The first day of classes seemed to have flown by. Getting back into the swing of having a set schedule, and sitting through her lessons filled Hermione with a sense of peace that she hadn't felt in many months.
Meals in The Great Hall with her classmates hadn't been as comfortable as she hoped they would have been — like they were at a different time in her life. Most of the younger students stared at Hermione, who was one of the most famous heroes of the war. She tried to ignore it the best she could have, but when some of the first years blatantly pointed at her during dinner that evening from across the hall, she hadn't been able to take it any longer.
Gathering her belongings, she told Ginny she was going to the library, before she had to do her first night of rounds.
As she walked alone through the dark corridors of the castle, only an occasional gas lantern, or the soft silver glow from the moon lighting her way, she felt a bit on edge. She tried not to be alone in the dark much, if she could have helped it.
Over the summer holidays, she hadn't even slept alone. She either shared a room with Ginny, if she were at The Burrow, or slept on the floor in Harry's room, the nights she spent at Grimmauld Place. Fewer nightmares happened if she had someone nearby.
She walked briskly, hoping that the exertion would have cleared her head, and melted away the anxiety of so many awed young eyes searing into her. Fame hadn't ever been something she was comfortable with. She learned that during her fourth year, and it was moreso reinforced over the summer. She hadn't felt as if she deserved the moniker of hero. She'd only done what she had to in order to have survived.
As she passed the Prefects' bathroom on the fifth floor, suddenly she was filled with that sense that she was being followed. Hermione turned around quickly, wand at the ready.
No one was there.
Lighting her wand, she aimed it down the hallway behind her, a thin stream of light beamed out in front of her. She remained still, straining her ears for any sign of movement, but all she heard was the sound of her own heart pounding.
"Don't be ridiculous," she scolded herself, as she tucked her wand back inside the sleeve of her robes.
Even though she tried to tell herself it was nothing, the rest of the walk to the library, she couldn't shake that feeling of unease that settled into her chest. Something had just felt off.
As she suspected, she was the only student sat in the library. Most of the student body would still have been in The Great Hall for dinner. Those who were finished, she assumed, were retreating to their common rooms.
Hermione missed her friends, even though it had only been a day since she had seen them. Pulling some parchment from her bag, along with ink and a quill, she'd decided to write to both Harry and Ron, as she promised them each she would.
She kept her letters light and superficial. Telling them each how much she enjoyed being back, but how different it had been without them both with her. She joked about sending some parcels filled with Hagrid's abysmal cooking, and perhaps one of Professor Sprout's Venomous Tentacular plants.
Signing the letter with her love, and promises to see each of them during the school's first Hogsmeade visit, she sealed the letters and placed them into her bag.
There was still a bit of time before she needed to begin rounds, so she figured she would take a walk to the Owlry to send them, with the hopes that that would have meant she'd receive owls back from them more quickly than if she waited until morning.
The entire walk through the castle, and out onto the grounds, she still hadn't been able to shake that uneasy feeling that she was being followed. If anyone would have seen her, they would have assumed she'd developed some sort of nervous tick from the war, with the amount of times she stopped dead in her tracks to survey the space around her.
After she sent her two letters on their way, Hermione began a slow decent down the stairs of the tower. She trailed her hand along the cold stone beside her, taking care to look out at the scenery before her. She was relieved to find that Hagrid's hut stood just on the edge of the forest, looking quite the same as the last time she'd seen it. Just a small addition seemed to have been made - an extra room was added on.
Obviously the Quidditch pitch had been fully restored, since she couldn't have imagined Professor McGonagall allowing the sport not to have been played, knowing what an avid fan of the game she was. Most of Professor Sprout's greenhouses had been repaired, only three of them still being either completely obliterated, or partially collapsed. Parts of the castle had magical yellow strips blocking it off, reminding her much of Muggle construction tape. Yet the Muggles hadn't used anything quite as shimmery, or that levitated on its own.
Her attention was brought back to the Forbidden Forest, when she caught something just in the periphery of her vision. A Thestral bobbed up above the trees, before just as quickly disappearing back into the forest.
Looking up at the sky, she noticed the moon was full that evening, and a wave of sadness came over her, as she thought of poor little Teddy Lupin, another orphan of the war. Just like his godfather. She missed Remus. And Tonks. She hadn't been as close to Tonks as Ginny became. Truly, the two wild souls seemed to have had much more in common than she and Hermione did. But Remus she always felt was a kindred spirit. It was unfair that they had been taken from the world, just as Remus had finally found love and family, after so many years in solitude.
As she walked through the grounds, and back towards the castle, she heard a ruffling in some bushes behind her. Her breath caught in her throat, as she spun with her wand out and ready once more.
Shining her light on the bushes, she squinted, as she thought she saw the reflection of two eyes looking back at her. Her pulse rushed through her ears while she took a step forward. It was completely silent for a heartbeat, then Hermione yelped as something came bounding out before her.
