"Wait, Hermione." Su Er followed Hermione closely through the fireplace back to Lily Street.
Hermione stopped, looking puzzled. Su Er moved right up to her, leaning close to her little face with a serious expression, his breath brushing her cheeks.
At that moment, Hermione felt as though her heart was about to leap out of her chest, and her small hands clutched the hem of her clothes.
"N-no, you haven't even..."
"What did you say?" Su Er reached out and brushed a layer of black material from Hermione's hair. It was soot she had picked up in the fireplace.
"Your hair's covered in soot. Let me clean it off."
Hermione immediately realized she had misunderstood. Her little face flushed bright red, and she glared at Su Er, giving a soft huff through her delicate little nose.
"Nothing. I'm going home!" She awkwardly smoothed her hair and quickened her pace, jogging toward home.
"Hey, I haven't got it all off yet." Su Er chased after her, but Hermione would not let him come near and sped up her little feet again.
In the end, Su Er could only watch helplessly as Hermione entered her own front yard. The soot had stained part of her brown hair black.
He clapped his hands, watching the black soot drift down, then suddenly paused as he remembered the large yellow dog they had encountered in the passage to Diagon Alley.
Harry's godfather-Sirius Black-was indeed a black dog, but that did not mean he could not dye his fur. Right, dye it.
Then that glance as he passed them had not been Su Er's imagination.
He really had looked at them-at Harry, who had been hiding behind them at the time!
"Tsk..." Su Er could not help shaking his head. There was a kind of pain