"Can we go to the pet shop first?"
Ron spoke up while holding Scabbers by the tail and sizing him up.
"Scabbers has been listless lately; I want to go to the pet shop to buy him some medicine or something."
"Sure, the pet shop is right over there." Harry agreed without hesitation, pointing toward a location ahead.
Amanda and Hermione also expressed that they had no problem with it, following the two toward the pet shop.
While walking, Amanda's gaze instinctively fell upon Scabbers. The grey rat now looked "soul-shaken," letting Ron carry him without the slightest reaction.
Blinking mechanically, Amanda began to analyze potential rat-related illnesses for Scabbers in her mind.
She filtered through them one by one, but none of them fit.
It was possible that because Scabbers was a pet of the Wizarding World, his illnesses differed from the Muggle World rats she was familiar with.
Amanda summarized the most likely explanation in her brain.
Entering the pet shop behind Harry and Ron with Hermione, Amanda felt a flash of ginger-orange pass by in front of her.
This was immediately followed by a cry of pain from Ron, "Ow!"
He was seen clutching his head; Scabbers had already fallen to the ground and was fleeing frantically, chased by a large ginger cat.
"Merlin's beard... is that a little tiger?"
Ron rubbed his scalp, stepped forward to drive the big cat away, and picked Scabbers up again.
The shop assistant also hurried over, apologizing repeatedly to Ron, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Crookshanks is a bit too naughty."
"It's fine." Ron pursed his lips, rubbed his forehead a few more times, and handed the rat Scabbers to the assistant.
"I'd like to trouble you to take a look at him. He's been listless lately; is there any medicine he can take?"
The assistant locked Crookshanks back up, took Scabbers, and began to examine him carefully.
Standing to the side, Amanda listened to the conversation between the assistant and Ron, but her eyes were on Hermione.
She saw Hermione looking at Crookshanks in the cage, her eyes filled with a certain eagerness.
Hermione wanted this cat.
Combined with Hermione's expression, Amanda easily analyzed and reached this conclusion.
Shifting her gaze back to the assistant, Amanda prepared to follow the voice from the depths of her mind and buy this cat to give to Hermione.
But before that, she first heard the conversation between the assistant and Ron.
Ron stated that Scabbers had lived for at least a dozen years and was previously his brother Percy's pet.
The assistant was extremely surprised by this, saying he might just be too old, and suggested Ron could switch to one of the black rats in their shop.
Ron waved his hand in refusal, so the assistant recommended he buy a bottle of Rat Tonic for pets.
Amanda watched Scabbers being put back into Ron's pocket, her brain quickly mobilizing relevant information.
The lifespan of a rat is generally two to three years; the longest-living rat known lived for nine years and one hundred and eight days.
Scabbers had lived much longer than that, which seriously violated biological definitions.
Furthermore, based on the economic situation of Ron and the Weasley family, and analyzed from the fact that he needed Harry to lead the way to find the pet shop when buying medicine just now...
Scabbers should not have consumed items like Potions that could affect the body before this.
Therefore, regarding Scabbers' obviously abnormal long lifespan, there were only two possibilities.
Amanda quickly summarized two conclusions: first, as she had thought before coming to the pet shop, because Scabbers was a pet of the Wizarding World, he was inherently different from Muggle World rats—different illness states, different manifestations, and different lifespans.
However, this possibility could be easily ruled out by the assistant's reaction, because as a professional, he had also been surprised by Scabbers' long lifespan just now.
It could be judged that pets in the Wizarding World should also have normal physiological reactions like aging; compared to similar creatures in the Muggle World, their lifespans might be longer, but not by too much.
The first possibility was ruled out; Amanda deleted the first scenario from her mind.
That left only the second possibility, which could perfectly explain why Scabbers possessed such a long lifespan.
Animagus. This was the second time today the word had come to Amanda's mind.
If a Wizard transformed into a rat, they could indeed live for a dozen years; after all, human lifespans themselves are nearly a century.
Among them, Wizards lived even longer; a dozen years was but a fraction of their life.
Therefore, Amanda's gaze locked onto the slightly bulging pocket on Ron's chest.
There was an eighty percent probability that Scabbers was an Animagus.
However, considering this Animagus had been by Ron and his brother's side for over a dozen years without doing anything...
It was very likely... he was a failed Animagus who had completely become an animal.
