Crookshanks at the Burrow

Early to Middle Late Mid-Afternoon

I was jarred out of my early late mid-afternoon nap one afternoon by being forcibly ejected out of my human's lap to the sound of a scream so loud it was almost shrill.

This was not business as usual, clearly. Perhaps I shouldn't have brought Hermione with me this summer for my visit to the Burrow. Ah, well, too late. I smoothed out my fur and found a comfortable windowsill to wait out the inevitable spat.

"Ron! Harry! What on earth are you two up to?"

They glanced at each other guiltily as Hermione started picking the strands of cold, cooked spaghetti out of her hair. I smirked to myself and decided that missing the end of my nap wasn't so bad. I always have enjoyed Hermione's temper, on the rare occasion that it makes an appearance.

"Erm, well, 'Mione...." Ron, bright red under his freckles and squirming, hesitated, looking for an excuse that might get him back into Hermione's good graces. He glanced at Harry, who had a resigned look on his face.

I always thought Harry a bright sort of chap.

"Oh, honestly! As if I can't tell what happened! Really, Ron, those spells your mother uses are complicated! You two shouldn't be trying them on your own!" Ah, so that was it.

Ron announced to the family sometime last week that he intended to move into a flat with Harry after their graduation from Hogwarts next summer. Mrs. Weasley, after quite some argument, had decided that if she couldn't convince him to stay at home until he got married (like his older brother Percy), then at least she could make sure he was capable of feeding himself. Harry, unlike Ron, had asked to be included in the lessons, and Mrs. Weasley rarely finding it in herself to deny him, well, practically anything, had consented heartily.

However, they hadn't quite mastered the self-stirring spaghetti spell yet, and with Mrs. Weasley off shopping at Diagon Alley, they had apparently decided to give it a go. Adolescent boys being exuberant, they had overdone it just a tad, and there was now cooked spaghetti all over the kitchen and part of the living room.

The messy area of the living room, sadly enough for Harry and Ron, happened to include the area where Hermione was working on her report on dragon skin imports for her boss. Mr. Underhill, Head of the Department of Magical Imports and Exports, Ministry of Magic, Great Britain, is quite proud to have the first Hogwarts student to graduate a year early in over a decade working for him. Hermione apparently likes the job well enough. Of course it's common knowledge that she's just waiting for a teaching position to open at Hogwarts, but one must pay the rent on one's flat and feed one's cat, helpless though he may not be, I fancy.

In any case, said report was now badly splattered with spaghetti noodles, and Hermione was muttering cleaning spells, fluently inserting rebukes here and there. Finally, after all was as it once was, or close enough, she gathered it up and flounced out the back door with it, tossing a "Hope you don't stir any spaghetti into the garden!" over her shoulder.

Ron and Harry just shrugged and started cleaning. Much fun as watching someone else work can be, it was a lovely midsummer afternoon, so I got up and let myself into the back garden.

Hermione was already back at work, her things spread out before her on the sun-warmed grass, under a particularly nice willow tree with a rather annoying family of squirrels in it. Next to her was Ron's older brother Percy, my personal favorite Weasley. Besides his father and sister, he's the only other Weasley I've met yet who knows how to treat a cat, and he's much calmer than those two, especially since his girlfriend dumped him. He had closed his book and was conversing quietly with Hermione, so I carefully stepped over her parchments and settled in between them, for the maximum amount of attention.

"Spaghetti? Why am I not surprised?"

"Yes, and I was almost done with this report, and now the ink is running."

"Shame the Ministry doesn't let us use bewitch-able ink. Would you like some help?"

Hermione grinned up at him. "I would appreciate it, thanks."

They worked together, quietly, and I dozed off for my middle late mid-afternoon nap in the warm sunshine, borrowing Percy's copy of Hogwarts: A History for a pillow.

Middle to Late Middle Late Afternoon

"Ah, well, dears, it's nice to find a kitchen nice and clean when one comes home to it. But... would anyone like to tell me why my cookbooks are all out of order, and three shelves down from where they should be?"

Mrs. Weasley looked at the guilty faces of Ron and Harry, the smirking faces of Hermione and I, and the back of Percy's head (he was busily tying his shoe), and frowned. "Or do I not want to know?"

Ron opened and closed his mouth a few times, but chance saved him, and the loud bangs in the living room drew everyone's attention. The twins always do manage to make an incident out of Flooing, attention seekers that they are (the one thing I have in common with them, but my type of attention is of course far more dignified).

"Oh, good heavens, that's the twins and the girls, and here I haven't even decided what salad we're having. Out of the kitchen, now! Out!" Everyone trooped into the living room to greet the twins, Fred with Angelina and George with Lee Jordan's little sister Anne. I, choosing to stay out of the fracas and as close as possible to possible dropped treats, sat in the doorway between the two rooms.

The initial round of greetings passed quickly, and Ron spoke up. "Now Anne, tell me you didn't let the twins forget Lee!" Lee Jordan, best friend to both the twins (a tiring job, I imagine) and partner in their joke shop (and part-time Quidditch announcer to pay for birthday presents, etc.), was due to show up to help celebrate the night. The six-month anniversary of the official opening of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was nothing to be sneezed at, as half those present never thought it would get off the ground (that is one half of each individual present).

