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Harry sat morosely on the porch of the Burrow. For the last days since the Battle of Hogwarts, he'd been mourning everyone who gave their lives to help bring Voldemort's doom. Each day, he thought about a specific person. A week ago, it was Fred. Then, it was Remus, Tonks and Sirius. Today, he woke up missing his first ever friend: Hedwig.
He looked up at the darkening sky, holding hope to see a white shape flapping toward him. But the only bright objects in the sky were the distant stars and the few planets visible at this time of the year.
He looked back down to his left when he heard soft footsteps behind him. A freckly young woman with fiery red hair sat down next to him.
"Hey, Ginny." he quietly greeted his girlfriend with a small smile.
"Hey, you." she returned, leaning her head on his shoulder and holding his hand in comfort. "Who are you thinking about today?" she asked him.
"Hedwig." he answered. "I miss her."
Ginny smiled sadly. "She was a great owl."
"The best." he agreed.
Harry closed his eyes to bask in Ginny's presence. For a moment, he was able to forget all of his pain, to simply admire the brilliant and beautiful young woman sitting next to him. But, he was brought back to reality when he heard Ginny gasp.
"Harry, look!" she exclaimed softly, pointing at the sky. His eyes followed the direction her finger pointed at.
In front of them was a white blob that appeared to move in their direction. It was so reminiscent of Hedwig that, for a time, he believed that she was still alive and happily flying in his direction with a letter, that the last year had been only but a nightmare.
But then, confusingly, Harry saw the white blob separate into seven different white dots.
"What is that?" Ginny asked, sounding as confused as he felt. Harry could only shrugged.
It took a few seconds and more distance between them crossed for the young couple to understand what they were looking at. Harry found he wasn't that far off when he thought the blob was Hedwig. Because, in front of them was a group of seven small snowy-white owls flying toward them. Once they reached Harry and Ginny, the couple landed on the ground in front of them.
Harry was awed by what he saw. All of them looked very much like Hedwig. When he looked closer, he realized that four owls of the group were female, which he could recognize by their black-tipped tail feathers, while the other three were males, obvious by their smaller size and completely white plumage.
Not that any of them were as big as Hedwig, now that he thought about it.
"Hey, where did you all come from?" Harry asked kindly, leaning toward the owls.
One female owl make a small jump to his feet. Then, she barked.
Harry blinked. "What?" he asked, sounding surprise.
The owl barked again before one of the males barked back. The lead owl looked at the male owl and barked in annoyance before turning back to Harry and Ginny. She let out another bark and Harry breathed in shock.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, concerned.
"Sorry it's just what they told me." he said, wiping his eyes.
"You mean... you understood them?" she asked, surprised. "I know you could kinda understand Hedwig, but wasn't that because she was your familiar?"
"That's the thing!" Harry said with a wet laugh, waving toward the seven small owls. "I can understand them because she had owlets!"
Ginny looked at the owls in shock. "You mean they're her children?" she asked, surprised. Harry nodded.
"Hedwig instructed them to find me if she didn't survive. Apparently, she wanted me to take care of them the same way I took care of her." he explained, wiping his now tearing eyes.
Ginny gave another glance at the owls before turning to her boyfriend. "Hedwig really loved you." she said with a small chuckle.
"Yeah." he smiled. Then, he turned to the owls. "You all need names, don't you?" All the owls barked in agreement.
"Hey, I have a few ideas!" Ginny suddenly exclaimed cheerfully. For a moment, Harry had a flashback to the time Ron explained how Pigwidgeon was named by Ginny. "What about-"
"No!" Harry suddenly exclaimed, fearful of what kind of name she came up with.