Title: Everybody's Fool
Fandom: Harry Potter
Main Character: Hermione Granger
Genre: General, Character Study, Hurt, Angst
Pairing: None as of yet; she is only a first year.
Summary: Think how dangerous Hermione might have become if she'd never made friends with Ron and Harry, but instead had spent her first five years at school the same way she spent the first eight weeks: burying herself in the study of magic
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Authoress Note: I was looking up some information for another HP fiction I'm writing and came across this idea on HP-Lexicon and it made me wonder.
"Think how dangerous Hermione might have become if she'd never made friends with Ron and Harry, but instead had spent her first five years at school the same way she spent the first eight weeks: burying herself in the study of magic, but without any emotional ties to anyone around her."
Yes I realize I've got way to many projects going at once. This makes project number five that will have been posted and project number eight overall as I have a few I haven't posted yet but when I find something that sparks my interest it just begs to be written.
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Hermione Granger was what one would consider a precious eight year old girl. She had a head of brown bushy hair that was untamable no matter what her mother did and had teeth that where slightly larger in the front of her mouth than her other teeth which caused the other girls at her primary school to tease her.
They also teased her about her grades, she wasn't a weak student but she wasn't the strongest either. When her weekly spelling test came back with only a 72% on top, one of the more popular girls Amanda Slick, ripped her test from her hands, picking on the young girl for making such a low grade when Amanda herself had made an 88% on the weekly test.
For eight year old Hermione that was the last straw and thankfully the teacher had overheard the conversation, if it could be called that, between Amanda and Hermione, Amanda had received a detention and Hermione's parents had been called in to be informed of the situation.
To say that her parents were not happy with her grade was the understatement of the century but they had decided instead of it being Hermione's fault for lack of trying, it was her primary schools fault for not having more challenging subjects.
When she started at the private primary school close to her house at the age of eight Hermione Granger's life changed forever.
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The next day came too early for Hermione's liking but she soon found she wouldn't be returning to the public primary school she had been attending up until that point.
"Your old school was not challenging you enough. They didn't even inform us your grades had slipped." Her mother said, scoffing over a cup of coffee that morning as she talked to her daughter.
"We've enrolled you at Saint Mary's Primary School for Girls. They have afterschool programs to help you get your grades up and will work more with you since it is a private school." Her mother said as she finished her scone before she spoke again. "It's a boarding school but it will help you out in the long run. Classes run from September 1 until June 1 with optional summer terms but since you'll be starting in the middle of the term that won't matter much. Today will be about gathering your supplies and then dropping you off to let you get acclimated before classes start back up on Monday. They have very strict guidelines and if you fall under those guidelines you will attend extra classes and tutoring sessions and they require you to keep a study journal which should be very helpful for you."
With that being said they began the rather quick process of obtaining school supplies for Hermione at one of the office stores that was close to the Grangers place of practice.
The first thing that was added into the shopping trolley was a trunk that was a lot larger than Hermione had anticipated before twenty binders of various colors where added to the trolley that was quickly followed by page dividers, pens, mechanical pencils, larger erasures, and anything else that Hermione would need for the next eight months of her schooling while away at Saint Mary's Primary School.
From there it was onto a bookstore where mountains of books and workbooks where added into the shopping trolley. Reading, math, phonics, crosswords, spelling puzzles, vocabulary books for Year Three, which she was currently in, and Year Four, which she would start the next school year, where added at an alarming rate, and that wasn't counting what textbooks the schools would supply her daughter with.
With Hermione's new school trunk packed with all her new supplies they returned home to pack some everyday clothing and toiletries for their daughter before they started the long drive to Saint Mary's Primary School, which was located two towns over and four hours away.
When they arrived at Saint Mary's Hermione knew that her parents would eventually have to leave, but her mother stayed with her as they were given a tour of the school and the Headmistress, a Abbot Dawn, began explain the process of how the school was run.
