A/N: Yes, the idea for this fic is derived from watching "Ella Enchanted." However, the very basic idea is where the similarities will end. In fact, if you don't know what Ella Enchanted is, then all the better! Really, don't worry about it. I hope everyone enjoys this idea. .

The Gift of Obedience

Chapter 1

"Fairy gifts?" Hermione questioned.

Ginny nodded, shoving a large forkful of pumpkin pie into her mouth. "Book smart Hermione doesn't know? Come on, everyone knows that!"

Hermione frowned. She didn't particularly like her intelligence being insulted. Ginny's eyes grew wide. "Are you seriously insulted? I'm sorry, Hermione! I was just kidding!" She laughed. "I guess it's the kind of thing those raised in the magical world just kinda…know about, you know? It's not really studied in school or talked about too much…it's just kinda a common-sense thing."

Once again Hermione felt like she was being insulted, but she let the feeling brush past. She was much more curious than anything else. "And what exactly is a fairy gift?"

"Well," Ginny said, cocking her head to one side and looking up at the enchanted ceiling. It was cloudy out, today. "I suppose it can be just about anything. Not everyone get's one. It's kinda luck-of-the-draw. But for some witches, on their seventeenth birthday, they're granted a special gift."

"Like sleeping beauty?" Hermione asked.

"What's sleeping beauty?"

Hermione smiled. Now who's out of the loop? "Nothing, nevermind. So your saying a fairy, and not the bite-y kind, just sorta pops up and gives you some sort of magical power? I mean, something unique and not related to wand magic?"

"That's the gist of it." Her redheaded friend said, polishing off the last of her dessert.

***

Such a quick and innocent conversation over dinner, and yet Hermione wished she had taken it as a warning rather than as a cute story. Maybe if she had seen the dangerous implications of a fairy's "gift," then she would have seen that it could also be a curse. Not a cute, funny curse like bat bogeys…no, a fairy's gift could ruin one's life. Hermione Granger found this out the very hardest way the night of her seventeenth birthday.

She sighed. Being lost in self pity wasn't going to help her situation now, though. She would make the best of it. And by that she meant she would never, ever let anyone find out her closest secret. For two months now she had managed to keep the Fairy's awful gift a secret, and she only hoped she could continue to do so.

"And who can tell me the seven uses of Bracklesap?" Professor Snape drawled on, his voice dripping with a condescending attitude. Hermione knew this one! She raised her hand quickly and almost instinctively. Snape sneered, and looked as though he would like nothing more than to ignore her. However, as no one else in the class seemed to know the answer, he finally gave up and called on her.

"Mrs. Granger, ever eager, are we? Let's hear it."

Hermione quickly and concisely answered the question. It was almost word for word the same as the textbook, and she felt quite proud of her ability to retain so much complicated information. There was nothing she was better at than memorization of useful information.

Snape sneered. "Correct. Once again, Mrs. Granger, congratulate yourself on being an insufferable know-it all."

"Congratulations, Hermione, on being an insufferable know-it-all." She said instantly, then quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.

The class was silent for a moment, then burst into somewhat nervous laughter, all eyes turning to Professor Snape. No one was quite sure what to make of it…she was insulting herself? Or was this somehow supposed to be a dig at Snape?

Draco turned around in his seat. It skipped Hermione's notice, but he was the only one not laughing. He just looked confused and deep in thought.

Snape stared blankly, and his lips curled up into a less-than-pleasant smirk. "I see we think we are very funny today, Mrs. Granger. 50 points from Gryffindor."

Hermione let her head fall to her desk and hid behind her arms for as long as she could after that.

***

"Are you feeling ok?" Harry asked, plopping down next to her at dinner. Ron flashed a concerned look in their direction as he unceremoniously shoved food into his mouth.

Hermione sighed. Her best friends…she should really tell them, shouldn't she? She trusted them, but it was too embarrassing…If she told them, then what would they think of her? She valued their respect for her intelligence and wandwork, and this curse just made her into someone…pitiable. She didn't want them to pity her, and didn't want them to become over-protective. If their attitude towards her suddenly changed, then it might tip off others as to what was going on, too. And that could be very, very dangerous.

She nodded in reply to Harry, and picked at her plate. It wasn't like today was the first time her curse had affected her…it was just the most noticeable and embarrassing.

"Hermione, pass me the salt, would ya?" Ron asked from across the table without really looking up. He didn't realize that the salt was nowhere near her, and he most certainly didn't realize the damage his request would inflict. As if pulled by invisible strings Hermione flung her body up off the bench, walked down the table to the nearest salt shaker, ripped it from the hands of Neville (who was shaking it over his roast) and brought it back to Ron. Neville, from several feet down, was giving her a very surprised and confused look. Ron hesitantly grabbed the salt from Hermione's hand, his brow furrowed. "Uh, thanks…your not mad at me or anything, are you Hermione?" He asked, clearly thinking her quick movements were an exaggeration of her frustration at his request.

"No." She said in a less-than-convincing angry tone. Ron, no doubt, would be wondering all night what he had done today to piss her off. Really, she was just angry with herself.

***

She miraculously managed to avoid any more horrendously embarrassing scenes for almost a month after that crappy, crappy day. Oh, there was the occasional unfortunate phrasing of her friends now and then, asking her to do this or that…but really, nothing too noticeable. And Christmas break was coming up soon…at her own home, away from students and professors who could ask her to do anything at a moments notice, she would be safe.

Or so she had thought.

"I'll be staying here with Harry this year!" Ron declared. "Family's off on to visit Charlie again; it's been awhile."

"It's been awhile since we had a Christmas break here at the school." Harry conceded. "It should be fun. A school basically to ourselves, with virtually no Slytherins! Sounds perfect to me!"

Hermione smiled and nodded. When they had first met Harry, he had no desire to ever return home. Hermione, loving her family very much, hadn't really understood. She had always thought that it couldn't possibly be as bad as all that. Over the years, however, her and Ron came to know just how terrible Harry's time at the Dursley's really was. The Weasley's were like a second family to him, and so he generally spent Christmas with them.

And being seventeen now, he never had to go back to that awful childhood home again.

"Hermione…" Ron started, turning to her.

"Hmm?" She asked, lost in her happy feelings for her friend. Meaning that she was completely caught off guard when Ron asked what she really wished he didn't.

"Come on, stay with us here! Then all three of us can have free run of the school! We're kinda like a trio, you know?"

Hermione's genuine smile grew cold and forced, and the light melted from her eyes. Why? Why did he have to phrase it like that!? Couldn't he have asked "do you want to stay here" or something? No. He had phrased it, completely on accident, as a command.

And so Hermione was left with no choice in the matter. She gulped and nodded, trying not to look as crestfallen as she felt. "Sure." She gasped out. Crap. She could feel her throat constricting with tears. She missed her parents, and they had planned to go skiing…but not anymore. She couldn't cry! Poor Ron didn't do anything wrong; he didn't mean it! He didn't even know… "I'd love to stay with your two! Hey, it's our last break of our last year here, right? Why not!"

None-the-less, both Harry and Ron exchanged worried glances. Harry looked her way and met her eyes. "Really? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." She managed, and the boys both shrugged.

If only they knew. But even still, she wasn't willing to tell them. Perhaps if she had, things wouldn't have escalated. Perhaps if she had just told them about the curse the fairy had placed on her, they would have helped her and protected her and made sure she could go see her parents for break.

If only she had told them that she had been given the "Gift of Obedience."

***

A/N: I will be focusing on finishing Lonely Portrait. I'll try updating this now and then, but it won't be a top priority.