"Oh! What kind of potion is this?" Daphne's eyes sparkled with curiosity as she walked toward the counter—only to be very smoothly blocked by both Rhys and Sirius.
Rhys stepped in front of her first, cutting off her path, while Sirius clamped his teeth on the hem of her robe and dragged her out of the shop.
Once Daphne had been taken outside, Rhys quickly inspected the bottles lined up on the counter and found that their functions were indeed exactly what he had suspected.
He looked at the shopkeeper with a complicated expression. He hadn't expected to find a potion shop selling such things right near Hogwarts.
"Do these potions… really, sell well?" After a moment's thought, he finally asked the question.
"You must be joking—they sell very well. Many upper-year students come here regularly to buy the full sets. But this is a proper shop; I don't sell love potions." The shopkeeper's eyes flicked briefly to Daphne's hair outside the door before he silently shifted his bulky body to block a section of the shelf behind him.
"Oh? From what you're implying, there are shops in Hogsmeade that do sell love potions?!" Rhys was truly shocked now. Was something like that also so easy to buy?
The shopkeeper hesitated for a second, then explained that such things required mutual consent. His packages only contained enhancers and things that guaranteed safety—never the domineering magic of a love potion.
Rhys glanced into the man's eyes and understood more or less how things stood. Pushing the little potion bottles on the counter aside, he instead began restocking his own supply with proper potion ingredients.
After buying the potion ingredients, Rhys walked out of the shop that had left him so deeply shaken.
He couldn't help but sigh inwardly. If Adrian were alive today, he would probably have a lot in common with this generation of kids. These students really played with things in such outrageous ways…
Rhys thought of Percy, whom he had just run into. Clearly, the Head Boy wasn't always as proper and serious as he made himself look.
But where would they…? Eh? Didn't prefects have their own private bathrooms…?
Rhys realized there were some questions best not thought through in detail.
He stepped onto the street outside, took Sirius's leash from Daphne's hand, and led them toward Honeydukes.
"Rhys, what were those potions for just now?" Daphne's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"Oh, those? They sell air fresheners, and along with them some potions that supposedly help students revise. But those are just placebos—nothing but a tax on gullibility. Isn't that right? You had those things back in your day too, didn't you?" Rhys glanced at Sirius.
Sirius nodded in perfect cooperation.
Daphne: So that's how it is!
With her confusion resolved, Daphne turned toward Honeydukes, while Rhys let out a quiet sigh of relief behind her. If Astoria had been here, he probably wouldn't have been able to bluff his way out.
Having to awkwardly explain those things to the little girl would've been far too embarrassing.
He'd have to write a letter to Dumbledore later, telling him to keep a tighter rein on these Hogsmeade shops—some of the things they sold were going too far!
Yet the trace of displeasure he'd felt back in the potion shop was quickly swept away by the shelves in Honeydukes, stacked high with sweets.
"Candy is the true source of happiness," Rhys said as he swept every kind of sweet from the shelves into his shopping bag.
Just as he was heading toward the counter, heavy bag in hand, he suddenly felt a tug on the leash in his other hand.
Looking down, Rhys noticed Sirius's expression had grown strange. Following his gaze, Rhys saw a lollipop floating in midair—then, in the blink of an eye, it vanished.
Clearly, someone was strolling through the shop under an Invisibility Cloak.
Rhys didn't even need to use any other means; simple logic was enough to tell him exactly who that cloaked figure was.
"Pay for me—Three Broomsticks, see you there!" Rhys shoved the bag of sweets into Daphne's arms and dashed out of Honeydukes with Sirius in tow.
By the time they reached the street, Harry's trace had already vanished. Rhys was just about to take action, but Sirius pulled him insistently in one direction.
Rhys chuckled. So Sirius's Animagus form had its uses after all.
With someone else leading the way, Rhys couldn't be bothered to use any other method—he simply let Sirius guide him in the direction Harry had gone.
Before long, Sirius slowed his pace and lifted his tail, while Rhys lunged forward in a wide stride and suddenly wrapped his arms around something in midair.
"Candy thief! Got you!"
"Ag! Rhys, let go—you're choking me—"
As soon as Rhys released him, Harry's head appeared out of thin air. He had been about to ask Rhys how he'd found him, but then he spotted the huge black dog crouching at Rhys's feet.
In an instant, he understood.
"Rhys, where did you—?"
"Found him, then decided to keep him. Today I brought him along to stroll around Hogsmeade." Rhys casually made up a story about Sirius's origins.
Harry didn't suspect a thing. Instead, he carefully examined the dog Rhys was "keeping," noticing how well cared for it looked, its fur sleek and glossy.
"Seems like you've been looking after him very well."
"No, no—it's Hagrid. He often feeds the big black dog; I've barely taken care of it myself."
"I see…" Harry lowered his head to look at the black dog. The dog silently tilted its head to one side, avoiding Harry's gaze, but its body leaned closer, and its rapidly wagging tail thumped against Harry's leg.
"Can I… um, can I pet it?" Harry looked at the unusually-behaved black dog and felt an irresistible urge to reach out and touch it.
After all, who could suppress the impulse to pet a sleek, glossy-coated big dog?
Before Rhys could answer, the black dog sat down on its own, clearly agreeing to Harry's request.
So Harry didn't hold back—he began gently stroking the dog's back.
While smoothing down the dog's fur, Harry started venting to Rhys about Professor Trelawney's prophecies in Divination.
"That woman is always predicting I'll encounter misfortune—using tea leaves, you know. A big black dog… in a way, her prophecy wasn't wrong."
Rhys's lips curved into a smile. "True enough—you really did meet a big black dog. How about I name him 'Omen'? That way, Professor Trelawney can finally claim she's made an accurate prophecy."
Sirius wagged his tail and smacked it heavily against Rhys's ankle.
"Looks like he doesn't like that name," Harry couldn't help but laugh.
"Come on, let's go have a drink at the Three Broomsticks."
"No problem."
Rhys and Harry, with Sirius in tow, headed together toward the Three Broomsticks.
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