Chapter 73 - 74

Days passed by, the last day of summer vacation was soon here.

Early in the morning, Evan and Harry had just come downstairs when they saw the Weasley's coming out of the fireplace, it looked like they had just returned from Egypt, they were dressed in a mixture of normal wizard robes and traditional Egyptian costumes which looked peculiar.

Mrs. Weasley then came up and hugged the two of them. Mr. Weasley then booked several rooms at the bar, they were going to spend the night at the Leaky Cauldron.

A few minutes later, old Tom brought over their breakfast.

After having breakfast, Percy came over and greeted Evan and Harry and showed him his head boy badge, Percy acted like he was the king of the world.

Fred and George didn't let Percy talk too long, they laughed at him and imitated his gestures.

Mrs. Weasley snapped at them since she was proud of Percy.

The topic was changed to Egypt, the Weasley family told them all about their travels.

Next, Ron showed Evan and Harry his new wand, it was 14″ long, made of willow, and had a core of unicorn hair. As for Ginny, she still blushing at the sight of Harry but she was much calmer around him now.

After everyone finished eating, Hermione and her parents entered the bar.

Hermione was wearing a sky-blue gown, with a pale-yellow dome hat on her head, she had a healthy complexion. She seemed happy; she had a radiant smile. She greeted everyone with delight.

They chatted for a while, but the Grangers had to leave early because they had a few matters to deal with. They left Hermione within the care of the Weasleys and let her stay at the Leaky Cauldron tonight.

By the time they went their separate ways, Harry started telling Ron how he had inflated his aunt and Hermione pulled out a large stack of papers that she had written while she was in France.

"I heard everything from my dad, he said she was on the ceiling for two hours." Ron broke out laughing, he thought it would be hysterical to inflate his aunt.

"Its not funny, Ron, to be honest, I'm surprised he wasn't expelled," said Hermione with a sharp tone.

"I thought I was going to be sent to Azkaban. Ron, does Mr. Weasley know why Fudge didn't give me a punishment at all?"

"It is probably because you are you." Ron Shrugged and laughed, "Famous Harry Potter or something like that, If I blew up my aunt, the ministry wouldn't let me go with a simple warning. But they would have to dig up my grave first because my mom would kill me."

"I think you two should learn from Evan, he would never…."

"I know I was wrong, Hermione! I just lost control." Seeing Hermione was a little angry, Harry hastily shifted the conversation, "Where should we go next?"

"I think we should go to the Magical Menagerie." Hermione glance at her purse and said, "My birthday is in September so my parents gave me some money so I could buy a birthday present and I want an owl."

"I think I should get Scabbers a check-up, I think Egypt wasn't a suitable place for it," said Ron as he dug the rat out of his pocket.

Evan's sight moved from the parchment in his hand to the rat, which looked thinner than before, his fur has lost most of its luster.

"Ron, your rat just lacks exercise," said Evan with a wry smile, Peter Pettigrew must be stressed out by Sirius Black's escape.

"Exercise?!" said Ron while looking at Evan suspiciously.

"Yes, I suggest Hermione buy a cat so she can help you."

"Don't listen to him, Hermione!" said Ron as he subconsciously put the rat back in his pocket,

"There is the Magical Menagerie!" said Harry, after two weeks of wandering Diagon Alley, Harry was now very familiar with it, "You can buy almost anything there even an owl or a cat."

"You mustn't buy a cat!" said Ron with a tinge of fear.

The four people crossed the street and came to the store called Magical Menagerie.

There wasn't much room in the shop, cages lined every inch of the wall. The little creatures in the cages were all smelly and noisy.

"Hello, this is my pet!" said Ron to the witch standing behind the counter, "Can you tell me what's wrong with him? Ever since I brought him back from Egypt, he has seemed a bit sick."

"Put it on the counter." said the witch, she took out a pair of glasses from her pocket and observed Scabbers.

"Hum!" The witch said, "How old is he?"

"I don't know," said Ron, "But he should be very old since he used to be my brothers."

"What powers does he have?" asked the witch as she carefully observed him.

"Um...." Ron didn't know what to say, the reality was the rat had never shown the slightest trace of any interesting powers.

