𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓃𝑔. - golden trio era au

₁₉ ♙ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐫

♙

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐫

♙

The next morning, Hermione and Dawn got to breakfast early alongside Neville. Hermione propped up her copy of Voyages with Vampires and got to reading. Dawn  had already got through all the source material that Lockhart had required about himself and swore she would never touch his books again. It was badly written and filled with a bunch of useless information that was unnecessary! Who needed to know what the authors favourite colour was in a book about Yeti's? She wanted to learn about the Yeti's! So she donated all the books to the library that very morning. Who cares what the teachers would think, she couldn't have them putting a damper her collection.

When Harry and Ron finally decided to grace them with their presence, the girls offered them nothing other than a short 'Morning' to show they were still very much displeased. Neville, however, greeted them just like any other day.

"Post's due any minute - I think Gran's sending on a few things I forgot."

Merely a few minutes later, a hundred or more owls streamed in from the ceiling and started dropping packages and letters onto the chattering crowds. Dawn never really understood why there were so many deliveries so early in the school year. It was almost as if they hadn't seen their families just yesterday.

She was just pondering these thoughts when a brown owl crash landed into her cereal bowl without any sort of grace and started causing a ruckus when it began pecking at anything and everything in its reach. She and Hermione quickly shoed it away and she looked at the short note in had dropped on her lap. Scratched in messy handwriting onto paper said:

fawn
i dont understand how this works. you left this. mum and dad are angry. dont come home for christmas
love duds

Taped to the note was the sunbeam necklace that Harry had gifted her last year. She could have sworn she had picked it up when she and Ron were raiding her room so she must have dropped it in a panic.

Just as she had clasped the necklace on and tucked the note into the breast pocket of her robes, she was suddenly sprayed with milk as something had dropped right into Hermione's milk jug.

"Errol!" said Ron, reaching in and fetching the owl by its feet. It slumped onto the table, dripping milk and unconscious, with a red envelope clamped in its beak. "Oh no."

"It's all right," said Hermione, poking Errol with a spoon. "He's still alive."

"It's not that - it's that!"

Ron was pointing at the damp envelope. It looked quite ordinary other than it's striking colour yet Ron and Neville were looking at it with fear. Even a couple people down the bench had spotted it and were quietly shuffling away.

"What's the matter?" said Harry.

"She's - she's sent me a Howler." Ron sounded like he was about to faint right there on the table.

"You'd better open it, Ron," said Neville quietly as if they were facing a timid animal. "It'll be worse if you don't. My Gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and -" He gulped heavily. "it was horrible."

"What's a Howler? Why is it horrible?" But Ron was too busy staring at the red envelope to answer Dawn. It had begun smoking at the corners.

"Open it," urged Neville. "It'll be over in a few minutes ..." So Ron heeded, reached out a shaking hand to grab the envelope and slid it open. Neville stuffed his fingers into his ears.