Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I do own this story.. just not the characters... whatever. Read and Review puh-lease!!!
She looked down at her quill as it raced mechanically across the parchment. Hermione had a way of making her genius appear in words most people didn't even know and she cherished every single word in her vocabulary. She looked from quill to parchment and realized that the called for 3 feet of parchment on the Study of Muggle Sciences, was easily at 5 feet now. She took the quill into her teeth and thought for a moment on how to gently wrap this up. She smirked slightly remembering what her Muggle Studies professor had remarked to her the last time she had turned in such a lengthy assignment. Her professor still scowled at her.
Hermione scribbled away anyways, her bushy hair pulled back neatly at the nape of her neck. She was wearing a blue light-cotton button down shirt and boot cut blue jeans, blue socks adorned her feet which were twisting in the air as she laid on her belly. Her coordinating blue and yellow sheets rumpled from where she lay, but other than that, her room was like Hermione schoolwork. Perfect in every way. She had a poster of a muggle actor on the back of her door, a muggle periodic table of elements adorned her closet, and a picture of a Quidditch player smiling and waving was beside her desk. It was autographed very sloppily, but it was obviously a gift of endearment from her long time pen pal-strictly pen pal- Viktor Krum.
It was a cloud free day and the sun raked in through the parted curtains and casted rays along the floor of her small room. Her parents both dentists they could afford bigger and better accomidations, but were very conservative in how they spent their money. Why waste money on space no one was going to use, was their philosophy. And so Hermione had been raised. She put her quill down and looked over her parchment once more.
She grinned, liking the final result and rolled it up. She carefully slipped in alongside countless other rolled documents in her overly stuffed bag. It was nearing the end of summer and Hermione had finished every assignment given to her by her professors for the next school year. She got up from her bed and stretched a moment before exiting her room.
Her socks created friction as she made her way through the carpeted upstairs of the flat she lived in with her parents. They were currently in Romania attending a seminar on the importance of flossing. As if they didn't already know that, just needed another excuse to travel. She smiled at her parents quirks and retreated downstairs to the warmth of her kitchen.
She opened the refridgerator and looked at the contents. She had ran out of edible food a few days before and had been living off of carrots and celery. Hardly filling, mind you, she took a few muggle bills from a magnet on the door to the fridge and shut it. Shopping was in need and while she hadn't bought anything from a muggle market in quite some time, she was still looking forward to the experience once more. She pulled on her tennis and grabbing the flat key, exited her apartment. She locked the door before walking to the lift and taking it to the lobby.
She took a moment to ponder just how blissfully ignorant muggles were. How she had been. Chains and motors ran the contraption known as an elevator, when a simple locomotion spell would have sufficed. Valuable resources, fossil fuels, were being wasted to accomidate this ignorance. With a sigh she recalled the everpresent muggle term 'global warming' as she stepped off the elevator. She would really have to talk to her Muggle Studies professor or Arthur Weasley, to see if anything could not be done about this. While muggles were the problem, every being would be feeling the aftershocks of years of wrongdoing to the atmosphere. She shook these thoughts from her head as she made her way through the lobby.
She smiled to the doorman as he opened the door that led her to the crowded streets. She tucked her arms in as a wind picked up and gusted past. She walked away from the building wondering why she hadn't thought to bring a jacket with her.
"Hermione!" She whipped around, her hair falling out of the clip slightly as she looked to see whom had called her. She smiled uncomfortably as a familiar face came up to her.
"Hey.. Donald." She said as she embraced her childhood friend in a hug. She hadn't kept in contact with her once only friend since she had found out about her future in the magical world. She felt guilty, but it could not be helped. There was just too much separating them now.
Donald embraced her, smiling into her hair and taking in her heavenly scent. It had been a while since he had seen her, even though they lived only across the busy street from each other. When they finally broke apart, he smiled broadly at her. His brown hair untidy on his head, and his green eyes sparkling. He had gotten a lot taller, or so she thought. He was about as tall as Ron and even carried himself the same way.
"How you been Hermione? That all-girl school treating you alright?" He asked as he walked alongside her, some how knowing where she was heading. She smiled at that. She had nearly forgotten that was the lie they had told her neighbors. Hermione Granger had been accepted to a very prestigious all female school in Scotland.
"Fine." She replied. She wasn't really sure how to go about talking to him anymore. Even at eleven, they had both some how managed to retain a some what intelligent bond between them. But now her intelligence was in all things Magical, something he would not be able to understand. She wasn't sure where to go from there, so she just did what everyone does when placed in an uncomfortable conversation. Ask about their mothers. "So How's your mom?" She said looking away a smirk playing at her lips.
