Last chapters: Harry was attacked by two death eaters in the summer. At the sorting, the hat misinterpreted Harry as Tom Riddle. Despite his complaint, Harry was sorted in Slytherin. Harry does not have a lot of magic which requires him to study more.

-=Hermione Granger, Morning 2 September 1991=-

Emma Granger stepped out of her car and opened the door for her daughter who looked much like how Emma looked at her age.

"We're there." She said with a smile.

Hermione quickly exited the car and took a moment to get a proper look at her school, holding a smile on her face, just like her mother. As both had a The large, stone building dropped a shadow over the larger part of the street it sat on. Large golden letters on the front spelled the name of the school. "Smelting Academy"

Her mum gave her a short kiss and said "Be a good girl." obviously referring last year.

In her previous year, she was intimidated by the huge grey building and really didn't want to go. Somehow she had feared leaving her parents side, and the imposing statue of the old boarding school didn't help the, then, soon to be eleven year old, to get over her fears.

Her mother had told her that there were many moments in life when going forward would be difficult, taking a leap forward without knowing what would be ahead. But that at such a time it was important to remember that with any change in life, there was always some way to make things work in your favour. At the end she asked her to be a good girl and informed her that if she ever felt the need, she could call home.

Although she didn't really believe it at the time, it turned out to be a great school. At first she had called her mum every evening, but in just a few weeks she stopped. She had used the change to a new school, to make a couple of good friends. With the friends, she enjoyed her time at the school immensely. She didn't even realise that she hadn't called home from October till Christmas. Of course, her parents would call sometimes to know if it went allright, but she honestly didn't think of calling them.

She kissed her mother goodbye with a short kiss. Ignoring the fact that she wouldn't see her till Christmas and walked to the school yard.

it was a large square with paving stones. On the sides were plants and trees. This gave shade where benches were under the trees.

A wide staircase led five steps to the main entrance door. There were also three other buildings. The dormitory for the girls, the dormitory for the boys and the gymnasium where PE was given.

She let her eyes move over the school yard full of people. After some moments, she spotted two girls chatting. Enthusiastically she walked towards her friends.

"Hi Angie." she said to the black-haired girl with a large smile on her face. Her straight hair reached as far as the middle of her neck. By looking a bit down, a shadow fell over her face. It wasn't as if she was unhappy, but her head often faced downwards.

She turned towards the blond girl whose long straight hair reached as far as the middle of her back. She showed her enthusiasm much more to the world. Her pose showed her confidence. "Hi Charlotte."

"Hello Hermione" Charlotte replied "Your skin looks a bit more tanned."

"We went a week to a beach in France. It was a camping with not much to do so I spend a lot of time in the water." she answered before continuing. "It is a lovely country. After that week, we spend the last weekend in Paris."

"Did you go up the Eiffel Tower?"

"No, I am afraid of heights. Dad said that you could see over the whole city but mum and me liked to stay on the ground."

"I can imagine." Charlotte said. "I have an uncle who also has fear of heights. In our shopping center, there is an escalator. Whenever we go there, he feels uncomfortable."

"My fear of height isn't that bad, but when you have an open building like the Eiffel tower, I just stay away. Mum and me spend some time in the adjacent parks instead. Later that day, we visited some shops and we ate dinner with a view over the Siere."

"Sounds lovely." Charlotte said with a smile on her face.

"It is" Hermione answered "Still, our parents always take the same spots. I would like to see some other parts of France as well."

Charlotte responded. "We went to Ireland, to a small village, Carrickfield. It is in the middle of nowhere. There are a dozen houses. Most of them are or were farms."

"That must have been quiet" Hermione observed. "At least in our spot we had tourists"

"Absolutely. It was quite calm compared to what I am used at, but I didn't mind. The nature was nice and there was such a lovely lake where Dave and I went swimming."

"Sounds nice."

Hermione noticed that Angie hadn't spoken yet and asked. "Angie, did you go to Prague, as planned?"

"Yeah, it was nice."

Hermione immediately recognised Angie's habits. She was a friendly but a bit quiet, always sitting in the background. As a result, she didn't have a lot of friends. According to her, she didn't mind, but Hermione wasn't really sure.

She had chosen to try to get to know Angie better and hope she would become more open. This often meant that she had to ask for more information.

"Tell us more"

"It's an old city near a river. We had a small hotel and we enjoyed it quite a lot."

"What was the most beautiful thing?"

"There were many old buildings and bridges. The castle was quite big. It is build on a mountain, giving a view over the whole city."

They talked a few more minutes about their vacation until a bell alerted them that they had to go inside to their classes.

-=Dudley Dursley, Morning 6 September 1991=-

Dudley Dursley looked back on his first few days in Smeltings. The building was cool and he felt very proud to go to the same school as where his dad went. According to Vernon, all people that meant something went to schools like this.

