A/N: Okay, I did some major changes to this story. Chapters 1 and 2 are combined, and I wrote a bit more. This way is better because the chapters aren't as short. So if you read the original chapters 1 and 2 just scroll down to the row of eights (because the asterisks aren't working), and that's the added part. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 1: A Curious Call

Hermione woke up and looked over at the clock beside her bed. It was 8:30, her first day of Summer Holidays and all she could think about was how much she wanted to go back to school. It wasn't because she was already going into Arithmacy withdrawal, but because she desperately wanted to be with her two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Oh yeah, she also always dreaded staying home. She had some pretty nasty neighbors and old schoolmates that, would just like to forget. Usually during summer her and her parents went on a trip, but, alas, Hermione's parents didn't have extra money to spend on an extravagant trip this year. Their dentist office, which they owned, had burned down one night; apparently, there was a gas leak .

Hermione stretched her arms and yawned. This summer is gonna suck, she thought to herself. She skulked out of bed, and reached to the door, but she was met with the image of herself in the mirror beside the door. Hermione stared at the girl she saw in the mirror; she saw the big, bushy mass of brown on her head, the light blue-green of her eyes, the slight slouch of her shoulders, and the huge mole on the base of her neck. She sighed, Hermione had never much cared about her looks, but she had always wished she had that wow-factor that made everyone turn their heads. Maybe she did have a wow-factor, she thought, what had made everyone notice her at the Yule Ball?

Ah, the Yule Ball, she hadn't thought of that in while. Hermione liked to forget that night, what should have been and started out as a wonderful dance and dinner, ended up as an all out brawl between her and Ron. Geez, that prat, she thought. Then Hermione buried her face in her hands when she thought of what she said, 'Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!'. She had been so furious that she just said it without thinking, of course she had really meant it, but was so embarrassed and mad after she said that she just stomped away. Hermione didn't really mean for it to sound like, 'RON, PLEASE ASK ME THE NEXT TIME THERE'S A BALL BECAUSE I'M SO DESPERATE FOR SOME OF YOUR LOVIN'!!', but apparently it did. She wasn't really worried that Ron understood what she said because he and Harry were so clueless, but she knew Lavender and Parvati would be having giggle fits for a long time.

Lost in thought, Hermione suddenly heard a ringing sound. At first she jumped, but then she realized what it was. Had she really been gone so long that she forgot what a phone sounded like? , she thought as she quickly walked over to the desk and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

No one answered.

"Hello?"

Once again, no sound.

"Hel-lo?", she asked again, "Hellloooo?", she sung with a horrible sounding high-note at the end, because she was pretty sure it was a telemarketer that had messed up the connection or something-but then she heard a quiet snigger and the person on the other line hung up. Hermione quickly turned off the phone and threw it on her bed, slightly embarrassed.

"Stupid punks, have nothing better to do then prank call people", Hermione said to herself, then she instantly slapped her forehead for sounding like a 60-year-old man.

She walked back to door, and saw herself in the mirror again. She glanced at herself and noticed something she had missed the first time she looked in the mirror. Her eyes were different, she looked closer, and saw bags under them. They weren't from lack of sleep, but from worry. Most of the worrying had been for Harry.

Last year, he had never opened up and she knew Harry was going through hell, what with Cedric dying and Voldemort coming back to power. And now that Sirius had died- her eyes started to water as she thought of this- he was surely in self-destruct mode. She didn't know how Harry could survive without parents or any family. He had been hiding something from her and Ron since the Department of Mysteries incident, something horrible, she guessed. Now Harry was going to bottle up all his emotions for a whole two months, living with those horrible relatives of his, and he was sure to do something rash if he had even the slightest inkling that something was going amiss. Oh, how she would do anything for Harry just to make him feel-

"No", Hermione said quietly, wiping the tears from her eyes. "No, I'm not going to worry about Harry when I'm miles away from him and can't do anything about it. I'm ...I'm not going to waste my summer, my holiday, waiting for horrible news! I... I can't do this year round! I need time for me!"

Hermione sounded determined, but in the mirror her face looked almost guilty. "Come on", she pleaded to the mirror, "I will never abandon Harry; Ron and I will always be by his side. I just need these couple weeks to be normal again. I know the next couple years are going to be really hard; this is the only time for me to be a teenager and to have fun. I have to take advantage of it . Once September 1st arrives, I promise that I'll be back at the library figuring out Voldemort's new plot of destruction."

With that, she nodded her head, and took a sigh of relief. Then she opened the door and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast.

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Hermione thoughtfully ate her bowl of Froot Loops. How can I be a normal, muggle teenager? She grabbed a piece of paper and began making a list of the most obvious things she could avoid.

No Magic (unless it's for emergencies or homework, of course)

As little contact with the Wizarding World as possible.

No Homework (until August at least)

That last one had been hard to write hard to write, and Hermione almost erased it a couple of times. If she wanted to act normal then working on homework during her first month of holidays was not the best way to go about it.

Hands pressed to her temples, Hermione tried to think of more ways to act normal. The ideas started flowing as she thought of Pavarti and Lavender. Pretty soon she was just writing down the shallowest things she could think of.

Make-over

Makeup

Clothes

Hair

Friends

Boys

Dates

Parties

Sappy Soap Operas

Pointless Gossip Magazines

Hermione absentmindedly ate a spoonful of Froot Loops and quickly spit them out, they were extremely soggy; she had gotten so absorbed in the list that she had totally forgotten about her cereal. The mushy Loops went down the drain, and Hermione went upstairs, back to her room. She had work to do.