TW: Death of a pet. This chapter was painful but also one of my favourites to write. I'm sorry for what I've done, but I promise there's some fluff coming up to make up for it xx
Hermione has been working hard and finally allows herself a quiet weekend, only for disaster to strike when she can't find her favourite companion.
Over the next few weeks, Hogwarts found itself home to five more stray house elves. Each of them turned up alone; in a similar state to the first one. They were hungry and cold, their bodies covered in cuts and bruises and they were scared. Once they'd allowed Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid to tend to their wounds and feed them they had drifted into a deep sleep. They only woke to eat. They would only allow Betsy to speak to them, but even then they only communicated with her in short sentences. They were reluctant to give away any details about where they came from or why they had turned up at Hogwarts.
Hermione felt passionately that these elves were the missing piece to finishing her register so she had started spending more time up at the castle. It was a fine balancing act though; she also needed to ensure her duties at the Ministry were seen to, as well as making time for Ron and her friends. She only found herself going home to sleep and make sure Crookshanks was fed and okay.
Hermione cursed as she apparated to Hogwarts and was immediately greeted by a torrential downpour. She cast an umbrella charm and drew her now soggy robes around her as she quickly travelled down the drive towards the castle. She really hated the winter.
She shook off the rain as she got into the infirmary and was immediately greeted by Betsy. The house-elf barely gave her time to remove her wet outdoor robes before she took Hermione's hand and started to drag her towards the elves.
"He is awake Miss Granger…" Betsy sounded excited and her words mostly came out as garbled nonsense but after working with her closely for three months, Hermione had become fluent in Betsy.
"Good morning to you too Betsy. Who is awake?" Hermione was amused but followed Betsy anyway.
"The first elf… look…"
Hermione got to the bed and smiled as she noticed the house-elf was sat up in bed and eating breakfast. She hovered at the end of the bed until he finished.
"Hi…" She gave the elf a warm smile. She felt nervous, if she said the wrong thing she could set herself back weeks of effort. "I don't think you know me, but I'm Hermione Granger. I am in charge of introducing a law to improve house-elf welfare but I've been spending a lot of my time up here looking after you and your fellow house-elves." She held out her hand for the elf to shake, which he eventually did, albeit a bit wearily.
"Betsy says you have been working hard to look after me. My name is Charles. I am feeling very tired now and I think I shall sleep some more. Tomorrow, I shall tell you more…"
Hermione watched, slightly incredulously as the elf lay himself back down in his bed and promptly started snoring. She had so many questions to ask him, but she didn't want to push him and risk scaring him off. Also, tomorrow was the weekend and she had been trying her hardest to keep her weekends free so she could try and have some form of social life. Nevertheless, if he wanted to speak to her again tomorrow she would be here.
She watched the elf sleep for a while before deciding to head back to the office to finish her day there. She had a mountain of paperwork to complete and she'd been putting off a meeting with Claire Radford for a week or so. She rubbed her forehead and got up from her seat, approaching Madam Pomfrey and Betsy.
"If it's okay, I'm going to head back to the Ministry and catch-up with some of my paperwork. He told me his name was Charles, but he's gone back to sleep now. They're in your safe hands and there's not much I can do up here anyway…"
Madam Pomfrey nodded. "Please can you speak to Kingsley again about finding somewhere for the elves to stay. They're okay up here for now, but I'll run out of space for students before long."
Hermione agreed to try and contact the Minister before she finished for the day. She wished everyone a good weekend before heading back out in the rain, rushing to the apparition point. By the time she got to her desk, she was starting to soaked through again. She cast a quick drying charm and then settled down after getting a cup of tea; ready to tackle the mountain of paperwork she had been ignoring.
Her day at the office was still long and it was almost dark by the time she'd got home. She'd popped into a muggle supermarket on her way to pick up her favourite bottle of wine and some comfort food. With no plans to see Ron until lunch at the Burrow that Sunday, she was looking forward to curling up with Crookshanks and finally finishing the book she'd been trying to read for the past few weeks.
She hung her bag and outdoor robes on the hook by the front door and carried the shopping through to the kitchen. She unpacked it with a flick of her wand, calling for the old, grumpy cat as she did. He had been taking longer to respond to her recently and she wondered if he was starting to go deaf. She didn't know how old he was, only that he'd been in the shop for a long time as 'nobody wanted him'. He'd been her loyal companion for around seven years now and the only time he hadn't been by her side was while she was in Australia or on the hunt for horcruxes.
