#as implied 12 hour of writing be gentle

Written for Sloaners’ Discord’s 30 minute gift exchange with the prompt “Harry” and “snitch.” Hope you like it, @uintuva.

Dudley has just finished another year of school, while Harry has finished his first. Dudley’s reward for this is going on holiday with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; Harry’s reward is not going, which is just fine by him. At five, Harry is certain that wherever in this world he’s meant to be, the Dursleys’ house is distinctly not it.

They’ve sent him to Mrs. Figg’s house, which is boring, and smells a little odd, but is warmer than his aunt and uncles’. She’s got about a hundred cats, though Harry hasn’t counted them himself. Dudley says she’s got a million, but Harry already knows he’s going to be better than Dudley at maths. 

Mrs. Figg’s hundred cats seem to like him well enough. He has his doubts about them being real cats in the first place, because they look more like small lions than anything. He’d like it if they were lions. He imagines that they’re his friends, and that Mrs. Figg’s house is a grassy plain where he and the lions live together. 

What the little lions do not like, however, is the little bird that is hanging in a cage in Mrs. Figg’s sitting room. The cage is out of their reach, but they still eye it the way that Dudley eyes Harry when he’s about to chase him across the playground. 

The bird is gold, shaped like a golf-ball, and flaps around the inside of its cage faster than Harry’s ever seen. Mrs. Figg calls it “Snitch,” which is a weird name for a bird, but Mrs. Figg is a weird old lady. 

Harry feels bad for it, because it’s small. It’s hard being small. Harry is the smallest one in his class, so he knows. It has to be even more difficult being one little bird in a house full of lions. 

So when one of the little lions finally manages to leap off of Mrs. Figg’s sofa and unlock the latch on the cage, Harry decides he’s firmly on the bird’s side. 

“Get away,” he shoos Mr. Tibbles, who has opened his mouth wide enough to fit precisely one round bird.

While Harry’s trying to usher Mr. Tibbles away from the cage, Tufty leaps at Snitch and manages to catch one of his wings. This is enough to set the bird flying off, through the open cage door and right out of the window of Mrs. Figg’s sitting room. 

Harry thinks for a moment that Snitch is better off flying away, where the lions can’t catch him, but the bird leans to one side as he flies, and stays low to the ground. Harry frowns, and climbs right out of the window after him. 

“You won’t get very far without a little help,” Harry tells Snitch gently, when he’s safe in his arms. 

Mrs. Figg looks terribly startled when she returns to find Harry climbing back through her window, but when he shows her what he has in his hands, he thinks she cracks a smile.