A/n: Guess who finally got on top of their work? (Not me haha I still have stuff to do... *cries)
Well anyway, it's been ages since I updated this (I think), so I'm just gonna put up what I've got.
This chapter is pretty short, unfortunately, but it seemed like a good place to end it, so...


"Well, nothing by Lockhart this time," Ash noted, looking down at his Hogwarts letter. "so I guess whoever we get this year can't be that bad."

"Don't say that!" Ron protested, flailing his arms and shaking his head. "You'll jinx it, and we'll get an even worse teacher!"

Iris raised an eyebrow. "What could be worse than Lockhart?"

"I think Quirrel was worse than Lockhart, actually." Cilan reasoned. "Sure, he was an incompetent fool, but... at least he wasn't carrying Voldemort round on the back of his head..."

"Good point." Ron conceded. "Well then, the new professor's probably going to be a monster or something, now..."

"I'm sure the new professor will be wonderful," Mrs Weasley chided distractedly, looking over Ginny's book list and frowning slightly. "Well," she said after a slight pause, "there's only one place we're going to be able to get all of this."

The teens rolled their eyes - it was the same place every year, of course they knew!

"Diagon Alley!"


"Why do we have to do this, again?"

"Stop being such a little kid, Ash! We're staying at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of the holiday, remember?" Iris shook her head and tutted, making Ash pout. It wasn't his fault that nobody bothered explaining these things to him!

"But why?" Ash pressed, letting Pikachu take the t-shirt from his hands and shove it into his bag.

Iris gave him a smug, triumphant look. "I don't know." she announced.

Ash rolled his eyes. "Then why aren't you all confused about it?"

"We're going to meet up with Harry." Cilan reminded them, already finished with his own packing and helping the less organised people - Ash - to finish theirs.

"Then why don't we come back here after?"

"I'm not sure." Cilan admitted. "But still, you need to get ready to leave. Otherwise... there won't be time for lunch once we get there!"

That got Ash moving. He shoved everything into his backpack - extension charms sure were useful - and bolted up and out of the door. He thundered down the stairs, yelling "Got to go get a move on guys come on we're gonna be late!" as he went.

Iris rolled her eyes, made another remark about Ash being a little kid, and resumed her own, much neater packing.


Ash managed to find his explanation once they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron: apparently, Harry had 'accidentally blown up his aunt' and had to spend the rest of the holidays there. Ron had been amazed at the news, but Hermione, who had arrived and met up with the group just in time to hear Harry's explanation, only had criticism for Harry's reckless behaviour.

After Ron stopped Hermione's rant in its tracks with an oh-so-polite "nobody cares though: it was wicked!", everyone set out into the alley to buy their books.

Without a commotion being caused by Lockhart, finding the books was a lot easier than it was last year. With the exception of Hagrid's book, which, as Harry had warned them, bit.

"But why does it bite?" Ron had complained, holding it at arm's length as the pages clamped together, paper teeth gnashing wildly.

Ash simply laughed. "I think it's great!"

"Yeah, a little kid like you would think that..."

As Cilan managed to break up the beginnings of an argument between Ash and Iris, the rest of the group bought the books. The mention of the end of their shopping trip snapped Ash out of his irritation, as he remembered why he'd been so eager to reach the alley in the first place.

"Does this mean it's lunch time?" he asked, grinning.

"Not yet," Hermione answered before Ash or Ron could get too excited - the pair still let out disappointed groans at the news - "I want to get something else, first."

This 'something else' turned out to be a pet, Ash realised as they entered the shop. Hermione made a beeline for the owls, wanting a practical pet, and the group split up to mill around.

Though he'd had a chance to see a selection of pets around the students of Hogwarts, not to mention Harry's owl and Ron's rat, Ash didn't think he'd ever seen so many animals in one place. It was a shame that they had to all be captive for that to be possible, but it seemed that many animals weren't as aware as pokemon, so it wasn't too bad that they were kept that way.

In fact, some of them looked quite happy to be there. Ash held out a hand to pet one of the owls - a large brown one he could tell was pretty relaxed - and immediately got bitten when the creature was spooked by a shrill yelp.

