Crookshanks was lonely. His mistress Hermione Granger was off at some strange adventure she called the horcrux hunt or something like that. She told him to stay at Hogwarts, supposedly to guard her friends that returned to Hogwarts that year. Her friends got into a lot of trouble, leading the Dumbledore's Army and rebelling against the evil Death Eaters that tried to take over Hogwarts. Ginny, Neville and Luna were fine as surrogate masters, they rarely forgot to feed him. But they were nowhere near as much fun as his mistress. They never read him books or their essays. The lack of essays was probably mostly due to the fact that they had more important things to worry about than their education. Not that Crookshanks, who prided himself on being an intellectual, believed such a thing existed. Although mice hunting and scratching anything that didn't run away fast enough came pretty close. Taking Hermione's wool and unwrapping it while she looked confusedly for it to make the hats for the house Elves from was also a nice hobby. And annoying Hermione's ginger friend. Trying to eat his rat was a fun game too back in the day, but for some reason the little menace always managed to escape his claws. Nevertheless, education was a priority. But the Mistress found something more important than that to do and left him in the creepy yet beautiful old castle, among uneducated little moving scratchers. He did try to contribute to the cause, offer moral support to the DA while they crept about the school painting graffiti. But the human vandal scratchers failed to take good enough care of his fur. There was always paint on his fur after these nightly adventures and he hated having to clean the disgusting stuff off himself. So, having realised his talents were wasted in the rebellion, he became even more convinced to stay loyal to knowledge. It set an interesting precedent for all the future half kneazels. Who knows, one day they might rise against the opression and demand their own books written in cat language. For Crookshanks could not read the books himself, Hermione was the one reading out loud, and he always made sure to listen intently. But, perhaps, if he were to find a good book and get a member of the DA into his claws, he may persuade them to read it to him. As it was the New Year's Eve, and most of the castle's occuoants, especially the uneducated pieces of dog shit that were the Carrows were probably somewhere getting drunk and not patrolling the corridors, Crookshanks decided it was a perfect night to break into the library and find a good book. And perhaps a poor lonely soul that would read the book to him.