To Me, Fair Friend, You Never Can Be Old Pet Fin

Terrible Presence Active
| An Aura of Unease |

Reducio

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey’d,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn’d,
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn’d,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv’d;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv’d:
For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.

~ Shakespeare, Sonnet 104

If he was going to teach and maintain his sanity at the same time, Leonardo was going to need a fellow who would not judge him or talk back at him unless it was going to offer help or assistance. Typically, a person would respond with the simple ‘Well, then an animal is just what we need, isn’t it?’, but that was when Leonardo would offer a smile that would contest the smile a cat would make when eating a canary. It was a small joke at this point, a rather unavoidable truth... animals hated Leonardo. Ever since his sixth year, owls would bite him after delivering their letters, cats would arch their backs and hiss with their golden eyes a-glowing with dangerous, beautiful appeal.

Despite the chances leveled at him, however, Leonardo was determined to make good on the pursuit, and so off he went to Diagon, utilizing Floo Powder during the lunch hour of the school. He would not be needed in Hogwarts until the evening, where he would teach and then correct homework. Actually, he should have been sleeping at the moment, but call him a night-owl, (or perhaps... a day-bird?), Leonardo couldn't sleep, substituting his down time for self-induced wakefulness in the form of meandering the Floo network. Eventually, he found himself in Wizard London, Diagon Alley. It was by good fortune that the Seer remembered that there was a certain shop that catered animals, owls, cats, pygmy puffs, rats, and recently, lizards and frogs.

Leonardo was not one for any kind of animal, and no animals was really kind to him, but it was worth a chance. It was worth a chance to find a creature which could call him a fellow, just as Leonardo wished to call the creature friend.

The bell jingling overhead, he spoke briefly to the witch, not truly paying attention to the words or the flow of the interaction. He was instead watching the shadows and the creatures which peered and hissed at him within their confines. The cats' eyes blazed.. the owls ruffled their feathers. Even the Pygmy Puffs, docile to even the most stingy of humans, rolled into tight balls, squeaking with fear at the stranger's presence. None of them were worthy, and none of them could be considered his partner. It would not be found here.

After a brief suggestion to go to the back, Leonardo agreed quietly and then followed, ignoring the hisses and the claws which extended to scratch at his black waistcoat. He would have to be patient, a virtue which grated on Leonardo's usually anticipating temperament. He would have to wait for the partner to present itself to him, just as his wand had all those years ago. It was trial and error, a process which took tooth and claw to master.

Owl by owl ruffled feathers and batted wings, screeching at Leonardo; cat by cat arched its back and yowled displeasure. Pygmy Puffs would curl up and frogs would leap into water; lizards would scamper into their houses. Perhaps today would not be the day for a proper purchase.

"Chirp?"

With a pause, Leonardo turned to behold the source of the tiny sound. It had not sounded frightened, like many of the others. No, this one had been... curious? Intrigued? So starkly different from the other animals that had actively voiced displeasure of Leonardo's drawing close.

Within a small gilded cage, only about the size of a child's fist, a tiny owl sat upon a pedestal, its head cocked and its large, amber eyes blinking. Its clawed feet lifted one by one, shifting where it stood, while small wings, barely poking with pale orange and brown flight feathers, ruffled and relaxed again. "Chirp?" It seemed to ask again, almost leaning forward off the place it stood.

The cage almost seemed to open by itself, the Seer's fingers swiftly unclasping the hook and extending his hand into the cage where the tiny creature stood. After wiggling his fingers once to entice the animal onto his hand, the owl complied, hopping with a small flutter and placing its warm, plump body into the seat that Leonardo had provided for it. Carefully withdrawing his hand, Leonardo observed the animal shakily standing and then walking tentatively up his arm. For a half of a second, the Seer almost expected the creature to sink tiny claws into his arm, but instead the warm mass climbed and climbed, drawing closer and closer to his shoulder until suddenly--

It plopped itself down with something akin to a sigh, its beak pressed softly against Leonardo's roughly groomed jawline. The little being was helpless, innocent now perched upon the Seer's shoulder. An inaudible sound, akin to a cat's purr, caused the owl's entire body to tremble, a sort of acceptance, perhaps?

Almost amused, Leonardo's hand reached for the tiny owl, petting between its shoulders, the flightless, yet growing, wings it possessed. "Is this the conclusion of my search? A being whose name thrice is said, claims his vengeful spirit shalt rise from the dead?" The tiniest grin crossed his face, his eyes brightening a touch as he resolved the name of his newest ally. "Macbeth..." A laugh. "Macbeth... Macbeth."

After negotiation of the price, fifteen galleons, Leonardo departed from the menagerie, a new compatriot in the pursuit of understanding. A tiny screech owl chick, now comrade to the weary Astronomy Professor Leonardo Chiadovini.

902 words

Animal Purchased: Eastern Screech Owl (15 Galleons)
Name: Macbeth
Sex: Male
Date of Hatching: December 12th, 2020 (eleven days old at adoption, Eastern Screech owls can fully fly at two weeks)