MONDAY JULY 25, 1994
Albus was irritated. He had noticed that his wards around the Dursley residence were weakening instead of strengthening. He had intended to go inspect them today and see if the wards had been damaged or the Dursleys had finally done what he had intended and beaten the boy to death. Instead, he was called to an emergency session of the ICW to discuss some uppity dark lord that was causing a stir across Europe.
After a week of training and competing, it was time to relax. Today, Harry and Luna were touring Rome as muggles would. Luna led Harry to Via dei Condotti, spending the entire morning dressing him up in designer fashions. Harry would have preferred another fight to the death. He came out of the experience with a much-too-expensive Armani suit, a gold watch which had a snake on the face, a green tie, a snake-embroidered leather wallet, and a pair of mirrored sunglasses so delicate looking that Harry feared that a stray gust of wind would break them. All of this, Harry discretely put into his trunk inside convenient publicly accessible washrooms.
Luna seemed to enjoy the experience immensely. Harry suspected that as abnormal as Luna was, her desire to dress up her boyfriend was as normal as any other girl's or possibly even more excessive. Then she tripped.
Harry managed to catch her, but it was only the first of many incidents. When they purchased lunch, some creature leapt onto their table and stole hers. Her shoelaces became tied together when they weren't paying attention.
"It's almost like being back in the Ravenclaw dormitory," Luna idly commented, which absolutely ruined Harry's mood.
Eventually, Harry lead Luna into a alley and hid behind a dumpster. Harry motioned for Luna to be quiet until they heard the sound of paws heading their way. Harry drew his wand and leapt out, firing a stunning spell at the annoying rodent that had been following them. Harry picked the creature up. It was like a tailless squirrel at first glance, but it had a flatter, almost human, face.
"What is this thing?" Harry asked. He thought it frankly looked rather revolting.
"That," Luna said definitively, "Is a squasc."
Harry looked back and forth from the rodent to Luna. "This isn't one of those creatures that no one else believes in are they?"
"No, they're just a nuisance. There were a bunch of fliers in Piazza di Magia warning people not to feed these things."
"Are they intelligent?"
"I don't think..." Luna stopped and cringed as Harry snapped the creature's neck and dropped it in the dumpster. "You didn't need to do that."
"Luna, it's been attacking you all day. Some of its stunts have not just been annoying, but also dangerous. Considering it is a mindless rodent, this is the best way to handle it."
"I would have suggested feeding it to Vindex," Luna said, "It's such a waste to just kill something like that."
"Why didn't I think of that?" Harry sighed, fishing the still relatively clean creature from the dumpster, spraying down with a quick water spell, then tossing it into his trunk. §Annoying rodent. Enjoy your treat.§ Harry called down before shutting his trunk again.