A Way of Life Worth Fighting For
Chapter 1: In Which Hermione Writes A Letter And Letters Are Received
She was currently sitting in her bedroom (painted lilac and pink by her parents when she was seven) on the floor trying to compose a letter to her best friend Harry. This in itself was a delicate mission. There was no knowing what kind of mood he would be in when he received the letter, so it was best if one was as diplomatic as possible.
Dear Harry,
Thanks for your last letter; I am glad you liked my present for you. I am very sorry, but I don't know much else: only the solid fact I can pick out from between the Prophet's useless drivel.
My sister got her Hogwart's letter yesterday (expect you didn't know I had a sister, did you? – she's called Lauren) and I got my OWL results – twelve.
Tonks came to see us yesterday. The upshot of the visit is that my mum, Lauren and myself are going to stay at the Order's Headquarters (it has been left to Sirius's cousin, Tonks's mother, Andromeda) for the night, the day before term starts. She also mentioned you would be going there in a couple of days. I can't wait to see you and Ron again.
I've already decided what to do for my NEWT courses: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures (we have to try and keep Hagrid in check).
See you at the Order Headquarters on the 31st August. Love Hermione.
Hermione gave the letter a cursory glance. Yes, it had just the right amount of tactfulness. She has mentioned Sirius but that could not really be avoided. She dreaded to think what Ron was writing in his letters to Harry. In Hermione's opinion, Ron had about as much tact as one of the sheep in the fields she could see from her bedroom window.
She had just tied the letter to the tireless Hedwig's leg, watched her zoom off into the sunset and started thinking about doing a bit of reading when her bedroom door swung open and her little sister bounced in – presumably to continue pestering her endlessly on the subject of Hogwarts and magic in general. Too Lauren's great surprise, Hermione had been strangely mute on the subject of Hogwarts, but then, what could she say to her sister?
"Oh yes Lauren; me, Harry and Ron, we've spent our years at Hogwarts so far fighting evil. We have learnt something, but mostly we just fight evil." As if.
"Hermione, Hermione, we're going to Diagon Alley the day after tomorrow, Mum said so. Will I be able to get a wand?" She wasn't normally like this, but during bouts of extreme excitement Lauren had a tendency to be very, very bouncy. "Oh yeah," she added as an afterthought, "Mum also says dinner's ready. Come on." She grabbed her sister's hand and dragged her downstairs, talking all the way, "Alex is coming round tomorrow, and she's going to sleep over..."
The Granger family lived in a smart, four-bedroom, detached house on the outskirts of the spa-town of Tunbridge Wells, Kent. It was here that Hermione had been bought home from hospital to when she was a baby, and here she had stayed all year round until she was eleven and an owl had bought her a letter that was destined to change her entire life.
Mr R. Granger and Mrs M. Granger owned a dentist surgery fairly close to their house. Hermione did not know what had driven either of her parents to dentistry, but they were both fanatical (to say the least) about teeth. They were very anti-plaque and in their eyes, magic and teeth did not mix.
The other thing her parents were fanatical about was the conservative party. Whilst ensconced in the hospital wing with a cat's face and tail during the Christmas Holidays of her second year, Hermione had written a very long epistle to them outlining exactly why they should vote for any party except the Tories in the upcoming General Election. Alas, April came and went and John Major came into power and Hermione decided that she would have to put trying to change her parents views on hold until the next election. Furthermore, she had just discovered an excellent book (Wizarding Politics Throughout Time by Millicent Bagnold, Little Red Books, 1991) and her attention had turned.
Mr and Mrs Granger were already sitting at the kitchen table, the Sunday Roast in front of Mr Granger ready for carving. Lauren slid into the empty seat next to her father and Hermione sat down next to her mother.
"Here you are," remarked Margaret Granger ("Meg" to her friends and family), "what have you been up to in your room all afternoon Hermione? You've been very quiet."
"I've been writing to Harry, Mum."
"Again?" asked Richard Granger, raising an eyebrow.
"Honestly Dad," huffed Hermione, "he's my best friend."
Lauren let out a shrill giggle, "it took you all afternoon to write to him?"
"No, I wrote to Ron and Viktor as well."
Her father chuckled, "all these men."
"Richard, stop teasing Hermione," chided Meg exchanging amused looks with her husband, "mashed potatoes, Lauren?"
Later, full to the brim with ham and lemon soufflé, Hermione climbed the stairs to her room softly humming the school song to herself to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon:
Hogwarts, Hoggy-Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scraggy knees,
Our heads could do with filling,
With some interesting stuff,
But now they're bare,
And full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
We'll do our best,
We'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.
Life was good here, but she did not really fit in – she never had. She could not wait to go back to Hogwarts.
##
Hermione was lying on the sofa in the Grangers' living room reading The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts for the twelfth time the next day when Lauren's best friend Alex appeared. She grinned to herself as she wondered how her sister was going to tell her friend that she was not in fact going to Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School but was actually going to a highly exclusive boarding school for magical teenagers in Scotland.
"Would you like a cup of tea, Linda?" Hermione could here her mum asking from the hallway.
"That would be lovely, Meg."
Lauren and Alex were giggling outside the living room door. They pushed it open and came in, not noticing Hermione who was lying on the sofa facing towards the French doors. They settled down in front of the television. Hermione could tell what they were doing. Lauren was switching on the play station, "Alex." Oh dear, confession time. "I'm not going to Twiggs. I've had an invitation to go to the same school as Hermione."
Silence.
"Well actually that's quite funny," remarked Alex, "I'm not going to Twiggs either. I'm going to boarding school."
Hermione suddenly saw where this conversation was going. She could not believe she had not realised before. She sat up abruptly causing both eleven-year-olds to gasp.
"This school, Alex, what's its name?"
"Well..." Alex floundered.
"It wouldn't happen to begin with 'H'?"
"It could."
"Followed shortly by 'O'?"
"Yeees...?"
"Followed by 'G', 'W', 'A', 'R', 'T' and 'S'?"
"How did you know?" asked Alex, baffled.
"You're a witch," yelped Lauren, who Hermione noticed, was starting to bounce again, "you're going to Hogwarts? I'm going too. You can come to Diagon Alley with us tomorrow. Hermione's a witch too; she's been at Hogwarts five years already-"
"You're a witch too?" Meg spoke from the doorway.
"Hermione's a witch?" asked Linda, looking slightly bemused.
"What's Hogwarts like?" Alex enquired.
"Yeah," added Lauren, "you haven't said anything about it Hermione. Tell us."
Hermione looked from Lauren to Alex. They looked eager, "d'you really want to know?"
"Yes!"
"Alright," Hermione drew a deep breath, "Hogwarts is the best place on earth..."
##
A/N: Did you like? Has the coding worked? If it hasn't, can someone tell me where its gone wrong. Thanks ( Tunbridge Wells and the Grammar School are real places. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if someone there reads fan fiction. There's about six of us or something at my school – two groups who discovered it independently of each other or something like that.