There's Something To Be Said

Chapter Two; Firebug

They stopped by Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions shop where the required three everyday-robes, one winter robe, one black hat, and dragon-skin gloves were selected. Madam Malkin was friendly enough, but the twenty minutes they spent inside, Sophronia being poked and measured to find the best fit, felt like forever. Ron, too, was glad to get out of there, judging by his uncomfortable glances around at all the new robes while he waited.

"Let's go to Ollivander's next," Hermione suggested as soon as they stepped back outside. "You can get your wand, Ron, and Sophronia needs one, as well. We can–" Without even looking up from the list or pausing in her sentence, Hermione's hand shot out and she grabbed Sophronia's arm just as the girl was about to follow a man selling some type of wizarding sweets. "–get our books after that, on our way back here. It's the most efficient way, I think."

"Hermione," Sophronia whined, watching the candy man's back disappear into the crowd.

"Not right now, Sophronia. We need to get our things first. I already had to spend unnecessary money on that ointment. Thank goodness Mum and Dad sent us extra, knowing you'd get into some type of scrape."    

"I don't always get into scrapes," Sophronia insisted, crossing her arms. Hermione gave her an unconvinced look. "Not always."

"Let's just go get your wand," Hermione shook her head. Ron tried not to laugh, but it was hard not to. He hadn't ever really considered what Hermione would be like as a sister. Poor girl, if she'd had to deal with Hermione's bossing all her life!

Sophronia continued to look around at all the shops as they made their way down the street. At one point she paused to gaze into the window of a shop selling all sorts of animals, some that she recognized from pictures in Hermione's books, others that she'd never heard of before. The brief halt went unnoticed by Hermione and Ron who were in some deep discussion about who the new Dark Arts teacher might be –whether Dumbledore would finally give it to Snape or if they would bring in a new guy. Luckily, Sophronia was able to sprint the distance and grab Hermione's hand, thus avoiding what could have been a catastrophe. Sure, she loved a good adventure as well as the next person, but getting lost here in Diagon Alley could mean her missing her train to Hogwarts tomorrow.

During a lapse of conversation, Sophronia asked Hermione, "How come you don't have a pet?"

"Not everyone has a pet. I just use Harry's owl for letters–"    

"Hedwig!" Sophronia smiled. She had gotten to know the owl quite well exchanging letters with Hermione for the past two years. Looking at Ron, she asked, "Have you still got Scabbers?" Ron nodded and pulled him out from his pocket. "Oh, I didn't notice him! He looks just like you said, Hermione."

"And how's that?" Ron cried defensively, cradling Scabbers to his chest and glaring at Hermione.

"Ratty," Sophronia nodded somberly. Ron snickered, Hermione stifled a giggle, then all three laughed as they finally reached Ollivander¥s Wand Shop at the far end of Diagon Alley. Sophronia stopped, forcing Hermione to stop since she was still holding her hand, and looked up at the sign hanging above them. "Since 382 BC? Has Ollivander been selling wands that long or has the store been selling them that long?" she asked, twisting her face up in thought.

"You can ask him yourself, Sophronia," Hermione replied, once again taking hold of her shoulders and bodily guiding her through the front doors. She'd found that approach to work best when trying to herd her younger sister somewhere.

Immediately upon entrance Sophronia's senses went crazy as she tried to take in all the new things. The musty, shut-up smell, the dim lights, the creaky wooden floor with a couple holes through which little spiders skittered every couple minutes. "Wow," she breathed, gazing around at the walls, all floor-to-ceiling decorated with shelves crammed to the breaking point with small, elongated boxes housing each their own wand. "How many wands do you think are in here, Hermione?"

"Currently 3,024, and always adding," a voice replied, causing Sophronia to jump and spin around. She unknowingly grabbed Hermione's hand, then relaxed when the speaker stepped forward from the back of the room, a wiry, slightly scruffy looking old man. He glanced between the three, then looked Sophronia up and down and inquired, "A Granger, I presume?"

"Yes," Sophronia nodded, stepped forward confidently. "Sophronia Granger, Hermione's sister."

