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Harry kicked at a pebble. It skidded a few feet.
He'd left Ron and Hermione arguing about her new monster of a pet at Fortescue's, volunteered to go back to the Magical Menagerie to get her some supplies she needed to take care of him.
She'd been surprised by the offer; stammered.
He and Ron—both experienced pet owners—exchanged a look.
He knew his way around Diagon pretty well after the summer. It was easy to take a shortcut and slip through an alleyway.
"Hello, young man," the assistant smiled at him, familiar with his fascination with magical creatures. "Feel free to look around, we have a couple new animals—"
He rattled off what he needed and then did what he'd been told—looked for what was new.
And what was—was the youngest Weasley crouched in front of a cage.
He made his way over there curiously only to freeze when he heard hissing.
Hissing.
From Ginny.
It took his brain a moment to recalibrate.
She looked up at him, and her face morphed into alarm. "Harry!" she stammered. "I didn't—I wasn't—"
"You were speaking Parseltongue," he said dumbly.
She flinched.
"It's okay," he added hastily. "I do too."
She fidgeted. "I couldn't before Tom," she admitted.
That sent chills down his spine.
To alleviate that, he looked at the cage.
"This reminds me of the zoo I went to before I learned of magic," Harry joked.
Ginny looked at him curiously, and this prompted him to explain. "Pity you couldn't keep that snake," she commented.
His mind made up, he replied: "But we can keep this one."
"What?"
But he was already hailing the shopkeeper.
"Ron's going to kill me," she informed him as they walked back to the Leaky Cauldron.
"I'm the one who bought her," he reasoned.
"But he'd never blame you for anything. Which means it's all my fault," Ginny finished gloomily.
"We'll keep her away from Scabbers," he promised. "What should we name her?"
"Pumpernickel!" she said brightly. "It's a type of bread!"
Harry stared at her, amused. "That's .. unique."
She shrugged. "How did you name Hedwig?"
"From my History of Magic book," he answered.
She stared at him. "And you call Hermione a bookworm?"
"History's not that bad when it's not with Binns," he defended half-heartedly. An idea occured to him.
They looked at each other with perfect understanding. "Hiss-tery," they chorused.
As predicted, Ron absolutely lost it.
"Between Crookshanks and this—"
"Hisstery," Ginny supplied helpfully.
He paused for a moment, looking incredulous, before continuing his rant.
"Ginny will keep her in the girls' dorm," Harry tried to soothe. "She doesn't need to be anywhere near Scabbers, okay?"
Ron grumbled but began to subside.
This understanding disappeared entirely as they got on the train.
"Go away, Ginny," he snapped.
Harry winced, especially when he caught sight of the half-wounded, half-amusedly irritated look on Ginny's face.
She shrugged. "Fine." Before going, though, she turned to him and held out her arms for Hisstery.
Harry was suddenly loathe to part from either of them.
He flicked a hesitant glance at Ron. "Let Ginny come. She needs to know this too—she'll be alone with Hisstery if Black actually succeeds."
Hermione's brows furrowed in alarm. "Succeed in what?"
There was, of course, little argument when Hermione was set on learning something.
Ron acquiesced to let Ginny sit with them—
And the rest was history.