Fitz walked out of their room to go meet Simmons and Daisy for lunch in the Shield kitchen.
Only instead of walking out into the hallway, he found himself walking into Diagon Alley, out of Quality Quidditch Supplies. But before he even had time to think about it, he heard Simmons and Daisy shout, "Harry! HARRY!"
Looking across the street, he saw them sitting outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, waving at him. So he quickly hurried over and took the empty seat at their table.
"I thought you were in the kitchen eating lunch — how'd you manage to set off the 0-8-4 this time, Daisy?" he asked in an undertone, in case any of the Weasleys or Grangers were around.
"This wasn't me!" exclaimed Daisy, throwing her hands up defensively. "I didn't touch it, I was nowhere near it — Simmons can attest for me."
"For once, she's actually right," said Simmons. "And you didn't do it?"
"I was just walking out of our room to come join you guys," answered Fitz.
"So someone else pressed the big, friendly red button, and it still sent us?" asked Daisy.
"It's apparently locked onto us somehow," replied Simmons. "So it sends us no matter who presses the button. Though I remember that each year is a book, and I remember everything in the two books the last two years were based on, without having to have something remind me of it this time, so that's something new. You two?"
"Hadn't had long enough to even try to remember that, too busy wondering how we managed to get sent here," answered Fitz. "But since you said it, I remember both previous books."
"Quite vividly, in fact, since you made us reread all seven books as soon as we got back from last time," added Daisy.
"Seven books — I'm pretty sure we couldn't remember how many books there were last time we were here," said Simmons. "Either the 0-8-4 is losing its strength, or something's changing about it for us to remember more, and quicker. But I still can't remember anything about the third book or beyond, can either of you?"
Daisy and Fitz both shook their heads.
"Okay, since we can't remember what will happen, what has already happened? Let's start with that," said Simmons, taking charge.
"Ginevra Weasley was opening the Chamber, nearly died, Harry rescued her, Voldemort's real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, Dobby the house elf is free — oh, and the diary we got from Myrtle's bathroom that Ginevra threw away, was what Riddle was using to open the Chamber, so I guess we did actually save Hogwarts last year after all by keeping the book hidden," said Daisy. "And this should be collective knowledge as well if I remember Ronna's letters correctly, but the Weasleys went to Egypt, and Ronna got her own wand for the first time. Oh, and Ronna still has that stupid rat."
"Yeah, Ronna mentioned both of those in her letter to Harry over the summer — and Harry specifically noticed the newspaper photo showing the rat on Ronna's shoulder," said Fitz. "As for Harry, he blew up Marjorie Dursley, has been living here ever since then, really wants a Firebolt broomstick, is scared he's seen a death omen, met Cornelius Fudge the Minister of Magic, and doesn't have a permission slip to go to Hogsmeade. And the wizarding world's currently all worked up over that escaped wizard, Sirius Black. And apparently blowing up twelve muggles and a wizard with a single spell, and then escaping Azkaban, is big enough to put it on the muggle news, because Harry saw it on the telly over the summer before he got to the wizarding world."
"Yeah, no one knows how he got out — Azkaban is apparently the wizarding equivalent of Alcatraz, in that no one's ever escaped before," said Daisy.
"Sounds like a bad dude for sure," replied Simmons. "But shame about the permission slip. Of course, given how abusive the Dursleys are, it unfortunately doesn't surprise me. And later I want to hear the full story about Harry blowing up this Marjorie presumably relative, but for now, what do we need to do this afternoon to blend in properly? Also, I and all the Weasleys are staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight so we can all go to the train station together in the morning."
"Have both of you bought everything you need?" asked Fitz. "And also, are Hermione's three giant bags of what I assume are books sitting there in the chair next to you just for fun, or school books?"
"Ronna and Hermione got all their supplies before coming here for ice cream," answered Simmons. "And they're actually all school books — Hermione is taking every class Hogwarts has to offer."
"Can we do that as well?" asked Fitz, nodding towards Daisy.
"Fitz!" hissed the younger girl. "Don't include me in your crazy desire to learn everything you can! I didn't graduate period, let alone three years early from the hardest school in the world."
"Let's go back and buy all the extra books for both of you, and we should be able to talk Professor McGonagall into letting us take everything together," Simmons answered Fitz, before turning to Daisy. "And don't worry Daisy, we'll carry you through the extra work. And besides, you've done just fine with all the classes we've had the past two years. We were clearly the top three in our grade both years."
" 'Just fine' is exactly how I'd hoped to keep my schooling here," grumbled Daisy. "Not 'over achieving'."
