Crookshanks | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 95

Sneaking back into the Grangers' house as Crookshanks was easy. And Hermione truly made it even easier by pretending to be surprised to see Crookshanks back after setting her free for some while.

But once they were alone up in her room and Jenna transformed back to her human form, they finally managed to greet each other properly.

     "Okay, now that you're finally here," Hermione whispered quietly, even though it was pretty late at night and her parents had gone to sleep, "what's been going on? What is Dumbledore up to?"

    "Look, I can't tell you anything," Jenna said, watching Hermione's face fall in disappointment. "At least, not here. It's not safe."

     "But it's been too quiet," Hermione tried to reason, "there's no mention of You-Know-Who in the Daily Prophet. And nothing strange is happening in the Muggel world either. I've read The Rise and Fall of Dark Arts and it says that in the last war even the Muggle world was in chaos, because the Death Eaters were hunting Muggles and Muggle-Borns down. But there's been nothing in the news."

     "We think that at the moment Voldemort's trying to stay low and getting stronger. He's using the Ministry's denial to his advantage. They're making his work so much easier, so he's trying to keep it that way for as long as possible. But that's pretty much all I can tell you right now."

Although no matter how much Hermione insisted on knowing what Dumbledore and the others had been up to in the past few weeks, Jenna kept telling her that it was highly confidential and that she couldn't say anything at the moment about the matter. But Jenna did promise her that she would explain everything later.

The next day when it was time to leave for the Burrow, Mr. Weasley connected the Grangers' fireplace to the Floo Network so Hermione could easily be transported there with her heavy trunk and Crookshanks's basket.

     Even the Weasleys' household seemed to have fallen in chaos. Apparently, Percy had stormed out on their family, declaring his loyalty to the Ministry. So bringing his name up was always a mistake, because Mrs. Weasley would burst into tears each time and Mr. Weasley would break a glass if he was holding any.

    Jenna was glad to be in her cat form the whole time she was at the Burrow, because she still felt too awkward to be around Molly and Arthur.

     Although Jenna did use her disguise as Crookshanks to her advantage to see what else had been going on around. After Dumbledore had told the Order about Lexi Hooper and how she was a Muggle girl who had valuable knowledge about the future, Jenna kept a close eye on her.

     For some reason, Lexi looked really familiar to her. There was something about the girl that reminded Jenna of someone, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it.

     Jenna had never paid close attention to her throughout their year at Hogwarts, but now she realized that Lexi was a sweet girl, yet almost as mischievous as the Weasley twins; quite like Jenna herself, when she was younger. As it seemed, to Jenna's surprise and delight, Fred had finally managed to ask the girl out.

     Jenna was relieved that soon after arriving at the Burrow, the Weasleys announced that they were moving to a new place for the summer. But no matter how many times their kids asked where they were going, their parents only responded with 'you'll see when we get there'. The only person among them who didn't seem surprised about this was Lexi.

     Hermione carefully carried Crookshanks's basket as they finally reached Grimmauld Place, and that was when Arthur took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to one of the kids.