She had time. She used it to gaze at the posters on her the wall of her childhood's room. Her two heroin...well, considering exactly who one of them was she could not use that term. Role models? Inspirations?
The one poster was a political promotion poster. Hermione Jean Granger, the banner began. As it flowed off the edge of the poster only to flow on the other side it continued, for Secretary of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The woman revealed her wand and pointed it as if off into the future. A fairy flew from behind her, looked into her eyes, and then continued into the sky in her wands direction. A centaur with a particularly noble appearance trotted into view and nodded before walking off the poster's edge. Of course, the campaign was successful.
Hermione Granger from a young age had the most unique talent for not memorizing but comprehending actual knowledge from wizard written books, despite being muggleborn. Wizard's texts were more often like half diaries and half personal notes, sometimes even taking narrative as more important than their subject matter. Most of the wizarding world ended up knowing more 'famous wizards' than their actual contributions. But even more than that, Hermione Granger could then formulate that knowledge into actual systems. Her encyclopedic expertise led to practical to implement reforms in the department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and now the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It was even rumored that she was going to be groomed for Minister of Magic...but even a member of the Golden Trio could only surpass so much as a muggleborn.
The other poster was a wanted poster. The nearly rabid, if not broken at least maladapted, criminal bit at the viewer. It was as if Bellatrix LeStrange nee Black could crawl out of the picture through a strange combination of spacial reconfiguration and temporal discplacement. And considering the witch, the chains holding her and her Azkaban uniform back might be the only things stopping her.
Bellatrix Black had set the record for most NEWTs completed with Os in the history of Hogwarts. There wasn't an opportunity for her to be displaced until Muggle Studies had been split into two separate classes post war - one for pure-blood cultured wizards to understand muggle culture and technology and another for muggleborns to understand the entirely different legal system and custom set they were going to be judged by. Time turners wouldn't have even existed without her mastery's dissertation in Charms for permanently enchanting the temporal anchors used in magical photographs to mechanical manipulated parts.
These two women, both so very much the same but only if you weren't a moron. They served masters with a hopeless devotion that didn't quite share their exact intentions but who could be considered close enough. Brilliant beyond the comprehension of most to the point where they could only be expected to perform beyond expectations. Even their wild hair fluttering around them like a mane and the intense focus of their eyes drew them together.
The little girl in her childhood room reached up with both hands to touch her own hair. It was completely straight and flat, thick with no volume. But on the left it was a shining blonde and across the explicit line in the middle of her head the right side was jet black. Her parents had not wanted to take her to muggle areas until she found pictures of Cruella Deville to show them that she was not a walking breach of the Secrecy Statute. Considering that the rest of her features were completely plain, even the cute button nose and the viscious hook nose she could have inherited from her parents seemed to fight each other into the spitting image of normal they ended up relenting.
But she was prepared now. She had studied all the books left to her, and granted she couldn't do a quarter of what they detailed due to her age she swore she understood them. And she had demanded a muggle education - even if it was viewed as 'precious' and was limited to correspondence schooling. All the better, there was no muggle authority that stopped her from sitting enough A-levels to qualify her for university, if barely.
Her mother came into the room. "You know how I feel about these posters, dear."
"Do you want me to take them to Hogwarts?", she replied.
The woman smiled. "I wouldn't want to give Headmistress McGonagal the shock at her age.
"But your father/"
"He's not my father.", the child reminded.
Her mother frowned. "I know, but you've been calling him 'dad'."
The little girl looked down, her limp hair hanging around her face as if to hide what her budding Occlumency could not. "You know I do that because I respect the fact that he's your husband. He took your name so you could continue your line. He doesn't deserve the disrespect of me not calling him that. Dad is a good man."
Her mother agreed. "I think so too.
"Are you packed for the train?"
"No, I've been staring off into space when there was work to do.", the child sneered. "Doesn't the various accolades across my shelves tell you how lazy a person I am?"
"Oh no.", her mother said. The woman took out a hankerchief. "I'm going to have to wipe that sneer off your face."
"Mother."
"Hold still! You don't want a wrackspurt to steal it and put it back later."
The child half-heartedly protested with her arms as they went through this game of wiping away expressions that they always had.
"Don't feel bad if you don't make it into the house you think you want, alright?"
The child rolled her eyes. "It's not that I wouldn't want to be in Ravenclaw. But it's not that I just so happen to be who I am. I'm going to end up in Slytherin. Because it's my intent.
"There's only two titles that our world cares about. One set aside for boys, and one for girls. If they invent a new one for me like they did for the Boy-Who-Lived or You-Know-Who then fine. And I have no need for Dark Lord. But I intend to be known as the Brightest Witch of Our Age. And I may not be an expert Occluder or Legilimens yet, but even your Sight realizes that it's the ambition that's going to matter."