Disclaimer: I own Marta.

A/N Thank you all so much for the reviews! Well, exams are now over, so I'll have a life again! YAY! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Just a note – I've been asked this several times, and I predict it will be asked again, so I'll answer it now. No, I'm positive that there will be no pairing in this story. I'm not a big shipper, I personally prefer humor to Romance. I'm currently writing a fic with a couple of friends (No, it is not posted yet), and even though that's very shippy, none of my chapters are. So no, there will be no match up in this story, and I'm sorry if that disappoints anyone.

Hermione pulled out her wand and approached the shaking box slowly. On reaching the bed, she nervously picked up the box and looked for a way to open it. When she discovered the taped flap on the side, she gently stuck her fingernail beneath the tape, opened the flap, and reached in. Her hand curled around fur; she gasped as she pulled out a kitten.

The kitten was black and white, but the markings were not normal ones. The chest and underside were completely white, but on each leg there was one large black spot, making it look like the kitten was wearing tattered white gloves. White fur lined the chin, and though the coloring stopped at the base of the nose on the right, it extended almost all the way up to the sapphire blue eye on the left. The furless part of the nose was black…but a thin stripe of white crept up the right side of the nose until it grew into a blaze that resembled a white version of the northern lights. Long white fur grew out of the ears, and there was a large white spot on the kitten's back. The tail was completely black. It would be a very beautiful kitten, except for the tail and the eyelashes. The jet black tail was longer then the rest of the cat, and the eyelashes looked like jump ropes falling from the face.

Hermione just stared at the shivering kitten for a moment. It was so small, it couldn't be more then two months old.

Hermione realized that her parents probably wanted her to open the poster first because the note was embedded in it, her mother knew that Hermione wouldn't be able to open the poster once she had seen the kitten, and the note probably had the details about the cat. Her mother knew her way to well.

Hermione gently placed the ball of fluff in her lap and opened the note.

"Hermione, Ricky's cat had her kittens, so when you told me that Crookshanks was lonely, I thought that maybe you would like one of them."

Hermione smiled. Ricky was her family's neighbor, and he was a vet.

"The one we picked out for you is a female. She is five weeks old. We understand that five weeks is a little young to be separated from the mother, but Ricky adopted another female cat three weeks ago, and she's been nasty to the kittens so Ricky had to give them away as soon as they were off milk. She's been given her all her shots, and she's a very happy little girl. She'll be a little shaky when you get her; we didn't know how else to get her there. Just give her lots of love on the first day, and she should be fine by Boxing Day. I thought it would be a fun project for you to raise a kitten all on your own, and she can keep Crookshanks busy. Your father has asked me to remind you, however, that school work comes first. Keep that in mind as you raise her. Happy tails!

Love you Lots,

Mum"

Sounds fair enough, Hermione thought.

She looked down at the big blue eyes that stared timidly back into her own.

"I need to give you a name, don't I?" She whispered to the kitten.

Suddenly, Crookshanks jumped up on the bed with them. When he saw the new member of their small family on the bed, he gave Hermione the look of death, walked agitatedly past them, and snuggled into Hermione's pillow, ignoring them.

"Don't do that, she's here to stay, and you will accept that fact." Hermione said sternly. "From now on, you are Uncle Crookshanks, and once I allow her out of the common room by herself, you will teach her how to get around Hogwarts safely. Understood?"

Crookshanks ignored her.

"Fine, be that way." She snapped. Right, naming time.

Looking at the poster, Hermione decided to name her Marta. That would be her first name. She hadn't had the opportunity to name Crookshanks, so Hermione decided that she would make up for that with Marta. Marta's full name would be Marta Maria Brigitta Louisa Liesel Gretel. Hermione smiled. All the names from the prominent female characters from The Sound of Music. Her mother would probably hate her for all of those names, but Mum did say that Marta was Hermione's project, after all.

Hermione then realized that Ron and Harry would probably attempt to get into the dorms again if she didn't go down and relate her spoils of presents to them, so she put her robe on and tucked Marta into it.

