The Beautification of Hermione Granger
Chapter 1 The Beginning
Nothing belongs to me, it's all JK's. AU but not really OOC or Mary Sue or original character rape. Despite the fact that Hermione has decided she wants to look a bit hotter, she is still Hermione, she still loves books, she still cares about her school work more than anything. Don't worry, I haven't done anything horrible to her, she's still Rowling's character. I say this, because I've read some horrid stories where people turn Rowling's characters into Mary Sues and self inserts and other horrid things like that. Oh, also, as I am of the opinion that 90's fashion is terrifying, I'm just going to pretend in my head that it's current, not 10 years ago, ok?
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It was a beautiful summer's day in early June of 1997. Hermione Granger had just finished her 6th year at Hogwarts and she was home for the summer. She was eager to begin reading next year's required books, however, the new supply list for 7th year hadn't arrived yet from Hogwarts, so she couldn't. So, instead of going and getting school books, Hermione decided she wanted a change. Standing in the mirror, Hermione looked at herself. She needed a change; a big one.
Hermione got dressed, ate a light breakfast, and then told her parents she was going out shopping. She got all of her muggle money along with her father's credit card, and put it in a pocket of her jeans before she walked out into the back yard. Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated, the world went dark for a split second as the suffocating darkness of apparition surrounded her. A moment later, she opened her eyes and blinked at the teetering sight of the Weasley's home that greeted her.
Hermione knocked on the front door of the Weasley's house, and Ginny answered the door.
"Hermione!" she shrieked, wrapping her arms around the older girl's neck, nearly strangling her.
"Hi Ginny! How have you been?" Hermione asked when Ginny had released her.
"Really great, thanks. So… are you here to visit Ron?" Ginny asked.
"No, actually, I was wondering if you wanted to come shopping with me, clothes shopping and such?" Hermione asked.
"Yes! I've been stuck here with the boys so far. Let me just ask mum," Ginny told her with a smile.
"MUM!" Ginny shouted into the house. "I'M GOING SHOPPING WITH HERMIONE, I'LL BE BACK LATER!"
Hermione's eyes widened and she leaned back a bit. Ginny turned and faced her with a huge smile.
"Ok, let's go," she said pleasantly. Ginny grabbed hold of Hermione, and they apparated at the top end of High Street at they Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Hermione had been there once with her parents, but she knew that it would be fun for Ginny who had never been there.
The girls walked down High Street going into all the shops that interested them. By the time they got to Cockburn Street, they were already carrying a lot of bags, Hermione discretely used her want to shrink the bags and put the others into one bag. They walked down Cockburn Street and came to a piercing parlor called Whiplash Trash (yes, this does exist. No, my mother didn't let me go in).
Ginny and Hermione shot sidelong glances at each other and smiled slyly. Hermione picked up two stones off of the ground and transfigured them into IDs for herself and Ginny. They walked in and were greeted by a few rather frightening looking people covered in metal. Hermione decided that she wanted to get her navel pierced; Ginny cocked an eyebrow, then with a sly smile, she whispered what she wanted to the piercer, he nodded, and smiled at her.
The girls had to sign papers then their IDs were checked. The piercer led them into a back room and told Hermione to get onto a doctor's table that was covered in paper. Hermione nervously hopped onto the table, and pulled up her shirt so that her belly button was exposed. The piercer, his name was Jim, smiled at her.
"Is this your first body piercing?" he asked. Hermione just nodded nervously, her mouth had gone stone dry.
"Well, don't worry and relax, it isn't that bad," he told her, sounding very reassuring.
"Ok," she said nervously. Jim put on gloves, then cleaned her navel off with some clear odd smelling liquid. Hermione lightly bit her lower lip as he took out some clamps that were held together by a rubber band and gently pinched her navel between them. The clamps were cold, but they didn't hurt. He drew dots in the openings of the clamps with a purple marker, then asked her if she liked the placement.
"Yes," Hermione told him.
"Ok," Jim said, then opened a package that had been sitting on counter, in it was a hypodermic needle. Jim poised the needle over her navel, and placed a piece of cork on the other side. Ginny took Hermione's hand and held it tight.
"Ok," said Jim. "Now, on the count of three, I want you to breathe in, and when you breathe out, I'm going to pierce, ok?"
"Yes," said Hermione. She closed her eyes tight and squeezed Ginny's hand.
"One, two, three," Jim counted slowly. On three, Hermione took a deep breath in, then let it out. There was a slight pain, like a quick hard pinch, then she opened here eyes, and there was a needle stuck into cork through her navel. Hermione smiled as she looked down at it. Jim exchanged the needle for a curved metal barbell with two plain metal balls screwed onto the ends. He told her how to clean it and take care of it.
Hermione got off the table, and Ginny got on. Jim changed his gloves, and got out new needles. Hermione held Ginny's hand as the other girl unflinchingly got metal bars placed in her navel and through her tongue, and finally a small curved barbell through her right eyebrow. The girls smiled and paid Jim, then left the shop. As soon as they exited the shop, Hermione used a healing spell on each of their piercings so that they didn't have to wait for them to heal. The slight pain they had felt was immediately relieved, and they kept walking down Cockburn Street until they got to Market Street. They walked down Market St. for a little while, accumulating more bags, before they finally made their way to Prince's Street. They finished shopping, and shrunk down all their bags before apparating back to the Burrow.
Ginny brushed her hair in front of her right eyebrow then she and Hermione walked into the Burrow and straight up to Ginny's room where they sorted out the packages they had bought.
"Thank you so much for buying me all of that, Hermione," Ginny said, thankful she had such a good friend.
"Any time, you're the only girl who I really consider to be a friend, you don't try and change me; you like me for who I am," Hermione said with a smile.
Hermione disapparated home with all of her bags, and put them in her room. It seemed rather pointless to unpack them as she would be leaving to go to Grimmauld Place in less than a week, so she just stuffed the bags into her school trunk. Hermione lay on her bed that night smiling at her ceiling, thinking of how much better she was going to look, and how surprised everyone at school would be to see her.
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Okay. As I said, I don't think I made her too out of character. She still likes books, haha. And okay, yes I do have my navel pierced, but I think it would be cute on Hermione, she's so bookish, so it's an interesting contrast, I think. As to Ginny's additions, Ginny is a rebel. And I picked two piercings that wouldn't show much, and the eyebrow piercing came from me staring at a picture of Bonnie Wright for 10 minutes trying to figure out what wouldn't look horrid on her.