Beauty and the Beast

Chapter One: Hermione's Big Change


Hermione Granger stared put the window of the Hogwarts Express as it traveled through the countryside to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was returning for her fifth year at the school, and she was more excited than ever. She had gone through some pretty drastic changes over the summer and she couldn't wait to see the expressions on Harry and Ron's face.

Well, Hermione had been right about that-- when Ron and Harry saw her, they stood gawking at her for 10 whole minutes before they remembered where they were.

Hermione's hair was shoulder length now; no longer frizzy (thanks to a magic spell she learned) and it was black with pink streaks in it, ending flipped out at the ends. She had also gotten grey contacts, and her eyes were outlined in black and silver to bring out her partially pale complexion. She was also wearing black combat boots, black baggy pants, and a red shirt with an anime picture of The White Stripes on it. To top it all off, she was wearing a spiked belt and a spiked choker ( I don't know what you call them..)

"Umm.. would you guys like to sit down?" she asked, patting the seat next to her. Still a bit surprised, they both tried to sit down on the same seat, and Ron ended up sitting on Harry before he tumbled to the floor. He shot back up and respectively took his seat across from them, and tried to make an attempt at conversation.

"Wow Mione, you really changed... I like your nails," he said pointing to her long black fingernails, while blushing the same color as his short hair that was less red now, and spiked up.(Harry's was also the same, but black, and he had gotten clear contacts. =] )

"Gee.. thanks you guys, you guys don't look so bad either.. neways, how has your guy's summer been? You guys must've been pretty busy judging that you guys never had the time to owl me. "

Their faces both went from an light embarrassed red to now an even darker shade. Ron looked nervous (what's new?) and after earning himself a smack on the head for telling her that he had gone to France for the summer holidays (Hermione had always wanted to go back there after she went there a couple years ago.). Harry informed Hermione that he had inherited Dudley's old computer, and had gotten the internet hooked up (after 6 days of begging his uncle Vernon),and now resorted to e-mailing people with owl-mail, an e-mail service for witches and wizards, saying it was so much quicker, and asked Hermione for her e-mail (punk_rocker15@owl-mail.com), which she gladly gave to him.

From all of the reminiscing, they didn't notice that The Hogwarts Express had finally arrived. Hermione grabbed her stuff and after dragging it off the train with Ron and Harry following her, talking about Quidditch as usual, Hermione wondered where Draco was.

Usually, he gave them a "visit" on the way to Hogwarts, which usually resulted in Hermione having to hold back Ron and Harry from tackling him and trying to give him the beating of his life.
But Hermione didn't know that Draco had gone to "visit" them, and when he saw her he had not recognized her and went off, thinking it was the wrong compartment.




-End of Chapter One.



A/N: Hey! Hope you liked the first chapter! I couldn't resist not adding something about the white stripes in there (in case you didn't know, they are my fav band of all time, and that what you get from listening to them 24/7) but nehoo.. the next chapter should be up either by Thursday or next weekend, so just sit tight! Don't forget to R/R! Thanks -Viv =)