Scabbers

On the early morning of 31th, Harry's screams pierced the air. The others rushed to the door and shout:

"What's wrong?"

"The Monster Book of Monsters bit me! And it hurts!"

"Monster Book? Never heard of that, I only know erotica books hurt you." Ginny said, thinking about where did she hear the warnings about erotica books from.

"Erotica books? Harry has erotica books?" Luna said with her eyes wide.

The Commander arrived just in time to stop the conversation about erotica books. He kicked the door open and say Harry waving frantically towards them, Ginny and Luna immediately returning the same greeting.

"Harry, what's in your hand?"

After the reminder from the Commander, the girls noticed a large, thick book baring its sharp teeth and biting firmly into Harry's hand with a beastly gasp.

"It's an erotica book! Professor McGonagall warned us about it before!" Luna's words reminded Ginny that Professor McGonagall once said that this type of book and magazine would harm teenagers badly. Such wise words!

The Monster Book of Monsters was a gift from Hagrid on Harry's birthday this year. From the first day they met, the book had an inexplicable hatred for Harry's hand. In their first battle, Harry slightly outwitted the Monster Book and subdued it, stuffing it into his backpack and subduing it under the textbooks. But today it unexpectedly takes advantage to avenge the vicious attack.

"Commander, do something." Ginny prodded.

"I've never seen such things before. What's the best spell to use? Diffindo? Confringo? Reducto?"

"None of them!" Harry shot right back.

"I got it, the book will spill its beak while hearing... seeing... yes... " Commender clapped his hand.

At the moment when Harry felt that the chances of his right hand surviving were slim and was about the give up the fight, the Commander slapped his head and realization dawned on him. He shouted, "Kids, close your eyes! Do not let me catch anyone peeking!" Then he drew the wand and conjured a magazine out of the air, flipping it casually toward the book. The book promptly spilt its beak and dropped to the floor, making a tame cooing sound and running away shyly.

The Commander tucked the magazine into his pocket, smiled loftily and exited the room.

Luna picked up The Monster Book of Monsters, shoved it back into Harry's backpack. Turning back, she saw the other two standing in place like fools, their faces flushed in a mess. She narrowed her eyes, asked suspiciously: "Did you... peek in?"

"No no no!" The two shook their heads desperately.

We absolutely did not see the naked girls in the magazine! They both screamed inwardly.

"Oh, huh." Luna smiled back of abundant meaning and went downstairs.

Everyone returned to the dining table and ate their breakfast innocently. After the meal, the bags were taken and gathered around the fireplace and ready to head towards Diagon Alley.

Before walking into the flames, Ginny and Harry repeatedly took deep breaths as if they can get courage from the air. They know it deeply that retribution was waiting for them not too far ahead.

A short while ago, Ginny had received a letter home from Hermione forwarding that the Weasleys were scheduled to return home on the evening of the 30th and were waiting for her at Leaky Cauldron today. Hermione would also be here to meet the group. To enter the fireplace was to embark on a journey of no return. The account for leaving home, not answering letters, the laptop all had to be settled today.

As for Harry, the Ministry of Magic would naturally give him a reason of regreting.

They walked towards the fireplace with expressions mixed with determination and sadness.

Before departing, Luna stopped them, took out a fan and waved it in the air, kicking up a strong breeze.

Then, Luna stepped back to take a closer look at them.

"I think the Misfortune Cloud have been blown away a bit. Good luck you two, Dad and I are going to the Flourish and Blotts. See you at Diagonal Line."

Diagonal Line was the name given to Diagon Alley by Lovegood's family.

Luna walk into the green flames firstly and was gone in a flash. Ginny and Harry looked up at the ceiling and, not feeling any difference, sighed and went to follow in Luna's footsteps.

The journey through the Floo network was like the inside of a washing machine. After a short ordeal, Ginny stood dazed on an old floor with a cacophony of people filling her ears.

"Ginny! Harry!" A familiar voice stood out.

Ginny heard it was her mother and immediately held her breath and went on the defensive.

I'm ready, Let the storm come harder!

Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, Ginny waited for the lightning to strike from her mother.

After a rush of footsteps, she felt breathless and her whole body pulled upwards, almost off the ground, and opened her eyes to find herself in a firm hug, surrounded by her mother's strong arms.

Ginny knew that her mother is using the secret family technique of the Weasley family- Embrace Strain Kill, which, despite its deadly dangers, was mainly used to convey intimate affection and was a very peaceful technique.