"Well, Miss Granger, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Ollivander the Wand-maker," he introduced himself, shaking her hand.

"Ollivander the Wand-maker, or just Ollivander?"

"Whichever you prefer," he replied, not missing a beat.

Sophronia accepted this, then brought up, as Hermione had told her to, "I have a question."

"I believe I have an answer. Let's see if they match up."

"Have you been selling wands since 382 BC or has this store?" She stared up at him curiously, expecting an answer.

"Well, Miss Granger, my name is Ollivander, just like the store's name...," Ollivander replied vaguely.

"That wasn't much of an answer," Sophronia pointed out, but lost interest with the question, instead joining Ron in looking at a couple wands laid out on a table. Hermione set her sister's cauldron down near the door and quickly hurried over to make sure she touched nothing until Ollivander told her to. Something was bound to end up on fire or in splinters.

Ollivander took notice of Ron now and commented, "A Weasley. You're a little late in getting a wand, aren't you?" Ron's looked uneasy and slowly turned around. Sophronia cocked her in confusion at his reaction to the question and began to wonder why he didn't have a wand before remembering Hermione relating Ron and Harry's little womping willow adventure that resulted in Ron's broken wand and their almost expellment.

"I... I was using... and it broke..."

"Very well," Ollivander shook his head at the unintelligible explanation. "Come, come. Let's get you situated and then I'll help Miss Granger." He motioned Ron over and they moved to another part of the shop.

Sophronia continued to glance at all the boxes and asked, "How ever am I going to find just one wand from all these?"

"Ollivander is wonderful at finding the perfect one rather quickly," Hermione assured her.

"Will mine be like yours? Since we're sisters? Because I can use yours pretty well," Sophronia wondered, tracing a smiley-face in the dust on the wall with her fingers.

"I don't– you what?!"

Sophronia made an ‘oops' face and quickly changed the subject, "This place needs to be dusted." Hermione narrowed her eyes but didn't delve any further. Instead she reached above Sophronia's drawing and wrote neatly: Hermione Granger. Sophronia giggled and quickly added: & Sophronia Granger. She was in the process of following this up with "the Beast & Beauty" when Hermione grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back, then swiped the whole area clean with her hand.

"Ew! Nasty," Sophronia teased, pointing to the lovely collection of dust now clinging to Hermione's hand. The older sister made to wipe it on her younger sibling, but the latter dodged away.

"Get back here, Sophie!" Hermione demanded, watching, ready to spring and wipe the dust on her. She finally gave up and clapped her hands, allowing the dust to fall to the ground.

Soon Ollivander and Ron came back over, Ron proudly carrying a new wand in his hand, obviously wanting someone to comment on it. Sophronia took the bait, pointing to it and saying, "How nice! Is it a good one?"

"Huh, yeah! Fourteen-inch willow with unicorn tail hair in the middle," Ron bragged, flourishing it for Sophronia's sake. Hermione rolled her eyes, but humoured him, smilng and nodding to Ron when he held it up for her to see..

"Now let's see about you, Miss Granger," Ollivander interrupted Ron's presentation, stepping around him and looking Sophronia up and down. His curious, iridescent eyes narrowed studiously before he spun around and scuttled off to the back wall of the shop. Sophronia looked questioningly at Hermione who motioned for her to follow him. Before she could, though, he was back, carrying with him three wand boxes. These he set on the table then waved his hands over them. At first Sophronia thought he was going to perform magic, but he was merely thinking which to try first. Selecting one, he held the open box towards her and nodded for her to pick up. She did so with the utmost care, about a thousand times more gently than when she had played with –not that she'd ever played with Hermione's wand, or anything.

"Go on, go on. Try it out. Just–"

"In-cin-dio!" Sophronia yelled out, waving the wand and tapping it like Hermione had once showed her (without magic, of course). All four people jumped as the curtains on the far wall burst into flames.

"Agh!" Ron, whom had been standing between Sophronia and the curtain yelled, ducking down instinctively.

"Sophronia!" Ollivander quickly performed an extinguishing spell as Hermione scolded. Ron's jaw hung open as he looked from the curtain to the firebug back to the curtain. Hermione was even more surprised, though, and demanded, "How did you know how to do that?"