Hermione checked all of the cat's favourite spaces in the house, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling in her stomach that something wasn't right. She started to feel panicked when she got to her bedroom and couldn't find him at the end of her bed. She forgot about changing out of her work clothes and instead rushed back downstairs. She pulled on her wellies and headed out into the garden, using her wand to light her way in the growing dusk. It was unlikely that he was out here, she'd spent ages teaching him how to use the cat flap when they first moved into the cottage as he hated the wet weather.
Her stomach gave a massive lurch as she spotted a pair of ginger fluffy legs lying underneath Crookshanks' favourite bush at the bottom of the untidy garden. He enjoyed it down there as the bush gave him enough shade in the sun, but he was still able to watch the birds eat their worms. But he never lay out in the dark or in the rain. She pushed her wet hair out of her face as she called desperately for him again, but instead of springing up and hurrying to her to be fussed, the cat stayed still.
Hermione crossed the lawn quickly, the feeling of dread now bubbling up from her stomach and to her throat. She felt like she was going to be sick but she ignored the feeling, instead throwing herself down next to him in the mud. She checked him over although she was finding it increasingly hard to see as her tears mingled with the rain and clouded her vision. She blinked fast as she sat back against her heels.
"Oh Crookshanks…" She rested a hand over the cat. He was so cold and wet. "I'm so sorry…"
She sat in the mud for a while, crying over her lost companion. She ignored the cold rain seeping through her work clothes and let her wand go out, focusing only on her grief and letting the dark garden close in around her.
Eventually, the tears stopped although the rain did not let out. Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket and accio'd Crookshanks' favourite blanket; wrapping him up carefully before bringing him in to the cottage. The lights in the house lit up automatically as she walked through to the kitchen and she put him down carefully on the kitchen table.
Suddenly, she knew she couldn't deal with this alone and she couldn't leave Crookshanks lying on her kitchen table until she felt better. There was only one person she needed. She hurried upstairs to her study, ignoring the muddy footprints she was leaving throughout the house and wrote a quick note to Ron on a scrap piece of parchment. She tied it to the leg of her owl, Aesop.
"Please take this to Ron. He should be at home, but if not try the Ministry or The Burrow…" The owl gave her finger a short, fond nibble to show he understood her before taking off out of the study window. Hermione watched him fly into the dark evening then headed back downstairs, ignoring the cold now creeping through her body.
Almost half an hour passed before Ron folded himself out of her fireplace, clutching hold of the piece of parchment with a panicked look on his face. He was still wearing his workout clothes, which meant the owl must have found him in the Auror training centre. Hermione had been trying to conjure herself a cup of tea so she could avoid the kitchen but was so worked up she had only managed to achieve some sort of weak liquid that did nothing to make her feel better.
Ron spotted her sat on the sofa and headed over to her straight away. He tried not to think the worst had happened as he took in her appearance, muddy and looking bedraggled from the rain. She was still wearing her work clothes as well. He sat down next to her and pushed a lank curl away from her face.
"Hermione? What's wrong?"
Hermione had been doing so well to fight off the tears after her first crying fit, but the look of concern on Ron's face was all she needed to set her off again. She burst into tears. "It's Crookshanks…"
"What's the stupid cat done now?" He pulled the mug out of her hand and placed it on the coffee table carefully before wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Hemione couldn't answer and instead buried her head against his chest as she sobbed. Ron hadn't seen her this worked up in a long time and it worried him but instead of pushing her for an answer, he stroked her hair patiently and waited until she calmed herself down before speaking again.
"Come on sweetheart, tell me what's wrong?"
Hermione didn't pull away but instead used his vest to wipe her eyes. "He's dead Ron…"
Ron sighed and pulled her closer to him. "Oh Hermione, I'm so sorry…"
"And the worst thing is he died alone. I've hardly been home the last few weeks. He probably thought I'd abandoned him…"
"I'm positive he didn't…" Ron pulled her away from him and cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb under her eye to get rid of the tears.
Hermione rested her head against his hand with a heavy sigh. "I couldn't even bury him… he's in the kitchen."
