Harry Potter: Don't touch

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***

The letter from Tonks and the parcel from Black arrived at Potter's door at the same time over breakfast. The huge bundle, which contained a long oblong object from Sirius, was carried by Sych. The small letter was an Elemental. Even then it was worth noting that conflict was inevitable.

It had started when Harry had reacted with more interest to the parcel from Black than to the letter. The Tonkses periodically sent letters to Potter at Hogwarts, inquiring about his affairs and leisure time. Mr and Mrs Tonks were listed as the senders, but Harry always concluded from the content of the letter that Andromeda alone was involved, and Ted might not even know that Harry periodically received various wishes on his behalf. Thus, a letter from Tonks in the morning post had long since become routine for Potter, but he had only received a parcel once.

It would have seemed normal to almost any bystander that Potter was more interested in the parcel than the letter, and decided to open the parcel first. However, the Elemental was no bystander, and she found this prioritisation of Harry quite painful. At first, she watched in bewilderment and pity as Potter tried to use a Diffindo spell to cut the rope pulling the wrapping off the parcel. She then tried to draw Harry's attention to the letter by pushing her burden closer with her paw. After failing in her endeavour, she decided to find someone to blame for Potter's lack of interest in the result of her labours.

The culprit was Syczyk...

Perhaps because Sytchik, like the Elemental, was an owl, and she could insult him rudely in owl language. Harry wasn't versed in animal language, but still he doubted that "Ooh! Ooh-ooh-ooh! Ooh-ooh-ooh!" in owl language translated as, "You, Owl, you bastard, get out of here!"

Perhaps because the Owl was showing his joy too vigorously, Element, who was meeting the dwarf owl for the first time, might have thought that he was mocking her with his joy, happy that his parcel was more important to Potter than her letter. Harry knew this was not the case; he had received frequent letters from Sirius over the past month or two and had become familiar with the character of his owl. The owl was the most inadequate owl Harry had ever met. He didn't care what was going on around him, what burden he was delivering, what was wanted of him, he was just having fun. Delivered a parcel? Did a somersault, made a squawking sound, hit the wall. Lost the parcel? Same thing, except after the squawking sounds, the Owl picked up the note and hit the wall with it.

Sirius' owl was also terribly cheeky and biting. After delivering a letter, it would bite the recipient's finger and often steal food. He didn't care that owls didn't eat oranges, and even if they did, to eat the fruit, the animal had to deal with the peel, but Harry was absolutely sure that owls didn't know how to remove orange peels. However, that didn't stop the Owl from stealing a basket full of oranges from the Tonks' house. That's a lot of work. An orange weighed almost as much as a pygmy owl, and the bird's mouth couldn't hold more than one fruit, but Cheech - he might be cheeky, but he wasn't lazy - was not lazy enough to drag one orange at a time into his hiding place for five hours.

The third reason why the Elemental might have taken a fancy to Cheese was closely related to his insolence. Harry tossed his pet a piece of cutlet, which was caught in flight by one cheeky creature. This time, Cheese quickly assessed the threat level and decided to eat his find immediately without dragging it back to his hiding place.

The fourth reason that caused the Elemental to get a motive for destroying the Sych was the bite itself. Sirius' dwarf pet had bitten Potter on the finger after delivering the package. Harry was used to this, he had put a stone skin on his finger beforehand, but the Elemental didn't know about it, and for her such an act of Cheese could hardly cause a positive reaction.

The fifth and final reason why the Element suddenly wanted to wipe out the population of pygmy owls was that during his usual expression of joy, he accidentally - or on purpose?! - hit the Element's head with his wing.

Which of these reasons served as the trigger for the release of Element's rage is unknown. Perhaps there was a specific reason, or perhaps the combination of all five reasons had an impact. Either way, the Elemental had struck. Potter had never considered owls as fighting units, they were small, cute, and non-aggressive. However, the jerk of the Elemental's claws forward convinced Potter that owls could be quite dangerous too. The owl was not in a joking mood, it was aiming for the head, and, if the attack was successful, the Owl might well have died. But this inadequate was just then doing his trademark somersault, which always ended in hitting a hard surface, and the Element was unable to calculate the trajectory of the owl's flight, as it flew chaotically, even the movements of a drunken Granny were easier to predict; and it missed, catching only the animal's ear with its beak.

The Element went for a second run, and the Sich crashed into the table and gave a joyful howl. It was very much as if the inadequate creature had not even noticed that it had just been tried to kill him.

- Impedimenta! - Harry decided to intervene in the fight and reacted to the movements of the Elemental before the battle ended miserably.

- Two galleons on the Elemental! - Justin, who was sitting next to him, reacted as well.

Harry picked up the slowed owl and carried it to the owlery. On the way, he tried to convince her not to exact her bloody revenge on the Owl. The elemental took great offence at Potter, of course, for he had launched the spell at her, not his opponent.

