The Frog Prince: The Frog
Hermione Granger absolutely loved autumn. She loved how the air became crisp and always smelled like Hagrid's over-sized orange pumpkins, how the weather would always change from unbearably hot to nose-reddening cold, and how the leaves would change into beautiful shades of orange and red and fall gracefully like ballerinas. Unfortunately for Hermione, the falling leaves would often drop into her bushy brown hair, making her look like a walking tree. Her best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, would always make fun of her hair and add more leaves when the season came. Unfortunately for them, Hermione was the cleverest witch of their age, and would always find some way to torture them with leaves. Last year, Hermione carefully placed piles and piles of dead leaves in the boys' dormitory over a set of traps that only Harry and Ron would fall into. The other Gryffindor boys found it too amusing to take the poor idiots down from their misfortunes and left them hanging in a net until at least four in the afternoon. The two didn't bother Hermione's hair with leaves for the rest of the season.
One day, in the lovely season of autumn, as Hermione was curling up by the common room fire with a new book, she was interrupted by her violently ginger-haired friend, Ginny Weasley, who supposedly had to show her something so important that Hermione needed to see it right at that instant.
"Hermione Granger! Drop that book right now and get off your butt. It's a beautiful day, and you're cooped up in here. Besides, I've got to show you something."
"Ginny, can you show it to me later? My book has reached its turning point, and I would really like to finish it," Hermione answered.
"And what sort of turning point could there be in a book called The Freidelsman Unabridged Edition: The History of Banshees?"
She's no longer falling for that trick, Hermione thought to herself. "Well, I'm feeling a bit sick. Maybe some other time."
"But Hermioneeee," Ginny whined, "I really need to show it to you—I'm sure that you'll love it."
"Fine," Hermione caved. "But once I see it, you have to let me finish my book."
"Sure, sure, whatever," Ginny answered excitedly.
Hermione ran up to her dormitory to grab her coat and Gryffindor House scarf, and left the common room to the Hogwarts Grounds with Ginny.
--
"You wanted to show me an ugly wooden frog?" Hermione said, slightly disappointed with her surprise.
"It's not an ordinary frog! Have you heard of the muggle tale in which a princess kisses a slimy toad that, once kissed, turns into her Prince Charming?"
Hermione nodded. Her grandmother would tell her fairy tells whenever she came to visit. "The Frog Prince" was one of her favorites and was told quite often.
"Well, this is sort of like that. You will be the princess, and this frog will be the frog. Once you kiss the it, only a small one—snogging this big thing would be gross—it will open its mouth and present you with a picture of your prince, your true love."
Hermione was a bit skeptical at first, but being exposed to the wizarding world allowed her to remember that anything was possible.
"Ready to try?" Ginny asked impatiently.
"…No. You do it first."
"I've already kissed it. It's your turn."
"I—I'm not up for it," knowing Ginny, this whole Frog Prince business could be another joke of hers. Hermione was afraid of getting her lips stuck to the frog, or the frog coming to life and feeling it's slimy skin on her lips, or getting excited to see the love of her life and actually see nothing.
"Don't you want to find out who your prince will be? Who you are meant to be with? Come on, don't tell me that you've never wondered who are to be with when you get old and wrinkly."
As a child, Hermione had always wanted to find her Prince Charming—who wouldn't? But she still wasn't sure if this frog was just a joke.
"Want me to show you?" Ginny asked. Without a reply, she held the frog at shoulder length for about two seconds, and then placed her lips right on the wooden frog's mouth. The frog then began to open its mouth and inside formed the picture of a boy with green eyes and unruly black hair.
Ginny smiled and so did Hermione. "Thought so," she said.
Ginny handed the frog over to Hermione, and she put the frog at arms' length away from her face and wrinkled her nose. ("Just do it already!" Ginny whispered impatiently.) And so Hermione brought her hands closer to her body and planted a small kiss on the ugly frog's head. The picture of Hermione's prince began to form: it started with a chin that Hermione couldn't distinguish and then a face full of freckles and brilliantly blue eyes. His hair was the same flaming red as her friend's standing right next to her. Hermione knew who this was before the picture fully formed, and it was her best friend, Ron. Hermione was so shocked that she shut the frog's mouth before Ginny could see anything and handed it back to her. She then quickly walked back to Gryffindor Tower, leaving Ginny, with her mouth wide open, behind.
A/N: well, after months of accidentally deleting this thing, it's finally back and improved, I hope. And the next few chapters might take some time as well, for when I deleted this off fanfiction, the computer that it was on died and all I had left were notes and an outline in this sticky hello kitty notebook I had.