Chapter 1:
In the Weasley residence a boy with messy black hair rested in bed blissfully for quite the amount of time. Though the rest of the house was overrun with frantic red-haired children and adults alike, he remained ignorant of all the noise and clutter. The smell of eggs soon wafted through his slightly open door. He was sleeping late.
One of the red-haired children about the boy's age ran in and looked around frantically for something before sighing when he found his tie. He turned to find his best friend, Harry, still sleeping, despite all the ruckus. "Harry! Come on! We're going to leave soon!" he yelled, shaking him on the shoulders. Slowly, Harry woke up. His hand instinctively reached to the desk beside him to retrieve his glasses.
"I'm going, I'm going," he mumbled, half-asleep. Sure, he was excited for the first day as a seventh-year at Hogwarts, which was in a few days. Professor McGonagall had allowed everyone to retake their last year if they decided to, because the things they taught the last year wasn't exactly on-topic to the curriculum plan. Of course, Ms. Weasley jumped at this idea and decided for the three (Hermione, Harry and Ron) that they would be retaking their seventh-year. No questions asked. No complaints.
They would have gone to Diagon Alley sooner to shop, but so many obstacles came in the way of their plan. Today, all plans canceled, all dates postponed, everything was pushed back to get the most important thing done first. After all, September was not that far away.
He got up and stumbled his way to the kitchen, slouching in a chair sleepily before managing to gather the energy to eat his breakfast with the energetic Weasley's rushing around the house for no apparent reason. After finishing his rather large breakfast, he dropped the plate in the sink and began quickly walking up the stairs, the fast energy from the Weasley's catching up to his sleepy body.
In no time, he was rushing too. Rushing to freshen up, rushing to put on decent clothes, rushing to gather his old robes, rushing down the steps, rushing to get to the living room, all for no apparent reason at all. He sat there, with the rest of the Weasley's, waiting for no apparent reason. After all, they were all present and ready.
After a few moments of waiting, awkward silence and calming down, Ms. Weasley stood up and walked over to the fireplace. She picked up the pot and glanced into it. "It looks like there's enough for all of us to travel. I'll have to get some more later." She grabbed a handful of powder and threw it into the fireplace. She stepped into it and yelled "Diagon Alley!" before spinning around and disappearing.
-Professor of Storms: Soul Suckers-
After a few moments shopping together as a group, it was obvious that shopping was going to be a pain this way. "Why don't you kids go together and I'll go with Ginny," Ms. Weasley decided. "I'm sure you all have things you want to do. I'll go ahead and pick up your books, too. It's almost nine right now. Let's meet at the Leaky Cauldron at two. Is that alright?"
Hermione, Harry and Ron nodded, not wanting to stress Ms. Weasley out further. Ginny only crossed her hands over her chest and fumed. Why was she the only one who got stuck with her mother? "Sorry Ginny, see you later!" Ron called as the three ran off. "Where do you want to go first?" The three stopped running and looked at each other.
"Well, why don't we get our robes first?" Hermione asked, holding up her previous year's robes. "It's going to be busy later at Madam Malkin's robe shop so let's go since we're early anyway."
"Seems like a good idea," Harry added.
"It's decided! To Madam Malkin's!" Ron announced. The three broke into chuckles at Ron's childish actions before they walked together to the robes shop.
-Professor of Storms: Soul Suckers-
Even in the late morning, Madam Malkin's shop was pretty busy. House elves walked around and spoke to the customers, gathering the materials beforehand so that Madam Malkin and the other employees could start working on the robes right away. They still had to wait quite a while for their turn to receive the robes they wanted.
Unfortunately, while they waited, and even when they got their robes fitted, they learned that the robe shop was a new gossip joint for many of the customers and employees alike. The most recent talk of trouble was the strange fog creeping across the world, sometimes lingering for days before dispatching. Harry kept his thoughts to himself, but it could only mean one thing: dementors.
The cold soul-less creatures were spreading across the muggle and wizarding world quickly, causing mass despair, sorrow, fog, bleak times and feelings. It was like his personal nightmare just came true. Words couldn't even begin to explain the relief he felt when he ran out the shop and felt the warm sunlight against his skin. They haven't gotten to here yet.
-Professor of Storms: Soul Suckers-
Once all three of them had stepped out with their robes, they pondered the next thing for them to do. "I need a new quill since mine's broken. Let's head to the stationery shop," Ron said, looking up at the other two for approval. Hermione nodded enthusiastically.
"That's great! We can also stop by the Apothecary, too. That's perfect! What about you, Harry?"
"I want to stop by the ice cream parlor on the way back for a while, too."
"That's fine, it's all in the same area so it'll work out. Then we can just head back for the Leaky Cauldron after we're done!"
"Sounds good," Ron said. "Let's go!" He started off in a random direction, sure that he was going in the correct direction.
"Ron!" Harry called. He turned around and stopped. "The stationary shot is right here," he deadpanned, pointing to a shop two blocks down in the opposite direction Ron was heading to.
"Right!"
