Prologue

I had trouble making friends when I first arrived at Hogwarts. Maybe it was because I was a bit of a know-it-all, or maybe people just thought that 'Hermione' was a weird name. Either way, things were tough at first. But then I met Ebony.

Ebony Way was one of those girls with ribbons in her hair and an everlasting smile on her face. Despite being in Slytherin, she was always really nice to me. She introduced me to her friend and housemate, Millicent Bulstrode, and the three of us became good friends. A little time passed and then Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, housemates of mine, joined our little group. The rest is history.

Life was great until the day that started what would be the strangest year of our Hogwarts career. I met up with my friends, eager to catch up after a summer apart. Everyone was there. Well, everyone except Ebony.

"Oh my God," Millicent said, stopping short in the middle of her story about her family trip to Costa Rica. Puzzled, I turned to see what she was staring at.

Oh my God.

"Is that…?" Harry asked.

"Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way," Ebony declared, finishing Harry's sentence. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My friend was dressed in skimpy black leather clothing and wore dark, heavy makeup. She looked nothing at all like the Ebony I remembered.

"But your middle name is Gretchen," I pointed out.

"Wow, Ebony. You look… different," Millicent managed.

"Fangs," she replied as she joined the group. "I've finally found my true vampiric form."

"Your… what?" Ron asked.

Ebony rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a prep. Seriously, I can't hang out with you guys anymore if you all don't grow up and stop acting like every other poser at this school." And with that, she walked off. We all stared after her in utter confusion.

"So… Ebony's going through her gothic phase," Millicent summed up.

"Shame. I'll miss her," Harry said.

"We had some good times," Ron agreed.

"We can't just abandon her now!" I insisted. "She's obviously going through something. She needs her friends now more than ever."

"You heard her, she doesn't want to hang out with 'preps' like us," Ron pointed out.

"What do you want us to do? Put on a bunch of eyeliner and join her?" Harry asked.

"Come on, guys! She was there for me when nobody else was," I pointed out.

"You cannot be serious," Ron insisted.

"I'm in," Millicent declared. "You know I'd do anything for my girls."

I smiled. I knew I could count on her. "Thank you, Millicent."

"Good luck with that, you two," Harry said as he and Ron went off to get settled in for the new year.

"So, now what?" Millicent asked.

"I guess it's gothic makeover time."

One super gothic makeover later, Millicent and were on our way to show Ebony our new looks. A few issues of a popular vampire magazine and a bit of magic went a long way.

"Stop pulling at your skirt," Millicent insisted.

"I'm not used to wearing one this short," I pointed out.

Ebony was overjoyed when she saw our transformations. At least, I think she was. It was a little hard to tell with the depressed persona she'd taken on.

"I knew you guys weren't boring preps like the other girls in this school," she said. "So I guess that now that you're a Satanist, you'll be switching to Slytherin, Hermione."

"I don't think houses work like that…" Millicent protested.

I giggled nervously. "Of course they do," I insisted. Ebony was never the brightest of my friends. As long as we were pretending to be goths, I figured we might as well give in to 'Ebony logic' a bit.

"And you'll need new names, of course," Ebony continued. "So I guess, Millicent, you're Willow now."

"Oh… good," Millicent mustered.

"And Hermione, I've got the perfect name for you. You'll be Bloody Mary."

"I… um… perfect," I said, trying hard to keep a straight face while I thought about going through the next who-knows-how-long with Ebony calling me Bloody Mary.

"So… Um… What's that book?" Millicent asked, pointing to a black notebook Ebony was holding that was titled 'My Immortal.'

"Oh, that's my diary. My life is so dark and tragic, I need to write it all down just so I can cope," Ebony replied.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, hoping that this awful phase would be over soon.