"Because Hermione is only in Year Three she will be sharing a room with one other girl, a Miss Smith, when she turns ten she'll be given a private room. We start every day at six thirty for physical education. Breakfast is severed at seven thirty and classes start at eight thirty. You will have courses in Mathematics, English, Reading, Science, Geography, Social Studies, Art, Music, and Latin. For the music class Hermione can choose to either participate in choir, orchestra, or band. For her art class there is only one choice. Each class will require one binder and one notebook of the same color. If those fill up then you will have to purchase another one which can be done through the school. There are also study seminars that are held within the evenings and on weekends if you'd like her to attend those." Miss Dawn said; glad to see the Granger's nod their head in approval. "Very well then, her roommate also attends them. If she falls behind in a subject she will be placed in a revision session to bring her grade back up to an 'A', we expect nothing less than the best here at Saint Mary's. I will leave you a map of the school so you and your mother can explore together later but here is your room 16-A. All of your things have already been brought up so take the time to straighten out your room and get changed into your uniform before your parents leave and then it will be time for a Study Skills session this afternoon at one, right after lunch." She said, leaving young Hermione to her own devices with her mother.
Hermione knew it was going to be a long time until she graduated high school.
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When her mother came home one day and saw her reading Pride and Prejudice as only a fifth year she knew her daughter was special. It was January, around four in the afternoon on one of her trips home, and Hermione Granger was sitting at her desk that her parents had built into her wall, surrounded by a pile of books.
The desk was made of solid oak, a deep brown that would match the room no matter how she changed it as she grew. It ran the full length of the wall, expect for the portion that held her closet. A hutch was added to the top of the desk that had six rows across and six down, filled with everything from paints and markers to copy paper and ink for her type writer. A dry-erase board hung to the wall to the left of her desk as well as a bulletin board that was filled with flyers for different boarding schools in England for advanced students as well as upcoming seminars and training sessions she was interested in.
When she started studying for her entrance test for her boarding school her parents were talking about making the spare bedroom into an office for her which would give her even more room, something that excited her.
She was currently working on a paper about Mary Tudor for her Gifted and Talented program at Saint Mary's. She hid a yawn as she looked back over the requirements for the paper.
Gifted and Talented Program
Research Paper Assignment
Write a seven to ten page paper on the person that was selected for you based on the following criteria
Must turn in a rough draft copy; Due two weeks from today.
Must turn in two final copies; One for your file and one to grade.
Must have a minimum of fifty source cards; more is expected to receive a top grade.
Must include fifty citations all to be included in the bibliography page.
Must be typed; no ink splatters or marks on the paper.
Must have a title page and cover.
There will be periodically checks on your progress with this paper as it is worth 10% of your final grade for this course.
It would be her first time writing a research paper but she had located a few books on how to write one and the teacher had gone over it extensively in class and would again every day from now until it was due.
She had five books so far, and if she could pull ten sources from each book she would be ok. She knew that if she started today she could finish a book a day and pull her source cards at the same time, so all seventy of the source cards she planned for would be done with by the end of the week. Which would leave her the weekend to outline her paper and the following week to work on her rough draft, all the while only putting in an hour or two's worth of effort a day.
She grabbed a legal pad from the stack within her desk as she began to read the first few pages of the first book on her list, hoping to be able to pull a few sources from every chapter. When six rolled around that evening she startled as she heard a knock on her door.
"Yes?" she asked, placing her finger on the word she had stopped reading at.
"I was wondering, would you like to go out to dinner? I also wanted to stop by the bookstore, I found a few more books that could help you with your Gifted and Talented program, I mean you have a paper every month between now and the end of school." Her mother teased her good-naturedly about how much work Hermione was doing, saying she didn't have that much work until she hit college.
"Only if we can get a book on Algebra and Trigonometry, I've already finished my Pre-Algebra book a few days ago." Hermione asked, smiling at her mother as she stood and stretched for the first time in three hours.
"That sounds nice, why don't we let your dad drop us off at the bookstore, let him run for a coffee and then we can walk over to the diner that's across the road. We also need to get you another uniform soon."
As Hermione gathered her things, she noticed her mother was glancing around at how little room there was in Hermione's room.
"You know Hermione, this is a four bedroom house, and I know your dad and I share an office, but I think we might go ahead and let you have the fourth bedroom, your book collection is becoming enormous, always so eager to learn." Jane didn't miss the way Hermione's eyes lit up at the thought of having her own office.
"Really, mom? I would love that, if it's ok with you and dad, I mean if you guys need the guest bedroom that's fine." Hermione said, trying to tamper down her hopes just in case her father said no.
"I'll talk to your dad about it over dinner, but if he agrees we can get it done before you leave this weekend." By this point Hermione's mom had walked over to her daughter's closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a nice white button down blouse, handing them to Hermione to go change.
"Oh that reminds me, did you get the books for my science lecture, I need to have those done before this weekend!" Hermione couldn't believe she had let that slip her mind.
