A/N: This is just a one shot idea I had while my brother was listening to Sgt. Pepper's. People probably won't like it but I had fun writing it.
She's Leaving Home
From the Beatles Song of the Same Name
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins…
Hermione woke up that morning very early, earlier than she ever had before, there were still several hours to go before she had to leave. She wanted to do a last-minute check on all the books she had gotten, that all her things were in order, she knew her parents could always send it along, but after all she was almost 11, she should be able to pack for herself! Her mother had been rather hurt when she had refused any help putting things in her trunk, Hermione could see it in her eyes, but Hermione had quickly soothed that over by explaining to her mother that she was quite certain that she would need to be able to care for herself once at Hogwarts, she should get used to it, should she not?! Her mother had said, "oh of course dear," or something like that, and left.
Hermione could tell her parents were nervous, but she saw that as something they would get over soon enough once they saw what a dazzling, popular girl she would be at this wizards' school. The girls would all admire her, the boys would all love her, her teachers would all write home to tell her parents about the most amazing child they had ever seen pass through this castle!
That wasn't how things had been at her old school, of course, except maybe the last one to a certain extent, but that didn't make Hermione feel that much better. In actuality, she was so nervous she preferred not to even think about it, so she just busied herself more with her trunk, first arranging the books in it alphabetically by title, then alphabetically by the author's name, then by publication, until she finally heard someone stir in the room next door.
Father snores while his wife gets into her dressing gown…
Adelaide Granger woke up that morning at nine o'clock knowing that her daughter was probably already awake. The past few evenings the girl had fallen asleep with one of her new books as a pillow; her father had been carrying her into her bed every night. Last night Adelaide had forced her daughter to bed at nine so she would be ready for tomorrow. She should've known that Hermione was a creature that didn't need excessive rest, she would always get up early.
She…(we gave her most of our lives)…is leaving (sacrificed most our lives)…home (we gave her everything money could buy)…
"Wake up, you old lump!"
David grunted as his wife slapped him on the back to rouse him from his slumber. Today was the day, the day he had been hoping for and dreading for at the same time. His daughter was off to London…
She's leaving home after living alone for so many years…(bye, bye)
"Ooh, Daddy, can you imagine it? Walking through something completely solid!" squealed his daughter. "Solid concrete! And you can only go through if you know it's there! Can you imagine, Daddy?" He set some corn flakes in front of her, which she immediately drowned in milk.
"I've a feeling were not going to be imagining it, dear."
"Ooh, you're right, it's all real, isn't it? It's like some sort of fairly tale!"
"Yes…yes, I suppose…" mumbled David Granger, staring at his daughter, who sat munching on the now soggy cereal.
Quietly turning the backdoor key. Stepping outside, she is free…
Hermione had never quite appreciated how beautiful the street she lived on was before, but now she thought that it looked positively majestic in the golden light of the morning sun. She was going to London! To a new school! No more St. Mary's!
St. Mary's Catholic School was a very strict school with nuns and uniforms. Not that Hermione's parents were all that religious, but they thought their daughter would excel more at a private school, which she had, but when she'd gotten that letter…
Hermione was obviously ecstatic about the whole thing, and so were her parents, but a wizards' school and a Catholic one seemed nearly polar opposite of each other in every way that they weren't sure how she would take to it.
And, of course, they wouldn't sure how they themselves would take to it.
Finally, they arrived at the station…
Standing alone at the top of the stairs, she breaks down and cries to her husband. Daddy, our baby's gone…
Months passed since that morning at King's Cross. Hermione wrote quite regularly, but Adelaide couldn't help, but think that she was leaving something out of her letters. She seemed happy enough, though.
David had never realized how much he had always depended on his daughter being there to chirp in with a question or query about something she had seen that day, whether that be men working on construction sites to aliens in UFOs to the origins of the universe. He had depended on Hermione's randomness that now he felt very empty with only his clear-headed wife in the office next to him, drilling teeth and filling in cavities.
June came finally, and they went to the station to see her with two boys, one short and one tall, one dark and one red, and they were laughing, something Hermione had always had trouble doing at St. Mary's around the children, they had never seemed to get her.
She…is having…fun…
She came up to her parents and introduced the two boys, smiling all the while.
"Good year?"
"Fantastic, you won't believe all the things I saw, this is Harry and Ron, by the way…"
She'd never been this happy at St. Mary's.
Something inside that was always denied for so many years…
She's leaving home…
Bye bye.
A/N: Don't know how plentiful Catholic schools are in the UK, but oh well.
Thanks for reading!
