N/A: Sorry for the long wait… It was just school holidays, which I know means I should be updating more often, but it really meant that I couldn't be bothered to do anything, and so this chapter got put on hold. But here it is!

Disclaimer: Not mine. Not yours. JK Rowling's.

~o.O.o~

She stepped inside and gazed around, opened mouthed, at the room. There was a large, four poster bed with crimson hangings, to match the walls, placed at the back of the room, a large window along the left side of the room, looking down on the grounds. There was a chest of drawers along the same wall as the door, and she noticed that all her belongings were already here. On her right, there was a door, which Hermione presumed led to the bathroom she probably shared with Ginny. She smiled to herself and collapsed on her bed, fully dressed, and fell asleep.

~Chapter 3; Confidence Check~

Hermione Granger's Dormitory, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Tuesday 1st September, 1998

Hermione awoke to the sound of rapping on the door. She rolled over, threw her pillow over her head and attempted to sleep on.

"Hermione!" A muffled voice was talking to her now, but Hermione kept her eyes shut tight. "Hermione!"

"Hermione!" It whined again, and Hermione couldn't take it anymore.

"What?" She snapped, throwing her pillow off the bed. "What is so desperate that you need to wake me up at-" Hermione glanced at the clock on the wall, "a quarter to twelve!"

"But Hermione!" She now recognised the whining voice as Ginny's and sighed, sitting up and throwing the covers off herself in bed. Crossing her legs, she decided to let Ginny in.

"Fine, fine. Come in, if you must." She groaned, and Ginny flung the bathroom door open and bounced up to Hermione's bed, grinning. "What is it? What do you need?"

Ginny didn't answer Hermione's questions. "We need to have a little chat." She said.

"Seriously Ginny? This late at night? On the first night of term too! I wouldn't want to sleep through our first class of the year!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Hermione, come on. Lighten up. Life doesn't always revolve around classes you know." Hermione raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. "Now, back on topic, we need to get you back to your usual self!"

"What do you mean?" Hermione was slightly confused.

"Come on, Hermione, you can just go sulking around the halls all day long, remembering all those bad things that happened here! The war's over, they're gone. And so is this you. I hate this you. You're not really much fun to be around anymore." Ginny explained. "So we need to fix this. We need to fix you."

"Erm, thanks for the idea Gin, but I'm fine. Honestly."

"No, you're not! Look at yourself! Bursting into tears every five minutes! This isn't right, Hermione! Malfoy is going to keep coming at you, as his family lost everything after the war, and so will a bunch of other Slytherins. But Malfoy most of all. You're going to be spending a whole lot of time with him, on duties and whatever, and you can't just keep crying when he says something! He'll become worse than ever if you do." Hermione looked doubtful.

"I… no… stop… I…" Hermione stammered. She knew that Ginny was right, that if she didn't pull herself together soon Malfoy would never let her forget. But she didn't want Ginny's help right now. You're being an idiot, Hermione, she inwardly told herself. Doing this for Ginny won't be too hard! Just say you'll accept her help and she'll leave you alone for a bit. "I…" Hermione still couldn't find words. Ginny looked at her with a knowing smile on her face. "Fine." She sighed. "I'll let you help me. Although, I don't know what you can do."

"Plenty." Ginny flashed a devious grin at her friend. "Now." She said, looking at Hermione, inspecting her almost. "Even if it's the Hermione on the inside that we have to change, maybe we could give you a bit more confidence on the outside. Yes." She said, talking to herself more than Hermione now. "Tomorrow morning? We might not have enough time. Tonight? It'll be ruined by morning-" She muttered.

"Ginny-" Hermione tried to cut in.

"Well, maybe when can be decided after I've thought of what to do. The hair, yes, the hair will have to go. Different colour? Nah, this colour's pretty. Just the bushy part. Using? Maybe-"

"Ginny!" Hermione said, louder this time. Her friend's eyes snapped from Hermione's hair to her face.

"Yes?"

"Will you be kind enough to explain to me what you're rambling about?" Hermione raised her eyebrows at Ginny.

"Well," she started. "We need to give you an external makeover to make your internal makeover easier. Understand?"

"Erm, no." Hermione blushed, glad the room was only by the moonlight from the large window. "Why do I need an external makeover? What difference will it make?" Slowly and slowly, Hermione was becoming more intrigued with the idea of Ginny helping her.

"Well," Ginny started, "it will give you a little more confidence. When you're walking down the hallways, you need to be proud of how you fought and grateful for everyone who died to save the rest of us. You can't be ashamed of what you did and mourning over everyone who was killed for too long, or you'll end up even worse than you are now. You have to be proud, not cowardly. We're Gryffindors, for Merlin's sake!"

"I still don't…" Hermione trailed off, still quite confused.

"Oh, Hermione! I thought you were the brightest witch of our age? Okay, let me explain it a little more. If you walk down the hallways, terrified of what will never happen to you again, you'll seem weaker, and more fun to pick on. And that will only end in tears with you. If you walk down looking like nothing's wrong, then they won't bother so much, as it won't get such a reaction out of you. Don't give them that satisfaction! And if you act like nothing's wrong, then slowly you'll realise that nothing really is wrong, and you'll change back into your normal self. Do you understand now?"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Good girl. Now, for your confidence check. How should we go about this? So, as I was saying before, the hair needs to go down. Yes?"

"Okay, so what are you going to do to it?" She was suddenly concerned.