"Ginny, you seem thinner, I thought you'd put on a bit of weight. How did you meet Harry? Hermione didn't come with you? I must thank the Granger's for teaching you so well! You would have never answered my letter without Hermione's watching, wouldn't you? Your letter said that you have studied for over six hours every day! That truly shocked me! I even asked your dad that was this our Ginny? He said... "

Ginny was completely bewildered as her mother went on and on, confused but sincerely glad to have gotten past her running away issue. She was dragged to the table like a rag doll, met her family after a long time and was greeted by her brothers like never before.

Sweet little goodbyes... pull us closer! It was the best Ginny could think of.

"Where's Dad?" She scanned the entire family and noticed that one was missing.

"He's gone to contact the Minister and will be right back." Mrs. Weasley turned her head and looked at Harry solemnly "Harry! Where the hell have you been? We only found out last night when we got back that the Ministry of Magic was going crazy looking for you!"

"Looking for... me... ?"

Before Harry could wonder, there was a crunching sound and a burly, short, middle-aged man instantly appeared in the middle of the bar hall, hurrying and sweating, followed by Mr. Weasley.

"Over here, Minister." Mr Weasley led the middle-aged man towards the table.

The man, known as the Minister, rushed to Harry in a few quick strides, looked closely at his forehead and suddenly reached out and pinched Harry hard on the face.

"Ouch!"

Hearing Harry's scream, the minister burst into tears and said with emotion, "Ouch? Great! So I wasn't dreaming!"

When he finished, he took a deep breath and smoothed out his thinning barcoded hair, assuming a steady, middle-aged demeanour.

The Minister lifted his right hand and said to the button on his sleeve: "Inform the investigation team and tell the various search teams in South America, East Asia and Northern Europe to call it a day, we've found him!"

Ginny pulled at Harry and whispered, "They want you worldwide!"

Harry's face turned green and he rushed to the Minister to explain, "I did blow up my aunt, but I really didn't mean to. Why have you elevated it to an international issue?"

"No, no, no..." the minister waved his hand, "Calm down, please sit down. Let me introduce myself, I'm Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic."

Fudge extended his right hand in a friendly, official manner, causing Harry to lose words.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Minister," Harry wiped his hands on Ron's shirt and stiffly shook Fudge's olive branch, "I'm Harry Potter... the head of dormitory 202 at Hogwarts Gryffindor House." After saying that he felt deeply honoured to have a title longer than the Minister.

A feeling of frustration rose within the Minister and he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead.

"There is no need to be nervous, we only have to make sure you're safe. There will be an investigation team coming to take statements in the evening, we just need a small record of your whereabouts for the last month, it will be fine." He smiled lovingly at Harry and said to Mr. Weasley, who had stepped aside, "Please take care of him, I'll book some rooms for you guys here, please stay in Diagon Alley tonight. I still have some other business to do, so I'm heading back to the Ministry."

Watching the Minister turn to leave, Harry couldn't resist catching up to hi and asking, "Mr. Minister... Is the spell outside the school not being pursued?"

"No." Fudge replied briefly.

"Uh... Not even if it was used a hundred times?"

Fudge stopped, clenched his hands into fists, mentally admonished himself over and over again not to be impulsive, then tried to look compassionate and said, "No!"

The short "no" caused Ginny and Harry to burst into an earth-shattering cheer.

"Zeus, Thor, Buddha, Athena, thank you!" Ginny was so oblivious that she threw her arms around the nearest person and shared the joy wildly.

"What are you thanking them for, a pardon is a par for the course for Harry Potter."

A cold voice in her arms blew away Ginny's enthusiasm, and she looked down to see that she was hugging her sister by the neck, who was looking up at her with an expressionless face and eyes full of scorn.

"Let go." Aquamarine got up and walked away.

I can't believe I hugged my sister... I don't want to live anymore...

Ginny felt herself begin to petrify, weather, melt and sublimate, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust...

By the time she came back to her senses, she was already being dragged through the streets by Ron.

She suddenly felt as if there was something more in her head, but the hustle and bustle of the crowd prevented her from concentrating.

"I've wanted to wander around Diagon Alley for once for a long time, and now I could do it all afternoon and I have a full wallet!" Ron put his arm around Ginny's shoulders, "What do you want, say it!"

"Firebolt!" Ginny never stands on ceremony to acquaintances, yanked Ron and Harry and ran towards the Brooms.

"Buuuu... but don't you think ice cream is better to taste than Firebolt?" Ron was overwhelmed by the answer.