-Professor of Storms: Soul Suckers-
The three of them sat under one of the outside tables of the ice cream parlor. "It's still pretty early," Hermione observed. "We're got almost an hour left. What do you want to do?"
"Well, I was thinking of getting some owl treats for Pig," Ron said, referring to his small owl. "I'm sure he'll enjoy them."
"Yeah, I actually was planning to get a new owl," Harry said, looking up. Nothing would ever replace his old companion and first friend but it was becoming a burden for Pig to carry so many packages for him since he was so small. Actually, Harry tried not to order too many things that would be sent over Owl because Pig would have a hard time carrying return letters back.
"Yeah, I think I should get one, too," Hermione added. "I mean, owls are pretty useful to carry letters and such. I've been saving up for a while to get something special, too. I think I still have enough of my birthday money to purchase an owl."
"Yeah, let's go." They were all about to get up when a rather large ruckus happened inside the ice cream parlor. The three rushed into the building with their wands drawn, only to see nothing really out of the ordinary. It was just a bunch of girls crowded around a boy.
He had his hands up trying to give himself some space. "Sorry, sorry," he said again and again. He seemed to cringe at the sight of so many girls around him. "Can you move?" "Yeah, sorry, I have a girlfriend." "Can you…please leave?" Hermione looked on with slight curiosity.
"He's too nice," she observed.
They watched until a silvery owl flew toward the boy with a letter in its beak. The letter fell from the owl's mouth and to the boy. It hit him on the head with an unnaturally painful-sounding clunk. He rubbed his head and with a few curses, unrolled the letter.
He quickly scanned it over. Occasionally, his eyes would become unfocused like reading was difficult for him but eventually he got the message. He slipped the letter in the bag he was holding and drew his wand. "Sorry girls!" Silently, a patronus erupted from his wand.
At first, it just looked like a rather large blur until it eventually solidified its shape into a horse. "Oh what is it?" "It's beautiful!" "What a gorgeous patronus!" "That must have been hard to conjure up! You must be really great at magic!"
"It's supposed to be racehorse or something. To me, it's something of a dog," he stated with a crooked grin. With that, he stowed his want, flashed the girls a quick smile before bolting out the door with his bag. The witches were too absorbed with the patronus to see him run off. The patronus was slowly circling the witches, seemingly gaining their absolute attention by just a look.
"Come on, after him," Harry said, grabbing his bags and running out the door after the person. Hermione and Ron quickly followed him, not exactly sure what he wanted to do but nevertheless trusted him and his instinct. They followed him around the corner between the shops. A group of people blocked their view but Harry pushed forward and soon lost sight of Ron and Hermione.
He wasn't able to see his face that well but he caught sight of sea-green eyes and jet black hair, almost like his own. He watched as the mysterious person, backed into the corner, transformed into a dog and ran off. Harry rubbed his eyes to make sure this wasn't a dream. He was Animagus.
"I'm telling you," Harry said heatedly. "He turned into a dog! He's an Animagus!"
"Harry, we believe you," Hermione soothed. "It's just because we didn't see it…well, it's hard to believe there's another unregistered Animagus. I'll have to check the library at Hogwarts to see if there's a new Animagus but if not, we'll have to report it to someone."
"Well, what if we do nothing? I mean, Harry's dad, Sirius, Professor Lupin were all unregistered but it wasn't bad or anything. I mean, what if the guy's just become one because he wanted to get away from all those girls?" Ron reasoned. "It'd make no sense to get him in trouble just because of that."
Hermione shook her head and turned to Harry. "I think we should just forget about it. For now, anyway. We're here on a shopping trip and we've only got," she checked the time. "-thirty minutes left until we have to meet Ms. Weasley and Ginny at the Leaky Cauldron."
Harry sighed. "Fine. Let's get the owls."
Once the three arrived at Eeylops Owl Emporium they started looking though the rows of owls. Though the selection, Hermione found a nice chocolate brown owl with amber eyes and Harry chose a cappuccino colored owl with blue eyes. "I already have the perfect names," Hermione cheered. "I'll name mine Kasper. And how about…Wisbey for yours, Harry?" Harry nodded. It fit the owl.
After purchasing a few owl treats, the three began heading to the Leaky Cauldron to arrive there on time to not worry Ms. Weasley. They didn't have to worry, as Ms. Weasley arrived a little later, looking flustered, followed by Ginny.
"Oh dear, sorry we're late," she sighed. "The bag carrying the textbooks ripped and a kind gentleman stopped to pick them up. He even took us around and talked with us for a little bit. We stopped by last at the Wizarding Bank and he deposited quite a sum of money into our vault to get-" She stopped. "Yeah, he just gave us some money."
She paused and looked off into the distance before smiling at Ron. "That means Professor McGonagall found a new Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts! He seems awfully well-mannered, too," Ms. Weasley said, smiling with a slightly dreamy look. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Mum, don't forget you're married."
"Of course, Ron! What do you think?"
A/N: So here's the first chapter of the newly rewritten version. It starts up with the plot early here so I really do hope you enjoy this more than the previous one! Please tell me what you think! More chapters coming up, hopefully soon!