Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really enjoyed reading all your comments! I hope you like this chapter as much as the last one!
Chapter Two!
The next morning, Harry and Wolfsbane made their way down to the main room of the Leaky Cauldron where Tom supplied them both with breakfast and then complimented Wolfsbane on his nice, clean coat.
After breakfast, Harry turned to Wolfsbane and asked, "What should we do today, boy?"
"Well, look! It's Harry Potter!" Someone exclaimed, and Harry flushed as nearly everyone in the entire room rushed up to him. To his surprise, Wolfsbane jumped in front of him and growled at the crowd keeping them at bay.
"It's okay, boy," Harry told the dog, calmly, but refrained from touching him. After all, Wolfsbane did seem like a nice dog, but Harry hadn't been exposed to many nice dogs in his life. Wolfsbane ceased his growling and sat down before Harry, looking very protective and on guard.
"Harry Potter! Just where you said he'd be Tom," An oddly dressed man in a bowler hat exclaimed, happily, and without minding the presence of Wolfsbane, walked right up to Harry and shook his hand. "I would've come last night, but you left quite a mess behind and when word came you were safe and tucked in bed, I thought best not to disturb you!"
"I am quite pleased to see you safe as well, my dear boy."
"Headmaster?" Harry exclaimed in shock and turned to look behind him. Dumbledore stood there, by the fireplace looking rather sooty. He held in one hand a very nice looking cage with Hedwig inside. She looked rather unhappy.
"Yes, indeed," the headmaster chuckled, "The minister and I have come to talk to you and return your owl, Hedwig, correct?"
Dumbledore held out the cage and Harry happily took it. He opened the cage and reached in to pet Hedwig, who bit at him in anger before turning away.
"I'm sorry I left you, girl," Harry told her, and it was true. Hedwig twisted her head around to glare at Harry. "I'll get you some really nice owl treats, I promise."
"I see you've found another friend, Harry," the headmaster said brightly, looking down at Wolfsbane who had ducked behind Harry's chair out of shyness. This was surprising to Harry because the dog had just defended him against a room full of strangers.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "His name's Wolfsbane."
Dumbledore and the other man chuckled.
"But where are my manners!" The man suddenly exclaimed, "I'm Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic."
He grabbed Harry's hand and shook it very firmly.
"When you went missing last night, we were all rather alarmed!" The minister informed him.
"Am I in trouble?" Harry asked, looking fearful.
"Oh, of course not!" The minister replied looking scandalized.
Dumbledore smiled, eyes twinkling, and explained, "It was a rather unfortunate accident, but an accident all the same. Don't worry, all of your relatives are just fine, we managed to reverse all the damage and obliviated everyone."
Harry flushed and looked down at his feet, he could see Wolfsbane's nose peeking out from under the chair.
"Do I have to go back?" Harry asked softly, and Wolfsbane's head peeked out to stare soulfully up at him.
"I think," Dumbledore said thoughtfully, "that you should be just fine staying here; your Aunt and Uncle seemed to be…approving of you spending the remainder of the summer elsewhere. Do you wish to stay here, or shall I find other accommodations?"
"I don't mind staying here," Harry replied, looking up at the two men, "I really don't."
"Then we'll arrange for you to be taken care of, Harry," the headmaster told him with a smile. "Just do be careful to not wander far."
"Yes, do stay within Diagon Alley," The minister insisted.
"Okay," Harry exclaimed, happily. Then he looked under his chair at Wolfsbane, "Did you hear, boy? We get to stay here for the rest of the break!"
Wolfsbane licked his face.
After that the minister quickly headed off and Dumbledore handed Harry his school letter, he'd apparently left it in his haste to get away from the Dursleys…just like he'd left Hedwig. Harry instantly felt extremely guilty.
"Harry," Dumbledore then told him, "I'm free until later this afternoon and if you would like, I could help you get most of your school supplies and then we could have lunch."
Harry beamed and nodded fervently, "That would be great, sir!" Then Harry paused and looked at his animals, "I need to put Hedwig up…can Wolfsbane come with us? Is that allowed?"
"I'm sure if Wolfsbane would like to come and if he is well-behaved it won't be a problem."
Harry smiled happily and took Hedwig up to his room, releasing her and she flew up on top of the wardrobe in Harry's room to sulk, Harry apologized to her once more, then dug out a packet of owl treats, and dumped them all onto the desk of the room.
Wolfsbane watched him as he did this and then looked up to where Hedwig was hiding. Harry then ran back over to the door to go back downstairs so as not to keep Dumbledore waiting, when Wolfsbane barked and walked over to a window and scratched at it, looking to Hedwig once more.
Harry groaned, when he realized he'd almost trapped Hedwig inside and opened up the window for her. Then Harry headed back downstairs, Wolfsbane trotting obediently behind him.
