Becoming Who We Weren't

Chapter 1

'Its September 1st' thought Hermione Granger nervously, as she slowly walked to the front door of her house. All that she had with her was a purse and a small vial filled with purple liquid; she had packed all her belongings weeks ago, and her father had already loaded her school trunk into the car earlier that morning, where her parents now sat waiting to take her to platform 9 ¾.

She paused at the front door with her hand on the knob, and sighed loudly. If it had been any other year, she would have been beside herself at the thought that in a few hours time, she would be walking across the front lawns of her beloved school – Hogwarts – and preparing for the beginning of lessons that would start the next day; however, the same could not be said for this year. But just then the thought of her two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley crossed her mind, and that was enough to make her relax and allow a soft smile to spread across her tense face. She just had to keep reminding herself that it had nothing to do with not being excited about her final term at Hogwarts, because of course she was! She was still Hermione Granger after all! But it was just that she was… worried…

"Things are definitely going to be different this year" Hermione whispered to herself as she uncorked the vial she had been holding, and threw back its purple contents into her mouth; a sour look spread across her face at the taste of the liquid. For a split second, her skin began emitting a soft white glow, and then faded away.

"Disgusting" she sighed, as she opened the front door of her house and stepped into the sunlight of a very hot day.

Inside platform 9 ¾, it was packed with Hogwarts students; some were saying good bye to their parents, others running around looking for their friends, while some were huddled in small groups gossiping about what they had done that summer. In the middle of this crowded chaos stood Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, who were both straining their necks around trying to look over everyone's heads to see to the other side of the platform.

"Where the bloody hell is she?" asked Ron, "It's hotter than Merlin's balls out here!"

"I don't know, but we better get on the train before we end up having to share a compartment with Malfoy" said Harry as he turned toward the train and started pushing and shoving his way through the crowd.

"Yea, alright..." sighed Ron, who turned and followed.

Just then, Hermione came through the barrier onto Platform 9 ¾. She looked around, nervous, because she didn't want to run into anybody that would want to talk to her before she had the chance to get to the restroom; she needed to make sure she looked completely normal before anyone saw her. So she pushed her sunglasses further up her nose to hide more of her face, and with her head bent low, she swiftly began making her way through the crowd and toward the train. After she dropped off her trunk in the luggage area, she made a bee line for the ladies' room; reaching her destination without anyone she knew spotting her.

Once behind the locked door of the bathroom, Hermione took off her sunglasses and leaned in closer to the mirror to get a better look at herself. Her eyes were extremely blood shot, and her once brown irises were slowly being taken over by intense yellow ones. Frustration crossed over her face at the sight of this, but she continued with the exploration of the rest of her body: opening her mouth wide and poking and prodding each one of her teeth with a finger, then grabbing a handful of hair and holding it up to her eyes for a better look.

"Lovely. Just freaking lovely! My hair's starting to turn colors too!" and Hermione was right, her hair had gotten significantly darker than it had been the year before. As a matter a fact, there were a lot of other things that had changed about her as well – nothing too noticeable, all very subtle things, except of course for her blood shot canary yellow eyes, which made her look like an animal. But the other differences were only just barely noticeable if you were looking for them – her cheekbones were a bit more pronounced than they had been, her hips had slightly filled out a bit more, along with her breasts, while her waist seemed to have shrunk a great deal; and yes, then there was her long glorious mane of hair that seemed to be darkening, first from the roots and then spreading to the tips… Hermione sighed as she took all this in.

"As if this year wasn't already going to be hard enough! But now I'm transforming into a damn animal!" said Hermione, speaking to her reflection in the mirror.

A familiar snigger came from the outside of the locked bathroom door that Hermione was in, making her freeze and her heart begin to race.

'Please no! Please no! Just go away!' Hermione screamed inside her head.

"Don't worry Granger, you already looked like an animal to begin with, couldn't get much worse!" laughed Draco Malfoy.

"Go away Malfoy!" screamed Hermione.

"Alohomora" whispered Malfoy, and he came bursting into the bathroom with a huge grin on his face. Hermione was so mortified that all she could do was stand there with her bloodshot eyes and mouth hanging wide open… and her sunglasses still in her hands… Malfoy's mouth fell and his face contorted with disgust as he took in the sight of her.

"What the hell is wrong with your eyes Granger?" demanded Draco, bringing Hermione to come back to her senses.

"Get out! Get out! GET OUT!" screamed Hermione as she tried to shove Draco out the door of the ladies' room, with much more force than Draco had ever given her credit for. But just before she was able to successfully shove him on his ass out in the hallway of the bathroom, he grabbed hold of both sides of the door jam and propelled himself back at her, throwing them both onto the tiled floor, where they fought, punched, wrestled and pulled each other's hair. Draco eventually got the upper hand and was able to pull Hermione into a headlock, where he began putting enough pressure on her windpipe so that she could barely breathe.

