The summer had gone by quickly, in which Hermione quickly learned the ways of the demons. She had spent most of her time reading the Grimmorie. Her homework had been completely ignored and was simply left to collect dust in her room. With her plans, Hermione could see no reason to do something so unimportant.
Now it was the morning before she had to return to Hogwarts, and she was sitting at the kitchen counter, reading more from the Grimmorie as the first beams of light burst through the window. If she hadn't been so anxious about putting her plan to action, she probably wouldn't have stopped reading, but she was far beyond anxious. So she closed the Grimmorie, but ignored to latch it, and walked to the upstairs into the bathroom, where she turned on the water as hot as possible, and took a quick shower.
When she was done, she wrapped a large towel around her, up to her neck, and walked into her room. Calmly, she walked toward the mirror-walled closet on the right wall and opened it. Her face instantly broke out into a look of disgust. All of her old clothes were so normal and modest! She couldn't stand it, but she knew for her plan to work she'd have to stay as normal as possible.
She grabbed a pair of the tightest dark blue jeans, and the smallest shirt she could find. She tied the shirt in a knot at the side, and put a belt around the jeans as tightly as she could. She put her hand to the door of the sliding closet, and slowly slid it back into place so that she could see herself in the mirror. Hermione gave off a deep sighed, in complete disgust by what she was wearing, but also with an understandment of why she was wearing something she despised so much.
Finally excepting what she was wearing, she thrust open the lid of her trunk and looked at its contents: a few quills, her robes, ink bottles, books, and stacks of paper, all covered in a thick layer of dust. She ran her finger over the smooth dusty edge, before taking out two robes, and throwing a fireball into the trunk. I don't need any of that, she thought. She then shoved the robes back into the trunk and then shimmered into the kitchen where she picked up the Grimmorie and then shimmered back into her room. Carefully, she placed the book beneath her robes, and then slammed the lid of her trunk shut.
Hermione glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand and saw that she still had 2 hours until she had to go to Kings Cross Station. She sat on her bed, and looked around her room, oh how she now despised all its contents!
Suddenly, she noticed a large pile of letters on the windowsill. She walked over, and picked them up, scanning the address of each carefully: Harry, Ron, Hagrid, Ron, Harry, Harry, Ron, Hagrid, Hogwarts, Harry.
"Bah," she said, before turning away and tossing the letters up in the air, letting them all gracefully fall to the floor. Then she walked back to her trunk and kicked it open and bent down and took out the Grimmorie, and once again, she sat on her bed and continued reading…
* * *
The late-morning sun shone harshly on Kings Cross Station as Hermione shimmered in behind a large garbage can. Quickly, she sorted her thoughts out and began walking around the building to the entrance, as normally as possible. She spotted her former friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasly about to walk through the barrier and sighed at just how much she didn't want to talk to them. Especially Harry, since she now admired You-Know-Who, and Harry had kept stopping him from returning to glory. But that was all going to change.
She forced herself to smile politely and begin running after them, waving with her right hand, and pushing a trolley, she had gotten to carry her not so heavy trunk with the other.
"Harry! Ron!" She cried. They turned just in time to see her as they passed the barrier, and Hermione could see their faces light up with joy. She kept her disgust in, and didn't show any sign of it, and just simply kept acting surprisingly normal.
"Why, hello Hermione!" Said the sweet voice of Mrs. Weasly from behind Hermione. She hadn't noticed the Weaslys there, and had to force herself not to blow them up. Instead, she turned around, keeping her cool, and said, "Great to see you, Mrs. Weasly!"
"Well, you too, dear. How about you go in with Ginny?" Hermione looked at the red-haired girl standing beside Mrs. Weasly and thought that if Lord Voldemort could use her, she could too, but not just now.
"Of course," she politely replied, finally figuring out how she could use Ginny to her advantage. Ginny pushed her trolley toward Hermione, and together they started off at a walk, and then burst into a run through the barrier and onto Platform 9 and ¾.
"I'll see you later then, Ginny," Hermione said, as she kept running on toward the scarlet steam engine that was the Hogwarts Express.
Ginny had an odd feeling about Hermione, but she didn't know what, and Hermione could feel it. She realized Ginny was a threat to her plan and knew she'd have to wrap her around her finger quickly…
Hermione boarded the Hogwarts Express, as calmly as possible, and purposely bumped into several Gryffindors, but perfectly passed it all off as accidents. Soon enough, Hermione found the compartment Ron and Harry were sitting in.
"Hermione!" Burst Ron, when she slid the compartment door aside, "Why haven't you replied to any of our letters?"
"I've been really busy, Ron! Anyway, it's great to see the both of you!" She faked. Harry patted the seat beside him and she reluctantly-seemingly-gladly accepted it after putting away her trunk.
"Where's Crookshanks?" Asked Harry, after having taken a good look around for the familiar feline.
"She's staying at my aunts house for a while."
"Oh, alright." And so, it went for the next few hours until the food trolley passed. "Harry, why don't you get us something to eat? Ron, help Harry." Hermione shoved a bag of money into Ron's arms and watched as both boys glared back at her with puzzled expression before leaving the compartment to make their purchases.
Hurriedly, Hermione took out her trunk and opened it. She waved a hand across the Grimmorie and watched as its outside changed to look like an arithmancy book. Then she took it out, closed her trunk, put it away, and began reading. Ron turned away from the food trolley, and saw Hermione reading the book.
"Hmm… Finally doing something normal, for her standards," Ron muttered to Harry. Harry turned and saw too, that Hermione was reading the book, but still had an odd feeling about her.
"I dunno. She's been acting weird all day. I mean, since when has Hermione been so busy she couldn't reply a few letters? And why would she leave Crookshanks with her aunt?"
"I dunno. Girls… go figure." They grabbed all their sweets and walked back into their compartment. Ron handed Hermione her share, but she turned it down, causing both boys to share a worried look with each other…
* * *
It was a dark, dark night when the Hogwarts Express finally made it to Hogsmeade Station. The three friends had changed somewhere during mid-evening and as soon as the train came to a complete stop, Hermione dashed off the train. She ran until she heard Hagrid's voice and then paused for a moment to wave at him. The pause allowed Harry and Ron to catch up to her, so she had to slow down and walk calmly with them to the carriages. She contained her excitement to put her plan to action and again stayed as normal as possible, but Harry and Ron still felt an odd mysterious feeling around their friend.
They got off the carriage and began their usual walk up to Hogwarts and into the Great Hall. Along the way, Hermione bumped into a woman, but completely ignored her. Ron and Harry stayed back to apologize for Hermione and realized the women must be the new dark arts teacher. So Hermione sat alone for a few minutes at the Gryffindor table, until Harry and Ron showed up.
"You'll never guess who-" Ron started, but was quickly interrupted by Hermione.
"Shhh! Dumbledore's about to speak!" She said, gesturing to the headmaster as he stood up. An eerie silence came over the hall, but was soon ended when Dumbledore began to give his usual speech. It passed just as soon as dinner did, and soon everyone found themselves back in their familiar common rooms. All except Hermione.