"Now, d'you remember, in fourth year, when you used that Sleekeazy's Hair Potion stuff?"

"Yes, of course I do! I spent three hours fixing it! I'm not going to have to get up three hours early every morning, am I? Because, honestly Ginny, it's not as bushy as it used to be. Trust me."

"No, I wouldn't make you do that. I simply want to change it into ringlets or slight waves. The potion would straighten it, and we don't want that. No, I've read about a few spells that Beauty Witches use on their customers." Hermione looked stunned. "What? Shocked that I know a spell and you don't?"

"No, no, of course not." Hermione said, looking at the bathroom door, wishing Ginny would simply stand up and head through it.

Ginny seemed to read her mind. "Fine." She sighed. "Fine. You're not really going to be able to think anything up, so I say that you go back to sleeping and I can go think this through. We'll start the plan tomorrow morning. Just… meet me in the common room at seven, ok?"

"Seven?" Hermione exclaimed. "But I go to breakfast at eight. What do we need an hour for?"

"Just trust me on this one, okay? I think I've got a plan. Now, by seven I want you fully dressed and ready to go, just in case we have to rush out half way through. Understand?"

"Ginny, performing a few spells on my hair isn't going to take an hour. Surely you know that now, after over six years of learning magic?"

"I never said it was going to only be your hair." She said, smirking, and making her way to the door.

"What?" Hermione screamed, but Ginny was already through the bathroom and settling onto her bed. Hermione sighed. There wasn't much she could do now. Ginny was already formulating a plan, one which most likely included an extra set of hands to hold her down as Ginny went about her work. Hermione fell asleep with a lot of anticipation; she desperately wanted to know what else Ginny was going to do to her, but a bit of unease settled in. What if it just made the Slytherins laugh and jeer more than usual? She prayed to God that it wouldn't hurt her more.

~o.O.o.~

The next morning, Hermione walked out of the Head's Common Room with her head hung low, her hair hiding her face. An hour before, Ginny had announced what she planned to do.

"Okay, so first, last night, I borrowed Harry's Invisibility Cloak and headed for the library. There were a few books in there about Beauty Witches and the charms they use." Ginny had explained. "There were a few charms I copied down and came back here. I've got one that straightens hair completely, and that was pretty simple. I stayed up for a bit, practicing on my own hair. So anyway, the only one I saw that turned hair into ringlets, which is what I want to do, had to be used on straight hair. So I can use both. They're both quite simple. You'll get the hang of it at once. Takes no time at all."

"Good." Hermione had said, and pulled a stray piece of hair in front of her eyes. It was light, chocolate brown and bushy, just the way she'd had it her entire life. Ginny had quickly performed the charms and ushered Hermione into their bathroom. Hermione had looked up at her hair and gasped. Perfect ringlets hung around her face, framing it perfectly.

"Do you like it?" Ginny had asked.

"Oh yes." Hermione breathed. "It's great."

"Good. So that's that. Now, the makeup will have to be done by hand, though I do have a brilliant little charm that means it won't rub off or anything over the day." Ginny informed her, pulling out a little box that was sure to hold more than a few makeup items, thanks to an undetectable extension charm, surely.

Hermione had taken a step back. "No, Ginny. No. I said you could fix up my hair. That's enough for me. I'll look confident, don't worry!"

"No Hermione. I told you, I'm doing this for you." Ginny had stated sternly, pulling out mascara, eyeliner and bronzer. And so an hour later, Hermione found herself walking to the Great Hall by herself. Ginny had told her that she'd meet her there, that she wanted to talk to someone before she left. Hermione had no idea who, but the thought didn't bother her. She hung her head, making sure that no one she passed could see it. Once or twice she passed a group of students making a racket or duelling in the corridor, but she passed them without telling them off, as she would have usually done as Head Girl. She didn't want anyone to see her like this. She knew what Ginny would say if she knew this.

"But Hermione! This is to make you more confident, not less!" She would probably scream. Hermione sighed. All Ginny was doing was trying to help her, and she admired her for trying. Soon, she came to the Great Hall. She took a deep breath, straightened herself up to her full height, flung her ringlets over her shoulders and walked in. She didn't turn many heads, but she heard some of the Slytherins calling across the room.

"What happened to your face, Granger? Did a clown attack you?" Cried Pansy Parkinson, and her gang of Slytherin girls laughed and jeered. Hermione ignored them and made her way towards the Gryffindor table, where she spotted Harry and Ron talking about halfway down. She sighed as she sat down next to Ron, and both boys looked up from their conversation to look at her. Ron's mouth fell open, and Harry looked slightly impressed, though shocked.

"Before you ask, it was Ginny's idea." She said. "And close your mouth, Ron. The flies will get in." Raising her hand bellow his chin, she closed it for him.

"You look… nice." He spluttered.

"I hate it. Now shut up." Hermione turned to glare at him, before grabbing a piece of toast and taking a hasty bite.

There was an awkward silence for a moment, in which Harry and Ron passed a look. "Well, Ginny did a good job."

~o.O.o~

A/N: You may have picked up that I called Hermione's hair "light, chocolate brown"… well, even if Emma Watson's hair isn't that colour, that's the colour it is in my mind. Think… Beyoncé when she had brown hair, that sort of colour, but then lighten it a little bit. I dunno. That's where I got it from. And then Taylor Swift's ringlets. Complicated, I know, but that's how I see it! Review please… this fic's only got 10! xx