Recognising the voice as Ron's, Ash dashed over to find out what was wrong. The others were already there, stood round Ron, who was sat on the floor and pointing dramatically over to a cat, which was hissing as a response.

Before anyone could ask what was going on, Ron spoke. "That... that thing was trying to kill me!" he accused.

Iris rolled her eyes. "Arceus, you're as much a kid as Ash is! You probably just stood on its tail or something."

Despite Ron's vehement protests, no one grew any more sympathetic to his cause. The manager least of all, since Ron was now causing a commotion. Harry noticed the man glaring from the other end of the room and decided to step in.

"Come on Ron. We can wait outside while Hermione buys her pet."

Ron shrugged, drama forgotten, and followed Harry out of the shop.

"I quite like this cat," Hermione said, scooping up the animal - which was now completely relaxed (perhaps it really was out to get Ron) - and hugging it slightly. "what's it called?"

"Crookshanks." the manager supplied, before moving deeper into the shop.

"It likes you too, you know." Cilan commented as she stroked it. "Your match creates a perfect blend of flavours, most complimentary."

Hermione grinned at the odd speech, then nodded. "I'm going to get him." she decided.

This, as one could imagine, didn't best please Ron.

"I can't believe you got that monster!" Ron exclaimed dramatically as Hermione left the shop, cat in hands. * He complained about it all the way back to The Leaky Cauldron.


Harry found eating dinner with the Weasleys to be much more entertaining than the last few weeks of eating at The Leaky Cauldron. After he'd explained fully how he managed to lose control and attack his aunt, her insulting his parents certainly hadn't helped, it was their turn to describe their summers.

"And guess what? Some of the people in Egypt spoke really weird! They were babbling on in some strange language, but we managed to understand what they wanted in the end." Ash said, quickly becoming confused when nobody else found the concept of a different language strange.

"Well, yeah. There's loads of different languages, like French, German..." Hermione said, looking at the three shocked trainers.

"Really?" Iris said confusedly, "Well, which are we speaking?"

"English." Ron said, looking between the three as if they were stupid.

"Wow!" Ash was excited by the revelation. "You see, in the pokemon universe, we all speak the same language. Very convenient for when you want to travel from region to region."

While Ron and Harry were satisfied with the explanation, Hermione demanded more information and the next half hour was taken up with teaching her about the subtle differences between regions.

When that conversation ended, Fred and George started describing their several attacks on Percy throughout the holiday. The two had made it their sworn duty to make his life a living hell, doing everything from trapping him in the pyramids to putting dung beetles all over his bedroom.

"Well," Mr Weasley interrupted Iris's tale of how she'd helped save someone from falling off a cliff, "Off to bed now. We need to be up early; we're getting to the station from here when the ministry cars pick us up."

Ash, Iris and Cilan exchanged a look at this. "Ministry cars?" They echoed in unison, not having been made aware of it beforehand.

'I wonder why...' Ash thought as he stood up, having finished with his food ages ago, and walked to his room.


"Tell them to stop!" Pikachu moaned. The mouse had spent most of the day asleep in Ash's room but was still tired, and the shouting his advanced hearing was picking up on wasn't helping him return to his slumber.

"Tell who?" Ash asked, unable to hear anything. The room was quiet, silent save for Iris and Cilan's breathing.

"Those two downstairs!" Pikachu pointed towards the door dramatically. "I can hear them now! Harry deserves to know! What he doesn't know can't hurt him! I'm pretty sure an escaped criminal will hurt him whether he knows about them or not!"

"What?" Ash asked, and with his exclamation Pikachu suddenly realised what he'd been repeating.

"Someone's after Harry?" He asked, looking over to Ash, "Who?"

Ash shrugged. "Could be anyone... No. There was that guy from the newspaper... Seriously Back?"

Pikachu sighed. "No, Sirius Black!" Honestly Ash, you have a terrible memory. Though, I suppose he is seriously back, in a way..."

Ash pouted, choosing to respond to Pikachu's insult with a tickle attack rather than words.

"Stop! Stop!" Pikachu whispered out, "Okay, I'll get to sleep now. They've stopped talking anyway."

With that, the mouse turned and fell asleep instantly. With a slight shrug, Ash curled up around the pokemon and did the same.


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