"Yes, that's the other reason we're going to the bookstore, your books came in. Read one a day as you will need to know those in detail for your lecture and skim your books for your research paper and look for key points, trust me it will save you a lot of time."
Hermione's breath rushed out of her, trust her mother to come up with a logical solution. She remained quite as she walked over to her desk and revised her planner accordingly before adding it to her smaller, portable one that she carried with her in a purse her mother gave her over Christmas break.
As they drove the short distance to the bookstore Hermione's father, Richard Granger mentioned to Hermione another seminar for those interested in the medical professions.
"It's actually two week seminar over summer break, and it would fit in with your break from your summer courses you were going to take the second week of July. It's in Japan but it's in English; I would need to reserve your place now if you wanted to go as well as your plane ticket."
"Are you sure that won't be too much money dad? I'm already doing summer courses at Hillcrest most of the summer." She knew her parents valued her education but at times it felt like they were spending too much money on her.
"Japan's the world's top leading medical research countries. It would look good that you showed an interest this early if medicine is what you want to do and money is not an issue, you know your mother and I have invested well for your future."
Hermione smiled at the subtle praise she had just been given, that was what drove her, the praise that kept coming for every good mark or grade.
"Then yes, go ahead and sign me up for it. Do you know what materials I'll need? Since it's a medical seminar it's likely to be highly hard to get."
"I actually signed you up over a month ago." At this her father looked a little sheepish. "The books are waiting for us at the bookstore as well."
"How many books are we talking?" Hermione asked, she had always loved the smell of new books.
"There are ten books and four workbooks. The seminar would be from eight am until eight pm but it would be a full term's worth of work, which is why you would have to board there. For your summer courses they run from the second week of July until the first week of June and then you would fly out to Japan, return home and then that following week your second summer term would start the third week of July and end the third week of August which would give you time to get ready for your term in the beginning of the September."
Hermione's mother turned in the front seat to look at her daughter.
"Are you sure you want to do all that this summer? That's an awful hard load." She asked, but she already knew her answer.
"If I want to get into Cambridge or Oxford I need to build up my resume, so yes I'm sure, it'll be hard but it will be manageable." She said this with such confidence that her mother beamed at her with pride, she reminded her so much of herself when she was a child.
"So how many books are we looking at getting?" Hermione asked, knowing her mother knew exactly how many she had ordered.
"Ten for your medical seminar, plus three of the five recommended texts, if you like we can order the other two. Three for your seminar this weekend, plus five per research paper you have left in Gifted and Talented so that's twenty just for the research papers and then there is one book for your first summer course and six for your second summer course but that's a literature course so it's really not that much. Plus your Algebra and Trig textbooks"
Her excitement growing as she did the math quickly in her head. "Forty two books? Are you sure that isn't too much?" she asked, imagining the new bookcase she was sure was to follow the books.
"No it's not. You'll have your own library here soon enough, speaking of Richard, I want to clean out the spare that's connected to Hermione's bathroom and let her have her own office, she'll need more room than the desk she has if she is going to do this successfully, she'll be home every other weekend of the summer anyway and then she starts preparing for her entrance testing for high school once school picks up in the fall."
They had come to a stop outside the bookstore by this point in their conversation.
"That's fine; we can have it done before she gets back Sunday night. I've been thinking about it for a while now myself. We'll need to swing by the Gage's Furniture Store and let her pick out a second desk and two or three more bookcases." Her dad said, noticing the smile that lit up his daughter's face.
"Richard, if you give her two or three more bookcases she'll want to fill them all up!" Jane said, laughing all the while.
"I know, that's why I've set up an account for her here. Anything she wants she can have. She wants to learn, who am I to stop her if I can afford it. If it's too much to carry home from school you can always have them deliver it to the house."
Hermione stared at her father in shocked silence.
"Your curiosity knows no bounds Hermione, you are a smart young lady, you can learn anything you set your mind to so who am I to stop you?" he asked as Jane and Hermione exited the car finally, after a horn honked at them for staying parked so long.
"Go ladies, I would recommend you pick up a foreign language book, figure out which one you want to study for your GSEs that way you can work on it early I will be inside in a moment." With that parting note he left, heading toward the diner that was just across the street.
As Hermione entered the bookstore Jane saw a shift in how Hermione was acting, while her excitement was still there it was as if she was in awe of the fact she could have any book her heart desired.
"Start with the books you need and then move on to the ones you want." Her mother suggested as she guided Hermione to the reserved book section.
