"Hey Hermit, why are you hiding behind that bush? Oh sorry, that's your hair," snickered Julius Pittman.
Hermione flushed but replied, "At least I'm not failing, Julia."
It was Julius' turn to redden; it was well known that he was barely allowed to the next grade. "Don't call me Julia," he hissed.
Hermione felt a surge of guilty pride for having gotten under his skin. "But why not, Julia?"
"Shut up," Julius choked. His eyes bulged. "At least I'm not named Her-mi-o-ne," he replied after a moment, stretching out every syllable.
"Aw, Julia, you're getting weak. Is that really the best you can do?" taunted Hermione. "You're so stupid..."
But she had gone too far. Julius snapped and charged towards Hermione, fists outstretched.
She opened her mouth to scream, but suddenly Julius tripped over his own feet. As he jumped up, Hermione saw that his hair was now long and curly, and JULIUS printed on the back of his jersey now read JULIA. The rest of the class burst out laughing.
Just then, the teacher walked in. "What is going on in here?" She turned to Julius, who everyone was facing. "Julius! What have you done to yourself?"
"I didn't do anything! It was Hermione!" he spat.
"What's he talking about, I didn't do anything," Hermione replied quietly.
Ms. Anderson thought her a shy, intelligent girl that occupied her time with reading all the books she could. Anyways, the idea of Hermione, anyone, changing Julius like that was ludicrous.
It wasn't even possible, for goodness sake! The only explanation for Hermione doing it was if it was magic.
And of course, there's no such thing as magic.