Hermione Drabbles

written days before HBP was released.

~*~

"I'm sorry."

Hermione ends the letter to her parents, trying not to cry so as not to smudge the ink. She is sorry, sorry it has come to this. She understands that they only want her to stay because they miss her. She understands, more than they realize, why they think Hogwarts is dangerous.

But it has come to this, sneaking out in the middle of the night because she's not safe here and her parents aren't safe if she's here. Hermione loves her parents but Ron is waiting and Harry needs her.

Hermione opens the little bag of floo powder Moody slipped her before she left King's Cross in June.

**

It takes her several days to work it out. Crookshanks will not sit still since they've returned to Grimmauld Place. Instead he wanders in and out of rooms and meanders up and down hallways and stairs.

Sometimes he's poking around in the kitchen, getting ash on his face from the fireplace. Ginny recovered him once from Buckbeak's room.

He will sit on their laps if they put him there, but only for a few moments, and he sleeps on her or Ginny's bed at night. He does not seem to be sick or hurt, only restless.

Hermione's stomach clenches when she finally realizes he's looking for Sirius.