Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own any characters, places or anything else you recognize and probably some that you don't, in this story.

'…' thinking

"…" talking

…

'Finally! I can't stand another moment of that great oaf chewing, I mean how much food can a person eat?' Hermione thought as she stormed off toward the common room, she had to get there first since she'd told everyone she was going to study. 'Honestly, how much do they think I can study? I think Thomas suspects though, he keeps giving me strange looks, but even if he does know he can't exactly talk, I mean he isn't who he seems either, I don't know who he is but he is not the disgustingly cheerful guy he acts like, it was probably him who saw me that night.' She continued to consider the enigma that was Dean Thomas while she entered her dorm. "Now where did I put that damn broom?" She muttered as she rummaged through her belongings, she found the broom and flew out the window, over the high walls and into town. 'Let's se, where is that nice little shop I saw before, oh right, right beside the hogshead.' She stepped inside the store, it looked very much like a normal muggle shop, except for the little fact that the clothes were hanging in midair and the light had not apparent source.

"What can I do for you?" A young man said, eyeing her clothes with obvious distaste.

"I am in desperate need of proper clothes."

"So I se, remove the robe please." She did as she was told. 'What kind of place is this?' He checked her measurements. "Well you're a perfect hourglass, what look are you going for?"

"One that doesn't make me look like a priss."

"I mean do you want more of a flirty type or a badass?"

"I'll go with badass." He nodded and waved his wand, she turned to face the mirror, she smirked her approval, her school shirt had been swapped for a tube top that read "Don't Piss me off! I'm running out of places to hide the bodies." And her knee length grey skirt had been exchanged for a pair of baggy camouflage pants, Mary-Jane's replaced with army boots. The clerk was fingering his wand and staring at her. "What?" She asked.

"Your hair…"

"What about it?"

"I can't allow you to leave my shop looking like that, it does nothing for your facial features and quite frankly it looks like something might live in it."

"Well I'll be here for a long time then, I've only managed to fix it once and it took hours."

"But look at it, it looks like twigs." He said as he plucked at it.

"Yeah well I've given up on it, if you want to have a go then be my guest."

"Oh goodie!" He started muttering spells under his breath, after putting her hair in a series of different up dos he settled on a simple high ponytail. He stepped back and admired his work. "Now just two things missing." He said, he tapped her lips and eyes and she knew he had applied make-up, then he ran of to the register and found something, he came back and hung a pair of dog tags around her neck.

"What now?" She said as she saw he still seemed to be itching to do something. He conjured what looked like a small silver lizard and stuck it through her ear so it curled around from a hole in the top to one in the bottom. Then he handed her a pair of camouflage patterned wristbands. "Anything more?" He gave her a belt with a tiger's head as a clasp.

"Now were done."

"Right, I need three pairs of pants, something like these, maybe a few skirts, some tops, shoes, I really don't think I can afford the extra stuff you've given me."

"Of course you can, I'll give you the stuff if you work for me, it's so hard to find good help, only preps and Barbies want to work in clothes stores…" He said in a sad voice.

"But I'm still in school."

"I can se that, but you can come down here on weekends and holidays and you'll get clothes from me and whatever pay is fair besides that."

"Sure, what exactly would I be doing?" She asked while thinking more along the lines of 'What's the catch?'

"Well you'd kind of be running the place, I've started a store in Diagon Alley and I don't want to leave my brother in charge of it all the time."

"Right…" She considered her options. 'Nice clothes with cool accessories, extra cash and a job, or less clothes with no accessories, no money and no job, that's a no-brainer.' "I'll take it."

"Oh good, now here are your clothes, come down tomorrow."

"Ok."

"Now off you go, you don't want to get caught here and someone's coming, shoo." She left the store carrying the stuff she'd bought. Next morning she slept late, something she hadn't allowed herself to do for a long time, then she got up, dressed in a pair of black pants and a blood red tube, did her hair and went down to breakfast. Outside the great hall she saw Dean, who seemed also to have picked that day to remodel his wardrobe. They gave each other the once over while walking in and nodded approval.

"Very hip hop." She said.

"Very you." He answered. They turned to face the hall and noticed everyone was staring at them, Malfoy was strutting toward them.

