Hermione laid on her bed alone, the silence ringing in her ears as she stared up at her ceiling, her hands resting on her stomach. Tomorrow was the day she would leave for college and change her life forever as she spent the next five years trying to become what she, and her parents, wanted her to be - a lawyer. The more she thought about, the more nervous she became. For the next five years of her life she had to be nothing short of perfect and as most know, Hermione was anything but perfect. Good thing she was a damn good actor.

She had been playing the role of a perfect girl for the first seventeen years of her life, what were five more? Hell, she thought as she began to twist the ring on her finger. Her mother gifted it to her on her fifteenth birthday. She told Hermione that it was a family heirloom that had been in their family for generations. She said, 'Every woman that has ever worn this ring has been successful in more ways than one. Don't be the one to break the cycle, Hermione'. It was her worst birthday ever.

Despite the bad memories the ring gave her, it also meant a lot to Hermione. It was a reminder of her grandmother, the only person Hermione felt truly understood her and her passion to explore the world. When Hermione had told her mother about how much she wanted to travel the world and even suggesting it is as a career choice her mother quickly shot it down, telling her that was merely a dream and Granger's don't follow dreams.

'All dreams come to end, Hermione.'

Her dream did come to an end that night and she never spoke about traveling the world to anyone ever again, not even her grandma. She soon realized that it was silly to even think doing that. Traveling the world? Hermione let out a small, humorless chuckle.

Her phone rang abruptly, causing Hermione to jump and scramble to catch it before it fell off the bed. Checking the caller ID she saw that it was her friend, Ginny, and quickly answered it.

"Hello?" Hermione said as she pressed the speaker button and resumed her previous position, her phone resting on her stomach with her hands.

"Hullo my darling queen! How are you on this fine night?" Ginny asked her and Hermione could practically see her bright smile through the phone.

"Fine, Ginny, how are you?" She replied, trying to sound a chipper but she knew Ginny would notice.

"Clearly a lot better than you because you sound dreadful. You should be excited! We both got into our dream schools and were going there tomorrow!" Ginny tried to cheer her up. It sort of worked.

Ginny was right, Hogwarts Academy was Hermione's dream school and she wanted to go there ever since she was a little girl. She had seen all the pictures of the beautiful grand gates and the spacious dorms and the friendly people. It was everything Hermione had ever wanted and she was finally getting to go, and with her best friend. She should be bouncing off the walls with joy.

"I know, and I am excited, I swear. It's just...my mum and I got into another argument a bit ago and it just put a bit of a damper on the mood."

"Hermione how many times have I told you not to listen to her? She's just a wrinkly old lady who is jealous of you and your success."

"So, what time are you picking me up tomorrow? I want to be ready by the time you get here." Hermione asked, ignoring what Ginny had previously said. She'd rather not think about it anymore.

On the other end of the phone Ginny rolled her eyes, "I'll be there at twelve Miss I'm gonna ignore my problems until I can't ignore them anymore."

"Twelve? Don't you want to leave earlier so we can get there earlier?" Hermione scrunched up her nose in confusion. She wanted to leave as soon as possible because the sooner she left the sooner she would leave her parents.

"Hermione I'm not waking up at seven in the morning, okay? I'd like to sleep in for once and you're not going to stop me."

Hermione frowned in annoyance but let it go with a sigh. She would just have to deal with her mom for a few hours and then she was free until Christmas.

"Alright. I have to go, I want to take a shower before I fall asleep and it's getting late. I suggest you do the same, you probably smell awful from all the running you did today."

"Yeah, yeah, goodnight."

Hermione hung up the phone and got off the bed, traveling to the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom in hopes to take a nice long hot shower.

--

Hermione sat on the steps of her home as she impatiently waited for Ginny to arrive and pick her up. It was well past 12 pm and the time now stood at 1:30 pm, an entire hour and a half later than Ginny said she would be there. It was safe to say that Hermione was fuming, for more than one reason.

Of course, she was furious at Ginny because she was late and because it wasn't her first offence. Oh no, Ginny was the worst person to get anywhere on time, and while it was usually her brothers' fault it still pissed Hermione off. Now the other reason she was annoyed was because instead of sitting in her bedroom and waiting, like she wanted to, she was stuck on the steps because her parents were screaming at each other. Sitting outside clearly didn't make a difference, though, because she could still hear them perfectly fine.

It made her wonder, their screaming, where exactly it all went wrong. Up to the age of nine, Hermione had a whole different set of parents. Her mother was carefree and outgoing and she would cook dinner and laugh with her family and she would smile, something she hasn't done in years. Her father was such the jokester, pulling out dad jokes from his pocket left and right and goodness did he love family game night even though he barely ever won. She smiled at the memories but frowned at her tenth birthday.

Her mother grew cold and more strict while her father became quiet and sad and very closed off. They both began to drown themselves in their work, an unhealthy trait Hermione picked up from them, leaving Hermione home with nanny on most days.

It was like Hermione didn't have parents anymore. Instead she got barely functioning robot parents that didn't care for her like they used to, much less at all. She remembered how her mother became obsessed with Hermione's success and making sure she was the smartest kid of her year. She was doing college work in Primary School!

Hermione sighed and bit her lip as the screams inside became louder and much harsher. She just hoped they didn't break anything in her room this time.

A car horn blaring made Hermione look up from the short nail she had a bad habit of picking at. Much to her relief it was Ginny's car, her windows rolled down with music blaring from her radio. Ginny turned it down and called out to her.

"Hullo! How are you today, my queen?" Ginny shouted as Hermione glared at her and went to the back of her car, popping the trunk. She was surprised to see a lot more bags that she expected, especially just for Ginny alone. Hermione frowned but brushed it off and shoved her two suitcases as well as a duffel bag with the other luggage and brought her everyday bag with her to the front seat only to find somebody already sitting in it when she opened the door.

"Harry Potter?"