Susannah01

Black Heart

Chapter 1 Catching Crookshanks

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all it's characters belong to JK Rowling

Hermione Granger walks into her dorm room, puffing out her cheeks indignantly.

"Those little gits" she thinks to herself, "I swear the next one that pulls something I will hex them back into nappies".

It's the last day of term and the whole school is packing to leave the Castle within the hour for the Hogwarts Train taking them all home for the summer. Spirits are high among the younger students and a group of 3rd and 4th year boys thought it would be highly amusing to hide each other belongings, persuading their female counterparts to take part as well, the result was Hermione and her fellow prefects in Gryffindor Tower were run ragged trying to help the younger students find their precious belongings until Ron worked out what was going on and roaring at the younger boys and girls managed to put a stop to it by putting the fear of god into them.

Hermione looked around her dorm room, her trunk was neatly packed and her school robes lay on her bed, ready for her to wear when they were leaving, her obsessive tidiness and organisational skills the only thing that made her still recognisable as the girl who started Hogwarts 6 years earlier. She had grown into a very beautiful young woman with a petite frame and at 5ft 4in was only slightly taller than Ginny Weasley. Her hair had long since calmed into long chocolate brown curls, which hung down her back. Her figure had filled out nicely as well, but it was Hermione's eyes you noticed first, dark chocolate brown to rival her hair, rimmed by long thick dark eyelashes she was indeed the beauty of 6th year. The most attractive thing about Hermione was that she was completely obliviously to what every one else could see. Having absolutely no interest in any of the boys around her, she threw herself into her studies and stubbornly in some people's eyes was only really close friends with Harry, Ron and Ginny.

She eyed the empty cat basket sitting on top of her trunk, "Oh my Crookshanks!"

She whirled around picking up the cat basket as she went and started down the stairs of the girl's tower. Hearing Ron's raised voice again in the common room; she picked up her speed, contrary to what she was thinking 5 minutes earlier she really did not want Ron to hex any of the younger students. Round the corner of the tower, she spotted him darting onto his knees behind one of the large squashy sofas dotted about the common room.

"Come here you little fucker growled Ron"

"Ron for Merlin's sake will you please stop swearing at the younger students, stop fooling around and please help me find Crookshanks".

Ron's head appeared over the top of the sofa, his eyebrow's raised in indignation at Hermione's accusation. On standing up she saw he had Crookshanks in his arms, squirming about obviously unhappy at being caught.

"What was that Hermione?" He questioned.

"Oh sorry Ron, thank you for catching the little devil and thank you again for taking him for the holidays"

"No problem, as long as he behaves himself we will all get along just fine".

Crookshanks hissed at Ron and jumped elegantly out of his arms, trotting over to Hermione meowing loudly in his protest at being manhandled by Ron. Hermione picked him up cuddling him close, and speaking softly to him kissed him on the top of his head before depositing him in his carry basket. Ron could have sworn the cat looked up smugly at him, but was wary of voicing these thoughts to Hermione unwilling to start yet another argument with her over Crookshanks.

At last they all seemed to be organised and had successfully managed to herd the Gryffindor students out of the common room and downstairs toward the carriages waiting to take them to the Hogwarts train. Getting into one of the last carriages Hermione and Ron both rolled their eyes at the sight that greeted them. Harry and Ginny were already in there and were snogging the face off each other. They had been an item for the last 6 weeks, getting together at the party in the Gryffindor tower to celebrate them winning the Quidditch cup. Everyone had been delighted they had got together as these two had been dancing round each other all year. Harry and Ginny had become very close as a couple very quickly and were very physically demonstrative with each other; not minding who else was in the room at the time. After 6 weeks of this, it was starting to grate on Ron's nerves, especially since he had broken up with his own girlfriend a couple of weeks earlier so had nothing else to distract him.

"Oi" give it a bloody rest you two" he yelled practically throwing himself and Crookshanks carrier into the carriage.

"Ron" watch how you handle Crookshanks the poor darling nearly landed upside down there".

"Right sorry he's fine no need to panic Hermione". Ron lowered his voice as he rolled his eyes in Harry and Ginny's direction.

Harry and Ginny jumped apart at this intrusion. Smoothing down her skirt Ginny moved off Harry's lap and settled down on the seat next to him, glaring at her brother who did not seem to be intimidated by this whatsoever. Harry keen to avoid anymore arguments over his and Ginny's relationship tried to steer the conversation to the coming summer holidays.

"So Hermione are you looking forward to seeing your mum and dad and your trip to Italy"

Hermione turned her attention away from Ron and Crookshanks and smiling at Harry nodded her head.

"Cant wait to see Mum and Dad again, its been such a long year and this trip they have organised just sounds so exciting, just what I need before starting my 7th year in September".

Hermione's parents had organised a month long tour of Italy for themselves and Hermione, they were due to leave the very next day.

"So we will see you at the start of August when you come to stay with us", Ginny confirmed as she squirmed closer to Harry who wrapped his arm round her shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks for having me to stay and for looking after Crookshanks this summer, I couldn't bear to leave him with anyone else, he's such a little sweetheart It would have broken my heart to leave him with someone who didn't understand how sensitive he is".

Harry and Ron looked across at each other incredulously. It amazed both of them how utterly blind Hermione was to Crookshanks ability to take care of himself and how the cat had his owner thoroughly wrapped round his little paw.

