A/N This is my first published fanfic, though I'm in the process of writing another (which I started before this), so it might not be that good. Just an interesting concept that I thought would be cool to try out, though I'm sure it's been done before. - Skiá

Note: Lines in this chapter are taken directly from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone.

Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling and therefore do not own Harry Potter. The world of Magic and general background, etc, etc is completely sprung from her brilliant mind and all rights belong to her.

Hermione Jean Granger stepped onto the magical platform and stared at the gleaming red train, stunned. An entire world behind one platform barrier... did that mean that the barrier was a teleport to platform 9 3/4? Or was the inside of the barrier bigger than the outside? Like the TARDIS, the time and space traveling ship from Doctor Who? That would be cool, as she was a big fan of Doctor Who.

Hermione wondered if she could make a replica of the TARDIS using magic. Could she actually make it travel in time and space? She knew that there was apparition in the Wizarding World for space travel, as well as portkeys and floo powder, but those weren't quite the same as the TARDIS... how would she make the noise? And the slow disappearance? And what about the time travel? Hermione knew there were time turners, but they couldn't go back more than a day, much less years into the past, and they couldn't go into the future at all. She filed her TARDIS idea away in her mind palace inside the section of her library for potential projects, as well as in the shelf for questions.

Hermione went back to her earlier thought about the barrier being a teleport, and after briefly pondering where the location you are teleported to would be, - was there some kind of place for all places like that outside of the universe or something? - put it in her mind palace in the shelf for questions as well, next to her TARDIS thing. She labelled them both with the question 'How does the barrier entrance to platform 9 3/4 work?

Hermione had first learned about mind palaces from a book (as usual) that she had read when she was seven, and had by now forgotten the title of. She had been instantly eager to try this memory technique. She had designed it at first as a small room made from four bookshelves, with deep purple floors and a grey ceiling with purple swirls on it. She had made a bookshelf for actual books, a bookshelf for questions/things to research or find out in some way, a shelf for things to remember, and a shelf for ideas and projects. She kept most important things on the shelves at her eye level on all four bookshelves. The farther away from that shelf a book was, the less important. Hermione had an eidetic memory, which was very helpful for her mind palace, especially the shelf with all her memorized books. Her eidetic memory was probably going to fade later in her life, so she wanted to read and absorb as much information as she could in her mind palace before that happened.

In the four years since the creation of Hermione's mind palace it had expanded vastly. It now had many more shelves with many more topics, and her original shelves had expanded to fit the growing amount of information in them. She had over a thousand books in her mind palace to read whenever she wanted - she'd lost count somewhere along the way. She had even memorized all her Hogwarts course books.

Hermione only realized she'd been standing still staring at the train while spacing out, when a boy with dreadlocks who was holding a tarantula bumped into her. She started out of her daze, hastily apologizing to another boy who'd been trying to get past her to the train door. She watched the movement in the crowded train station for a little while longer, before boarding the train.

Hermione found an empty compartment near the front of the train, close to adult help if necessary. Despite not showing it, Hermione was nervous. This was a completely new world for her, one in which she was an outsider. A muggleborn. She had read about the prejudice against them in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, more specifically in the philosophies of Grindelwald and Voldemort- no, she should get used to being afraid and calling him You-Know-You. She didn't want to make herself seem different from the others. She'd have to work really hard at her classes to be on par with the half-bloods and purebloods. Hopefully, memorizing her class books would have been enough and she wouldn't be at too much of a disadvantage.

A knock startled Hermione out of her thoughts once again and she looked up to see who it was. A round-faced boy was at the door. He looked very nervous, more so than Hermione felt, and seemed as if he had been beaten down by others all his life. He hesitantly slid the door open.

'Hello. Is it okay if I sit in here?'

Hermione smiled welcomingly (she hoped). 'Of course!'

The boy sat down on the bench across from her, against the other wall of the compartment. He awkwardly avoided looking at her after he sat, seeming unsure about what to say or whether to say something at all.

'What's your name? I'm Hermione Granger,' she asked, taking pity on him.

'Neville Longbottom.' His face had had an interesting expression at her last name, the one that showed she was a muggleborn. He didn't seem prejudiced, though he was pureblood and heir to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Longbottom, as Hermione knew from her books.

'What are you most interested in learning at Hogwarts?'