"I...I didn't mean to do that! It never did that with your – hum!" Sophronia interrupted herself, gazing warily at Ollivander. She clearly recalled the many times Hermione had tossed around the threat of the wizarding prison Azkaban in attempts to scare her. The last thing she needed was to get in massive trouble the day before school. Hermione's eyes narrowed again –they would need to have a little discussion later about personal property (like they hadn't been having it since Sophronia was born!)

Ollivander made no remark, merely held the box up for Sophronia to put the wand back in. Then he picked up another box, looked inside, and held it out to the customer. She reached forward and pulled it out, looking it over, and made a face.

"What?"

"It's not very pretty, is it?" she observed, holding it up for them to see. Apparently, the light-colored wood didn't appeal to her. Ollivander looked up at her from his bent over standing position, not quite sure if she was being serious.

Hermione sighed, "Sophronia, don't be difficult." Ron quickly turned his back to laugh.

Ollivander took it in stride, though he did give Sophronia a rather odd look (as if all his looks weren't odd) and suggested, "Let's see if this other wand is prettier, then." He picked up the other box, opened it, and held it out to Sophronia, watching her expectantly, rather amused, if all was told.

Sophronia tried the next one, once again attempting the Incindio spell, this time igniting a table full of books. Hermione and Ron both winced as Ollivander hurried to extinguish this, as well. Sophronia, however, frowned and demanded, "Why isn't it working? It worked the last time I did it."

"It's not you, Miss Granger," Ollivander assured her kindly. "It's all about the wand. You have to find precisely the right wand. Here, let's try..." he ran his hand along the shelf, perusing the wands there contained, before selecting one and holding it out.

Sophronia took one look at the wand before gasping, "It's beautiful!" She reached forward and pulled it up more carefully than she'd ever held anything in her life.

"Try it out," Ollivander encouraged, then quickly pointed to a candle.

Hermione, too, attempted to make things a little safer, adding, "Focus on the candle, Sophronia. If you're going to illegally perform spells outside of school, you might as well do them correctly." ‘And it shouldn't matter here, since Ollivander's allowing it,' Hermione reasoned with herself.

Sophronia was thrilled with the direction as well as the challenge and stared intently at the candle wick, biting her lower lip in concentration. Then, with a flick of her wrist, she commanded, "Incindio!" The wick of the candle perfectly lit up with a small, entirely controlled flame.

"Marvelous!" Ollivander applauded, happy his wand shop had been spared. "I believe we've found the one." Out of Sophronia's view, Ron jokingly wiped his brow to Hermione's amusement. Ollivander meanwhile approached Sophronia and, pointing to her wand, explained, "It's got a heartstring inside and–"

"What's a heartstring?"

"Taken from the heart of a dragon."

Sophronia's eyes widened and she gasped, "It wasn't a living dragon, was it? It died naturally, right?" Ollivander looked over her head to Hermione who was nodding fervently.

"Of course."

"Okay, good. That's not why the wand is sort of red, is it? Because of blood...?"

"Of course not. As I was saying, it's 10 3/4 inches, made of cocobolo wood, a very rare tropical rosewood tree."

Sophronia looked it over as he spoke, noting the dark reddish-brown color and two thin silver rings encircling both ends of the ebony grip which dominated a couple inches at the bottom of the wand with some decorative carvings to help with gripping. She held it up in both hands for Hermione's approval and asked, "Isn't it gorgeous, Hermione?" Something about the way Sophronia said the word ‘gorgeous' had always amused Hermione and even then encouraged a little laughter.

"It's very pretty, Sophronia," she nodded.

"Ah, very well then. You two are all set." Hermione and Ron followed Ollivander to bother with payment and Sophronia waited for them by the door, too fascinated by her wand to be impatient. This was soon taken care of and, Hermione having to slip back inside for the forgotten cauldron, the three set foot back outside on the street of Diagon Alley.

After a few seconds of unusual silence, Sophronia finally stopped and squealed with excitement, "I have my very own wand! And I've already done a spell with my very own wand before I'm even at Hogwarts!"

