Hi everybody! This is a story that I've been toying with for quite some time. This first chapter will be quite slow since it's a prologue, but I assure you that it will get more interesting!
Prologue
Hermione Granger was a precocious child. Fresh faced and slightly tanned from her trip to France with her lovely parents, the ten, almost eleven, year old girl dropped her luggage onto her bed and flopped down onto the cool wooden floors of her bedroom. Her mother watched her from the doorway.
"Don't forget to give me your laundry when you're done unpacking," Mrs. Granger gently reminded her daughter.
"Yes, mum. I'll get to it as soon as I catch my breath. The airport's always so hectic! I mean, I almost lost my page in my book!" the brown haired girl huffed. "People these days!"
Hermione continued with her rant, not noticing her mother giving a little chuckle and leaving the room. Her monologue about the airport terminal was just about to evolve into a speech about the importance of crowd control when the phone rang.
"I'll get it!" shouted the little girl as she shot up from the floor and dashed down the stairs.
Reaching it just before the last ring, Hermione snatched the phone from its cradle and brought it to her ear.
"Hello? This is Hermione Granger speaking," she announced.
"Hermione! Yes! You're finally back!" squealed a girl's voice through the speaker of the phone.
"Hello, Gwen! Yes, I'm back. I can't wait to meet up with you and Bryony once she comes back from holiday." Hermione's voice equaled in pitch to that of her friend.
"She's actually coming back tonight! I heard mum talking to dad about it. Something about a case that Uncle Evan just HAD to look over. Bryony must be quite upset about it." Gwen explained.
Bryony and Gwen were cousins. Hermione had met them through her parents. Gwen's mother had been in dental school with her parents and they were longtime friends. So when Hermione's family had moved back to their old house, it was natural for the two girls to become friends. Bryony, being only a year younger, also joined their group and the three of them were the best of friends.
"It's too bad that school's starting so soon," Gwen complained.
"It's not such a bad thing," quipped Hermione. "I only wish that we could be in the same school together."
"Well, that's just you. I'd rather not be in school. Besides, I wouldn't last a day at your school."
Unfortunately for Hermione, she went to a different school from Gwen and Bryony. Although all three girls were quite bright, Hermione was the only one who truly excelled at school. She had such high marks that she was in a private academy for gifted students. The young girl was planning on going to Wycombe Abbey for secondary schooling, but her parents knew somebody at Benendon, a different school, and were really pushing her to enroll there. She was stuck on the idea of Wycombe Abbey though, because it would keep her closer to home. Benendon was so far away that she would never have the chance to meet regularly meet Gwen and Bryony.
"Why don't you come over on Saturday?" Gwen's voice rang out cheerfully. "Bryony's coming over then and I'm sure your parents won't say no. Mum and dad suggested it, too. They'd loved to catch up with your parents."
Hermione agreed and quickly set the phone down to ask her mother. It wasn't hard for Mrs. Granger to say yes to spending a day at Gwen's, the adults were all great friends, and Hermione cheerfully picked up the phone to agree.
"Great! Then that's settled! I'll see you on Saturday!" Gwen practically shouted through the phone in excitement.
Once she said her goodbyes with Gwen, Hermione bounded back to her room with a renewed sense of purpose. She had to get all her chores done before the weekend, which was only a day away. Her luggage was unpacked in a flurry of motions and everything clean was placed in the drawers whilst the dirty clothes were thrown into the laundry basket.
Pulling out a thick volume from her knapsack, Hermione settled into her bed and began reading. It was close to bedtime and she wanted to get some light reading done. The title of the book glinted on the spine, Gorillas in the Mist.
Friday passed by quickly for the little girl. She had finished the book by noon and was working on another volume that she had found at a used book store just before she had left for France. It was covered in dust and completely worn down; it was right up Hermione's alley. She had hoped to finish it before going to Gwen's house, but when Saturday morning came, the young girl had awoken to the darkness of the book covering her face. She had fallen asleep having only gone through half of the pages.
She didn't let it discourage her and decided to bring the book with her to read in the car. Although her parents were quite disapproving of it, they claimed that it was bad for her eyes, Hermione usually got away with it. Besides, she had been completely mesmerized by the descriptions and the fantastic history that the author had painstakingly made up. She felt like she had been transported to another world.
The old book was clutched tightly in her hands and the excitement was so palpable that she could almost feel a tingling on her fingertips. Before her parents had even gotten into their car, Hermione had already settled in the backseat and buried her nose into the yellowed pages.
In the fifteen minutes' drive, she had gotten through only five pages. She was so engrossed in the details of the book that the young girl hadn't felt the car come to a stop.
"Hermione!" Mrs. Granger's voice was muffled by the glass of the car window separating her and her daughter.
The bushy-haired girl's head snapped up and she looked at her mother sheepishly.
"Sorry mum." She exited the car.
"That's okay, honey," her father called out from the front steps of Gwen's house. "Just hurry up."
Hermione grinned and ran up to ring the doorbell before her father could. She heard loud footsteps and the front door was jerked open to reveal an ecstatic Gwendolyn.
"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Granger! Please come in!" The small, short-haired girl turned her attention to her best friend. "HERMIONE!"
"GWEN!"
The two girls embraced.
"I haven't seen you in so long!" Gwen said as she let go of the hug.
"It's only been a month," laughed Hermione.
"But so much has happened! You were in France, Bryony went to Italy, and I was half-way across the pond in America just two weeks ago. Can you believe that?" Gwen dragged Hermione into the house and towards her room. "Imagine it! Lady Liberty, the long road trip, the California sun!" Gwen began to strike poses to illustrate her narrative.
"You have gained a lot more color on your face." Hermione tucked the old book under her arm.
