Dumbledore replied quickly.

He and Harry had the same guess that there was still a Horcrux of Voldemort hidden in Hogwarts.

He has asked the house-elves to look for it, and perhaps there will be a result by the time school starts.

Harry was inevitably in a restless mood because he had not been able to find Sirius, and this was reflected in the actual combat training. Flitwick's legs were weak and he was almost trembling all the way before he could barely walk home.

The young man was full of energy and as fierce as wolves and tigers, and he really couldn't hold on.

Let school start soon!

It wasn't until his birthday that Harry felt a little better.

Hedwig was busy and disappeared early in the morning.

He also brought Hermione's birthday gift for him, a bottle of sea salt-scented perfume - which she had carefully selected in France.

And gifts from the Weasleys.

The face-to-face Bill gave him an ancient Egyptian amulet, an exquisite lion statue, which was the lion god Mahes in Egyptian mythology - it had real magical powers, could bring courage to people, and could detect malice.

When malicious eyes stare at its owner, it will buzz as a warning.

Harry loved it.

Wearing it with a hemp rope on his chest, it made him regain some of the feeling of a witcher.

And Charlie, the Weasley family's dragon trainer working in Romania, sent an exquisite dragon model and a bottle of dragon blood.

Professor McGonagall mailed him three of his father's notebooks, as well as one of her own, about Animagus, so that he could start learning this advanced magic of Transfiguration this year.

Dumbledore also sent a notebook.

It's about alchemy and Occlumency.

Snape didn't miss his birthday either, with a bottle of Felicis, a golden potion overflowing with happiness.

The gift that Hagrid sent almost ruined the gifts of others. It was a pile of materials from the Forbidden Forest and a book that could bite people. It was very cruel and would bite anything it caught.

Of course, the most important thing is the Hogwarts book list.

Regarding elective courses, Harry did not check all the boxes like Hermione did. He only chose three: Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination.

He is weird.

There is actually a course called "Muggle Studies" in Hogwarts.

What is even more strange is that even though there is such a course and many people sign up, the wizards' understanding of ordinary people is still at the outrageous level of "pointing at potatoes and saying tomato" - the only correct understanding is that ordinary people cannot do magic, but their human body structure is the same as that of wizards.

Harry focused on the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook.

Very normal.

At least not Lockhart or anything like that.

Harry had very low requirements for this course. It would be good enough if he could just recite the textbook like Quirrell.

Until one week before school starts.

Harry and the others met in Diagon Alley.

In front of the ice cream shop.

"Harry!" Hermione waved her hand cheerfully at him. "This way."

In her arms she held a limp ginger creature.

As soon as Harry approached, the creature immediately struggled out of Hermione's arms, jumped onto the table, and looked at him with its ears folded, fur standing on end, and teeth bared, growling "Hahahaha".

"No, Crookshanks, this is a friend." Hermione held its head, "You can't do this."

Crookshanks relaxed a little, but was still on guard.

"It has always been very well behaved, but I don't know why." Hermione explained hurriedly, "Maybe it's because you are too good, Harry, so it..."

Harry sat down, reached out his hand, and suddenly grabbed the ginger cat's waist, pulled it into his arms, and turned its ears to check it out: "I have never been very popular with cats."

To be exact, every demon hunter is like this.

Crookshanks lay on Harry's lap with his belly turned over, his eyes a little dazed.

"Kneazle bloodline?" Harry picked up its tail, a little surprised. "This is a really good pet."

"What Kneazle?" Hermione was a little confused.

"Didn't the clerk tell you when you bought it?" Harry pinched its paw and squeezed out the claws, which were very sharp and healthy.

Crookshanks finally responded.

I was played by this dangerous man!

It hissed, tried to turn over, and clawed the man hard in the face.

But as soon as it twisted its waist, Harry pushed it, making it turn 360 degrees and fall on his legs with its belly facing up.

"Don't move. Let me check you." Harry reached out and put his hand on its head.

Crookshanks hesitated, sniffed, and smelled the scent of many magical creatures on Harry that he could not afford to offend - there was a very dangerous smell of snake-like magical creatures under the robes, and so was the sword behind him.

There are also unicorns, acromantic spiders, centaurs in my pocket...

It lay down obediently and stopped struggling.

"The clerk just told me that it was a poor child. Because it looked a little strange, no one was willing to take it away." Hermione replied in a low voice, "I felt sorry for it and bought it."

"You've made a good deal then." Harry continued to examine it. "Even if it's a half-blood, it should have inherited some of the Kneazle's abilities."

“Very smart, able to identify dangerous creatures.”

Hermione rummaged through her bag and quickly pulled out a book, searching it until she came across the entry for Kneazle and read it carefully, the more she read, the more she liked it.

Ron soon came over.

After a summer vacation, he grew a little taller, got a tan from being in Egypt, and changed into a new robe. He looked much more mature and stable.

"Harry," Ron greeted warmly, "How was your summer?"

"I heard that you went to Malfoy's house to collect a debt from him?"

Harry nodded: "Not bad, I helped you vent your anger."

"George and his friends found some very interesting things in Egypt. Maybe they will be used on little Malfoy next semester." Ron seemed to have come out of the shadow of that incident and returned to his previous cheerful personality. "Have you bought the books?"

Harry nodded.

Hermione patted the school bags beside her. There were three big bags bulging with stuff.

Ron was stunned: "Hermione, how come you have so many more books than me? The library is not enough for you..."

"They are elective courses." Hermione said with a straight face, "I have chosen all the elective courses, so of course I have more textbooks than you."

"Are you not going to eat or sleep?" Ron complained, "Can you handle all those elective classes?"

"Professor McGonagall told me that there will be a way." Hermione said seriously, "Harry is already so far ahead, even though he is first and I am second."

"But if it's the fourth or fifth grade, Harry will still be number one, and I'm far behind."

Ron sighed, "You can't compare with Harry. Bill was stunned when I talked about Harry. He got twelve 'O's."

"The goblins at Gringotts even desperately hope that Harry can graduate directly to become a curse breaker."

Harry handed Crookshanks back to Hermione: "They weren't expecting me, they were expecting the Sword of Gryffindor."

Ginger color passed before Ron's eyes.

He immediately jumped up and down, his face turned horrified: "What is this? Why is it here?"