A/N Ok, this fic will last for quite a while, a long time after Hermione finishes Hogwarts. In theory, the writing should change as she does, getting more mature and less snobbish. I don't think I'll stick to canon, I may choose to spare someone from death or pair someone with someone else (aside from the obvious Ron/Hermione which is so not happening) but I haven't decided yet. I'm not entirely happy with it yet so odds are I will keep updating chapters, trying to make it a little better. Anyway, I hope you like it. Reviews would be most helpful!

A/N the second: Having read through what I've got so far, I feel you should be warned that I have changed certain events a little bit. I'm trying to give detail without just retelling the entire story so bear with me.
__ __ __

It was a rather inconspicuous morning in July when a rather conspicuous owl arrived at the Granger residence. Well of course, none of the family could believe it at first. Their Hermione, a witch? Nonsense! But, as they read and re-read the letter, it did make a ridiculous sort of sense. It explained a lot of things which had previously been, obviously, quite inexplicable. Of course, Hermione, being the sort of girl she was, studied so much over the summer that she could probably have passed her end of year exams before school had even started. She was so excited she could hardly sit still, even when she was reading! She had always known there was something a little strange about herself. And who knew, maybe now that she would be amongst people like herself, she would find the friends she had always read about in stories, instead of being the odd one out all the time.

She arrived on Platform 9 ¾ a full hour early; one could never be too careful. She chose a compartment and packed her trunk onto it before getting back off the train to say goodbye to her parents. When the time came to leave, Hermione didn't feel sad. She felt a little guilty that she was fine with leaving her parents but that was soon replaced with a nervous excitement which often takes over one when plunging into the unknown. Seeking the familiar, Hermione opened a book and began to read.

Her sanctuary, however, was soon interrupted when a round faced boy barged into her compartment and sat awkwardly opposite her. He seemed like he wanted to say something but was too shy. For a while, Hermione let him suffer, trying to continue reading but soon the tension became almost palpable and she closed her book with a snap.

"Can I help you?" she asked, a little too pompously. The boy stared at her, his lip trembling slightly. Oh, please don't cry, Hermione thought, exasperated. With a sniff, the boy pulled himself together and explained that he had lost his toad and that his gran would kill him if he didn't get it back. Hermione agreed to help him look for it.

During her search she stumbled upon two boys, Ron Wesley, or something, and Harry Potter! Of course, Hermione had read all about him but he seemed totally different in real life. A lot… less, she supposed. Everything she had read built him up to be a great wizard and hero but he seemed so ordinary. Not too mention the fact that he clearly hadn't read any of his textbooks.

When they arrived at Hogwarts, they were greeted by a very large man with a gruff voice. He seemed friendly enough, if a tad unorthodox. The trip across the lake was memorable and the first glimpse of the castle was superb. Hermione smiled, this was going to be her home for the next seven years. It looked incredible. To improve matters even more, the witch who met them in the castle was definitely someone Hermione could look up to. She had her hair back in a bun and obviously took no nonsense from anyone. She gave the impression of being well read and exceedingly intelligent. Needless to say, Hermione took an instant liking to her.

She followed Professor McGonagall (as she learned her name to be) into the Great Hall and, though she had already read all about it, was completely in awe of it. No written word could do the ceiling justice, it really looked like their was no ceiling at all. She walked eagerly to the Sorting Hat to be Sorted and jammed it onto her head. There was a brief moment of silence when the room was eclipsed by the brim of the large hat.

"Ahh," a benign voice whispered, it sounded almost as though it was coming from inside of Hermione's head! "A very keen mind, I see. Though your loyalty and daring cannot be ignored."

Hermione blushed inside the hat, feeling very elated by what it said. She waited for the verdict though the hat wasn't quite finished examining her yet.

"Oh, that is interesting," it said softly and Hermione could hear a hint of humour in it's words. "You've chosen well there, my dear."

Hermione wondered what on earth it was talking about but it's words were temporarily removed from her mind when she was announced a Gryffindor and scampered over to the cheering table. She was absolutely over the moon to be put into Gryffindor, not only the House she had chosen to be the best from her studies (though Ravenclaw sounded alright too) but also the House which Dumbledore himself had been Sorted into!

She made her way to Gryffindor tower with everyone else and met her roommates for the next seven years. Lavender had a high, irritating laugh and Parvati was quite shy, though she was brave enough to have a joke with Lavender before going to bed. Hermione remained mostly silent after they had glared at her for trying to talk about Hogwarts: A History, a subject which her fellow first years didn't seem to find very interesting, for some bizarre reason.

Still, she didn't let it bother her and went to bed with shining pictures of Hogwarts, and the Sorting Ceremony glowing in her mind. She could hardly contain her excitement for the first days lessons though the full stomach and full days travelling meant that she fell asleep very quickly.

What Hermione had taken as a perfect beginning to her life at Hogwarts was cut very short by her instant unpopularity amongst her peers. Percy seemed to like her a little, but only because he was almost interested in lessons as she was. On the first night, he and Hermione had talked about Transfiguration, a subject Hermione was particularly interested in but aside from that she had been pretty much ignored. She couldn't understand what everyone found so unbearable about her.

She went to her first Transfiguration lesson with a mixture of excitement and disappointment. No one seemed likely to make friends with her anytime soon but she still had a little hope for the future. It was as interesting as she had imagined it would be and she was very pleased when she discovered Professor McGonagall was the Transfiguration Professor; an interesting lesson and a great teacher in one! Of course, when Professor McGonagall had smiled at her for her match-needle creation, she had felt a small reprieve from her alienation but it soon settled around her again like dust. She felt lonely and stupid. She just didn't seem able to understand what everyone else took for granted. The one huge flaw in her education.