"Oh she's fine. Her and my father went to Bulgaria recently." Hermione started at the mention of Bulgaria, out of habit. She almost asked him about their quidditch team when she recalled whom she was speaking with. She just huddled down into herself even more and hid herself from him, wind and sun. "Did you hear? I'm going to be going to a 'prestigious' school this fall as well." He said pride dripping from his voice. A touch of mockery on the 'prestigious' part had Hermione smiling.
"Thinking of making me jealous?" She said with a laugh. "What school and where? Maybe it's close to mine in Scotland." She said jesting.
"It called Howitz, or something. My father is going to be a teacher there and we're all moving. But its somewhere outside of London. Not quite sure. Actually my dad never mentioned it. That's odd." He said looking up as if searching his brain for some answers. She smiled at him endearingly. He still hadn't changed much from his preteen days.
"That's nice, Donny. I'm sure you'll do fine. You were always top of class." She said with a wink. He laughed at that.
"If you mean right below you, than yeah i was top of our class. You really shouldn't bring yourself down all the time. You really are a very intelligent girl, you know that. If I had half your genius, well.. I'd be pretty damn smart." He said blushing quickly. She looked at him a goofy smile on her face. He blushed in the exact same spots as Ron, she thought. She nearly stopped walking at that thought, but she shook her head once more and continued her steady pace.
"Thank you, Donny. You always have a way of making me feel special." She said leaning playfully onto his side. She just wanted to reassure him that he had indeed complimented him, and was utterly shocked when he placed an arm around her shoulders tenderly. She let her mouth hang open dumbly for a moment before she snapped it shut. What was happening here? She wondered silently to herself.
Luckily they arrived at the market and she gingerly shrugged out of the convines in the pretense of reaching down for a basket. She blushed slightly as she made her way through the aisles, Donald not a step behind her. She enjoyed his company, but it was really unnecessary and was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable. She grabbed everything she needed as to hurriedly return home to the safety of her flat. She paid her bill and left the Market, Donald again at her side. He made to return his arm to her shoulders but she pretended to need to tie her shoes. As she knelt on the ground, she formulated a plan.
"Donald, do you think you could be a dear and carry these bags for me? They really are quite heavy?" She asked sweetly, hating herself as she did it. But if his arms were preoccupied with the bags, they could not be preoccupied by her.
"Sure thing Hermione. I thought you'd never ask." He jested as he took the bags from her. They continued walking in silence for a moment.
"So Hermione... since you know.. both of our parents are out of town.. I was wondering if I might be able to come over later.. and we might be able to keep each other company.. Just for tonight you know." His ears were tinged with red and his face was quickly turned to the ground, but she was sure his blush had carried there as well. She really didn't want to hurt him.
"I'm sorry, Donald... I have to get some rest tonight. I'm going to be spending the rest of the summer holidays at a friend's house in the country. If it just wasn't such short notice, it would be more than plausible..." She trailed off and wrapped her arms more readily around herself. It wasn't the wind that made her shiver though. It was the knowledge that Donald really truly cared for her, and had obviously cared for quite some time. It was a comforting thought, if only the attraction was mutual. She didn't have the heart to crush his spirt though and while she had not been lying when she said she was going to a friend's, being the Burrow, she wished she could have said what was really on her mind.
She couldn't tell what his reaction was, as he still kept his face downcasted, but she noticed the ridgedness of his shoulders and took that as a sign that he was indeed crushed.
"I should have came over yesterday, or sooner, it would have been more convenient. It's just that you're gone all the time Hermione. I don't think we've had a real conversation in 6 years." He said obviously needing to talk about this. Hermione just looked away wishing she wasn't here at all. She didn't know how to handle herself when it came to boys. Unless they were her two best friends.. that was easy. They needed guidance and help, while most of the opposite sex thought just the opposite of females. Donald was not that type of male, but that just complicated things further, as she just could not shrug him off. "I want things to be how they were before you left for that 'convent'." He smiled. "And you never write... Hermione, do you not want to be friends with me anymore?" He said looking into her eyes for the first time since they left the market. She looked into his dumbfounded.
"No, Donald, that's not it at all. It's next to impossible to get any forms of communication out of my school as its in the rugged Scottish mountains." It wasn't a complete lie. She didn't think that his parents would appreciate owls perched on their sills pecking insistantly at their window panes. "I will try to send a letter home for you, when I do mail my mother though." She promised. Looked like she had gained another pen pal. They continued to walk in silence now approaching her building. She reached for her bags as the door man held the door. "Well I can take it from here. Thank you for your help. And when you get the address to your new school, give it to my mother so she'll know where to address your letters." She gave her friend a hug before retreating into the lobby. "Good bye, Donald!" She called out.
"Good bye, Hermione! Have a great school year!" He called after her. Hermione smiled as she boarded the ignorant elevator and disappeared from sight.