"Want me to help?"
She nodded weakly and got up from the sofa. She took Ron's hand tightly and led him to the kitchen, where Crookshanks was still lying wrapped in his favourite blanket. "I couldn't leave him out in the rain…" She pointed at the table but wouldn't get any closer than the kitchen door.
"Okay…" Ron headed over to the cat and pulled back the blanket slightly. He double checked for a breath or pulse before shaking his head. He looked back over at Hermione sadly. "He's definitely gone babe…"
She nodded and wiped her eyes. "Can we put him in the garden?"
"Of course… come on, we'll do it the muggle way…"
He led Hermione out into the garden, the cat firmly in his arms. He laid him down somewhere sheltered then found a spade in Hermione's shed. He got to work digging a shallow grave under Crookshanks' favourite brush. Whilst he dug, Hermione provided light from her wand.
Once the grave was ready, Hermione passed Crookshanks over to Ron who made sure he was tucked up securely. He stood up at the graveside and took Hermione's hand tightly, ignoring the rain and cold belting down on them.
"Oh Crookshanks, you were a grumpy, old, squash-faced cat. I really wish we had listened to you when you tried to get rid of Scabbers and I'm sorry I called you evil. I hope you're now safe in whatever constitutes for heaven for magical animals, although sadly Peter Pettigrew probably won't be there for you to chase.
"It's a shame you ate the Queen from my chess set all those years ago, they were my favourite players. I will miss you hissing at me whenever I tried to make a move on Hermione. Thank you for keeping her safe all these years; there will never be a cat quite like you again!"
Hermione let out a soft laugh, despite the fresh tears falling from her eyes. As Ron carefully filled in the grave, she found a flat stone and marked it with the cat's name.
"That was a very fitting eulogy Ron. Thank you…" She wiped her eyes again, now shaking in the cold rain.
"Why thank you, you're not the only one in this relationship who's good with words you know!" Ron wrapped an arm around her shoulder and started to lead her back into the cottage. "Lets go dry off shall we…" He carefully led her upstairs, adding to the muddy footprints already trailing through the house. He pulled her into the bathroom and sat her down on the side of the bath.
"You're turning blue, where are your towels?"
Hermione lifted a shaky hand and pointed to the correct cupboard. She watched as Ron pulled two of her largest, fluffiest towels out and warmed them up with a quick charm.
"Arms up then, lets get you out of these wet clothes…"
Hermione laughed slightly despite her tears and stood up from the side of the bath. She was usually the one acting like the mother of the group, so she loved it when Ron looked after her. She kept eye contact with him as she raised her arms and let him pull her soggy blouse over her head. Instead of letting her arms drop to her sides, she took hold of the bottom of his top and pulled it over his head. She dropped it to the floor before pressing a soft kiss against his lips.
Her heart pounded as she carried on kissing him. As they kissed, they slowly removed each other's wet clothes. Hermione moaned softly against Ron's lips as she felt his fingers graze against her skin, instantly warming her up. It wasn't until he broke away to wrap the warm towel around her body that she realised they were both naked. Although she always felt completely comfortable being naked around him, she still blushed slightly. He stepped away to fasten his own towel around his waist before smiling sheepishly at her.
"Sorry, I got carried away…" Ron blushed too and Hermione felt her heart leap.
She gave him a reassuring smile. "Please don't apologise; it's not like we haven't been naked around each other before." She took a step back towards him to close the gap he'd created. She leaned into him to give him another kiss, making this one a bit harder. She let out a soft moan as she felt him reciprocate and it didn't take long before she felt him run his tongue along her lips. She parted them willingly as the kiss deepened and she started to steer him out of the bathroom and towards her bedroom.
They carried on kissing as they moved, laughing against each other's lips as they bumped into a wall halfway there. Their hands traced well practised patterns against each other's skin, but there was still an air of something new between them too.
Hermione caught her hip against her bedroom door and let out a sharp intake of breath. It didn't hurt for long though, as she felt Ron's hand slide between her towel to rub it softly. Suddenly, the back of her legs hit her mattress and she crashed down onto the bed with a laugh, pulling Ron down with her.
