After an uneventful summer, Harry once again found himself in Diagon Alley. Feeling defenseless without one, Harry's first stop was at Ollivander's wand shop.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, what brings you here this time?"

Harry wasn't entirely sure how much of what had happened in the forbidden corridor was known outside of Hogwarts, and still wasn't sure whether or not he liked the wand maker, so he skimped on the details. All he said was that there had been an incident near the end of the school year and that his wand had been destroyed during the events.

Ollivander nodded solemnly, "Just like Mr. Longbottom's then. That must have been quite some incident that two wands were destroyed – it takes quite a lot to break one in the first place but to outright destroy it…" he trailed off as he went into the back. "Mr. Longbottom was quite a tricky customer. You might find it interesting to know that he received one of the two wands made from those hairs you gave me last summer."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, mahogany and Mothra hair. I cannot completely predict that wand's properties, but I would wager that young Neville will have a knack for defense in the coming year. I don't bring that up just for idle conversation; I have a strong feeling that one of the other wands I constructed for you will be your match."

Ollivander returned holding a wand in each hand. Holding out the first he said, "Cherry wood and Manda's scale. Phenomenally powerful from what I can tell. Try it."

Harry held it and gave it a wave.

"I can feel the power… but it's like it doesn't want to respond to me."

The wand maker took it back murmuring, "Yes, I thought as much. The scale seems to make it quite temperamental. Ah well, that means some other lucky customer will get quite a surprise. Now try this one: laurel wood and Mothra's hair."

This time Harry felt the familiar warmth running from the wand into his body, but a bit more intensely than with his old one. Just to be sure, he gave the wand a wave and swirl of sparkling gold moths emerged.

"I do believe we have a match. As a custom work that will be thirty galleons."

Harry handed over the gold coins quite happily and set off to do the rest of his school shopping. He took his time browsing in each shop, albeit carefully in order to keep his scar out of sight. Last year Harry had felt somewhat rushed by Hagrid, but this year he had arrived an entire day early and had plans to rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron, so he knew he had plenty of time.

There was one shop in particular that sold enchanted clocks meant to keep track of your loved ones with such "times" as traveling, working, and even mortal peril. Harry had hesitantly asked the shopkeeper what good the mortal peril option was without knowing what was happening, and the man replied that under most circumstances it wasn't that good, but if you knew somebody else who knew where your loved one was in peril, you could contact that person and they might be able to save a life.

Harry inquired how much it was and how to make it work. While not very expensive, in order to make one work you needed everyone you planned to track in the same room as the clock for at least a moment. Harry had sighed wearily at that and thanked the man for his time. He'd hoped to be able to use it to track down Jet Jaguar, but there was simply no way to do so.

There was another shop that sold enchanted trunks that were bigger on the inside and had featherlight charms on them. Harry seriously considered getting one, but had a vision of falling in and getting trapped. No, he wouldn't be getting one of those – not yet anyway.

Harry restocked his potion supplies at the apothecary, and while he was sorely tempted by the solid gold cauldron (there were apparently some very advanced, highly beneficial potions that treated pewter as an ingredient rather than a container) he decided that he wouldn't be able to learn enough with Snape teaching the subject to justify the cost.

Finally, Harry entered Flourish and Blotts. This time he planned on really taking his time to explore the shop – he'd gotten lucky last year with the survival guide and now he wondered what else was lurking in the corners and crevices of the store. He realized that he could probably ask one of the employees for help, but Harry liked to explore and examine things on his own.

There was one book so large and heavy that he could barely lift it called the Encyclopedia Magicka, which was apparently a compendium of all the wizarding world's spells, history, and famous figures. Harry considered it, but decided he'd get it another time.

There were apparently unofficial companion books to the Standard Book of Spells series called the Nonstandard Book of Spells, which were supposedly full of spells that were useful or amusing, but not necessary to know for school or life. After a moments hesitation, Harry bought the complete set of both series and stuffed them into his trunk. Though substantially heavier, Harry was full capable of carrying it thanks to his exercise regimen.

In the bookstore wonders never ceased. There was one book that claimed to be a stack of books all on top of each other called the Intangible Book of Intangibility, which Harry found that he could not even touch. An employee saw him trying and used her wand to move it out of his reach, telling him that that was the entire collection all layered on top of each other and was only for witches and wizards advanced enough to get a copy to the counter in the first place.

There was another book the size of a postage stamp with an expansion charm between the front and back that was all about keeping secrets in the wizarding world, starting with making things hard to find. Another one bound in silk reputed to be about how to live in luxury purely through the twin magics of conjuration and transfiguration, but it had an exorbitant price.

Finally, there were two books that Harry saw and immediately bought. The employee ringing him up almost put them back, saying that they were far too advanced for someone his age, but Harry would not be denied. Deciding that fame had to be good for something, Harry flashed his scar at the man, who immediately stammered an apology sounding nearly as bad as professor Quirrell.

In his room at the Leaky Cauldron, Harry brought out the two books that had caught his eye.

