Summary: How could Hermione's first year have turned out, if Professor Quirrell had not been present to try and steal the Stone from Hogwarts?
Disclaimer: Don't own anything and no profit is being made. This is purely a fanwork.
A/N: Just to clear up any misunderstandings beforehand. Even though Quirrellmort is not present, the Stone has still been moved to the school for protection.
The first year without Quirrell
A Hermione Granger Story
by altairi
beta-read by Luinthoron
Hermione was sitting in her solitary compartment on the Hogwarts Express. She was on her way back home from school. The school had let out for summer today and as the scenery was changing behind her window, her thoughts drifted back to her first year of consciously being a witch.
She had been so excited to have been chosen, for the first time in her life. She had been chosen to attend this prestigious school of magic. When Professor McGonagall had visited her family over summer last year, explaining the magical world and her place in it, it had been like a dream. She had practically devoured all her school books, wanting to learn as much as she could, because she didn't want to fall behind those who had known magic their whole lives. She had felt the need to prove she could be as good, if not better, than anyone. She had asked her parents for books that were not on her books list, just to read about the world and the school she was entering in general. Her parents had stood behind her the entire way, encouraging her thirst for knowledge and learning about the recent history and events themselves, to feel more connected to their talented daughter.
Then she came to the school and everything fell apart. She had been nervous, hoping to make friends with children her own age that were just like her. Her nervous blabbering about things she'd learned had backfired and caused her to be labelled as a know-it-all. She had hoped for a school where she wouldn't be shunned for her intelligence and had learned the hard way that all children were the same, whether they were Muggle or magical. Actually, the magical could be even crueller than the Muggle children – they had magic to back it up! The blonde Slytherin, Draco Malfoy, had efficiently proven that, parading around the school as if he owned it – which, in a sense, he did, as his father was chairman of the school's Board of Governors. Still, she had hoped to make friends at least in her own House, yet had found not only shunning but downright ignoring. Like at Halloween, when she had been crying over Ron's hurtful words at the loo and no-one had thought of coming and getting her for the feast, not caring whether she starved or not. That had hurt. Thankfully, Professor McGonagall had noticed her absence, investigated, and come to get her halfway through the festivities. This had, of course, earned her the name of Teacher's Pet, effectively removing any possibilities for making friends she might have had left. Still, she could not hold this against her Head of House – she, at least, had cared. And Hermione had learned to live with disappointments.
The Boy Who Lived – that had been another disappointment to boot. Hermione had read all about him. The hero who, as a mere baby, had triumphed over the most recent Dark Lord in Britain. He was supposed to be a gentle and noble boy, fair and unbiased to everyone. Yet what she had found in her famous classmate was a boy ignorant of his own history, with a distinct dislike for learning and a strong affinity for rule-breaking. Really, the boy seemed to have more luck than brains, somehow managing to break school rules repeatedly without getting caught. Like when Harry had accepted that fake duel with Malfoy and ended up dragging not only his trusty sidekick Ron, but also the quite unrelated Neville and Hermione on a wild chase through the castle to avoid getting caught by Filch, almost getting them killed by the enormous cerberus on the third floor – whatever the beast had been guarding. Not that Hermione approved of getting away with rule-breaking, but at least they were not losing house points. Even more so, at times, the guy even got rewarded for breaking rules. Like the time when he took off on that broom at their first flying class, after being told that everyone who flies while Madame Hooch escorts Neville to the Hospital Wing gets expelled, and the infuriating rule-breaker managed to make it Seeker for the House team and earn the right to have his own broom at school as a first year student instead. Really, sometimes Hermione thought Harry must have a secret talent for all his rule-breaking. There was no way everything would have always gone his way otherwise.
Still, at times, Hermione could not begrudge Professor Snape for taking points off Harry and Ron for outrageous reasons, as they should have lost those points anyhow, had they been caught in their night-time activities. Professor Snape had been another mystery at school. At first he had taken points off her, too, for ridiculous reasons, even downgraded her work. That is, until Hermione had worked up her Gryffindor courage – some might have called it boldness, but the Sorting Hat had called it courage and no-one challenges the Sorting Hat! – to ask Professor McGonagall whether the school allowed to ask for a second opinion on her school work – Muggle schools allowed to appeal for her grade and she appealed for this right as a Muggle-born. The next time she saw him, Professor Snape had asked her how she had avoided being sorted into Slytherin – which Hermione took to have been a compliment – and she had been top of her Potions class ever since. On the downside, this did not endear her to the Gryffindors, of course. Well, Ron's elder twin brothers and their friend Lee as notable exceptions, as the nosy boys had been quite interested in how she had managed to "pull one on Snape." They had lost their interest fairly quickly when she refused to share her secret, though. Still, they had congratulated her and patted her on the back and that had felt good.
