Hermione Granger clutched her shoulder bag nervously as she entered the busy hallway of William McKinley High School. The Ministry's warning replayed in her head on a constant loop: Do not let anyone know that magic exists - violating this rule will destroy the integrity of this research project and will undermine years of work. Hermione understood that the Ministry of Magic had been asking permission to research the behavior and culture of American teenagers for some time and had finally received the needed approvals.

The US Department of Magical Affairs had a much stricter stance on Muggles than the Ministry - wizards and witches could not live among non-magical people. Instead they lived on expansive compounds surrounded by a variety of invisibility and Muggle-repelling charms to keep their existence a secret. The US schools of magic did not even accept wizards or witches who were born into Muggle families - these people were often left in confusion about their magical abilities and often became psychics or entertainers. Marriages between a wizard or witch and a non-magical person were highly frowned upon and required breaking the wizard or witch's wand and erasing their memories. The American Magical Society (as they were known collectively) were unequivocally a pure-blood community.

So the idea of allowing outsiders to study their Muggles was disconcerting, but after many years of negotiation and created, modified, and re-modified Unbreakable Vows - the Ministry of Magic's Office of Muggle Relations could finally send one of their best and brightest while posing as a transfer student. Hermione Granger, who had demonstrated great magical prowess and maturity in the Second Wizard's War against Lord Voldemort and who lived among British Muggles during her summers off from Hogwarts, seemed to be the perfect candidate, and she was more than eager to accept this rare opportunity.

Of course, once Hermione accepted the role to research American culture in the midst of an actual Muggle high school, she was bombarded with training about the rules the US Department of Magical Affairs had set.

"Absolutely no one should see you perform magic," Hermione's supervisor, a strict middle-aged witch named Susan Babitt had emphasized over and over again. "The American Magical Society absolutely hates interacting with Muggles - especially if the reason is because of a foreigner!"

Hermione had rolled her eyes at the frequency of these warnings - what did they think she would do - levitate a student one day for fun? She was almost insulted.

But finally Hermione was here enrolled as a senior, and she held her breath as she entered the high school chaos.

The tiny hallway lined with bright red lockers seemed suffocating compared to Hogwarts - how were you even supposed to get through? Hermione pushed against the crowd to find her locker, but she kept getting shoved to the side. She had been working her way slowly against the tide of students for a few minutes when the crowd suddenly parted and Hermione was left standing awkwardly alone in the middle of the hallway. Hermione's eyes widened when she saw why.

A blonde girl in a yellow cardigan and light blue dress was walking confidently down the hallway with two girls trailing behind her - a taller blonde girl with a vacant expression, and a mischievous-looking raven-haired Latina. The trio wore self-assured smiles and did not seem at all surprised when people quickly moved out of their way - this was expected. Within a few strides, the girls stopped abruptly in front of Hermione. All three brows furrowed in a mixture of confusion and insult that she did not move immediately as everyone else had.

"Um, excuse me?" the lead blonde girl said, though there was no politeness in her voice.

Hermione could only stare. "S-sorry!"

There was a pause, and it seemed like everyone in the hallway had stopped to stare.

"MOVE!" the girl demanded in Hermione's face. But Hermione could not find the strength to move, and she remained frozen to the spot.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Santana…!"

The young Latina girl began to make her way forward, when a hand suddenly grasped the inside of Hermione's elbow and pulled her out of the way. Hermione let out the breath she had been holding as the three girls glared icily at her but continued on their way.

When the girls had disappeared and the crowd had once again filled the hallway, Hermione turned to her unknown savior. "Thank you."

"Oh, it was no problem," a small brunette girl said cheerily with a bright smile on her face. "It's always hard for someone to grasp the complex hierarchy at a new school."

The girl continued to beam at Hermione, and Hermione offered a hesitant smile back - she wasn't sure what to make of her.

"You'll want to stay out of their way," the girl warned, seeming eager to dispense advice. "Those girls rule the school - they're the Cheerios. Well, ex-Cheerios really, but their residual dominance and popularity remains despite."