The Four Humours of Magick was an aged looking book. It was a bit difficult to read given its older dialect, but it was still in English and Harry was determined. It postulated that instead of (or in addition to; apparently magical researchers disagreed) Light and Dark magic, there were four other styles: Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic. Much of the foreword was historical background that Harry simply wasn't interested in, but eventually it did provide a helpful chart.

Melancholic magic was associated with earth – as in stone and soil, rather than the entire planet to Harry's disappointment – and avoiding problems. Phlegmatic magic had a connection to water and was about influencing events to get what you wanted; to Harry's fascination it had a weird connection to divination, and was in its own words "about influencing the tides of fate so that the path of least resistance is the path most beneficial to oneself." Sanguine magic was connected to the air – not so much wind as "the subtle magic of words" – and was about being "socially useful," whatever that meant. Finally, Choleric magic was connected to fire and was about ruling things – be it other people, oneself, or one's own fate.

Feeling a bit of headache coming on, Harry went to the next book which he suspected was much more straightforward. The 52 Elemental Curses, compiled by Blenheim Zarkoff, was exactly what it said it was – a collection of the fifty-two curses that revolved around the elements. Apparently there were thirteen spells each of fire, water, wind, and lightning – ten "normal" curses that were all essentially the same one with increasing amounts of power behind them, and three utterly unique and devastating attacks.

Harry went to bed in a good mood that night, but awoke suddenly in the dark to see a small figure trying to grab his trunk. Deciding that the restriction on underage magic could go do something unpleasant to itself before he'd let that happen, he tried to cast a curse at the figure… but it felt like halfway to the wand tip the power stopped.

Harry was very confused until he remembered what Mothra had said – a wand with her hair in it would not harm the innocent. But that meant that who or whatever was trying to steal his trunk had a very good reason.

"Lumos."

The figure was small, around three-and-a-half feet tall, with pointy bat-like ears, large eyes, a long thin nose, and wearing a ratty looking pillowcase. It was staring at him in a mixture of awe and fright.

"What, er, I mean who are you and why are you trying to steal my stuff?"

The creature replied in a high pitched voice, "I is Dobby sir, a house elf. Dobby is trying to take your things because the great Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts."

Harry looked bewildered. "I don't follow. How would getting rid of my things stop me from going to Hogwarts and why shouldn't I go?"

"Dobby thought that without his things Harry would fail and be expelled, and forced to go somewhere where it would be safe. Bad things is coming to Hogwarts this year."

"What kind of bad things?"

Dobby looked like he wanted to say something, but instead started bashing his head against Harry's trunk.

"What are you doing? Stop that!"

"Dobby must punish himself. Dobby was about to say bad things about his master."

"So your master is going to cause bad things to happen at Hogwarts?"

Dobby nodded once, bashed his head against the trunk, and then shook his head.

"So yes and no?"

Dobby nodded vigorously.

"So your master is going to… do something to make someone or something else make the bad things happen?"

Dobby nodded excitedly.

"Okay then. I'll promise not to go if you'll promise not to bother me anymore."

Dobby looked flabbergasted. "All-all Dobby needed to do was ask?"

"Well, yes. I mean, if you kept trying to stop me with no explanation then that would make me even more determined to go, but if this is something so bad that you're willing to hurt yourself trying to protect me, then I won't go, simple as that."

Dobby looked ecstatic and expressed it vocally.

"Oh Dobby is so happy that the great Harry Potter is going to be safe. Dobby promises he will not bother the great Harry Potter if he will promise not to go to Hogwarts."

"I promise."

Dobby disappeared with a faint pop, and Harry let out a heavy sigh. Lying to the house elf's large puppy eyes had been difficult, and also made him feel bad for some reason, but it had been the most pragmatic thing to do. Sure, he could have stubbornly refused to listen and flat out told the elf he was going to go, but even an idiot would have been able to see that Dobby was preparing to do something drastic if Harry hadn't agreed not to go back. Now he could just turn up at the station and hope Dobby didn't realize the deception until it was too late.

Wondering what the danger could possibly be and hoping that his new books would be enough to prepare for it, Harry got back in bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note: I know that a lot of you wanted a chapter focusing on Jet Jaguar either escaping the Burrow or suffering under the experimentation of Arthur "what exactly is the function of a rubber duck?" Weasley, but the robot needs to stay right where he is right now for plot purposes. He took a beating from both Gigan and Megalon at the same time, he'll be able to handle one clueless wizard trying to figure things out; he'll be fine. Probably.

Now, some of you may ask why Harry is the one finding all of these extra books and not Hermione. The short answer is that it lets the plot run smoother, but I imagine you'll want the long answer. In the books, Hermione is a very studious, by the book kind of person. We also know that by the time of Deathly Hallows, she knows the most spells out of anyone in the trio. What I'm trying to say (and probably failing to) is that Hermione likely would have checked out or bought these books for herself if they existed in canon, but never really thought that they would be useful in their adventures or simply preferred the spells in her textbooks, and since neither Harry nor Ron were ever very studious in canon they kind of just followed her lead.