I have always loved Hedwig. And it broke my heart when I read how she died. And so, I dedicate this story to the owl that we all know and love. While, we all know how her story will end, but the journey to get there… now that is something yet to be discovered! So now, ladies and gentlemen, owls and owlets, I bring you the story of Hedwig from the moment she hatched, to when she died.

Prologue: A Crack in the Armor

Darkness…

At least, that is what the world was to her when she first opened her eyes. This darkness this was all she knew… but she might've just kept her eyes shut for all the good it did.

She began stretching out her tiny wings only to realize that she could hardly move at all. She tried to look around her tiny prison… she shifted her position only to find that her head instead smacked into something hard.

She had to get out… but how do you get out when you don't know where you are? That was when she heard them…

Voice… sounds… she could hear them… outside…?

Where she had to be…

She had to do something… and so she did the only thing she could think of and used her tiny and sharp beak to whack at the darkness to feel something hard… yet soft at the same time. She created a soft echo as she continued to hit against the random wall, when suddenly her beak broke through her prison. A rush of air came rushing in… as well as something else… blinding… light…

Her eyes shut tightly in pain and she chirped loudly. She could hear those voices again, and one of them sounded was very near her. Whacking against the wall even harder now, more small cracks formed and something warm and burning white began seeping in. She wasn't sure what was happening… she just kept hitting her beak again and again… even faster and faster until she felt her once small world shatter into something large and bathed in warmth and light.

Now able to move, she blinked her small round eyes and for the first time saw color. Standing before her sat a very regal, white bird that was looking at her with loving eyes. Curious, she stumbled forward, making little chirping noises… trying to find out what had just happened.

The baby owl was hatched in Eeylops Owl Emporium. She wasn't white like the owl before her. In fact, her feathers stuck together, and were a where a rather ugly grey—almost like dust…

But then the large white owl came to her and lowered her head towards her…

'Welcome to the world,' she said in a deep voice that was as warm as the feathers that where wrapped around her.

That was the first thing that baby owl learnt… mother…

*A few weeks later*

As the days passed, the baby owl grew bigger. Her feathers grew longer and she started to move her wings. The grey were slowly losing their ugly gray—to be replaced with a dark pearl color. Soon she would be a blinding white like her mother.

In a small, slightly cramped store right in the middle of Diagon Alley, this owl was having trouble sleeping. She stood on her perch, in the cage next to her mother's, and tried to close her large amber eyes. She was still only an owlet, not yet old enough to be bought and taken away from this tiny store.

'Why are you still awake, my child?' her mother asked her when she noticed that her daughter was still awake. She ruffled her feathers and rearranged her wings as she turned to face the small, white owl.

'I can't sleep,' she explained sadly. She turned her head away slightly and blinked down at the floor of her cage. Her mother looked questioningly at her daughter, as if asking what she wanted. The owlet finally opened her beak, closed it again, and then said as she looked around the store, 'What is it that we are all waiting for?'

Her mother shifted uncomfortably, avoiding her daughter's penetrating gaze. Her mother often thought her daughter acted too intelligent for such a young owlet. 'For a family,' mother explained simply.

The owlet sat up straight on her perch eagerly. 'But we are family aren't we?'

Mother lowered her head and rubbed it against hers. 'Yes, love. But someday we will all be sent off to other families.'

'You mean those funny looking humans that are always coming in and out?' she asked curiously. She watched them from her cage every single day. She would watch all sorts of strange creatures that her mother called 'humans.' She watched as they would take the other owls and leave… she never saw those owls again.

'Yes,' mother went on. 'When a human comes in and chooses one of us, we are taken away to become Post Owls.'

'What's a Post Owl?' she asked confused.

'Like I am and like you will be someday, once a witch or wizard comes here and chooses you,' her mother started. 'We are very important to these humans. They send things called letters and packages to other humans. It is our job to deliver them to the right person.'

The owlet nestled into her downy neck feathers to listen. 'But why do they do it?'

Her mother looked up to see a small family of these 'humans' looking at a handsome Great Grey Owl. 'It's how they stay connected to each other. We are important dear. We owls have an exceptional directional sense. That is why humans treasure us so—so that they can connect to those that they love.'

Her daughter sighed as she watched a pair of red-heads buy the Great Grey Owl.

"I think we should name him Errol!" the little boy said to his mother and brother.

"Why that name?" the second boy with red—though they didn't look like feathers—on top of his head.

"I like it," the mother answered as she ushered them out of the store. "Come on now," she cooed to them. "We have to go and meet up with your father and Percy at the Leaky Cauldron…"

The little owl watched them leave before she looked up at her mother and asked, 'Mother? Why don't I have a name?'

Her mother looked at her sadly. 'You will get a name, love,' she promised. 'When you have been chosen. And no sooner.'

A couple more weeks after that talk… her mother was taken away as well. She watched sadly, as her mother was picked up by an old couple—she didn't take her eyes from her mother until she left the shop.

'MOTHER!' she cried out desperately, getting as close to the bars of her cage as she could.

Her mother's head spun around to look at her just as they headed out the door. "You will be picked someday too, my child," she called back. "And when you do, that will be your new family."

That was the last time she ever saw her mother…

After a while, the little owlet had grown into a beautiful snowy white—looking just like her mother. But even after she grew to full size and had better coloring, no one ever came in and picked her. She tried hooting as loud as she could when customers came in, so they would notice her—but they just ignored her. Said that she was too 'noisy'.

When that didn't work, she tried staying silent, so that they would notice how quiet she was compared to the other owls. But when that happened, they didn't notice her. She had tried everything else she could think of to get someone—anyone to look at her. But no one ever asked about her. No one even looked twice at her.

This little store was all she knew. It was nothing more than a prison… a tiny world that she was tired of looking at. She wanted to fly… she wanted to learn the sky, to breathe fresh air. Most of all, though, she wanted a name… and a family like her mother had promised her. All the other owls got someone to love them, to take care of them. Except her…

Until that day when a small boy with green eyes came in…