"Let… me… GO!" choked a struggling Hermione.

"No, I don't think so Mudblood; I'd much rather squeeze the life out of you." Draco whispered into her ear.

Tears began stinging Hermione's eyes from the pain of having Malfoy crushing her windpipe, but she refused to cry, because she wasn't sure if she would be able to stop once she started. So instead, she began kicking; she kicked anything she could reach: the sink, the floor, the walls, the bathroom stalls, she even managed to clip the trash can in the corner and send it hurling into the door with a crash.

"Kick all you want Mudblood, but I'm not letting you go!" hissed Draco, while he fought to keep her in a headlock. "I wanna feel the life drain from your body."

The harder and harder Hermione fought to get out of Draco's hold, the weaker she got; she could barely lift her legs anymore to kick, and blackness was starting to creep in on the edges of her vision.

"Oh no you don't! Not yet! I'm not through having fun with you Granger!" hissed Draco as he lessened the amount of pressure he was putting on Hermione's neck, but only enough so that she would stay conscious. But because she wasn't fighting anymore, Draco was able to keep her in a headlock with only one arm, as he used the other to reach for his wand.

Draco whispered a spell, and brought his wand up to Hermione's face so that she could see that its tip now glowed red hot.

"This might burn a little" Draco chuckled as he brought the red hot tip of his wand down across Hermione's arm. She let out a blood curdling scream as the wand easily sliced through her skin and burned away chunks of flesh from every spot that it touched.

"I like it when you scream Granger" hissed Malfoy, his lips touching her ear, "but no one is coming to save you this time…. You're mine."

Just then, someone started banging on the bathroom door.

"What the hell is going on? Draco! Are you in there?" screamed a familiar voice on the other side of the door.

"Go away Pansy, I'm busy with the Mudblood." growled Draco in a dangerous tone.

"The hell I'm leaving!" Pansy Parkinson said as she kicked open the door with so much force that it nearly flew off its hinges. And in strode a beautiful blond haired, Slytherin girl, who was in the same year as Hermione, and happened to be one of Malfoy's best friends.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Pansy gasped as she looked at the girl lying on the floor, taking in the sight of her burned and mangled arm, and near unconscious body lying against Malfoy who still had her in a headlock. Then Pansy smirked when she realized who the girl was: Hermione Granger.

"Filthy little Mudblood" sneered Pansy as she stepped forward and grabbed Hermione by the hair, and wrenched her head to the side so that Hermione was forced to look up into her eyes.

Pansy gasped and jumped back in shock when she locked eyes with Hermione's yellow ones.

"LET HER GO!" screamed Pansy, and when Draco wouldn't, she started kicking him in the legs.

"Are you bloody mad? Get the hell away from me you stupid wench! I'm not letting her go! Ouch! STOP KICKING ME!" yelled Draco as he tried to kick Pansy back, but gave up and started trying to scurry himself and Hermione away from her painful blows to his shins.

"Let her go Draco, NOW! SHE'S GOING TO KILL YOU!" screamed Pansy.

"No, I'm going to kill her! And then I'm going to kill you, you stupid bitch! OUCH! Bloody hell!" but just then, Hermione's skin started to glow, and then a second later faded, just like it had done before. Both Draco and Pansy stopped fighting with each other to stare at her; her limbs had started simultaneously convulsing as her eyes rolled back into her head and she blacked out.

"Oh no…" whispered Pansy. And then the air surrounding Hermione's unconscious body began to crackle with electricity; her yellow eyes flew open and locked with Pansy's wide eyed ones.

"LET GO OF HER! SHE'S GOING TO KILL YOU!" screamed Pansy again.

'She knows' thought Hermione, 'Pansy knows what I am,' and for some reason, the thought of that didn't scare her; oddly enough, it actually gave her some comfort. And with that, Hermione gave in and allowed her body to take over.

Hermione's eyes lost focus with Pansy's as her pupils dilated and completely overtook her yellow irises, and more blood vessels broke around what was left of the whites of her eyes. And with a shiver that wracked her whole body, Hermione opened her mouth wide and let out a deafening growl that rattled the bathroom stalls. Pansy watched in horror as Hermione's canine teeth elongated into deadly sharp fangs that dripped with venom, which she ferociously began snapping at the arm that Draco still had wrapped around her neck.

That was enough! Draco was too stupid to realize what was about to happen and just wouldn't let go of Hermione, so Pansy whipped out her wand from her robes and pointed it directly between Draco's eyes, then raised it high above her head and brought back down a whip of fire swinging down across both Draco and Hermione. The force of the blast lifted them both off the ground and slammed them into the opposite wall, knocking them both out…

AUTHOR'S NOTE -

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