HP:[" the Illithid Inquisition"]

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By the end of the week Harry had taught it to ride on his shoulder like a parrot, come when called, do back flips and even attack other books on command. The owner of the shop where Harry bought his school books was tremendously impressed. He was also delighted to learn he could keep his stock of monster books under control if he fed them once a day with a pack of muggle printer paper thrown into their pen to fight over amongst themselves.

After a few quite enjoyable weeks Harry's life got even better when he spotted his two best friends Ron and Hermione out in the streets doing their own school shopping. Harry waved them over to where he was standing, he had been admiring the sight of the Firebolt one last time, since he would be on his way to school the next day. Hermione gave him a bone, crushing hug when she reached him while Ron smiled excitedly to see him.

"Harry, it's so good to see you." Hermione exclaimed.

"It's wonderful to see you both to." Harry responded. "Have you got your school shopping done? Are the rest of the Weasleys here?"

They had finished most of their shopping and the rest of Ron's family had arrived, or at least that part of it that still had business with Hogwarts. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were there along with three of Ron's older brothers, the twins Fred and George, along with his much more serious older brother Percy. Ron's younger sister, Ginny, was also present but she couldn't do more than blush at Harry and hide behind her brothers. Ginny had a bit of a crush on Harry, and the fact that he had saved her life the previous year from an evil magical diary possessed by the spirit of the dark Lord Voldemort's teenage self: Tom Riddle, hadn't helped matters.

"How were your vacations?" Harry asked, "Egypt seems to have agreed with you, Ron."

Ron was looking quite good. He had developed a healthy tan and grown a fair bit taller. Ron had sent Harry a clipping from the Daily Prophet, the main newspaper of magical Britain, on his birthday. The article explained that the Weasleys had won a cash prize from the ministry of magic and spent it on a trip to Egypt where Ron's oldest Bill worked as a curse breaker.

"It was incredible, those old Egyptian wizards really knew how to keep a tomb secure and scary looking." Ron exclaimed excitedly. "Most of the ones we went to were already well cleared of curses and treasures but we got to look into one that was still active and you could see the bones of poor muggles that had wandered in and been killed by those traps. It was so eerie and macabre, Ginny could barely stand to look through the entrance and mum wouldn't let either of us even think of going in. I'm worried it might have been a bit too much on Scabbers though, he's been looking really worn out and stressed ever since we got back."

Ron pulled his pet rat Scabbers out of his pocket to show Harry and he didn't look well at all. Harry suggested that maybe they could get him a tonic or something at a local pet shop. Ron thought that sounded like a good idea and Harry led the way.

Hermione told them about Paris as they walked. She had gone there since her parents had to attend a dentist's conference in the city. But she had plenty of time to see the sights as well. Even Ron was amazed by her descriptions of what the regular people of Paris had accomplished, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre art museum.

Both of them were worried to hear that he had left his home for three days to escape from his relatives. And were even more worried to hear that the ministry believed that Sirius Black might be after him. Hermione had read about Black and she said he had killed a wizard named Peter Petigrew along with a dozen muggles with a single curse before the ministry found and captured him. He certainly sounded dangerous, but Harry hadn't seen any sign of him during his absence.

Harry thought he really should tell the two of them about the Illithids. They were his best friends after all and were likely to believe him but Esharry counseled against it. Hermione would insist on telling someone in authority and we both know how that would go. And both of them would freak out and worry. If this Sirius Black fellow is after you neither will object to you looking into some more advanced magic so you can still get help from them without freaking them out. Harry agreed with that. There wasn't yet much to do about the Illithids, Harry didn't want to worry either of them and he could easily tell them later when he had something figured out.

At the pet shop they got a rat tonic for Scabbers, there wasn't much else they could do for him. According to the store owner Scabbers was just really old, far older than a rat should live at nearly twelve years. Ron was disappointed, although he often complained that Scabbers wasn't much of a pet he was the only one he had ever had and he cared for him considerably.

While they were at the store Hermione bought a cat for herself named Crookshanks. This caused a bit of an argument since the first thing Crookshanks did was try and kill Scabbers. Hermione defended her new cat while Ron vowed vengeance against it. Harry settled the argument.

"You can't blame a cat for acting like a cat, Ron." Harry pronounced silencing his first friend. "Scabbers wasn't actually hurt so no harm no foul. And Hermione, if you're going to get a pet that's the natural enemy of another friend's pet you better have a good plan on how you're going to control that pet. How would you feel if I bought a big hunting dog and then let it chase Crookshanks up and down the street?".

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