Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I really loved reading all your comments!

Yet another shopping chapter! I'm sure you're all sooo excited XD

Chapter Three!

A few days before term began; Harry received a jumbled letter from Ron that had clearly been written in a fit of pure excitement. Ron revealed that his family would be coming to spend the day and night before term started with Harry in Diagon Alley. They too would be staying at the Leaky Cauldron and Hermione would come along too.

Harry whooped with joy and gleefully told Wolfsbane and Hedwig the great news. Wolfsbane seemed to perk up upon hearing that they would be coming here and staying, and followed Harry as he excitedly pranced around the room, trying to grab the letter out of Harry's hand.

Harry woke to pounding on his door.

"Harry! Harry!"

"Can ickle Harry-"

"-come out to play?"

"Harry! Wake up! We have shopping to do!"

Wolfsbane was startled awake and stared, balefully at the door; Hedwig lifted her head out from under her wing to look around and then replaced it. Then Mrs. Weasley's voice rose above all the others, "Everyone hush, there are other people staying here you know! Harry knows you're here, and I'm sure he's awake now."

Harry eagerly jumped out of bed, ran over to the door, and threw it open. Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Mrs. Weasley were standing there.

Hermione jumped at Harry and hugged him fiercely, Ron grinned sheepishly at him from next to his brothers. Mrs. Weasley merely looked amused.

"Now, let's give Harry some time to get ready, back downstairs everyone," Mrs. Weasley began shuffling them all back towards the stairs.

"Wait, I have something to show Ron and Hermione," Harry exclaimed, "they can stay, I'll change in the bathroom!"

"What can you show them-"

"-That you can't show us?"

"Nothing," Harry replied, "Come look!"

Harry pulled Ron and Hermione into his room, and they both stopped when they saw Wolfsbane looking at them. Fred and George were behind them and they whistled, clearly impressed. Mrs. Weasley shook her head and headed back downstairs.

"His name's Wolfsbane!" Harry declared proudly.

"Where's he going to stay during school?" Hermione demanded, "He's not on the approved list."

"Dumbledore himself said he could come," Harry announced, beaming, and he closed the door to his room. "Hang on and I'll get ready."

Harry was in the bathroom, dressing, when he heard Hermione's shocked gasp, and then the twins yelling, "He's running away!" followed by mad scrambling. This was followed by Ron screaming in distress, and Harry, half dressed, threw the door open to see what was wrong and was faced with Wolfsbane holding a squirming rat in his mouth.

"Make him put Scabbers down!" Ron squeaked out, "That dumb mutt better not have hurt him!"

Harry reached out for Scabbers who was squirming wildly, and Wolfsbane gently released the rat once Harry had a good hold on him. It was then that Harry noticed Scabbers looked awful.

"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked, shocked.

"Your stupid-"

"He's not stupid!" Harry yelled, "Scabbers isn't hurt at all! Leave Bane alone!"

Ron instantly relaxed upon hearing Scabbers wasn't hurt.

"Is he sick?" Harry asked, examining the terrified rat.

"Probably," Ron sighed looking anxious, "he's been sick for weeks, his hair's falling out, he's lost tons of weight."

"He's going to die."

"He's too old."

"He's not going to die," Ron yelled at his brothers, "he's just a little sick!"

Hermione was nibbling her lip as she studied all of them, and she said, "I think the dog just caught Scabbers so he couldn't run away."

"Probably," Harry agreed, "Wolfsbane's a good dog."

Wolfsbane wagged his tail, proudly.

"You should get him a cage," Hermione said, "if he's sick it'll keep him from running off and getting into trouble, or eating something poisonous. That's probably what happened! He must've accidentally eaten something bad!"

Ron gently took Scabbers from Harry and looked down at his ill pet.

"I have an extra cage for Hedwig," Harry told Ron, "we could ask your mom to make the bars smaller so Scabbers can't get out."

Wolfsbane barked in agreement and trotted over to get the cage Dumbledore had brought Hedwig in.

"It'll be for his own good," Hermione assured Ron, "you can just keep him in there until he's better."

"Not a bad idea," one of the twins told Ron. The second one added, "I don't know why you and Percy left him free all these years anyway, I'm surprised he hasn't tried to run off before."

"Just till he's better," Harry needled Ron with a smile, and he took the cage from Wolfsbane.

Ron hesitantly agreed, and Harry pulled on a shirt and some shoes and the whole group headed downstairs. Ginny looked extremely impressed by Wolfsbane and eagerly patted his head; Percy didn't look the least bit happy that the headmaster had told Harry he could bring a dog to school.

Hermione took the cage to Mrs. Weasley and explained what happened in the room. Mrs. Weasley seemed to think it was a great idea to keep Scabbers put away for the time being, and agreed with Hermione that he'd probably eaten something bad for him and that was why he was sick. Once Mrs. Weasley made the cat rat-proof, Ron had to shove fiercely struggling Scabbers inside and then lock the door behind him.

