On the 31st of October 1991, Hermione Granger was saved from a Mountain Troll and gained 2 best friends.
She snuggled into her soft bed, warm and cozy under the soft blanket, at ease in a way she hasn't been for the 3 months since she started came to Hogwarts. Content for she finally has true friends, friends that will never abandon her even when their lives are on the line, the kind of friends that she has been desperately seeking throughout her short life.
She vows she will cherish them, together till the very end.
In the first week of June 1992, Harry, Hermione and Ron follow Quarrel after the stone. They lose Ron at the 3rd test as he sacrifices himself to the blade of a knight for them to pass on. Hermione is separated from Harry at final test in a pyrrhic victory, where she learns that only one of them may go forward, she learns her wit can only go so far in protecting her friends and that all that she has is not enough to keep them together, that for the greater good… she must forsake one friend - the one she cannot help - to rescue the one left behind.
It was the first time she saw reality for what it was, and she hated it.
After the rush of adventure comes the guilt and worry - if she had never pushed them to investigate, Ron would not be lying in the hospital bed, Harry would not be facing the Dark Lord.
When Harry arrives, levitated by the Headmaster onto the hospital bed, the scent of ashes hang in the air, the silence of her first friend contrasted against the frantic bustling of Madame Pomfrey and her guilt magnified a thousand times.
When the Headmaster arrives and expresses prides at their bravery - she contrasts it with what he should have said - the lack of admonishments say more than all the flowery speeches he could possibly muster, for all that Hermione Granger may have been a child emotionally and physically, her mind was that of an adult. She may crave praise and recognition from authority figures as a result of her childhood experiences but even she knew that no recognition should be gained, no praise should be given to children who risked their lives unnecessarily to protect something that clearly should not have been put in a school, it was almost as though he was encouraging their behaviour.
It was the first time she felt something was off about the way Albus Dumbledore acted, and it would not be the last.
Her intelligence told her something was wrong. Her gut told her to keep it to herself.
At the feast, she watched as the Headmaster granted them points after points, in one day granting more points than any other professor had in the year, and even caught in the joy of the moment with all the other Gryffindors, she did not miss what that said.
It said that in the end, all that mattered was his decisions. The decisions of the other professors over the year to grant students points, to take away points and the efforts of the students to gain an advantage for their house… None of it mattered. All that mattered was who he favoured.
And she could see that she was not the only one to realise that. The students in the other houses - not just Slytherin - were visibly upset with his display of what they could only interpret as blatant favouritism, for it told them the same as it told her. that their efforts did not matter.
It was the expressions of the Slytherins that brought her to her next realisation, perhaps that was his intention. As a man who has been an educator for decades, he must have known that this blatant display of favouritism would turn many of the students against Gryffindor and in particular the trio which won the absurd amount of points for vague reasons - and they would have all of vacation for those feelings to fester.
Again she was reminded of how he was encouraging their behaviour… actions that even she could tell were not necessary, for surely he had more measures than those which could be easily broken by first-years… measures that she was starting to suspect were more for testing them then for preventing the Dark Lord from getting to the Phlosopher's Stone.
It was on the last day of her first year at Hogwarts that Hermione Granger decided to read deeper into everything Albus Dumbledore said and did, for he was up to something, something that somehow involved the trio and from what she could deduce, he was definitely up to no good.