Chapter 13

"Don't worry about it Harry!" chided Hermione, "you shouldn't immediately partner up with someone just because Ron and I are together now!"

"Yeah mate!" joined in Ron, he was taking his new role as Hermione's boyfriend very seriously, it seemed to involve looking menacingly at any male who was not a family member or Harry and supporting Hermione in all her points of view apart from that of S.P.E.W, which he was still adamantly against ("Dobby's not right in the head! He collects tea cosies to wear as hats and worships b Harry /b for Merlin's sake! If that's not a sure sign of insanity what is!") "You shouldn't match up with just anyone! Look how it turned out with Cho!"

"Ronald!" Hermione scolded, glaring at him for broaching a subject which she had deemed to be far too sensitive for Harry. Not that he had noticed, Harry as busy morosely coddling a half empty bottle ("it could be half full mate…" Ron had muttered but Harry couldn't help but be pessimistic these days) bottle of butterbeer whilst he tried to ignore his friends half arsed attempts at offering him advice on his, quite frankly, non-existent love life.

"You never know Harry," he heard Hermione say; "the right girl for you could walk through that door any moment now!" He half turned his head to the door, ready to drop a scathingly sarcastic comment when nothing was forthcoming, hardly expecting such a thing to happen…

And Remus walked through the kitchen doorway, with a still shocked Ebony hot on his heels.

Harry was speechless.

So were Hermione and Ron for that matter.

"Did I just do that?" Hermione whispered, disbelief written across her face and Ron's as they looked at the girl who had just trailed in after Remus.

They weren't the only ones looking, Harry was hooked, this girl was phenomenal, she wasn't breathtakingly gorgeous like the Veela at the Quidditch World Cup or strikingly enticing like Cho and Fleur had been, but a combination of the way the air around her seemed to sparkle with wild magic and her exotic dark eyes, like mysterious blazes burned behind them, made her unforgettable and just about as addictive to Harry as butterbeer was to house elves, and with similar effects…

Ebony walked into the kitchen, close behind Remus, not wanting to let the painting of Mrs Black out of her sight for some unknown reason. As she walked in, she stopped dead. There, sat around the washboard kitchen table, were the Golden Trio. It was them alright, just as JK Rowling had described them, there was Ron, perfect down to his freckles and gangly limbs, his bright blue eyes trained on her through a mess of crimson hair that fell messily down his forehead. The eyes of the girl next to him, who's hand he was holding, were boring into her as well, Hermione Granger, for once in her life speechless, staring at her with her frizzy brown hair in bunches, evidently trying to work out precisely what was going on. And then, of course, at the head of the table, leaning back on his chair with a bottle of butterbeer cradled in his hand, Harry Potter, his emerald eyes peered at her through the confines of his glasses, which immediately fell off as he leant his chair back too far through her distraction, and toppled off it as the chair fell backwards onto the floor with a loud "thunk!", leaving its occupant sprawled on the floor, swearing mercilessly as he rubbed his head, just to the side of that infamous scar of his, which seemed to burn of its light as she looked at it, and suddenly she experienced a brief burn of agony shoot through her body. Steeling herself against the biting pain, she stared back at the curious eyes in front of her, two pairs from the table, and one slightly dazed one from the floor. She stared so long, in fact, that she was broken from her shocked gaze by two pale blurs shooting past her in a flurry of fur and limbs, "what the feck!" she spluttered, as Remus captures the two fluffy bundles and held them in the crook of the arm that didn't hold the portrait. "Well," he said, smiling, "we don't know quite what to call them, but they should be with Crookshanks right now, its almost their feeding time and she'll be wondering where they got to…"

"She - ?" choked Ebony disbelievingly, "I thought Crookshanks was a he!"

"So did we," grinned Hermione from the table, letting go of Ron's hand she held it out to Ebony, "until 'he' got friendly with a kneazle from one of Hagrid's fifth year Care of Magical Creatures class and had these two terrors at the beginning of the summer holidays! I'm Hermione Granger by the way, it's nice to meet you - ?"

"Ebony…" Ebony replied faintly, taking Hermione's hand gently, she saw Hermione's mouth open to introduce the others and quickly stopped her, "its okay, I know who you all are…I know all about you guys…"

Hermione looked unnerved and cast a swift glance at Ron who shrugged and mouthed, 'I thought she was a muggle?' and Remus cleared his throat, "right…well, I'm off to put this painting somewhere safe out of people's way and so I'll leave you with these furballs to get to know each other all a bit better," and with that he handed Ebony the two kneazle kits and strode purposefully out of the room. All eyes turned once more to Ebony.

'Crap' she thought.


Yes, I know, my word counts gone down a bit, but I basically used this chapter as a little filler for in between, as you see, basically, nothing happened during this chapter in terms of the plot, 'cept we find out Hermione and Ron are dating, that Harry's single and that Crookshanks has had kits…I suppose they ARE pretty much fully kneazle…cos Crookshanks was part kneazle and then mated with one, so that makes them about ¾ kneazle, which is close enough to give them the appearance and intelligence of that race…Kay guys?

I got my inspiration for the two kneazle kits after having a recurring nightmare for two nights on the trot about two evil kneazle-like animals that were chasing me and trying to kill me…I ended up killing them, the first one being a white one which I threw in a fire at my house…(I'm sorry, I know about animal cruelty but there we go) and the second, a black one, which chased me and my family not only around the house but in the car when we tried to run away, and after I THOUGHT I killed it a couple of times proceeded to come back again, I managed to kill by ripping its head of its body and running over it with the car in the middle of the roundabout between Lulworth, New Buildings, and Wool… it was the worst dream I've had for weeks…but I got inspiration from being scared stiff all the same…(the kneazles in my dream looked scarily like the Cheshire Cat from "American McGee's Alice XX so scary! But not to worry, these are cute fluffy kitten-like ones with big violet eyes, but I will talk more about that in my next chapter)

Anyhoo, rambles-ville or what:D

Please, review, let me know how mad you think I am…

Wowza…This was the original A/N I put at the end of my story when I posted it all those many years ago…I'd forgotten about that dream till I just read back on it now…Cos this isn't a trip down memory lane...-eye twitch-