Before we begin this tale, I would like to mention that this is in response to the Rebellion Challenge on WIKTT. The basic gist is that Hermione gained a reputation she didn't want as the "Gryffindor know-it-all"--and she's decided to show everyone that there is more to her they think. For a link to the full challenge, go to my profile page.

Misguided Rebellion
by T. L. Stewart

Chapter 1

Hermione Granger was happily minding her own business when she just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and overhear a conversation taking place--about her!

The library was, of course, her normal hideout from the other students at Hogwarts--bothersome, the lot of them--and so she was well used to those same students barging in and making a ruckus. They didn't care about other people's penchant for peace and quiet, obviously! She tuned them out as they gossipped about other people's lives, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, and who was dating whom.

But her own name had jumped out at her, and almost unconsciously, her eyes unfocused from the book in front of her as her ears strained to hear what was being said of her.

"--said that she wished I would pay more attention to my schoolwork, and less to Seamus!"

"Parvati, you know very well that all the teachers want is a room full of Hermione Grangers." That was Lavender speaking. Hermione's eyebrows rose. Well, of course the teachers wanted someone who actually finished her work on time.

"That bloody know-it-all. She makes all of us look like lazy bums." Padma? Why did Padma care what she did or didn't do?

Someone snorted. "Goody-two-shoes is more like it. Do you know how many times she's called her 'friends' on breaking the rules? They've had more detentions this year than they have in the whole other six years combined! She really should cut Harry and Ron some slack, but no--not Hermione Granger, resident know-it-all."

"Don't forget goody-two-shoes."

"And teacher's pet." That was a new voice. It sounded younger, like a third or fourth year.

Hermione was only just able to keep her mouth from dropping open in shock and surprise. She'd always known she was regarded as a know-it-all; she didn't mind. Knowledge was key to everything, and that belief had only been strengthened in her years at Hogwarts. But goody-two-shoes? Her? Hermione Granger? Never. She remembered, before she went to Hogwarts, just how many times the teacher had called her parents to talk to them about her behavior--twenty-two. Twenty-two times, her teachers had called her parents throughout five years of school. At Hogwarts, she had decided to change. It had been her goal for there to never be a reason for the school to contact her parents.

Still, she hadn't been perfect. She'd lied to Professor McGonagall about the troll in first year, gone out after curfew countless times, and helped Harry and Ron rulebreak so much, it was unbelievable that she could ever be viewed as a goody-two-shoes!

But, Hermione reminded herself, most of her rulebreaking hadn't made itself known to the general student population. And she HAD been rather harsh on Harry and Ron this year, as she was Head Girl and was able to hand out detentions to rulebreakers. She had been extra careful herself, not to break any rules. There could be no reason for the teachers to call her position into question.

It was obviously time to show the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that there was more to her than just smarts and books, and that she was NOT a goody-two-shoes, no matter what they thought they knew.

How? That was the question. How? It couldn't be anything she could be expelled for, so that ruled out writing to her Muggle cousin for spray paint or toilet paper, or getting up and singing karaoke in the middle of the Great Hall. It couldn't be anything related to Harry and Ron, because she knew the 'validity' of it would be decreased--people would wonder how Harry and Ron had talked her into it, rather than the other way around.

What did the teachers have no jurisdiction over? What could they not give her detention for, but would prove to the student population that she was NOT a goody-two-shoes?

Hermione crossed her arms, her book, long forgotten, falling to the table in front of her. She knew there was something, it was tickling the back of her mind...

A slow, slightly mischeivous smile came onto her face as her eyes fell upon the title of the page that the book had opened to when it had fallen.

Contraceptive Potions