Harry and the headmaster spent a few hours going from store to store, each time Wolfsbane would stop at the door and sit patiently, waiting for Harry to return. Dumbledore was easily distracted by interesting things in the different stores, and would often point them out to Harry and encourage him to buy them.
While in Scribbulus Writing Instruments, Dumbledore found a type of ink called Gradient's Radiance that wrote in a steady stream of ever-changing colors. Then he pointed out a quill that was made of phoenix feather and only wrote in red, no matter what color ink you used. It also had numerous other qualities, which Dumbledore fiercely read while braiding his beard hair, one-handed.
After he'd finished reading, he bought all they had in stock and gave two to Harry as a birthday present.
Then he pulled Harry along to the secondhand robe shop that Mrs. Weasley bought Ron and Ginny's robes from, Dumbledore gleefully began digging though racks of robes and boxes full of robes and every so often he would exclaim and ask Harry to hold the robe for him.
Most of them were particularly awful, but were generally the sort Dumbledore seemed to like. There was one robe that was covered in bubbling cauldrons, another of extremely bright neon yellow, one appearing to be made of denim with frayed hems and holes on the elbows, and one with dancing hedgehogs on it.
Then Dumbledore held a black robe up to Harry's side and said, "I do believe this will work quite well for you, Harry, you'll have to have Madam Malkin take them in a bit, but they'll be just right for you I'm sure."
Then Dumbledore paid for his robes and wouldn't let Harry say no to buying the black robe that Dumbledore had found and Harry grudgingly bought them.
Then Dumbledore decided it was lunchtime and found a place with outdoor tables so Wolfsbane wouldn't have to wait outside, both Harry and Dumbledore snuck the dog food under the table. They spoke of innocuous things, like what classes Harry had chosen for electives and quidditch.
Harry really enjoyed himself, and after lunch they'd gone to Flourish and Blott's to get all of Harry's schoolbooks, and Dumbledore then pointed out a couple of other books that Harry might like to read.
Then Dumbledore walked him back to the Leaky Cauldron, but before he'd flooed back to Hogwarts he told Harry that so long as no one complained, Wolfsbane could come to school with him. For a moment Harry actually felt lonely once the man was gone, but then he'd looked down at Wolfsbane who was dog-grinning at him and smiled.
Harry wrote letters to both Ron and Hermione excitedly telling them of what happened, but Hedwig refused to carry the letters, Harry figured he had better leave her alone for another day. He then spent the rest of the evening reading.
Hedwig stared down, warily, from the top of the wardrobe at Wolfsbane. He was trotting around sniffing things and every so often would run up to Harry to get his head petted or to lay down next him and look at his book.
It was a very pleasant evening, and when dinner arrived, Harry shared some of his food with Hedwig, who still seemed extremely unsure about the presence of the dog in his room.
After dinner, things got a little unusual.
Wolfsbane trotted into the bathroom, shut the door behind him and moments later Harry heard the toilet flush and then Wolfsbane trotted back out of the bathroom to lie back down next to Harry.
Harry was completely dumbfounded by what had just happened.
Harry spent the rest of the break wandering around Diagon Alley, Wolfsbane trotting behind him and waiting at the shop doors for Harry to come out. When Harry had been in Madam Malkin's for fittings, Wolfsbane watched him from the window.
At the Magical Menagerie, Harry secured some nice treats for both Wolfsbane and Hedwig, who had forgiven him for leaving her after a day or two, thankfully.
Harry made nearly daily trips to Quality Quidditch Supplies and stared covetously at the brand new Firebolt, telling Wolfsbane about how much he loved quidditch and that he was a seeker, and then telling him about some of the more memorable games he'd played. He normally ended up getting an audience of children and adults when he told these stories, and then Harry would realize what happened and quickly run away, embarrassed.
Tom had taken a liking to Wolfsbane, who he had started calling Bane for short. Harry rather liked the nickname, and was considering doing the same. It seemed Wolfsbane had been the best-behaved dog Tom had ever seen during his time at the Leaky Cauldron.
Wolfsbane seemed to physically react with pride whenever Tom complimented him.
"He must not be all mutt," Tom was telling Harry over lunch one day, "look how well he holds himself. That's probably why he's got such good manners and training too, just enough of a good breed to make him really smart."
Wolfsbane barked and wagged his tail in agreement and Harry smiled down at him.
"He's lucky a nice boy like you found him too, he's put on a lot of weight," Tom added, patting Wolfsbane's side. "He must've been starving when you got here." Tom then turned an examining eye to Harry and added, "Same goes for you, kid, have a second helping! A little meat on your bones will do you a world of good!"
Wolfsbane barked his agreement to that as well.
That's all for now! Hope you liked it!