Ron let out a slightly nervous laugh as he shifted his weight so he didn't squash her. He wanted her so badly, but he was painfully aware she'd just suffered a loss and they were supposed to be taking things slow. Mind you, he thought, the fact they had been dating for four months or so and they hadn't got to this point already was worth of a medal in his opinion. He felt her hand pulls at the knot keeping his towel around his hips and he moved so he could push her hair away from her face, giving her better access in the process. He placed a few kisses down the side of her ear, before lingering his lips close to her. When he spoke, his voice was low and deliberate.
"You sure about this?"
Hermione ignored his question and instead pulled determinedly at his towel. She lifted her head to capture his lips in a hungry kiss and slid her hands to his backside, pushing his body closer to hers. She didn't want to talk right now, she needed to feel his skin pressed against hers. She just needed him. She tore her lips from his and started to work her way down his neck, nipping and biting at his skin.
Ron groaned and pushed her towel up, not wanting to wait to remove it completely. He slid his hand to her thigh, forcing her legs apart more so that he could nestle himself between them. She automatically wrapped her legs around his hips and drove her heels into his backside to push him closer.
He moaned her name as he felt her teeth clamp down on a particularly sensitive spot on his neck. It didn't take much for him to shift his hips and slide into her with ease. Although he tried his hardest to take it slow, the way she was nipping and pulling at his skin was driving him crazy. With one hand gripping her hip tightly, he used the other to pull her head away from his skin and captured her lips in a hard kiss.
Despite the fact it had been over a year since they last did this, they easily found their rhythm. Minutes could have passed since the last time; she felt familiar and good; like they were designed for each other. He felt Hermione wrap her arms around him tightly, holding his body close to hers as they moved in time with each other. She was explicit with how good he was making her feel, which only drove him to work harder against her.
Ron fought to hold on, sliding a hand in between them. He was only focused on her pleasure; he needed her to feel good, to forget about her awful day. She clamped her teeth down hard on his shoulder as he pressed against the tight bundle of nerves and he grinned inwardly. When she came, it was loud and the feeling of her body trembling underneath him was enough to push him over the edge. Still he carried on moving, never wanting the feeling to stop.
Eventually, his movements slowed and he carefully rolled off her. He turned his head to watch her untangle herself from her towel and throw it to the floor before moving to curl up to his side; neither of them bothering to cover themselves up.
"Thank you Ron…" Hermione whispered softly before lifting her head to press lazy kisses against his chest.
Ron laughed softly and lifted a hand to stroke her hair. "I hope you don't think I was taking advantage of you being upset…" He watched her closely, the seeds of doubt already seeping into his mind.
"Ron no, of course not…" She lifted her head from his chest, frowning at him. "I may be upset, but I really wanted this. I've wanted it for a while actually, probably since before we got back together…" She leaned across him to give him a kiss before flopping back down on his chest.
He stayed silent for a while. The seeds of doubt that he had taken advantage of her replaced instead by thoughts of what she had been up to while they were apart.
"Was there anyone else? You know, while I was away…." As soon as he'd said it, he regretted it. He didn't want to spoil the moment, but he was torn between that and his curiosity.
Hermione sighed and sat up, although she tried hard to keep contact with him. She looked down at him fondly. "No Ron. I tried dating, but it's pretty hard when you live with your parents and you're new to an area…" She lifted her hand to stroke his hair. "I wasn't keeping myself for you though. I did try hard to get over you, so don't let the fact there's been nobody else inflate your ego…"
Ron smiled and sat up too to give her a kiss. "Sorry, what you did while we weren't together is none of my business…"
"It's okay to be curious about it though…" She kissed him again then laughed as his stomach growled. "You hungry?"
"Starving! I'd been in the gym for an hour before I got your owl. I was about to get a shower then Nev and I were going to get dinner at the Leaky…" He pouted at Hermione.
Hermione pouted back at him. "Good job I bought myself a ton of junk food to tie me over the weekend then. And wine!"
"Bloody brilliant!" Ron grinned. "As much as it pains me to suggest it, why don't we get dressed and move downstairs. We can spend the evening watching those shit muggle movies you love so much; a real soppy one and we can stuff ourselves silly."
Hermione nodded with a fond smile. "Thank you Ron…"
"Don't mention it…" He stood up and reached for his towel. "I'll go dry our clothes so I have something to wear. I'll see you downstairs…" He gave her a fond smile then headed back through to the bathroom to sort everything out.