Once they had bought everything, Mr. Weasley took Hermione and Neville back to their respective homes.
With the summer holidays drawing to a close, the two of them clearly still wanted to spend a little more time with their families.
Ron was rather indignant that Hermione had actually bought the enormous cat, which looked like a monster to him.
"That cat... if you can even call it a cat, nearly ate Scabbers!" was how Ron put it.
Harry was more concerned about two other things.
First, when they went to the Leaky Cauldron to find Mr. Weasley, they saw the latest wanted poster for Sirius Black, which had just been put up.
Well, the reward had been updated.
The reward previously published in the Daily Prophet had been fifteen hundred Galleons. Now it had risen to three thousand.
Apparently, Black had been on the run for a week and the Ministry of Magic still had not managed to bring him in, which had made the Ministry furious.
However, Harry learned from Mr. Weasley that, so far, the Ministry of Magic had no leads on Black at all. Harry reckoned the reward would keep rising.
Three thousand Galleons was no small sum, after all. Even the latest Nimbus 2002 cost less than two thousand.
Second, there was Hermione's taste.
When Hermione held up the enormous cat named Crookshanks and said to Harry, "He's beautiful, isn't he?" Harry's doubts about her taste grew even stronger.
He had already thought there was something wrong with Hermione's taste. He had held that opinion for a long time.
At Hogwarts, students from every house except Ravenclaw had to wear the standard uniform to class-those black robes.
Ravenclaw was exempt for historical reasons. Its students only wore robes for important celebrations, feasts, and other major occasions,