Yaaay, new chapter. If some of you cant figure this out, ' ' are thoughts
and " " is conversations.
-------------
Hermione scowled as she pressed her forehead against the backseat window of the taxi she was currently in. She had stooped to the level of talking to the blasted thing. She realized how stupid this was, yes, but she was willing to try anything to stay away from the Express.
'Stop moving,' she told the car commandingly. Then realizing it wasn't going to obey, she tried again. 'Drive off that bridge maybe?'
'Well I was being a little too optimistic there,' She reasoned with herself. 'Maybe I'll grow a deadly contagious disease on the way there and will have to be quarantined?' She rolled her eyes. 'Oops, there it goes again. Damn my morbidly optimistic brain.'
She was on her way towards the train that would take her to the place that she had dreaded going back to all summer.
She was going back to Hogwarts.
Hogwarts had once been her HOME, her sanctuary. Now she would rather stay at a house where her parents were never there and when they were, they were yelling at her. Her house was huge, and besides the maid who seemed to be there more then her parents and Hermione, it was quite empty.
One day this summer she had spent wandering the many rooms aimlessly. She passed through the small library they had there running her hands over the books, becoming lost in thought. When she was growing up her parents used to buy new books from time to time to add to the others. Then she would have something to do after coming home from school. Ever since she had started going to Hogwarts, her parents never bought any new books, and her hands were then covered in dust from touching them.
Apparently, they had decided the library wasn't worth cleaning as well.
She had frowned and crossed the room to the back left corner. She then stepped on a stepladder placed there and took a book hiding on top of the shelf. She took a seat on the stepladder and carefully opened it with shaky hands. It was her baby book.
'Hermione Juliet Granger, first word age 1. Said 'Nanny'. Appears to be a very smart child.'
The book had said. She despised this book more then anything, but had read it so many times by then she practically had it memorized. She wasn't sure why she ever bothered. The whole thing was full of professional photographs and recordings by the nanny Hermione had had until she was old enough to take care of herself.
Hermione had sat there for what could have been 30 minutes or could have been 5 hours, just staring straight ahead, not letting her eyes tear up. Every time she even thought of this book it filled her with hateful rage. Shouldn't her parents have filled it out? She had thought. Why had her first word been Nanny?
Hermione was getting angry again just staring out the window now. What was it her mother had told her about it years ago?
'I was just too busy is all, Hermione.'
Oh yes, that.
She thought back again to this summer, thinking of how she had stood up and threw the baby book against the wall with as much strength as she could and ran from the library. She kept running until her lungs burned sharply and her legs collapsed beneath her. She stared with gasping breaths at a full-length mirror in the hallway. She had studied her long dull brown hair; it was the color of mud. She had studied her overly conservative clothes.
She remembered asking herself why she was still doing everything her parents wanted. Being the perfect little girl for her anything-but-perfect Mother and Father. And that had been the day everything changed.
Hermione smirked now at the thought and twirled a strand of her now black hair. She always wanted black hair, and that day she had dyed it so. She would never cut or straighten it, knowing how insane that would be. Her curls had grown to midway down her back, and while not being anywhere near straight, were not frizzy either.
'And then I outraged them with my newly black hair.' She flat out grinned at the memory. The memory of both her parent's jaws dropping and then there was the yelling. Oh, the yelling.
'I'm surprised those screaming banshee's didn't knock down the whole house, if not the neighborhood.'
She didn't remember exactly what they had said, considering she hadn't really been listening, but she knew the words 'idiotic', 'horrible', and 'disgusting' were used. After that, she had left. She did something she had never done before, and she had walked out on her parents before they were done talking to her.
And she had gotten her lip pierced.
She was so tired of doing what everyone else wanted. So tired. She was doing what she wanted to do now. Walking around that night, the night she swore she could still hear her parents yelling a mile away, she passed a tattoo parlor. She thought it would be really cool to have her lip pierced, and so, Hermione Granger had done the first impulsive thing in her life without having any doubts or second thoughts.
Fingering the stud in her lip now, she thought about the changes that had so quickly taken her over during the summer.
When she was 11, she was very good at putting out a façade that she was confident and didn't care what other people thought. Her face would betray nothing, but inside she collected the insults and would cry over them later. When she finally became friends with Harry and Ron, it was much easier to have false confidence. And when they left her, she crawled into a dark hole and decided never to come out again.
All through 5th year, she answered questions only when directly asked. She never raised her hand. She never talked to anyone if they didn't talk to her first. She would always help people with their homework.