It was also possible he simply had some unavoidable reason for not being able to transform back.
Having deduced all conclusions, Amanda shifted her gaze back to the assistant.
Regardless of the situation, Scabbers had not posed a threat to Ron's safety, so Amanda independently determined the situation was not urgent and did not take the initiative to explain.
What her brain was most concerned with now was helping Hermione buy that cat.
Seeing from the corner of her eye that Hermione had started reaching into her pocket for her wallet, Amanda took the lead and stepped in front of the assistant.
"Hello, how much is that cat?"
Amanda pointed back at Crookshanks, who was lying in the cage licking his fur, and asked in an indifferent voice.
"Crookshanks?"
The assistant was slightly stunned, clearly not expecting someone to actually want to buy Crookshanks.
His attitude immediately became more enthusiastic. "Crookshanks has been with us for a long time, but believe me, he will be a very good pet."
"If you want him, little girl, five Galleons—no, how about I sell him to you for three Galleons?"
Considering that Crookshanks had indeed been in the shop for a long time without being sold, the assistant quite readily lowered the price for Amanda.
"Okay."
Amanda nodded without hesitation, pulled the money bag given to her by the world consciousness from her wizard robe, reached in, and pulled out five Galleons.
She handed three to the assistant and then put the remaining two along with the money bag back into her wizard robe.
The transaction between Amanda and the assistant was lightning fast, right up until Amanda turned to pick up Crookshanks' cage.
Only then did the three of them—Hermione, Harry, and Ron—snap out of it. Hermione's face clearly showed a look of relief and joy as she looked at Amanda.
Although she hadn't been able to buy Crookshanks as a pet herself, she was even more heartened that Amanda was actually going to keep a pet!
This was Amanda taking the initiative to do something unrelated to studying; if they weren't in the pet shop, Hermione would have wanted to go up and hug her, rubbing against her cheek.
Harry and Ron also looked at the scene in a bit of a daze. Amanda was taking the initiative to keep a pet?!
Merlin's beard, was this actually real?
Last year, they had struggled just to get Amanda to come out for a snowball fight, and now she was starting to keep a pet on her own?
While feeling happy for his friend in his heart, Ron still felt a bit of lingering fear looking at Crookshanks in the cage.
"Oh... no matter how I look at it, he looks like a little tiger."
"Don't be silly, Ron," Hermione turned to look at him, "Crookshanks is clearly a cat, or maybe... a bit of Kneazle cross?"
"He certainly is." The assistant nodded in confirmation.
"Alright," Ron shrugged, "as long as Amanda likes him herself."
Hearing this, Amanda cast a deadpan look at Hermione, and then, under the gaze of the four people present, she reached out and handed the cage containing Crookshanks to Hermione.
"Hermione wanted him, so I bought him for Hermione."
Her tone and intonation, which never changed like eternal ice, nevertheless caused the three people present, including Hermione, to gasp sharply.
Hermione swallowed, restraining her excitement as she reached out to take the cage.
"Thank you, Amanda..."
She heard herself say these words in a somewhat raspy, low voice.
Harry and Ron also held their breath while watching this scene; the two of them even "sensibly" backed away a few steps.
Leaving the space entirely to Amanda and Hermione, the assistant also seemed to sense something and silently lowered his head, pretending to be very busy.
"You... you've started to take the initiative to react to the outside world!"
Holding Crookshanks' cage, Hermione hugged Amanda, rubbing forcefully against the crook of Amanda's neck.
She then held Amanda's head and kissed her cheek hard. "That's wonderful, truly wonderful."
On a day that wasn't a special holiday, Amanda had taken the initiative to give her a gift.
Didn't this prove that Amanda was starting to socialize with the outside world of her own accord?
The excitement Hermione felt because of this was much more than just gaining a pet.
"Meow..."
A soft cat meow sounded; Crookshanks poked his head to the edge of the cage and licked Amanda's hand hanging by the cage.
"Crookshanks is happy for you too."
Hermione looked down at him with a smile, and Amanda also looked down; Crookshanks gave another soft meow toward the two of them.
The interaction between the two girls lasted for a while before ending. It wasn't until they walked out of the pet shop that Ron looked at Hermione somewhat hesitantly.
"Um, Hermione... Crookshanks won't eat Scabbers, will he?"