After he stuttered for a bit about being bad at magic, Hermione finally managed to coax Neville into admitting he was most looking forward to Herbology. With a bit of prompting he had began to chatter excitedly about plants and their various properties, going all the way up to Third Year knowledge. Hermione had to confess to being impressed. While she had all the theoretical knowledge for for First Year down, she had no idea how to handle the plants. Neville, it was clear, knew all about that. He was now talking about his grandmother, somehow having gotten there from plants.

'My gran is amazing, she even gave me my father's wand, and Trevor!'

'Trevor?'

'Yeah, he's my toad. D'you want to see him?'

'Sure.'

Neville reached his hand into his pocket, looking excited, but his expression of excitement soon turned to dismay. 'Oh no! I've lost him!' Neville got up hurriedly, obviously with the intention of searching for his toad. Hermione was going to go with him, but decided to change into her robes first.

Hermione quickly changed into her robes, then opened the compartment door, though she may have been guilty of taking longer than necessary. She was being nice - she hadn't particularly wanted to search for the toad.

Neville was going into compartments near the end of the train already by this point. Out of the blue Hermione realized she must have missed the wizard candy trolley, not seeing it anywhere in the hallway, even at the end where Neville was. She made a mental note to try some sometime, even though her parents were dentists and she was normally against candy. Who would pass up the opportunity for magic candy?

Neville came running up to Hermione looking tearful.

'I've looked all over the train and even asked in a few compartments! He isn't anywhere!'

Hermione immediately comforted the distraught boy. 'Let's go systematically from compartment to compartment, starting here at the front.'

Hermione and Neville walked down from compartment to compartment, asking if anyone had seen a toad. Though Neville only really stood in the background. Hermione also asked around about the houses, and was starting to like the sound of Gryffindor. Though Ravenclaw wouldn't be that bad. When they reached a compartment near the end of the train she was so bored with this that she didn't bother knocking. She slid the door open and spoke.

'Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one.'

Inside the compartment were two boys, one with red hair and scraggly robes, the other with raven black hair and taped up, broken glasses. The red haired boy was a Weasley, a pureblood from what she's read about their family in the wizarding lines book she'd bought. The other, judging by the slight astonished expression still lingering on his face, as well as his glasses, was a muggleborn like her and neglected by his family.

She saw the Weasley open his mouth to say something from the corner of her eye, so she looked at him. The simple sight of the wand in his hand was all she needed to forget what she was doing.. She could see a pureblood wizard, who'd grown up with magic, do a spell!

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," Weasley said, but Hermione wasn't paying attention. About to excitedly beg him to do magic, she remembered that purebloods looked down on her. Calming herself down, she tried her best to look proud and sound confident, but it came out a bit haughty and conceited - she'd make up for it later if these people turned out to be nice.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down quickly to watch, noticing now that the Weasley looked slightly nervous.

"Er - all right." He cleared his throat.

'Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.'

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. His old rat stayed fast asleep, not even stirring.

Hermione was first incredulous, thinking the boy was an idiot, before she started to second guess this. The spell was so obviously fake that he must have known it was. The boy was trying to make fun of her for being a so-called 'ignorant muggleborn.' Well, she'd show him that she was smart, and unaffected by his mockery!

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" she asked, trying to sound incredibly doubtful it was. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?' She said all this very fast, trying to seem confident, though she thought it was a bit rushed. She also knew she was laying on the proof of her intelligence a bit thick, but he deserved it for mocking her.

Hermione looked over at the Weasley to see his reaction. He looked stunned. Good.

"I'm Ron Weasley," he muttered.

"Harry Potter," said said the other boy.

Hermione nearly gasped. He was the person she'd read so much about, the one who killed the last Dark Lord, Voldemort!

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" asked Harry, looking very surprised and slightly overwhelmed.

Hermione nearly raised an eyebrow. If she was famous, she'd make sure she knew what was being published about her. Harry Potter seemed to not be particularly bright. His reputation must have been up to luck, rather than actual skill. Though she supposed he didn't seem like a bad person. He looked like she had felt seeing all the *cough cough* magical things in this world. She decided to respond with something that might get him to find information about himself as well as her question about houses.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

A soon as she finished speaking, she realized just how soon they'd be arriving and decided to make an exit. She left the compartment, taking Neville with her.

A/N: And that's the end of Hermione's perspective. If I get a review saying who I should do next, I'll write another chapter. Hope you liked it! - Skiá