Hermione Jean Granger – It wasn't a name one heard every day… or ever for that matter. It was unique, there was no denying that.
When Hermione was a little girl, no older than three, she'd spend hours tediously trying to spell it out. She wanted to get it perfect. Every letter from the H to the e was always done with utmost care. Even at a young age, she knew just how special her name really was.
In primary school, teachers were always stumbling over her name. Whenever they would reach the G's on the class roster, their faces would always scrunch up and their eyes would narrow at the paper in hand. Hermione always knew she was different than the other children around her. The uniqueness of her name was enough evidence of that. The Hogwarts letter she'd received at eleven merely sealed the deal.
At fifteen, her first boyfriend, Viktor Krum, had massacred her name to no end. Even after spending hours sitting together in the Hogwarts library and attending the Yule ball with one another, he still didn't have a clue. Not that Viktor ever had one to begin with. He really wasn't the brightest wand.
Growing up, Hermione never questioned the name she'd been given. She'd always figured it was a family name from somewhere down the line. That was highly unlikely, however. The Grangers both came from long lines of Johns and Mary's. They really weren't a distinctive bunch… that is until Hermione came along.
So how did Hermione Jean Granger come to be?
It was a fact that Richard Granger had always loved William Shakespeare. He'd read and seen his plays and sonnets hundreds of times. At the University he'd even taken a number of classes on Shakespearean history and the dissection of his works. So when Caroline had announced they were expecting a little girl, he just knew only a name worthy of Shakespeare himself would do.
Immediately Caroline nixed Perdita, Cressida, Viola, and to his disappointment, Ophelia.
As September, and the ninth month of Caroline's pregnancy was drawing near, a name still hadn't been chosen. Until one in particular caught his eye, Hermione, the mother of Perdita. It just had a ring to it. Without a doubt (or at least an argument form Caroline) their little girl was destined to be a Hermione.
But what about her middle name, Jean? There wasn't a Jean to be found in either her mother or father's family lines. It was such a common name to be pared with something as extraordinary as Hermione.
Well, it came to be purely by mistake.
Richard Granger had terrible eyesight, especially at night. He was nearly blind as a bat without his glasses on. Of course Hermione decided to come along at three in the morning on September the 19th. In the mad rush to get to the hospital, he'd broken his glasses. So filling out Hermione's birth records was destined to be a sleepy, blind disaster. Hermione Jane Granger – middle name coming from Caroline's favorite Aunt Jane – became Hermione Jean Granger purely by accident.
Neither Caroline nor Richard noticed the mistake until it was too late and the birth announcements had been published. No crying over spilt milk, Caroline had insisted, so it remained that Hermione would forever be christened a Jean instead of a Jane. Not that it made a difference to Hermione herself.
It didn't matter how many times she'd had to correct people, or the number to taunts she's had to endure as a child, her name was a gift. Almost a precursor to the magic that was to follow, if you will.
No, Hermione Jean Granger wasn't a name one heard every day. But then again, Hermione Jean Granger wasn't a girl one met every day. She was just as unique as her name, there was no denying that.
A/N: First ever post on FF... not gonna lie, a little scary. I'm not much of a writer by nature, but I just couldn't help myself :)