"Mum, Dad, come on! We need to get all my school things and Professor McGonagall said Diagon Alley gets really busy after lunchtime because everyone is having lunch and shopping. And I really want to go and see what books I can find, and ..."
"Okay Hermione," Mrs Granger replied with a laugh. "We're coming. But I think we'll need to do something about money first, what with your teacher mentioning a different currency in the wizarding world and everything."
"Oh yes, I remember, apparently they have goblins. I always thought they were fictional before. But they're real. I wonder what they'll be like. It's very exciting, isn't it Dad?"
"Of course, Pumpkin, it's just that it's a lot to take in. You're sure you remember how we're going to get in?"
"Definitely. Professor McGonagall said we need to go past a music shop -"
"Maybe that one?" Mr Granger asked, pointing to a run-down store selling old cassettes and more modern CDs.
"Must be. Is that Professor McGonagall over there? She said she'd meet us around here," Mrs Granger added.
"Professor McGonagall!" Hermione cried, running forward to meet her.
"Hello, Miss Granger. Mr and Mrs Granger," McGonagall replied as Hermione's parents caught up. "I hope you've enjoyed the holidays?"
"Yes, thank you. I hope you've enjoyed them as well," Mrs Granger replied politely.
"I've certainly enjoyed the peace and quiet. Although I look forward to teaching the new students in September. I can see your daughter will be a hard worker."
Mr and Mrs Granger both smiled at that and Hermione solemnly promised she would be.
"But I mustn't keep you waiting. If you'll follow me ..."
McGonagall led them over to an area next to the music shop. She waved her wand in the empty air and suddenly Mr and Mrs Granger could see a building where a moment before there had been nothing for them to see.
"The Leaky Cauldron," Hermione read out from a sign hanging off what now realised was a pub, if an unusual one.
"Indeed," McGonagall said. She opened the door and they went in.
"Hogwarts first year?" Tom, the aged barman, asked.
"Yes. This is Miss Granger and her parents. They've come to shop for school supplies."
"Well, enjoy your visit. And if you feel like some pumpkin juice, Miss Granger, or perhaps some firewhiskey for your parents, after shopping, feel free to order some later."
"Thank you, Tom," Professor McGonagall said firmly. "Perhaps later."
"Of course," he said, with a funny half-bow.
"Firewhiskey?" Mr Granger asked bemused.
"Not recommended at this time of day," McGonagall said firmly. "It's even stronger than muggle whiskey."
"Ah, I see."
"How would you like to do this? Normally I'd take you on a tour of Diagon Alley with the other muggleborns, but seeing as Miss Granger was so eager to get her textbooks sooner -"
"Sorry," Hermione mumbled, suddenly worried that she was being a nuisance.
"Don't be," McGonagall replied. "I have never, and hope I will never, discourage such promising enthusiasm as yours."
Hermione beamed at her and she smiled back.
"Now. Would you like me to show you around, or can you manage by yourselves?"
"I think we can manage," Mrs Granger assured her.
"Just tell us where we can change the money. You said wizards have a different currency." Mr Granger added.
"I did. Gringotts. That tall white building that way. They'll tell you what to do. Oh, and Miss Granger?"
"Professor?"
"You'll need this. It's a map showing which shops sell everything you'll need. See, Madam Malkin's, that's that way, sells Hogwarts robes, and Flourish and Blotts is where you can buy textbooks."
"Can we go there first, please? They'll probably have really exciting books on magic and Hogwarts and history and -"
"Gringotts first," McGonagall smiled, "I hope you all have a pleasant day and I look forward to seeing you on the Hogwarts Express on the first of September Miss Granger. You have the ticket I gave you?"
"Oh yes," Hermione replied, pulling it out to show her.
"Very good. In that case, enjoy the holidays. Goodbye."
The Grangers said goodbye to the witch and made their way to Gringotts.
Surprisingly, exchanging the money didn't take long. The goblins were efficient, if hostile, and the family soon left with enough wizard money to buy the whole of Diagon Alley. Hermione had protested at first, but they had insisted. "What we don't spend can go in a savings account for you, I think opening a wizarding one would be a good idea with you being a witch now and all," Mr Granger told her and she had smiled and relented. They were dentists, so could afford it, and having access to money in the wizarding world would be useful. Besides, it wasn't like she'd waste it.
It was all Mr and Mrs Granger could do to keep up with Hermione as she almost ran all the way from Gringotts to Flourish and Blotts, paying almost no heed to all the odd shops and interesting displays she went past.
But the spectacle was worth it, they thought to themselves when they went in. Piles of books, in every direction. Paperbacks and hardbacks, fabric covers. Even invisible covers. They jumped when they saw pages appear out of nowhere when another shopper opened a book, and then closed it, only for it to disappear again.