"So anything besides picking up some more books?" asked Fitz, to change the subject before Daisy could go full-fledged grumpy on them — only he was allowed to go full-fledged grumpy, and that's just because he was Scottish.
"Well, Hermione's parents gave her some extra money for her birthday to buy herself something," said Simmons. "An extra owl or something would be good for us to have. Anything for Ronna, Daisy-girl?"
"Well, Ronna was going to get her stupid rat checked out since it's been looking a little peaked since the Egypt trip, but personally I couldn't give two shits if the stupid thing dies — in fact, if no one around's looking, I'm getting rid of it right now. Although I'm sure it'll sadly be back next year, stupid books reseting," replied Daisy, subtly reaching into her pocket to take the rat out, and unceremoniously tossing it on the ground.
"Well now that that's out of the way, Harry would suggest the magical shop just over there for whatever we're going to get for Hermione," said Fitz, pointing a slight bit down the road to the Magical Menagerie.
Paying for their ice cream (except for Fitz, who Florean Fortescue himself had brought out a free ice cream sundae for Harry Potter just like he had numerous times a day for the previous three weeks), they headed down the street to the pet shop.
It was extremely cramped inside, the entire place stacked in cages of every type of small to medium-sized animal imaginable. As there was already someone talking to the attractive saleswitch behind the counter, FitzSkimmons began perusing the shop until she was available.
They hadn't been looking around for long when the wizard she'd been helping left, and the saleswitch asked them, "How can I help you?"
"I'm looking for a pet, probably an owl," answered Simmons.
But at that very moment, an enormous, furry, orange cat jumped down from the top of the highest cage, landing on the counter in front of them. It just stared at Fitz for several seconds, before cocking its head slightly, as if studying him more carefully. Then after several more seconds, it turned to study Simmons and Daisy as well. Meanwhile, FitzSkimmons stared back. It had the flattest, most squashed face of any cat they'd ever seen, and was acting even more intelligent than most cats did — almost like it expected something slightly different than what it saw, and was trying to figure out why.
Daisy leaned over and whispered into Simmons ear, "You're the biochemist — does it know the other us's somehow? But can tell we're not actually us?"
Simmons shrugged, not having a clue.
But they were interrupted from any more thought on this by the saleswitch saying, "You know, I've never seen Crookshanks come down and say hi to anyone before in the several years I've worked here. In fact, he almost never leaves his hiding spot on top of the cages, preferring to look down and judge everyone from his throne. And I've certainly never seen him check anyone out like he is you three before. He is a kneazle, so he's a lot more intelligent than a muggle cat, and has some natural intuitions that humans don't, but I've never seen any kneazle act like that. You aren't hiding anything, are you?" she finished with a chuckle.
It took all of their spy training not to immediately look guiltily at each other, and automatically give themselves away.
But Simmons did mutter, more to Crookshanks than the saleswitch, "Not like anything you could be thinking, nor would you believe us," before continuing on softly directly to Crookshanks, "but you seem to be able to sense it. Do we look like someone you know, but we're not quite?"
The kneazle pointedly turned its head towards Fitz, staring at him for a second, before turning back to look at Simmons.
"You know Harry Potter — is that it?" asked Simmons in her same soft tone. "But Harry shouldn't have two PhD's and be thirty-five? Or thirty-seven if you include here? And can you tell Daisy and I are very odd thirteen year olds as well?"
Crookshanks meowed lightly.
"Well, you're one smart cat — kneazle, sorry — that's for sure," replied Simmons. "Do you want to come with us? Is that why you hopped down here?"
Crookshanks meowed again.
Turning to look at her husband and wife, Simmons asked, "Care to add a kneazle to the family?"
As Daisy shrugged a 'why not?', Fitz muttered, "Better than Deke."
After slapping her husband lightly on the arm, Simmons said to the saleswitch, "We'll take him."
Fluffy kneazle purring contentedly in Simmons' arms a minute later, the three of them headed back down the street to Flourish and Blotts for Daisy and Fitz to pick up the rest of the books they needed to take all the classes Hermione was already signed up for. Walking inside, Simmons wrapped Crookshanks around her neck like a thick ginger scarf, and quickly led them to each of the books her spouses needed to pick up in order to take all the classes with her. Soon they had several more bags to carry with them on top of the ones Hermione and Ronna had so graciously left them with when the 0-8-4 threw them back into the magical world, but this time they had one of Flourish and Blotts' magical shopping bags that was smaller and lighter on the outside to put all their other bags in, so they only had to carry one light bag instead of a dozen heavier, bulkier ones as they walked back out to return to the Leaky Cauldron.
But no sooner had they exited, than Daisy suddenly said, "Clothes — we're not going to have clothes again."
