Grimhildr? That's the male variation of the name of Grimhilde the Wicked, the tyrannical dowager-queen of an extinct Germanic kingdom. She ruled her husband's kingdom after he died and tried to kill off the crown princess when Her Highness grew to be more beautiful than Her Majesty. I'm guessing that's where the story of Snow White came from."
The owl responded with a grumbling grunt.
"Hogarth? I'm not sure what that means but Hogarth of Heywood made contact with a tribe of giants and lived with them during the Giant Wars."
A bark of disapproval.
"Swims Like a Flailing Chipmunk? He was a chap native to the Americas that used the most unnecessary and ineffective way to cross over to England from the colonies."
Unhappy hoot.
"Hogsqueal?"
"Hoot."
"Glgrdsklechhh?"
"Hoot!"
"Bon'Quiqui?
A fit of barks accented by flapping wings.
"Alright, I admit I made that last one up." Heri shrugged. "You know this would be a lot easier if you'd tell me if you're male or female."
The owl ruffled its feathers with indignity.
"None of that. I'm no expert on owls, I can't be expected to know your gender just by looking at you. Bark once for boy and twice for girl."
The blasted thing barked three times.
Heri huffed.
"And what is that supposed to mean? Are you a hermaphrodite or transgendered or something?"
She received a head bobble. Great. 'Cause that really answered her question.
"Flap a wing once for no and twice for yes. Are you a hermaphrodite?"
One flap.
"So you're transgendered?" Could animals even do that?
Two flaps.
"Erm, okay . . ." said Heri hesitantly. "How do you even know what that means? Actually, you know what? Never mind. Are you a male in a female body?"
One flap.
"Oh, so you're male in body and female in mind."
Two flaps.
"I have to say, you're the oddest bird I've met, never mind the shapeshifting and extra legs part. Should I assume you'd prefer a girl name then?"
She got a chipper chuff sound in response.
"Alright then." Heri opened the appendix of the book and traced down the list of famous witches. Suggesting hideous names was all fine and good in jest, but it was time to find a proper name. She called out a few names of witches that later went on to be sainted by the Catholic Church but none of them appealed to the fussy avian.
Heri was beginning to get irritated.
"What about Hedwig? It means female warrior. Saint Hedwig of Andechs was the Duchess of Silesia and High Duchess consort of Poland. She's the patron saint of orphans."
The proud bird appeared to think on it for a moment. Just as Heri was about to suggest another name, the white owl crooned happily.
Heri cracked a smile.
"Should I take that as a yes?" At the continued cooing, she said, "Good choice. I think it's a very pretty name. Good thing for you too because if you took any longer, I would have given it up as a bad job and just pinned you with Bon'Quiqui."
The growly sound Heri got in response told her exactly what Hedwig thought of such a thing.
"I beg your pardon, Your Eminence," said Heri, rolling her eyes. She set the history book to the side and picked up another book for a different class. "Now that we're done with your naming ceremony maybe we could concentrate on learning these constellations for Astronomy. Your assistance will be invaluable of course."
In the early morning on the first of September, Heri got herself on a train headed to London. She had decided against asking her uncle for a ride to King's Cross since he was still touchy after the scare on the Hut-on-the-Rock wherein Hagrid had given Dudley a pig's tail. She had tried to make it up to them by removing the tail but none of them trusted her. They might have been taking Dudley to London that day to get the tail removed, but they certainly weren't willing to take Heri along with them.
Hedwig was roosting in Heri's hair in the form of a bush-warbler. She wasn't willing to spend the trip stuck in a cage so had decided that part-timing it as an ornament was her best bet. Heri was fortunate that Hedwig's colouring was unobtrusive at the time or else she would have gotten stares for having a bird on her head. Heri had gotten a few looks for being a little girl riding the train alone but thankfully there were no child-predators around to creep on her. The ride to King's Cross was pleasantly uneventful.
She had a bit of a panic when she realised she didn't know how to get onto the Platform. Hagrid, the lovable giant, hadn't mentioned anything about it beyond making certain she went to Platform 9 ¾. She was holding herself back from a crying jag at a bench near the pillar between Platforms 9 and 10 when she noticed a pack of redheads behaving unusually at the pillar. One by one, the family charged at the pillar and disappeared into it instead of crashing.
Heri's mouth dropped open in shock. How was no one else seeing this! A quick glance around showed that no one else present noticed anything strange. Was this more of the Muggle-repelling Hagrid had told her about, magic to keep nonmagicals from noticing anything odd?
Heri watched the remaining redheads with sharpened eyes. If she was going to manage to do the same, she was going to have to make sure she did it right. She took them in with all the gravity of Atlas carrying the sky.
It turned out to be a very simple thing. There were no special words and motions for it, she just had to walk through without making any fuss of it. With time to spare, she made it onto the Platform while families and parents were still milling around.
Heri felt a twinge in her chest as she took in the happy families and excited children.