Ron glanced at the pocket on his chest, where Scabbers was sleeping soundly.
"How could he, Ron?" Hermione shook her head with a chuckle, lifting the cage and reaching in to poke Crookshanks. "Crookshanks will usually be with me in the girls' dormitory, and Scabbers is with you in the boys' dormitory; that situation won't happen."
"That's good then."
Ron breathed a sigh of relief, and the group of four continued their stroll through Diagon Alley.
When the meeting time arrived, Amanda followed Hermione and the others back to the Leaky Cauldron.
The Weasley family planned to stay at the Leaky Cauldron with Harry for a few days, just in time to take him to King's Cross Station on the day they returned to school.
Amanda and Hermione said their goodbyes; school was about to start again, and Hermione still wanted to spend good time with her parents.
When Mr. and Mrs. Granger returned from work in the evening and saw Hermione sitting on the sofa, holding Crookshanks in her left arm and Amanda in her right, the couple's mouths twitched violently in perfect synchronization.
Their daughter's appearance was just so... so, indescribably odd.
"Mom, Dad, good evening." Hermione turned her head, a bright smile on her face.
"Good evening," Mr. and Mrs. Granger replied with a nod, "good evening, Amanda."
Amanda had been looking down previewing this year's Charms book, but she immediately put the book down upon hearing her full name.
She also stood up from Hermione's embrace and nodded politely to Mr. and Mrs. Granger.
"Auntie, Uncle, good evening."
"And this cute little cat is?" Mrs. Granger rubbed Amanda's head and pulled her to sit on the sofa together, looking at Crookshanks in Hermione's arms.
"Amanda gave him to me," Hermione said.
Her face wore an irrepressible, smug smile.
"Oh..." Mrs. Granger nodded understandingly, while simultaneously reaching out to gently pinch her daughter's cheek to keep her from getting too carried away.
Hermione stuck out her tongue, obediently tucked away her little smugness, and lifted Crookshanks to rub against his little belly.
"Meow."
Crookshanks gave a long meow, and Mr. Granger stepped forward, looking at him somewhat uncertainly.
"Do cats bought from the Wizarding World need vaccinations? What about neutering? Does it need to be done?"
Hermione, who was holding Crookshanks up, froze, and Crookshanks, who was being held by Hermione, also stiffened his body in synchronization.
Hermione shook her head hesitantly, "I... I don't really know about that."
Crookshanks, meanwhile, cast a glance at Mr. Granger because of those two words: neutering.
"Well, it looks like you're not willing to do the latter."
Mr. Granger tapped Crookshanks' cat head and considered for a moment. "Then Hermione, just ask the Professor after you go to school. If it's needed, it won't be too late to take him for vaccinations when you come back for the holidays."
"Okay."
Hermione nodded in agreement; at any rate, Crookshanks was quite well-behaved in her hands, and she wasn't afraid of him scratching or biting anyone.
Sitting next to Mrs. Granger, Amanda watched Crookshanks as Hermione held him up; since analyzing Scabbers in Diagon Alley, she had begun searching her brain for information regarding Wizarding World pets.
However, she had found nothing until now; there were no descriptions regarding this aspect in the books she had read.
She figured she probably hadn't seen it yet; her reading speed was still too slow.
Amanda determined secretly in her mind; otherwise, this situation where she lacked the relevant knowledge reserve when needed would not have occurred.
She needed to read more books, faster, and remember them.
Thinking this, she lowered her head again, her brain working at high speed, memorizing the Charms textbook in her hand as quickly as possible.
Even her page-turning speed increased by a few notches.
Seeing that Amanda had immersed herself in studying again, Mrs. Granger stood up silently and went to the kitchen with her husband to prepare dinner.
Hermione, meanwhile, put Crookshanks down, moved next to Amanda, wrapped her arms around her waist, and began reading the Charms textbook with her.
She also needed to preview properly, of course.
Amanda turned her eyes expressionlessly toward Hermione, only turning to the next page after confirming she had finished reading this one as well.
As for the arms around her waist, she acted as if she hadn't noticed, giving no reaction whatsoever.
In the room with a comfortable temperature, Amanda was held tightly by Hermione, the two of them studying the contents of the Charms book at what could be called a lightning pace.
Outside the wondrous and magnificent Castle, creatures wearing robes and hoods, filled with the scent of decay, arrived at their posts one after another.
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