This is way overdue (like srsly), but chapter three is now here. I apologise for the wait; motivation for certain things goes up, goes down, you know? Also life stress is stressful.

Harry Potter was having the time of his life. He had settled into the independent lifestyle the Leaky Cauldron had provided him. Better than the Dursley's at least. Oh how they would be furious at him for blowing up Vernon's sister, Marge. She deserved it though. She had treated him like crap for the week she was staying at their house, and caused the wizard boy more pain than the Dursley's could inflict in a year. The only reason he wouldn't do it again was the threat of expulsion from Hogwarts, essentially his home. But Fudge, the prime minister, allowed him to go without charge on one condition: he couldn't re-enter the muggle world for the rest of the summer. That wasn't much of a punishment, if he was being honest. He spent these past few weeks practising spells, getting free ice cream, and looking longingly at the Firebolt.

Oh, the Firebolt. Its balance, its precision, and its sleek ash handle and birch twigs made it the fastest accelerating brooms on the market. How beautiful that combo made it look too! It took only his loyalty to his Nimbus and hatred of the Dursleys to stop him from getting this sacred cleaning tool, for something of this greatness had an equally great cost. How he could clean the other teams at Hogwarts had he had this! A smile came from his lips at the thought. Perhaps another day. That's what he's been saying for the past few weeks though. Today was the last day of the holidays, and with Harry's mood he might've been mistaken for any other muggle kid. But it wasn't the start of term that he was sad about. No, it was the fact that he hadn't seen his friends, Hermione and Ron, for the entirety of summer. Ron had tried to call earlier in the season, but Uncle Vernon made sure he could never answer. That dastardly man! Harry sighed; he was about to go to Hogwarts, after all. No reason to waste his time on his not-so-family. What he was hoping for as he gathered his galleons was to see his true family. Hopefully they'd be in Diagon Alley.

He calmly headed outside towards the courtyard. Not really a courtyard, per say, but it got the job done as a gateway to the wizarding world. Along the way he heard the various sounds of wizards and witches, this all became familiar noise to him. He quite liked it. As he drew his wand from his pocket, he stopped to notice the brown haired fellow in the courtyard. He was a less than tall, brown haired man, his eyes constantly hidden due to his sunglasses. Currently he was sitting on a box, binoculars around his neck. He was taking a sip of coffee from a traveller's mug, lid placed on the second box. Harry turned and decided to say hi.

"Hello Officer Barker." Harry greeted the wizard cop. He'd been by this place for at least a week, and while Harry didn't know why, it seemed boring enough to feel some sympathy. Barker looked up at the teenager, and almost choked on his drink.

"H-hello, Mr. Potter. D-didn't fancy seeing you here." The auror didn't think to register the possibility of the boy who lived to pay a visit to him. This seemed to still be the typical response, even after the wizarding world knew of his existence for the past three years. Especially during this summer, where he stayed at the Leaky Cauldron for three or so weeks. Barker must have noticed the look on Harry's face, for he adjusted his glasses and said,

"Sorry, Mr. Potter. What I meant was-"

"It's okay, Officer Barker. You're fine." Harry assured him. The nervousness of Barker soon faded. Come to think of it, Harry had never even heard of this auror before last week, where he began his stakeout by Diagon Alley. He put it out of his mind as he tapped his wand on the third brick, opening up the secret gate.

"Be careful out there, Mr. Potter!" Barker called out as Harry was leaving. He turned around to face him. "If you see any suspicious characters, be sure to let me know!"

"Okay Officer Barker. See you later!" Harry returned the call, and headed for Diagon Alley to take one last look at the Firebolt.

Incredibly, Harry was able to see Ron and Hermione on the last day of holiday, and they ate lunch at Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour. They caught up on their summer events; Ron and his family went to Egypt, Hermione went to Paris, and how Harry almost got arrested by the government. Scabbers, Ron's rat, definitely didn't have a good time there, as he had grown thinner and droopier than he normally was.

"There's a magical-creature shop just over there," Harry pointed to the small shop across the street with his spoon. "You can see if they've got anything for Scabbers."

"And I've always wanted an owl!" Hermione exclaimed, for her birthday was soon and she had been given enough galleons to buy an early gift for herself.

"How about a nice book?" Ron asked innocently. But Hermione shook her head.

So they paid for their ice cream and walked across the street.