For a moment, she was completely stunned. She couldn't move, due to the shock of what stood before her. It couldn't have been, she thought to herself. She was more than sure he had died.
A squash-faced orange cat trotted towards her, his bushy tail swinging behind him. Hermione felt her throat tighten at the sight. Almost instinctively, as he grew nearer, she opened her arms, and the cat jumped up into her arms.
"Crookshanks!" she cried, with her face buried into his fur. "I thought I'd lost you!"
He purred happily in her arms, not seeming to mind the tears that were now saturating his fur, as Hermione kissed him on top of his head.
After Hermione erased her parents' memories, and left for the Burrow, she'd brought her feline familiar with her. But when she, Harry and Ron had run off on their hunt for Horcruxes, she was told Crookshanks disappeared as well. Hermione had her suspicions that he had attempted to hunt her down, but was lost along the way. It took several weeks, but she'd finally come to terms that he hadn't survived. And to now have him nuzzling her cheek, after so much time apart from one another, she was overwhelmed.
Hermione didn't have the heart to put him down, so she carried him the rest of the way through the grounds, and into the school. Once they were inside, however, it seemed Crookshanks hadn't thought it dignified to be carried around any longer, and squirmed in her arms to get down, where he happily trotted along beside her. Occasionally, he would brush his body against her leg.
Once they were inside her room, before she had to leave for a few hours, Hermione took a pillow from her bed, and transformed it into a large fluffy cat bed, which she placed next to four-poster bed. She transfigured a glass into a water dish, and knew that there were more than enough mice around the castle to keep him full. Regardless, on her way back from doing rounds that evening, she would stop in the kitchens, and see if she could get the elves to give her some fish to bring back as a treat.
She picked him up once more, to hug him tightly - which earned an annoyed sneeze from him, then kissed his head before putting him back in his new bed.
"I won't be long," she promised over her shoulder, before shutting her door, leaving the common room, and walking out into the drafty corridors of the school.
There was a newfound lightness in her heart, as she made her way around the school, checking for students who may had still been wandering around. After everything that she had lost in the last two years, it had felt nice to have gained something back. Even if it was something as silly as a pet. But to Hermione, Crookshanks hadn't ever been nearly just a pet. He was family. The only family she had had at the moment, she reminded herself.
It was an uneventful evening, she thought, while she started down to the dungeons to go to the kitchen. There had only been three sixth years - a mixture of Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw, who she had told off for being out after hours. Other than that, her first night of rounds had been dreadfully dull.
When she arrived to the portrait of the bowl of fruit, she tickled the pear, and the scent of roasted chicken assaulted her when the door opened. As always, the small elves fell over themselves in their attempt to help her. She choked back her urge to lecture them on how they deserved more, because to be fair, the elves at Hogwarts lived far better than any of the others she'd encountered. They'd all fought so bravely to help protect the castle the previous spring, that she now understood that they loved their home, and would have been hard pressed to ever have been freed to leave it.
As two of the elves went on their way to fetch Hermione a piece of fish for Crookshanks, a small hand tugged on her robes. Hermione looked down with a smile, and saw a much more sober, and much healthier Winky staring up at her with wide, friendly eyes, and sparkling clean blue robes.
"Winky, you're looking well," she said, as she shook her miniature hand.
"Thank you, Miss. Winky is been doing much better," she squeaked. "Although, Winky is still missing Dobby," she added softly, with a slight bow of her head.
Hermione felt that tightening in her rib cage again, as she'd felt so many times over the summer, when remembering someone who had fallen in the war. Her eyes prickled as she fought the tears from forming in them.
"As am I, Winky," Hermione told her, with a gentle pat on the shoulder.
With a package of fish in hand, Hermione said goodnight to Winky and the other elves, then left the kitchen, eager to get back with her surprise for Crookshanks.
She passed the Potions classroom, and Professor Snape's old office, then stopped for a moment as she peered inside.
Harry had made sure to retrieve Snape's body from The Shrieking Shack the morning after the battle. He had been determined to have a service for the man, just as grand as the one for Professor Dumbledore. Harry spared no expense. She smirked to herself, thinking of how annoyed Snape would have been, if he'd known that Harry Potter, of all people, had been the one to not only coordinate, but fund the memorial service for him.
She would have paid to have seen his reaction. A small bubble of laughter escaped her, as she thought of the look of pure disdain which would had been plastered on his face.
Hermione was so distracted with her thoughts, that she hadn't heard the noise of soft footsteps coming up behind her. She stood smiling, her mind moving past the displeased expression of her dead professor, and onto the colorful words he may have chosen for Harry.
Why shouldn't she have allowed herself a moment of reflection? She was standing in the middle of Hogwarts, after all. Her guard needn't have been up all of the time.
However, at that moment, it should have been.
A/N - A surprise quick update! Next chapter will be posted on Thursday! :) Hope you all enjoyed it! And thank you so much for the follows, favs and kind words so far!