"Oh for–! This is getting really annoying," sighed Simmons. "Um, well, we don't really have time or a good way to get out into muggle London undetected before the train tomorrow, so I guess I'd have to say go with owl mail again like first year. But for that we'll need gold, and I don't know how much Harry got out and has left."
Fitz thought real quick, before replying, "Probably not enough. Anyway, it'd be good to check his vault anyway to make sure it actually does reset like we think it does, so we can grab as much money as we like and not care. Harry wasn't paying close enough attention when he got his gold out a few weeks ago for me to know without checking ourselves."
And so they quickly redirected their footsteps towards the towering white marble building.
As they walked through the pair of double doors into Gringotts, Daisy smirked, "Dolla bills, y'all."
At FitzSimmons' odd glance at her, she realized she'd apparently never told them that story. "When I briefly got kicked off the Bus years ago when Victoria Hand took over the search for Coulson, not long after I'd betrayed you guys for the first of numerous times — you know, the whole Miles thing that ended up with me having an internet nanny bracelet for a while — I broke into that guy's house to track the money. And his Lambo had a license plate that spelled 'dolla bills' — $BLSYAL. So when I saw it walking into his garage, that's exactly what I said — 'dolla bills, y'all'."
"Actually, I do remember that license plate now that you said all that," said Fitz as they walked up to an available counter. "You drove it to meet us out in the desert, and then Coulson wouldn't let us load it onto the plane to drop off at my mum's or Simmons' parents' house for us to keep to have later on."
"Yeah — that's still a shame," Daisy sighed wistfully.
Meanwhile, Simmons was telling the goblin cashier, "Harry Potter here needs to get money out of his vault."
Leaving Crookshanks sitting on the counter, they followed the goblin to the cart that would take them down to the underground vaults. Arriving at Harry's vault a few minutes later, FitzSkimmons looked in to see that it had substantially more gold than it had had when they'd left it the previous summer, meaning that it did in fact reset like everything else in this world, just as they'd hoped. Quickly shoveling gold into three money bags, and then storing the money bags inside the Flourish bag with everything else, they left Harry's vault loaded down much heavier than they'd arrived, ready to buy the world. Once back upstairs, they exited Gringotts and set their steps towards the Leaky Cauldron for real this time.
Inside, they found all six Weasleys already there, bags of school supplies piled across empty chairs and the long table they were all standing around. When Ginevra spotted them, or Fitz in particular, she seemed even more shy and star-struck than she had the previous two years when she'd seen Harry, so Fitz glanced sideways at his wives with a look of confusion.
Simmons whispered into his ear so only he could hear, "Harry saved her life, remember?"
"Oh, right," muttered Fitz, dreading what that could entail for her mistaken belief that she had a snowball's chance in hell with him, and how much he might suffer because of it.
But before he could dread on this long, Percy Weasley walked up.
"Harry. How nice to see you," he greeted with such solemnity, holding out his hand for Harry to shake as though he and Harry had never met before, that Fitz just stared at him in disbelief for several seconds.
Finally, though, he managed to get out, "Dude — I know we're not exactly friends or anything, but we have met before."
Percy stared back at him in shock at not being addressed like a bureaucrat, but before either of them could say anything more, the twins fortunately barged in, taking their cue off their older brother's extreme pomposity.
"Harry!" exclaimed Fred as he elbowed Percy out of the way before bowing deeply to Fitz. "Simply splendid to see you, old boy!"
George jumped in immediately afterwards, pushing his twin out of the way as he seized Fitz's hand and said, "Marvelous, absolutely spiffing!"
The twins' fun however was quickly cut short by their mum scolding, "That's enough, now," as Percy scowled at his younger brothers.
This didn't stop the twins from trying to give their mum the same royal treatment they'd given Fitz, but she quickly shut that down as well, before turning to Fitz and swelling with pride as she pointed at Percy's badge on his chest and bragging, "Hello, Harry, dear. I suppose you've heard our exciting news? Second Head Boy in the family!"
Fitz nodded politely, before turning to Simmons and Daisy and muttering, "Want to take our stuff upstairs?"
Daisy and Simmons nodded their agreement, and the three of them quickly made their way to the stairs that led up to the rooms, hearing behind them as they made themselves scarce an argument over whether there were going to be any more prefects or Head students in the family, and the twins saying how they had no desire to be any such things. The three of them quickly stopped by Harry's room to grab Fitz's trunk, and then by the room Ronna was sharing with Ginevra to grab Daisy's trunk, before finally heading to Hermione's room where Simmons' trunk already was, to pack everything up before supper so they wouldn't be rushed the following morning.