The other lessons were somewhat of a mixed bag. Professor Binns, a ghost, was the most monotonous and boring teacher she had ever met. She had never been so close to sleep in a class before and it was an experience she didn't welcome. Professor Snape was incredibly rude. It was almost childish, the grudge he held against the Gryffindors. She hated how boorish he had been to her, treating her like an insolent brat when all she had done was try to answer a question! Professors Flitwick and Sprout were a lot better. She enjoyed their lessons and was learning a lot with them, once the novelty of Flitwick giving an incredibly strong likeness to a garden gnome had worn off. Professor Quirrell was so jumpy it was a wonder he could teach them anything at all, especially Defence Against the Dark Arts, but she believed he would have been a lot better at his job if the students didn't treat him the way they did. She could empathise with the constant downtrodding he received from them.

After a week more, Hermione had still made no friends. It wouldn't have been so bad at home but she was in a new environment and needed a little familiarity from somewhere. That evening, she decided to visit the library again (Madam Pince already recognised her as a regular). This time, however, the intention was not to delve further into the world of knowledge and read textbooks, but to read a book which still held the familiar smell of home. She would read a novel; one of her favourites at that. Her objective, unfortunately, was not very well met by her heart. The moment her eyes read the words on the page, she felt the familiar sting of tears and could not help but to let them fall, she had been suppressing them for a while.

After what seemed like hours, the crying stopped and she wiped her eyes. Looking up, she met the gaze of a very concerned looking Professor McGonagall. The Professor sat down opposite her, she didn't say anything which, given Hermione's awful mood, only made her feel like she was in trouble.

"I'm s-s-sorry, Professor," she said, her voice still weak from so much crying. Professor McGonagall seemed genuinely surprised by this.

"Whatever for, Miss Granger?" she asked, leaning closer to get a good look at Hermione's tear-streaked face.

"I don't know," Hermione admitted, laughing slightly. She felt embarrassed now. Luckily, Professor McGonagall wasn't angry with her and she smiled comfortingly.

"You have nothing to apologise for. I was merely wondering what could upset such an intelligent girl so?"

Hermione smiled at the compliment, her cheeks feeling strange under the dry tears. But when she thought on the answer to the Professor's question, her smile quickly faded.

"I have no friends," she whispered, looking at the table, determined not to let the tears stinging her eyes fall. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Everyone just thinks I'm an annoying little know-it-all. Maybe I am."

"Miss Granger, you are not in the least bit annoying. You are a very bright young witch. You will have friends soon, I promise you, your peers just need time to realise there is more to you than cleverness." She smiled again, which struck Hermione as odd since she had heard from the older students that the Professor never smiled at anyone.

Professor McGonagall walked Hermione back to Gryffindor tower, leaving her at the portrait hole. Hermione went to bed feeling lighter than she had felt since she first arrived. Three days later, it was Hallowe'en. Three days later, Hermione made friends. She felt awful for lying to Professor McGonagall but she had a feeling her Professor hadn't believed her story. She needed to thank her sometime.

__ __ __

Through her newfound friends, Hermione began to visit Hagrid on a regular basis. He was the large man she had seen when she first arrived at Hogwarts. He was rather gruff, as she had first assessed him to be, but he was very kind and friendly. However, she soon learned his taste in pets was just as unusual as he himself appeared to be. Dragons, of all things! Of course, it had been an interesting experience from an academic point of view, not many first years would be able to say they had seen a dragon hatch. Hagrid had named him Norbert (of all the names to choose from!) and had raised him like he was the dragon's mother, or something! After a few days, Norbert had practically doubled in size. After another week, the same again. It was getting ridiculous. Finally, Hagrid saw reason and admitted defeat. Ron arranged for Norbert to be sent to his brother Charlie.

Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan. Malfoy had run and told on them and Filch had caught her and Harry (Ron had been sent to the hospital wing with a dragon bite) and taken them both to Professor McGonagall. Neville had been caught trying to warn them, his heart was in the right place but he was a bit dim sometimes. McGonagall had been furious, Hermione had to fight tears the whole time. She couldn't cry, that would be too embarrassing, but she hated disappointing her Professor, the first person who had shown her any kindness. She just hoped there was a way she could prove herself to the Professor again, a way to show her that she had made the correct assumption about Hermione, she was a good student. Please, let there be a way to show her.

The detention was horrible, Harry had practically died! She had been apprehensive about the Forbidden Forest before but now she knew there was something killing unicorns she was even more worried, that worry paled in comparison to how much fear she felt when she knew exactly what was killing them.

At the end of the year, Hermione had not only passed all of her exams with scores of at least 100% but aided Harry in his fight against You-Know-Who. The feast was good and when Hermione won 50 points for Gryffindor from Dumbledore himself, she blushed a wonderful shade of red. She was pleased with how she had handled the logic quiz on the way to the Philosopher's Stone, maybe that had been enough to impress Professor McGonagall enough to be forgiven for the dragon escapade. Gryffindor won the House Cup for the first time in six years! Hermione, amidst her cheering friends, looked up at the Head Table and grinned at Professor McGonagall. Making sure no one was looking, she smiled back. It only lasted a second but it was enough to make Hermione's day perfect.

She was sad to leave the castle but knew it would only make her return that much sweeter. Hermione looked forward to her second year so much that she started to study on the train home. The look of disbelief on Ron's face was enough to send both Hermione and Harry into fits of laughter. A wonderful way to part for the summer.

__ __ __

A/N Thanks to Lina Chivas, Ash and StallerKhat for betaing, love you guys! :)