Chapter 5
Harry was about to ring the Granger's doorbell when Crookshanks, Hermione ginger cat, came pelting out the cat flap and brushed up against Harry's legs. Harry reached down and scratched the cat behind his ears.
"Crookshanks, come back here!" said Hermione's voice. In a minute she had the door open and saw Harry and Ron. Immediately her irritation with her pet vanished.
"Oh, it's so good to see you! Letters just aren't the same as talking to you- and there's just been so much going on- Harry, I just thought of something- and- Crookshanks, don't!" she said all of this very fast and excitedly, hugging Harry and then Ron, all the while running about in her slippers and with a half-eaten piece of toast in her hand. Crookshanks had run over to Mr. Weasley, and was rearing up on his hind legs in a dog-like fashion.
"Oh, it's all right, Hermione," said Mr. Weasley, now petting Crookshanks. "I don't mind. Funny thing, isn't he?"
Hermione smiled like a mother admiring her child. Crookshanks was now joyfully leaping all over the place, reminding Harry of the puppies in Margaret's photograph.
"Hermione, dear, are they here already?" said a woman's voice from the hall adjacent to the Granger's front door.
Mrs. Granger was by no small stretch a gorgeous lady, but she certainly wasn't ugly either. The hair that fell onto her shoulders was a light brown, and very like her daughter's, but not so bushy. She stood not much taller than Hermione, the two of them within an inch of the other's height. There were lines on her forehead, and although her chocolate brown eyes were kind and inviting, they also held that mother's worry.
And worried she did seem. Harry thought that perhaps the fact that Hermione had told her what was happening in the wizarding world (and no doubt that the strange events in the paradoxical Muggle world were in fact caused by wizards) was what caused her troubled appearance. As she invited Harry and Ron, and then Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, into the house, she cast a nervous glance at the sky. Harry knew what she was looking for. Hermione probably mentioned in passing about the Dark Mark, the sign Voldemort and his Death Eaters cast into the heavens when they murdered.
"Can I get you anything?" Mrs. Granger asked kindly of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Harry, and Ron in turn.
"No, thank you," said each of them simultaneously.
"Well, I'm going to go get some shoes on," Hermione stated, "And then we can leave?" As she asked this, Mrs. Granger's eyes started to look teary.
"Mum…" Hermione said tentatively. She hugged her mother. "It's going to be all right." She wiped away a tear on her face that had fallen unnoticed. "It will be."
While Hermione was upstairs getting her things, Harry couldn't help but think about Hermione's mother's reaction. Here it was, their final year at Hogwarts, and also the year that they were most likely to be killed. And Mrs. Granger was more confused than all of them. It wasn't really fair to her that she did not know how horrible her life could be.
"Harry?" said a voice that sounded so distant. It was Hermione.
"What?" said Harry blankly. He snapped out of his reverie. "Oh, are we leaving?"
Ron and Mr. Weasley were waiting out by the car. Hermione's trunk was already packed away, and Crookshanks was next to Hedwig's cage in his wicker basket. Mrs. Weasley embraced Mrs. Granger. Harry thought he could distinctly hear words of comfort being exchanged.
Finally, Mrs. Weasley was back in the car, and they drove away. Hermione waved back to her mother, and Harry couldn't help but feel that it would be a long time before mother and daughter were reunited.