"Well, you'd best wait until you're at Hogwarts to do any more," Ron warned. "Or you'll land yourself in Azkaban."

Sophronia shrugged this off, "That's what Hermione has always told me, but I'm not worried."

"Not worried! How can you be ‘not worried' about Azkaban? It's the most horrible place in the world!" Ron gaped.

"I'm not worried because I'm armed and dangerous," she giggled with excitement, waving her wand around –careful not to blow anything or anybody up– in efforts to show everybody in Diagon Alley her new wand.

"You've got that right," Hermione rolled her eyes.

Ron elbowed Hermione and muttered, "Is she always this excitable?"

"Um...she's quiet when she's sleeping," Hermione offered, only partly joking. She kept her eye trained on Sophronia, crossing her fingers ‘getting lost' wouldn't be added to their list of mishaps for the day. "Not that you have room to talk. Do you remember what you were like as a First Year?"

"Hold on a bloody second; do you remember what you were like as a First Year? Miss I-do-detention-work-for-fun."

"Oh, please. I wasn't that bad," Hermione defended.

"Hmph!" Hermione gave him one of her infamous (at least with Sophronia) glares.

It had just come to her attention that she'd lost track of her little sister when the girl in question came sprinting over, calling over her shoulder, "Sorry!"

"Uh oh; what did you do?" Hermione voiced, almost afraid to ask.

"Nothing. I...nothing. We don't need to go in that shop, do we?" she pointed to one on the left, some random place that Hermione had never looked at twice.

"No..."    

"Good. Walk fast." Sophronia grabbed Hermione's hand to speed her up and trusted that Ron would follow, as he did, though casting puzzled glances back at the angry shop owner standing in the doorway, arms crossed.

Their next stop was Flourish & Blotts bookstore where a good deal of time was spent to locate and pay for the fifty million books the three needed. Hermione had kindly offered Sophronia the First Year books she'd had that were still called for, since the dozens of notes she'd taken on the page (not to be confused with the volumes upon volumes jotted down in journals or on scrolls or looseleaf) would no doubt come in handy. Sophronia had quickly accepted, but there were still several new books recently added, not to mention the half-dozen extra books Hermione needed for the extra courses she planned to take. One book in particular that all three needed, one The Monster Book of Monsters, caused extra trouble and it took a good five minutes before they were literally able to tame them enough to be carried.

"Who in the world would require a book that you can't read for its attempts to gnaw your hand off?" Sophronia wanted to know. Hermione and Ron neither one had an answer, both just as alarmed at the furry, frightening, fully-live books.

"What else do we need?" Ron started to ask, but Sophronia cut him off, informing Hermione, "I'm hungry."

"What? Already?"

"I am, too, Hermione. Do something," Ron joked, taking a stand beside Sophronia.

Sophronia looked at the boy sideways and added, "Well, I'm starved."

"I'm famished."

"I'm ravenous."

"I'm–"

"All right; I get it," Hermione cut in, holding her free hand up for silence. She glanced around quickly, then gave a relieved sigh. "There we go, let's go to the ice cream parlour."

"Ice cream for lunch? Mum would never let me have ice cream for lunch at home!" Sophronia cried, looking at Ron to see if he shared in her excitement. He grinned and nodded, then shot Hermione an amused look over her head. They lugged their things to a table outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, then Ron and Hermione disappeared inside, leaving Sophronia to guard their things and ‘not move from her seat on penalty of death.'

While she waited, in between people watching –which never ceased to provide endless amusement to her–, Sophronia pulled out a just-for-fun book Hermione had agreed to buy her on the terms that she actually sit down and read it, entitled Unicorns, Werewolves, and the Occasional Red-Cap; An Adventurer's Guide, by Ursula Plumbottom. It wasn't, really, that Sophronia never read, just that she was more an action girl; she'd much rather experience something than read the words off a page. Thus, only certain books could grab her attention to begin with, much less hold it for the whole however-many-pages. Magical creatures, though –that was right up her alley. She was in the middle of perusing a page on diplomatic dealings with slyphs when Hermione and Ron returned, the former carrying her own strawberry sundae as well as Sophronia's "the same as yours."