The witch observed his torn ear, his missing toe which mad here Tutt loudly.

"He has been through a lot," said the witch.

"He was like that when my brother gave him to me," said Ron, defending himself.

Harry nodded in agreement since he knew Ron's rat was always like this, it usually just slept, ate and slept some more without showing any abnormalities.

"You can't expect a normal rat or a garden rat like this one to live more than three years." The witch then pointed to the black rats in the cages beside him and said, "If you want a more durable one, you might like one of those."

Evan slightly snickered, he wondered if he told her that the rat who she said would only live for three years at max had lived in Ron's house for over ten, would she have been frightened.

"Well, if you don't want to replace it, try this rat tonic," said the witch, she reached under the counter and pulled out a small red bottle.

"Okay, how much is...." said Ron, but before he finished, he saw something huge and orange jump from the top cage and land on his head.

It was an odd-looking cat, very big, bandy-legged, ginger coloured and had a squashed head.

The cat then propelled itself towards Scabbers.

"No, Crookshanks, no" cried the witch.

The rat slipped through her hands like a piece of slippery soap, landed on the floor and scampered for the door.

"Scabbers!" shouted Ron while rushing outside the shop, Harry soon followed.

After Scabbers disappeared, Crookshanks turned docile, it turned its head and looked at Evan, it wasn't as fierce as before perhaps it was because his Animagus is a cat, Crookshanks took a liking to Evan, it even took the initiative to lick his hand.

It surprised the witch behind the counter, she had never seen Crookshanks take an interest in a witch or wizard before without out them taking the initiative.

"What a lovely creature, its fur is beautiful, isn't it, Evan," said Hermione as she squatted and petted Crookshanks.

The cat was wary but it soon accepted her.

"Its fur is a very vibrant orange, it is like a big wool ball," said Evan while looking at the cat while thinking its face wasn't very pleasing to the eye.

"I've decided!" said Hermione as she held Crookshanks in her arms and stood up.

"What have you decided?" Evan looked at the other in amazement, he had a bad feeling.

"Didn't you want me to buy a cat so I decided to buy Crookshanks!" said Hermione while pointing to Crookshanks

"Buy this cat? But if you do, Ron will kill me," said Evan with a wry smile.

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When Evan and Hermione came out with Crookshanks, Ron and Harry had just made it back.

"Oh, my God, Hermione how could you buy that monster?" said Ron in surprise.

"So, what, Evan and I thought he was cute," answered Hermione with a smile.

Seeing Harry and Ron look at him, Evan quickly shook his head, their eyes then moved back to Hermione.

"Hermione, you can't buy him. I mean, what about Scabbers?" said Ron while pointing to his pocket, "He needs rest and relaxation, how can he rest and relax with that monster around?"

"That reminds me, I was going to help you buy the rat tonic but Evan said he could make the potion. With that Scabbers would be better in a second."

"Rest assured, leave everything to me!" said Evan as he patted his chest while thinking of a few interesting potions he was going to experiment with on Peter Pettigrew.

"But if it weren't for your horrible idea, Hermione would have never bought a cat" Said Ron while looking at Evan angrily.

"I'm not to blame, I didn't insist on buying Crookshanks. The witch told Hermione it had been there for years."

"Beside you who would…" said Ron sarcastically.

"Well, Ron!" Evan hastily interrupted what he was about to say, "Crookshanks will sleep in Hermione's room so there is not a chance it will be around Scabbers."

The debate concluded, they bought a few more things and returned to the Leaky Cauldron, the rest of the Weasley family had also returned.

Everyone enjoyed the dinner that night, Tom had put three tables together for the Seven Weasleys, Evan, Harry, and Hermione ate together.

When everyone was trying to eat a luxurious chocolate pudding, Mr. Weasley told everyone that the ministry would provide a couple of cars to take them to king's cross tomorrow.

They were curious why the ministry would send cars to pick them up, especially Percy, he asked a lot of questions but Mr. Weasley gave him vague answers.

Evan noticed that Mr. Weasley's ears were red.

It seems the disappearance of Sirius Black is making the ministry very nervous; they fear he might attack Harry.