His walking stick had an extra function. He could hit other children with it. Although he hadn't used it for such yet, he would surely do so in the near future. Too bad his cousin wasn't here as that freak was always a fun victim.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time for fun. He was already behind with homework, although he felt that wasn't really his fault, doing homework was the one thing he hated the most so the teachers shouldn't be giving him this much of it.

Because the teachers couldn't seem to understand that he didn't want to work, he had two subjects that were due to be handed in tomorrow.

He needed to hand in homework for English and Mathematics.

English class was boring. Although he could complete it if wanted to, he felt it was completely useless. Who cared about the difference between vowels, nouns and verbs, english was english, why did he have to spend 3 hours a week learning stupid stuff about a language he was already able to speak.

Mathematics was more difficult. They were busy with fractions and he really didn't understand it. The diagrams of cakes may have been drawn to help him but it didn't work. It only made him hungry.

Usually, this wouldn't have been a problem as he had a cousin who did his homework. This freak of a cousin knew that if he didn't do his homework, he would beat him. He made sure that the skinny freak would know the penalty.

However, Harry went to a different school now. Couldn't his parents understand, he needed him for his homework. He was good for nothing else. It was a pity as he couldn't let the freak do his homework now.

Dudley realized he had to find a new victim. The person needed to be smart and shy. Smart was needed to make the homework without too many errors. The shyness was needed as shy people wouldn't ask help of a teacher.

He thought a moment about it and found the perfect victim. In second year, there was a black-haired girl who was quite smart but didn't have a lot of friends.

Now he had the victim, he needed a plan to train her. It would not do to train her like he trained his cousin. It would take too long. Still, the general method would work.

He would first make sure that she knew what he was capable of. Then, when she was broken, he would offer her a way out. By making his homework.

-=Hermione Granger, Morning 9 September 1991=-

Hermione arrived at Chemistry class a few minutes early. It was the first class of the day but she never really had problems getting up.

The subject was something she enjoyed. It was a new class, given to second years and higher. Since they moved away from the safety regulations and started doing actual experiments, the lessons were becoming much more interesting. She was curious about the lesson today and what kind of practical the teacher would give them. Monday was always theory and Thursday was practice.

Although the door was locked, she didn't need to wait very long. She saw the teacher walking through the hall. The teacher John Bowman was a tall man with grey hair. He always wore a lab coat and special safety glasses. In the middle of the head a bald spot had started to form.

"Good morning John." she said to the teacher

"Excuse me if I make a mistake but your name was Hermione Granger?"

"You are correct."

"Good. I have four new classes and it can be sometimes difficult remembering all names in the first weeks. However, your uncommon name stuck out. Are you, by any chance, named after Greek mythology?"

"No, my mum loves the books of Shakespeare. That's where she found the name." She answered her chemistry professor that she quickly followed with a question. "But where does it mention my name in the mythology?"

"Well, in the time of the Troy war, the daughter of king of Sparta was called Hermione. She was betrothed to two husbands. By her father, the king, and by her grandfather."

"Disgusting practice, being married without having a choice." Hermione commented with disgust. She couldn't imagine what that would be like.

"I completely agree." The teacher said. "Luckily these things don't happen in England any more, so you will never need to worry about that."

"Yeah, thanks a lot for that." Hermione commented.

The teacher opened the doors with a key he pulled from his lab coat. She entered the classroom. The classroom looked a bit like a lab. The room was white and clean. The tables and chairs here were slightly higher than at other classrooms. This meat you could either comfortably sit or stand on the tables.

Every table had access to water which could be used for experiments and emergencies.

In the corner were two fume hoods, which she didn't use yet. After all, second year students didn't get to do experiments with dangerous fumes in their first few lessons.

Near the fume hoods was one of the two emergency exists. It was clear that the designers of this room had a great deal of thought about safety. And their teacher John made sure they knew what safety measures existed.

Hermione chose a seat near one of the big windows. Soon other students came in and chose their own seats. Although their teacher didn't have strict rules on seating positions, which was one of the few things he didn't have rules about, most students usually sat at the same positions. Both Charlotte and Angie chose to sit near her.

Strictly at a quarter to nine, the teacher locked the door and started the class. Any student who was late would not be allowed to attend. He was a strict teacher. Everyone had to be quiet and listen to him when he was giving instructions. If you didn't follow the safety instructions you were kicked out. You had to report at the principal office. No warnings what-so-ever.

From Charlotte she heard Dave was once kicked two minutes before the end of the lesson. No other teacher would do that.

On the other hand, he believed in showing interesting things. In the first lesson he mixed two liquids that looked like water. When he mixed them red clouds appeared in the vial. He explained that the liquids, although they looked like water did in fact have chemicals in them that reacted. From there he explained why safety was important.

Today they would do their first experiment. In groups of two or three, they would heat up seawater to look at the dissolved substances.