Anne smiled at Ron. "No, he's coming later. He wants to introduce us all to his new girlfriend at once, or something. Very secretive."

Speculations abounded for the next few moments, until a great waft of smoke came out of the fireplace and Lee stumbled out into the living room. He was followed by... well this was surprising.

Jaws dropped all over the room, and Harry blurted her name out of sheer astonishment. "Ginny!"

You really can see the family resemblance in the Weasleys, especially when they're blushing. Ginny looked just like Ron had earlier when Hermione had been angry with him. That red hair really doesn't go well with a flushing face.

Lee put his arm around her shoulders and stared Harry down, but wavered a bit when he turned to the Weasley boys, all four of who were looking particularly pugnacious. "Well, friends, its like this..." Lee began, looking to Hermione for help, as she was the only friendly face in the room (besides my own, of course).

She opened her mouth to say something, what I don't know, when Percy stepped forward. Though he was taller than his brothers his face was slightly less belligerent than theirs, so when he put a hand on Lee's shoulder Lee quavered only a bit. "Lee, are you going to hurt my favorite... younger... and only... sister?"

"Um... no, Percy, of course not."

"Good. Because I don't need to tell you that your friendship with her six... older... brothers... wouldn't save you if you did, right?"

Lee just nodded, his voice temporarily gone.

"Right then. Shall we all have a seat?" Percy shooed Harry and Ron to the floor and claimed a sofa for himself and Hermione (still concerned with her report) and the three couples found room on the couch and in the chairs. Conversation ensued, loud, rambunctious and generally not cat-like, so I strolled into the kitchen to see if Mrs. Weasley was working on anything exceptionally appetizing.

Early to Middle Late Early Evening

Dinner was nearly over, and I was in a particularly tolerant mood having been quite well fed (as was normal when I chose to stay at the Weasley's). Everyone was beginning to slow down a bit, and Mr. Weasley was much more relaxed than he had been earlier, to Lee Jordan's great relief.

Percy and Hermione, sitting across from each other, had finally stopped discussing Ministry reports and they were now onto the tips and tricks to Apparition, Hermione being only weeks away from the test. Other topics of conversation included the spaghetti incident from earlier, the difficulties of properly announcing Quidditch (Lee to Ginny, with peanut gallery comments being tossed in by random family members) and the upcoming Minister of Magic elections.

Percy made a particularly painful pun (something to do with Apparition and a ghost, I didn't catch all of it) and the twins groaned at him in unison, though Hermione just smiled.

"Well if it was really that bad, then I'm sorry for offending you with my pun, Fred, George." Percy huffed just slightly as he spoke.

"Oh, come now, don't apologize Percy!" Hermione covered his hand with her own, halting his attempt to steal the last muffin. She turned to the twins. "It wasn't that bad! In fact I thought it rather witty."

She didn't notice Percy's slight blush at the touch of her hand as she defended him, pointedly, to the twins. Percy gently pulled his hand back and she smiled at him again, before snatching the last muffin.

He raised his eyebrows at her in surprise. "Hermione, I was going to have that muffin." He pouted just slightly (though he pouts very rarely, I can understand it in this case, those are excellent muffins) and she relented. Somewhat. She sliced the muffin in half and handed one to Percy. This time she blushed slightly at his touch, and smiled shyly at him when he thanked her.

I was not the only one to notice this interplay, Mrs. Weasley noted it too, her eyes sparkled for a moment and then she quietly ignored them for the rest of the evening. Intelligent woman, though she's not much of a cat like person, and quite the cook, I must admit.

Midnight

The slight knock at the door brought me up to a doze; Hermione's soft "Come in" woke me entirely. The rest of the house had gone to sleep at least an hour ago, but I was going to be deprived for a while longer, it seemed.

Percy appeared at the door, holding two mugs. "Hermione? You aren't still working on that report, are you?" Hermione set her book aside.

"No, Percy, just reading. What has you awake at this hour? It's nearly midnight."

"Just got up for a bit of a snack and saw your light on. Would you like a mug of cocoa?"

She smiled. "Yes, thank you. Have a seat." The one chair in the room was firmly pushed under the desk and was on the opposite side of the room. Percy looked apprehensive for a moment, then sat gingerly on the side of the bed as he handed Hermione her mug.

"Your mother made a wonderful dinner."

"Yes, I thought so too. I especially liked the muffins." Percy added, hopefully, and she smiled back.

"Yes, the muffins were quite good. Thank you for sharing that last one with me."

"You're welcome." He paused for a moment, and looked directly into her eyes. "I enjoy sharing things with you."

"And I with you." Hermione's eyes glowed a bit, and they sat there, just looking at each other for a few moments. Percy leaned in slowly, and she closed her eyes as he kissed her softly on her forehead. Then she raised her head slightly and kissed him firmly on the lips, and after a few moments, they each backed away.

"Rereading Hogwarts: A History, are you?" Percy spoke quietly so as not to shatter the moment.

I hopped down from the bed and headed down to the garden for my own midnight snack. Honestly, humans are just so stupid about mating.