Warnings: AU, not HBP compliant, Out of Character, hints at abuse.
Beta'ed by
hp4freek, thanks for all your help!
Disclaimer: they're only my puppets, not my creation
Prologue
The new term had started. Hermione Granger arrived at Hogwarts via the Hogwarts Express with her best friends, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Ron had continued to grow over the summer and seemed to be just over six feet tall. As she looked over her friends at dinner, she couldn't decide who looked more gangly and awkward. Harry had been underfed while at Privet Drive for the summer again. He, too, had grown, but was still a little shorter than Ron. Harry was a little less than six feet tall. She wasn't very tall, even by female standards; she seemed to have quit growing by her fourth year and only stood at about five feet, four inches.
Harry's hair was just as messy as ever, though that wasn't a surprise. It had been a long time since he had tried to make it lay flat. Hermione had changed a lot over the summer, too, though the boys didn't seem to notice. Her hair wasn't quite as bushy, but still rather unmanageable. She, too, had long since ceased her vain attempts at taming it, except for rare, special occasions. What had really changed was her clothing and style.
Hermione's family had dissolved over the summer. Her mother had died, but the circumstances were rather curious. Hermione knew it was a Muggle death. There wasn't a single magical thing about it.
Her father had become reclusive. He often didn't go to work; he owned his own dental practice. Hermione had tried to get him to get up and to go about his day. Though, her efforts were always met with resistance and anger. Whenever she tried to get her father back into some semblance of the life he used to know, he always came home in a foul mood, a mood that made Severus Snape look like a playful kitten. On those nights, she would hide in her room, hoping he would just pass out from drink and leave her alone.
Her prayers were often left unanswered, though. Becoming abused had made Hermione drastically change her attitude. She was no longer the eager little know-it-all, waving her hand madly to get attention from her teachers. She began wearing dark and gloomy clothes. Black was her colour of choice lately, sometimes with red or purple accents. She had thought about dying her hair, but she knew that father would not be pleased. It would only lead to him taking out more anger and pain on her.
Trying desperately to disguise herself, even if it was only from herself, she continued to change. She cut her hair; it was far shorter than she'd had it in years. The longest parts stopped about half-way down her neck. She had the stylist put in lots of layers, and thin it out a bit. The style was rather flattering on her, though her hair was still quite bushy if she didn't make an effort to style and manage it.
She had taken to wearing heavy amounts of makeup, mostly eye makeup, consisting of heavy eyeliner, and liberal amounts of dark shadows. She had also thought about getting pierced, but the threat of her father's anger had kept that desire in check.
Her personality had become a bit reclusive. Her wit was fully in tact, however, giving her a sharp tongue and sarcasm that could make Severus Snape a very proud man.
Hermione sat on her bed, in the girls' dormitory, thinking. She hated how her life was panning out. It may have been different if her parents, or even just her mother, had been a casualty of the war with Voldemort. Hermione hated to think about it, but she had a suspicion that, if her father hadn't actually killed her mother, he did play an instrumental role in the process leading to his wife's demise.
While brooding, Hermione was struck with an idea. "I'm so stupid! How did I not think of this before?" Hermione leapt off her bed and dove at her trunk. Throwing things wildly over her head, which were landing with a variety of thuds and crashes behind her, she finally found the balled up pair of socks she was looking for.
Notes: I don't know what my deal with abusive parents in the past is currently. It's, thankfully, nothing I ever experienced. This story is considerably darker than my last fic. It's going to be really out of character and really alternate universe, so please bear with me. Thanks for reading!
