For The Golden Snitch Forum's 'Tiggerific Times!', using the prompt of Crookshanks, putting me at a total of 20 points for Horned Serpent, Ilvermorny
514 by google docs
As the night goes on, these make less sense
going with the theory that the potters owned crookshanks way back when
Hermione really hated Ron. Crookshanks killing Scabbers? Impossible! Her darling cat would never do anything of the type. One night, after everyone had left the common room, she voiced these thought aloud to her cat who was stretched out in front of her. Hermione thought the cat was asleep, but as Hermione said her rant, Crookshanks opened one eye and then two and then looked up at Hermione.
(She was so much like Lily, it was almost painful. They looked nothing alike in looks, but their personalities mirrored each other. They both were muggleborn, incredibly smart and hated the person they should've loved.)
"Oh, Crookshanks," Hermione said, looking down at the camp. "Come here."
The ginger cat leaped up and curled up on his owner's lap.
"I don't want to hate Ron," she said to Crookshanks, wiping away tears that had formed in her eyes. "I just… I wish life wasn't so complicated. I hate it."
(Lily would also bottle up her feelings until they fell out of her, like an avalanche. They also both hated when they hit a wall, finding something so complex that they couldn't find a solution for. They hated emotions.)
"I know you didn't do anything wrong, Crookshanks. You wouldn't do that."
(They would both defend someone they loved until the end of time, even if they were blinded by love. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it got them into trouble.)
"I don't know what would happen if I found out that you did kill Scabbers," Hermione went on. (He would never, unless Sirius told him too. Sirius seemed to want to kill the rat himself, though.) "I would feel just awful, and I wouldn't know what to do with you." Hermione held up Crookshanks so that they were eye-level with each other. "I love you, of course, but if you killed my best friend's rat…"
(They both always seemed to have some type of internal struggle, on what to choose over something else. It got annoying for Crookshanks, always having to see them fight it out.)
"I mean—" More tears were coming, and faster. "—I do hope I'm still Ron's friend after all this. He's so angry at me… I don't believe that Scabbers is dead, do you?" she asked Crookshanks. He meowed in response.
(They both talked to Crookshanks as if he was a real human being and, as if Crookshanks could answer, they even paused after, long enough for an answer.)
"It's not like you've been completely innocent, though," Hermione scolded her cat. "You're always chasing after him, but only him. Why don't you ever go for other rats?"
(Other rats didn't bother Crookshanks. Other rats didn't cause his old owners to die.)
"Oh, you didn't kill the rat, did you?" Hermione asked. Slowly, Crookshanks moved his head from one side to the other. (He wishes.) Hermione looked surprised that Crookshanks actually responded.
"Did you just respond to me?"
Crookshanks just looked up at her.
"Okay…"
(One difference between them: Lily had recognized Crookshanks for what he was. Why was Hermione so slow on the uptake?)