Word Count - 887
Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Written for
The Disney Competition - Jiminy Cricket
The Book Thief Challenge -Quote Four
Off The Block Competition - Breaststroke/hard
Hogwarts Grounds Challenge - The Common Room
Friends
Hermione stared at the wall between platforms nine and ten, her head cocked to one side in an inquisitive expression.
"Are you sure the Professor said I was to run at the wall, mum? It looks very solid," she asked for the third time, making her mother and father chuckle.
"That's what she said. I can't imagine she would have told you such a thing if it wasn't true, sweetie."
"I guess. Well. Here I go then. I'll write as soon as I get to school. I'm going to miss you both so much," Hermione said quietly, leaning in for one last hug. She had never been away from her parents for longer than a week, and even then it had been with family.
Shaking off her doubts, she gripped the trolley carrying her trunk, and with a deep breath, she ran at the wall. The impact she expected never came.
Staring at the red steam engine, she grinned. She had done it. She was going to magic school!
xxxx
Hermione sat in an otherwise empty compartment, waiting for the train to leave. She had already changed into her robes as soon as she climbed onto the train. She didn't want to look out of place, after all. This was her chance to fit in, for the first time in her life, and there was no way would she muck it up. She had studied all of her school books so she could understand conversations, and even convinced her parents to buy her extra books to read.
She wondered if there would be many student's like her. Muggle-born, Professor McGonagall had called it.
She was startled from her thoughts when a young boy came into the compartment. He was round faced and looked fairly panicked.
"Have you seen a toad anywhere? He's called Trevor, he escaped when I was stowing my trunk away."
"No, sorry. I'm Hermione."
"Oh. I'm Neville. Well, I better keep looking."
She watched him move to leave, his miserable face tugging at her heartstrings.
"I can help you look if you like?"
"Really? Thank you so much!"
Hermione smiled. She may have made her first friend.
xxxx
Magic School wasn't at all like Hermione expected it to be. Her first day of classes was over, and instead of feeling happy like she thought she would, she felt miserable. Hardly anyone had spoken to her all day, and she had caught a few of the other students pulling faces at her when they thought she wasn't looking. She didn't understand what she was doing wrong.
Sitting alone at dinner, she sighed as she pulled a book from her bag. It was a routine she was familiar with, having spent many lunch times at her primary school doing the same thing, while all the other girls giggled and joked, ignoring her completely unless it was too insult her.
'I thought If I proved I could be a good witch, they would like me. Maybe it's just me. I wonder why everyone seems to automatically hate me. Am I really that horrible a person?'
With those thoughts running around her head, she buried herself in the book, loosing herself to the written word that seemed to be the only constant she had ever had.
xxxx
With Halloween coming up, the school and its students was abuzz with excitement. Hermione heard many of the older students talking about the feast that celebrated the holiday, and she found herself looking forward to it, even while other parts of her was wilting under the loneliness of boarding school.
All she wanted was friends.
She had tried. Tried so hard. She excelled in all of her lessons, she was proving to herself and everyone else that she was a competent witch, and yet, all they did was mock her.
The final straw came on Halloween itself. Ron Weasley, a boy she had tried to befriend, made fun of her. She didn't know why he didn't like her. There was something about him that drew her to him, even when he was nothing rude. His words broke her.
Locking herself in a stall in the first girls bathroom she came to, she sat down tears falling to her cheeks. 'He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry. Why am I not good enough for him? Why am I not good enough for any of them?'
xxxx
Hermione watched as Ron and Harry stumbled over their words, trying to think of an excuse as to why they were in the bathroom. They had saved her life. She couldn't let them get into trouble for that.
xxxx
She waited nervously in Gryffindor tower for them. As they entered the common room, she said "Thanks," quickly, smiling when they said it to her at the same time. As she joined them in getting some food, and sat next to them to eat, they included her in the conversation, they asked her opinion on things.
When she went to bed that night, she smiled to the canopy, a foreign feeling flushing through her, a warmth she had never experienced. She had Friends.