And whenever she was alone, she would cry what seemed to be rivers. Rivers that spilled out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks and spilled into her lap. She wouldn't stop until the fear that someone would see her took over.
She had decided that day that no one would call her pathetic anymore. And no one would. She was sick of it, sick of them. She wasn't going to be anyone's doormat anymore.
Hermione had to blink twice to realize that the taxi was no longer moving. She was at the train station, fate having no mercy on her at all. The car hadn't blown up, and she hadn't gotten cancer.
She was going back to Hogwarts.
'Bugger.' She thought with feeling.
Stepping out of the taxi, she smoothed her shirt down. She was wearing comfortable black jeans and tank top. It's not as though she completely transformed into a monster, no, she still absolutely hated makeup. She wore none with the exception of some eyeliner, which made her eyes appear bigger.
Anymore would make her feel like she looked like Lavender or Parvati. She shuddered at the thought.
Dragging her trunk and cat cage along, she headed in no particular hurry towards her platform. It wasn't that she didn't feel she could handle Hogwarts or it's evil residents, she most certainly could. She just didn't want to put up with the lot of them.
Oh well, she supposed she'd make the most of it.
She walked easily through the invisible barrier and dragged her 2 million pound trunk over to the storage compartment. She picked it up with some trouble and heaved it in. Then she removed Crookshanks from his cage and put the cage in the storage, too. She cuddled her kitty for a moment and turned around to go on the train.
And found herself face to face with Harry.
'Well, well, well. It's The Boy Who Really Gets On My Bloody Nerves. This just had to be the first person I ran into, eh?' She thought, feeling the smirk spread on her face.
First he seemed to just glance right by her, who she was not connecting with his brain quite yet. Then, he did a double take. She could see the confusion setting in, along with the shock.
"Her..Hermione?" He said slowly, as if trying to convince himself.
"Harry." She said rather curtly.
"You look so-er-different."
She rolled her eyes at the comment, and said with all seriousness, "No, all I've done is dye my hair the color I like and put a piece of metal in my lip. I'm surprised you would claim to know how I look, considering you haven't even looked at me for a bloody year."
She smiled at him sweetly as his mouth dropped open slightly. She had been wanting to say that for the longest time. "Well, here comes your best buddy. I should be getting along. I suppose I'll be seeing you around. Tell Ron I said Hello, ey?"
She walked over to the door of the train and stepped inside, leaving Harry looking after her with a still-not-sure-he-saw-that look.
Ron walked up to Harry looking slightly miffed. "Sorry mate, Mum held us all back to give us our yearly blessing out before school. You slipped away just in time. Wow-look at Lavender. She looks good..what is up with you?"
-----------
Hermione sat in an empty compartment, an extremely large book held open in her lap. She was sitting cross-legged and was currently biting her pinkie nail. She was engrossed in the book she was reading. It was actually a book of Poe, one she had read many times but would never get tired of.
Crookshanks purred contentedly from his spot on the seat next to her. She absentmindedly stroked his head, receiving a happy meow from her pet.
She heard her compartment door open, but did not bother to look at who had come in. People had been coming in all day, some (anyone not in Slytherin) who said their polite hello's, others who just left wordlessly.
The Slytherin's gave their to-be-expected, and all around boring snarky comments. None of which Hermione could repeat, she had really not been listening.
This person however, gave a malicious chuckle. She recognized it immediately as Draco Malfoy, the boy who had always succeeded in making her cry. She still did not look up, but she felt a smirk play on her lips.
Of course it was him. Annoying prat that he was.
Well, he would not make her cry again. She never cried anymore.
"Wow Granger, what alternate universe did you come out of?"
"The one in which you had no mouth." She replied shortly, still not bothering to look at him.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh well, I'd still look good. Are you trying to be bad, Mudblood?"
At this point, she looked at him. He had stayed longer then any of her previous unwelcome guests. "I don't know, Ferret, are you trying to be cool?" If he was surprised by her suddenly growing a backbone, he didn't show it. He just smirked at her. "Some of us don't have to try, actually."
She gave him a blank look and blinked once. "Are you going to leave? Cuz I have to change into my uniform and in case you hadn't noticed, we're almost there."
He shook his head at her, the smug smirk never leaving his face. "You're amusing, Mudblood, but it will be more so to see you when you break down. I'll probably laugh the hardest." He turned and sauntered out her door, letting it slam shut.
She stood up and stretched. For the first time in 6 years, he hadn't been able to strike a nerve.
This was altogether inspiring.
------------
Tis all for the 1st chapter. I hope you all liked. I'll try to have my next chapter out soon, although I am going to NYC for the next week so I don't know how quickly I'll be able to get it out.