No one was listening to his advice and the two companions were eagerly pressing their faces against the window, flattening them to view the broomstick inside. They secretly thought that they might have enough money from their part-time jobs to buy on if they hadn't lost Hermione's computer.

As if frozen butter, Ginny and Harry lounged motionlessly against the glass, salivating, until the girl in the store came out with a dry smile and pleaded with them to stop intimidating the shoppers, and the pair reluctantly left.

"Brother, I forgive you this time, just buy me the Gobstones for good measure. You owe me for the firebolt, remember to pay it back when you have money!" Ginny graciously made a concession.

"My share too." Harry fish in troubled waters.

"I noted that... "

Ron went into debt unaccountably, bought the Gobstones unaccountably, and got everyone ice cream unaccountably.

They sat on chairs outside Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour and ordered three bowls of ice creams with different flavours, agreeing to swap them with each bite.

"Why did you buy two sets?" Ginny looked at the wrapped gift box in Ron's hand and passed the chocolate flavour to Harry, taking the strawberry ice cream from Ron.

"One for you, one for Aquamarine." Ron took Harry's chocolates and pushed the cream flavour down in front of Ginny "Twins are troublesome."

Troublesome then just don't buy, who cares.

Ginny thought back to going to the village with Ron when she was a kid. Even just buying a lemon popsicle, he would bring one back to the younger sister, but it has evaporated halfway through, the sticky lemon juice dripped all over his clothes, which made him got scolded by Mother when got home.

My brother always do redundant things!

They switched around their ice cream, jostled for conversation and kept telling stories about their summer holidays. Ten minutes later, Luna and the Commander passed by and joined in the discussion.

The conversation was a patchwork of topics. From flying aunts to running away from home, to knight buses, to laptops, to whether Hermione will mummify Ginny, to pyramids and Egyptian mummies, to ancient Egyptian recipes for hair growth, to the Minister's hair that looks like a barcode, to the theory of worrying too much would cause baldness, to Percy is going get bald sooner or later, to our Scabbers went bald already.

Ron's pet, Scabbers the mouse has been spotty bald lately and the commander says it's because of the name and has to change his name.

Ginny said let's change the name to ScaBaldless.

Ron disagreed, it should be called ScaHairy.

Neither of them could convince the other, so the Commander suggested getting some hair growth for Scabbers, and when he wasn't bald anymore, he could continue to be called Scabbers, so that Ron and Ginny wouldn't have to argue.

"Good idea."

Ron and the others got up and headed for the pet shop, while Harry said he needed to talk to Commander and stayed in the ice cream shop.

The pet shop was a small place, with a cage hanging from almost every inch of the wall, and the air in the shop was thick with all sorts of barks from the small animals in the cages.

But all the yelps combined were not as nearly eerie and creative as the screams in Ginny's mind.

She saw Hermione as soon as she entered, every strand of hair clearly visible.

Ron and Luna noticed this too, and they all looked at each other, nodded, and simultaneously turned backwards and started walking.

"Ron, Ginny, Luna!"

They didn't escape Hermione's notice.

"Hermione! we didn't even see you earlier!" Ron turned back, shuddered, and shook Hermione's hand.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we didn't see you!" The other two immediately echoed.

"It's great to see you guys, I'm spending the night at Leaky Cauldron today too. My parents left me there with my bags this morning and went back to work. Let's go to King's Cross together tomorrow." Hermione was in an unspeakably good mood and said happily to Ginny, "How're you doing? Your mum's in a good mood, isn't she? I've written a lot of letters for you at the owl rental place and they will send them out on their own every so often. These are your family letters back to me... Why are you all looking at the sky all the time?"

"That cloud has such a beautiful shape." Ginny pointed to the cloudless, clear sky.

"Hermione, tell me about yourself, your beliefs, your dreams, where did you come from? Where are you going?" Luna asked.

"Right, where did Master end up taking you?" Ginny noticed that Hermione was tanned a beautiful shade of brown and glowed in the sun.

"To France..."

"That's nice!"

"You have no idea, as soon as we left the airport they left me in Paris, left a bit of money, disappeared without a trace, and then suddenly turned up three days before I got home saying something about congratulating me on passing the social adjustment test!"

"What a terrifying way of education... How did you do?"

"I worked around and finally, after a month- I can speak French!" Hermione's chest puffed up and her face shone so brightly that the other three couldn't keep their eyes open; they finally understood why a family as laid back as that could have a child like Hermione.

