Torn Between Three Me's

21 - The Zoo

The next morning, I awoke to the sun streaming in through my small rounded window in my warm, familiar room. Gryffindor tower may be where I spent most of the year, but it would never feel as much like home as our tiny little hut at the edge of the forest. My room was a small and cozy size, but housed everything I needed it to, with more posters and diagrams than wallpaper plastered on each of the four surfaces. There was even a poster of Skye Parkin on the ceiling above my bed, who played as a chaser for the Wigtown Wanderers. She was once a Gryffindor, too, I'd heard. But she had finished at Hogwarts before I got there, so I don't know for sure.

The scent of pumpkin pancakes wafted through my room and through my nostrils as I smiled. Mum used to make us pumpkin pancakes nearly every morning as kids. Though dad's magical cooking couldn't make it as good as she could, they were still pretty tasty. I kicked the covers to the end of my bed, tucked into my slippers and warm red Gryffindor bathrobe, and scurried down the stairs to the kitchen, meeting Ced halfway down.

'Morning Cedtaur and Adwinder,' Dad said cheerily, turning around from the counter with two plates full of pumpkin pancakes in his hands. 'Sleep well?' We nodded as we convened at the table, dad setting the plates in front of us. Dad had a cup of tea he was sipping at as the first few moments of breakfast were silent. Nothing too unusual for us. 'Do you want to go into town today, kids? The shops are decorated for the holidays. And I know you said you wanted to pick something out for Harry. Did you come up with anything yet?' I quietly shook my head as I chewed my pancake. 'Well, if not candy, would you like to get him an owl from the emporium?'

'He's got one already,' I said, covering my mouth as I finished chewing. 'Her name's Hedwig, she's a snowy owl.'

'Oh, lovely! A real beauty, she must be!' Dad exclaimed. Then, with huge eyes and a large grin on his face, added, 'did you know...that they're the heaviest owls native to North America? Because of their feathers? And-and...while the males are completely white, the females have these dark spots. That's how you can tell the difference between the males and the females!'

Ced and I shared a look for a brief second. 'No, I didn't know that,' I smiled, not sure what I was going to do with yet another random creature fact in my already stuffed brain.

'Oh, perhaps there would be a small aviary at the emporium we could get for them. Or we could build one. So the owl can have room to fly around when Harry's home and not be too noticeable to muggles. Does he live in a neighborhood or somewhere secluded, do you know?' Dad asked, his words running a million miles a minute.

I took a deep breath trying to catch up with him. I could understand the twins just fine whenever they spoke at whatever speed and however many times they went back and forth, and I'd gotten pretty skilled at speaking with them as well. But my dad was a different breed of hyperactive. It was more like word vomit. Good intentioned word vomit.

'Um...no, that wouldn't be a good idea, actually,' I said solemnly as my dad's smile faded. 'It would never be allowed there.' I put my head down, going back to my pancakes until I furrowed my eyebrows and looked up at him. 'Dad...do you know where Harry lives?'

'Well, not exactly, no,' he admitted. 'All I was told was that you had some biological family left, and he was sent to live with them.'

I looked at Ced and he shrugged at me. 'I didn't lie, I didn't know,' he insisted.

I looked back at dad. 'My aunt, uncle, and cousin,' I told dad. 'They're horrible to him. And you never thought once that I should know about Harry before this year? That maybe he should have lived with us?'

Dad's face reddened as he suddenly became very flustered. 'I wasn't- he wasn't- Dumbledore didn't- you were supposed to, he was supposed to...'

Ced took his hand across the table as he started to calm down. 'Breathe, Dad,' Ced said gently, and helped him through a deep breath.