Chapter 1
**6 months earlier**
"Oh, bother."
She stared down at the floor, at the pile of books that lay haphazardly below her. So clumsy, she thought to herself, and immediately she knelt down to pick them up. A shadow fell over her shoulder, and then Harry was there, helping her to pick them up. "Thanks," she said happily, as he handed them to her.
"I don't know why you need to carry all these around," he said, motioning towards her Arithmancy and Advanced Potions texts. "You don't even have these classes today."
"I do have loads of work, though," she told him, swinging the rest back into her hands.
He shrugged, absent-mindedly. That's Hermione for you, he thought.
"So are you headed to the library?" she asked, seeming oblivious of his musings.
Harry almost gave a snort. "Um, no," he said, politely covering it up. "I was just looking for Ron. Have you seen him 'round?"
Hermione shrugged and looked down at the floor. "No," she told him, feeling dejected inside. Harry was always looking for Ron, or Ron was looking for him. Why did it seem as though no one was ever looking for her?
It was Harry's turn to miss the obviously hurt look that had come over Hermione's face. "Right then," he said, turning around and scanning the hallway. "If you do see him, tell him I'm in the common room, will you?"
She nodded solemnly. "I'll do that." And with a swish of his robes, Harry turned, off towards the Gryffindor dormitory.
Hermione stood stock still for a moment, trying to get her bearings. What is wrong with me?, she chided herself. Jealousy. Always jealousy lately. She shook her head in disgust and headed towards the library.
***
The library was nearly empty, as most of the students were packing to go home over Christmas holidays. Hermione took her usual seat in the corner of the large stone room, near the restricted section. But instead of commencing her studies immediately, as she normally did, she gazed around the familiar hall.
Hermione loved this area of the library. She could gaze through the chain-linked cage that held the restricted section of books -- the most dangerous and powerful treatises on spells and wizarding in all of Great Britain. The titles always awed her, with headings such as the Encyclopaedia of Perilous Charms and Histories of Magickal Beloars.
But it was the library itself that she loved. She felt at home there, despite the cold, stone walls and shellacked, hard wooden floors that held no coziness for less enraptured students. It was there where she could throw herself into learning as much as possible about the wizarding world she had been introduced to so much more recently than most of the other students.
When she had first arrived at Hogwarts, Hermione had thrown herself into her studies. After all, unlike most of the students at the school, Hermione had not grown up in a wizarding family. She, who had always been at the top of her class in grammar school, had been looking forward to attending Queen Anne's School, one of the oldest and most prestigious girls' schools in all of the U.K. But then, just a few days before she was set to leave for senior school, a parcel came. Or rather, it was a letter. But oddly enough, unlike other letters she had received in her short life, it had been brought by an owl…..
………………….She had been in her bedroom at the time, surrounded by trunks stuffed with books and overflowing with her school clothes. Hermione was always well prepared, ahead of any schedule, and going off to senior school was no different. What she wasn't prepared for, however, was the strangled cry of her mum from downstairs.
"'Mione?" she heard a muffled cry. It didn't sound at all like her mum, though. Curiously, Hermione poked her head out her door and called down the hallway. "Yes, mum? What is it?"
"Could you come down here please?" was the response she got.
She folded one of her school blouses and put it neatly in the trunk, then walked down the hallway and stairs to where her mother was standing in the living room. She looked absolutely green.
"What is it?!" she asked, rushing up to her mother.
"That," said her mum, pointing at the glass door that led into the garden.
Hermione turned and looked. "I don't see anything," she said.
WHOMP! Something hit the glass door and slid down it towards the ground, then picked up speed and lifted away into the air.
"What was that?!" she exclaimed.
"It keeps happening, whatever it is!" said her mother.
THUMP! It hit again!
"Maybe we should call the police?" suggested the mum.
Hermione started walking towards the door, trying to get a better look.
"Get away from there!" her mother exclaimed! "That thing's trying to kill us!"
"I don't think so," murmured Hermione, not paying any attention. "I think --" -- and as the flying entity came towards the door again, she slid it open. Her mother gave a small scream as, instead of hitting the glass again, it landed gracefully in the living room with a swish of feathers.
"It's an owl! With some sort of a letter!" She untied it from the bird and looked at the sender. Hogwarts……….
*****
Hermione shook herself out of her daydream. Get to work, Granger, she told herself. Once more, she bent over her books and got lost in the world of wizardry…