What if you don't open a howler?

[Athena Appleton]

I think the school owls for sure are free (they say in either GoF or OotP that "anyone can use them")... other than that, yeah, I'd assume the postage costs some money, I'd assume a howler is more expensive than other regular owl-mails... but then, what if a howler is delivered by your pet owl... would you have to pay anything? who would you pay it to? do delivery owls have vaults in Gringotts?

[Alice I]

Good point!
Ron's howler in CoS was delivered by errol the family owl I think.

[paintballdecoy]

I think when you hire a owl to deliver something it will cost something, but when you use your own owl it doesn't cost a thing, and the school owls are free to students, just becuase they need to write parents ,etc

[Athena Appleton]

yes, Ron's owl (Errol) delivers the howler in CoS... I think they say it looks like a feather duster landed in pumpkin juice or somethin like that...