Pet

He pinched his finger, and the finger turned red. He pinched it harder, and squeezed a small droplet of blood from his fingers. It dropped on the egg, and then nothing. Will sighed with disappointment and turned to another box, when all of a sudden, he heard cracking sounds. He turned around and looked at the egg. The egg had many cracks on it.

Then, all of a sudden, he saw the top of it just pop off, and then saw two eyes staring at him.

Will backed up instinctively. He looked at the eyes carefully. For some reason, he felt as if he knew those eyes, as if he had a connection with them. He looked curiously at those eyes, as did the latter. The eyes slowly lifted up, and Will could finally see the whole head. The head was red, bright red. There was a red glow from inside the egg, and the beak was golden in color. Slowly, piece by piece, the egg broke and Will could see the bird in it's full glory.

It was truly majestic. It had golden talons, and long tail. It was bigger than Will would expect a normal bird hatchling to be, but it seemed that this one was almost fully grown. Will slowly inched closer to the bird, as did the bird itself. When they reached each other midway, they stopped. Will slowly brought his hand closer to the bird, and slowly touched the bird. He felt the feathers were warm. Warmer than the air, and his own body temperature. The bird also slowly inched closer to Will's face, and touched his chin with it's beak.

Will felt as if the bird was a part of him, or more like a family member, actually.

"Look at him. It's a phoenix!", Will suddenly realized.

"A phoenix! I have a phoenix for a pet. How could Professor Dumbledore give me something so valuable? This must be a very lucky day, to get a phoenix as a pet. But is it allowed? I mean, the professor himself gave it right? The phoenix should be allowed.", Will fell into contemplation, as he slowly sat down. The phoenix leapt into Will's embrace, as if taking comfort in him.

"Wait a minute! If I am the first person that the phoenix saw since it's bird, does that mean that I am it's mother figure?", Will suddenly thought.

"But I don't know anything about phoenixes. I should start researching on how to take care of them. Wait, I should tell my parents first. They will know what to do.", he kept thinking about what to do, and he slowly grew tired just thinking about the various permutations and combinations of the way the future would end up because of the sudden change in events.

Slowly, Will fell asleep on the floor as well, with the phoenix in his embrace. The phoenix saw Will droop down into the ground, so it also rested on Will's chest.

2 hours later,

"Will! What the hell do you have in your hand! Who gave you a pet? A bird? I thought we agreed that your pet would be a cat.", Will woke up to Daphne's voice.

Will looked at the source of the voice, turning back to face Daphne. The phoenix in his hands also shifted, slowly opening its eyes. Will looked at Daphne and said with a smile plastered on his face.

"Look at this beauty! Majestic, isn't he. Professor Dumbledore gave him to me. It was his gift. Look at him. How can you not fall in love with something like this?"

"All I see is a chicken, Will. A stupid bird. Why do you think Professor Dumbledore gave you that?"

"Look at it mother! It's a phoenix. Professor Dumbledore gave me a letter with instructions, and I used that to hatch the egg."

"A phoenix? Wait a minute. Let me see.", Daphne said, reaching out for the phoenix. Will handed him to Daphne quite reluctantly. He assumed that it was a male, but that was besides the point. The moment that Daphne touched the phoenix, the phoenix completely opened his eyes, and cried out. It was a majestic screech, but the both of them had to close their ears. By using two hands to close her ears, Daphne inevitably dropped the phoenix.