"Oh no, that was the worst part even though I do look great now. I looked terrible. My dad finally got our photos developed and my face looks like a red tomato!" Gwen pouted.
That was the thing about Gwen that drew Hermione in. The little girl with the pixie haircut seemed so much more mature. She cared about her looks and was popular at her school. Hermione on the other hand, only had a few classmates that were friendly with her. Most of the time, she was ostracized for her intelligence.
The two girls burst into Gwen's pink room. A tall, blonde girl stood in the middle of the room with her jumper half pulled up over her shoulders.
"Hermione!" She shouted as she stuck her gangly arms through the sleeves of her black jumper.
"Bryony!" Hermione returned the greeting.
Bryony was a year younger than Hermione and Gwen, but she was already half a head taller than either of the older girls. She was long-limbed and graceful like a prima ballerina. Like Gwendolyn, Bryony was quite popular in school. But unlike her older cousin, Bryony paid no heed to the extra attention her looks garnered. After all, she was still only a child.
"What did you do in France? Did you eat lots of sweets?" Bryony was quick to ask.
"Yes! Do tell us all about it," Gwen chimed in eagerly.
The three girls fell into an easy chatter punctuated by many squeals. Hermione described her trip and she exclaimed in equal enthusiasm at Bryony's description of the pasta and pizza that she had eaten. Once it was clear that Bryony was only going to talk about the food, Gwen took over and began talking about her trip to America. This caught Hermione's interest. Gwen's brilliant older brother wanted to apply to universities over there and so their family had decided to take a road trip to visit all of the schools there. They had gone from Columbia in New York City all the way to Stanford in California.
"I think I will take the same path as your brother," Hermione announced to Gwen.
"Don't! I'm fine with Gavin leaving the country, but I don't want you to leave," Gwen grabbed the brown-haired girl's arm.
"Me neither!" wailed Bryony as she copied her older cousin and clung to Hermione.
"I don't want to leave you two either, but I want to experience more exciting things and to more about a different culture." Hermione used her free arm to give both girls a hug. "Besides, it will be eight years from now. It'll take ages until I'm done with everything."
Bryony pouted unhappily, but Gwen grinned.
"You're right. Besides, if Gavin decides to stay in the States, then I could always use him as an excuse to go visit you."
Seeing her cousin relax, Bryony let go of Hermione. She gave her friend a stern look and pushed her blonde strands away from her face so that she could stare straight into Hermione's eyes.
"Then you've got to play with me as much as you can while you're still here."
"Of course I will." Hermione smiled.
With that matter settled, the play date went along smoothly. Hermione showed the two cousins her book and described its contents in the best way to capture her friends' attentions. The show-and-tell quickly became a heated discussion about what the girls were going to do for Hermione's birthday.
"We must throw a party!" Gwen insisted.
"Yes, with cake!" agreed Bryony.
"But it's on a school day," protested Hermione. "I'll have assignments by then."
"Then the weekend?" suggested Gwen.
"I'll have to ask my parents about it," answered Hermione.
The girls were called down for supper and the conversation about Hermione's birthday was forgotten for the day. Once supper was done, Hermione and her parents went back home.
In the days leading up to the start of the term, Hermione couldn't shake the feeling that she had forgotten something, but she had been caught up in the preparation that she didn't realize that she had forgotten her book at Gwen's house.
On the day of Hermione's eleventh birthday, she had already been in school for over a week. Just like all of the previous years, she was alone. She spent the school day awkwardly receiving well wishes from her teachers and silently ignoring her classmates' disinterest.
To make matters worse, her father picked her up alone, because her mother was entertaining a guest at home. They had promised to take her to her favorite bookstore in London and now her birthday was going to be ruined by an unexpected guest.
Once the car pulled into the driveway, Hermione quickly left her dad and trudged into her house. She was about do the rudest thing she could think of and to go straight to her room without greeting her parents' guest, but she couldn't ignore a strange draw that pulled her steps towards the living room.
Her feet took her and planted her right in front of a tall, older woman. She had on a very strange outfit and was peering at Hermione with a stern expression on her face.
The woman spoke first. "So this is Ms. Granger."
"Um... yes. H-hello," stammered Hermione.
"Hermione, this is Professor McGonagall. She's an instructor at a school named Hogwarts and you've been chosen to study there," Mrs. Granger had just emerged from the kitchen with a steaming kettle.
"Hogwarts?" Hermione blanched. She suddenly remembered the book she had forgotten at Gwen's house. It was titled with the same name: Hogwarts, A History. Was this a dream? Had she been so engrossed in the book that she was now dreaming about it?
"Yes, Ms. Granger. As I've explained to your parents before, you are a special young woman and, because of that, you'll be expected to attend Hogwarts next September," Professor McGonagall explained.
"But I've never heard of such a school! I'm going to go to Wycombe Abbey," Hermione said with a tinge of pride in her voice. It was something she had proclaimed quite often to impress the adults.
Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall was not easily impressed. She simply raised an eyebrow. Giving Hermione a quick once over, the willowy woman reached into her cape and pulled out a thin stick. She used the stick to point at the fireplace and blue flames immediately erupted from the hearth.
Hermione yelped in surprise. "What did you just do?" She was at once intrigued and apprehensive.
She walked closer to the fireplace. The fire roared with vivacity in a brilliant blue color, but as Hermione neared the dancing flames, she realized that she could feel no heat nor smell anything burning. Upon looking closer, she realized that the logs within the fireplace were also unaffected. It was almost as if the flames were running upon...
"Magic," the little girl whispered in awe.
"Precisely so, Ms. Granger. You're a witch."
And that's it for the first chapter! Reviews would be much appreciated. By the way, Gwendolyn and Bryony won't be major parts of the story. They're just in here to give Hermione moral support further along in the story even though they probably will never find out about Hermione being a witch.