She looked down at her quill as it raced mechanically across the parchment. Hermione had a way of making her genius appear in words most people didn't even know and she cherished every single word in her vocabulary. She looked from quill to parchment and realized that the called for 3 feet of parchment on the Study of Muggle Sciences, was easily at 5 feet now. She took the quill into her teeth and thought for a moment on how to gently wrap this up. She smirked slightly remembering what her Muggle Studies professor had remarked to her the last time she had turned in such a lengthy assignment. Her professor still scowled at her.
Hermione scribbled away anyways, her bushy hair pulled back neatly at the nape of her neck. She was wearing a blue light-cotton button down shirt and boot cut blue jeans, blue socks adorned her feet which were twisting in the air as she laid on her belly. Her coordinating blue and yellow sheets rumpled from where she lay, but other than that, her room was like Hermione schoolwork. Perfect in every way. She had a poster of a muggle actor on the back of her door, a muggle periodic table of elements adorned her closet, and a picture of a Quidditch player smiling and waving was beside her desk. It was autographed very sloppily, but it was obviously a gift of endearment from her long time pen pal-strictly pen pal- Viktor Krum.
It was a cloud free day and the sun raked in through the parted curtains and casted rays along the floor of her small room. Her parents both dentists they could afford bigger and better accomidations, but were very conservative in how they spent their money. Why waste money on space no one was going to use, was their philosophy. And so Hermione had been raised. She put her quill down and looked over her parchment once more.
She grinned, liking the final result and rolled it up. She carefully slipped in alongside countless other rolled documents in her overly stuffed bag. It was nearing the end of summer and Hermione had finished every assignment given to her by her professors for the next school year. She got up from her bed and stretched a moment before exiting her room.
Her socks created friction as she made her way through the carpeted upstairs of the flat she lived in with her parents. They were currently in Romania attending a seminar on the importance of flossing. As if they didn't already know that, just needed another excuse to travel. She smiled at her parents quirks and retreated downstairs to the warmth of her kitchen.
She opened the refridgerator and looked at the contents. She had ran out of edible food a few days before and had been living off of carrots and celery. Hardly filling, mind you, she took a few muggle bills from a magnet on the door to the fridge and shut it. Shopping was in need and while she hadn't bought anything from a muggle market in quite some time, she was still looking forward to the experience once more. She pulled on her tennis and grabbing the flat key, exited her apartment. She locked the door before walking to the lift and taking it to the lobby.
She took a moment to ponder just how blissfully ignorant muggles were. How she had been. Chains and motors ran the contraption known as an elevator, when a simple locomotion spell would have sufficed. Valuable resources, fossil fuels, were being wasted to accomidate this ignorance. With a sigh she recalled the everpresent muggle term 'global warming' as she stepped off the elevator. She would really have to talk to her Muggle Studies professor or Arthur Weasley, to see if anything could not be done about this. While muggles were the problem, every being would be feeling the aftershocks of years of wrongdoing to the atmosphere. She shook these thoughts from her head as she made her way through the lobby.
She smiled to the doorman as he opened the door that led her to the crowded streets. She tucked her arms in as a wind picked up and gusted past. She walked away from the building wondering why she hadn't thought to bring a jacket with her.
"Hermione!" She whipped around, her hair falling out of the clip slightly as she looked to see whom had called her. She smiled uncomfortably as a familiar face came up to her.
"Hey.. Donald." She said as she embraced her childhood friend in a hug. She hadn't kept in contact with her once only friend since she had found out about her future in the magical world. She felt guilty, but it could not be helped. There was just too much separating them now.
Donald embraced her, smiling into her hair and taking in her heavenly scent. It had been a while since he had seen her, even though they lived only across the busy street from each other. When they finally broke apart, he smiled broadly at her. His brown hair untidy on his head, and his green eyes sparkling. He had gotten a lot taller, or so she thought. He was about as tall as Ron and even carried himself the same way.
"How you been Hermione? That all-girl school treating you alright?" He asked as he walked alongside her, some how knowing where she was heading. She smiled at that. She had nearly forgotten that was the lie they had told her neighbors. Hermione Granger had been accepted to a very prestigious all female school in Scotland.
"Fine." She replied. She wasn't really sure how to go about talking to him anymore. Even at eleven, they had both some how managed to retain a some what intelligent bond between them. But now her intelligence was in all things Magical, something he would not be able to understand. She wasn't sure where to go from there, so she just did what everyone does when placed in an uncomfortable conversation. Ask about their mothers. "So How's your mom?" She said looking away a smirk playing at her lips.