The shop was more cramped than the average muggle pet store. The walls were so full of cages it seemed the cages were part of the wall, or even the wall itself. The restless noises of the various magical creatures rang out throughout the small space, all while a witch was helping out some wizard with double ended newts, whatever those were. Apparently they were two newt heads sown onto one body with no tail. Strange. But since that was going on, the golden trio looked around, examining the cages. There were cats, rabbits, snails, bunnies, toads, and many other magical creatures. There were even black rats playing some sort of improvised jump rope with their tails. Ron rolled his eyes at them. The witch's heavy, black spectacles looked up from the counter as the double ended newt wizard was leaving. She followed him. "Sorry, but I've fresh run out of algae. I'll be back soon, but my assistant can take care of whatever you need." she explained while heading out. "Assistant!" she yelled over her shoulder, "We've got a customer!" Then she addressed Ron. "Just bang your rat to the counter, and it'll all be dealt with." And she left with the wizard.

The assistant that came out from whatever back door the shop held was a young, tall fellow with a white shirt, blue jacket, and black pants. A gloved hand ran through his messy, blackish hair. Though the most eye-catching part was the strange device he held on his right arm. It was grey, with a blue cube spinning in place. It was connected to another grey device on his back that Harry couldn't see. There was a blue, translucent chain attached to it. As he walked over, he asked, "Hi, what can I help you with?" in something that definitely wasn't a British accent, maybe close to American?

"It's my rat, Scabbers," Ron began as he brought his pet out of his pockets and onto the counter. The rats in the cage stopped their skipping games to take a look at their woebegone cousin. The assistant picked up Scabbers carefully in his heavily gloved hands, "Hmm, how old is he?"

Ron shrugged, "Dunno. He used to belong to my brother."

"And any powers of any kind?" he asked while continuing to look closely at the rat. Ron didn't respond to that question, for Scabbers have had no trace of any interesting powers.

"When did you get this rat?" the assistant finally noticed the missing toe of Scabbers' front paw

"Like I said, my brother Percy gave him to me. I'm not sure how long it's been since he got him. You can ask him if you'd like. My family's in the Leaky Caldron for the night." Ron explained.

But the assistant was looking towards his right with a frown. "No, just..not now! Just shut up for now, okay?" he was mumbling. Was there someone there? Harry couldn't tell.

"Are you okay?" Herminione asked a tad loudly, which got his attention.

"Y-yes. I'm good, nothing to worry about." he responded, flustered. "So was he like this when you got him?" He focused the conversation back to Scabbers.

Ron nodded a yes, though he looked defensive while doing so.

"Ordinary rats like these aren't supposed to live that long," the assistant commented. "If you'd like something that can take a few more hits, we have some excellent ones over here–" he indicated towards the black rats, who started skipping again almost on cue.

"Show-offs," Ron rolled his eyes and muttered.

"O-okay then," the assistant almost looked disappointed. "Well, if you're sure you don't want a replacement, we do sell rat tonics," his hands fumbled as he reached under the counter and brought up a small red bottle with a rat on it.

"Okay," said Ron. "How much–OUCH!" Ron was interrupted as he buckled under the weight of a huge orange something landing onto his head, then propelled itself at Scabbers, spitting madly.

"HEY! NO, NO-NO-NO-NO-NO; CROOKSHANKS, HEY!" the assistant yelled out, but Scabbers shot out of his hands like soap, landing splay-legged on the wooden floor, then quickly scampered out the door into the alley.

"Scabbers!" Ron shouted and ran out of the shop almost as quickly as his rat, and Harry followed.

Hermione watched as the young assistant tried his best to calm the giant cat down. The big, fluffy tom seemed to slightly hiss in frustration at his failed catch. He was a bit bowlegged, and his face looked as flat as a pancake, but something about him spoke to Herminione. He was absolutely gorgeous.

"Excuse me," she spoke to the assistant. "How much is that cat?"

"Uh," the assistant looked around. "I think he's about 20 Gs-galleons. Galleons. I'd have to check." The assistant put down Crookshanks on the counter and looked around the shop. Hermione prepared her money as she stroked the tom's thick, fluffy fur. He was far better than any owl who-ing in the store. The assistant came back with some cat supplies.

"Alright, if you could just-"

Hermione slammed the 20 Galleons on the counter.

"O-okay..thanks." He took the money, putting it in the register. "Are you sure you want this one? He's pretty fierce."

"Yes, I do." Herminone replied firmly.

The assistant shrugged. "Alright then. Would you still like that rat tonic?" He offered the bottle to the young witch.

"Yes, please. Thank you." she nodded, and turned to exit the shop.

As she went to meet her friends, she couldn't help but think there was something…off, with the pet store assistant. But she wasn't worried about that now. The third year of Hogwarts was upon her, and she would take her studies to a higher level than before.

And, uh, yeah. That's it. Not gonna really focus too much on Harry's perspective (he already has an entire book about it), but for certain scenes and chapters I'll do it. Stay tuned for chapter 4 I guess. It won't be as long as this was, hopefully.