Although this experiment was not really dangerous, she thought the teachers strictness was a good thing. In later years she would encounter much more dangerous substances.

She had teamed up with Charlotte and Angie to work on the same experiment.

Now standing behind their tables, they started to work. It was nice how the tables were higher, such that you could stand comfortably behind them.

Judging from a few minor mistakes Angie made while collecting the materials, she had the feeling her mind was not focused on the experiment. This was confirmed by the absence of smiles. Her usually cheerful attitude was replaced with a negative aura. Was the black-haired girl not doing well emotionally?

While heating the water she asked "Is anything wrong?"

"No."

"I can see you're not your usual self." the blond-haired Charlotte observed as well.

Hermione made a guess and asked with confidence that she guessed right, "I heard a boy calling you names. Is that it?"

She was a moment silent before the black-haired girl continued in a low voice "Yes".

Hermione responded. "Don't listen to that boy if he makes you unhappy. Don't let him ruin your day. He is not worth it."
Charlotte said "You are worth ten Dudley's."

Hermione faced the blond-haired girl and mimicked an angry voice "Don't insult Angie. We both know that Dudley is worth nothing. By telling her that she is worth ten Dudley's, you say she is worth nothing as well. Ten times zero is still zero."

Although Charlotte wanted to protest, the effect was what she hoped to be. Angie started to laugh about the joke. When her giggles were finished she was able to say "Thanks".

With that, they continued to work and evaporated the water revealing only salt.

When all the students were finished with the experiment, he told his class how some chemicals were in water that you could not see because they were dissoluted. Some dissolutions are invisible and others have a colour. In a lab, you cannot assume that if something looks like water that it is water.

He also briefly explained that salt was called Natrium-Chloride. He explained how it consists of the two chemicals Natrium and Chloride. He told how both chemicals are dangerous but they neutralize each other. This description amazed Hermione how a very simple material can consist of two dangerous chemicals.

-=Hermione Granger, Afternoon 19 September 1991=-

It was 19 September and Hermione was disappointed in her friends. It was her birthday and none of her friends seemed to have remembered it. She didn't even see them during break time. Letting her spend all the time by herself.

This had started yesterday when Angie and Charlotte went studying. When Hermione wanted to join, they had refused. For Hermione, this felt like they had a fall-out.

Studying was her thing and being refused in a study club hurt more than she was willing to admit.

It felt too much like last year. At this day, last year, she didn't really have real friends yet. Sure, she was already starting to become friendly with some students, but the real friendship didn't happen. Because of that, nobody celebrated it, until she mentioned it. It had hurt a lot, emotionally. But this year she had hoped that since she had friends now, they would celebrate it with her.

Disappointed with her friends, she walked up to her room after classes. Hermione pushed the door to her room open.

When the door opened she was startled by the cheerful voice of her friends. "Surprise" was yelled in a happy tone.

Indeed she was surprised. The simple bedroom she shared with Charlotte, was changed a lot. It wasn't that something was missing. The two beds were still at the same spot and so where the drawers. It was more what was added.

A garland with the text "Happy Birthday" hung on the ceiling. Balloons in many colours were taped to the walls, the drawers, the bed and basically any place they could be taped on.

The air was filled with the smell from the chocolate cake at the centre of the room. The cake itself looked home-made and it reminded her of the cakes her mother used to bake for her birthday.

But the most important thing were the people standing around the cake. Angie, Charlotte and her brother Dave stood there, congratulating her with her birthday.

They secretly prepared a party for her. Yes! They still celebrated a party. She was flabbergasted.

Happy again, she felt a smile appear on her face. "I am so glad. I thought you forgot about it, but you didn't."

"How could we forget your birthday?" Charlotte asked rhetorically.

"Happy Birthday, Hermione" Dave said with a smile as well.

"And, how does it feel to be twelve?" Angie said jokingly. It wasn't as if people felt like a different person after a birthday.

"Not really different." Hermione answered honestly. "I just wanted to catch up." Since she skipped 6th grade, she was the youngest students in class. Almost all her classmates were twelve.

"Anyway, thanks for arranging this party."

"You're welcome" Dave answered. "But I think it is cake time."

The focus of all four children shifted to the cake with twelve candles. She wanted to blow the candles out but Charlotte stopped her.

"You did think of a wish?"

"Eh, no."

She started thinking about one. She had the feeling that there was something important to wish for. It was very important but she couldn't remember it.

The others were waiting in anticipation.

What should she wish for? She really didn't know. It came back to the important wish she couldn't remember. Looking at the faces of the other people, she decided that she really needed to formulate a wish.

~I wish, the wish that I don't remember, comes true.~

It was a tricky wish, but it was the best she could do. She took a deep breath and blew out all twelve candles.

