"Anyone would think you had all the time in the world, Ron, the way you study!" Stated an agitated Hermione, looking disapprovingly at the closed book in front of the red headed boy. "honestly, how can you ever expect to ever pass your exams if you dont even try?" She ranted fro the forty third time that day before directing her attention back to her notes.
Ron muttered something under his breath and Harry snickered. Hermione glared at them both.
"What is so bloody funny?" She asked before crossing her arms over her chest.
"Ron said your hair looked like a big brown beach ball when you put your head down!" Harry giggled as Hermione turned furiously to Ron
"And what does my appearance matter to you?" She asked, deathly calm.
"It doesnt, I'm just saying you aren't exactly the prettiest girl in school and it seems like you try to cover up how ugly you are with intelligence. Seriously, Hermione, I don't care about all this studying stuff right now, there arent even any exams coming up. Why do you always have to be such a goody-goody?" Ron exploded, standing up in his seat in the library, attracting a few stares.
"So you say my appearance is more important than my academics?" an odd quivering tone entered her voice as she toyed self consciously with her hair, something she hadn't done in years.
"No, but for god's sake, you could put in some sort of effort!"
"Ron, what exactly are you trying to say?" Hermione was now biting her lip curiously hard.
"He's saying that you're hideous!" Piped a particularly helpful slytherin girl.
Hermione threw closed her book and picked it up along with her notes and walked quickly out of the library to a chorus of laughs at her misfortune. She started sprinting after a few seconds as soon as the first tears actually left her eyes. She eventually found herself in her dorm, the only one in the girls' room as she threw herself down on her bed and buried her face in her pillows.
The next day, there was no sign of Hermione in class or at breakfast, lunch or dinner. The two had begun to worry that perhaps what they had said had upset her more than they had thought it would.
Around four o clock, she had pulled herself together and had begun rummaging around in her trunk looking for everything she would need. Deep conditioner, shampoo, rollers, nail polish and tweezers, and made her way to the girls bathroom, looking around for anyone who might ask what she was up to. No-one was there of course, they were all at dinner. So, she removed her clothes and leapt into the warm water of the shower and didn't waste even a moment of time in shampooing her hair then massaging in the deep conditioner and letting it sit for what she estimated to be ten minutes before washing it out. Next, she finished getting washed then got out of the shower, wrapping herself in one of the crimson gryffindor towels and making her way back to her dorm. She let her hair dry a little then put in her rollers in front of a little mirror, giggling at the result.
Then, she took up one of the most dreaded items she had ever come across, tweezers. Slowly but surely, she shaped her brows into thin but still natural shapes leaving her with a very red line across her forehead.
After all the pain, she decided to file and paint her nails in a pale pink before finally going to bed early.
When the girls entered their dormitory, none of them took the time to notice the red rollers in her hair as she slept, but the next morning they would be sure to notice something different about her.
Hermione scanned her reflection once more before finally leaving the dorm, the last one out and last one to arrive at potions class, only to receive confused glances as people attempted to figure out who this girl with the silky curls, perfect pale skin, pouty lips, and large, innocent eyes was. It wasn't until she walked straight up to professor Snape, glaring at Ron all the way that people figured out who she was.
"Professor, I cannot stand to sit next to him, please may I be moved seat?" She asked primly, fingers holding onto hem of the shorter-than-what-she-was-used-to skirt.
"Hell hath no fury, alright, perhaps Mr Malfoy would make a fine partner for you?"
"Malfoy?"
"Yes, Malfoy or Weasley, take your pick, Miss Granger, then sit down and kindly stop disrupting my lesson." Hermione turned to glare at Ron from under long, black lashes and perfectly curled hair, before uttering one sentence that made Harry and Ron's jaws hit the floor.
"I'll sit with Malfoy."
"Very well, you." He pointed at the boy sat next to Draco. "Move. There. Now." Hermione made her way to Draco's side as he looked at her, one eyebrow raised. A little ways into the lesson, he started up a conversation.
"You clean up nice. Too bad your blood is still filthy."
"Hmm." She responded, not looking at him.
"So it's true then?"
"What is?" She asked, staring him in the eye.
"That Weasley and Potter put you down in the library." He stated with a curious expression on his face.
"I suppose that's one way to put it." She said, still not looking away.
"Meet me before breakfast tomorrow."
"What for?" She asked disbelievingly.
"I have an idea that will benefit us both." he said, smirking. It was very obvious that he was trying to be mysterious but it clearly wasn't working.
"Where?"
"Outside the Slytherin common-room. And I know you probably know where it is."
"But tomorrow's saturday!" Her mind drifted to her study schedule.
"Think about it, and meet me there when you realise this is better than what even you can come up with." Then, Snape announced that class was dismissed.
"By the way, Hermione, you really do look good." He gave one last smirk before leaving.