Chapter One

It was a warm winter's day at Mustlemoor. The wind was sweet and Hermione was stuck inside a musty old classroom practicing Arithmacy. Mustlemoor was the 129th best wizarding school in England and Hermione was one of the unlucky ones who didn't live in the local area, so she had to join the special academic Arithmacy program to attend the school. The trouble was: she absolutely hated Arithmacy, if Arithmacy was a person she would have Avada'd him in less than 2 seconds flat, and was therefore seriously considering of dropping the subject in senior school at the school.

"Oh my God. Shut. Up," Hermione muttered under her breath as Ms Polglaize droned on with the Arithmacy lesson.

"The only thing you need to know is that number there, the dotted sequence oh! and also remember that this concept I'm teaching you is extremely hard. Even some sixth year students have difficulty doing the questions you are attempting right now.

"Then why do WE have to do this now!?Why not in SIXTH year when we HAVE to!?" A raven haired girl called Allegra shouted from the back of the quiet classroom. Hermione had always admired Allegra for her unwavering gift of summing up the courage to say exactly what she felt to the teacher in a clear , and quite loud voice. Sometimes it earned her death glares from the prim students and detentions from the harsh teachers but apart from that it looked pretty awesome to be the center of attention. Hermione caught herself glaring at Allegra and quickly averted her gaze to a small bludge that was her stomach. Allegra was skinny and pretty but she could easily be mistaken for a bitch.

'Well I guess you can't have everything," Hermione thought wistfully. A rough voice brought her back to Earth.

"WILL YOU TWO CARE TO SHUT UP!?" Polglaize snapped at Ash and Robert, the two annoying idiots of the class.
"Gosh Robbie! Shut up, you're disturbing the class," Ash gave his friend a mock gasp and warning.

"Dick," muttered Robert under his breath, although it was loud enough for the class to hear.

Behind her Hermione could hear the incessant giggles of her best friends.

"-and then he's like turn to page 69!" Elyse chortled as Cassandra snorted. 'They could be awfully immature at times…quite frankly it could be so annoying,' Hermione mused. Finally the loud siren erupted from the teacher's wide open mouth, stopping her rant in mid- sentence. In an instant, the students had already packed up and were halfway out the door when Polglaize's voice returned and she started crying reminders at them.

"-don't forget Tuesday! Your assignment is due!" she squealed.

'Whew,' Hermione sighed, "finally the end of the week!'

As the students walked to their disapparation points, where their parents were waiting to pick them up, Hermione said quick goodbyes and kept briskly walking to her destination. She had a bus to catch because her parents were working. She spotted her bus waiting and hopped on. As per usual, she exchanged her one sickle for a small ticket. As the bus started to fill up she thanked her lucky stars that she had gotten there earlier and had claimed a good seat. The bus was now packed and it started to slowly roll down the hill. They passed tree after tree, colours blazing past. First a brilliant red streak then a mild soft green and back to a fiery red blur.

"Hey, Hermione!" Are you sad?" Looking up, Hermione spotted the persistent little first year that had barked at her from the front of the bus.

"Yes," said Hermione simply because she wasn't happy.

The first year turned to his friend and started snickering.

"What, how is that funny?" She didn't mean to snap at him. He was a jolly happy fellow but that wasn't any excuse to allow him to laugh at her.

"SAD!" he grinned, "S-A-D."

"Yes? Seasonal Affective Disorder? What?" Hermione was beginning to get a bit frustrated.

"Such a douche!" he blurted out cheerfully.

"Oh," she slumped down further in her seat. 'Well, that was pointless…' she thought and continued to focus on the billions of trees flying past.

Within minutes, the bus came to a halt. Hermione quickly hopped off and walked over to her mother's awaiting car. Mama Granger was a kind hearted woman who had faced her fair share of hardships which had left her a bit battered but she managed to soldier on. However she could also be very stubborn and bossy but she did nearly always come out as the victor after a squabble with Hermione.

"How was school today?" she asked as her tired daughter entered the magically enhanced car.
"It was okay, nothing really happened," Hermione replied and recited what happened in Arithmacy, not forgetting the loud and extremely honest Allegra.
"Well that's interesting," Mrs Granger reassured her, "I've also got some news. Do you remember when I made you sit the Hogwarts entrance exam about two years ago?"
"Yeah…" How could she forget the worst moment of her life? The moment everyone had been anticipating her to pass with flying colours and she had failed it. She had even gotten a memento of the event; a small chip on the top of her old wand. The most embarrassing thing was that the class clown had been accepted and he didn't even want to go!
"It's been two years so I've sent in another application for you to take it this year." Mrs Granger stated.
"Wha-? No! I'm happy at Mustlemoor! I don't want to leave my friends. And besides I didn't get in the first time what's there to say I won't fail again?"
"Hermione, you were so nervous the first time. You didn't even notice when you broke the tip of your wand. This time you'll know what's coming…what you have to do and how to answer the questions. Besides, you won't lose anything, just gain!"
Internally, Hermione silently agreed to do it but externally, she looked like a little kid who had just been cornered into taking a bath…