A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome back to another fic :) I had plans for my standard to be done first, and then I suddenly looked at this document and went, why not write 1000 words in half an hour and make my joints flare up? Hmmmmm?
Welp...you get this piece. I'm not entirely sure what inspired it, except that I knew that at one point I wanted homework to be ripped up (the prompt). I still wasn't sure whether I wanted Hermione to do the ripping or not, though. To be honest, if it weren't for an incompetent teacher, I'm not sure what kind of event would prompther to do something like that, especially without wasting 12k words describing how she got to that state of mind. Otherwise, it'd be considered ooc, and we might as well keep this as close to canon, right? I always wondered what Hermione's point of view was the first two months of Hogwarts. After all, Harry is an unreliable narrator, and if his first memories of her were her fixing his glasses on the train, her being eager in their first Potions class, and her being terrified of her broom during Flying class, he wasn't going to see the bullying that went on around him when it didn't directly affect him. Survival skills, after all, were very important for abuse victims, and Harry is no different.
Anyway, this one is for Round 6 of The Houses Competition, where I'm in Slytherin House and writing for Transfiguration. This competition, we have to write a drabble (500-1000 words) as well as a standard (A themed story this round) (1000-3000 words). This fic is the Drabble of the two. I've chosen the prompt [Action] Ripping up your/somebody's homework
Thank you kindly to Hope, Ash Juillet, and Dhrish for betaing this.
Word Count: 998
Disclaimers/Warnings:
Summary: The first month or two of a new school was always the hardest for Hermione. One-shot
"Kicked While She's Down"
Hermione grunted as she hit the ground, her palms scraping painfully against the flagstones just before the front doors of the castle. It was only the second week of school, and, just like primary school before this, the bullies had already come out in full force.
"Stop trying so hard, Mudblood!" a blonde, Slytherin third-year sneered down at her. "Stop trying to prove yourself. You'll never measure up." The Slytherin girl then cackled at her, her two cronies following suit. The ringleader kicked dirt right into Hermione's face, causing her to dissolve into hacking coughs, as the dust clung to her throat. The Slytherin laughed again before spinning on her heel towards the greenhouses. "This is just a warning, you know-it-all. You better stop now before someone else comes along and does much worse!" With that threat hanging over her head, the older girls headed down the path, ignoring Hermione's sobs.
Hermione reached out and clutched her book bag tightly to herself, as if to shield herself from anyone else who stepped through the doors. Looking around quickly, she darted inside and ducked into the nearest girls bathroom. Dropping her bag on the ground near the sinks, she ran the tap, gathering some water in her hands to splash her face. It was only then that she looked up into the mirror to study her reflection.
"You look terrible, dear," the mirror said. Hermione didn't jump this time, not like the last few times she had when she had hidden in here over the past week. It was just another magical thing, common in a magical world she was now beginning to believe she didn't belong to.
"I feel terrible," she replied in a whisper, clutching the sink tightly as she heard a stampede of schoolchildren pass outside the door. When everything was quiet again, Hermione relaxed slightly. She looked at her reflection again, studying her features to see what needed fixing before she had to go to dinner that night. Her eyes were red, this time not from crying but from the dirt kicked at her earlier. Her hair was a mess—or at least, more of a mess than usual. Hermione bared her teeth at the mirror to inspect them; her teeth were still large with a gap between the front teeth. She sighed, leaning forward to rest her forehead against the glass.
The tap still ran in the sink.
"Cheer up, dear!" the mirror softly cooed at her. "Rule number one: Don't show your bullies that they get to you. I know the perfect glamour spells you can use to freshen yourself up. Make it seem like you were never bothered, eh?" Hermione looked up at her reflection once more and nodded.
"Okay," she whispered again.
The mirror's advice worked for a while. Hermione chose not to show that the words thrown at her by the bullies had any effect on her, and the older years mostly left her alone. Soon, Halloween had arrived. Halloween was always the day Hermione used to determine how her school year would go. She had left two other primary schools when she was younger due to bullying, and she really didn't want to make Hogwarts the third. So far, her magical school life was lonely, and while she won plenty of points from teachers with her knowledge and earnestness for working ahead, those same points didn't endear her to any of her schoolmates.
Another blond from Slytherin, this one male, pushed her to the ground just after she left the Great Hall after breakfast, her bag in one hand.
"Let's see what the Mudblood carries around!" he sneered before grabbing her book bag and dumping it out onto the floor. A few fellow first years, Ravenclaws by the colors of their lapels, exited the Great Hall, took one look at the scene, and just walked away. Somehow, that hurt more than anything these bullies could do to her.
A ripping sound caught her attention and Hermione whirled around to find the blond, Malfoy, ripping up one of her essays. She lunged at him furiously, but he darted out of the way, ripping her essay up into several more pieces.
"No, stop it!" she exclaimed, and at Malfoy's sudden look of glee, Hermione knew he had won. He jerked his chin at his bookends, Crabbe and Goyle, and suddenly more ripping sounds filled the air. Her breath catching in her throat, Hermione watched helplessly as one of them ripped up her other essay due for today, the other grabbing a library book and trying to pull it apart. Hermione lunged and rushed him, successfully knocking the book out of his hands. He grabbed her by the hair before throwing her to the ground again. Tears sprang to her eyes as she huddled on the ground.
"Hey, what's going on here?" a familiar voice sounded. "Malfoy, detention! You two as well. And ten points from Slytherin, each!" Suddenly the Slytherin presence was gone, and Hermione looked up to find Percy Weasley in front of her. He made no motion to help her up. "Are you alright?"
Hermione nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I'm fine," she replied, her voice strong, if not a little high pitched. Percy seemed to study her for a moment, a frown on his face, before he nodded at her. With the flick of his wand, all of the contents of her book bag, ripped pieces of parchment and all, flew back into her back before it settled by her side.
"If they bother you again, make sure to let a teacher know," he replied before turning and heading off.
Clutching her bag to herself, Hermione darted off, heading to the trusty first floor bathroom with the only mirror in the castle that knew how to console her. She had to fix herself (and her destroyed essay) before her first class of the day, and time was running out. At least this day couldn't get any worse.