Wool's Orphanage

July, 1930

Hermione Granger has always been a very curious girl, and her father had always indulged her. He let her watch the news with him, he let her read every single book in the house, although he never figured out when exactly had his almost fours year old daughter learned to read. And he let her drag him around chasing after some creature or another every time they went on a walk, his kind laughing eyes never leaving her. He had also warned her baby-sitter, Ms Constance, not to bother stopping her when the little girl got that look of determination in her. And so, Ms Constance often found herself running around the neighbourhood, chasing around a curly haired toddler who had spotted a butterfly she read about in her books, and a squirrel with a specific marking she'd never seen before.

It was this way that the 31st of July, 1930, had gone. Ms Constance took Hermione to London to buy her new books, while her parents were at their dentistry practice. They were walking down Charring Cross Road when Hermione spotted a man wearing a bright blue hat with embroidered stars that seemed to move, and she tugged on the old lady's hand to show her "the man with moving stars on his head". Ms Constance shook her head at the girl's antics.

"That's not possible, Hermione. Now let's go home" she huffed.

Hermione shook her hand free and ran after the man with a funny hat, following him inside a weird looking pub, the kind where her parents would never take her. As soon as she stepped in, her eyes widened at all the people surrounding her. A tray of drinks was flying around the customers; all of them had sticks in their hands or next to them on the tables, and most of them wore the same pointy hats though none of them as bright as the man she followed inside. Remembering the hat with the moving stars, she spotted it again and followed the man to a back alley, watched him take out a stick of his own and tap the brick wall in a seemingly random pattern. She gasped when the wall suddenly disappeared, opening the way to the most colourful, amazing street she had ever seen. She stepped again, intent on following the man when he suddenly stopped and turned around, making her bump into him and fall on her bottom, her bottom lip thrusting out in a pout.

The man had long auburn hair, and a long beard of the same colour that reached his waist, and his bright blue eyes twinkled over his half-moon shaped glasses as he smiled kindly at her.

"Now who might this young lady be?" he asked, looking around her for any sign of a parent.

"Hermione" she answered shakily.

"And where are your parents, Hermione?"

"At work"

"Do you know their last name, so we can go look for them?"

Hermione thought had about what other adults called her parents. Ms Constance only called them by their first names, and she was never allowed to stay when her parents had company.

"Doctor! Their name is Doctor" she said, seemingly proud to have remembered that.

Albus Dumbledore looked at her, coming to the conclusion that this little girl was a muggleborn witch. He sighed as he realized the search for her parents would be harder than he initially expected, the dream of a quiet day eating Fortescue's ice-cream long gone. He grabbed her hand, asking her to follow him, and took them back to the muggle world, walking bristly past an old lady looking around frantically, and walked straight to the police station.

They had spent hours at the station, with the girl growing more and more distressed, while the police officers grew more and more impatient.

"For the last time, sir" started a detective, distastefully eying Dumbledore's attire, "there is no missing child with the name of Hermione in our files, and Doctor and Ms Constance are not enough leads. If you want my opinion, she probably ran away from her orphanage and made up this silly story in her head. I see it all the time"

Albus pursed his lips, not entirely convinced, but it was near nightfall and he couldn't very well take this child with him to his home with all his experiments lying around. Besides, as much the wizard loved to teach, he had no clue on how to care for a toddler. Or was it a small child? No matter, there was no other choice. He sighed for the umpteenth time that day, and asked for the closest orphanage.

"Our social assistant will take care of it" replied the detective in a firm voice.

The auburn haired wizard crouched down in front of Hermione, her big tear-filled eyes causing his heart to constrict.

"I will see you again very soon, Hermione"

The girl latched on to his neck, refusing to let go, and started crying in earnest when a kind looking woman picked her up sending a nod to Albus. He was loathe to leave her like this, but he convinced himself it was for the best, and walked away from the station and back to his life.

This was how Hermione found herself in an ugly looking building, called "Wool's Orphanage" with sad greying walls, and strict looking grey woman called Mrs Cole scowling at her. A certificate was drawn out, that read Hermione Wool, Parents Unknown, Date of birth: 31/07/1927. She was put in a room with three other girls, who were already sleeping by the time she got there, and spent the night crying into her dirty pillow.

The next morning, she was given the same grey, scratchy, worn out uniforms all the other kids were wearing, and sent to play outside. Still refusing to lose hope that her parents would walk in and take her back to her warm, loving home, Hermione sat at the foot of a tree facing the front door.

Two hours passed, and she was still in the same position, back straight, and eyes unmoving; when three boys stood in front of her, blocking her sight to the door.

"Please move" she said, as politely as she could.

Two of the boys started snickering, while the tallest one, who had bright red hair, stepped closer to her.

"You think you're better than us?" he asked, grabbing a fistful of her curly hair and yanking her up.

Hermione yelled in pain, as tears started burning her eyes again. This time it wasn't out of sadness, but out of rage, a rage that burned a hole in her heart. She was tired, she wanted to go home to her parents, and she did not want to feel pain at the moment. Leaves started flowing in a circle around her, surrounding her and attacking her bully, scratching every patch of uncovered skin. The rustling sound masked the heavy footsteps coming her way. The boy dropped her, and ran away with his friends, leaving his victims in front of a scowling Mrs Cole. Hermione turned around to look at her with relief, gasping at the unexpected slap that left her cheek burning. She brought her hand up to the burning mark on her face, and bit back a sob as Mrs Cole started shouting in a shrill voice.

"There will be none of that devil worship in my orphanage, and no frolicking with boys! The next time I catch you, you will be whipped in front of the entire staff and student body until you learn what discipline is, do you understand?"

The old woman walked away without waiting for an answer, and Hermione swallowed her tears, shivering at the thought of earning Mrs Cole's ire again. Her eyes fell on a pale boy, with neat brown hair and dark eyes, who was looking at her intently. He walked towards her, and she stepped back, already scared at the thought of another uncomfortable encounter. He stood in front of her, her back pressed on the trunk of the tree.

"Don't listen to her" he whispered, "she's just scared because she can't do what we can"

"Do what?" she asked suspiciously.

The boy looked around furtively, making sure no one was looking at them; then waved his hand making a yellow rose appear in his palm. Hermione smiled as she took the rose from his hand, and laughed when it turned into a yellow butterfly and flew away from them.

"Tom Riddle", he said, thrusting his hand at her.

"Hermione… Wool they say, but I'm not sure" she answered as she shook his hand.

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Welcome to this story, I hope you've enjoyed this first chapter.

Full disclosure, this is the first story I publish in English, and since it's my third language, I apologize in advance for any grammar/spelling errors. I am open to contrsuctive criticism (and to Beta's if anyone wants to volunteer).

I am writing this story to work out some sh*t in my life, and I really just wanna see where it's going to take me. I plan for it to be long-ish.

I will try and publish regularly (not to bribe you guys, but reviews will probably make me write faster ;))

Anyway, I think that's it for now, thank you for reading , see you next time!