AN: Obviously I don't own Harry Potter... That would be ridiculous... And amazing. But that's besides the point. This here... is what we call fanfiction.

But for those of you reading... Thank you muchly! Please Enjoy!

Hermione smiled at her parents weakly. "Well, this is it."

Her father made a small grunting noise and Hermione bit her lip.

She tried again, "The professor said that we had to walk through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 to get to the train."

Her mother frowned slightly. "Yes, yes." She hesitated a moment "We'll just say our goodbyes here. I don't see the need for us to all go through the barrier, if there are any problems you can just come back through, we'll stay here for a few minutes to make sure everything goes okay."

Hermione felt her heart drop. Her relationship with her parents had been worsening ever since she had gotten her Hogwarts letter earlier that summer. Hermione didn't know what to do to make things better. She hadn't asked to be a witch, she hadn't asked to have magic, and there certainly wasn't anything she could do to stop herself from being a witch.

She gave her parents quick hugs and felt relieved when they both hugged her firmly back. A small part of her had doubted that they would.

"I'll see you this Christmas. I love you!"

Her parents waved as she walked away. She smiled at them and reassured herself that by Christmas everything would be back to normal with her parents. She squared her shoulders as she walked to the barrier. She wanted this. She was tired of being different from everyone else; she was finally going to be somewhere where she belonged.

She had spent the first hour or so rereading her textbook, although she admitted to herself that it probably wouldn't make much of a difference at this point, she had already memorized all of her textbooks by heart. Finally she had put down her book and looked around at the others in her compartment. There were three others, and by the looks of it they were at least all second years. She noted that two of them were Hufflepuffs and the third was a Ravenclaw according to the trimming of their robes. For a minute she watched them pensively, the two Hufflepuffs were talking quietly with each other and the Ravenclaw was reading a book. Finally she couldn't contain herself, and self-consciously asked the Hufflepuffs if they could tell her a little bit about Hogwarts. The two girls looked surprised at being addressed but started telling her about the houses, she already knew most of the information from Hogwarts, a History, but she thought it important to get information from multiple sources, and what better source than current Hogwarts students?

They were interrupted when a lost looking boy entered the compartment.

"Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?" They all shook their heads and the boy looked like he was about to burst into tears. "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

Hermione heard herself speak up before she had even fully thought it through, "I'll help you look for him." The boy shot her a grateful look and Hermione sent him a small smile. "Don't worry, we'll find him." She stretched as she stood up to leave the compartment. "So what's your name?"

"Neville, what's yours?"

"Hermione." She kept talking to him for a short time in the hallway, and found out that he wanted to be in Hufflepuff, he had confided in her that he didn't think he was capable of being in anything else. She hadn't really known what to say about that other than she thought he could be anything he wanted to be. She couldn't help but think that it sounded rather hollow. She wasn't quite sure where she wanted to be placed. She told Neville that she'd like to be in Gryffindor, although she personally didn't think she was anywhere near brave enough. She thought that after Gryffindor she'd enjoy Ravenclaw. She was probably more suited for Ravenclaw anyways. Finally she sent Neville down the train while she took the other half of the train.

Her first several stops were quick in and outs, with no one having seen Neville's toad. Her first interesting compartment was full of several older boys. When she asked them if they had seen Neville's toad they had cheerfully told her no, but they had seen a tarantula.

A redhead in the compartment had tried to convince her to pick it up. The second red head then proceeded to pick it up and tried to hand it to her. Against her better judgment she let the boy put it into her hands. She then tried not to scream when the spider tried to crawl up her hands. The boy with dreadlocks had taken pity on her and taken the tarantula back. The two red heads had laughed, before one of them confided that she had taken it better than most of the girls they had tried to give Tracey too. She assumed that Tracey was the name they had given the tarantula. She wasn't sure whether to be pleased at that, or to remain terrified that she had just held a tarantula the size of her head. She decided she would think about it later and had left to continue asking after Neville's toad.

Silently she thought it best not to go near that compartment again.

A few compartments down she saw yet another red headed boy about to do a spell. She hadn't been able to stop herself from sitting down to watch. She was desperate to see magic again, she had attempted a few spells herself before she had noticed that it was making things with her parents worse, she hadn't seen any magic since then.

She then proceeded to make an absolute fool of herself by practically hero-worshipping the boy named Harry Potter; she hadn't meant to, she had just been really excited to meet someone she had read so much about. She tried to convince herself that she didn't care that both boys had looked all too happy for her to leave.

The rest of the train ride passed in a blur; neither she nor Neville found his toad, but Neville had continuously thanked her for trying to help and had followed her down to the boats waiting for the first year students.

The two of them had passed the three older students with the spider again, and the two red heads had cheerfully asked her if she wanted to give the spider another go. They had laughed when she had fervently told them no.

"Ah, but you were practically a natural!"

Hermione personally thought she had been all too close to running out of the compartment screaming, but she decided she didn't really need to tell the boys that.

