Premise: Hermione Granger's parents are living at the poverty level, due to the failure of their dentistry several years prior. As a result, Hermione must attend Hogwarts with only the bare minimum of supplies, paid for out of the fund for muggleborn's families who aren't willing or able to pay the fees. Thus, she isn't able to get anything beyond exactly what is on the list. The result – a not know-it-all Hermione Granger. How will this change things?
Third Person
Hermione Granger looked at the strange envelope that had come with the morning's mail. It was addressed to her, and had an interesting seal on the back. She headed to the living room where her parents were sipping on tea, and handed them their mail – mostly bills that they could barely afford. She sat down on a convenient ottoman and opened the letter.
The first page was blunt – she'd been accepted to some school... wait a minute. Hermione looked again at the name of the school. Witchcraft and Wizardry? Was this some kind of joke? It hardly mattered, she wouldn't be able to attend anyway. Not with her parents' income.
Hermione thought back to her early years. She'd had all the best – a high-end house, an expensive day-care, a tutor to make sure she was ahead of her peers, toys, books... everything a smart little girl could dream of.
But things were different now. They'd had to sell the big house for a small two-bedroom. Luckily (for her parents, anyway) she was now of school age and didn't need day care any more. Her mom only found a part-time job that she could hold, so she was always home when her little girl got home. Soon enough, though, Hermione had grown out of the books and toys she'd had, and craved more. Her parents had tried to explain it to her, but how do you explain to a six-year-old child that she couldn't get the latest toy or book that she'd been wanting?
Life had gone on, and she'd gotten bigger, and understood more about what was going on with her family. She no longer expected new toys at Christmas, or her birthday. Now she was lucky if her parents found something nice at the thrift store to give her, which is also where her clothes came from.
Her parents even got food stamps to help them pay for their groceries.
She shook her head. No need to think about those things now. Life had been this way for nearly half of her life, and as far as she could tell, wasn't likely to change. So she set the letter aside, and thought no more of it. But she could not help the slight twang of sadness that pierced her heart. She loved to learn, and she did well in school, but she craved more, but there was no one there to help guide her.
After all the bills had been looked through and some quiet murmuring from her parent's direction, the family got up and headed to the kitchen for a simple breakfast. Hermione never got to the part of the letter that said one of the professors from the school would be there the next day.