Before they even sat down, Sophronia had a question, asking Hermione, "What does ‘vestigial' mean?"

"A trace or a mark, usually. How is it used?"

"‘They are so light that they float in the air for long periods of time. While doing this they barely use their wings so it is believed that they may be vestigial.' It's about slyphs. It says they sort of look like humans and are see-through."

"Like ghosts?" Ron offered.

Hermione nodded, "Sort of, I suppose. Some people apparently think so, at least. Vestigial used there means that some people think they're sort of...a shadow, a trace left by people, not really their own being."

They ate their ice cream in friendly companionship, Ron telling about Egypt, Sophronia teasing him with French that he couldn't understand. He seemed to enjoy hamming it up for her, over-dramatizing his brain freeze until Sophronia offered to "incindio" it away at which it miraculously disappeared.

Ron had set Scabbers on the table to rest while they ate and Sophronia enjoyed feeding him the chopped nuts from her sundae, giggling at the way he sat hunched over and nibbled at a sliver held in his two paws, looking just like a little old man. At first Hermione attempted to ignore the rodent, but it apparently soon got the best of her.

"Ron, does he have to sit up here while we're eating?" she complained, eyeing the rat warily, as if she expected little germs to jump off him and march right onto her ice cream.

Ron looked horrified and, stroking Scabbers's back to assure him that Hermione's opinion was not shared by everyone, argued, "But Scabbers is part of the family! And he's the cleanest rat you're likely to find!"

"Which isn't really saying much, now is it?" Hermione muttered. Anything further on the matter was prevented, though, when Sophronia caught sight of a particular dark-haired boy standing a little away from them.

With a smile, she announced, "I found him! Look! That's your friend Harry." Ron and Hermione both snapped their heads in the direction Sophronia pointed and, sure enough, there was Harry, standing in the middle of the street, looking around indecisively.

"Harry! Hey, Harry!"

"That doesn't work," Sophronia shook her head. Instead, she raised her voice and screamed, "HARRY!"

"HARRY! Hey, HARRY!"    

Harry finally heard them, all three yelling for him and laughing at themselves, continuing to yell in fun even until Harry was within a couple feet of them.

"I hear you already," he laughed, taking the fourth chair at the table as his own. To Sophronia's delight, he didn't seem to notice her, or at least not comprehend her presence, instead focusing on Ron as he spoke.

"Finally we found you. We've been all up and down here and hadn't seen you yet. We went to Madame Malkin's and Ollivander's and Flourish & Blotts..."

"I got all my school things last week," Harry explained. Hermione made some remark during which Sophronia recalled the question she'd been dying to ask Harry ever since she'd heard about it. It may not be entirely appropriate, and could even lead to an awkward situation since she and Harry hadn't actually been introduced yet, but when a question latched onto Sophronia's mind, there was no stopping her until she had an honest answer, or at least a reasonable theory.

Shamelessly interrupting her sister, she blurted out, "Did you really blow up your aunt?"

This set Ron off on a reel of roaring laughter as Harry shirked his shoulders and sheepishly insisted, "I didn't mean to –honest! I just...lost control."

Hermione glared at Ron and kicked Sophronia under the table, scolding, "It's not funny! Harry could have easily been expelled for it."

"Or landed in Azkaban?" Sophronia asked innocently enough. Hermione was clearly not amused. "What? You told me they'd send me to Azkaban if I so much as touched your wand, and that wasn't even making a balloon of anybody."

Ron interjected, "But of course Harry got off, being Harry Potter and all. Now if I did that, Mum would–"

"I wish I could blow up Uncle Dil, Hermione. Maybe then he would quit calling me ‘Sweet Cheeks'," Sophronia mused. She asked of Harry, "How did you do it?"

"Don't you dare, Sophronia!"

Harry shrugged, "I'm not sure. I just– wait a minute! Who are you?"