She and Neville ended up in a boat with Harry and Ron on the way to Hogwarts. She was so excited she couldn't help but regale Neville with everything she had read about it. Part of her thought that he was probably humoring her since he had mentioned that everyone in his family was magical, if that was the case she was grateful, it helped calm her down when she could recite information.

She could barely contain her awe when she finally saw the castle. It was absolutely magical. She was in awe as she followed the group into the castle. She recognized the woman now leading them as Professor McGonagall; she had been the professor who had come to explain to her parents just what it meant to have a daughter that was a witch.

Part of her wanted to cry with joy when she said that 'your house is your family.' While she had her parents, she had never had any siblings, and had had no friends. Now, now she was going to make friends, and they would last forever, just like family did.

Hermione felt as though she was close to hyperventilating and no amount of reciting information was going to help.

It seemed such a simple thing; all she was going to have to do was put on a hat. But she found herself panicking anyways. What if it was a mistake? What if the hat didn't think she was worthy of any of the houses? What if she…" Her heart nearly stopped when she heard the professor call her name. She hurried to the hat and hoped that everyone that saw her thought her speed was out of excitement rather than out of the horror it really was. Please oh please, she thought, let me have a place here.

She jammed that hat on her head quickly.

For a moment everything was silent, and Hermione felt her heart begin to plummet in fear.

"Hmm…" As quickly as her heart had just plummeted it jumped, this time in shock. "Hmm…"

"Hmm what?" She thought tentatively. Or at least she hoped it was a tentative thought, she wasn't really sure how thoughts sounded.

The voice laughed in her ear. "Now aren't you a fun one. So many qualities, but where to put you?"

Hermione was about to tell the hat that she was definitely a Gryffindor, and then almost as quickly changed her mind and was about to tell him that Ravenclaw would probably be best. The hat laughed again.

"Well, where do you think you ought to be?"

Hermione bit her lip and tried to clear her mind for a minute, finally she let out a small breath. "I just want to belong."

The hat seemed to think that over. "Is that all you want?"

Hermione hesitated, "I think so. I mean, I want a lot of things, I want to make a difference, I want to help people, I want everything to go back to normal with my parents."

The hat shushed her "It was a rhetorical question, I know what you want."

Hermione tried to make her mind calm down again, she could feel her thoughts racing and hoped that it wasn't bothering the hat too much. The hat hummed again, "Well, if you're going to get everything you want, then there is only one place for you to go, GRYFFINDOR!"

She felt stunned for a moment, Gryffindor? The hat thought she was brave enough for Gryffindor.

"Thank you." She hoped the hat caught her thought.

The hat laughed softly. "Good luck Miss Granger."

She pulled the hat off and walked as confidently as she could to the Gryffindor table. She was a Gryffindor!

She sat down and turned to watch the rest of the sorting, still half in shock. She felt someone poke her and she turned to see one of the red headed boys from the train. "Hey Spider tamer, think you can tame Lions too?"

The other boy leaned towards her as well. "Of course she can Fred! That's why she's here. Of course we already knew you would be. It's one of our many special talents."

"Right you are George," The first boy turned back to her "We can practically smell future Gryffindors."

Hermione stifled a laugh.

The one called George pretended to be offended. "You don't believe us do you? Well we'll prove it to you."

The rest of the sorting they kept trying to tell her which of the students would be sorted into Gryffindor. Hermione was amused to see that they were only right about two of them. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, who, they informed her, was their brother. Hermione wasn't surprised; hair that red wasn't exactly common.

"You got two right."

"Three"

"Yes, Three; don't forget we knew you were going to be a Gryffindor."

Hermione wasn't sure she believed them but grinned at them any ways.

The feast was delicious and Hermione spent the majority of the time talking to a fourth red head, Percy, he gave her the general outline of how her classes would go at the beginning of the year.

Finally the feast ended and Dumbledore stood up to give some announcements. "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Hermione noted that Dumbledore seemed to give the red headed twins a significant look at that. Hermione found that she wasn't at all surprised.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Hermione gaped at that, and made a quick mental note not to mention that little rule to her parents in any of her letters home.

She frowned inwardly. Why would there be a deadly corridor in the middle of a school? That didn't seem particularly wise. She shrugged it off for the moment as something to think about later.

She tuned back in to Dumbledore's speech as he told them all to pick their favorite tune. She joined the school in singing with the first song she thought of. A lullaby that her mother had sang to her back when she was very young. She finished and listened as others started finishing each at a different pace. She stifled another laugh when she noticed that the twins were now the only ones singing along now using a slow funeral march as their tune.

She smiled. Her first night of Hogwarts was almost everything she could have asked for.

She followed Percy with the other first years as they made their way to the Gryffindor Common Room. She shook herself a little to wake herself up from her somewhat drowsy state so she could learn the path to and from the Great Hall. She mentally resolved to wake up extra early tomorrow so she had time to spare to get to the Great Hall and then a little extra time to find her way to her first class.

