Disclaimer: See previous ones.
A/N I never said this, but this story takes place in Sixth Year. And I know that I say Hermione is seventeen…but JK Rowling herself says that Hermione turned twelve in September of First Year, so by December of Sixth Year, she would be seventeen. Just wanted to clear that up in advance. This chapter is also shorter then my previous ones; I know I had Spring Break, but I had a block. This chapter was nasty to write, and I know that it doesn't seem like much plotwise, but I'm getting there. Just bear with me on that one.
Several hours later, Hermione declared it safe to leave the room. Marta was fast a sleep on a lump of comforter, and the room had been kitty proofed from top to bottom. She cautiously opened the door and proceeded down the stairs. Crookshanks met her with a slight meow and marched to one of his tunnels to the grounds with his tail high in the air. That was so nice of whoever made Gryffindor tower – cat holes so the owners weren't harassed by their animals when they needed to go out.
Harry was waiting for her at the foot of the stairs.
"I managed to calm her down after an hour." He snickered.
"Cool it, you." She answered coolly. Her eyes then instinctively moved to the window; she gasped in surprise.
"Harry! It stopped snowing! Thank Merlin!" She then turned and hugged him. It was the first time in two weeks. It had varied – usually it was a light snow, but every once and a while it would come down in buckets – causing her parents to fear the roads enough that they told her to stay at school.
"Hermione! You are seventeen years old! Stop embarrassing me!" Hermione looked at him, and realized she had gotten slightly carried away and had jumped on him.
"Sorry." She said, returning to her own feet. "That happens when I get excited. But come on! Get some warm grubbies on, lets go play in the snow!"
"Grubbies?"
"Old clothes that are to be worn in situations that require the wearer get messy."
"I can't believe you jumped on me!"
"Harry! Do you want to play in the snow or not?" He seemed to ponder this for a minute.
"Good point. I'll get Ron, we'll all go out together."
Hermione ran back upstairs into her dorm. Marta was still sleeping soundly in the lump of blanket. Hermione wondered if she liked sheepskin – she had been planning on putting her rug on the bed that night, the nights were really starting to get cold.
Hermione threw on some old warm clothes. Before she left, she reached over to pet Marta's sleeping form. As Hermione pulled her hand away, Marta's front legs shot out in front of her and clung to Hermione, who jumped back in fright. Marta deployed her claws as Hermione's hand was taken from her. When Hermione was out of the demon's grasp, she saw three long scratch marks on her hand, blood beginning to seep through each one.
"Dang you" Hermione muttered. She realized that Marta had not really been asleep, and enjoyed the petting so much that she didn't want Hermione to stop.
Hermione rushed out the doors of the Great Hall. As soon as she had gotten to the bottom of her dorm stairs, she had been informed by Colin Creevey that Ron and Harry had left without her. Promising to curse them both when she got outside, she had then taken off at a run. But as soon as she was outside, feeling the cool sting of the air on her face, she felt another, less pleasant sting – the sting of an icy snowball.
"Accio Wand!" Someone yelled, and Hermione could feel her wand being pulled out of her pocket. She tried to grab it, but it slipped from her fingers.
"Now that's not fair!" She yelled at Harry.
"Yes it is" Harry said with a coy grin as Ron hurled another snowball at her. "First off, you helped me master that spell. Secondly, I only took the wand so you couldn't use it." Hedwig flew up behind him and landed on his shoulder. Hermione all of a sudden had an urge to throw the biggest, iciest snowball at her, but decided to save that for Ron, as another one hit her head."
"Hedwig will be taking all three wands up to the common room now, so we have a totally fair fight." He handed the wands to the owl who was now camoflauged with the snow. She disappeared into the sky, in the direction of Gryffindor tower.
"Do you feel defenseless now, Hermione?" Ron said with a smirk. "Because for once, I think I've out smarted you." Hermione then noticed something.
"Actually, I think not." She answered, reaching down and making a snowball. "Because, I, Ron, unlike you, understand the power of gloves" She hurled it at him, hitting him square in the face. "Therefore, I am able to make more snowballs." She began rapidly packing snow and hurling them, sometimes at Harry, sometimes at Ron.
An hour later, Ron's hands were nearly frostbitten, so they called it quits.
"And next time you want to have a snowball fight, make sure everyone has gloves!" Ron snarled at Hermione as they climbed through the portrait hole.
"Oh please, you started it, and when between Hedwig chasing me into my dormitory and you pelted me with that ice ball did we see each other?" Hermione retorted. "And next time you start hurling snowballs, make sure you have gloves. She bent over to try and get some of the snow out of her hair. Mid-flip, she saw the scoreboard go up. She smiled as she dug at her scalp.
"Harry, where's my wand?"
"Check your bed, that's where Hedwig usually drops stuff when I tell her to deliver things. Get changed, we can go to lunch."
Hermione climbed the stairs, shaking slightly. Sure, it had stopped snowing, but that didn't mean it was cold out.
Her bed was still unmade. From the doorway, she could see that her wand was indeed on the bed. Good. That probably meant Hedwig had forgiven her, and that she would stop chasing her.
Suddenly, the end of the wand moved. Startled, Hermione ran forward. Underneath a blanket was Marta, quite complacently chewing on the wand. What the heck?
"Marta Maria Brigitta Louisa Liesl Gretl!" Hermione shrieked. "What are you, a dog?"
Marta just stared back at her with her angelic blue eyes. Hermione shook her head. The wand seemed alright. Her scratched hand from earlier stung a little bit, but besides that was fine.
Wait….there was something that she needed to do. Marta obviously couldn't go outside yet, so a litterbox would be nessecary. But there had not been one included in shipping.
Brilliant one by Mrs. Granger.
Looking at the packing, Hermione was struck by an idea. Carefully running her finger around the outside, she was able to locate the tape that held it together. After retrieving her own tape, making a few adjustments and filling it with dirt from the flower pot next to Parvati's bed, she had a makeshift litter box. It wasn't much, but it would have to do for now.
Right, time to get changed.
When she was ready to go, she picked up Marta, gave her a hug, and placed her on the floor so she could explore a little bit. She instantly began running around, sticking her head everywhere.
"Bye, Baby Girl" Hermione cooed as she shut the door behind her.
For the second time that day, Harry was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.
"Took you long enough"
"The parental female did not equip me with a nessecary kitty utensil known to Muggles as a litterbox. I figured it would be nessecary after a while." Harry cringed.
"Ah, I see what you mean. Ron got fed up and left already. I think we'd better go before he thinks we're an item or something." He then noticed the scratch on her hand.
"Holy Merlin!" He gasped." Hermione, how did you get that?"
"Marta. I reached down to pet her and when I pulled away, she told me she didn't want me to stop. She's only a baby – she doesn't know how strong her claws really are."
"Hermione, I really think you should go to the Hospital Wing. You only just got the kitten this morning, you don't know what she could have on her claws!"
Hermione ignored him. It was, after all, only a little scratch.
