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Prologue
IntroductionMy EscapeReturn To HogwartsBecoming my own OwlEpilogueNotesAcknowledgements

 

 

 

On the night of 27 July, 19971, known in Harry Potter legendry as The Night of the Seven Potters, Harry Potter and six other witches and wizards disguised as Harry Potter left 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging in the county of Surrey for the Burrow. Harry Potter and I, in my cage, were riding in the sidecar of Hagrid's motorcycle. (I should point out that I thought at the time this was extremely ill-advised. I would much rather have been freed and left to get to the Burrow by myself, but I was not consulted.)

Shortly after we took off we were attacked by a large group of Death Eaters. There was a great deal of confusion and the air was full of flying curses. I saw a green light coming towards me and I must have lost consciousness— the next thing I remember is tumbling out of my cage with debris, which I later discovered consisted of pieces of the exploded side car, falling all around me.

(At the time I had no idea what had happened. Upon reflection I came to the conclusion that my cage was hit by an Avada Kedavra curse 2 and the sidecar was almost immediately afterwards exploded by a Confringo curse.3 This was later confirmed by my friends in Hufflepuff, when they read to me the report of the escape which appeared in Ms. Rowling's book.) (DH, Bloomsbury Edition, 53-54)

I was in some pain and considerably disoriented, but I somehow righted myself and began to flutter towards the ground. The attack took place over London, which was fortunate since I, like any well-trained messenger owl, have a working knowledge of the geography of the metropolis. I have never liked night flying (although Ms. Rowling describes Snowy Owls as nocturnal, we, in fact, are diurnal and prefer to fly and hunt in the daytime 4 ), but I was able to navigate safely to the nearest wooded space, which happened to be Richmond Park, and settled into a sheltering tree to rest and take stock of my situation.

I was bruised and singed and some of my wing and tail feathers were missing, which made flying slower and more difficult. Still, I felt that I was able to travel. The next decision was where I should go. I had no idea if any of the Seven Potters had successfully reached the Burrow or what had awaited them there. If Death Eaters were pursuing Harry Potter, all those associated with him were threatened. I had no intention of putting myself in harm's way again in my weakened condition and therefore decided that my best course was to return to Hogwarts, where I was sure that Hagrid would care for me.


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