blood bound

chapter 12: Burn the Bumblebee

Harry woke, warm, comfortable, more well rested than he could ever remember, and in serious need of the bathroom. Grumbling he shoved at the arms keeping him trapped on the bed before sleepily moving to the edge of the bed, intending to tumble/stumble away from it into the bathroom. Instead he was stopped mid-fall/step by the spell keeping on the bed. In an almost zombie like fashion he kept trying to get out of the bed until his excessive movements woke his companions.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Severus asked in a voice horse with sleep, irritation clear.

"S'rry, need the lou," Harry mumbled as he once more tried to get out of bed only to wake up a bit more at Nagini's loud hissy laughter.

"~Tom, you forgot about something.~" Nagini teased, earning a glare that was softened by sleep from her wizard as he felt around under his pillow for his wand. Finding it he used a medical spell on the three of them that made a bathroom trip unnecessary before pulling Harry and Severus back under the blankets again. His attempt to both cuddle some more and get an hour's worth of sleep failed though when his magical clock made a buzzing sound like a muggle clock alarm telling him it was time to get up.

"Don' wanna," Voldemort grumbled like a small child.

"~Then you should have spelled the clock to account for your mates.~" Nagini pointed out with a snigger, just as a sooty ball of white and grey feathers shot out of the fireplace making an unholy racket. All three of them were suddenly wide awake and looking around for whatever was causing the noise.

"Hedwig?" Harry asked in disbelief, finally recognizing his faithful owl as she landed on top of the wardrobe desperately trying to get the soot off.

"Didn't you tell your owl to stay at the school?" Severus asked doubtfully as he observed the mess of soot and loose feathers that was attempting to cover the sturdy oak wardrobe.

"Yeah, I don't understand. I was just at the school yesterday," Harry said in complete bewilderment. "She knew I wasn't sure where I was going to stay for the summer or if it would be safe to take her with me."

"Then that is, perhaps, your answer. If you have a strong enough familiar bond with her she would know you have a new residence and that it was safe for her to come find you," Severus pointed out. "She must be truly devoted to you if she set out the moment that the magic told her it was safe to do so and gave her a direction. Of course Minerva or Filius could have just as easily sent her with a letter but I don't see one."

Voldemort sighed heavily and forced himself out of bed as both Severus and Harry tried to follow, coming up short against the spell.

"You were serious about not letting us out of the bed," Harry said in resignation, earning a low chuckle of amusement from his ruby eyed mate.

"Of course I was serious," Voldemort told him as he cautiously approached the owl, conjuring her a perch so that she didn't have to stay on top of the wardrobe. Hedwig fluffed up and hooted at him before deigning to use the perch. She looked around at the room and nodded as if giving her approval before hooting demandingly at Voldemort. He just chuckled again and conjured attached water and food bowls for the branch-like perch, filling the water bowl to the brim.

"~Can I eat the featherball?~" Nagini asked in interest, earning an indignant hoot from Hedwig and a strong "No!" from Harry.

"~You know better. If you want to chase a bird there are some in the garden.~" Voldemort scolded with a chuckle. Nagini some how gave him a deadpan look and settled back into her coils enjoying the warmth of the fire that the house elves had tended to less than an hour ago.