She was so deeply in thought that at first she didn't realize that she was now looking at floating walking sticks. She gaped a little bit. How strange.

"Peeves" Percy whispered to the group, "A poltergeist." Hermione frowned, she knew only a little bit about poltergeists, she'd have to look into it later. "Peeves, Show yourself."

There was a loud, rather rude sound.

"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"

There was a popping noise and Hermione gasped, as a small man appeared floating in the air holding the walking sticks. He had a mischievous grin on his face that sent off warning bells in Hermione's head. She made another mental note to avoid the Poltergeist.

"Oooh! Ickle Firsties! What fun!" Hermione immediately decided that her mental note had been completely justified.

Suddenly he swooped at them. Hermione ducked along with the rest of the group.

"Go away Peeves, or the Bloody Baron will here about this. I mean it!" Percy was still crouched down as he barked at Peeves, and Hermione imagined that it was only the threat of the Bloody Baron that got to Peeves, it certainly wasn't the redheaded prefect.

Hermione turned to watch as Peeves zoomed away, and winced in sympathy when the walking sticks landed on Neville's head.

Percy gave an annoyed sigh, "You want to watch out for Peeves. The Bloody Baron is the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us Prefects. Here we are."

Hermione glanced ahead to the end of the corridor to see a portrait of a fat lady in a fancy pink dress.

"Password?"

"Caput Draconis." Hermione nodded and repeated the password to herself, she smiled a little, it was a simple enough password.

She barely glanced around the Common Room, making another note to examine it further the next day.

She followed Percy's direction up the stairs to the Girl Dormitory. She glanced around quickly for her trunk and went to the corresponding bed. She sighed as she quickly set her non-electronic (thank you Hogwarts, A History) alarm clock for an hour earlier than strictly necessary, just to be on the safe side, and then let herself fall instantly asleep.

She was intensely grateful that she had chosen to wake up extra early her first day. While she knew from Hogwarts, A History that there were 142 staircases, each with their own quirks, and that there were rarely any normal doors she wasn't quite prepared to have to actually deal with it. Thankfully a second year Gryffindor named Katie helped her down to the Great Hall, and then even gave her a few tips on how to best get to her first class.

She was one of the few students who was actually on time for their first class.

And the classes. Hermione was in heaven. She had always loved learning, there was just something about knowledge that struck a chord in her. You could never have too much knowledge; there was always something more to learn, always something more to understand. And now she had a whole new world of things just waiting for her to learn about them.

She loved Transfiguration, and admired the Professor. Professor McGonagall was a stern woman, but Hermione thought that she sounded like a woman who truly appreciated knowledge. Hermione had been delighted when Professor McGonagall had given her a rare smile for making a difference to her match. She resolved that by the next class she would be able to fully transfigure the match.

However not all of her classes were as interesting as Transfiguration, although Charms was close, Defense against the Dark Arts and History of Magic were good examples of less interesting classes, but the she still devoured everything they taught her. After all you never knew where you might find a gem of important information.

Potions was a different experience entirely.

Professor Snape had an air of intimidation about him that made all of his words sound as though they were of the uttermost importance. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death—if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Hermione straightened in her seat. It was like a verbal gauntlet being thrown on the ground. Well, she fully intended on accepting the challenge.

"Potter!" Hermione glanced over at Harry to see him straighten slightly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Hermione let the question run through her head for an extra second before she allowed her hand to rise into the air.

The Professor ignored her in favor of taunting Harry. She frowned a little at that, it wasn't very professional.

Professor Snape asked another question and Hermione let her hand stretch further into the air.

Once more she was ignored as Professor Snape threw yet another question at Harry. Hermione bit her lip, and then stood up with her hand still in the air. Silently she begged silently that the Professor didn't snap at her as she was fairly certain he would. But it wasn't fair that the Professor was singling Harry out this way.

"I don't know, I think Hermione does though, why don't you try her?"

Several people laughed and Hermione worked to control her reddening cheeks.

"Sit down." Hermione sat down gratefully, if a little embarrassed. It certainly wasn't the first time a teacher had snapped at her for being… well, her. Looking at the Professor she highly doubted it would be the last time.

Despite the first little scene Hermione thought she would enjoy Potions. There was a simplicity to Potions hidden within all of the complexity. It was the sort of oxymoron that Hermione loved.

She was jerked out of her reverie when Neville managed to melt Seamus' cauldron. She stood in shock when she saw Neville covered in nasty looking boils. Parvati had to tug on her arm to remind Hermione that she ought to get off the floor and onto her chair so her feet didn't meet a similar fate.

She was still in shock for most of the rest of the class. It was a startling reminder that this new world had it's own variety of dangers.

AN: Well, that's chapter one up for you. Do enjoy!

Also... feel free to... Review. And tell me what you think! Not much has changed yet... but... it will... Oh, it will.