch and threw open the door for their entry. The house’s action surprised Harry as the both of them entered the doorway. Harry thanked the door before it shut itself when it felt the both of them had entered the house completely. The door clattered as the locks were put back onto the door.
Harry’s new snowy owl was quick to greet them upon their arrival. She flew from her wooden perch to Harry’s shoulder. Harry noticed how his new pet enjoyed nipping his ear in order to show affection. The feathers brushed against the side of his face making him giggle at the soft contact. He patted her head and greeted her with a hello.
She cooed at him in return before stretching out her wings and gliding over to the table top to point out a new package that had arrived for the green eyed boy during his trip to the zoo. The package was poorly wrapped in an awful purple and green gift wrapping paper. The box was slightly crushed and crooked and the content was slightly squished. However, even in such a state, Harry beamed from ear to ear at the sight that lied before him.
It was a birthday cake, frosted and painted with words wishing him a very happy birthday.
Thinking back onto the day, Harry couldn’t help but think it really was a very happy birthday. There were trips to the zoo, new books, a beautiful owl and a birthday cake! It was nothing as grand as Dudley’s birthday and his stacks of presents scattered about the room. However, in so many ways, he couldn’t help but feel that it was even better.