-------------
Hermione scowled as she pressed her forehead against the backseat window of the taxi she was currently in. She had stooped to the level of talking to the blasted thing. She realized how stupid this was, yes, but she was willing to try anything to stay away from the Express.
'Stop moving,' she told the car commandingly. Then realizing it wasn't going to obey, she tried again. 'Drive off that bridge maybe?'
'Well I was being a little too optimistic there,' She reasoned with herself. 'Maybe I'll grow a deadly contagious disease on the way there and will have to be quarantined?' She rolled her eyes. 'Oops, there it goes again. Damn my morbidly optimistic brain.'
She was on her way towards the train that would take her to the place that she had dreaded going back to all summer.
She was going back to Hogwarts.
Hogwarts had once been her HOME, her sanctuary. Now she would rather stay at a house where her parents were never there and when they were, they were yelling at her. Her house was huge, and besides the maid who seemed to be there more then her parents and Hermione, it was quite empty.
One day this summer she had spent wandering the many rooms aimlessly. She passed through the small library they had there running her hands over the books, becoming lost in thought. When she was growing up her parents used to buy new books from time to time to add to the others. Then she would have something to do after coming home from school. Ever since she had started going to Hogwarts, her parents never bought any new books, and her hands were then covered in dust from touching them.
Apparently, they had decided the library wasn't worth cleaning as well.
She had frowned and crossed the room to the back left corner. She then stepped on a stepladder placed there and took a book hiding on top of the shelf. She took a seat on the stepladder and carefully opened it with shaky hands. It was her baby book.
'Hermione Juliet Granger, first word age 1. Said 'Nanny'. Appears to be a very smart child.'
The book had said. She despised this book more then anything, but had read it so many times by then she practically had it memorized. She wasn't sure why she ever bothered. The whole thing was full of professional photographs and recordings by the nanny Hermione had had until she was old enough to take care of herself.
Hermione had sat there for what could have been 30 minutes or could have been 5 hours, just staring straight ahead, not letting her eyes tear up. Every time she even thought of this book it filled her with hateful rage. Shouldn't her parents have filled it out? She had thought. Why had her first word been Nanny?
Hermione was getting angry again just staring out the window now. What was it her mother had told her about it years ago?
'I was just too busy is all, Hermione.'
Oh yes, that.
She thought back again to this summer, thinking of how she had stood up and threw the baby book against the wall with as much strength as she could and ran from the library. She kept running until her lungs burned sharply and her legs collapsed beneath her. She stared with gasping breaths at a full-length mirror in the hallway. She had studied her long dull brown hair; it was the color of mud. She had studied her overly conservative clothes.
She remembered asking herself why she was still doing everything her parents wanted. Being the perfect little girl for her anything-but-perfect Mother and Father. And that had been the day everything changed.
Hermione smirked now at the thought and twirled a strand of her now black hair. She always wanted black hair, and that day she had dyed it so. She would never cut or straighten it, knowing how insane that would be. Her curls had grown to midway down her back, and while not being anywhere near straight, were not frizzy either.
'And then I outraged them with my newly black hair.' She flat out grinned at the memory. The memory of both her parent's jaws dropping and then there was the yelling. Oh, the yelling.
'I'm surprised those screaming banshee's didn't knock down the whole house, if not the neighborhood.'
She didn't remember exactly what they had said, considering she hadn't really been listening, but she knew the words 'idiotic', 'horrible', and 'disgusting' were used. After that, she had left. She did something she had never done before, and she had walked out on her parents before they were done talking to her.
And she had gotten her lip pierced.
She was so tired of doing what everyone else wanted. So tired. She was doing what she wanted to do now. Walking around that night, the night she swore she could still hear her parents yelling a mile away, she passed a tattoo parlor. She thought it would be really cool to have her lip pierced, and so, Hermione Granger had done the first impulsive thing in her life without having any doubts or second thoughts.
Fingering the stud in her lip now, she thought about the changes that had so quickly taken her over during the summer.
When she was 11, she was very good at putting out a façade that she was confident and didn't care what other people thought. Her face would betray nothing, but inside she collected the insults and would cry over them later. When she finally became friends with Harry and Ron, it was much easier to have false confidence. And when they left her, she crawled into a dark hole and decided never to come out again.
All through 5th year, she answered questions only when directly asked. She never raised her hand. She never talked to anyone if they didn't talk to her first. She would always help people with their homework.
And whenever she was alone, she would cry what seemed to be rivers. Rivers that spilled out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks and spilled into her lap. She wouldn't stop until the fear that someone would see her took over.
