A/N: Hey guys, long time no write! Bad Icepen. Bad girl. So this is just a little fic that needed to be written because school is starting soon... Like tomorrow. So what better way to celebrate than with out favorite nerd? Enjoy, and don't forget to review!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
It wasn't a very interesting day to begin with. It was a normal Saturday in the Granger household, but it certainly was one of the most momentous ones. Eleven year old Hermione Granger lay curled up on her couch absent mindedly staring at her copy of Robin Hood that she had read hundred times over. It was a fascinating book that would enrapture the young girl from the very first page and not let her go until she finished it, but this day was different.
Hermione was just so very bored. She couldn't handle it. Nothing she tried to do would make her mind focus. There wasn't even that much to do in her suburban neighborhood, with both her parents busy doing a bit of extra research for their dental practice. In fact, she very highly doubted that there was anything left to do in her neighborhood at all. All the kids her age thought that she was a know-it-all and a freak. They had all stopped talking to her after she had made some flowers she had gotten her teacher for her birthday bloom in her hand. And thus, without any friends to play with or any books in the local library that she hadn't already read, Hermione Granger was bored out of her mind.
She shook her head to clear it and again, tried to make herself focus on the book at hand. Glumly, she stared at the pages of the book she had memorized long ago, and wished so desperately that she herself could be brave and strong and kind like Robin Hood. She wanted to go on adventures to help people, and to stop the bad people who hurt people because they thought that everyone else was blow them.
But it was ridiculous of course. Modern England had no use for Robin Hood anymore. The Sheriff of Nottingham was gone and so were his allies. There were no big bad wolves left for her to defeat.
Ding-dong
Hermione gave a little start as the doorbell rang. Nobody came to their door except her parent's friends, and they would all warn them before they came. She quickly shut the door and ran to the eyehole and stood on her toes to see who it was.
It was a severe looking old woman who wore a dark pantsuit, a very meticulous bun and a no-nonsense frown. Gingerly Hermione opened the door and said in the most polite voice she could muster, "Good morning ma'am. How may I help you?"
The woman smiled politely at her, and said "I'm looking for the Granger residence."
"Well you're not looking anymore as it seems that you have found it," A third voice said from the background.
"Ah, you must be Dr. Granger." The lady noted. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall."
"Please, call me Daniel. How may we help you?" Hermione's father said, smiling his usual lopsided smile.
"I'm here with an unique educational opportunity for your daughter." She put emphasis on unique, in a way that piqued Hermione's curiosity.
"Well, think you'd better come inside, we'd be very interested in hearing about this opportunity." Daniel, said opening the door wider to let Professor McGonagall in. "Let me just get my wife, I won't be but a moment."
He left Hermione and the professor in the sitting room, where they sat in silence, Hermione fiddling with her worn book, while the professor watched.
"It's one of my favorites, you know," Professor McGonagall said, abruptly.
"Hmm?"
"Robin Hood. It's one of my favorite books."
"Really?" Hermione asked, sounding excited. "My Uncle Rupert got this for me. It's my favorite too."
Before they had a chance to get into a discussion about the finer aspects of the book, Hermione's parent's came down the stairs.
"How do you do, Professor?" Hermione's mother said, shaking the teacher's hand.
"Very well, thank you,..." the professor trailed off looking for a name.
"Emma." The other woman supplied.
"Well, yes. As you know, Hermione is a very special girl." There was the emphasis again. It was as if there was a secret that this lady was going to tell them that would unlock the universe or something.
"We like too think so, yes." Emma said, sounding slightly suspicious.
"I apologize if this sounds a bit ludicrous, but Hermione, you're a witch."
The silence that followed could have been cut with a knife.
"Excuse me?" Hermione asked in a small voice. "Magic isn't real... and if it was, I- I couldn't- wouldn't be a witch."
"I'm afraid that magic is real, and that you are a witch," The professor said gently.
At the Granger's disbelieving to downright bewildered expressions, McGonagall asked, "Have things ever happened around you? Things that you couldn't explain. Things that your friends couldn't do?"
Hermione thought hard. There had been the damning incident with the flowers, after which she managed to control her- her magic. But she had felt it inside her. Writhing, squirming, fighting to get free from her death grip over it.
Shakily she shook her head. "The only thing that happened was a bunch of flowers bloomed in my hand. That's it. I can't even prove that it was magic. There is probably a perfectly logical explanation for that which doesn't involve magic. Magic isn't real." She was babbling, trying to make herself deny it.
"I was afraid it would come to this." The professor pulled a thin wooden stick from her purse and shook it at the coffee table in front of them. For a few seconds, nothing happened, and Hermione looked at her father for support. He smiled comfortingly at her when her mother gasped in shock. Both of them snapped their attention towards the table, which looked more like a bow and arrow by the minute.
"From Robin Hood," Hermione whispered, awestruck.
"Very good, Miss Granger," The professor said, sounding pleased.
"But the table," Emma said, going a bit pale.
The professor put the table back with a wave of her wand, and looked at the shell shocked family apologetically.
"I'm sorry about that, but sometimes, telling families directly is often the best choice."
"No, it's alright," Daniel said, sounding like he was recovering. "So right, how is Hermione a witch? How would that even work? None of our family is magical, so it can't be genetic," Daniel's mind had found it's new fascinating concept to latch on to, and nobody knew if they could handle him pestering the professor for details.
Emma offered an apologetic smile at the teacher and Hermione hid a grim behind her hand, but it was too late. The professor had launched into a complicated history of magical lineage and how it would sometimes lie dormant for generations and how the gene would sometimes mutate towards one branch of magic of how when channeled improperly , a young witch or wizard would become dangerous.
Hermione listened, clinging onto every word, her mind turning the facts over and storing them away for future reference.
"And that is where Hogwarts comes in. It is a seven year, boarding school experience that will train a student in the five basic concepts of magic, along with additional instruction in electives of the student's personal choice." Emma opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, but McGonagall quelled her question with an understanding answer to the unasked question, "There is a free meal plan, three meals a day, seven days a week, and the dormitories are quite comfortable. Hogwarts is the best magical training institute in all of Europe."
At the end of the speech, Hermione looked ready to pack her bag then and there and run off to Hogwarts on the next possible train.
"This seems like an opportunity of a life time, but, we'll need some time to think. I hope you understand," Emma began cautiously.
"Of course," the professor agreed.
She pulled out a quill pen (an actual quill pen... like in the medieval times) and wrote out an address on a thick, heavy piece of paper and handed it to Daniel. Then she also pulled out an envelope with a wax seal, and handed it to Hermione.
"I hope you'll consider my offer seriously," McGonagall said looking straight at Hermione. After all, the final choice was hers. Hermione nodded a sincere yes and before any of the Granger family could blink, she poofed out of their sitting room like a ghost.
Hermione smiled a little bit and broke the seal on the envelope. She read through the acceptance letter five times, and nearly pulled a muscle in her face by grinning so hard.
She was breathless with excitement and adrenalin coursed trough her veins at the mere though of going to a magical school. Magic. Imagine that! She was a bookish girl by nature, but she had never been this excited for school before. Magic. It was going to be wonderful.
A/N: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed that little ficlet, and I hope it got you pumped up to go back to school tomorrow! At least where I live it's tomorrow! Yikes! I should be asleep by now!
Love,
Ice