Quidditch had proven to be too much flying for Hermione's tastes. She had actually preferred to sit at the library during the games, attending only when her House was playing, to show support. She was unpopular enough and wouldn't have dared to risk looking like she didn't support their team. No-one had bothered to explain the rules to her, but there had been books at the library to remedy this. Harry had proven to be a great Seeker after all, winning Gryffindor the Quiddich Cup for first time in years and the House Cup as a bonus as well. Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quiddich Team's captain, had actually kissed Harry after the first year Seeker had caught the Snitch for the win – on the cheek, of course. The older boy had actually had tears in his eyes when he presented the Cup to their Head of House and even Professor McGonagall had been seen hiding a tear or two. Hermione was quite sure the old professor would have burst in tears when the House Cup had been presented at the Leaving Feast, had their Head not known they would receive it beforehand from the counter by the house points hourglasses. She was halfway sure her Head of House had shed tears of joy in private anyway.
Coming back to her friendlessness issue. There had been one classmate from her house who had been willing to spend time with her at times. Hermione strongly suspected the reason to be Neville's own shunned state. She had tutored the Longbottom boy from time to time and helped him with his preparations for the finals. Even though this did leave her with a feeling of having been taken advantage of – she always felt this way when people were friendly towards her just to get her to help with their homework – she had to admit that it felt good to frequently interact with someone her own age and the boy was almost as bad at making friends as she was. Maybe she had reacted too strongly, based on her past experiences, and Neville had really just been looking for some human interaction. If that was the case, Hermione would be the last person on Earth to condemn his advances. And truth to be told, Neville could hold his ground in any discussion about Herbology. Maybe she could write him over the summer break, just to make sure. If her parents would get her an owl, that is. She hadn't had a pet in her first year, having relied on the school owls for correspondence with her parents. Out of school, however, that meant she did not have any means to contact anyone from her hidden world. Without an owl of her own, she would have to wait for someone to contact her before she could use their owl to send her letter to Neville and Hermione doubted anyone would write to her before the school owls delivered the book lists for their second year classes. Maybe if she pointed out that having an owl of her own made her correspondence not depend on whether there were any school owls around at the time she finished a letter...?
And anyway, she had to think things through before that, didn't she? Hermione had entered the wizarding world, hoping it would welcome her like a lost daughter – one of their own that had been found with a delay. She knew she would have welcomed a long lost family member like that, and Professor McGonagall had spoken of their hidden world as of a family. Instead she had found herself isolated by her peers just because of her intelligence, just like she had known from the Muggle world. Hermione did not think she could go back to being a Muggle, having tasted the power of magic herself, but there had to be something more to it than a school full of bullies. Maybe there were other schools of magic around? She remembered having read about one in France and one in Scandinavia that Hogwarts had officially interacted with before, in a tournament that had champions for of all three schools compete at impossible tasks for honour, glory and quite a price money, too. Maybe there were other schools? Maybe something closer to home? But then again, would a new school be any different? She had been without friends in her Muggle school and she was friendless at Hogwarts – there was no guarantee that a new school would give her the friends she so much hoped to gain? She had already seen that the magical kids were just as cruel and thoughtless as the nonmagical ones. Maybe she should just hope that her peers would forget about her awkward and pushy nervous advances from this year over summer and give her a chance to redeem herself and make some friends next September? If everything else failed, she could try to talk to people from other Houses. Or offer to tutor first year students from her House, maybe they would appreciate her advances more? After all, this year had been as bad as it gets, so the next one couldn't possibly get any worse. Right?
Epilogue: Hermione returned for her second year at Hogwarts, only to witness the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. She discovered that Slytherin's monster had to be a basilisk, yet got petrified for months before she could share her knowledge with anyone. Needless to say, she did not return for a third year.