"Hello?"
                          
She laughed as she heard Sirius's voice raised in song, happily realizing that the man could actually sing. Kreacher eyed her from the top of the second story landing and he stomped down the stairs. 
                          
"Hello Kreacher," she said pleasantly. She had no reason to be pleasant; in fact, she was quite unhappy and quite chilled from her long walk through the streets of London. "Would you please tell Sirius that I'm here and that I need a place to stay?"
                          
"Filthy mudblood! Tell him yourself," he spat.
                          
"Rude! Fine, I will!"
                          
As Kreacher insolently moved past her, he accidentally cracked her ankle hard with his broom stick and caused her to cry out. He then looked at his broomstick and realized that he had broken it; the end of it was splintered and he cursed at her; he was only silent when they heard Sirius's voice raised in alarm.
                          
"Hey! Who's there!"
                          
"Sirius! It's me, Hermione Granger!"
                          
Sirius flew up the stairs with his wand brandished and fury in his eyes as if he had been expecting an ambush. When he saw that she was seated on the step, her hand was clasped at her ankle and his face softened. He looked past her and saw that she was alone, then returned his wand to its holster at his hip. "And what brings you to my humble abode might I ask?"
                          
She relayed her adventures in the long corridor and watched as his face showed more and more sympathy for her misadventures. Only when she told him about Kreacher's attitude and that he had purposefully hit her with his broom and he noticed the piece of broken broom stick nestled at the baseboard behind her, did his features darken.
                          
"Oh did he now," he fumed.
                          
"Yes, I'm sorry but I thought you ought to know."
                          
He nodded. "Mmm. Let's have a look at your ankle, shall we?"
                          
He knelt down and pulled off her shoe and then pulled down her soaked sock. He saw that her ankle was already quite swollen and red at the area of impact. He also saw a few splinters of wood that needed to be removed as well. Sirius breathed in deeply. "This needs ice," he said.
                          
"You think so?"
                          
He nodded. "Mmhmm. Come on," he said and he placed his arm beneath hers and helped her hobble downstairs toward the kitchen and sat her down at the closest chair to the entrance. He knelt down and completely removed her sock and saw dried blood at the area of impact. "Damn it, I'll need tweezers to get this wood out. Fuck."
                          
"Does it look bad?"
                          
"Not all that bad. I've certainly seen worse, but we're not talking about me. I'm so sorry that he did this to you, Hermione; don't worry, I'll get with him. I've got something upstairs that will take care of this. Stay put, I'll be right back." He pushed a plate of fresh oatmeal and raisin biscuits toward her and invited her to help herself as he trotted up the stairs to the bathroom where his first aid kit was located.
                          
"Did you make these?"
                          
He stuck his head out of the bathroom and into the corridor. "What!"
                          
"I said, did you bake these biscuits! They're quite good!"
                          
He trotted back down the stairs and smiled. "I did," he replied. "Bet ya didn't know I'm a wiz in the kitchen, did you?" He knelt down and sat on the floor Indian-style and placed her foot gently into his lap and went to work pulling out the splintered wood. He knew that he would have to keep her engaged so that she might not feel the pain so keenly...it was going to hurt.
                          
She smiled and chuckled nervously. "Well, oww!"
                          
"I'm sorry Pet," he hissed and then looked into her eyes. "You were saying?"