Then Wolfsbane jumped up, easily unlatched the door with his nose, and then looked to Mrs. Weasley to do something about it, she made the locking mechanism much more complex and then after sarcastically asking Wolfsbane if he approved of it now, Wolfsbane barked and licked her hand.

After that, Ron ran Scabbers up to his room and then met them all back downstairs. Then they all piled out behind the Leaky Cauldron to head into Diagon Alley for shopping.

"I'm all done," Harry informed Ron and Hermione, "Dumbledore took me shopping for most things the day after I got here, and I took care of everything else."

Hermione began eagerly asking about the books they had this year and Ron groaned and turned his attention to Wolfsbane, who yipped happily at him.

"Did Dumbledore buy anything?" One of the twins asked, looking mischievous.

"Some robes and some quills," Harry replied, "and he made me buy a robe, and gave me two of the quills he bought."

"Did he make you buy robes like he wears?" Ron asked, snickering.

"No," Harry replied, firmly, "it was black, nothing special about it-he does all his shopping in the second hand store, you know."

This made all the Weasleys stare at him in shock.

"He told me," Harry insisted, "said he always finds the best robes in secondhand stores."

That made a few of the Weasley children snort as they knew the sorts of things found in secondhand stores.

"The one he made me buy was just black," Harry continued, "it's pretty plain and simple, Madam Malkin had to take it in a lot, but she said I could let it out when I grew. It took her two days to fix! Normally, it only takes her a few minutes!"

"Well, that is odd," Mrs. Weasley commented, not seeming too concerned with the conversation. Then she turned to the group and put her hands on her hips, "Now, I can go and take care of everyone's robes, which means you can go about your own shopping, but absolutely no leaving Diagon Alley at all, no misbehaving, no playing tricks on other people, and no breaking anything! I'll meet you all at Fortescue's at 1 for ice cream."

Immediately, after receiving instructions Fred and George ran off one direction, Ginny tailing after them; Percy another; and Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Wolfsbane headed to the Magical Menagerie.

"I feel left out," Hermione complained, "I'm the only one without a pet, and now Harry has two! It's time I got one too!"

They walked in and looked around eagerly for a pet for Hermione; Wolfsbane waited at the entrance, but was sniffing at the shop's entrance, clearly curious about what was inside.

Then an animal trotted over to Wolfsbane and sniffed at him. Harry quickly ran over to retrieve the escapee, but Hermione beat him to it. She swept down, caught the orange creature up in her arms, and began cooing at it.

"Oh, he's perfect!" Hermione exclaimed blissfully and an ugly, smushed cat face lifted out of the protection of her arms.

Ron grimaced at it, and Harry was sure she could find a better-looking cat if she looked a bit harder.

"Look at him," Hermione insisted, holding the cat out at Harry, who finally nodded and lied, "He's a great cat, Hermione!"

Hermione beamed and stroked the striped orange cat's head, "And he likes Wolfsbane too, that's just perfect!"

"Perfect," Ron agreed.

Hermione quickly bounded up to the shopkeeper and purchased the cat on the spot.

"I've never seen her so happy," Harry commented to Ron.

"Well, it's her pet," Ron sighed.

"That's what matters," Harry agreed. "We'll just have to be good friends and not say anything bad about it."

"I'm just glad she asked you first," Ron confided, "I don't think I would've had the brains to lie."

Harry snickered, and then Hermione bounded back over to them, looking like she'd just won the lottery.

"Well," Harry asked with a smile, "shall we take him back to the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Oh yes!" Hermione exclaimed, "And then I can play with him!"

"I think I like this cat," Ron teased with a grin, "if he can get you to stop thinking about books and want to play!"

"You stop that right now, Ron Weasley," Hermione huffed, but she was still smiling.

Harry patted Wolfsbane on the head and they all headed back to the Leaky Cauldron.

That night after shopping and dinner, they all played a rousing game of exploding snap and Wolfsbane sat next to Harry and would nose the cards to advise Harry on which to play. Then the twins began complaining that he was cheating, and tried to force him to eat their newest invention as punishment.

After all the fun, Harry made his way back to his own room, but stopped when he heard voices. Bane looked up at him in confusion.

"They still haven't found Sirius Black."

Harry identified the voice as belonging to Mr. Weasley.

"What do you think he's up to?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"It's fairly obvious," Mr. Weasley sighed, "They heard him in his cell, talking in his sleep saying, 'He's at Hogwarts.' He could only be talking about Harry. They think he's going to try to finish the job he started thirteen years ago and kill him."

Harry froze and looked to Wolfsbane for some sort of comfort. Bane, however, looked frozen in place and was staring pointedly in the direction of the voices, then the dog whined, and grabbed Harry's sleeve to pull him away.

"No, wait," Harry murmured, wanting to hear more. Wolfsbane wouldn't have any of it though and began whining louder, and Harry knew if he didn't go now then Bane would surely attract the Weasleys' attention and he wouldn't hear anymore anyway.

Next time, the Hogwarts Express :O