"Thanks to your sister's design, I got through it at first by trading them for some money. I brought back a present, Chanel-" Hermione said reaching for her backpack.

Ginny's heart was breaking, feeling that she owed Hermione so much that it would be hard to pay back in a lifetime.

"'s tags for you guys," Hermione added.

Ginny's heart healed a bit. Quickly asking Hermione about her time in France, trying to keep the conversation as far away from the notebook as possible.

"Hermione, you're so great that you've even made a friend in France."

"I went to teach that girl English and found out that she was also a witch and went to school in Beauxbatons, and she was the one who taught me French. We got to know each other pretty well."

"What did you guys talk about?"

"She told me about France, and I told her about England."

"Like a couple of spies!"

"Ron, shut up."

The four people were blocking the entrance to the pet store, chatting merrily. Suddenly I heard someone behind me say, "Don't get in the way!"

Just as the words fell, Hermione's face became very unpleasant, Ron and Luna also quickly flashed aside, Ginny subconsciously turned around and saw her sister standing behind her, the scene just now and her hug came back to her mind.

"This is very rude of you." Aquamarine sternly reprimanded.

"Sorry... "

Aquamarine nodded in satisfaction and walked into the store, smiling slightly as she passed Ginny.

"You guys can come in."

Ginny had no choice but to stiffly follow her in.

"What kind of pet do you want, lovely kid." The pet store owner kindly asked Aquamarine, completely ignoring the other three next to her.

"I'll look around, you can greet them first." Aquamarine pointed to Ron, turned around and walked inside.

Ron talked to the clerk, took out Scabbers from his pocket and placed it on the counter.

"Don't expect an ordinary house or garden mouse like this to live past three years." The witch said, pointing again to the active little black mice in their cages, "If you want a more durable one, you might like the newly bred Mickey Mouse that can sing a full set of Disney theme songs."

"I have plates in our house that can sing too." Ron said dismissively, "You might as well get some hair growth product for Scabbers."

At that moment, a large ginger thing jumped down from the highest cage and landed on Ron's head, purring and snarling at Scabbers.

"Crookshanks, no!" The clerk shouted, but Scabbers slipped out of her hands like soap and landed on the floor, fleeing toward the door.

"Scabbers!" Ron shouted.

Aquamarine raised her hand and threw out the package Ron had just given her, smashing Scabbers directly, and then looked at Ron and said blandly, "Sorry, just used to Whack a Mole."

Ron rushed over to pick up his sickly old friend, his face distorted with anxiousness:

"Scabbers! Stay strong! Remember back then when we watched Tom and Jerry together? Think about strong Jerry!"

"Sorry, this cat has been here for a long time, and it's been returned every time." The witch said.

"Okay, I'll take it." Hermione slapped a few bills on the counter, Ron and the clerk were shocked.

"What are you doing!" Ron was so angry his face turned red.

"Sympathy for the underprivileged."

"You want to watch Tom and Jerry in live-action, don't you... " Luna smirked.

"No... not at all... you're overthinking... " Hermione had a look of getting her secrets revealed.

The big ginger cat with a face that looked like it had been run over by a road roller jumped into Hermione's arms and snored comfortably.

"It should be called a pancake!" Ron said, then he got a scratch from Crookshanks.

A few people were in a mess when Aquamarine approached, carrying something white.

Ginny suddenly felt dizzy and leaned against the counter in a smooth motion.

She saw what was in her sister's arms, a big bird with snowy white feathers, two red blocks arranged in parallel on its forehead, a golden ring around its neck, and round blue eyes staring at Aquamarine.

"With just one look, I decided to take it home," Aquamarine said with deep emotion.

"This? Oh... What is this... Merlin, child, this little thing is not cheap and has a temper worse than Crookshanks." The store witch looked at it blankly, "It seems... Well... No one dares to buy it."

Aquamarine smiled: "It's okay, I like it." She reached out and gently stroked its golden neck, slightly thoughtful, "Silver Thunder, your name."

"Then I'll give a discount for you, just thirty galleons will do."

Aquamarine reached out and took out a pocket, counted out thirty galleons and paid the bill.

"How do you have so much money!" Walking out of the pet store, Ron said enviously.

"My private money." Aquamarine looked at her brother with a smirk, "Is there a problem? Mum knows it as well. I grew up helping the family financially, if I want to save some private money, you are not entitled to say anything."

Ron froze in place, thinking, I... haven't said anything...


So sorry for not being active! Reviews are welcome;D

-Ye