As her mother conversed with the sales lady she finally allowed Hermione to browse the books at her leisure as she and her father loaded up the car with six boxes of books that she couldn't wait to get her hands on.
She made her way to the test prep section of the store and browsed through the GSE and A-Level books, pulling down the core subject books for both tests. A glance in her trolley showed the GSE Level 1 books for English, Algebra, Trigonometry, Biology, England History, Literature, French, Spanish, and Latin course books and workbooks. Looking further along the rows she saw the MCAT prep books and pulled one that claimed it would help her get into medical school and a book titled 'Ivy League Dreams' about how to get into an Ivy League college in Great Britain or America before finally moving onto the fiction section.
As much as she loved to read she didn't always have time to read fiction because school came first but she tried to at least have two new books to read a month to give her mind a break from all the studying she put herself through.
She browsed the titles with interest before pulling down a romance novel and then a science fiction book that had a griffin on the cover just as her mother walked back up to her.
"Is that all your getting? I was sure you would have bought half the bookstore by now." Her mother said, chuckling, because Hermione very well could even if she didn't know it yet.
"That's plenty to keep me entertained for a month or two." The nonchalant air Hermione said this with always surprised her mother.
"You know I only read two fiction books a month that isn't required reading. Speaking of did we get a copy of our required reading list for the GSCEs yet?" Hermione asked, knowing there would be a lot of literature on the test.
"No you'll get that over the summer in your literature course, it will be more extensive as it's a college reading list but you need the challenge anyway, you're far too smart for the work you're doing at this age."
As the proceeded back to the front Hermione spotted her dad, towering over other customers, entering the store to help load her boxes of books and as they paid for her purchases Hermione couldn't wait to get home and start on her fiction book once she finished reading through the book she needed for sources.
At the diner Jane presented Hermione with a new planner that was more advanced and had more room than what she currently used.
"We got this from Cambridge Medical School, it shows the timeline you'll need to follow once you start secondary school so you can stay on track with deadlines and it has more room than the other planner we gave you."
"Thanks mom." But Hermione was lost to them as she thumbed through her planner; looking at all it had to offer to it leaving her parents to their own conversations.
When she snapped out of her book induced daze she placed an order for a chef salad and a hot tea before they got back to speaking about school.
"You have a paper due this month and then three more between February, March, and April. The month of May you'll get a break from that to study for your finals. From there you'll leave for your summer courses the first weekend of June and leave the first weekend in July. You'll be home that weekend and then fly out to Japan on Sunday, get there on Sunday due to the time difference, and then courses start that Tuesday and end two weeks from then. Then you'll return home for the rest of that week so that'll give you five days to rest and then we take you back to Cambridge for your second summer course. Does that sound about right?" he asked, pausing as he took a bite out of his burger.
"It does, I have all the exact dates written down in my planner at home." She said, adding to her father's statements. "I was wondering if I could be at school at seven tomorrow? That'd give me some time to work on my group project for my science course with Amelia."
"That'd be fine. It will give you time to settle back in." Her mom said, knowing the answer to her unasked question already.
"No one wants to study, they all want to talk about makeup and boys and I don't like that kind of thing. I'd much rather have my head in a book anyway." Was her curt reply, they knew she really wanted nothing to do with boys, something they were happy with.
"How much more do you have left on your paper for G & T?" her mother asked, knowing that was the one class Hermione worked the hardest in.
"I'm on book one of five for the paper, I plan on trying to read one a day until Saturday and then starting going through the source cards I created and organizing them. I should be on the first rough draft by Monday, if all goes as planned."
Her chef salad arrived shortly after she finished her sentence so all conversation ceased as they began eating their meals.
"Alright in your office, do you want a handful of bookcases or would you rather have two of the four walls lined, we could always hire a contractor and have them built in. If we built them in they would be floor to ceiling, which would give you more room, it would keep the books off the floor for at least the first year." Dan said, chuckling at the running joke in the family.
"Probably built in, I mean have you seen how thick the GSCE books are or even the A-Levels? They're massive."
"You'll also need your books for the advanced placement testing to see if you can test into a second level course for when you begin secondary school." Jane pointed out, before taking a sip of her tea. "You can come tomorrow and get those after school, just take the bus here from school or if it's nice enough walk it and take the bus back."
"Oh, don't forget tomorrow I have my literature club after school. We're going over "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" and then we're picking a Virginia Woolf book next or Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" we'll decide tomorrow." Talking about books always excited Hermione and it was nice to see her glow like this for once, it was something she only did when she talked about learning or books.
