Intro

You may not know Daughter #1, though I have mentioned her a number of times over the years. She wrote articles for Rita Skeeter and it was her idea to insinuate that Sirius might have been more than just Harry's uncle in my SDDJ series. That aside, this is her prompt… and I was told that I could not use Sirius' death, which I hadn't even thought of to be honest, but this one isn't necessarily better. Sorry?

Now originally, I thought I'd only be writing 31 short stories (one a day)… and yet here I am writing a second one today. Truthfully, I'm just going to write when the mood moves me because it isn't often that my muse pokes me so I should not ignore him.

- Day 4, still -

They always wanted to live in Australia. It was a dream come true for them. So, Wendell and Monica Wilkins had everything packed, sold their dentistry practice and did it. They moved into a darling home that was much larger than what they could have afforded in Britain.

They opened a new dentistry practice that was doing quite well. Today, the couple was enjoying a peaceful Saturday morning lie in. Well, Wendell was, Monica didn't like wasting her day in bed when the day was absolutely gorgeous.

The temperature was a lovely 20 degrees, a bit chilly perhaps, but it was the average high for that time of year. Monica decided to air out the house and had just opened windows in the kitchen. She turned to move through to the bedrooms when she paused to watch the off-white floor-length curtains dancing in the gentle breeze.

Monica watched the curtains as they billowed. She canted her head curious at the sight because there was a memory desperately trying to break through. For a moment, Monica thought she heard the laughter of a little girl, but that couldn't be… they didn't have any children… just a cat.

Blinking, Monica gave her head a small shake and noted said cat was sitting on the windowsill. He was so ugly, orange with a smooshed face with such an odd name, Crookshanks. Monica swore that Wendell named him, while Wendell was under the impression that she had done it. They couldn't even agree on whose idea it was to get the cat in the first place.

Biting her lip, Monica watched the cat watch her. His tail flicked as they stared at each other. She hadn't even realized she stepped closer until she was reaching out for him. Crookshanks waited patiently for Monica to pet him and allowed her to shower him with affection… but only until he grew tired of her.

Crookshanks hopped off the windowsill and twined between her legs, rubbing his body against her calves and suddenly she was tangled in the billowing curtains, tripping over the cat. Monica couldn't help herself. She laughed at the absurdity that was the orange fur ball and his toddler like antics.

Monica stared into the intelligent eyes of the cat, his tail flicked once… twice… and her laughter left her gasping, sucking in a breath as it hit her… hard. She knew, finally, what it was that had been niggling at her ever since they had left their home to this new life. She whispered the name softly as if she was afraid her voice would break the epiphany that she felt herself falling into, "Hermione…"

Day 04 - Prompt: Curtain

Word Count: 5929

AN: I'm so disappointed with myself... the whole short here was based off the fact it was September 19, Hermione's birthday and not once did I write that. I even looked up the weather in Australia for September *facepalm* Oh well...