Chapter 1

Hermione woke to the sound of her mother knocking on the door. She seemed to be trying to get Hermione to get up and get ready. They were going shopping for her Secondary School Uniform today and she was excited. In her Primary School, everyone used to bully her because of the large amounts of time she spent reading at break. She was hoping that in Secondary, she'd meet more open minded people, people more willing to accept her.
Unfortunately, Hermione had a feeling she wouldn't fit in there either. She was different and always had been. The bullying had all begun on the first day of this new school, back when she was 7 years old. She'd accidently fallen from the roof of the building when she'd gone up for her Science lesson but what had really set her apart is that she hadn't hurt herself at all. She'd landed on her two feet from a two floor fall and since then nobody had trusted her. Why should they trust the weird girl who didn't even hurt herself when she fell from the top of a building? The rejection she felt when she was picked last for every time, left without a partner on every trip, and pushed to the back of the line in every queue had been enough to make her beg her parents on countless occasions to let her change schools. But they had been adamant that this was the school for her and this was the only place she was allowed to go.

'Hermione dear, it's breakfast time. What are you still doing up there?'
Hermione was broken out of her day dreaming and headed downstairs to have breakfast with her parents. They were both dressed ready for work and Hermione began to wonder if now would be a good time to mention how she had been feeling this morning. But as with every other day, they seemed to be in a rush and were already preparing to leave as soon as her babysitter got here. Joanna had been a patient of the Granger's since her visit to the dentist and after getting to know her so well; they had no difficulty in hiring her as their daughter's babysitter every summer holiday as soon as possible.

Maybe Joanna would listen, she'd always been like an older sister to Hermione and she didn't know what she would do once she was old enough to stay home alone and Joanna stopped coming around.

She heard the sound of the letterbox and realised the mail was here. She went to collect it as she usually did since her parents had no time to pick up the post.
'Mr Granger... Mr Granger... Mr & Mrs Granger...Mary Granger... Albert Granger...Hermione Granger... wait what?' Hermione stared at the letter in her hand. She had to blink about 50 times just to make sure the envelope in her hand actually existed.
'Mum, Dad, I've got a letter!' screamed Hermione, as she ran into the kitchen as her parents were having breakfast.
She ripped it open and felt a sense of excitement build up inside her as she read it.

Ms Granger,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

Hermione continued reading and felt as if her heart was about to burst inside her little chest. This was the reason she felt the way she did. This was the truth, this was her destiny. This was where she was meant to be. She couldn't believe it. Finally, she had found somewhere she fit.
She finished reading the letter then turned to her parents to see how they had reacted. They had just finished reading her letter too and seemed to be lost for word. Hermione had only one thing left to ask.

'Can I go?'

Later that day, Hermione was waiting anxiously in the living room for a woman named Minerva Mcgonagall to arrive. Hermione had read in the letter that she would be arriving to help Hermione and her parents better understand what was about to happen.

Hermione heard a short tap on the door and raced to open it. In the doorway, stood one of the sternest looking women she had ever seen. She was dressed in what could only described as emerald green robes and was wearing a black witches hat to match. Her face held no expression except for the dimple in her left cheek which suggested at a more softer interior to this remarkable woman.
'May I come in?' she asked.
'Yes, yes, please do?'
She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch opposite the Grangers.
'Good Evening, allow me to tell you all about Hogwarts...'
_

Hermione had rushed from shop to shop eager to find everything she needed and desperate to study every inch of Diagon Alley as if she would never be here again. Now that she had everything on her school list and a couple of extra books for light reading, she sat in the Ice Cream Parlour, waiting for her parents to arrive from Muggle London. They had left her to shop alone and had gone to catch up on some of their own personal shopping so now she sat waiting for them to arrive in Diagon Alley so she could show them everything she had found today.

Draco was also doing his first year shopping, but unlike Hermione, he had been to Diagon Alley countless times before and was not surprised or in awe of any parts of it besides maybe the Quidditch Shop. He'd visited the book shop more times than he could count and the Apothecary was now just a dump. He headed to the Ice Cream Parlour so he could meet his parents who had just popped to Knockturn Alley to meet an old friend.
As he approached the ice cream parlour, he began to feel nervous and butterflies in his tummy. Since he'd never had this experience before, he was surprised to feel this was whilst going somewhere he'd been many times before. He tried to ignore the tingling in his body and how his heart sped up and continued where he was heading. And then he saw her. She looked small for her age and she seemed engrossed in the book she was reading. Her hand was in place to push back her bushy hair and the other was keeping her book open. Her chocolate brown eyes were covered by her hair and he could only see her mouth. She was gently biting on her lips as if in some deep thought about the book that she was reading and he knew that it was her.

Hermione...

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