Title: Butterfly Effect

Genre: Romance, drama, a bit of angst (Draco needs a little angst to be remotely in character, doesn't he?)

Pairing: A little Hermione/Ron for a while (but very mild, practically non-existent), will eventually be Hermione/Draco :P

Rating: T for now, don't know yet whether or not I'll keep it like that or raise it to an M later. I guess we'll see

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I do own a copy of all the seven books in both Norwegian and English, though. And a lot of the Harry Potter Lego, a diary from 2002/2003, and I think I might have a folder with some drawing from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on it somewhere. Oh! And of course I have a copy of all eight movies on DVD (as well as the three first on VHS). But sadly, I DO NOT own the rights to anything Harry Potter – so don't sue me!

AN: Written for the Dramione Challenge at Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Forum

Part I: The Caterpillar

"The caterpillar lives by the instincts of its species, which mostly consists of self-preservation in relation to food and predators. The creature is said to represent the "lowly" and the "unformed", and the potential and/or ability to create positive change. Dreaming about a caterpillar signifies a stage in a persons personal growth and development, or being at the beginning of a great journey of self realisation."

- A merging of content from various sources

Chapter One – Granger's Summer Break

In a decently-sized bedroom somewhere on the British Isles, seventeen year old Hermione was resting on her stomach on top of the bright blue comforter in her average-sized bed. Her bare feet were held up into the air – legs crossed at the ankles – in the pleasantly warm air of late summer. Her clever head – surrounded by slightly bushy, brown hair – rested comfortably on the palm of her left hand, and her normal-sized teeth bit down on the tip of her quill in concentration as her light brown eyes flitted across the page of a school textbook - supported by the pillow in front of her face – as she double checked all the facts in an essay she had written for her homework weeks earlier.

Hermione was quite fond of books – which anyone that knew her would call the understatement of the year, or perhaps even the century – and she was in no way ashamed to acknowledge that fact. Actually, she would proudly admit to have read all of the 605 books covering a whole wall of her room – yes, she actually knew each and every book she owned – as well as at least thrice that number in books borrowed at the magnificent library at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In other words, she was quite the well read young woman.

"Hermione?" a loud female voice called from downstairs, startling the one on the bed into dropping her quill. Cursing silently in her mind – she had been brought up not to swear after all, and frankly saw no reason to start doing so at that age – as she realized yet another pillow case had gotten stained with ink. "Dinner's ready!"

"Coming!" she yelled back, gathering her reading and writing stuff to put away and finish later, then hurried down the stairs, accompanied by the heavenly smell of freshly baked bread and fried chicken. The wood coloured, paneled walls on both sides of her were littered with pictures of a brown-haired couple and their equally brown-haired daughter at various stages of her childhood - from the earlier days she'd mostly spent eating and sleeping, to the fine young woman she had grown into – all of it proof of a happy and well lived home.

Hermione's parents had already taken their seats at the small, four seater dining table when she entered the just big enough to be practical kitchen. Dinner was on the table, though what the creation was called, she did not know. Mrs. Granger had been in some sort of health fase lately, experimenting with all kinds of supposedly much healthier dishes than she would normally serve – and being a dentist family, they were already more aware of what they exposed their teeth and mouth to than most people - but as long as the taste was good, the other two had no complaints.

"Hello, 'Mione," her father greeted with a loving smile as his daughter found her own chair at the dinner table, facing the window – where the blinds were pulled down so they'd not be blinded by the sun while eating – with her mother on her left hand and father on her right. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you all day."

"Hi, Daddy," Hermione smiled back, helping herself to some of the delicious-smelling food – her mother truly was an amazing chef. "I've been working on my Potions assignment."

"I thought you finished that last month," her mother remarked, but the tone of her voice added a very prominent question mark to the sentence.

"I did," the young woman agreed, pausing to swallow a tasty piece of chicken. "I'm looking over it to make sure I didn't get anything wrong. And, I can't hand in an assignment filled with misspellings – least of all to Professor Snape."

"I'm sure it's perfect, my dear," her mother assured in her soothing voice, putting a reassuring hand over her daughter's, giving it a light squeeze. "You shouldn't work yourself too hard, though, you ought to take a break and just enjoy the rest of the summer."

"I will," the witch of the family agreed with a content smile touching her lips, grateful to have such caring parents. "I only have a few paragraphs left to proofread. Anyway, how was work?"

The rest of the meal went by with the usual chatter of a normal family dinner, without anything suggesting there even existed any world other than the muggle one.

Afterwards all three of them worked together to clear the table, when Mrs. Granger suddenly remembered something that had been evading her mind throughout the whole dinner. "Oh! Your Hogwarts letter arrived today," the elder woman exclaimed. It had taken Hermione's dentist parents a few years to get properly used to the whole idea of Hogwarts and the magical world, but considering the circumstances they did an admirable job of it – after all, their view of the world in general had been completely turned upside-down that fateful day seven years previously. "It's over there by the coffee maker."

Hermione had been eagerly awaiting this years letter ever since the beginning of summer break – not that she didn't always look forward to it, but this time more so than usual. This summer there was the possibility of a Head Girl badge added to the customary letter, and a position she'd been wanting since she learned of it's existence reading Hogwarts: A History late into the night after her very first trip to the marvelous Dragon Alley.

With increasing anticipation, the young witch fetched the cream coloured envelope – where her name and address glinted in emerald green ink, spelled out in a neat hand – and proceeded to open it with hands trembling slightly in nervousness.

Having finally managed to breach the stamp on the suspenseful envelope, she paused briefly, closing her eyes and drawing deep, calming breaths, before fully opening it and taking a good look at its contents. And there it was: that one shiny, exclusive badge emblazoned with the initials 'HG', the hallmark of one of the highest positions any student could possibly hope to achieve.

Hermione could hardly believe her eyes – of all the girls in her year, she had been chosen to this prestigious, respectful and highly sought after responsibility.

Slowly a smile stretched her lips, until she was grinning like a fool. She could barely contain her excitement as it dawned on her that she had actually made it. It was honestly a dream come true. She felt giddy, like a small child on Christmas eagerly waiting to open their presents, as she turned to her parents to share the delightful news.

It wasn't until later that night while she was getting ready for bed, that the newly appointed Head Girl began to wonder who'd received the other badge.

AN: Any thoughts? Was it good? Bad? Am I abusing/misusing the [-]s and the [,]s? My brother says I do... :O Anyway - please leave a review to let me know, even if it's just to say you've read it :)