Merlin's Descendant 3 (HIATUS)

I

IT WAS ONE o'clock in the morning. (Y/N)'s stomach gave a funny jolt. He had been thirteen years old, without realizing it, for a whole hour.

(Y/N) walked across the dark room, past (P/N)'s large cage, to the open window. He leaned on the sill, the cool night air pleasant on his face. 

(Y/N), though still rather small and skinny for his age, had grown a few inches over the last year. His dark brown hair, however, was just as it always had been — stubbornly untidy, whatever he did to it. His eyes were bright blue.

Of all the unusual things about (Y/N), his role to Harry was the most extraordinary of all. It was because, at the age of one, he had to protect Harry after Harry's parents, Lily and James Potter had been murdered, murdered by the most feared Dark wizard for a hundred years, Lord Voldemort. Harry had escaped from the same attack with nothing more than a scar on his forehead, where Voldemort'scurse, instead of killing him, had rebounded upon its originator. Barely alive, Voldemort had fled...

But Harry, alongside (Y/N), had come face-to-face with him at Hogwarts. Remembering their last meeting as he stood at the dark window, (Y/N) had to admit he was lucky even to have reached his thirteenth birthday.

Gazing absently over the rooftops, it was a few seconds before (Y/N) realized what he was seeing.

Silhouetted against the golden moon, and growing larger every moment, was a large, strangely lopsided creature, and it was flapping in (Y/N)'s direction. He stood quite still, watching it sink lower and lower. For a split second, he hesitated, his hand on the window latch, wondering whether to slam it shut. But then the bizarre creature soared over one of the shops of Diagon Alley, and (Y/N), realizing what it was, leapt aside.

Through the window soared four owls, three of them holding up the fourth, which appeared to be unconscious. They landed with a soft flump! on (Y/N)'s bed, and the middle owl, which was large and grey, keeled right over and lay motionless. There was a large package tied to its legs.

(Y/N) recognized the unconscious owl at once — his name was Errol, and he belonged to the Weasley family. (Y/N) dashed to the bed, untied the cords around Errol's legs, took off the parcel, and then carried Errol to (P/N)'s cage. Errol opened one bleary eye, gave a feeble hoot of thanks, and began to gulp some water.

(Y/N) turned back to the remaining owls. One of them, the large snowy female, was Hedwig, who belonged to Harry. She, too, was carrying a parcel and looked extremely pleased with herself. As he removed her burden, she flew across the room to join Errol.

The third owl eagerly flew to his shoulder. (Y/N) recognized it as his family's owl, Archimedes. He gave (Y/N) an affectionate nip with his beak as he removed the long, thin and small, poorly wrapped package, then flew out of the room.

(Y/N) didn't recognize the fourth owl, a handsome tawny one, but he knew at once where it had come from because, in addition to a third package, it was carrying a letter bearing the Hogwarts crest. When (Y/N) relieved this owl of its burden, it ruffled its feathers importantly, stretched its wings, and took off through the window into the night.

(Y/N) sat down on his bed and grabbed Errol's package, ripped off the brown paper, and discovered a present wrapped in gold and his first-ever birthday card. Fingers trembling slightly, he opened the envelope. Two pieces of paper fell out — a letter and a newspaper clipping.

The clipping had come out of the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet because the people in the black-and-white picture were moving. (Y/N) picked up the clipping, smoothed it out, and read:

MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE

Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw.