Introduction: Within the Harry Potter books, you learn much about both Ron's and Harry's lives before they came to Hogwarts (not so much about Ron, but some). Well, what about Hermione? She had a life before Hogwarts too, and it was not an easy one. She was almost as shunned in her Muggle life as she is in her Witch life. Well, what ABOUT Hermione? Here you go.

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"Hermione!" Mrs. Granger called up the stairs. "Hermione, get up!"

Hermione Granger looked across her room at the small clock. It read 7:30 AM. Too early, that was certain. Then she looked at her calendar which said it was September 6. That meant it was the first day of school. The ten year old jumped up.

"Hermione Granger! Get up now!" came the call up the stairs.

"Mum!" Hermione called back. "I'm UP!"

Before Mrs. Granger could shout another thing up the stairs, Hermione had dashed down the stairs. As usual, she was wearing a skirt and sweater, but they were one of her nicer outfits (meaning, of course, that she considered this to be a big occasion).

"Hermione, honey, it's only the first day of school," Hermione's mum said.

"I know, mum. I love the first day of school," Hermione answered as she picked up her unbelievably large pile of school books. "And if we don't get going soon, I'm going to be late. I certainly wouldn't want that to follow me around."

"We still have an hour," Mrs. Granger pointed out. "And, sorry, but you'll have to walk today. I'm needed in the office." She kissed her daughter on the forehead and added, "Have an enjoyable day."

"I always do," Hermione mumbled as she walked out the door.

As Hermione walked down the street she spotted her next door neighbor walking a few yards in front.

"Hi, Chloe" Hermione called, then noticed Chloe was walking with her friend Bethany, "and Bethany!" she quickly added.

Chloe and Bethany slowly turned and plastered on very fake smiles. Those two were always attached at the hip- you never saw one without seeing the other. The only problem was neither was very fond of Hermione. She proved them wrong on everything (which, frankly, was never very difficult to do, it's just the rest of the class never tried) and always ended up in their group for projects. They had known Hermione since they began school and ever since then had dreaded the days when the three of them would be walking school at the same time.

"Hi Hermione," Chloe and Bethany mumbled half-heartedly.

"You looked dressed up, for reasons I can hardly imagine," Chloe added.

"Well, it's the first day of school," Hermione said. "I always get dressed up. Say, have you read any of your school books yet?"

"No." the other two responded.

"You should, they're fascinating. Of course, some of the views were a bit.out there, if you will.and I found about a dozen mistakes in each, but seeing from another perspective is always enlightening."

By this time the three had reached the small school building and Chloe and Bethany quickly found some of their other friends and hurried away. Hermione was, as usual, left alone in the hustle of the first day. That is, she was left alone until her friend came running up from behind. Gloria was a small girl in every way. She was skinny and short. Her hair was very long and very black and matched her dark eyes perfectly. She wasn't exactly the most scholarly student in the school (that was probably Hermione), but she certainly wasn't the most clueless.

"Did you." Hermione began to Gloria.

"No, I didn't read the school books; no, I didn't walk to school; no, I didn't find anything enlightening this Summer Holiday; and no, I'm not looking forward to today," Gloria answered. "But, since you're you, I'm guessing you have."

Hermione and Gloria followed the crowd into the school as the bell rang. The two didn't always see eye to eye, but really no one could quite see eye to eye with Hermione. They had grown up together. Throughout those ten years Hermione had always tried to fill Gloria's brain with useful (and sometimes not so useful) facts and Gloria had always teased Hermione about it. Their parents had always been proud they were friends, but had always worried about when they would grow apart since they were such opposites.

"Look who it is," they heard a snobbish voice behind them. They knew instantly it belonged to Julia. "The Brainiac and the Freak."

"I'm NOT a freak!" Gloria cried.

"And I'm." Hermione started.

"That's what I thought. So you ARE a Brain," Julia smirked.

Hermione just turned around and walked away. Gloria soon caught up to her and patted her shoulder.

"You know, you can't keep letting her win like that. One of these days she's either going to completely win you over or completely destroy you," Gloria whispered.