The New & Improved Hermione
( This is what I like to call a 'What If?' fac, but seeing as this is my first attempt at this type of fic, so please, be kind and no negative reviews. Title is subject to be changed. )
Hermione waved good-bye to her mom and dad and climbed through the barrier and onto the train to begin her seventh, and final, year at Hogwarts. She let out a sigh, and made her way towards her favorate compartment, getting stares and a few cat-calls along the way. Hermione ignored them and pulled open the door to her compartment. She sat down and put her feet up on the bench, seeing as Ron and Harry were nowhere to be seen.
'This year sure is going to be different' Hermione thought as she reached into her bag and pulled out her enchanted discman, 'But I wander who the Head Boy is? God I hope it's not Malfoy!'
Hermione put her headphones on and put in her Linkin Park c.d. She cranked the volume up to max, and leand back to stare out the window.
( A/N: the next little bit are the lyrics to 'One Step Closer' - by Linkin Park )
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One Step Closer
I cannot take this anymore
I'm saying everything I've said before
All these words they make no sense
I find bliss in ignorance
Less I hear the less you'll say
But you'll find that out anyway
Just like before...
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I find the answers aren't so clear
Wish I could find a way to disappear
All these thoughts they make no sense
I find bliss in ignorance
Nothing seems to go away
Over and over again
Just like before...
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Break break break break break
shut up when I'm talking to you
shut up shut up shut up
shut up when I'm talking to you
shut up shut up shut up shut up
I'm about to break
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Break break break break break break
shut up when I'm talking to you
shut up shut up shut up
shut up when I'm talking to you
shut up shut up shut up shut up
I'm about to break
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
About half an hour and five songs later, Ron and Harry entered the compartment and saw Hermione sitting there, wearing a rather unusual outfit. She was wearing a dark green haltertop with a silver snake on it, a black leather mini skirt, and a pair of high heeled black stilettoes. Harry looked closer at Hermione's outfit and saw that she was wearing a black velvet choker that had a green and silver viper hanging from it and a leather spiked bracelet on her left wrist.
Hermione looked up to see Ron and Harry gawking at her. She took off her headphones and said to the two blushing wizards, "Shut your traps, you're attracting flies."
Ron closed his mouth and said, "Geeze Mione, what's with you?"
"Nothing," She said, "I've decided that I'm tired of people thinkingof me as this shy litle book worm, so I decided that a new look and a new attitude were just what I needed. So, if you can't deal with it, leave."
"Sorry!" Ron said sarcastically, as he turned to Harry, "Let's go, seeing as we're not wanted here."
"Sounds good to me." Harry replied, giving Hermione a dirty look before leaving.
Hermione put her headphones on and changed the track to song eight, 'In The End'. She reached into her bag again and pulled out a bottle of black nailpolish. "Here it is," Hermione said to herself as she held the bottle in her hand, "My favorate nailpolish."
( A/N: These are the lyrics to 'In The End' by - Linkin Park )
In The End
(It starts with)
One thing / I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind / I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
All I know
time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on / but didn't even know
Wasted it all just to
Watch you go
I kept everything inside and even though I tried / it all fell apart
What it meant to me / will eventually / be a memory / of a time when I tried
so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
One thing / I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind / I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so (far)
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me
In the end
You kept everything inside and even though I tried / it all fell apart
What it meant to me / will eventually / be a memory / of a time when I
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
And for all this
There's only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
And for all this
There's only one thing you should know
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
Hermione opened the bottle and began to paint her long, shapely nails, while thinking about how much she had changed and gone through over the summer holidays. She had dyed her now straight and sleek hair jet black with silvery white forelocks. She also got an emerald green snake tattooed around her right ankle, and had gotten what her optometrist called hypnotic swirl contacts. Hermione loved her new look, but she had pretty much lost almost all her friends except Ginny, Ron's younger sister. She had stayed at the Burrow with Ron and Ginny for the first month of summer until July, but when Mrs. Weasley found out that she had her ankle tattooed with a snake, she told Hermione to either remove the tattoo or leave and never come back, so Hermione packed up her trunk and left. She knew that she couldn't go home, seeing as her rebellious actions had gotten her kicked out after a month of her being back home at the end of last term, so Hermione decided to spend the rest of her summer at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. She had gotten a summer job at the Quidditch Supplies store to pay for everything, and while working there, she managed to buy herself the best broom on the market, an Icestorm Two Thousand. This broom made Harry's Firebolt look like a Comet Two Sixty, and that's exactly why she picked this broom, so she could prove to those self-centered jerks that used to be her best friends, that she, Hermione Ginger-Anne Granger, wasn't a shy little bookworm, and that she could have fun and be spontanious just like everyone else.
