Day Seven

Harry looked down at the ball of fur still clinging to his robes as they re-entered their office and Ron snickered.

"Just shut up."

"I reckon it likes you."

"Yes, Ron, I came to that conclusion after the fifth time I pried it off of me and it still kept coming back," he sniped.

They had been out in the field responding to a call about a disturbance in an abandoned building up in Hogsmeade- a building which wasn't the Shrieking Shack- when out of nowhere a small white kitten had sprung right at Harry and landed on his robes at about hip level, hanging on for dear life with its claws. And no matter how many times he removed it from his person, it just kept coming back. Once, it even managed to wriggle its way into one of his pockets before he could catch it.

He only gave up on getting rid of it when they had finished up and it was time to apparate away. He was afraid the thing would jump into his field of apparition and kill itself if he put it down again before he left, because it had proved itself determined to stay with him with little regard for self-preservation.

Hermione would probably say something about like attracting like, because she never passed up an opportunity to remind him that he wasn't careful enough with himself, and it was with her voice in his head that he'd decided not to risk it. But now he had a kitten, in the Ministry at that, with no idea what to do with it.

"What do I do with it?" He mused out loud.

"Beats me, ask Mione. She'll know what to do."

Harry shot his friend a sharp look, sharper than was really called for by the relatively innocuous comment.

Ron immediately held up his hands. "What? She likes helping, especially us. It makes her feel good. You know it's true."

"She's good for more than just that," he practically growled in response, then quickly bit back another comment defending Hermione when he heard the tone of his own voice. Because to do so would be over the top, irrational, and it would alert Ron to the fact that there was something going on.

Ron looked completely taken aback. "Of course she is, Harry. I know that, I was just saying. If you have a kitten- a helpless creature, which is literally her department- in our office only two floors away from her without even letting her know, she'll find out and then you'll hear about it."

Harry laughed, he had a point there. "You're right, sorry," he added hastily.

Ron just shrugged. "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"I haven't checked. I think I might leave that to Hermione to find out, its claws are sharp."

"She does have a way with those things, even that monster of hers."

He eyed Ron. "You know, it might help if you even tried with Crookshanks. He's really smart, he knows you don't like him."

"Well he doesn't like me either! Anyway, we're way past that."

Harry just nodded as he sat down. Ron was probably right. He and Crookshanks were fully invested in hating each other now. Harry didn't think that could be undone, or that either of them really wanted it to be for that matter.

He took out a memo parchment to write out a plea for help to send to Hermione. By the time he finished writing and sending it, the kitten had migrated to his lap and turned onto its- her- back. So at least he would be able to provide Hermione with that information when she inevitably asked.

He got a return paper airplane in no time, with a list of questions so thorough he could only laugh out loud and wonder how she'd written so fast, but he answered all of the ones he could, and he fully expected her to come check out their guest as soon as she finished reading it. Instead, he got another memo with instructions to take the kitten home when he was through with work, telling him she would meet him there. He laughed to himself at the way she'd basically given him marching orders.

Two hours later he was in his living room with the kitten in his arms, pacing as they waited for Hermione to arrive. Truth be told, he was nervous to see Hermione, and he didn't remember the last time that had happened. Probably sometime while they were still at Hogwarts and he was trying to hide something from her that she wouldn't approve of. Anyway, it had been a long time and the feeling was unnerving.

He hadn't seen her since yesterday as the call to Hogsmeade had taken most of the day, including lunch, and he was still trying to figure out her reaction to the ballet tickets. He'd expected her to object over the cost, but he'd never anticipated such an emotional response. Especially because procuring the tickets had been no big deal. It would have been for most wizards, but he was comfortable in the muggle world and she knew it. There were several gifts he'd put a lot more effort into.

Her reaction had given him the sneaking suspicion that he had missed something, and something rather big. Her further reaction to the inclusion of her parents had all but confirmed it. At the time that he'd purchased the tickets he had simply wanted to make sure he wasn't stealing their tradition so he'd been sure to buy extra.

