The wool of her sweater – a hand-knitten Christmas present from her Mum – scratched at the scarred gashes along the skin of her forearm. Hermione let out a hiss and fought the urge to roll up her sleeves and scratch at the cursed letters again until they ran with blood again. Last Saturday week, by the common room fire, Crookshanks had been batting his paws at something and accidentally nicked at the scar when Hermione happened to have her sleeves rolled up. The nicking had caused the "U" in "MUDBLOOD" to run red, taking on the shape of an almost sickly smile.