And by pack everything, Daisy meant just shove all three of their trunks into the Flourish bag to be sorted once they got to their dorm at Hogwarts the following evening, and then spend the rest of the afternoon until supper having hot, wild sex. But Simmons nixed that suggestion, insisting instead that they go ahead and properly sort as much as they could into their trunks now, as it would be far too late to do so when they got to their dorms after the Start-of-Term Feast the following evening. Not to mention the fact that they all knew perfectly well that Daisy still wouldn't have any interest in sorting it all then anyway, which would mean that it would never get sorted if they didn't do it now — or at least, it wouldn't get sorted until Simmons took the time herself to sort everything for all three of them because she couldn't stand everything being left in messy piles like Daisy would happily leave it, and Fitz would just follow her messy example if it was there to follow, something Simmons didn't particularly want to have to do when she could force both of them to sort their thirds right then and there.
So with much grumbling, a little whining, and a medium amount of pouting, Daisy opened her trunk and stared down into it, hoping that that would be enough to convince her wife that she was actually doing something. Unfortunately it wasn't, as a second later Simmons walked over with all of Daisy's books and supplies and set them in a stack on the bed next to Daisy's trunk, clearly expecting the younger girl to neatly put them away in her trunk. But before Daisy could grudgingly begin, Crookshanks jumped onto the bed and into Daisy's trunk. Daisy got ready to triumphantly claim that she couldn't possibly store away her things when Crookshanks was taking a nap in her trunk, but Crookshanks didn't lie down to go to sleep like she'd expected. Instead, the kneazle began pawing at the clothes already in the trunk, as if trying to dig something out.
Assuming some bug or something must have snuck its way into the bottom of her trunk, Daisy quickly pulled one stack of clothing, immediately followed by the other, out from inside her trunk. By the time she turned back to the trunk from setting down the second stack of clothes on her bed next to the trunk, Crookshanks already had a fat, clearly now-dead rat hanging out of his mouth.
Looking over at her spouses, Daisy said, "Crooks may be hungry — he just killed this rat that somehow got into my trunk without even playing with it first." Turning back to look at Crookshanks, she actually took a good look at the vermin hanging out of their newest family member's cute little cat mouth, and exclaimed, "Rat! What were you doing here?! I dumped your sorry ass out on the pavement in the middle of Diagon Alley to get rid of you, not for you to come back and stow away in my trunk!" She paused for a second, before adding, "Well, you definitely won't be coming now, except in Crooks's stomach."
"You know, I don't think he can hear you — being dead and all," came Fitz's voice dryly over her shoulder, his chin coming to rest on said shoulder as he looked over her back down into her trunk, his arms wrapping around her stomach. As Crookshanks bit the rat's head off, ending for good any possibility that the rat could have still been alive, he added, "Ugh, and headless now, too — gross."
On Daisy's other side, Simmons was peering down into the trunk as well, watching with great interest as Crookshanks slowly began eating what had formerly been Ronna's pet rat. "That is rather odd behavior for a cat. They do usually play with their food for a while before killing it if they're not starving, but he's definitely not eating it like he's starved."
Indeed, Crookshanks was in fact quite calmly munching away on the gray rat, not scarfing it down in the least.
"Well, you officially don't have to worry about bringing your rat to school this year," said Fitz after a while, as they continued to watch the scene with gross fascination. "Now we just have to make sure Jemma doesn't take its liver for 'research', and leave it next to my lunch again."
"It's been twenty years, Fitz — let it go already," sighed Simmons.
Eventually Crookshanks finished her afternoon snack, and lightly jumped back out of Daisy's trunk, not a trace of rat guts left anywhere. Nothing left to distract them, FitzSkimmons resumed the packing they'd started before Crookshanks had interrupted them, and well before they expected Mrs Weasley to want everyone down for supper, they had finished. They stuffed their neatly packed trunks, along with all the rest of the books that wouldn't fit in their trunks and Fitz's broomstick into the Flourish bag, ready to be grabbed the following morning when it was time to leave. And now that everything necessary was taken care of, Simmons herself initiated Daisy's original plan for the afternoon, tackling her spouses to the bed.
But they couldn't stay in bed forever, eventually having to return downstairs for supper, where they learned that the Ministry was sending a couple of cars in the morning to take them to Kings Cross. When Percy asked why, Mr Weasley evasively replied that it was because he worked for the Ministry and no longer had a car himself, but FitzSkimmons could easily tell that that wasn't really the reason at all. But as they themselves didn't care why the Ministry was sending cars, they didn't try to find out the real reason, instead justing taking it for what it was. They ate as quickly as could be considered polite, before retiring back to their room for the night, not yet finished with what they had started that afternoon when all the packing was done.