She had decided that day that no one would call her pathetic anymore. And no one would. She was sick of it, sick of them. She wasn't going to be anyone's doormat anymore.
Hermione had to blink twice to realize that the taxi was no longer moving. She was at the train station, fate having no mercy on her at all. The car hadn't blown up, and she hadn't gotten cancer.
She was going back to Hogwarts.
'Bugger.' She thought with feeling.
Stepping out of the taxi, she smoothed her shirt down. She was wearing comfortable black jeans and tank top. It's not as though she completely transformed into a monster, no, she still absolutely hated makeup. She wore none with the exception of some eyeliner, which made her eyes appear bigger.
Anymore would make her feel like she looked like Lavender or Parvati. She shuddered at the thought.
Dragging her trunk and cat cage along, she headed in no particular hurry towards her platform. It wasn't that she didn't feel she could handle Hogwarts or it's evil residents, she most certainly could. She just didn't want to put up with the lot of them.
Oh well, she supposed she'd make the most of it.
She walked easily through the invisible barrier and dragged her 2 million pound trunk over to the storage compartment. She picked it up with some trouble and heaved it in. Then she removed Crookshanks from his cage and put the cage in the storage, too. She cuddled her kitty for a moment and turned around to go on the train.
And found herself face to face with Harry.
'Well, well, well. It's The Boy Who Really Gets On My Bloody Nerves. This just had to be the first person I ran into, eh?' She thought, feeling the smirk spread on her face.
First he seemed to just glance right by her, who she was not connecting with his brain quite yet. Then, he did a double take. She could see the confusion setting in, along with the shock.
"Her..Hermione?" He said slowly, as if trying to convince himself.
"Harry." She said rather curtly.
"You look so-er-different."
She rolled her eyes at the comment, and said with all seriousness, "No, all I've done is dye my hair the color I like and put a piece of metal in my lip. I'm surprised you would claim to know how I look, considering you haven't even looked at me for a bloody year."
She smiled at him sweetly as his mouth dropped open slightly. She had been wanting to say that for the longest time. "Well, here comes your best buddy. I should be getting along. I suppose I'll be seeing you around. Tell Ron I said Hello, ey?"
She walked over to the door of the train and stepped inside, leaving Harry looking after her with a still-not-sure-he-saw-that look.
Ron walked up to Harry looking slightly miffed. "Sorry mate, Mum held us all back to give us our yearly blessing out before school. You slipped away just in time. Wow-look at Lavender. She looks good..what is up with you?"
-----------
Hermione sat in an empty compartment, an extremely large book held open in her lap. She was sitting cross-legged and was currently biting her pinkie nail. She was engrossed in the book she was reading. It was actually a book of Poe, one she had read many times but would never get tired of.
Crookshanks purred contentedly from his spot on the seat next to her. She absentmindedly stroked his head, receiving a happy meow from her pet.
She heard her compartment door open, but did not bother to look at who had come in. People had been coming in all day, some (anyone not in Slytherin) who said their polite hello's, others who just left wordlessly.
The Slytherin's gave their to-be-expected, and all around boring snarky comments. None of which Hermione could repeat, she had really not been listening.
This person however, gave a malicious chuckle. She recognized it immediately as Draco Malfoy, the boy who had always succeeded in making her cry. She still did not look up, but she felt a smirk play on her lips.
Of course it was him. Annoying prat that he was.
Well, he would not make her cry again. She never cried anymore.
"Wow Granger, what alternate universe did you come out of?"
"The one in which you had no mouth." She replied shortly, still not bothering to look at him.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh well, I'd still look good. Are you trying to be bad, Mudblood?"
At this point, she looked at him. He had stayed longer then any of her previous unwelcome guests. "I don't know, Ferret, are you trying to be cool?" If he was surprised by her suddenly growing a backbone, he didn't show it. He just smirked at her. "Some of us don't have to try, actually."
She gave him a blank look and blinked once. "Are you going to leave? Cuz I have to change into my uniform and in case you hadn't noticed, we're almost there."
He shook his head at her, the smug smirk never leaving his face. "You're amusing, Mudblood, but it will be more so to see you when you break down. I'll probably laugh the hardest." He turned and sauntered out her door, letting it slam shut.
She stood up and stretched. For the first time in 6 years, he hadn't been able to strike a nerve.
This was altogether inspiring.
------------
Tis all for the 1st chapter. I hope you all liked. I'll try to have my next chapter out soon, although I am going to NYC for the next week so I don't know how quickly I'll be able to get it out.