Ron and Harry were sitting at a table playing chess. Ron had gotten yet another maroon sweater from his mother, and Dobby had also clearly paid Harry another visit because Harry had mismatched socks on with assorted quidditch themes on both. Both seemed quite happy and content with it being Christmas. One creature in the room, however, was not: Marta had decided that she did not like seeing this big room with strange people in it while being held by a strange person, so she tried to dig deeper into the robe.

Poor baby, Hermione thought, cradling the scared kitten.

"Hey Harry!" She called. Harry and Ron both looked up.

"Merry Christmas! How did your present lot turn out?" She asked, concealing the shaking lump with her arms.

"Ah, the usual. The Kleenex from the Dursleys, the treacle fudge from Hagrid, the pastries from Mrs. Weasley, the advanced flying tips book from you, the chocolate frogs from Ron, and the socks from Dobby" Harry said nonchalantly.

"I got the maroon sweater from Mum, some strange looking candy from Fred and George I'm wise enough not to try, treacle fudge from Hagrid, the socks from Dobby, the remedial potions book you were kind enough to get me, a box of Fizzing Wizbees from Harry, a suspicious looking box from Ginny, and a new chessboard from Bill and Charlie." Ron said, his mouth full of candy. "How was yours?"

"The socks from Dobby, the sweater from Harry, the colorful hat from you, treacle fudge from Hagrid, a book from Ginny, a pair of earrings from Luna, a purr from Crookshanks, and a poster from my parents." Hermione smiled a devious grin.

"I know that look" Harry said suddenly, turning to Ron.

"What look is that?" Asked Ron, slightly confused.

"It's the look Hermione gets whenever she's secretly pleased with herself." Harry commented. "Out with it. What's the big secret?"

Hermione's smile increased.

"My parents also sent me a kitten" She revealed, pulling Marta out of her robe. The fur on the back of Marta's head was now sticking up straight. The kitten saw the big room and instantly tried to crawl back into Hermione's robe, but missed the opening. Hermione swiftly caught her and tucked her back in.

"Sorry – this is scary for a kitten this age. You know, big room with total strangers after a long, scary journey…"

The boys were staring at the shaking lump. Neither of them seemed able to speak. Finally, the ability to do so returned to Harry.

"How did your parents get that here?" He asked. Ron was still staring wide eyed, jaw hanging open with no apparent means to move. Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"What was that, Mr. Potter?" Her voice had a dangerous quiver to it that Harry knew all too well.

"I mean – is it a boy or a girl?" The danger in Hermione's face evaporated.

"It's a girl. Mum got her here in what looks like cleverly connected Chinese food boxes."

"Your mother sent you food from China?" Ron managed to say at last.

"No, Ron. Muggles tend to eat food from many different cultures, and the Chinese food places all send food home in very similar boxes."

"What's her name?" Harry asked.

"Marta. Marta Maria Brigitta Louisa Liesel Gretal."

"I dare you to say that again." Ron said, not impressed at all.

"How's Crookshanks handling her arrival?" Harry inquired. Hermione winced.

"Not well. He saw her and then gave me the total brush off. He is currently asleep on my pillow, ignoring me. He probably feels replaced, which I was hoping wouldn't happen, because nothing could replace my Crookers. He just has a niece now."

Suddenly Hedwig flew into the common room, clearly in a rage. The angered owl made a beeline for Hermione, who ducked just in time.

"I warned you!" Hermione called, crawling under table.

"Hermione, what did you do to my owl?" Harry asked, confused.

"I gave her some of Hagrid's treacle fudge" Hedwig was now gliding above the common room, clearly looking for a way to get to Hermione. Their fellow Gryffindors who had remained at Hogwarts for Christmas were now staring at the floating owl, wondering what was going on. Fortunately, Hermione saw Colin make no move toward his wand, which meant there was no scoreboard for her and Harry. Well, why should there be? Hermione and Harry almost never fought.

