Chapter 19

Stepping into the first bookstore, Harry looked around. A set of stairs to one side indicated that there were multiple levels here, just below him instead of above him, as one would expect in a muggle store.

As Harry browsed the store, putting the occasional book into the basket that he'd found just inside the door, a conversation in the next aisle caught his attention. The fact that his earing buzzed as the two women talked told him that they were speaking a different language – Spanish, if he had to guess.

He loved his translator. It meant that he could understand any language and while that didn't help him speak it or read it, it made getting about in other cultures at least a little easier.

"Louis has been after me for months to take him there," one woman stated.

"Well, is it any wonder? Everyone knows that he wants to be a magical creature's handler when he grows up," her friend said.

"I know, I know," the first woman sighed. "And I suppose that it's not that far away. I could apparate there and back one afternoon later this week. You could come, too, and bring Angela."

"If I did that, we'd be spending the day there," the other countered. "You know how she is with horses and the fact that they've just got in a herd of Abraxan to go with all of their other herds of winged horse means that we'll be spending most of the day there."

"Well, at least we won't have to worry about seeing any of the thestrals," the other woman said and Harry could imagine her shuddering.

Abraxans and thestrals; he hadn't seen any of them since his days at Hogwarts. Both brought back memories that he hadn't thought about in years.

"Come on, if I have to take Louis and traipse after him as he runs around looking at all of the other magical creatures, you can bring Angela and suffer with me," the first woman cajoled.

"Well, I suppose we could; at least it'd get them out of the house for the day."

"Wonderful. Now what day works for you?" the woman's voice petered out as the two drifted further into the stacks.

A magical wildlife preserve, Harry mused. He'd seen it in the guidebook but hadn't really given it much thought. But after hearing that they had Abraxans and thestrals, he found himself interested. It was probably the nostalgia or something. But if you couldn't follow your whims when you were on vacation, what was the point of going on vacation in the first place?

ooo00ooo

Jackalopes, Harry decided, had to be one of the odder animals that he'd ever laid eyes on. They were the same size as rabbits and looked identical to a jackrabbit, but with the minor added detail of a pair of small antlers between their large rabbit ears.

Thinking about it, though, he decided that they weren't really the oddest animals, it was just that it was so unexpected to see tiny, antlered rabbits hopping about the specially warded field so that they couldn't escape.

The jackalopes were one of the many different magical creatures that one could get up close and personal with – provided the animals let you, of course – at the Scarmander Beast Reserve. The entire two hundred acres was warded in a similar way to Hogwarts, layered with muggle-repelling wards, forget-me-not charms, confusion spells and a whole host of others that were all designed to cause muggles to either forget about the area, get distracted by something else whenever they got close or simply made their technology behave erratically.

So far, Harry had spent the vast majority of the day wandering from one magical area to the next, interacting with animals when possible, simply observing them, if they were reluctant to come to him. He'd stuck with the X – XXX class beasts so far, saving the more 'exotic' ones for last, although he was sure that Hagrid would be mightily disappointed in him ignoring the beasts for so long.

The nifflers had been fun and cute, just as he remembered from his lesson on them. The fact that he'd nearly lost his watch to one, though, had been a little alarming.

Crups, small dogs with a forked tail, with a very eager to please personality were great fun. Harry spent ages throwing sticks for them to bring back to him before moving on.

Harry had no idea about the porlocks. There were supposed to be a few dozen in their habitat, but the sign erected near the entrance noted that they were very mistrustful of humans and tended to hide whenever one was around.

And the mokes, magical lizard critters, were interesting, watching them scurry up and down tree trunks.

Harry'd taken copious amounts of phots to add to his collection. There were some that he was even considering having enlarged and framed. He wondered if it would be breaking the statute of secrecy too much to hang them in the Den as a part of a collection of strange creatures of myth and legend.

Having had the thought, he quickly ran his eye across the map of the Reserve that he'd been given when he paid his entry fee to check which XXXX and XXXXX creatures they had here. Thankfully, there were no acromantulas (an animal that Harry never wanted to ever meet again, even after all these years), or fire crabs (they'd just remind him of Hagrid's blast-ended screwts) or dragons (and he just wouldn't feel right being near them considering he was wearing the black Norwegian Ridgetail dragonhide boots and blue-grey Swedish Short-snout dragon cloak).

But before he went to see the graphons and the others of their class, Harry wanted to spend time with the winged horses.

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