Chapter 14

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Harry arrived at his room after spending an enjoyable day with Lisa and her mother. Granted, it had not started out that way, but things had worked out in the end. Harry had learned a valuable lesson on not getting so lost to his own devices (or to the sparring mat) that he lost complete track of time and would never make the same mistake again, and really, that was all that mattered.

After entering his room, Harry was not surprised to see Hedwig standing on his desk with a handful of letters tied to her leg. It had been two days since he had sent her off, and he knew it would have taken time for his partner to deliver that many letters, especially since he knew that Hedwig would not allow return letters to be sent to him through any other means than her.

She was possessive like that.

"Thank you for delivering those letters for me, Hedwig," Harry said. As he walked over the snowy bird, he waved a hand at his truck, opening it up and bringing freshly cooked and still steaming bacon into his hand.

Of course, it was only considered freshly cooked thanks to the preservation charm he had placed on it. He had learned to do that charm wandlessly just for this purpose.

Hedwig hooted as he walked up to her. Harry stifled a chuckle.

"And thank you for bringing those letters to me," he amended as he gave his feathered friend her treat. As Hedwig gobbled up the bacon with barely disguised glee, Harry efficiently detached the letters tied around her left leg and sat down to read them.

There were ten letters in total, causing Harry to frown. He only had nine people at Hogwarts that he counted as a close friend, and they were the only people he had sent a letter to. So who was the tenth?

He looked at the tenth letter, silently noting that it looked much more official and elegant than the other nine. The envelope was tanned by age and made out of a thicker than normal material. On the front his name was written in elegant yet efficient style of cursive, and on the back was what Harry recognized as a House Crest, even if he did not know which one it belonged to.

A letter from the head of a family than. How intriguing.

The crest started much like most family coat of arms. There was an kite shield, this one much more curved than others he had seen and holding a number of sharp points; one on the left and right respectively, one on the bottom, and two at the top. Within the shield was what looked like a lion, but was very thin and possessing many differences from your average lion. Those being the tail, which had many leafy looking protrusions and three tips flaring out at the end. The lions tongue, which was sticking out of it's mouth, was pointed. It had no mane, but did possess what looked like a very large beard, and was wearing a crown on it's head. The last distinct difference between this lion and a normal one was the palmate leaf grasped firmly in it's left paw as it curled around the leaf like a human hand. Above the lion were the words 'Fluctuat nec mergitur' or 'He who rises with the wave is not swallowed by it' as the English translation went.

Harry set that letter to the side for now. He would read it after reading the letters from his friends.

The letters he received contained about what he had expected them to. Blaise was leaving for Italy with his mother and sister in a few days and would be out of contact, Lisa was complaining about her sister being her usual bossy and nosy self, Hannah was excited about her trip to America next month, and Hermione was traveling to Florence for a two week vacation with her parents.

Terry wasn't doing much, but he did mention that his parents were actually thinking of buying him one of those muggle telescopes Harry had recommended last year.

Like Terry, Tracey wasn't really doing a whole lot this summer. Her parents were well off, but not rich. They couldn't afford going on extravagant vacations. The most she could expect to do was travel around London and fly on her broom.

Harry made a note to see if he couldn't spend some time with the girl. It must be disappointing to stay at home for three months doing nothing.

Neville wasn't doing any traveling either. Not that he needed to. According to his letter, his grandmother was so impressed by his grades that she had gotten him several very rare magical plants for his greenhouse. Knowing about Neville's love for Herbology, that would be enough to keep him occupied for most of the summer.

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