Kreacher is a foul creature

Harry, like others, soon found out how annoying Kreacher could be. He insulted everyone, was bitter and troublesome. Kreacher was in habit of gathering various trinkets the Order was trying to get rid of with the least amount of danger to themselves. A mission that proved to be quite difficult as the house was filled with dangerous dark objects that could harm or worse, kill you. Not long ago a piece of clothing that had tried to suffocate them. Some of the objects were not deadly, yet they had their own potential to be dangerous, like a music box that could induce sleep.

Fred and George had got their apparition license and had decided to abuse it to maximum. Their unfortunate target happened to be poor brother, Ron. Their endless mischiefs had concerned even Harry once they managed to acquire Doxys. After Mrs Weasley's attempts of extermination, some had survived, and had become test subjects for the twins, which was an even worse fate than death by doxycide.

"Wow, Hermione, you really do look like one of our lost cousins." Fred told her on the day Harry was on his way to the Ministry of Magic. "Your eyes are a bit different today." said Fred -or was it George- as he looked closely, "Hey Forge come take a look."

'Ah, so it was Fred after all.' Hermione thought to herself.

"What?" said George as he entered, "Blimey, your hair is just like Ginny's now? I might kiss the wrong sister." He said and giggled. Hermione smiled, her cheeks blushed.

"Did you say her eyes were different?" asked Sirius as he came in, he smelled like a hippogriff. "Sorry for the smell. Buckbeak wasn't feeling well last night."

"Yeah, it's a bit lighter today, isn't it Gred?" said Fred.

"Yes, it is, brother of mine." replied George.

Sirius pointed his wand at Hermione's temple and cast a diagnostic spell. Her eyes first turned blue like Dumbledore's eyes and then a very light gray. Although they were familiar, Sirius couldn't remember who had these eyes. The color went a bit colder and then back to a lighter brown than Hermione's own eyes.

"Okay, that was interesting," said George, "What was that?"

"A simple progress checking spell. it's used for diagnosing scars. Specifically to see how fast they'll heal. I tweaked it a bit so it would show me other changes that her body might go through. Sadly, it won't work this way on skin or hair, but it works great on eyes. Some Irish healer once used a spell like this to diagnose cataract." he explained.

"So what color was it?" Hermione asked. She would love to have green eyes like Harry. "I didn't know wizards could suffer from cataract."

"Oh, they can, and it's actually more common amongst wizards than witches. Your eyes were gray, Hermione. They reminded me of someone, but I cannot tell who it is."

"Could you do it again while I'm looking into a mirror?" she asked.

"Of course," said Sirius with a bright smile as he conjured a mirror out of thin air. He handed it to her and waited patiently as Hermione looked into the mirror. They were right. Her eyes were a bit lighter, milkier perhaps. Then Sirius did his spell and she saw it. First they looked like the eyes of Dumbledore. They had the same warmth, but then they shifted into Gray and became cold like the eyes of a boy whom she knew very well. It scared her and she felt insecure. Sensing her distress, Sirius patted her reassuringly and smiled at her, "Don't be afraid, little bird. We're with you all the way through."

Fred didn't dare to say it, but Sirius was being more mature than he had ever been since they had come to the headquarters. He was acting like a comforting father instead of being an insecure teenager like when he was with Harry.

"You know I think your nose is a bit … sharper, I guess?" said George.

Sirius could see it too, "Yes, but will it be as sharp as Snape's, I wonder?" he replied jokingly. In that moment of all the moments, Severus Snape decided to enter the kitchen.

"Pardon me for interrupting your leisure time, but what is it that would be as sharp as my nose?" he said as he smirked at the steaming Sirius in front of him.

"My nose, professor." Hermione broke the uncomfortable silence, "They say it's sharper."

Snape raised his left eyebrow, but then squeezed his eyes a bit. "It seems these oafs are right for once." Snape sat in front of her inspecting her face, "Judging by your hair colour, you have been doing some foolish transfiguration, haven't you? Your hair is as red as the Weasley terrors." He glanced at them briefly.

"Actually, the changes came on their own, Snivellus. It's been going on for the last 7 or 8 weeks I think." said Sirius, please by the fact that Snape had been wrong.

Snape was shocked to hear that. He whispered angrily, "And none of you idiots has thought it might be something dangerous?"

His voice was filled with contempt and anger. Hermione wanted to mention that Snape himself had failed to have a good look at her but Sirius beat her.

"Oh, I did immediately. While you have paid zero attention to your student, I have been running diagnostics left and right for a month. She's physically fine, but the changes can be detected by the spells. They're progressing slowly and steadily. Last week I could detect no change in her bones, but now it's happening. It's gonna hurt when they start changing..."

Sirius was explaining as Snape interrupted him, "Have you notified Headmaster? He must check this himself."

Sirius kept quiet for a few seconds, he couldn't talk about it in front of the boys. "Fred, George could you wait outside." he asked firmly and the very moment they left he cast a ward on the door. "I think he knows more than he admits. Hermione told him first, but he tried to dismiss her concerns. And when I brought it up, he said that there was nothing to worry about. He doesn't want us to dig into this any further."

"His meddlesome nose can be found wherever there is a problem." said Snape as he huffed. He looked at her closely. He pointed his wand at her "Patrimoine Revelio" he cast swiftly but nothing happened.

"She has been warded thoroughly by her biological parents. They probably didn't expect the potion to fail." said Sirius.

"So the mud-blood isn't a mud-blood after all." Snape smirked. Hermione cringed.

"This isn't funny. Albus is involved and he won't say or do anything. This could be really bad." said Sirius indignantly.

"We'll figure out who her parents are soon. This year we're going to make the Heritage Tree potion. She will have to test eventually, and no matter how powerful the wards are they won't stop the potion from working." replied Snape.

"I actually tried …" said Sirius.

"Oh please, Black. You were never good at potions. Did your cauldron explode?" Snape asked condescendingly.

"No it actually imploded. It looks like a bean now." He answers sheepishly.

"As expected from the noble House of Black. You were never good with potions, even though your father owned an apothecary" He smirked at Sirius's angry face and stood up, "Give this letter to Headmaster when he comes by, will you? I must go back to my place."

He left them in silence, but before he opened the door to leave he looked at her for a few seconds. There was something in his eyes that she couldn't explain.

Hermione went back to her room. She was upset and scared. Kreacher was in her room. He was cleaning. He looked at her when she sat on her bed, but said nothing. Just as Hermione hoped that he would keep quiet he muttered to himself.

"The mud-blood keeps crying all night. Tainting the mattress with filth." Hermione looked at it angrily. He swiped a bit more and then continued, "At least she doesn't smell like a Mud-blood."

"What's the smell of a Mud-blood Kreacher?" asked Hermione with wet eyes. She was crying.

"Like an outsider. Like impure blood." He paused. "Young Miss doesn't smell like that." He seemed genuinely confused as he left her room.