Old Blood at Hogwarts

At this time, Harry noticed three bulging schoolbags on the chair next to Hermione, pointed at them and asked, "What are those things, Hermione?"

"Oh, didn't I choose more courses than you?" Hermione said, "Those are books on Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Ancient Runes, and Muggle Studies."

"Why did you choose Muggle Studies?" Ron said, rolling his eyes, "You are born Muggle! Your parents are both Muggles! You already know everything about Muggles!"

"But it would be fascinating to study them from a wizarding perspective," Hermione said sincerely.

"Honestly, I don't think it's going to be fun," Aaron said.

"Are you going to eat and sleep this year, Hermione?" Harry asked, while Ron chuckled secretly.

Hermione ignored them.

"I already have ten gold galleons," she said, looking at her wallet. "My birthday is in September. My mom and dad gave me some money to buy myself an early birthday gift."

"How about buying a good book?" Ron asked pretending to be stupid.

"No, I don't want to buy books," Hermione said quietly, "I really want an owl. I mean, Harry has his Hedwig, you have Errol -"

"I don't have one," said Ron. "Errol belongs to our family. All I have is Scabbers." He took out a gray mouse from his pocket. "I wanted to send it to be checked out. He placed Scabbers on the table in front of them, "I don't think he's used to Egypt."

Banban looked very thin, and his beard was obviously hanging down.

"There's a Magical Creatures shop over there," Harry said. "You can see if you can buy anything for Scabbers there. Hermione can also buy an owl there."

So they paid for four ice creams and walked across the street to the store called Magic Zoo.

There isn't much space inside.Cages hung from every inch of the wall.The store was smelly and noisy.Because the little creatures in the cage are making various sounds.The witch behind the counter was already telling a wizard how to care for a two-tailed newt, so Aaron, Harry, Ron and Hermione waited, looking at the cages.

A pair of purple toads with huge eyes sat there, unflatteringly feasting on a dead blowfly.A large tortoise with a bejeweled shell showed off near the window.Poisonous orange snails are slowly emerging from the edges of their glass tanks.A fat white rabbit repeatedly transformed into a silk top hat and back again with a loud popping sound.Then there were cats of every color, a cage of noisy ravens, a basket of ridiculous mustard-colored soft fur balls humming loudly, and a large cage on the counter with silky black mice growing on them. The long bald tail plays some kind of jumping game.

The wizard who kept the two-tailed newt left, and Ron approached the counter.

"This is my mouse," he said to the witch, "and it has been a little bad ever since I brought it back from Egypt."

"Put it on the counter," said the witch, taking a pair of heavy black spectacles from her pocket.

Ron took Scabbers out of his inner pocket and placed it not far from his fellow mice.The mice in the cage stopped playing jumping games and crowded to the edge of the cage to get a better view.

Scabbers, like everything Ron owned, was hand-me-down (it once belonged to Ron's brother Percy) and had a slightly scarred appearance.Compared with the sleek mouse in the cage, it looked particularly sad.

"Well." The witch picked up Banban, "How old is this mouse?"

"I don't know," said Ron. "It's quite old. It was my brother's."

"What is it capable of?" said the witch, examining Scabbers carefully.

"Uh-" Ron was a little silent.

The actual situation is that Banban has never shown the slightest ability to make people interested.

The witch's eyes turned from Scabbers' torn ears to his front paws, where a toe was missing.The witch made a tut-tsk sound from her mouth: "This mouse has suffered a lot."

"That's what it looked like when Percy gave it to me," Ron defended himself.

"You can't expect an ordinary house mouse or field mouse like this to live for more than three years." The witch said, "Well, if you are looking for a more durable animal, you might like one of these. ..." She pointed at the black mice, and they immediately started jumping around again.

Ron muttered: "Exhibition guy."

"Well, if you don't want to replace it, you can try this potion," the witch said, reaching under the counter and pulling out a small red bottle.

"Okay," said Ron, "How much—ouch!"

A huge ginger thing jumped down from the top cage, jumped on Ron's head, and then gathered momentum to move forward, purring and roaring at Scabbers.

"No! Crookshanks, no!" cried the Witch, but Scabbers slipped from her hand like a bar of soap, fell on all fours to the floor, and fled toward the door.

"Scabbers!" Ron yelled, following it as it raced out of the shop, Aaron and Harry following behind.

