Hi everyone! This is my third HP fic that I'm posting here. It's mainly Hermione, and it is the story of how she came to attend Hogwarts and befriended Harry and Ron. It's mixing the books and the movies a little bit, and it won't go too much in to detail at Hogwarts (like their first meeting with the three-headed dog and the duel because that is covered in the actual books/movies). I wanted to tell Hermione's story by giving you the details of her journey that is not covered in the books/movies. I do hope you enjoy it and I love comments, but please remember the Golden Rule :) Thank you and enjoy!

~*~WHAT A HORRIBLE BIRTHDAY~*~

Hermione threw her schoolbag and uniform blazer on the floor of the hallway and ran upstairs.

"Pick that up, young lady!" her mother's brisk voice was heard from the kitchen, but when she heard her 11-year old daughter slam the door to her room and then muffled sobs coming from the top floor, she put down the cookbook and turned the stove off.

"Hermione" she called as she was walking up the stairs.

"Go away!" The girl screamed, but her voice was not all that loud due to the pillow she was crying in to.

"Hermione, darling, whatever is the matter?" Hermione's mother said when she opened the door and saw her child sprawled out across her bed, her stuffed animals flung everywhere.

A muffled "nothing" was heard from Hermione and Mrs. Granger knew better than to coerce anything from her. It never worked. When she was ready to talk about it, she would.

"Your father will be home soon" she said instead and sat down, stroking her daughter's hair "maybe he and you can practice some French?"

"Sure" Hermione's muffled voice was heard again. It was one of the few things that made her happier; studying. Languages were her favorite. She was already at a year 9 reading level in English thanks to her father, and recently, he had started to teach her French, even though technically she wasn't going to start that for another year.

Another wave of tears came welling from her eyes. It was her 11th birthday today, and her parents had decided to celebrate her over the weekend instead of today, Thursday, and therefore had pretty much ignored today as a special day of any kind. She wasn't going to have a party. She was going to her grandmother's house. Hermione believed this was because she didn't have any friends that would come to her birthday party had she decided to throw one. This was the worst birthday ever.

Half an hour later, she heard the door slamming. The radio was on downstairs and she could hear her parents talking, but couldn't make out a single sound. Before long, she heard someone come up the stairs.

"Hi darling" her father said in his soft tone "Had a bad day?"

She sat up as he sat down next to her.

"Yeah"

He gave her a hug.

"Tomorrow will be better" he said "Now, how about we do some French?"

That was one of the things that was good about her father; he always had time for these kinds of things. No matter how tired he was when he came home from work, he would always study with her.

After approximately half an hour of conjugating verbs, her mother called.

"Dinner!" and they both went downstairs. Normally, Hermione would have changed out of her uniform, but today she hadn't bothered. Her father was still in his clothes from work.

"Do you want to tell us what happened today?" her mother asked casually as they ate.

Hermione, who was still down, figured she might as well, seeing as how it wasn't going to change anything.

"Jane Appelby was after me again" she said as she picked at a baby carrot. She hated steamed vegetables.

Jane Appelby was, not the biggest, but definitely the most popular girl in Hermione's year, and she was allied with the biggest girl; Marlene Fritz. Both of them were always picking on Hermione and the subject was anything from being smart, to her hair, her teeth or the fact that she didn't have any friends. None of this was, of course, Hermione's fault but little does that matter to a ten-year-old bully.

"What did Jane do this time?" Mr. Granger asked as Mrs. Granger dropped her cutlery on the plate and sighed deeply with head in her hands.

"She threatened to have Marlene beat me up because I told the teacher she cheated off of me on our math's test and she kicked me" Hermione showed her bruised chin.

"Oh dear" her mother exclaimed "that's it. I'm calling the school" she left the dinner table, which almost always was inexcusable in their household

"You did the right thing Hero" her father said. She smiled when her dad used her nickname. It made her feels stronger.

They continued to eat in silence.

"Something really strange happened today too" she said suddenly.

"What was that?" He asked.

"During recess, when Jane dragged me to the end of the playground to threaten me, I told her that she had it coming and that something awful was going to happen to her if she didn't stop…and then it did"

"Then what did?"

"Something bad happened. I wished really hard that something would happen to her, and then the bus came and splashed muddy water, and it came all the way through the fence and soaked her. That's when she kicked me and said I made it happen"

"Hmm" he said.

"But dad" she continued "I didn't get wet. I stood not even half a meter from her, and she was completely drenched but it didn't even splatter on me"

"Sounds like you were lucky" he had finished his dinner and walked over to Hermione and kissed her head "I have to go and review some patients' files, so hurry up and finish so you can do your homework"

She continued looking at him.

"Don't worry. You did not make it so she got completely soaked in muddy water."

Hermione smiled, but kept the rest of her doubt inside her; there had only been a tiny puddle on the road, not even half a meter wide and maybe five centimeters deep, yet when that bus came, the amount of water that drenched Jane must have been at least five times that much if not more.

Quickly, before her mother returned, she threw the steamed veggies out and put her plate in the dishwasher after which she hurried to her room.

Comments are golden :)