It hadn't occurred to him until he was holding a sobbing witch in his arms that of all the times she'd spoken of attending the Nutcracker with her parents, the stories she told had always been from when she was a child. He knew that they hadn't been since the war, which was the thing that had given him the idea, he wanted to give her back her tradition. But he hadn't considered how telling it was that they'd stopped going in the first place.

He knew that her relationship with her parents was...strained, but he was beginning to think he'd underestimated the extent of that significantly, and he felt like an arse for it. It wasn't the kind of thing she would have failed to notice about him. And he couldn't decide if he should ask her about it, or if he should wait to see what he observed on Saturday night, because she'd sent him a text message last night confirming they'd be able to attend.

Something he was suddenly incredibly nervous about. He had met the Grangers many times, but that's all it had ever really been. He could probably count on one hand the number of occasions he'd spent more than a few minutes with them. How had he never made more of an effort to get to know his best friend's parents?

The dinner reservations had been a last minute decision, something he'd done after he returned home from the Burrow on Sunday afternoon. Another experiment, if you will. A way of continuing to test the waters with her, with the excuse that they were already going to the ballet, so why not have dinner too?

Simply asking her to go to dinner out of the blue was too much like a date. And he still wanted to go, badly, but with the addition of possible issues with her parents, he was beginning to think that he might be in over his head with the whole night, even given that they weren't coming to dinner. And the person who usually talked him through it when he got himself into such binds wasn't available to help.

He was still pacing when Hermione stumbled out of his floo, her arms were so full that it couldn't have been a smooth or safe journey, but before he could scold her for traveling so dangerously the way she would have done to him, she beamed at him. "Hello Darling!"

His heart leapt until he noticed that her eyes were fixed on the kitten in his arms. Which actually made a lot more sense, but also kind of hurt his feelings that she wasn't speaking to him. And that was new, though not a huge surprise after the past few days, but, he realized with a lot of surprise, it didn't particularly scare him. He was slowly accepting the idea that he hoped Hermione might one day address him so tenderly. If he was patient.

She practically dropped the things she was carrying and ran up to him, eyes still on the kitten. "Hello beautiful! Aren't you clever, finding such a handsome wizard to hitch a ride home with!"

And his heart leapt again- she had been calling him handsome a lot lately, hadn't she?

He cleared his throat. "Well hello to you too, Hermione."

She grinned up at him, completely unabashed. "If I didn't know better I'd think you'd planned this. Or," she laughed, "Godric forbid, that you'd developed a talent for divination!"

He must have looked puzzled.

"Because of what was in my Advent calendar for today," she explained.

He thought about that until he remembered. It was an ornament, he'd tried to find one that resembled Crookshanks and he was pretty sure he'd succeeded, but it was definitely a cat either way. He laughed. "No, thank Merlin, no predicting the future for me. And have me taken immediately to St. Mungo's if I ever start spouting off nonsense."

She laughed. "I think I'd just keep an eye on you. That would be like a dream come true for them if the Chosen One turned into a Seer."

"True, yes," he groaned. "In that case just follow me around and silence me anytime I start spouting nonsense," he corrected himself.

She just shook her head. "May I?" She held out her hands.

"Sure," he responded, holding out the kitten for her to take, hoping the little thing wouldn't freak out, because no matter what Hermione might say, he knew that would hurt her feelings. Because she was usually very good with animals. However, thus far the kitten hadn't shown any interest in anybody but him, and so he didn't know how she would feel about being handed off.

He was gratified to see her lift her little head and give Hermione's hands a sniff, then she kind of stretched out her body as if giving permission for Hermione to take her. Which she did, immediately.

"Ohhh," she cooed, "isn't she sweet?" Hermione lifted her head to look at him, but didn't pull the kitten away from her face even a little bit, so he found himself staring at them both. "What are you thinking of naming her?"

Harry froze. He hadn't been planning on keeping the kitten. He hadn't had another pet since Hedwig died and he hadn't even considered the possibility since just after the war when he'd quickly concluded it would be too painful. And he'd never really thought about a cat anyway. He must have said as much out loud because her face fell.

