Chapter 2

All canon characters belong to JKR.

Thanks to June for doing the beta work for me.

Chapter 2

Severus had been gone for five days now, and Hermione was missing him more than she had imagined she would. She had stopped teaching her classes a week prior, and was now sitting in their living room with several dozen unread books. As she picked one up, she decided she wanted some tea. She was about to call on a house elf, when Osiris came into the room.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling like an overstuffed Christmas hen,” she said as she tried to get up.

“What do you need?”

“I was going to send for some tea, but I can just make it myself.”

“Hermione, you’re a witch, just conjure up a damn cup of tea.”

“Osiris, I can’t just sit around all day, doing nothing. I’ll go mad,” she managed to stand and walked to the small kitchen on the other side of the room. Osiris hopped on the coffee table, then heard the television turn on in his room. He flew in and found Crookshanks pawing at the remote control.

“Oh good there you are. Do me a favor, put that movie in for me,” Crookshanks pointed to a DVD he managed to pull out. Osiris looked at it and shook his head.

“Crooks, you do realize that there are no cats in this movie, don’t you? He looked at Crookshanks, “Its about some woman who pines after her husband, who doesn’t want anything to do with her, because he thinks she had an affair with his best friend, who killed himself after seeing her. Then of course there is an overbearing father, and a dopey mother, and a brother who can’t seem to keep his dick in his pants because he’s got like eight kids or something with this horrible looking woman, and…”

“Okay, I get it, no cats. I thought it was a horror movie.” Osiris shook his head and placed the movie back in its place. They both went out into the living room, and joined Hermione. Hermione fell asleep before she got to the second chapter of her new book, only to be awakened abruptly by a terribly wet feeling.

“Oh no!” she cried. Osiris and Crookshanks woke up.

“What is it?” asked Crookshanks.

“My water just broke,” said Hermione as she looked at him. Just over six months ago, she and Severus learned that Crookshanks was able to communicate with them, thanks to his bond with Osiris. Much to her displeasure sometimes, she found Osiris to have been right, sometimes she couldn’t get Crookshanks to shut up.

“Well, fix it!” said Osiris. As he looked onto the floor, seeing a small puddle of liquid.

“I can’t fix it, its time,” she panted, and grimaced as she felt a slight pain.

“Time? No, it can’t be time, you can’t, you have to wait,” said Crookshanks as he started running about.

“Tell that to the baby,”

“Okay, we have to stay calm, Crooks, go get Madam Pomfrey!”

“And how do you suggest I get her here, she can’t talk to me stupid!” Crookshanks looked at Hermione, “Can she, does she know Legilimency?”

“No,” said Hermione as she panted, “I don’t think so,” she held her breath to try and keep the pain to a minimum, “Very few know that skill. Get Harry, or Albus,” she sat back against the couch and held her belly, “HURRY!” Crookshanks took off as fast as his four paws could take him. In the meantime, Osiris flew to the kitchen and turned on the hot water faucet with his beak. He then dipped a towel in the water and once it was soaked grasped it with his claws and flew back to Hermione

“Hot, hot, hot, hot,” he dropped the towel onto Hermione’s belly, only to have her scream.

“Aahh, are you crazy, that’s scalding! Are you trying to kill me?” she yelled, as she threw the towel onto the floor.

“I saw it in a movie, they had towels and hot water for some woman having a baby,” he landed on top the coffee table, “It sounded like a good idea.”

“That’s just in movies. Oh, please, you need to keep track of my contractions,” she said as she tried to lie down.

“How? What do I do?” he hopped onto the back of the couch and looked down at her.

“When I tell you to start, look at the clock and start timing, then stop when I tell you to stop. Depending on how far apart my contractions are, that’s how close I am to giving birth,” she began the breathing exercises her mother had taught her.

“Okay, I can do that,” he looked at the clock, 'What’s taking Crooks so long?' he wondered.

Crookshanks had gotten halfway up the stairs when he felt something drop over him. It was a net. Mr. Filch had decided he would find out once and for all, who kept playing tricks on Mrs. Norris. He would keep Crookshanks caged up for a while, and if nothing happened, then in his mind it would mean that the orange cat was behind all the pranks. His latest being that Mrs. Norris was walking around covered in, not fur, but daisies. He bound Crookshanks up in the net and rolled him into a bundle, then hung him up on the coat hook behind the door. Filch left him there, and then left to see if he could find a cage over near Hagrid’s hut. Crookshanks meowed as he hung with one hind paw hanging out of the net, and his head twisted in the wrong direction.

“Great, just great.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Even when they are trying to do something good poor Osiris and Crooks get into some sort of trouble.