The pet shop worker and the murderer

Part 6

It felt nice to have taken a real shower. Tom had probably casted cleaning charms on him during the week, but there were a clear difference between what magic could do and what a real shower could do. Harry felt refreshed, a feeling that was never quite there when magic was used. The only downside of the shower was that he couldn't wash his hair as he was used to. It felt different to shampoo dreads instead of his afro, and it had taken forever to squeeze the dreads dry. He wondered if a drying charm would help. He would have to look up if there were any specialized for his kind of hair. One could never know with cosmetic charms.

He had forgotten to bring a change of clothes with him into the bathroom. Again. Unlike last time, he decided to make do with the clothes that he had been wearing. Harry focused his magic on his dirty pajama pants and underwear to first clean the items and then to transfigure them into new clothing. Since a pair of pajama pants couldn't be transfigured into two pieces of clothing, he went with a jumpsuit. He didn't dare trying to conjure anything complicated until he had gotten used to his new magic. Just conjuring a hair scrunchie proved to be a hard task - it took a few tries before he conjured up one in the right size and that stayed one colour. Harry pulled his dreads back and secured them in a ponytail with the hair scrunchie. Dressed and as ready as he could possibly be, he left the bathroom.

The living room and therefore the kitchen were both empty except for him, but the hissing from Tom's bedroom clued him in to where Tom, Egl ė and probably Nagini were located. Determined to avoid the conversation that he needed to have with Tom for as long as possible, Harry looked around. He had a vague memory of Tom mentioning an owl for him... Just as he had thought that, he spotted Hedwig sitting on the back of a kitchen chair.

"Hedwig!" Harry called, feeling happier and more relaxed at the sight of his familiar and friend. The brilliant snowy owl gave a wary hoot as answer, and flapped her wings once but didn't leave the chair. Harry frowned at her. There were no reason for her to be wary of him all of a sudden. Unless... what had Tom called him? An Echidna, but what more... Harry bit his lip as he recalled Tom's words. The mother of all monsters... That could certainly explain why Hedwig was wary of coming any closer, even if she recognized him.

"It's me, Hedwig. I haven't changed. You know that I would never hurt you." Harry cooed softly, and hoped it would be enough to coax Hedwig to him. He would have bribed her with owl treats, but he didn't have any and there was a risk that she would get scared if he got any closer to search for some food. Maybe he could conjure her a mouse? It would best if he could get the letter from her first though...

"I'll give you a big juicy mouse if you let me have the letter." he tried, not above bribing his own owl. He was rather happy that Tom couldn't see him right now, because the situation definitely felt ridiculous. At least the promise of prey worked, because Hedwig flew forward him and landed on his shoulder. She nipped after his fingers affectionately when he took the letter that had been tied to her leg.

"Thank you, darling." Harry cooed. He focused his magic and conjured up a mouse. It didn't come out right, it looked to be part guinea pig or something, but Hedwig apparently didn't care since she took off after it. If he could do this kind of magic wandlessly, he didn't want to know what he could do with a wand. How bad had the bound on his creature inheritance been if it affected his magic this much? Maybe Tom had an idea if he asked... Harry made a mental note to do that later, and sat down on his bed so that he could read the letter. He didn't have any hopes that it would be from his parents, since he doubted that they would think of using Hedwig if they knew he was behind wards.

It was with slightly trembling hands that he opened the letter, his magic licking his fingertips. For a moment, he feared that the letter would catch on fire. He wasn't aware that he had held his breath until he let out a relieved sigh. Harry looked down on the letter.