It took them about 10 minutes to find Scabbers, hiding under a wastebasket outside the Quidditch boutique.Ron put the trembling little mouse back into his pocket, then straightened up and touched his head.

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"It's a big cat, it looks like a little tiger." Aaron said.

"Where is Hermione?" Ron asked again.

"Probably buying owls," said Harry.

They turned back through the crowded street and returned to the "Magic Zoo".As they approached, Hermione came out, but what she had was not an owl.Holding tightly in her arms was the huge ginger cat.

"Did you buy this monster?" Ron was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth.

"His fur is pretty, isn't it?" Hermione said with a smile.

The cat's ginger fur was thick and fluffy, but its legs were clearly a little bent, and its face looked rough and oddly squashed, as if it had run headlong into a wall. of.Scabbers was gone, and the cat was snoring contentedly in Hermione's arms.

"Hermione. That damn thing almost took my scalp off!" said Ron.

"It wasn't intentional," said Hermione. "You weren't intentional, were you, Crookshanks?"

"What about Scabbers?" Ron pointed to the bulge on his chest pocket, "It needs to rest and relax! How can it rest and relax with this thing next to it?"

"This reminds me that you forgot your rat tonic." Hermione said, putting the little red bottle into Ron's hand, "Don't worry, Crookshanks will sleep in my dormitory. , and Scabbers is with you. So what’s the problem? Poor Crookshanks, the witch said it’s been there for a long time and no one wants it.”

"I don't know what the reason is." Ron said sarcastically.

Then they set off towards the Leaky Cauldron.

When they arrived at the bar, they saw Mr. Weasley sitting in the bar, reading the Daily Prophet.The Grangers had already left.

"Harry!" He picked up his head and looked at him with a smile, "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Harry said.

He, Aaron, Ron and Hermione sat with Mr. Weasley with their purchases.

Mr. Weasley put down the newspaper, and Aaron saw a large photo on the front page of a sunken-faced man with long tangled hair staring back at him.

"Haven't they caught him yet?" Harry asked, looking at the photo in the newspaper.

"No." Mr. Weasley's expression looked extremely serious. "In the Ministry, they told us to drop what we were doing and try to find him, but we haven't had any luck so far."

"If we catch him, will there be a reward for us?" Ron asked. "It would be better to give us some money -"

"Don't talk nonsense, Ron." Mr. Weasley said slightly nervously, "Black will not be captured by a 13-year-old little wizard. It will be the guards of Azkaban who capture him. Remember Follow my words."

Aaron realized that he seemed to be the only one who didn't know who the person in the photo was. He wanted to know what happened, so he asked Mr. Weasley: "Can I read the newspaper?"

"Of course," Mr. Weasley replied.

As soon as Aaron picked up the newspaper on the table, Mrs. Weasley came to the bar.She was carrying her many purchases, followed by Percy, George, Fred and Ginny.

Everyone saw Harry and came to say hello to him.Ginny blushed and mumbled a "hello" without looking at Harry, which looked very strange.

Percy held out his hand solemnly, as if he and Harry had never met and said, "Harry, it's so nice to see you."

"Hello, Percy," Harry said, trying not to laugh.

"Are you doing well?" Percy shook hands with him in a pretentious manner.

"fine thanks--"

"Harry!" Fred elbowed Percy away and bowed deeply, "It's an honor to meet you, old man -"

"Brilliant," George said, grabbing Harry's hand as he pushed Fred away. "It's brilliant."

Percy growled.

"Enough!" said Mrs. Weasley.

"Mom!" Fred seemed to have just noticed her and grabbed her hand, "It's so good to see you -"

"I say, that's enough!" said Mrs. Weisingley, putting all the things she had bought on an empty chair. "Hello, Harry, dear. I think you have heard that cry. Are you excited about the news?" She pointed to the brand new silver badge on Percy's chest and said proudly, "The second student representative in this family!".

"And the last one," Fred whispered.

"I don't doubt that," said Mrs. Weasley, suddenly frowning. "I noticed they didn't make you two prefects."

"Why should we be prefects?" said George, rebelling against the idea. "That would make life boring."

Ginny giggled.

"You have to set a good example for your sister!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.

"Ginny has other brothers to set an example for her, Mum." Percy said proudly, "I'm going to change and get ready for dinner..."

After saying that, he went to the second floor.