DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters, blah, blah, blah. ...
-CHAPTER ONE: Discovering Hermione-
Hermione looked intently at herself in the mirror.
She observed her frizzy, curly, and most definitely volumed hair and cringed. Her bare face, free of makeup-unlike the other 6th year girls that went to Hogwarts-made her cringe. She looked over at her toppling pile of summer books and parchment and quills and cringed. The fact that Harry, Ron, and Lavender and just about everyone else thought of her as a "goody two-shoed braniac" made her cringe.
Basically, everything about herself made her cringe and she wanted to change.
It was the summer before her 6th year at Hogwarts and things seemed very different now that Harry had broken up with Cho Chang. Wait, it wasn't just Cho Chang...it was Cho Bloody Chang as she was accustomed to calling her.
She loathed Cho Bloody Chang. She loathed her for going out with Harry, of course.
She had never noticed Harry until now...
The dark, soft, ruffled hair, the alluring green eyes. . . everything about him was so perfect. She was keeping in touch with him over the summer, of course, telling him every thing that went on in her life. He, in return, told her of the annoying and stupid acts of Dudley which always made Hermione laugh.
Today was the day she would finally get to see him (and Ron and the others) for the first time in two months...
She was thrilled...but at the same time she was as nervous as anything. "Don't be silly," she thought to herself. "It's just Harry...your FRIEND..."
She had woken up extra early this time to get herself ready. She tentatively took hold of her newly-bought straightening iron and clamped it down her hair in sections. She sighed. "This is going to take a bloody long time," she thought. "But if it's for Harry...it's worth it." After an hour of getting her hair to near perfection (or "close enough"), she zipped open her purse and dug around looking for all her makeup she had bought over the summer with her own money. She put on some silver eyeshadow and curled her lashes and applied a more-than-generous amount of mascara.
"Hermione dear, it's time to go!" her mom called from downstairs.
Hermione quickly stashed all her stuff back into her purse, taking a last quick glance at her mirror. She grabbed an oatmeal bar from the kitchen counter and went out the door with her dad hauling her stuff from behind.
"Got everything packed?" her mom asked.
"Yes, mother," Hermione said monotonously.
"Brushed your teeth?" her dad asked.
"Of course," Hermione replied, giving her dad a big grin. Both her parents were dentists and were very strict about her dental health.
"Hermione, what have you done to your hair?"
"Um...I straightened it."
Her mom just raised an eyebrow as everyone climbed into the car.