He wonders how many Aurors will escort them tomorrow.

After they finished dinner it was already past ten o'clock, everyone was exhausted. They went upstairs to their rooms to make sure they had all their supplies and to get ready for bed.

Evan went towards the bar to ask Old Tom for a cup of hot chocolate but as he passed one of the rooms, he heard two angry voices coming from a small room.

He immediately knew it was Mrs. and Mr. Weasley, they were arguing over whether to tell Harry about Sirius Black, Mr. Weasley insisted that Harry should know everything, he shouldn't be treated like a child.

Mrs. Weasley didn't want to increase Harry's mental burden.

Evan chuckled a little, he was the one with the greatest mental burden.

Mrs. Weasley is right, sometimes knowing too much may be a horrible fate.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley kept going back and forth.

"Molly, you must know that Sirius black is said to be insane but he was smart enough to escape Azkaban. That is something that cannot be done by ordinary people." said Mr. Weasley with a deep tone, "The ministry hasn't made any progress in finding him, the only thing we know for sure is what he is after."

"Arthur, Hogwarts is the safest place for Harry!"

"If Black can escape from Azkaban, he can find a way into Hogwarts." Mr. Weasley paused, "The children are always sneaking off to play and last semester they even went into the Chamber of Secrets, they fought a basilisk and you know who. Think about it, if on that night the Knight bus didn't pick Harry up before the Ministry of Magic found him, he would have died already!"

"No one can be certain Black is after Harry."

"Molly, how many times must I tell you. This wasn't reported in the paper because Fudge didn't allow it, the dementors told him that Black had been talking in his sleep for some time, he kept saying: He is at Hogwarts, he is at Hogwarts!" said Mr. Weasley uneasily, "Black is out of his mind, Molly, he wants Harry dead!"

Evan didn't feel like listening to their quarrel any longer. He tried to quietly sneak away. He didn't intend to disturb the Weasley because it would be too much of a pain. He then heard footsteps come from the staircase behind him, someone was coming down.

He hurried and changed into to his Animagus form, once he finished his transformation, he saw it was Hermione who was coming back for a book she left on the table.

Hermione heard the Weasley quarrel but she ignored it when she saw Evan as a black cat.

Evan tried to pretend to be a cat and slip past Hermione.

Before he could react, Hermione came and held him in her arms.

Evan's face blushed red, his body became stiff, he could feel the warmth of her body and something soft pressing against him. His thoughts went back to last year in the chamber of secrets where Hermione hugged him for an extended amount of time.

He was so nervous, it felt like Hermione was hugging herself.

It was clear that Hermione had not recognized that the black cat in her arms was Evan, she had just felt a sense of familiarity with the cat and unconsciously held him in her arms.

To keep from eavesdropping on the Weasley's quarrel she decided to return to her room, she decided to look for her book tomorrow.

Evan didn't dare move; he was dragged by Hermione into her room.

In the room, Crookshanks was lying on the bed, when it saw Evan it jumped up and angrily growled at it, it acted like it would pounce at any second.

Evan quickly meowed a few times, he didn't want to get into a fight with Crookshanks.

Crookshanks tilted its head and stared at Evan for a while, because of Evan's cries, it seems Crookshanks recognized who Evan was.

Crookshanks calmed down and showed a little bit of intimacy.

"Get along with this little guy, Crookshanks!" Hermione looked at the both of them happily, "I don't know whose pet this is, it's too late now, maybe I'll ask old Tom tomorrow."

Hermione rubbed Evan's head, she then jumped down from the bed.

"Crookshanks, you need a bath before you go to bed and the little guy can get one with you," said Hermione while smiling.

In the next second, Evan opened his eyes and saw Hermione undressing.

"God should I look or not," thought Evan, "Wait she just said that she is going to give us a bath, does that mean…."

A few moments latter Evan shook his head, he didn't dare think about it, he hurried out of the room when Hermione entered the bathroom. Crookshanks looked at Evan strangely, it wondered why Evan was in such a hurry to leave, he looked like a runaway.

"What a strange cat, didn't we agree to take a bath together?"