A/N: Just a small idea that has been floating around in my head for a while. :)

Crookshanks - The Wisdom of a Cat

1999

Harry looked around himself as he tried to find the origins of the downright terrifying growling and found himself staring back at the yellow eyes of Crookshanks. However, the cat was not looking at him for once (for some reason they hadn't started off brilliantly but now, four years into their acquaintance, Harry found that he and Crookshanks managed to get along fine most of the time).

Following the feline's line of sight, he chanced upon Hermione and Viktor Krum sitting on a bench across the courtyard and Harry looked back down at Crookshanks' quite frankly fear-inducing face and growling and then back across the courtyard and then back down to where the half-kneazle sat again.

"Do you not like him?" Harry asked, knowing full well that the feline would understand him perfectly fine. Trust Hermione to get a cat that was more intelligent than all the rest.

He was only barely able to prevent himself from raising his hands in the air in a 'I surrender' position at the look that he received. Satisfied that Harry had received the message, Crookshanks turned back to the scene that was unfolding in front of him.

"At least this one is more suited than that blockhead!" He muttered and Harry just gave him a strange look.

Then again...

~.~.~.~.~

2003

"Bloody monster!" Ginny and Harry both looked at each other in surprise as they stepped through the entrance into the Head's dorms that the portrait had revealed after they had supplied it with the password.

"He is not a monster Ronald Weasley and you would do well to remember that." Hermione's shrill voice rang out across the room and Harry and Ginny both winced as they realised what had happened before stepping into the Head's common room.

There was only one creature that they all know that Ron would refer to as a 'monster' after all.

"He is, Hermione! Everytime I come near him he scratches and bites as if I were a bloody rat!" Ron has holding his arm in front of him, glaring at the half-kneazle that was giving him such a disapproving look that Harry felt slightly sorry for Ron.

Because he also knew what it was like when Crookshanks didn't like you - it was quite literally as if a war had been declared. He wouldn't rest until something had been achieved and only recently had Harry started to get an inkling of an idea of what it might be.

He and Ginny both sighed as Hermione's and Ron's fight about Crookshanks grew more and more heated and they both turned around in tandem and left the common room. It was no use staying anyway or even trying to get either of them to calm down - it would only end in them getting involved and that wasn't anything anybody halfway sane would want.

Crookshanks' eyes followed their departure and he appeared to nod to himself as he watched the fight between Hermione and Ron unfold.

"Good riddance. He doesn't even like cats." He meowed at Hermione, who of course was so occupied with her fight that she didn't hear him.

Humans...they never knew what was best for them. With a swish and flick of his tail, he jumped off the sofa and trotted up the stairs, having achieved what he'd set out to do.

~.~.~.~.~

2004

"I just don't know what I'm doing wrong Harry!" Hermione's voice floated through the house as she entered through the floo and Harry poked his head out of the kitchen just in time to see his best friend walk towards him with Crookshanks in her arms.

In a basket.

Growling rather furiously.

"Oh no. What's happened now?" Harry asked, skirting away slightly from the terrifying ball of fur that was Crookshanks in basket as Hermione set it down on his kitchen table. Harry wiped his hands on his apron and hugged her in greeting.

"As soon as I even mention that Andrew is coming to visit, Crook starts acting up and the two times he's been over I've only just managed to stop him from attacking the man! He's my boyfriend so I'd expect Ron to act like that but not him!" Hermione wailed as her arms flailed around in a windmill-like fashion.

"I'm sure it's not that bad." Harry tried to sooth her and Hermione wiggled herself out of his hug to look up at him, her eyes narrowing.

Harry got the gist of the look and also what might happen should he push the issue. "Do you want me to look after him while he comes over for a date at yours?" He asked and he was only just able to contain the sigh that wanted to accompany it.

"Oh yes, please!" Hermione grinned happily and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later!" And she vanished around the corner quicker than he could blink and within seconds he heard the tell-tale sign of the floo activating.

Finally allowing the sigh to escape he opened the latch to the basket and released the thoroughly miffed half-kneazle.

"I don't like him that much either but that doesn't mean I go around attacking him." Harry told the feline by way of greeting and Crookshanks merely sniffed in response. Sighing once more, Harry got the bowl that had become Crookshanks' and filled it with water, setting it down in front of him. Pulling out his kitchen knife, he continued with what he had been doing before - preparing dinner for Ginny and himself.

"He isn't rather intelligent, but still. If Hermione wants to date him..." Harry trailed off, stirring the sauce quickly before turning back to the meat.

"He's a moron. Even a rock is more intelligent than him." Crookshanks meowed after quencing his thirst.

"And he's not really someone I would imagine her with either..." Harry moved onto chopping up the onions after he'd finished with the meat.

"He calls me snuffles! I do not snuffle! I am a half-kneazle, we sneeze elegantly when we feel like it!" Crookshanks continued his tirade and Harry looked over at him in amusement, catching the general idea of the feline's annoyance.

"You can't just try to get rid of everybody that you don't like." He tried to point out diplomatically but winced when he tried to contemplate Andrew and Hermione being a more permanent thing. A shudder ran down his spine.

"Just you watch me! And anyway - you won't have to live with the idiots that she currently drags back home! I do! And none of them would suit her!" Crookshanks meowed again rather fervently.

"Then again, I don't actually have to live with them." Harry muttered and Crookshanks tried to resist the urge to bang his head against something solid. If only humans could understand his speech...

~.~.~.~.~

2006

Harry stared down at the cat, then back up at the man that was petting him and then back down again. Maybe he had stepped into some twisted form of reality because there was absolutely no way that Crookshanks was letting himself be petted by...

"Malfoy?" His confusion was evident and Malfoy looked up at him, slightly surprised as well.

"Potter." He nodded briefly before giving Crookshanks another scratch behind the ears.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice greeted him and he looked up just in time to see one of his best friends reach over to engulf him in a hug. That he happily returned.

"Hello." He smiled at her and noted the worry-free face and the slight tan that adorned it. "I guess your holiday treated you well?"

"Oh, it was wonderful!" She exclaimed and launched into a detailed account of what had happened while she moved around the kitchen making tea. Every so often, Harry's eyes flickered over to where Malfoy was sitting, allowing Crookshanks to wind around his legs and scratching the aging feline behind the ears when he reached his hands.

If his hypothesis was right, then he knew what would be coming in the near future and he knew that a lot of people would not be happy about it. But seeing how happy and relaxed Hermione was and observing the looks that the other man kept sending her while her attention was diverted, Harry knew exactly what society and all of those other people could do with their opinions.

~.~.~.~.~

2007

"I still can't believe that she's actually marrying him." Harry rolled his eyes slightly as Ron's remark hit his ears and he threw his friend a look.

"They've been together for over a year and she didn't complain when you married Lavender, Ron, so please do be quiet." He responded and Ron huffed slightly, his eyes however softening when he looked to the front where Hermione and Draco (he never thought that he would ever call the man that) were giving each other their vows.

Next to him Crookshanks purred fondly, more silver streaking his fur now than orange and Harry petted him softly on the head.

"See, I told you I knew best." And for once, Harry completely understood what the other animal meant. And as he would say fondly many, many years later, when his own granddaughter was complaining about her quarter-kneazle not getting along with any of her boyfriends, "Don't worry love, Midnight, much like Crookshanks once did, always knows best."