"YOU WHAT?" Harry roared.

"On December 23, I promised her some food when she returned from delivering my letter. The first (and only) food item that I opened was the treacle fudge. She would've pecked me all over until I gave her some, what was I supposed to do?"

At this, Harry lost for words.

"Um..Harry? Can you do me a favor?" Hermione asked.

Harry grumbled. But he agreed.

"Thank you" Hermione responded graciously.

As Harry called the peeved owl down from the air to saw open her beak, Hermione made a mad dash toward the dorms, holding the shaking ball tightly. As Hermione climbed the stairs, she heard flapping wings behind her. She quickened her pace, and slammed the door behind her. A moment later, there was a loud thud on the other side. Lord, I'm going to get it later, Hermione thought.

Then a horrifying thought hit her.

The window was open.

Hermione rushed to the window and pulled it shut as fast as she could, even though Hedwig was nowhere in sight.

Hermione sat on her bed, setting Marta in a fold of the quilt. Hermione was well aware that an orange eye that was pretending not to be open was staring at her from a slitted eye socket buried in her pillow. But she would talk to that cat later, when the baby was down for her nap.

The baby? She had known the kitten for what, an hour now?

Hermione was now stuck with a situation that she did not know how to fix. Hogwarts had a million nooks and crannies in it, how was she going to keep Marta from getting lost or hurt without putting her under dorm arrest, with keeping up with her studies?

Mum had clearly not thunk all of this through.

The only possible solution was that she would have to talk to her dorm mates, Parvati and Lavender, and possible have them kitten-sit now and then, but Hermione was top witch in her class, and she knew that with those two, once a week would turn into once a day and once a day would turn into once an hour until Hermione wouldn't own the cat anymore.

So no, that wouldn't work.

What about Ginny? She could be trusted not to dominate over the poor fuzz ball.

All of a sudden, Crookshanks stood up, stretched, and cautiously padded his way through the many blankets to where the ball of furr sat.

"Good boy, Crookshanks!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly. "Marta, say hello to Uncle Crookshanks!"

Hermione released a sigh of relief. Crookshanks's trying to be friendly was a good sign, because being the intelligent beast he was, he could help Marta get around Hogwarts safely.

But as Crookshanks leaned over to sniff his new companion, Marta's eyes went wide, and without hesitation, she jumped up and whacked him across the nose.

"Marta Maria Brigitta Louisa Liesel Gretel!" Hermione gasped. "What was that?"

Marta just stared back at her with her big, blue, innocent eyes.

Crookshanks, however, was not pleased. With a disdainful look, he daintily jumped off the bed and planted his back end on the floor beside the closed door.

Hermione walked over to where he sat and began to pet him.

"It's okay, Buddy. You're still my boy, remember that. She's just a baby and needs someone to take care of her. Someone like you. Will you do that for me?"

His squinted eyes told her that at the moment, he didn't care. He just wanted the door opened. Hermione pet him once more, and turned the knob.

He trotted down the stairs, bottle brush tail held high in the air. Regretfully, Hermione closed the door behind him. She wasn't worried about him – at home, he had taken on everything from large wild fowl to deer, so Hedwig wouldn't be able to tear him apart.

But Marta would not be able to defend herself against Hedwig (And neither would I, Hermione thought grimly), so the door had to stay closed for at least a little while longer. She felt terrible about locking out Crookshanks, however. The last thing she wanted was Crookshanks to feel replaced.

As Hermione returned to the bed, Marta began to explore it. Being as young as she was, there was no way she could jump off the bed safely, but that did not stop her at all from exploring every inch of the bed. She even climbed underneath the strewn blankets and explored that, too.

Since Marta clearly was busy with the bed, Hermione did some scouting of her own. She wanted to be positive that the dorm was kitten friendly. After a thorough investigation beneath the beds (All five of them), behind the wardrobes, and every other corner she could think of, she declared it safe.

Hermione smiled to herself. Having a kitten, she decided, would be fun.