Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 74 The night before School

Chapter 74 The night before School

When Ivan and Hermione came out with Crookshanks, Ron and Harry had just made it back.

“Oh, my God, Hermione how could you buy that monster?” said Ron in surprise.

“So what, Ivan and I thought he was cute,” answered Hermione with a smile.

Seeing Harry and Ron look at him, Ivan quickly shook his head, their eyes then moved back to Hermione.

“Hermione, you can’t buy him. I mean, what about Scabbers?” said Ron while pointing to his pocket, “He needs rest and relaxation, how can he rest and relax with that monster around?”

“That reminds me, I was going to help you buy the rat tonic but Ivan said he could make the potion. With that Scabbers would be better in a second.”

“Rest assured, leave everything to me!” said Ivan as he patted his chest while thinking of a few interesting potions he was going to experiment with on Peter Pettigrew.

“But if it weren’t for your horrible idea, Hermione would have never bought a cat” Said Ron while looking at Ivan angrily.

“I’m not to blame, I didn’t insist on buying Crookshanks. The witch told Hermione it had been there for years.”

“Beside you who would…” said Ron sarcastically.

“Well, Ron!” Ivan hastily interrupted what he was about to say, “Crookshanks will sleep in Hermione’s room so there is not a chance it will be around Scabbers.”

The debate concluded, they bought a few more things and returned to the Leaky Cauldron, the rest of the Weasley family had also returned.

Everyone enjoyed the dinner that night, Tom had put three tables together for the Seven Weasleys, Ivan, Harry, and Hermione ate together.

When everyone was trying to eat a luxurious chocolate pudding, Mr. Weasley told everyone that the ministry would provide a couple of cars to take them to kings cross tomorrow.

They were curious why the ministry would send cars to pick them up, especially Percy, he asked a lot of questions but Mr. Weasley gave him vague answers.

Ivan noticed that Mr. Weasley’s ears were red.

It seems the disappearance of Sirius Black is making the ministry very nervous, they fear he might attack Harry.

He wonders how many Aurors will escort them tomorrow.

After they finished dinner it was already past ten o’clock, everyone was exhausted. They went upstairs to their rooms to make sure they had all their supplies and to get ready for bed.

Ivan went towards the bar to ask Old Tom for a cup of hot chocolate but as he passed one of the rooms he heard two angry voices coming from a small room.

He immediately knew it was Mrs. and Mr. Weasley, they were arguing over whether to tell Harry about Sirius Black, Mr. Weasley insisted that Harry should know everything, he shouldn’t be treated like a child.

Mrs. Weasly didn’t want to increase Harry’s mental burden.

Ivan chuckled a little, he was the one with the greatest mental burden.

Mrs. Weasley is right, sometimes knowing too much may be a horrible fate.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley kept going back and forth.

“Molly, you must know that Sirius black is said to be insane but he was smart enough to escape Azkaban. That is something that cannot be done by ordinary people.” said Mr. Weasley with a deep tone, “The ministry hasn’t made any progress in finding him, the only thing we know for sure is what he is after.”

“Arthur, Hogwarts is the safest place for Harry!”

“If Black can escape from Azkaban he can find a way into Hogwarts.” Mr. Weasley paused, “The children are always sneaking off to play and last semester they even went into the Chamber of Secrets, they fought a basilisk and you know who. Think about it, if on that night the Knight bus didn’t pick Harry up before the Ministry of Magic found him, he would have died already!”

“No one can be certain Black is after Harry.”

“Molly, how many times must I tell you. This wasn’t reported in the paper because Fudge didn’t allow it, the dementors told him that Black had been talking in his sleep for some time, he kept saying: He is at Hogwarts, he is at Hogwarts!” said Mr. Weasley uneasily, “Black is out of his mind, Molly, he wants Harry dead!”

Ivan didn’t feel like listening to their quarrel any longer. He tried to quietly sneak away. He didn’t intend to disturb the Weasley because it would be too much of a pain. He then heard footsteps come from the staircase behind him, someone was coming down.

He hurried and changed into to his Animagus form, once he finished his transformation he saw it was Hermione who was coming back for a book she left on the table.

Hermione heard the Weasley quarrel but she ignored it when she saw Ivan as a black cat.

Ivan tried to pretend to be a cat and slip past Hermione.

Before he could react, Hermione came and held him in her arms.

Ivan’s face blushed red, his body became stiff, he could feel the warmth of her body and something soft. His thoughts went back to last year in the chamber of secrets where Hermione hugged him for an extended amount of time.

He was so nervous, it felt like Hermione was hugging herself.

It was clear that Hermione had not recognized that the black cat in her arms was Ivan, she had just felt a sense of familiarity with the cat and unconsciously held him in her arms.

To keep from eavesdropping on the Weasley’s quarrel she decided to return to her room, she decided to look for her book tomorrow.

Ivan didn’t dare move, he was dragged by Hermione into her room.

In the room, Crookshanks was lying on the bed, When it saw Ivan it jumped up and angrily growled at it, it acted like it would pounce at any second.

Ivan quickly meowed a few times, he didn’t want to get into a fight with Crookshanks.

Crookshanks tilted its head and stared at Ivan for awhile, because of Ivan’s cries, it seems Crookshanks recognized who Ivan was.

Crookshanks calmed down and showed a little bit of intimacy.

“Get along with this little guy, Crookshanks!” Hermione looked at the both of them happily, “I don’t know whose pet this is, it’s too late now, maybe I’ll ask old Tom tomorrow.”

Hermione rubbed Ivan’s head, she then jumped down from the bed.

“Crookshanks, you need a bath before you go to bed and the little guy can get one with you,” said Hermione while smiling.

In the next second, Ivan opened his eyes and saw Hermione undressing.

“God should I look or not,” thought Ivan, “Wait she just said that she is going to give us a bath, does that mean…..”

A few moments latter Ivan shook his head, he didn’t dare think about it, he hurried out of the room when Hermione entered the bathroom. Crookshanks looked at Ivan strangely, it wondered why Ivan was in such a hurry to leave, he looked like a runaway.

“What a strange cat, didn’t we agree to take a bath together?”