Hermione's Childhood
This is just a short one shot a bit about Hermione's childhood leading up to the moment she receives the Hogwarts letter. It's short but I just had to get some of these ideas out of my head!
Despite only being ten years old, Hermione Granger had always felt that something was missing from her life. It's not that she didn't appreciate everything she had, she came from a middle class family, her parents were loving and caring, she was clever and went to a good school. Her teachers were nice, her classmates were generally friendly and she had a few friends, but still she just felt, not outcast, but slightly out of place all the time.
She was often left out of games at school with the other children because they thought she was odd, being clever, actually liking school and always answering every question. She didn't mind being left out though because she would just sit down in a corner of the playground and read a thick book she had brought in from home. Hermione absolutely loved reading and learning, she could escape reality by learning about foreign cultures, getting lost in learning quite advanced mathematical formulas and devouring the facts in encyclopaedias. Whenever she read she felt the 'missing something' feeling lessen for a while.
Now Hermione knew she was odd and understood why, what kids actually enjoy going to school?! But some things she did she couldn't explain. For example the time she was at the beach with her parents watching an airshow. The beach was crowded and the sun was beating down hard on the yellow sand. Her parents were sitting a little way behind her as she played with some pebbles. She wondered if it would ever be possible to make these little pebbles fly like the biplane that was now doing a loop-the-loop, when suddenly the brown pebble began to levitate a few centimetres from the palm of her hand. Hermione had stared, mouth open in absolute shock and wonder as the pebble slowly rotated above her hand. She felt someone's gaze on her and she turned her head to see a woman staring back at her. Before she could try to explain that she had no idea what was going on the woman gave her a huge wink and a knowing smile and turned her eyes back to the sky to watch the show. Hermione sat gaping at the woman. Despite the hot sun she was wearing a thick purple towel that looked more like a cloak around her shoulders and the man sitting next to her, who Hermione assumed was her husband, was wearing a thick green cloak towel thing, a huge golden watch, a strange black hat and boots that looked like they were made from reptile skin.
Before she could ask the woman why she had winked her parents were calling her to get ready to go back home. Another time at home when she had been struggling to reach a book from the top of a shelf in her father's study, if had somehow, after she spent several minutes struggling fallen off the shelf and into her hand. She had no idea how it had fallen into her hand because the bookshelf was stacked tight full of books but what other explanation was there?
It wasn't until one day after school had finished for the summer holidays that she found out her answer. She was sitting at the breakfast table nibbling a bit of toast while reading a brochure for her new high school that she would start in September, when her mum came in with the post. She gave the all the bank letters and junkmail to Hermione's father and then paused when she reached the thick parchment envelope addressed to her daughter. Miss H. Granger was written elegantly on the front in deep emerald green. Mrs Granger looked at her daughter and a surprisingly strong mixture of emotions passed through her. She knew Hermione was lonely and felt like she didn't fit in with the other children but she had never realised to what extent. She loved Hermione more than anything in the world but Hermione was, was different to anyone she had met. Mrs Granger couldn't put her finger on the feeling she felt around Hermione sometimes but holding this strange looking letter gave her the same feeling. Mrs Granger looked at her daughter, absorbed in the high school brochure and then apprehensively at the letter. Then Mrs Granger shook her head and reprimanded herself for being ridiculous. Without a further thought she gave the letter to her Hermione, what harm could possibly come from a letter?