"Sure took you long enough!" Ron guffawed alongside Sophronia's giggles. Even Hermione relaxed enough to be amused. This didn't answer Harry's question, though, and he continued searching the new girl's face, trying to decide why it felt slightly familiar yet completely strange to him at the same time.

"I," Sophronia started, shooting Hermione an impish grin, "am Sophronia the Magnificent, or maybe Sophronia the Superb, Sophronia the–"

"Obnoxious! Enough already! This is my little sister Sophronia, Harry," Hermione introduced. Then, to Sophronia, "Now I know why Mum doesn't let you have ice cream for lunch." Sophronia just giggled and shoved the last spoonful in her mouth.

"Your little sister? I didn't know you had a little sister, Hermione."

"We've already been over this," Ron sighed, rolling his eyes. "Apparently we ‘don't listen enough' or some bullocks."

"Yes, well, you don't–" Hermione started, but both boys ignored her.

Instead, Harry nodded to Sophronia, "So tomorrow is your first day? Have you got all your new things?"

"Uh huh."

"It's been quite a day so far, what with nearly freezing your hand off–"

"Almost burning down Ollivander's–"

"Whatever you did to that shop keeper–"

Sophronia pouted, "I didn't mean to. I just...lost control!" She decided Harry Potter's defense should, reasonably, work for her as well. The three older kids laughed and she suddenly felt very left out, like when her Mum used to dress her all up and take her to their grandmother's dinner parties where a bunch of old ladies made a fuss over how cute she was, then forced her to sit in a corner while they laughed over all the ‘adorable' things she said and did. She was too busy pouting to hear Ron and Harry poke fun at Hermione about all the extra courses she had planned and didn't notice they were leaving until Hermione nudged her.

"Come on, Sophronia," she encouraged in a gentler tone than usual, easily picking up on the sudden sulk. She picked up her own bag of books and made sure Sophronia grabbed her cauldron, then grabbed her hand.

"Where are we going now?"

To Sophronia as well as to Ron and Harry, Hermione answered, "Mum and Dad gave me some extra money to buy an early birthday present so I thought I would get an owl, maybe." This immediately cheered Sophronia back up. "Although, since you'll be at Hogwarts, too, Sophronia, I don't think quite as many letters will be going back and forth."

"Oh, so that's why you borrowed Hedwig and Errol so much," Harry realized. "You two sure wrote back and forth a lot."

"I had questions," Sophronia said simply, all the answer that was needed.

The four made their way to the Magical Menagerie, Diagon Alley's animal shop. Sophronia walked along proudly with the three Third-Years and so many new things for Hogwarts. She felt that every person who even glanced her way did so with the utmost jealousy, wishing they, too, were to start at Hogwarts the following day.

The Magical Menagerie was, unfortunately, right next to the exact shop in which Sophronia had made a slight blunder earlier and, seeing the shop-keeper through the window, she gave a slight ‘eep!' (literally) and ducked into the animal shop ahead of her companions. This worked to her advantage, as that Hermione was then so interested in looking at the owls and other animals while waiting in line with Harry and Ron that Sophronia was able to slip away and wander around the shop on her own.

It was extremely crowded, hardly enough room to turn around in, what with the dozens of cages and tanks shoved onto every lateral surface and hanging from the ceiling. Sophronia walked along, clutching her cauldron to her body for fear she would, with her luck, knock over a cage of something poisonous or mischievous. The inhabitants of the cages dominated her attention too much to do anything troublesome anyways. A cage of brightly-colored birds with antenna; some type of gerbil-sized creature with cat eyes and a snake tongue; pastel crabs with black designs on their broad backs; red beady-creatures about the size of her fist with round black eyes and no visible mouths; even an animal faintly resembling a monkey with three tails and a scaly body that mimicked every single move Sophronia made, be it sticking out her tongue, making faces, dancing, or making shadow puppets (there were plenty of shadows to go around). She was so fascinated by the eclectic inhabitants that the noise –all the squawking and huffing and growling and belching and chirping– and the smell –cages badly in need of cleaning mixed with naturally odorous beasts– didn't even reach Sophronia's senses. She walked along, one cage after another, pressing her face up as close as any barriers would allow, waving a finger and greeting each creature in turn.

