was a little bit odd seeing it was well after their prescribed bedtime. Hermione chalked it down to Slytherins keeping very late hours. That or maybe he didn't like wearing pyjamas when he slept, and
And what? Her brain urged, with an annoying, mental, "Hmm?" Her imagination was willing to go there, but she shot the hazy image down almost before it came into being.
Now was not the time to be a teenager.
She handed the treats over to Draco and watched as he slipped on a sturdy looking leather gauntlet. Even in the darkness, she was able to make out the deep rips and gouges in the leather. From experience, she knew that Hedwig was quite capable of giving Harry nasty scratches when he handled her.
Draco then performed a soft, three-note whistle and held out his arm. From the topmost perches, roughly three or four 'floors' from where Hedwig rested, Draco' s owl took flight.
Hermione had seen the bird before, of course, at breakfast when it delivered mail and the Daily Prophet to Draco. Close up, however, Draco's eagle owl was something else.
It was a very large, very masculine-looking, great horned, eagle owl, with a curved beak that looked sharp enough to punch a neat hole through Draco's hand, gauntlet or no. It was majestic looking, surely, in a scary, predatory sort of way. It was-
"Pete," said Draco, patting the bird's handsome head.
The owl responded with an affectionate, "Hoooot."
Goodness. The bird was a baritone.
Hermione stared. She also took another step back. "You call your owl Pete?"
He was busy patting the owl. "A Familiar needs a name, Granger."
Yes. That was true. Though she had expected at least four syllables and a tribute to some long dead pureblood wizard slash hero slash mythological figure from antiquity.
Draco was looking down his nose at her. He was apparently attempting mind reading. "It's short for 'Pietro', if you must know."
"Hoot," said Pete, in response to his name.
"Don't worry about her," Draco told his Familiar, as he scratched Pete's elegant head. "She' d rather keep a raggedy, bow-legged, old fur ball, than an owl."
Hermione frowned. "Crookshanks is not a raggedy old fur ball. He's quite brilliant."
"But as bandy legged as a Queen Anne dresser," Draco added, almost with teasing, good humour. And then he seemed to remember that they weren't supposed to be having fun in any way, shape or form. This was serious, potentially deadly business. "Give me the letter." He had decided to be rude again.
Hermione was inexplicably glad at the change. She handed the small piece of parchment to him. He held the letter to Borgin under a spot of moonlight, scanned it, and then to her surprise, tore it up into tiny pieces.
"It's pointless for you to use an alias because Borgin will know Pete," he explained. She gave him an exasperated look. "Well did you happen to bring some parchment and a quill to write a new letter?"
"This should do," he declared, taking out his own version of their letter to Borgin. Hermione wanted to tell him if he had went to the trouble of writing his own stupid letter than he really didn't need to be scheduling secret meetings with her in the middle of the night, did he?
So why was she there, then? Hermione gave him a curious look.
"I don' t understand why we can' t just use a school bird. Something that' s not so-" she stared at Draco's Raptorclawed bird, "-stand-outish?"
He was giving her his 'are you thick?' look. Hermione knew it well enough. He was also rather good at, 'I don't have time to explain', 'how very Gryffindor of you' and 'out of my way before I hex you.'
"Pete' s as secure as it gets when it comes to Owl Post. He' s specifically bred for that. School birds are reliable, but easy targets. They can be shot down, intercepted and lured. Pete won't." There was pride in his voice.
How awful. Hermione couldn' t help thinking. She supposed that the easiest way to intercept a message or parcel would be to simply shoot down the courier (ala Professor Sprout' s unfortunate delivery macaw). Though she couldn' t remember the last time she had heard of an owl coming to such a nasty end. If she could find time in between helping Dumbledore win a war, looking for post-Hogwarts employment, and ending her accidental marriage to Malfoy, Hermione decided that she might just pursue a campaign promoting more humane treatment of all Familiars.
Draco gently attached the