"Do you have a copy of anything by Virginia Woolf or Chopin?" her mother asked, knowing that she had some put up somewhere.
"I have something; it'd be on my list at home." Hermione's list was massive. It was handwritten in elegance that only she could manage. She had several lists but it was always referred to as the list.
The first portion of her list contained the books that she owned and had already read. The second portion contained a list of books she owned but hadn't had time to read. The third portion was books she would have to read for upcoming projects or her college entrance exams and the fourth and final portion where books she wanted to read for personal gain, either fictional or non-fictional.
The lists seemed silly to anyone that didn't know Hermione well but as much as she yearned for knowledge she could lose track of what she wanted to learn or read about with as much as she had going on.
"Give me a copy of the list and while you're in class tonight I'll see what I can pull up at the bookstore again."
Hermione's eyes widened at the mention of class.
"What time is it?" she asked, before looking down at her watch. "We need to go; I left my books at the house for my computer course."
Hermione had been selected to take part in a computer course at the local trade school that weekend home. At the moment not a lot of people had computers but they had become popular since the 1980s.
"Dad will run home and get your books; you and I will go back to the bookstore and pickup a full collection of Virginia Woolf and Chopin so you can get started on those when you have a free moment."
"I need that box of floppy drives to; it is sitting in the hutch." She said as she watched her father rush out the door, hoping that he would make it back in time for her class.
"Don't worry your dad will make it back; now let's go get those books real quick and then we'll get you headed on your way to class."
Hermione browsed the bookstore once again before finding a complete works collection for both Kate Chopin and Virginia Woolf. Jane saw Hermione eyeing the Edgar Allen Poe collection and quietly slipped it into the basket when she wasn't looking, and then came the real reason for their second trip to the bookstore.
"Hermione, you know your body changes as you get older, that you'll start having a menstrual cycle and you'll get breasts, but I know you and I know you have more questions. I wanted to pick you up a book as well on what's going to be going on with your body as you get older, but I wanted to wait until your dad was gone to do so."
Hermione, as fair-skinned as she was, had turned the color of a tomato.
"Mom, I know how that all works. We went over it in my G & T class." She got out past clenched teeth.
"I know but a book would be nice to have, it'll go into more detail than a person is usually comfortable going into with someone so young. I also want you in the Purity Seminar at our church, it's on Saturday afternoons from one pm until four pm, and they cover different topics each time they offer the seminar and its six weeks long."
Hermione tried to stop the eye roll but wasn't successful, being raised a Catholic she knew she would eventually be put in the Purity Seminar she just wasn't expecting it at the age of eleven.
"It's not just a Purity Seminar sweet heart, it teaches you how to start your training to become a Catholic wife, I found it invaluable when I went and I went three times a year from the time I turned eight, so be glad I waited until you where ten. You'll start out learning about your body for the first few years and then it will move onto husbandry when you turn thirteen."
"I have the science lecture this week mom, I couldn't start then." Hermione said, surprised her mother had forgotten about that.
"Oh, that's right, well you could always do it on Tuesday and Thursday nights it'd be from five to six pm if you went that way." Her mother said, thinking to herself more than anything.
"Can I look at my planner when I get home first? I'm not sure I'll have time to add anything else to my schedule mom."
"I'll make you a deal, if you don't have the time this semester, will you at least go when you start secondary school?"
Her mother seemed adamant that she attend this class, she might as well get it over with while her plate was only half full.
"I'll do Tuesday and Thursday nights for one round, if I have the time and nothing else conflicts with it I'll keep going." Hermione said, knowing her academics came first over a purity class.
"Thank you. Once a year if that's all you can handle would be ok as they do a retreat weekend over the summer holidays which I think you would really enjoy."
"When is the retreat?" Hermione asked, knowing her summer was already packed full.
"It would fall on the weekend you came home from Japan. I think it's in Kingsbury this year; it's one of the nicer locations. This year it's on homemaking and being a Godly wife. It is a retreat but there will be several seminars for you to choose from as well as some learning activities. Everything would be provided once you got there." The hope in her mother's eyes was too much for Hermione.
"I'll go this summer; go ahead and sign me up." Hermione internally cringed at this; she was going to be exhausted at the end of this summer.
Her parents knew she wanted to be the best; she was chasing academic perfection after all. The one down side to being a doctor's daughter was being the daughter of two doctors.
