– CHAPTER ONE –

Hermione Jean Granger

Mrs. Granger held the small baby close to her heart.
"It's a girl" said the nurse with much enthusiasm. Mr. Granger peered over and a smile grew across his face.
"She's beautiful" said Mrs. Granger.
"What should we call her?" he asked.
"Well I want something unusual; something that's unique and sounds intelligent; something that makes her different to everyone else" replied Mrs. Granger.
"Hmmm" Mr Granger paused for a bit with a strained thinking expression on his face. "What about Hermione?"
"Ah; Hermione Jean Granger" she sighed. The baby smiled gently at the name. Little did they at the time but her unusual name wouldn't be the only thing to make her different.

From a very young age Hermione developed a great interest in learning even to the extent that her parents were amazed at how she did half the things they found her doing. Besides the fact that she could read and write before she could walk certain things she did were mind blowing for Mr. and Mrs. Granger which surprised them a lot due to their highly intellectual jobs. They were dentists you see but even both their brains combined couldn't explain the weekly phenomenon that was their daughter. For example the time they found her eating ice-cream straight from the freezer despite the fact that she had been asleep in a locked room the last time they saw her not to mention the freezer being way too high for her to reach let alone open or the time that they found her talking to an owl when she was supposed to be playing on the swing with the other young children from the neighborhood. But none of this seemed to bother the Grangers – in fact they grew increasingly proud of their daughter's abilities and had big plans for her future. When she was old enough they enrolled her at a school for bright students in which she flourished.

However one day the teacher called Mr. and Mrs. Granger in for a meeting.
"Your daughter Hermione is very bright; she exceeds the rest of her class. Her intellectual development is far greater than that of anyone else her age" said the teacher in a rather formal manner.
"She always has been" said Mr. Granger proudly but the teacher looked discouraged.
"Is there a problem?" asked Mrs. Granger judging by the teacher's expression.
"Well you see she is having a lot of trouble finding friends, the rest of the class feel very intimidated and put off by her intelligence even at this school of all places. But thank goodness she is here I imagine it would be ten times worse at a standard school". Mrs. Granger looked disheartened at this recent news and began to move around uncomfortably.
"What do you suppose we do about it" she inquired after a couple of minutes of silence.
"I don't know, I really don't know. Her intelligence far exceeds my comprehension but surely she could work out that she needs to take it down a notch to be accepted by her fellow class members"
"Well that's just it isn't it; she's the brightest kid of her age but she has zero social skills" said Mr. Granger at last although slightly exasperated. There was a small sob from the corridor. When the Grangers turned around the saw a small girl with brown bushy hair with her ear pressed against the door.
"Hermione, stop listening to other people's conversations" said Mrs. Granger politely. She got up from her seat and wandered over towards the door. Mr. Granger followed closely behind her.
"Thank you for your time" he added before he departed from the classroom.
"Hermione, what do you think you were doing listening into a private conversation like that?" Mrs. Granger asked.
"I'm really sorry, it was just it sounded serious and I really didn't want to be expelled so I had to listen to find out what it was about"
"Expelled? Why on earth would you be expelled?" Hermione blushed slightly remembering back to an incident a few weeks ago when a boy in her class had teased her about knowing all the answers to the teacher's questions. She got really upset at them and his head began to turn red and puff up. She didn't know how it happened but the teacher blamed it on her saying that she had hit him or something along those lines. She didn't even touch him though. After a few seconds later she regained her composure.
"No reason" she muttered.
"I would like to think so" added Mr. Granger quickly and the three of them hurried off.

Despite the obvious sob upon hearing her father's words on her lack of social skills Hermione didn't seem to be too bothered by her lack of friends. Her parents on the other hand tried their hardest to find her friends with very little results. One day a child had said hello to her but apart from that no real evidence of a friendship was developed. Mr. and Mrs. Granger made Hermione join clubs and would take her down to the park on regular occasions just to see if she ever warmed up to anyone but they all seemed intimidated by her. Everytime someone that looked about her age came close to her she would say hello but after a few minutes of conversation the child would walk off frustrated and angry; quite often to the point that they tripped over or walked into things on their journey across the playground. Because of this Mr. and Mrs. Granger stopped applauding her abilities in the hope that it would put her off showing her intelligence. Their frustration even caused them to forget about the strange goings on from Hermione's infancy. Nethertheless Hermione continued to try and impress them; she was even sure one day she got a spoon to fly across the room but it was probably just the wind blowing through the open window. She had been wishing that the spoon would come over to her at the time. But it just can't be can it. Nobody can make a spoon fly across the room just because they wanted it to eat their breakfast. It stuck in her mind though. Mr. and Mrs. Granger being relatively wealthy often took Hermione to the theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue her favourite production being Stephen Sondheim's Follies but even shows like this and many others playing at the theatre didn't seem in Mr. and Mrs. Granger's opinion make her want to have friends anymore. But they were wrong. The deepest desire of her heart was to have friends; maybe one or two really close ones but despite her efforts no such thing occurred. However not even all the rejection from her parents and the emotional hardship she was facing caused her to stop excelling in school; she even got to a stage when her teachers wondered if there was anything left to teach her. She truly was the brightest kid of her age.