Subtle Support

Chapter 14

Hermione slept in a bit later than she usually did, but wasn't bothered by it since most of the tower slept in today. She still woke up before the rest of the tower. Her hair was somewhat messy and tangled, but she just threw it up into a regular bun instead of the elegant one Thimi put it in yesterday. She would have the elf help her with her hair later, in the meantime she decided to not brush out her curls and let it revert back to what seemed to be its natural bushy state.

She planned to take a leaf out of her elf's book and not fight her hair, but work with it. She was happy that she finally had someone in her life that knew what to do with her hair. It would make a big difference.

She was glad to see that Crookshanks hadn't left the bed, but moved towards the end of it instead. It was nice waking up with him still in the bed with her compared to when she woke up without him. He was very independent, but she liked his company.

She rolled onto her side, looking towards the end of her bed where her ginger haired menace was.

"Crooks," she whispered.

She made a few light clicking noises to get him to come closer to her. He cracked and eye at her and crawled closer to his human until his nose almost touched hers. The petite witch smiled at her half-kneazle.

"Good morning, king Crookshanks," she chuckled softly at him.

The half-kneazle lightly placed his paw on his human's face in greeting before pulling it back underneath his girth. He was satisfied with her acceptable greeting. The ginger haired feline was quite fond of all his nicknames that had anything related to royalty. He was glad that his human thought so highly of him, she was certainly smart, especially if she recognized his status.

She grinned at her cat, loving these little moments she had with him.

"I had a wonderful time at the ball, Crooks. I made quite the dramatic entrance. Thimi helped me get ready and I looked quite stunning. Thimi is now my house-elf. Crooks, I have a house-elf. I have to tell mum and dad before we leave." The last part she whispered horrified.

Crookshank's only response was the flick his tail as though to tell her that he already knew that.

"Malfoy was speechless, and all the witches from Hogwarts looked like someone slapped them in the face and called them muggle. It was great. Karkaroff was annoying though, it's like he wants to glue himself to Viktor. Poor guy."

The ginger cat's response to that was a long blink.

"Ron of course started a row. Can you believe that tosser had the sac to call me a traitor? For going to the ball with Viktor and talking to him? I can't wait to hear what he has to say about my kiss with Fleur. I'm sure he was too busy short circuiting to come up with a remark about that. He might be more mental about that considering he technically asked her to the ball," she scoffed at that.

"It was a nice kiss though, heat of the moment thing. We were dancing the tango. Crooks, it's been so long since I've had so much fun dancing. I split my dress so I had more leg movement, but I'm sure Hogwarts got a good look. It'll be funny to see how the masses react to that later today. You might have to beat them off for me, Crook. I'm sure I'll get so tired hexing bits off that you'll have to come protect me."

Her familiar started to purr at that, making Hermione grin again, knowing that her cat liked the idea of that.

"Believe it or not Headmaster Dumbledore actually got The Weird Sisters to play. It was magnificent. The first two dances were obviously with Viktor, the third was with Fleur. Davis nearly attacked her and she wanted to make a statement, so I agreed to go along with it. She made herself out to be a lesbian, but if it keeps the boys off her, I'm glad to help. Poor thing can't help her allure. It won't stop the girls from trying now though, but I'm sure she'll be able to handle them easier than the wizards."