A series of events took place at Hogwarts; the Dumbledore's Army had their first session, Hagrid returned from his mission, and worst of all, Harry, Fred, and George were banned from playing Quidditch by Umbridge, because of attacking Malfoy. Apparently, Lexi Hooper had indirectly warned them that this would happen, but neither of them had listened.

At least Hagrid had listened to Lexi's words the previous summer about the giants. Originally, as the Muggle girl had explained, none of the giants were supposed to have come to their side; they either were supposed to join the Death Eaters, and those who wanted to join the Order were supposed to get killed. But now, they had managed to keep three of the giants safe, who agreed with Dumbledore and were now on their side.

Although the problem was that Umbridge was now keeping a close eye on Hagrid in his lessons, as if looking for a reason to fire him. Hermione was trying desperately to help Hagrid and to plan his lessons for him, but it wasn't much help.

As the Christmas break was nearing, a slightly more cheerful atmosphere fell upon Hogwarts, despite their hard lessons and Umbridge being as horrible as ever.

Harry went on with teaching the Dumbledore's Army and they gathered around once a week in the Room of Requirements. Jenna loved to see the proud smile on his face each time Harry returned to the common room after their lesson, and it warmed Jenna's heart to see him that way.

On the night of their last DA lesson before Christmas, Crookshanks saw that Ron and Hermione returned to the common room alone, and without Harry by their side.

Jenna got anxious for a second, thinking that something terrible had happened. But as it seemed, Hermione and Ron didn't share the same amount of worry as Jenna.

Hermione was writing briskly with her quill; she had already filled half a roll of parchment, which was dangling from the edge of the table. Ron was lying on the hearthrug, trying to finish his Transfiguration homework.

Although Jenna was relieved when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open half an hour later, and Harry finally walked inside the common room. Jenna couldn't help but realize that he looked rather odd, as if he were in a state of shock.

"What kept you?" Ron asked, as Harry sank into the armchair next to Hermione's.

Harry did not answer. Crookshanks looked up at Harry through her yellow eyes as she was laying down beside Hermione, purring.

"Are you all right, Harry?" Hermione asked, peering at him over the tip of her quill as she was writing her essay.

Harry gave a halfhearted shrug. In truth, he didn't know whether he was all right or not.

"What's up?" said Ron, hoisting himself up on his elbow to get a clearer view of Harry. "What's happened?"

"Is it Cho?" Hermione inquired. "Did she corner you after the meeting?"

Numbly surprised, Harry nodded. Ron sniggered, breaking off when Hermione caught his eye.

Crookshanks was now staring at Harry with high interest after hearing Cho's name, remembering how Hermione had told her about Harry's crush last year.

"So — er — what did she want?" Ron asked in a mock casual voice.

"She —" Harry began, rather hoarsely; he cleared his throat and tried again. "She — er —"

"Did you kiss?" Hermione asked briskly, catching them all off guard.

Ron sat up so fast that he sent his ink bottle flying all over the rug. Disregarding this completely he stared avidly at Harry.

"Well?" he demanded.

Harry looked from Ron's expression of mingled curiosity and hilarity to Hermione's slight frown, and nodded.

"HA!" Ron made a triumphant gesture with his fist and went into a raucous peal of laughter that made several timid-looking second years over beside the window jump.

"Well?" Ron said finally, looking up at Harry. "How was it?"

Harry considered for a moment. "Wet," he said truthfully.

Why am I even listening to this... Jenna thought to herself bitterly, trying to hold back the urge to shake her head in disappointment, reminding herself that she was a cat.

Ron made a noise that might have indicated jubilation or disgust, it was hard to tell.

"Because she was crying," Harry continued heavily.

"Oh," said Ron, his smile fading slightly. "Are you that bad at kissing?"

Don't laugh... you're a cat... don't laugh...

"No. Cho spends half her time crying these days," said Hermione vaguely.

"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up," said Ron, grinning.

"Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?" Hermione asked sharply.

"No," said Harry and Ron together.

Hermione sighed and laid down her quill.

"Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," said Hermione nastily, picking up her quill again.

Jenna couldn't hold herself back from letting out a snort, which came out as a meow. But thankfully Harry, Ron, and Hermione had all laughed, muffling out Crookshanks's sound.

After saying goodnight, they all went up to their dormitories, and the ginger cat followed Hermione up the stairs. Crookshanks had fallen asleep soundlessly in the girls' dorm on the floor, right beside Hermione's bed.

Although Jenna shot awake in the middle of the night when she started hearing noises.

Opening her eyes with difficulty, Jenna saw that Lexi was now awake, panting slightly. The girl then quickly jumped out of bed and hurriedly wore her shoes, her forehead covered in sweats. With that, Lexi ran out of the dorm and left the door open, as if she had just remembered something.

Feeling worried, Crookshanks got up and silently followed Lexi down the spiral staircase and into the common room, but she took aback when Lexi went through the portrait hole and left.

Jenna remained frozen on the spot, wondering what had just happened. But she became even more confused when after a few minutes, Neville ran down the boys' dormitory and left the common room in a hurry as well.

What the hell is going on? Jenna thought to herself worriedly. So she decided to remain in the common room for the time being to find out what was happening.

Five minutes had barely passed that the portrait swung open once more and Neville came back to the common room, now accompanied by Professor McGonagall. They both looked distressed as they rushed up toward the boys' dormitory.

Knowing for sure that something horrible must have happened, Crookshanks followed them up the spiral staircase without being seen, her heart sinking when she realized that McGonagall had entered Harry's dorm urgently.

"Over here, Professor..." said Neville.

Professor McGonagall walked into the dormitory hurriedly in her tartan dressing gown, her glasses perched lopsidedly on the bridge of her bony nose.

"What is it, Potter? Where does it hurt?"

Crookshanks saw from the half-open door that Harry looked pleased to see her, though he looked terrified beyond belief.

"It's Ron's dad," Harry said quickly, sitting up from his bed, looking sick. "He's been attacked by a snake. I saw it happen."