Harry Potter and the Digitized Do-Over Chapter 4: Rasputin the Cat, a harry potter fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Harry emerged from the wand shop and stared down at the list of his first year supplies, having previously purchased from memory. "Books seems like a good next step," he thought, turning towards Flourish and Blotts. He began to walk, not watching where he was going, when he bumped into someone, "Oh, pardon me," he said looking up, "Hi Hagrid!"

Hagrid beamed down at him, a giant grin on his face, "Hello Harry, I got a present for you," he said pulling something out of his coat, cupped in his massive hands, "a cat."

Harry stared, slightly in shock. He hadn't thought about it yet but Hedwig was also alive, "I need to go get her... but it wouldn't be her," Harry thought as he looked down at the cat, "maybe this is for the best." Harry stared down at the cat only for it to stare right back with glowing blue eyes. Hagrid handed the cat to Harry who began to inspect it.

The cat possessed light gray fur with streaks of cyan running through it, and was capable of fitting nicely within Harry's hands. This was due to it being naught but a kitten and weighing only 1.6 lbs./ 0.73 kg. It continued to stare up at Harry unabashedly before leaping onto his shoulder and then on-top of his head where it dug its claws into his hair, settling down for a nap.

Hagrid laughed seeing this, "I think he likes you Harry," he said, "we'll need to get you a book on how to care for her." Harry simply nodded still kinda bewildered, and followed Hagrid to Flourish and Blotts.

/* SCENE CHANGE *\

Flourish and Blotts

"Okay Harry, your cat's a Caseum, very magical breed, very mysterious breed. Not much is known about them, shopkeeper didn't even recognize it, so a book about them won't have much, but it should have enough. I'm gonna go off and look around the creatures sections for one; you go get your school books," Hagrid said as they entered the store. He wandered off in his own direction, leaving Harry and his cat by themselves.

Harry looked up at his new cat thinking, "you still need a name," whilst collecting his school books and tried to think of one. He thought of many names, but discarded them all for one reason or another. While scanning through the shelves, looking for his History of Magic book, he saw a gap in the shelves, a glint in the darkness between the books. Reaching back he groped around for the source of the reflection and managed to find something. Withdrawing his hand he found a chocolate frog card which read solely, Rasputin. "Rasputin," Harry thought, "I like that name." He looked up at his cat, "What about you? Do you like Rasputin?" he asked the cat.

The cat leaned out off of Harry's head, holding onto his hair tightly, and looked down at Harry, "Meow," he purred, rubbing his head against Harry's forehead.

"Well then," Harry said, "I'll just assume that's a yes," knowing he was right. With a name decided Harry continued on searching the shelves and gathering his school books. Whilst gathering them he ran across a couple other books he found interesting and decided to purchase: Mental Magicks: a Guide by Ares Black and Potions with Snape for the non-Slytherin by a muggleborn (this one causing Harry a great deal of amusement.

Having walked to where he knew the creatures section of the store was, Harry was surprised when he found Hagrid, seated upon a very strained stool, speaking enthusiastically to several excited children about Fluffy.

"This is the type of teacher Hagrid should have been. Would have been if not for Malfoy ruining it," Harry thought as he waited at the edge of the semicircle of children surrounding Hagrid.

"Thanks for waitin' Harry. The lil' ones couldn't get enough of hearing 'bout Fluffy," Hagrid said smiling sheepishly as the kids dispersed back through the bookstore, looking for new entertainment.

Harry smiled up at him and said, "It's no problem Hagrid. You should teach, you're great," in an attempt to encourage him.

"Oh, thanks Harry. I substitute sometimes for Kettleburn and he's goin' to be retiring soon, so maybe," Hagrid said blushing and hopeful. "right, here that book for you, they had to go to the back to get it, there only copy it is," he said handing over a wrapped book to Harry.

Harry tore open the wrapping excited. Moste Mysterious and Magickal: The Caseum by Doge Scamander was revealed with the cover bearing a picture of a white, adult cat similar in appearance to Rasputin. "Thanks Hagrid," he said bearing a mighty grin at the present.

"No problem, Harry, maybe with having... er, did you pick a name yet?" Hagrid asked leaning down.

"Rasputin, he's named Rasputin. Raz for short."

"Ah, excellent name then. Well, with you having Raz maybe we can find a bit more about Caseums. That books little more than a pamphlet." At this Harry and Hagrid stared at Rasputin for he had emitted a rather large meow only for a very uncatlike grin to stretch across his face. A shudder ran down Hagrid and Harry's spines.

"Uh, good idea Hagrid, could be fun."

And with that they left the store, bound for Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Once shown in Harry arrived in the back room which was decidedly void of Malfoys. "I guess our 'first meeting' will have to wait," Harry thought with a chuckle as he left the store having acquired all his necessary garments.

As Harry and Hagrid made their way to the Leaky Cauldron, back through the Alley, they picked up the various other bits and bops Harry required for his studies. "Alright Harry, you're goin' to get back to the Dursleys, the slimy buggers, by the Night Bus. Hold out your wand to call it," Hagrid said as they stood by the roadside, next to the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry was surprised, "last time we just took the tube back," he thought as he raised his wand.

*BANG*

The bus appeared with a raucous crash, slightly startling Harry. "Alright then Harry, on you go. I'll see you in 'bout a month," Hagrid said waving goodbye as he withdrew back into the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry turned around to look at the Knight Bus, expecting Stan Shunpike to emerge, but was surprised when some unknown appeared. "Oh 'ello there. Look lively now. So, where to then laddy?" he said in such a rapid fashion Harry was nearly bowled over. Not to mention the unbelievably thick accent.