Once the quartet boarded the train they found an empty compartment and settled in for the long journey back to King's Cross.

"Is Sirius coming to meet you Harry" Hermione smiled over at him.

"No he is on duty today; I'm going to the Burrow and will floo over to Grimnauld place tonight after dinner".

"Oh cool I get to keep you with me all day, today cooed Ginny".

Harry chuckled at the revolted look that crossed Ron's face. Harry now lived with his Godfather Sirius. They had all been involved in a battle at the ministry at the end of their 5th year. Sirius had been a wanted man then but upon the capture of several death eaters including Wormtail the ministry had to admit he was wrongly imprisoned and had pardoned him. Sirius had received a large settlement to add to his already enormous wealth, making him a very, very rich wizard indeed. Sirius had revelled in his new found freedom for the first few months. Going home with different witches almost every night until this lifestyle became very unsatisfying for him. After long talks with Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad Eye Moody he had joined the Auror force at the ministry and it was a role he relished, he also invited Harry to come and live with him, which Harry jumped at, not having to ever go back to the Dursley's was a dream come true for Harry. Christmas that term was a very festive time indeed and Harry loved the freedom of being able to floo over to the burrow to visit Ron and the others whenever he liked. Grimmauld Place was still used as the headquarters for the Order, but Sirius had spent a lot of money on the house turning it into a beautiful comfortable home for him and Harry.

The whole top floor was now given over as living quarters for Sirius and he had it re-modelled into extremely large bedroom housing fine dark furniture and the biggest four poster bed he could find. Off the bedroom to the left was a large bathroom, with a sunken bath, and shower stand big enough for 4 people. To the right of the bedroom another door led into an elegant sitting room where Sirius indulged himself by getting a muggle TV and stereo system fitted. Harry, Remus and Sirius had many enjoyable days out in muggle London buying CD's and DVD's, stocking the sitting room with a wide and varied collection of music and films. He also re-modelled all the bedrooms downstairs that the others used when they came to stay including Harry's, which was a miniature version of his own quarters minus the sitting room. However he did have a TV and stereo system installed in Harry's bedroom as a Christmas surprise to him. The kitchen was now bright and inviting and through the back door it led onto the garden of Grimmauld place which had been magically modified to appear much larger than it actually was and was charmed so that no one could see into the garden from outside the house. Only the people inside the house would ever be aware of the garden's existence.

Hermione sat back and closed her eyes, a small smile playing across her lips as she thought of Sirius. She had last seen him a couple of months ago when he came to the school along with some of the Auror squad to teach some extra curriculum self defence classes to the members of the DA. Every girl in the DA immediately developed a crush on him including Hermione, and even Ginny who had a huge crush on Harry at the time. Sirius no longer had the haunted look of a wanted man and with his newfound lifestyle was at the peak of health. At 37 Sirius Black was drop dead gorgeous, with long wild black hair, deep blue eyes and a toned body to die for. Of course it did not help that he was an incorrigible flirt and as he was entirely comfortable in Hermione and Ginny's company, he would think nothing of throwing an arm round them or picking them up and twirl them round the room, much to the chagrin of the other girls in the DA.

Hermione was broken from her daydream of Sirius by Ginny's loud exclamation of "oh for Merlin's sake, just ignore them Ron, he's doing it to annoy you".

"Yeah you think, well it bloody working", yanking the compartment door open he yelled, " why don't you two go and shag elsewhere, your making me bloody sick".

Hermione looked over to door and through the compartment window could just make out two blonde heads. One belonging to Draco Malfoy and the other Lavander Brown, who had been in the middle of a heavy make out session up against the window when Ron interrupted them.

"Jealous Ron" sneered Lavander.

Give me a break Lav, remember I broke up with you so why don't you two just fuck off and shag elsewhere, I've already seen it up close and personal not an experience I'm keen to repeat as it made me fucking sick the first time".

Ron and Lavender broke up a few weeks earlier when he had walked in on her cheating on him with Draco Malfoy in the boys Quidditch changing room.

Malfoy quickly pushed Lavender to the side and pulled his wand on Ron, unfortunately he was about 10 seconds behind the rest of the compartment and halted in his tracks when he realised Harry, Ginny and Hermione were all pointing their wands at him. Deciding to use his mouth instead he tried taunting Ron instead of hexing him.

"Not the poor girl's fault she was desperate to be with a real man, not a poof like you weasel"

"Yeah Yeah ferret boy, go tell it to someone who gives a fuck, now piss off ".

Ron stood and folded his arms, staring Malfoy down; he was a good 6 inches taller than the other boy.

"Come on Draco whined Lavender, lets find some place more friendly".

Draco turned towards his girlfriend and started to walk away, turning back he threw one last taunt at the four of them by sticking his middle finger of his right hand up at them. Turning to put his arm back around Lavender's shoulders and whispering something into her ear to make her giggle.

"Jesus do you bloody believe that little wanker, one of these days I swear I just gonna beat him to a bloody pulp".

"Ron, please try and not swear so much, some of the first year might hear you" Hermione huffed back to her seat, " and they are only trying to wind you up, you should just ignore both of them they are just not worth it".

The four friends settled down for the rest of the journey, making plans for when Hermione returned from Italy and would join them at the Burrow. They planned on having a party for Harry's 17th Birthday at the Burrow, as it was impossible to have a party at headquarters. Apart from the four teenagers the only other people who could access Grimmauld place were members of the order.