A Different Third Year

Summary: During PoA the casts do dumb things, and argue about dumber things. What if they thought about it logically?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

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Harry stared at his two friends.

"Are you guys idiots?" He finally managed to get out through his disbelief.

"It's trying to eat Scabbers!" Ron protested indignantly.

"Who you don't like." Harry pointed out reasonably.

"Crookshanks would never eat Scabbers!" Hermione shouted back at him.

"Crookshanks is a cat Hermione, hunters by nature, rats are very much present on their diet." Harry shook his head at the absurdity of a non-logical Hermione.

Neither of his friends seemed ready to give up on arguing about their pets though, causing Harry to groan. He didn't want to play diplomat, but it didn't look like he'd be able to avoid doing so.

"Hermione, your cat is paying an unnatural amount of attention to Ron's rat no matter how you look at it. Ron, you've been complaining about being stuck with Scabbers since our first year, maybe you could leave him at the Burrow?"

Hermione opened her mouth to protest that Crookshanks was merely curious, and that there was no danger whatsoever, but finally her logic reared its head and her mouth snapped shut. Ron was about to protest how he could leave Scabbers all alone, until he realized that he had been complaining about the uselessly lazy rat since their first year, and that he wasn't especially inclined to taking care of him in the first place.

"Okay, fine, I'll leave him at the Burrow." He paused. "Which means that Crookshanks isn't allowed to wander around there freely." He decided resolutely, still feeling somewhat protective of the rat whom he'd been taking care of for so long.

Hermione nodded in acceptance of these terms, and Harry let out a relieved sigh.

"Great, so where do we go next?" Harry asked his two friends, who immediately pointed in opposite directions. Harry hung his head as they started arguing which direction they should go in.

They never seemed to get along.

XXX

Mr and Mrs Weasley were acting a bit odd, repeatedly shooting him worried glances throughout the rest of the summer, but that was okay.

There weren't any basilisks left at Hogwarts for him to rescue his friend's little sister from. And the Tom Riddle diary was very much dead, so there wouldn't be any worries on that front either. Add this onto how an invaluable magical artifact wasn't hidden in the school, and how Voldemort wasn't posing as a teacher, and Harry's third year at Hogwarts should be glorious in comparison to the others.

XXX

"Hermione, how can you be in two places at the same time?" Harry finally cornered his unusually stressed friend.

Hermione looked ready to argue that she wasn't, and that he couldn't prove anything, but she deflated as she looked into his eyes. There would be no excuses about this, Harry was worried about her.

What followed was a very thorough explanation of the Time Turner granted to her in order for her to get to class on time.

Ron almost fell asleep halfway through, until his eyes lit up with the sudden realization that such a thing could allow him a few more hours of sleep every day. Harry was more interested from the get-go, but still quite concerned about his friend's workload.

In the end, it was mutually decided that Hermione use her Time Turner to get a few hours of extra sleep, and to use it for her homework assignments as well, and that she should still consider dropping a subject or two. Her response was to drop Divination.

Ron thought she was being silly, Harry wished he'd have thought of that first. Without the crazy teacher gleefully predicting his death all the time, maybe he'd be able to find something more useful to do?

He'd heard interesting things about Ancient Runes, even if it would most likely be a bit harder than he preferred. Of course, Ron wouldn't really be very pleased with being left alone with the crazy woman in Divination, but Harry figured he could spin it to make his friend see it from his point of view.

It took really no time at all to convince Ron that Muggle Studies would be easier with two muggle-raised as friends, and far more useful for his future than anything he could learn in Divination. The idea of being closer to reinventing his father's flying car was really just icing on the cake.

XXX

Sirius stared curiously at the ugly cat that looked like it was trying to tell him something.

He'd never been very good at charades, but he was seriously hoping that he was interpreting this correctly, because it would mean that he'd get away from the Dementors.

Wormtail wasn't here. Wormtail was still back at the Weasley home.

That was a pretty long walk though, which was why he was hoping that he wasn't reading the cat's charades wrongly.

XXX

Whilst originally merely enthusiastic about the ability to sleep for a few extra hours each day, Ron quickly came to love the ability to cram in more meals in a day than he'd normally be capable of. The extra time for slacking off – despite being forced into doing his homework – just made it all the more wonderful.

Of course, Hermione was in charge of all their time-traveling needs, as she was the most logically responsible one of the trio, but that didn't mean she couldn't take her two friends with her when she went. They had to think up a schedule to keep from running into themselves though, which was a bit annoying.

Hermione used the Time Turner to get to class, sleep, do a bit of extra homework, and spend a bit of time relaxing from her busy schedule. Ron used the Time Turner for more sleep, exploring the castle, slacking off in general, and homework. And Harry used the Time Turner in order to catch up on Ancient Runes, and practicing with the Patronus spell that Professor Lupin had showed him when he'd asked for help in dealing with the Dementors.

Needless to say, Hermione had jumped at the chance to learn the spell as well, with Ron being a semi-reluctant participant.

They didn't really work on homework any more than usual, but since they were now granted a lot more time to make certain that such things got done, they were getting better at their work nonetheless.

