Tris hadn't paid much attention to when Hermione and Ginny had become so close. Had it started last year, when they discussed Lockhart together? Or when Ginny discovered that Hermione had no "interest" in Harry whatsoever?
In any case, although they hadn't seen much of each other over the holidays, they had exchanged letters very frequently.
It was worth mentioning that Hermione had been incredibly busy over the holidays, no less so than Tris, and perhaps even more. Besides completing her Hogwarts homework and preparing for her upcoming classes, she had also been studying secondary-school subjects from the ordinary world on her own.
As she put it, although she had become a witch, her parents were still ordinary people. She didn't want to cut herself off from the ordinary world entirely.
Apart from Tris, everyone found this difficult to understand.
Ron, especially, simply couldn't understand why anyone would give themselves more studying to do. In his eyes, Hermione and Tris were much the same: complete weirdos with masochistic tendencies!
But he soon discovered that Hermione might be even stranger than Tris.
"Hermione, when did you start taking after Hagrid?" Ron asked as he watched Hermione emerge from the pet shop carrying a large ginger cat.
He could hardly be blamed for asking. The cat Hermione had bought really wasn't much to look at. It had a squashed face, long fur, and a body the size of a small leopard. Hermione, who was still rather small herself, even seemed to struggle a little to carry it.
The big cat seemed good-natured, though. Despite being held in what looked like a rather uncomfortable position, it barely struggled, merely narrowing its eyes and lazily letting Ron and Harry stare.
Still, it looked more like a little monster than any sort of cat.
Even