"So the mudbloods finally decided to do something about their clothes, cost you all you had did it?"

"Oh my god Parkinson isn't here, but that must mean…no…" Hermione said in mock astonishment. "That must mean Malfoy learned to dress himself in the mornings!"

"I'd watch that attitude if I were you Granger." He said as a large part of the hall laughed at her comment.

"Well I'd say it's a damn good thing you're not or this place would be boring wouldn't it? Not to mention I'd have to be you." She shuddered. She went and sat down at the end of the Gryfffiondor table away from everyone else and was joined by Dean, she didn't eat but picked at her food, she grew tired of it and started looking around, Ron was stuffing his face again. "Disgusting."

"He's your boyfriend, do something about it."

"I will, and he's my ex, I just haven't told him yet." She took out her wand and he heard her whisper something and saw Hannah Abbot's pancake flying across the room and hitting Ron straight in the face, the hall fell silent and the pancake slipped off his face leaving whipped cream and jam on his face. Dean snorted.

"Not exactly what I had in mind but that was a good solution, you do realize you're going to get in trouble for it right?"

"Not bloody likely, look at Dumbledore." The headmaster was watching the students look for the culprit with amusement written across his face.

"Nice." Dean flicked his wand and sent Justin Finch-Fletchly's pudding over to the Slytherin table, then turned it upside down and dumped it over Malfoy's head.

"Good one." They continued doing this until everyone finally figured out it was them, at which point they left the hall.

"Hermione, are you sane?"

"Pretty sure I am, why?"

"Can you se that tapestry?"

"Yeah…" She said, still wondering where this was going.

"That makes one of us insane, I can't se a thing, neither can Seamus but Lavender says it's there, so either it's you and Lav or it's me and Seamus."

"There's probably a perfectly logical reason for that."

"Are you sure you're sane?"

"If I say no will you stop asking?"

"Probably not."

"Then Yes Dean, I'm sane, now I have better things to do so excuse me." She walked off and he turned the other way.

"I like the new attitude." He muttered.

"She totally dissed you man." Seamus, who had followed them out said.

"Exactly my point, besides, what would you do if someone repeatedly asked you if you were sane?"

"Yell at you?"

"Right." He walked off toward the common room, once there he found Hermione and Ron standing ten feet apart, Harry was standing beside Ron and everyone was scrambling to get out of their way.

"What are you doing Hermione? Go and change back, you should act like yourself."

"What would you know? I am acting like myself Weasley, I haven't been able to for over five years and you know what? It feels good."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about living up to everyone's stupid expectations, always being there for you two, the boy-who-fucking-lived and his sidekick, I'm talking about dating you, about always acting the way people tell me to, I'm sick of it! You two don't even realize you're not the only ones with problems! Always going on and on about it and expecting me to listen."

"Hermione I know I'm not the only one with problems but…"

"But what? You have bigger problems then everyone else? You're an orphan, you're going to have to kill someone, been there, done that."

"What are you on about?"

"Surprised I didn't have a fairytale childhood?"

"So what happened then?" Harry asked.

"When I was three my father started abusing my mother, beating her, said it was punishment, and she believed him. When I was five he started on me too, my mother tried to stop him, he killed her, right in front of my eyes, he told me it was my fault, I believed him too. When I was six I was barely alive, my older brother came home to visit he caught my father in the act and tried to phone the police, so dad killed him too, just banged him over the head with an iron pole, that was my fault as well. He got rid of the body just like he had with my mother's and when he came back I shot him, I just grabbed his 45 and shot him right between the eyes. Then I phoned 911 and when the police came I was gone, I cleaned myself up and checked into a hospital claiming I couldn't remember who was, when they figured it out they'd already put the investigations on my family to rest. I lived in foster homes, I always ran away, my foster parents would always say all I did was read and make sarcastic remarks. Is that enough problems for your should I start on the reason why my brother wasn't home in the first place?" The boys stood stunned, as did everyone else in the room. "Thought so, you've been lucky you know, you've always had family and you've always been safe, that's more then I've had. Say goodbye to the me you know, this one's here to stay." With that she walked out leaving everyone else staring after her.

…

AN: And that's it, hope you liked it.