Watching the strange creature with enormous wings squeeze through the window and swoop into the circle of lamplight, Harry finally saw what it really was.
It was not some monster, but an owl.
More precisely, three owls: one white, one gray, and one tawny.
Their posture was rather strange, though—the white and tawny owls were actually supporting the largest gray owl between them.
The three birds were crowded together, their wings draped over one another. At a glance, they looked like some bizarre three-headed bird.
The white one was naturally Hedwig. Harry recognized his own owl at once; her snowy feathers stood out especially clearly in the night. The largest gray owl was Errol from the Weasley family. Harry had seen him many times, and the old owl always looked as though he had just run a marathon whenever he delivered a letter. As for the third, tawny owl, Harry did not know her, but her feathers had been groomed beautifully, sleek and smooth at a glance. She had clearly been cared for with great attention.
The moment the three owls landed, the largest one, Errol, toppled stiffly toward the floor, as though he had long since exhausted his last shred of strength and had only barely completed his mission with two of his kind supporting him from either side.
Harry's heart tightened. Just as he was about to get out of bed to catch him, a mass of yellow gas appeared beneath Errol and steadily supported him, floating him over to Liuguang. Errol sprawled in the gas, his chest heaving violently and his wings half-spread, looking tragically like he was saying, "I can't go on, but I completed the mission."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and looked sympathetically at the Weasleys' old owl. Then he noticed a large