"Hogwarts?" the shopkeeper asked. When they nodded, he took them around the shop, putting the textbooks on the growing pile of books in Hermione's arms. 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi soon disappeared under Hogwarts: A History which in turn disappeared under A General History of All Magical Peoples, Wizarding Government, and The Standard Book Of Spells: Book One, and a dozen other books before Hermione was satisfied.
"Most people carry their books in their cauldrons, but I see you've come here first. Why don't you leave this and come and pay for it after you've done all your other shopping?" the shopkeeper suggested.
"Oh please," Hermione said quickly. "I'd like to take it all with me. So I can read while we're going. I want to know everything."
"I can see that," he replied humourously. "But you're never going to be able to buy anything dragging all this stuff around."
"He's right, Hermione," Mrs Granger said.
"Come on, leave it here. You'll have plenty of time to read it later. And I know how much you want to get your wand as well. Mr Ollivander's, was it?"
"That's right," the shopkeeper said. "Left and then across the road."
"Thank you," Hermione said, before bounding out of the door and only stopping once she had entered Ollivander's.
Before her parents caught up with her, before the surprised Mr Ollivander had a chance to say anything at all, silver sparks shot out from the edges of a dusty box on the very top of a stack of wands.
"Interesting," Mr Ollivander observed, rubbing his aged hands together, "Very interesting indeed."
"Sir?" Hermione asked curiously.
Before she had time to blink, Mr Ollivander was up a ladder reaching for the dusty old case. Hermione gasped in surprise and delight when it elegantly floated down from the shelf and landed in her hands. Mr Ollivander had at first shaked his head in surprise when it floated past him, but now he was beaming at Hermione.
"Open it," he told her eagerly. "Wave it around a bit, see how it feels."
Hermione did so and was pleasantly surprised by the warm feeling that spread up her arm. It was like she was meant to be holding it, and that was a feeling she definitely could get used to.
The shop bell tingled as the door opened once again, this time to reveal an out-of-breath Mr and Mrs Granger.
"Hermione?" they asked, "Is that your wand?"
"Yes, Mum, Dad, it floated down by itself. I really am a witch, I thought maybe there was a mistake because no-one I know is, but I am magic, I must be." Hermione declared joyfully.
"Indeed she is," the man must be Mr Ollivander told them. "And I am sure I will not be mistaken when I say she will be a remarkable witch. What is your name, my dear?"
"Hermione Granger." Hermione said.
"Well, Miss Granger, you're the second person I have personally seen this," he pointed at the wand, "happen to. This wand," he stroked it delicately and with a certain kind of deep respect and passion for it, "is a vine and dragon heartstring wand. Ten and three-quarter inches. Sometimes, when a person suited for a vine wand comes to buy their wand, the wand will give some magical effect."
"Like a signal? Is that what happened to me?" Hermione asked.
"Indeed. I do not know what you are destined for Miss Granger. But I do know that it will be extraordinary. The other person who I have observed this effect with is Professor Severus Snape, who will, I believe, be your Potions Master come September. It is not for me to speak much of one of your teachers, Miss Granger, but he is not ordinary, I can promise you that."
"I understand." Hermione said, giving him a deep look. Something in his words, and in his tone, told her that Professor Snape was not to be messed with (if Hermione had been the kind of girl who would even think of doing such a thing, which she was not), but, more than that, that she should somehow, for some reason, not assume him to be a sympathetic character. Much of this passed over her parents' heads. Mr and Mrs Granger sometimes forgot how astute their daughter could be. It would take time, time for her behaviour to mature and her confidence to grow before they would realise. But they knew she was clever, and they loved her deeply, regardless of what she was like. Witch or not, she was their daughter.
"I'm sure you do," he replied, giving her an equally serious look. "Enjoy your day," he added, by way of goodbyes.
Half an hour later and Hermione was laden with a pewter cauldron, black wizard robes and hat, ink and several sets of quills and parchment. She had got her brass telescope and weighing scales as well as everything else on her school list, all her Potions supplies from the Apothecary (what an odd smelling place, she had thought, though it was also fascinating. Who knew frogs eyes were quite so squelchy when in a paper bag?), and had had tea and fruit salad with her parents in a small tea shop out of town ("just because you're going to boarding school does not mean you can neglect your teeth," Mr Granger had told her sternly when she had gazed wistfully at the shop window of Florean Fortescue's Icecream Parlour, "and I don't care if they have cures or can grow new teeth or whatever, like we always say, prevention is better than cure." "You don't want to mix magic and teeth," Mrs Granger had added equally firmly, "What if teeth suddenly sprouted from your elbows?" and Hermione had laughed, the amusing image distracting her from both ice cream and thoughts of getting rid of her braces with magic). They went and collected her books from Flourish and Blotts, before leaving Diagon Alley the way they had come, through the Leaky Cauldron, the gateway between their world and what was to become their daughter's.