"O-okay," Hermione stuttered. Her head was spinning as she reached in her bag hurriedly to get out a notebook and pen - why hadn't she made any notes yet?

"Let me introduce myself," the brunette suggested, her cheery tone unfading, which reminded Hermione briefly of an equally saccharine old enemy - Dolores Umbridge.

"I'm Rachel Berry - that's B-E-R-R-Y." Rachel's eyes looked expectantly at Hermione's pen and notebook, fully expecting her to be recording everything. "You'll want to make sure you spell it right - I'm going to be a star, you see, and you won't want to forget meeting me you-know-when!"

"R-right," Hermione stuttered again. "I'm Hermione - Hermione Granger."

"Oh!" Rachel squealed with delight, looping her arm around Hermione's and pulling Hermione with her as she navigated expertly down the hallway. "You're British! How wonderful - you know, I've always respected the British stance on nudity - why be afraid of it if it's natural, right?"

Hermione could only nod when met with the exuberance that was Rachel Berry. Soon Rachel had gotten hold of Hermione's class schedule and was already directing her toward her locker. "We simply must exchange Twitters and Facebook profiles! And Hermione - what a uniquely British name!"

Because no one greeted or smiled at Rachel as they left Hermione's locker and entered her first class together ("Oh, Economics - I have that too!"), Hermione deduced that Rachel probably did not have many friends, and she wondered briefly if it was wise to stick with her. However, feeling a mixture of pity and knowing Rachel's loneliness almost definitely meant she knew everything about everyone else, Hermione found herself typing her new American phone number into Rachel's phone during lunch.

"Excellent!" Rachel exclaimed as Hermione handed Rachel's phone back to her. "Or as you British say - brilliant! Right?"

Hermione only laughed and nodded. Across the cafeteria, Hermione suddenly noticed the three girls from earlier that morning sitting down at a table full of boys with red letterman jackets. The leader blonde was laughing and flipped her hair as one of the boys started rough-housing with another in an attempt to impress her. She then seemed to be telling the boys something, and they immediately jogged away - appearing to be on a task just given to them.

"Quinn Fabray," Rachel stated, as she noticed Hermione's gaze. "The most popular girl in school."

"Why?" Hermione found herself asking almost absent-mindedly, still staring at Quinn. "How do you become popular?"

"Oh, I don't know," Rachel said carefully, as if she had contemplated that very question many times before. "You have to be pretty - the most beautiful girl in the entire school."

Check, Hermione found herself thinking.

"And you have to have no soul."

As Rachel stated the second qualification, another boy walked shyly up to Quinn and handed her a packet of papers. Quinn smiled sweetly and clasped her hands in delight, seeming to thank the boy. The boy blushed furiously and opened his mouth to say something but stopped when Quinn took the papers, abruptly turned away, and began talking animatedly with the other two girls at the table.

"That's Jacob Ben Israel," Rachel informed Hermione quietly. "He's been in love with Quinn since the first grade - and doing all her homework since then too."

"She can just make people do things for her?" Hermione wondered aloud, being reminded of the Imperius curse.

"Oh yes," Rachel said matter-of-factly. "Even I have done quite a few things for her - nothing major, of course," she said quickly. "Just, you know, let her copy off one of my Spanish quizzes or done an entire project when we got picked to be partners once."

"Why?"

"Because…" Rachel trailed off. She apparently found this difficult to explain. "Everyone falls in love with her. Everyone wants to make her smile - everyone wants to be her."

"Interesting…" Hermione knew vaguely she should be taking notes on everything Rachel had told her, but she found it impossible to take her eyes away from Quinn.

"Don't bother trying to be her friend. I think her only real friends are Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez - the two girls that are always with her," Rachel continued explaining. "I mean, Quinn and I have had a class together since sixth grade, and we've even been in Glee Club for two years, but she still can't be nice to me for more than five minutes."

"Glee Club?" Hermione asked, finally tearing her eyes off Quinn and looking at Rachel. "What's that?"

Somehow, Rachel's smile turned even brighter at this question. "I was hoping you'd ask that!"