“You’re a handsome fellow- aren’t you.” Yes, cats certainly had a way of distracting anyone who had a fondness for them. Didn’t they? His coat was almost the same colour as Crookshanks’ too, which only helped endear Hermione to him almost immediately.
But, it was the woman in front of her Hermione needed to focus on and finding out what had only just happened to her, she stood again. And still, though she still kept a measure of wariness, Hermione felt she wasn’t divulging anything she oughtn’t. “Twenty-” To someone who’d more recently left their teens, yet worked in the company of older mentors, Hermione felt both young, and rather a lot older than the students she’d left behind in June.
“Carol, nice to meet you.” Feeling more at ease by the minute. “You too Goose.” She warmly told the cat, toward her feet. She’d lied about her name before, she’d made efforts to conceal her personality. She didn’t feel the need at this point. “Hermione Granger.”
She nodded rather emphatically. No idea how she got here, and no clue how to return home. She wasn’t even certain she could mention magic. “The same- everyone? And you’ve really no idea.” How could an entire town be comprised of ...whatever it was that’d happened to her. Perhaps Carol had made a mistake, opening up the questioning, Hermione didn’t deal with confusion particularly well. “How many people are there here?”