She'd just reached the glowing rabbits when the all-too-familiar call of, "Sophronia! Come back here!" rose above all the other chatter. Sophronia sighed and apologized to the rabbits, "I'm sorry I couldn't pay you the proper attention but my sister wants me." Then, careful not to touch anything (as Hermione had nearly pounded into her head on the way over), she returned to the front of the shop to stand next to Hermione and Harry.

Ron was at the counter, discussing poor Scabbers with the shop-keeper. Apparently, not only was he an incredibly long-lived rat, but extremely fortunate to still be alive after all he'd been through. The shop-keeper proceeded to scrutinize the scraggly fur and the missing toe on his front paw, his torn ear and the couple of whiskers a little shorter than the others, making disapproving noises, but when Ron turned down the offer of some other, less Scabbers-y looking rats, the witch produced a bottle of something that would supposedly help him regain whatever he had lost ("He hasn't been looking too right since we got back from Egypt," Ron had explained).

Ron had payed for the bottle and was picking it up when something troubling happened to somebody other than Sophronia. A mysterious creature came hurdling through the air –Sophronia saw the thing before it hit him but hadn't time to call out– and landed fully on top of Ron's head, sinking its claws into his scalp, where it proceeded to hiss maliciously at pitiful Scabbers. The rat, of course, panicked, leapt from the counter, and made a bee-line for the door.

"No, Scabbers!" Ron yelled through gritted teeth, trying to shake his head free, helpless until the creature on his head released its grip and jumped down to the counter, then took off after his rat, followed closely by Ron and then Harry. Hermione and Sophronia watched them go, then both laughed into their hands. With the rat gone, the mysterious creature peacefully sat itself down on the counter and Sophronia observed it was none other than a very large ginger-colored cat. It purred and, when Hermione held a hand out, nuzzled her fingers affectionately.

"Yeah, there you go, puttin' on your airs for the girls, Crookshanks," the witch shook her head furiously, "when just seconds ago you was up to your usual!"

"His name is Crookshanks?" Hermione repeated, smiling as the cat continued to flirt shamelessly with her.

The witch nodded and puttered around the counter, "Yes, yes, that damned cat. Nobody wants him; he just hangs around this counter, causing all kinds of trouble!" Sophronia stuck out her bottom lip in sympathy and added her hand to Crookshanks worship. The cat eyed her suspiciously for a moment, then nosed her palm. This was the selling point for Hermione.

"I'll take him!" she announced happily, pulling out her money purse.

The witch looked at her incredulously and asked, "What?"    

"I want him. How much?" The witch practically gave him way, charging very little for what she considered a ‘monster', and continued watching them as Hermione cradled him to her chest and carried him out. Sophronia grabbed Ron's forgotten bottle of rat medicine, her cauldron, and the cat carrier.

Crookshanks continued purring as Sophronia rubbed his head and cooed, "Oh, he's gorgeous, Minnie!" Hermione grinned in total agreement. The boys walked up just as they stepped foot on the street, Scabbers safely returned to Ron's pocket. At the sight of Hermione holding the cat, they both stood gaping.

"Isn't he beautiful?"

"You...You bought that monster?" Ron cried with horror, looking from the smugly grinning Hermione to the just-as-smugly-grinning cat.

"He's not a monster–"

"That thing nearly scalped me! Wanted to rip my head off–"

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Ron and cooed to the cat, "You didn't mean to hurt Ron, did you, Crookshanks?"

"I think he's wonderful."

"He looks like he ran face-first into a brick wall!" Ron insisted, motioning to Crookshanks' rather flat facial features.     

Hermione quickly retorted, "This from the boy whose rat looks like its been experimented on with a broken wand!" Hermione and Ron glared at each other, under which Harry and Sophronia shared a half-amused, half-worried glance.

"Um, why don't we–"

"I need to go the bathroom, Hermione," Sophronia announced, deciding this the best way to get some action.

Slowly pulling her eyes away from Ron's, Hermione acknowledged, "All right, Sophronia. We might as well head back to the Leaky Cauldron, anyway."