"Uhhhh, Number Four Privet Drive, please," Harry managed to stutter out.

"Alrighty then., that 'ell be 12 sickles," he said stretching out a hand for the money. Harry withdrew the amount from his money bag, handing it over. The man stepped back inside allowing Harry to board, "back of the level."

/* SCENE CHANGE *\

Number Four Privet Drive

Harry stepped off the Knight Bus onto the sidewalk in front of the Dursley home. He could tell the Dursleys were already back; Uncle Vernon had taken the car with them to the island and before him it sat in the driveway. Harry approached the door and knocked. He heard shuffling in the house and rapidly approaching foot steps. The door opened, "He-," she started before realizing it was Harry. "Boy get inside before someone sees you," she hissed yanking Harry inside and slamming the door. She scurried to the kitchen before returning with an apple, "take this and go to your room. Don't come out until tomorrow," she said thrusting the apple at him and shoving him up the steps.

Harry stumbled up the steps a bit from the shove before regaining his balance and slowly ambling his way up, exhausted from the day. He managed to pry open his door before awkwardly closing it and flopping forward onto his bed. He fell asleep immediately, his possessions strewn around him on the bed.

/* THE NEXT DAY *\

Harry slowly arose from his slumbering state and sat up on the bed. Looking around at his possessions jumbled around the bed, he set about putting them away.

When Harry picked up the book on Caseums he looked around for Rasputin, only to be unable to find him. Just as Harry was about to leave the room and search he heard a meowing from a bookcase in the corner of the room. Turning towards it Harry saw that atop it sat his cat. Rasputin stared down at him, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Okay, come on down now," Harry said walking over to the bookcase.

Rasputin jumped off the bookcase, falling down onto Harry's head, where he quickly buried himself in the bird's nest that was Harry hair. Harry chuckled at this, reaching his hand up and giving Rasputin a quick scratch between the ears. The cat purred loudly, content with his spot and the attention he was receiving.

Harry settled back onto his bed, Rasputin atop his head. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a voice emerged, "hello there Harry, having a pleasant time so far?"

It was the voice from the void, the one that started this, "hi voice, yes I have been. What do you want?" Harry said.

"Oh just thought I'd help you a bit, explain a few things. So you know those plus one notices that have been appearing," the voice said and without waiting for a response continued, "those refer to your skills, the skills are primarily based upon different areas of magic. You can see your skills simply by thinking Character. Try it." Harry did so, and having simply thought Character with the intent to view his skills, a window appeared before him. "Other stuff is on here too, but we'll get to that later."

Harry stared forward at the window and began to read it.

Harry Potter

Skills:
Apprentice DADA: 20/200
Apprentice Potions: 20/200
Apprentice Transfiguration: 20/200
Care of Magical Creatures: 2/200
Flying: 20/200
Occlumency: 21/200
Wand Crafting: 4/200

Perks:
I am a Dark Lord's Worst Nightmare: Dark creatures scare their children with tales of you; +20 DADA & +50% EXP DADA
Potions is just Cooking: Potions can't possibly be that different from stew, right?; +20 Potions & Cooking & +50% EXP Potions & Cooking
Natural Occlumens: +20 Occlumency & +50% EXP Occlumency
Son of James: +20 Flying & +50% EXP Flying
Potter-Born: +20 Transfiguration & +50% EXP Transfiguration

"Why are some of the skills Apprentice," Harry asked the voice

"Those are classes taught from the beginning of Hogwarts. The average student will complete the Apprentice form of a skill when they finish their OWLs. The Journeyman level will then be mostly completed alongside NEWTs. The final form is Master, but few wizards or witches ever reach such a level, let alone max it."

"Got it," Harry said, nodding, "could you explain perks now?"

"Oh, yes. The perks pretty self-explanatory in what they do, these ones anyway. There are more ways to gain perks... but I'm gonna let you find those out yourself. What's life without a little bit of mystery? Cya Harry!" the voice said before fading away.

The rest of the summer passed rather quickly for Harry after his trip to Diagon Alley. He invested a great deal of time to his studies, reading through both his textbooks and personal ones, this was rather limited by the ban on underage wizardry though. Reading his mother's book was undoubtedly his favorite, written like a journal Harry got to now more about his mother than he ever had before. Harry grew to truly appreciate parseltongue for what it was as he read Lily's book, a gift. Whilst studying his maternal gifts he made certain to not neglect his paternal ones, learning his family's history in transfiguration, the subject of the first book.

Overall Harry enjoyed his summer, shunning the Dursleys, curled up in room with a good book. Before he knew it, September 1st had arrived, and with it the Hogwarts Express.

AN: Hey everybody, thanks for reading. The skills and perks have finally revealed themselves. Just so everybody can know, the third year electives operate off of a different system than the core classes do. I'll explain it later and hopefully not forget before it comes up, since it took a while to figure out.

CONTEST: Rasputin the Caseum Cat is based off another character in fiction not of the Harry Potter verse. Whoever can figure it out first in the reviews will get a shout-out. No more than one answer per person can be submitted. There are a few hints in the chapter so go look for them.

Harry Potter

Skills:
Apprentice DADA: 25/200
Apprentice Potions: 25/200
Apprentice Transfiguration: 35/200
Care of Magical Creatures: 4/200
Flying: 20/200
Occlumency: 26/200
Parseltongue: 15/200
Wand Crafting: 6/200