pets
harry had finished paying for his wand and left the wand shop, eager to explore diagon alley. He would have burst into song if he were that sort of person, but he wasn't, the dursleys hated when he sang anyway, but they couldn't stop him from singing in his mind though...
he mentally sang about curious things in the alley, from golden caldrons with self stiring rods to flying winged golden balls that zipped around, and then he saw a rabbit turn into a rather dashing looking top hat. he paused his internal song to stare in aw at the hat that had seconds before been a rabbit. the hat became a rabbit again before his eyes. curiosity pipped, he looked up at the store's sign. it was the pet shop! he looked through the window and happened to see hagrid looking around at something out of sight.
Harry entered the store intending to meet up with hagrid when he was nearly overwhelmed by the noise of the store. spiders, rats, snakes, rabbits, cats, dogs, owls, and more were every where. he saw a jewel encrusted tortise, a massive toad in a small aquarium, a hawk glared down at him from the rafters, and a raven quoted edger allen poe in a corner. harry saw many animals as he wandered through the store. he was just passing a cage with a rather large spider when something rather heavy lighted down on his shoulder, making him stagger.
to his amazment it was some kind of bat,"hello, nice to meet you",he smiled, gently petting the bat, it had a rather fox like face with rather bright red glowing eyes, with long sharp looking fangs. the animal nuzzled him, making noised of happiness. that was when the clerk found them, looking rather surprised and wary," hello young man, no sudden movements", the man eased forward, as if about to grab harry's new friend, that would not do,harry placed a hand over the bat," she's fine sir, she's friendly". he warily eyed the man,who was looking bewildered,"friendly? that vampire fox has been here a week and no one has been able to touch it without getting bitten".
harry petted the bat,"maybe they shouldn't go grabbing willy nilly, she might have been scared, you have to be careful with animals, she might bite but that is her only way of telling people she is scared or to leave her alone, how would you like it if some one went grabbing at you and you couldn't communicate with them"?, harry asked. the clerk kept the bewildered look on his face, he must not have worked much with animals before if he didn't know how to make sure animals felt safe while handling them.
they talked a while longer before harry asked about her price, learning the vampire fox, a magical cross breed of the vampire bat with a fruit bat, had been marked down a couple of times but was still a rather high price of 15 galleons. he happily paid for his new friend just as hagrid walked up to the counter with a owl in a cage. the man was surprised to see harry in the pet store and when he learned harry had bought the bad he looked nervous but he gently petted her,saying she was gorgeous. he bought the owl then gave her to harry,telling harry happy birthday.
harry was surprised but happy, now he had two friends. hedwig and oddball.
oddball is a hybrid of vampire bat and fruit bat for many reasons. she is a omnivore, likes fruit, bugs, and blood. since harry doesn't like bugs other than to eat them,feeding oddball will be easy. hedwig was named by hagrid here, halloween town! harry would have named her spooky or something different. he will use her for mail purposes and she will be as close to harry as she was in canon(book or movie). oddball ,as a hybrid bat, will be able to walk on her wings like the vampire bat can. if she were magic vampire bat she would feed on magical animals and people for the magic in their blood. maybe wizards don't realize they do that or they wouldn't sell those animals. the magical fruit bat feeds mainly on the ambient magic in magical areas and upon magical fruit from magical trees. oddball takes hedwig's place as harry's famlilar.