"Of course, I understand. We can find a good home for her," she said in a rush. "I was only thinking, I mean, it's just that she found you," she said the last part with reverence, and her eyes grew glassy with tears as she spoke, she quickly looked away.

Harry folded immediately. He just wasn't capable of disappointing Hermione like this, especially when he could so easily not disappoint her. There was no real reason not to keep the cat. And she was right, this tiny being had found him, and she'd been rather insistent that she was his, too.

"I could though, you're right, she's very sweet, and I have plenty of room. You don't think she'll get lonely though, when I have to go away for work?" He said quickly, somewhat pathetically desperate to get her approval.

Like flipping a muggle switch Hermione lit up again. "If you're sure. And she's welcome to stay with me anytime. I'll have a long talk with Crookshanks, he will be a gracious host," her face was set with determination and Harry almost felt sorry for the half-kneazle.

"I'm sure," he whispered.

She actually bounced a little on her toes. "Okay, well I've bought you some things, just to start you out, of course. I'm sure you'll want to pick out a collar and more toys, once you figure out what she likes. And I've made our little darling here an appointment with Crooks' veterinary healer. I know you might prefer Hagrid, but she has inoculation potions that I don't think he would have access to for a domestic animal like this."

Harry could only nod. He trusted Hagrid a lot, and he had a heart of gold, but the thought of leaving such a tiny, helpless little thing in his care kind of filled Harry with horror. He would probably think the acromantulas would make for good playmates.

"No, the veterinary healer sounds like a good plan," he reassured her. "Thank you Hermione, but you didn't have to do all of that."

"It was no trouble," she lifted the kitten up against her neck and smiled in contentment, "I had fun and I figured it was quicker for me to run out on my own and get the essentials while you were with her, since I'm the one with cat experience."

"Still, I appreciate it." He insisted.

"Of course, Harry," she beamed at him, "it really was my pleasure. Now, do you have any thoughts about names?" She prompted again.

"Nothing's come to me in the last two minutes," he chuckled, but something about the tone in which she had asked the question made him look at her more closely, and he immediately realized that she had an idea. He knew that look better than he knew the back of his own hand, it usually came after a trip to the library, or these days, the Ministry Archives. "Did you have something in mind?"

"Well," she bit her lip, "I don't want to sway you," she continued to bite her lip and he wasn't going to be able to think of anything else if she kept doing that.

"No, tell me, I want to know what you think."

"Well, look at her eye," she took another step closer, so close that she had to slot her feet with his so that they didn't collide, and held the kitten up for inspection.

"What am I looking at?"

"That patch around her left eye."

Harry looked again and, sure enough, there was a patch of fur surrounding her left eye that was not white like the rest of her, but was almost silver, the fur glimmered in the firelight, and it was in the shape of a star. But not your typical five pointed star, one of those stars you often saw topping a Christmas tree with many points, the ones in the middle on both the top and bottom being the longest.

"It looks like a star," he breathed.

"That's what I thought too!"

He cocked his head to the side and continued to examine the kitten. "Star doesn't really fit though."

"No. I was actually thinking, Estelle?" She phrased it as a question and when he looked at her, he could tell that she felt shy and uncertain. "That means 'star' you know," she added hurriedly.

Harry went back to examining the kitten and mouthed the name to himself, testing it out. "Yes, I think that's perfect," he smiled, and she beamed in return.

Harry took a deep breath, gathered that infamous Gryffindor courage of his, because for some reason the hug he was preparing to give her felt more monumental than any other, and wrapped his arms around them both. She placed her head on his chest and Estelle struggled for just a moment before settling. "Yep, perfect."

Author's Note: I've given you literal fluff, people. Two ears, a tail, a star-shaped patch of fur, and fluff who told me her name is Estelle. So at this point I feel like I need to warn you that there is some actual conflict in this story so you can brace yourself for it. It's not really between our couple at least, but they do definitely still have some things to figure out!