With the candles blown out, the cake was cut in four pieces. Everyone took one piece on a small plate. Hermione looked for a place to sit and in the absence of chairs, she sat on her bed. Angie sat beside her.

The other two sat on Charlotte's bed.

"This tastes lovely", she commented.

"Well, we called your mum to ask what kind of cake you like. She send the recipe and the three of us baked it together."

She went over her mind, when did they bake it? When did they have time? At first, they had lessons. Then there was a study period. After dinner, she and Charlotte were in the room. The only moment they didn't really see each other was the study period.

"I guess you baked it yesterday in the 'study' session?"

"You're right."

"Well, to give you some advice. Next year don't call it studying. I was so fed up that you didn't want to study with me."

Charlotte started to giggle. When she could talk again, she said "Well, I think we should have thought about that. Most students wouldn't mind to be told to take some free time in a free period, but then again, study is almost a hobby of you."

Hermione said "It isn't."

"Okay, it isn't ALMOST a hobby of you. It is MOST DEFINITELY a hobby of you."

Charlotte started giggling again. At this time, Hermione couldn't help to giggle as well.

After the cake was finished and the plates were licked clean, which took longer than expected due to giggling, it was time for presents.

Angie gave her a small present. Due to the size, and how it felt, she guessed it was some kind of book. When she opened it, she read "Alice through the looking glass" for which she was happy. She read the first book in the school library, but it didn't have the second one. She thanked Angie.

Charlotte gave a small present. Even with the wrapping, it was clear that this was not a book. It was much smaller. When she opened the wrapping, she saw some blinking metal and a fine chain. Looking further, it was revealed that it was a simple necklace. Although she would never buy a necklace herself, it did look good, though when she put it on.

Dave's surprise was a bit stranger. It was a cubic thing with that was slightly larger than two by two by two inches. No clue what it was, she opened it. It was a Rubix cube. She would not have considered buying it herself. Sometimes Dave was a bit of a geek.

They chatted for another hour, till Dave said they had to go to their dormitories as it was almost curfew.

She started to prepare for bed as well.

That evening, when she lay in bed, she reflected back onto the day. It was a great birthday and so much fun. She really had good friends here. She was really glad her parents had allowed her to go to Smeltings and that she had made such a great friends here.

She couldn't really fall asleep. She was so curious what she had wished for.

-=Angie Harden, Morning 1 October 1991=-

It was the sixth week of school and Angie was sure of it. It was happening again. In primary school she had been abused and bullies had found her weakness again.

Last year she was afraid she would be bullied like in primary school. However, due to an amazing strike of luck, it didn't happen. Hermione had become friends with her and somehow this helped her.

Later that year, she became a friend of Hermione's room-mate as well. Charlotte was a nice girl and they got along quite well.

This year, they were in the same class again. However, a boy from a lower class was calling her names. It reminded her of primary school. She was being bullied, again. Emotions and past memories floated her mind the last couple of days. It really went downhill for her.

She just picked up a meal for her and Hermione. With her hands full of food, she walked outside. Looked around to find the spot Hermione had decided on. However, between here and her friend was that awful boy.

She thought his name was Dudley, Dudley Dursley. He and his friends were the ones picking on her. He had seemed to notice her as well and started approaching her. She knew what time it was. They increased her pace hoping to get out of here.

When he was close, she felt something near her leg and before she knew it she lost balance. The floor came forward at a fast speed. She wanted to put her hands to protect her face from the fall, but her hands were full with food. Things happened too fast to register what exactly happened but she registered that she was lying on the floor. Her face was a few centimetres above the pavement. Her hands had caught her just in time to avoid the worst pain. Still, her knee screamed in pain but she ignored it.

Looking better around, she saw all the food that was all over the ground. The milk she carried was in her clothing.

"I'm sorry" he said in such a smug voice, she was sure he wasn't sorry. The boy gave her a hand but she ignored it. There was no use giving him another opportunity to be awful. She stood up herself while the boy kept mocking her.

"What a pity. All that food." he said in the same smug voice.

"You tripped me, ass-hole" She bit back.

Completely ignoring the accusation the boy said in a voice that feigned innocence "I tried to help you up and now you accuse me of tripping you."

"Leave me alone."

"Ah, don't you like my attention." he said in an intimidating voice. His boot crushed some food. "Now, I don't like homework. Maybe we can make some kind of … deal."

At that moment, she knew that she would not leave without making some kind of agreement. She hoped that by helping him with his homework, the bullying would stop. Then it would be worth spending an hour every day.

She didn't know how wrong she would be.

Author Notes

For those that are hoping for a transfer, I plan to let Hermione complete her education at Smeltings. That said, she will learn magic and meet Harry.

For those who believed Hermione to be in Ravenclaw, she isn't. I only said that a bushy haired girl ended up in Ravenclaw. Such a hair is certainly not a unique trait to Hermione and not all Ravenclaws are described in canon.