Hermione Granger sat against the shiny white wall of her classroom, just under the big ABC poster, which was her favorite. She was immersed in a book about a boy and a chocolate factory that her dentist parents would most likely not approve of.
"Her-my-oh-nee!"
Ignore it, she told herself, focusing harder on the book. 'But Grandpa, what sort of people are they that work in there?'
"Her-my-oh-neeee!"
''My dear boy', said Grandpa Joe-' "HER-MY-OH-NEE!"
She looked up, right into the face of Mandy Harrowneck. The girl had her arms crossed over her chest, and a smile that was too sweet to be good, a smile that would later haunt her in the form of a toad-faced woman in pink. Certainly, Mandy was prettier than this future teacher, but Hermione would never say it to her face.
"What are you reading?" she asked sweetly.
"A book," said Hermione, forcing herself to look back at the page. 'They are very small, the faint shadows that sometimes appear behind the windows…'
"You think you're so smart because you like to read." The girl kneeled down and grabbed the book from her hands. "And you think the rest of us are stupid."
''There aren't any such people,' Charlie said.' The words echoed in her head like someone had shouted them, but not loud enough to block out Mandy's taunts.
"Nobody likes you, Hermione Granger!"
Oh, how she wished to be one of those small shadow people. How she longed to be different, unseen, a mystery. 'There aren't any such people,' Charlie said.
"You're not that smart! You're just fat, because you read books about choc- AHHH!"
The scream startled Hermione into finally looking up, only to discover that Mandy's face was covered in something brown, hot and sticky- chocolate? Her hair, which was always perfectly straight, now stuck to her face, and she wore the angriest expression ever seen on a seven year old. The book dropped to the floor.
"You're a FREAK, Hermione Granger!"
Hermione sat still as the girl stormed away, blinking away the tears. She picked up the book. It was still open on the same page.
'There aren't any such people.'
Mandy Harrowneck never spoke to her again.