Ron was almost showing off during his Muggle Studies lessons, already knowing a few things from being exposed to his father, and learning more things from his muggleborn/-raised friends. He was enjoying his time in the spotlight, and no longer complained – too much – whenever Hermione lectured him about something he'd gotten wrong or didn't know about muggles.

Hermione was continuing to take the teachers with storm, much like she always did.

And Harry proved himself to be fairly talented in regards to Ancient Runes, easily catching up to the other students. He'd however developed a slightly bewildering tendency to sketch out runes in his food, and was easily distracted from common conversation by the appearance of any magical object in his line of sight. Considering how the many paintings, the armors, and several of the passageway-openings counted as 'magical objects', his friends had gotten into the habit of smacking him lightly, in order to shake him out of his curiosity-induced daze, several times each day.

Of course, just because he could understand many of the runes, and was for once actually enjoying whatever homework that was given, didn't mean he was exceptionally talented at it. He was still awed whenever he saw a working runic array, and quick to classify anything more complicated than 'I glow when activated' as far out of his league. Really, the more he learned, the more he realized that he didn't yet know. But he was looking forward to learning.

XXX

Arthur Weasley stared at the giant grim-like dog sitting in front of him.

A part of him was terrified that it might really be a grim, and that one of his family members were going to almost get themselves killed this year too, but mostly he was trying to figure out why the dog wasn't moving.

Or rather, why it only seemed to be moving in a very specific, and repeating pattern.

Was it playing charades?

Feeling immensely out of his depth, Arthur tried to guess.

"It has... four legs?" The dog nodded enthusiastically, before returning to motion. "It's... very small?" Another enthusiastic nod. "It's... old?" The dog nodded again, this time turning unusually focused eyes on the confused Weasley.

Not really understanding what it was talking about, Arthur nonetheless turned when the dog glanced meaningfully towards his house.

"It's in my house?" He paused, suddenly understanding. "You lost something small and old with four legs in my house, and want me to get it for you?" A very serious nod was his response.

Shrugging at the oddity that was apparently becoming his life, Arthur made his way back indoors in search of something old, small and with four legs. He couldn't remember them having any pets other than the family owl, which should really rule out the pet-category...

Arthur froze in mid-motion, turning back towards the uncharacteristically focused dog as he suddenly recalled how Percy had picked up a rat one day. How the rat was now spending its first school year at the Burrow since it'd been passed down to Ron, and how it really should've passed on half a decade ago.

"The rat?" He asked the dog as he stood frowning in the doorway.

The dog growled, a vicious madness flashing through its eyes that hadn't been there before, but it didn't move beyond a very slow nod.

Arthur was now pretty much convinced that the dog wasn't a dog. He doubted that any dog could be quite that human. But it didn't seem ready to attack anyone but Scabbers, the rat that he was starting to suspect might not be quite as ordinary as they'd presumed.

Nodding quietly, Arthur turned back into the house. He would show the dog Scabbers, and then he'd demand an explanation from the canine.

XXX

"Your father was a prankster?" Hermione asked with a sort of dawning horror that can only stem from suddenly realizing that her friend's desire to get to know his parents might turn him into a delinquent.

"Something like that." Harry nodded.

Ron was excluded from this particular conversation on behalf of sleep, which was probably a good thing, seeing as how Harry would most likely end up getting into a discussion with Hermione, and if Ron took his side then she'd never fold, just out of principle.

Hermione frowned at him. "I really hope that you're not planning on doing something stupid."

"I'm not." He hurriedly assured her. "I just want to... hear some stories, I suppose. Make them more real." He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Pranking is the twins area." He paused as a shiver made its way down his spine. "I really don't think I'd be able to measure up to them, and I think it'd end badly if I tried."

Hermione stared at him for a moment, trying to judge his sincerity, before nodding decisively. "Good."

"But I have this map..." He pulled out an old blank piece of parchment. "And I thought it'd be fun to explore Hogwarts a bit more... you know?"

It only took the mentioning of how more shortcuts meant less travel-time, resulting in longer time spent learning, for Hermione to fold like a cheap suit. And so the Hogwarts Exploration Expeditions was born.

XXX

Arthur took a deep breath as Amelia Bones finally arrived at the Burrow.

"Arthur? I trust you have a good reason for calling me here?" She demanded.

"Yes." He said simply, motioning for her to follow before walking back outside.

A giant grim-like dog sat on their lawn, glaring daggers at a very nervous common rat locked within an Unbreakable cage that stood in front of it.

It was a very bizarre scene, Arthur admitted silently to himself, but it would get a lot weirder before the day was over.

XXX

"Sirius Black Proven Innocent." Hermione read out loud the next day at the Gryffindor table.

The rest of the school was quite a bit louder in their exclamations than the muggleborn girl, but Harry was more curious about how it seemed as if he had a godfather. That was probably the most amazing thing ever. Would he finally be able to leave the Dursleys permanently? That would be great. But what if he didn't want anything to do with Harry?

It was all very dizzying for the Savior of the Wizarding World, and Ron's horror-filled exclamations of Scabbers' true identity didn't make it any easier to deal with.

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A/n: I liked the idea, I liked how it turned out, but I completely ruined the plot for Third Year. So in the end, I kind of just let it go.