Crookshanks's Fortuitous Opportunity

The pet shop had a tiny storefront, looking as though it had been miserably squeezed between Flourish and Blotts and another shop selling small magical trinkets.

Yet despite its small sign, the shop had a steady stream of customers coming and going.

The other shops in Diagon Alley either catered to adult wizards or had been opened for Hogwarts students. The magical pet shop, however, served a much broader clientele. Wizards from toddlers who had just learned to walk to ninety-nine-year-olds all had a need for animal companionship.

So even though it was the start-of-term season at Hogwarts, there were still parents bringing young children in to look at pets.

The year with the lowest birth rate in the wizarding world had been 1980—the year Harry Potter was born. After Voldemort kicked the bucket, Britain's wizarding world had experienced a population boom, so there were now plenty of children in the magical world who had yet to start school.

Ron and Zhang San peered through the shop window and found that there were no display stands for featured products. Only a ginger, big-faced cat lay lazily in a cat bed behind the glass, basking in the sun. Its fur was remarkably unkempt, sharing a similar charm with Hermione's bushy brown hair.

The big cat was not particularly appealing at first glance, but the longer one looked at it, the more it possessed a strangely adorable ugliness. A tag hung beside it, written in ornate English: Please do not knock on the glass. It has a bad temper.

Zhang San thought, No wonder this big-faced cat has been sitting unsold in the pet shop for so long. It's ugly, and it has a bad temper too. It'd be a miracle if anyone bought it.

Fortunately, Master Zhang was kind-hearted. He would buy this big-faced cat today. This cat had also appeared in the original story. Its name was Crookshanks, and Hermione would buy it in her third year.

Zhang San had far more money than Ron. He never looked at price tags or haggled when shopping. If he liked something, he bought it—easygoing and carefree.

Young Master Malfoy's pocket money was nowhere near as much as Zhang San's living expenses. Zhang San had come all the way from a foreign land to study at Hogwarts; Celestial Masters' Mansion could not possibly let him arrive empty-handed and live in hardship.

Otherwise, those foreigners might think Chinese cultivators had come begging for food!

Celestial Masters' Mansion indeed had no stores of Galleons, Sickles, or Knuts, and the Chinese cultivation world's financial system was not linked with Gringotts' banking system. But Celestial Masters' Mansion had plenty of treasures. Bamboo shoots that sprouted on the mountain after rain and that nobody cared to eat could be dug up and sold in Diagon Alley as precious potion ingredients.

The shop owner was astonished that someone had actually bought the slow-selling big-faced cat. She had already resigned herself to keeping it for the rest of its life. How much could one cat eat, anyway? The profit from casually selling a single magical pet would be enough to support it for a lifetime.

Zhang San readily had Ron take out ten Galleons to pay. Crookshanks possessed part-Kneazle blood and counted as a half-blood magical creature, so it was only natural that it cost a little more.

If Crookshanks had been a purebred Kneazle, Zhang San would not have bought it instead. Purebred magical creatures were difficult to control. Even possessing something as harmless as a Puffskein could exhaust Zhang San badly.

Cats with partial magical-creature bloodlines were the most suitable animals for Zhang San to possess. A cat's body was nimble and swift, and Crookshanks's adorably ugly appearance would not draw excessive attention from girls... In short, it was perfect.

As for what pet Hermione would buy in the future, she had originally wanted an owl for delivering letters. She had only taken pity on Crookshanks after seeing that nobody had bought it for such a long time.

It was hard to say how much Hermione truly liked Crookshanks. She simply pitied the big-faced cat for having no one to love it or buy it.

Hermione's saintly compassion was not limited to buying Crookshanks. The S.P.E.W. organization she later founded—the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare—proved it as well.

"I really can't imagine you'd buy such an ugly cat," Ron said in confusion, carrying the owl cage in his left hand and the cat carrier in his right.

Zhang San floated nearby and said with a chuckle, "Don't you think this cat is interesting? Its coloring is actually very pretty. Orange cats are very popular in China—ever heard of 'big orange, great fortune'?"

Ron indicated that he understood. It was just like how he had chosen Little Pig from among all those owls—purely because he liked it.

The clever Crookshanks had been extremely quiet from the moment it was bought. Even with an owl standing in a cage not far away, Crookshanks showed no inclination to reach out and scratch it.

Mr. Weasley smiled. "What an intelligent cat. Your mother should really like this little fellow."

Today's shopping trip thus came to a successful end. Although Zhang San had not bought a suitable fresh large-bodied teacher, purchasing Crookshanks meant the trip had not been in vain.

Just as fishermen believed: since they were already here, returning empty-handed was impossible.

Mr. Weasley sent Ron and Zhang San back to Hogwarts, then returned home directly through a fireplace temporarily connected to the Floo Network by the school. Professor McGonagall had the authority to activate a temporary Floo connection. She was quite willing to make things a little easier for one of her former students.

Ron hung Little Pig's owl cage in the dormitory. He normally did not lock the cage; if Little Pig grew tired of staying inside, it could fly out freely for a ride.

Harry and Ron both liked to let their owls roam free. Whenever they needed them, they only had to call out the window a couple of times, and the owls would quickly return.

Crookshanks, meanwhile, followed Zhang San back to the small temple. Zhang San was the only special student at Hogwarts who did not need to live in the dormitories. Or rather, the little temple outside the castle was his dormitory, because his soul occasionally needed to reside in the divine statue to improve its stability.

The big-faced cat was very satisfied with its new living environment. It prowled around the small courtyard like a king inspecting his territory, the disdainful look on its face seeming to say: This is all my kingdom.

After circling around several times, the crafty fellow picked up its cat bed and placed it directly in front of the Earth God statue.

As expected of a cat with Kneazle blood, it was remarkably sensitive to spiritual energy—or rather, magical power. The Earth God statue stood at the node where the earth vein's energy was richest. If this little cat could benefit from it, perhaps one day it really would gain sentience and become a demon.

Animals also had different realms of cultivation. An animal that awakened spiritual intelligence could be called an "essence," a realm corresponding to a cultivator's Qi Refinement stage.

Once an animal had become an essence, it could continue following its instincts to absorb spiritual energy and breathe in moonlight essence, refining its transverse bone and gaining the ability to speak human language.

At that point, the essence became a demon, corresponding to a cultivator's Foundation Establishment stage.

A demon would continue cultivating and compressing its demonic power, eventually gathering essence into a core within its body. After its demon core had been tempered by lightning tribulation, it could shed its beastly body and assume human form.

It would then reach the realm of a great demon, wielding power comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator.

If demons or essences brought disaster upon the human world, they would be labeled "monsters" and "demons." In the land of the Chinese, essences and demons were not discriminated against, but everyone had the right to eliminate monsters.

The one who had delivered Zhang San's package last time was a crane demon—the kind that could speak. Senior Crane had not spoken because it was afraid of frightening those barbaric foreigners. When away from home, fewer troubles were better.

Crookshanks was truly fortunate. Though it had been born outside China, it had found a powerful patron who could enlighten it into becoming a demon.

What was fate? This was fate!