Hermione finished her nails and was blowing them dry when Draco Malfoy opened the door and strolled into the room. "Hey, how's my favorate mudblood?" he asked looking at her with his trademark Malfoy smirk.
Hermione stood up and put her hands on her hips. "Listen here Draconis Lucian Malfoy, don't even start that mudblood shit ok? I have been through enough and I don't need this from you, so either put up or shut up, 'cause I'm not taking anymore shit from you or any of your stuck up Slytherin friends, got it?" she said, stabbing him in the chest with her finger.
( A/N: WAY TO GO HERMIONE!!!!!!!!!!!! )
Draco looked at Hermione, a look of shock on his face. 'Did she just call me by my full name?' he thought as he watched her sit down and stare out the window, 'No one has ever done that, let alone stand up to me.' He sat down across from her and said "Sorry Granger."
Hermione looked over at Malfoy. 'Did he just apologize to me?' she thought as she looked him up and down. "It's alright. I'm sorry I snapped at you, it's just that I've had a really rough summer."
"Don't worry about it." he said with a smile, "I'm sorry I called you a you- know-what. It's just that when I walked in and saw you with that tattoo on your ankle, I kind of froze up and didn't know what else to say."
"That's ok." Hermione said as she sat up, "I'm curious though, why did you freeze up?"
"Because I have the almost exact same tattoo on my right ankle too." Draco replied as he lifted his right pant leg so she could see his tattoo.
Hermione's mouth dropped open. "Shit!" se exclaimed suddenly, "We have the almost exact same thing, except mine has a 'D' on its pendent and yours has an 'H'!"
"Weird isn't it?"
Hermione nodded and was about to say something when all of a sudden the door burst open. "Drakie!" an ugly and skantily clad Pansy Parkinson squealed.
"What the hell do you want Parkinson?" Hermione snapped as she glared daggers at Pansy.
"None of your business mudblood." Pansy snapped back as she sat in Draco's lap.
"Get the fuck off me!" Draco shouted as he shoved Pansy to the floor.
"What the hell was that for?" Pansy exclaimed as she got up off the floor, "I thought..."
"Why the hell would he want you when he could have someone as good-looking as me?" Hermione said as she stood next to Draco.
"Good point Granger." Draco said as he opened the compartment door and pointed out into the corridor. "Now get your skank ass out of here." he said as he glared at Pansy.
"You'll pay for this mudblood." Pansy snarled as she stomped out.
Draco closed the door and turned to Hermione. "Did you mean what you said?" he asked.
Hermione gave hime a sarcastic look and smirked. "Hell no. I just like making that skank Parkinson squirm."
"Fuck, see if I ever take your side again!" Draco shouted as he stormed out of the compartment.
"Didn't ask you to!" Hermione shouted as she flipped him off.
Hermione slammed the door shut, but as she was about to sit down, a bell sounded, announcing that the train was less than five minutes away from Hogsmeade Station. Hermione quickly opened her trunk and threw on a robe over her clothes, just as the train was slowing to a stop. She took a sweatband out of the pocket of her robe and put it on over her tattoo, being extra careful to make sure it was completely hidden. She then took out her brand new wand, seeing as Ron accidently broke her old one, and muttered 'Reducto', shrinking her trunk to the size of a galleon. Hermione picked up her trunk and put it in her pocket, and got off the train, where she immediately ran to the student carriages and climbed inside, waiting to be taken to the castle so she could get this miserable day over with.
( A/N: You like so far? I know our favorate Slytherin was slightly OOC a bit, but it'll all make sense later on. Just so you know my story "The Gryffindor Descendent" has been pulled, so I can do some major rewriting. Two different story ideas were clashing in my head when I was writing, so please be patient, it will be reposted. Thanks. )