"Oh she's fine. Her and my father went to Bulgaria recently." Hermione started at the mention of Bulgaria, out of habit. She almost asked him about their quidditch team when she recalled whom she was speaking with. She just huddled down into herself even more and hid herself from him, wind and sun. "Did you hear? I'm going to be going to a 'prestigious' school this fall as well." He said pride dripping from his voice. A touch of mockery on the 'prestigious' part had Hermione smiling.
"Thinking of making me jealous?" She said with a laugh. "What school and where? Maybe it's close to mine in Scotland." She said jesting.
"It called Howitz, or something. My father is going to be a teacher there and we're all moving. But its somewhere outside of London. Not quite sure. Actually my dad never mentioned it. That's odd." He said looking up as if searching his brain for some answers. She smiled at him endearingly. He still hadn't changed much from his preteen days.
"That's nice, Donny. I'm sure you'll do fine. You were always top of class." She said with a wink. He laughed at that.
"If you mean right below you, than yeah i was top of our class. You really shouldn't bring yourself down all the time. You really are a very intelligent girl, you know that. If I had half your genius, well.. I'd be pretty damn smart." He said blushing quickly. She looked at him a goofy smile on her face. He blushed in the exact same spots as Ron, she thought. She nearly stopped walking at that thought, but she shook her head once more and continued her steady pace.
"Thank you, Donny. You always have a way of making me feel special." She said leaning playfully onto his side. She just wanted to reassure him that he had indeed complimented him, and was utterly shocked when he placed an arm around her shoulders tenderly. She let her mouth hang open dumbly for a moment before she snapped it shut. What was happening here? She wondered silently to herself.
Luckily they arrived at the market and she gingerly shrugged out of the convines in the pretense of reaching down for a basket. She blushed slightly as she made her way through the aisles, Donald not a step behind her. She enjoyed his company, but it was really unnecessary and was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable. She grabbed everything she needed as to hurriedly return home to the safety of her flat. She paid her bill and left the Market, Donald again at her side. He made to return his arm to her shoulders but she pretended to need to tie her shoes. As she knelt on the ground, she formulated a plan.
"Donald, do you think you could be a dear and carry these bags for me? They really are quite heavy?" She asked sweetly, hating herself as she did it. But if his arms were preoccupied with the bags, they could not be preoccupied by her.
"Sure thing Hermione. I thought you'd never ask." He jested as he took the bags from her. They continued walking in silence for a moment.
"So Hermione... since you know.. both of our parents are out of town.. I was wondering if I might be able to come over later.. and we might be able to keep each other company.. Just for tonight you know." His ears were tinged with red and his face was quickly turned to the ground, but she was sure his blush had carried there as well. She really didn't want to hurt him.
"I'm sorry, Donald... I have to get some rest tonight. I'm going to be spending the rest of the summer holidays at a friend's house in the country. If it just wasn't such short notice, it would be more than plausible..." She trailed off and wrapped her arms more readily around herself. It wasn't the wind that made her shiver though. It was the knowledge that Donald really truly cared for her, and had obviously cared for quite some time. It was a comforting thought, if only the attraction was mutual. She didn't have the heart to crush his spirt though and while she had not been lying when she said she was going to a friend's, being the Burrow, she wished she could have said what was really on her mind.
She couldn't tell what his reaction was, as he still kept his face downcasted, but she noticed the ridgedness of his shoulders and took that as a sign that he was indeed crushed.
"I should have came over yesterday, or sooner, it would have been more convenient. It's just that you're gone all the time Hermione. I don't think we've had a real conversation in 6 years." He said obviously needing to talk about this. Hermione just looked away wishing she wasn't here at all. She didn't know how to handle herself when it came to boys. Unless they were her two best friends.. that was easy. They needed guidance and help, while most of the opposite sex thought just the opposite of females. Donald was not that type of male, but that just complicated things further, as she just could not shrug him off. "I want things to be how they were before you left for that 'convent'." He smiled. "And you never write... Hermione, do you not want to be friends with me anymore?" He said looking into her eyes for the first time since they left the market. She looked into his dumbfounded.
"No, Donald, that's not it at all. It's next to impossible to get any forms of communication out of my school as its in the rugged Scottish mountains." It wasn't a complete lie. She didn't think that his parents would appreciate owls perched on their sills pecking insistantly at their window panes. "I will try to send a letter home for you, when I do mail my mother though." She promised. Looked like she had gained another pen pal. They continued to walk in silence now approaching her building. She reached for her bags as the door man held the door. "Well I can take it from here. Thank you for your help. And when you get the address to your new school, give it to my mother so she'll know where to address your letters." She gave her friend a hug before retreating into the lobby. "Good bye, Donald!" She called out.
"Good bye, Hermione! Have a great school year!" He called after her. Hermione smiled as she boarded the ignorant elevator and disappeared from sight.