- Well, how could I do otherwise? I can only hit the Cheese if I'm really lucky, and the only thing that matters to me is stopping the fight. It's a harmless spell, it didn't hurt you. What are you sulking about? - Harry was talking to an owl, carrying it into the owlery.

The owl pouted even more. Potter's excuses, which she obviously understood, didn't impress her. As soon as Harry carried the owl into the owlery, it immediately flew out of the owlery through the window. For some reason Potter felt bad for the owl, if he could, he would have sided with it, but the Owl was hard to hit, and it was the Elemental that was charging at the other animal with the intent to maim if not kill, so slowing down Sirius's pet wouldn't have solved the problem. But how to explain this whole chain of events to his owl was a big question, because he hadn't been talking to his owl much lately, and this conflict was a big one.

When Potter returned to the Great Hall, it was already crowded, almost half of the students from each faculty, and Harry was finishing eating and going about his business.

- I don't know what I thought was more unusual," Finch-Fletchley was waiting for Harry to return to his seat, Cheese wasn't around. - The owl duel itself is a pretty cool phenomenon, but Cheese's behaviour was something, though what surprised me more was that perplexed look on the Elemental's face before the fight started. The most impressive moment, though, is that while you were leaving, the Sych stole your letter. Now that's really cool!

Potter spent the rest of the day trying to track down the little inadequate.

* * *

The Cheesecake's capture was unsuccessful. Potter never got to see the letter from Tonks. It was a good thing the Element didn't know about it, or it would have stopped coming. It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that Harry remembered Sirius's parcel. The packaging of the parcel didn't lend itself to the usual cutting spell, so Harry looked around and carefully used Seco so that the spell would only affect the packaging. In the package was a broom. A Lightning brand racing broom that had been released last year. Harry had heard about this broom in his third year, but he hadn't thought about buying it; he had a stable Nimbus that never let him down, and the market price of the Lightning was so prohibitive that even if he tried to buy it, he'd have to take a small amount of gold from his safe, and for that he'd need permission from his guardians, and Mr and Mrs Tonks might not approve of spending that kind of money on an ordinary racing broom. Now that his Nimbus had been burned by a draconian, however, Lightning was a far more necessary acquisition for Potter than it had been a year ago. Enclosed with the Lightning was a letter from Sirius Black.

"Hello Harry, how are you doing? I hope you are doing well. Talked to my sister the other day and she said you had a fight with Tonks. Can you tell me what happened? I don't pry, but I'm your godfather and I'd like to know about your relationship. I'm good to both of you, and I'd like you to reconcile. No, if it's a secret, you don't have to tell me, I understand. Alastor gave me a hint that there's something serious going on at Hogwarts. You should get a broom with the letter. If you haven't received it, contact Dumbledore, Moody, or the Air Control at the Ministry. I've decided to get you a Lightning Bolt. It's a very cool racing broom, I'm sure it's the best in the world at the moment. Certainly much better than the 2,000-year-old Nimbus that that dragon burned down. Saw you play Quidditch a year ago, that kind of talent can't be buried in the ground. I hope that broom helps Hufflepuff win the school cup next year! Although personally, I'll be rooting for Gryffindor! No offence, Harry. Gryffindor is the champion!

P.S. Be nice to Poofter. I think he's lacking attention."

Harry wrote a reply for Sirius thanking him for the gift of a broom, asking him to do something about Cheese's inadequate temper, and writing that the incidents between him and Nymphadora were a secret. After that, he went to test the flight of the broom. He took another national team player with him, probably one of the closest people to him. No, not Justin.

- You're gonna let me ride the Lightning, aren't you? - Chang came to be even more excited about Potter's new broomstick than Harry was himself

- Sure, Zhou, if you want, I can fly your broomstick all the time and you can fly Lightning.

- Really? Oh, thank you very much, Harry! - Zhou kissed him lightly on the lips and ran towards the Quidditch pitch.

Harry didn't support Chang's eagerness and walked at the same speed. By the time he reached the Quidditch pitch, Zhou was already zipping around the pitch. The speed was truly impressive.

- Hey!" Potter shouted. - What am I supposed to fly on? Leave your broomstick behind!

- I did! - Chang stopped in mid-air in almost a second. - There by the broom, I mean, what's-his-name, the bleachers. "Cleaner." Did you get the balls?

- Tennis balls, just like old times! Remember when we used to play?

- It was only a couple of years ago," Zhou laughed. - 'You were still training to be a Seeker then! Maybe when Cedric finishes school you'll try it again?

- I don't know, I like being a trapper too, I'll think about it later. How about a two-way game? I'll take the near rings, you take the far rings.

- Done.

Potter lost fifteen to ten on the "Cleaner" and, having said goodbye to Zhou, went back to the castle. The hot June day was coming to an end. The third trial was less than a month away.