Hermione Granger and The Philospoher's Stone

Description:This is a retelling of the first Harry Potter book through the eys of Hermione. There are things that I have inferred or that are entirely original.

Disclaimers"I don't own any of the characters or setting of this story, nor do I own most of the plot. This book should be fairly friendly to all ages, but I plan on making the content more mature as Hermione becomes more mature. Stick around!

Chapter One The Girl Who Tried

I chewed nervously on the end of my pencil as my eyes sped across the answers I'd written on my end-of-term exam. I was anxious to leave this place as soon as possible. As much as I love learning, and studying, I never seemed to belong in this place. My grades were exceptional of course, but I've always been rather socially inept, and despite my best efforts and research, I've never succeeded in landing a single friend…"let alone a boyfriend." I added in my thoughts with a glance to the dumbfounded boy to my right. With a sigh I drove these thoughts from my mind and hopped out my seat and scuttled up to the teacher.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" he said, leering over his thick circular glasses.

I presented my test to him with a confident, albeit shaking hand. "Done, sir." I said quickly.

He looked bewildered. "Miss Granger, it's only been 10 minutes." He said, his mouth agape.

"Sorry it took so long, I got lost in thought." I replied as I bounded out of the room, trying to repress my excitement to leave from the room of eyes I knew were following me."If only," I thought, "For the reasons I wished."

I raced down the empty hallway, quickly snatching my bag from a small cubby in the wall. My bushy, shoulder-length, brown hair bounced livilily as I approached the front door of the school. As I passed the front desk, I turend around to face the plump, spinster secretary scribbling determidely on a small paper pad. "See you next year, Miss Collins!" I said animatedly. She looked up through her gray-blonde hair and smiled sweetly at me, as I'd always been closer with the staff than the students here.

I pushed open the cherry wood doors and blinked harshly as the sunlight supplanted the artificial light. Then, I started off towards my house. I pushed my key into the lock of my front door and charged into the living room. Tossing my bag into the corner, I collapsed onto our beige leather couch and stared at a single blade of the ceiling fan as it made its determined, yet pointless, journey around and around. I was still panting from my long trek home, but gave up finding comfort on the lumpy sofa and swung upward into an erect position. My eyes wandered over to the framed dipolmas on the wall. My parents, both being dentists, had worked hard and long for these pieces of paper. I knew my parents, while claiming to be supportive of whatever I decided to pursue, no doubt desired for me to follow in their footsteps.

Was it really what I wanted though, I had always felt like there was something else out there for me, something bigger. I could never quite imagine what it could be, though. Hearing the front door open once again with a creek I quickly returned to my seat on the couch. "Well honey, I'll tell you, I thought I'd seen it all, but that dead tooth…"

My father's story was cut short by a small gasp of surprise by mother as she saw my beaming almost suspiciously up at the both of them. "Honey," she said, "what are you doing home so early?" She looked over my father's shoulder at our wall clock. "It's hardly noon!"

"I finished early" I said straightening my skirt. My father gave me a "that's my girl!" look, but my mother looked concerned. I knew what was coming and braced myself for it.

"But didn't you need to say goodbye to your friends?" She asked, letting go of my father's arm and busying herself with miscellaneous objects around the room. My father had retreated to the arm chair beside the couch and reclined back in it while his hand felt blindly for the remote.

"Oh-er-they finished early, too." I said shakily, I squeezed my eyes shut, hopijng that the conversation would blow over, "So, I got to say goodbye."

"Well, that's good sweetie." Said my mom in a tone that indicated her attention was becoming slowly divided. I open my eyes as though they, too , were sighing in relief.

"Happy to be done with it all, are you?" My father added absentmindedly.

"I don't know what I'm going to do to keep busy now" I laughed. This was true, I always felt lost without homework over the holidays, but I always found some subject of interest to study.

"Oh, well maybe one of your little friends can come over while you're on holiday" My mom said from the other room as I heard the beep of the answering machine as it prepared to play the days messages. I made an indistinct humming noise that I knew woul be sufficient, as my mind was already exploring the many possible subjects it could research this summer.

"Just no boys." My dad added grumpily, but I barely heard him, caught it my daydreams. My mind flickered breifly over the thought of having a friend, but I quickly pushed it aside. While it is morose, this is my life, I suppose I should just accept that I'm destined to be a boring, old, lonely dentist, just like my parents.

"At least," I frowned, "They have each other…"