I can't believe it's been over three weeks since I last updated! Scary, really.
I kinda got stuck after the last chapter, so I stared at my outline for a while. Then I had this "brilliant" idea to stick in an extra chapter. Only problem was that it completely interfered with my original plan (I was gonna write little anecdotes that skipped every three years to show how Hermione changes over the years). So the original outline went out the window and I had to rewrite the whole outliney thingy for the last two chapters.
Oh, and guys, Chicago is a beautiful city! ----------------------that's where I was last week when I was suppose to put in this chapter!
Disclaimer: Nope, not at all…
How She Came to Be…
Chapter Five:
Diaries and Sleepovers (1991)
The eleven year old Hermione Granger stifled a yawn as she gazed around the restless classroom as she took a break from taking notes. It was the alst day of the schoolyear and the aged English instructor was droning about personal writings.
"Most people keep a journal or diary to make notes about their day to day life. Some see it was a fun way to remember things by, but most do this in order to relieve their minds of the stress and events that take plac-e so they no longer have to play it over and over again in their heads.
"But some people go beyond the boundaries of the paragraph form of writing. Some turn their events into short stories, analyzing it from all sides. For those that have little time, they copy it down in script form. An extremely interesting form is poetry since it shows the writer's feelings about the outcomes of the day in a few lines."
The bell rang and Hermione threw her notebook into her empty bag before hurrying out the classroom, bidding the frowning teacher a quick farewell. She wrinkled her eyebrows, remembering what the teacher said.
"Hey, Hermione!"
She whirled around, her eyebrows flying up in alarm. It was Danielle Reeves, the most popular girl in the school, who constantly begged Hermione for the answers to the homework.
The pretty dark haired girl held out a lavender envelope with words written in glitter. "Here," she thrust it into Hermione's hand, grinning widely to reveal her straight, pearly white teeth. "Hope to see you tonight!" And then she was gone, weaving through the thring of ecstatic students.
The crowd pushed her to the front entrance and she cut across the lawn, opening the envelope with a shaking hand. Inside was a colorful card with "Get ready to party!" scrawled across the top in glitter. She opened it.
Tonight at Danielle Reeves' house!
Bring a sleeping bag and get ready for loads of FUN!
RSVP at 515.6689
Hermione threw her hands up in the air and squealed with glee. Ignoring the stares from those around her, she raced home to pack her duffel bag.
Hermione bounced on the balls of her feet nervously as she rang the doorbell to a pretty, white, two-story house. The black, glossy door creaked open and a lady with Danielle's sleek dark hair in her early thirties appeared, a phone attached to one ear.
"Hello, dear, are you here for Danielle's party?" asked Mrs. Reeves.
Hermione nodded as she adjusted the strap of her bag.
"Come in, come in," said Mrs. Reeves, motioning Hermione in. She stepped in and the door swung shut. "No, no, no! I said six bolts of champagne colored material."
Hermione looked up in alarm but breathed a sigh of relief to find Mrs. Reeves growling into her phone angrily.
"No, I don't want you order six more, I need six in all!" A huffy pause. "You dolt! Do I have to do everything around here?" Another pause, equally stiff. "I don't care if you have to stay the night! Just get the job done!"
Hermione winced as Mrs. Reeves stalked into the kitchen, dialing another number as she went.
Something thumped down the stairs and Danielle Reeves came into the living room, followed by three older girls.
"Oh, hi, Hermione," said Danielle as she played with her wavy hair. "I'm glad you came! You know my friends, right?"
Hermione nodded. Of course she knew Danielle's entourage. Molly, the prettiest girl in the school with her shiny blonde hair. Amber, the snotty girl with greasy black hair who manipulated others to do whatever she said. Kelsey with her proud nose and stringy red hair, who was the eldest. All of them were dressed in trendy skirts, her hair tucked up in loose ponytails, and donning colorful, frilly shirts. Hermione cringed slightly as they looked down at her. She had on her favorite jeans and T-shirt, both slightly worn but comfortable, though they didn't feel as nice as they did when she put them on. She felt her wildly bushy hair, running her hand over the locks, trying to smooth them down.
"Well, you'll do, I suppose," said Kelsey, her infamous nose struck upward.
She winced again. This was not how she pictured it. The four of them stood in silence.
"C'mon up to my room," Danielle said after the awkward pause, motioning for her to go up the stairs. "We're getting ready to have dinner."
"Oh, okay, thanks," said Hermione as she followed Danielle up the blue carpeted steps. The first door on the right was open and revealed a room full of stuffed animals, frilly sheets, comforters, and pillowcases, and some of the most expensive clothes she'd ever seen. "You've got a great house," she said, setting her bag on the floor along with her dark green sleeping bag.
"Yeah, I know," said Danielle as she led the way back down the stairs.
"I can't believe you guys!" said Danielle, as she picked some cheese and butter out of her hair. "We're not playing truth or dare at my dinner table anymore!" she grabbed a bundle of clothes. "I'm taking a shower. Don't kill each other before I'm back, okay?" She left with a scowl on her face. A macaroni elbow fell to the floor as the door slammed shut.
"Look what I found," said Kelsey, Danielle's best friend of six years, as she waved a glittery pink notebook in the air. The other girls squealed in delight.
"What's that?" asked Hermione, sitting on her rolled out sleeping bag.
"Just a book with all of Danielle's secrets in it," said Amber as she ran a hand through her greasy hair, a smirk spread across her pinched face.
"But if it's Danielle's—-!" started Hermione.
"Listen to her, 'But if it's Danielle's…!' " Molly mimicked the former. "It's not like we're hurting anyone."
"Ooo!" piped in the last of the three, Molly—pretty, perfect Molly who would look good no matter what— "Let's read it!"
Hermione tucked her feet under her, pulling her knees to her chest. All three of them were prettier, taller, and better dressed than her. Anyway, they all knew Danielle better. But she still felt guilty as she watched the three gather around the open book.
" 'December 7th,' " recited Kelsey as she flung her dull red hair over a shoulder. " 'I loooove Matthew Bakers! I think he likes me too! I could not take my eyes off him during science today!' "
"Pathetic," said Amber as she took the book. " 'January 27th, I got my first period!' "
The three girls burst out laughing. Hermione sat there, horrified at the display of cruelty. After the piercing giggles subsided, Molly shook her shining blonde mane and turned a few dozen pages. " 'April 9th, Mum and Dad were arguing again. It was about me and Lindsey. I'm really scared. What if they get a divorce? I don't want to live with just Mum or just Dad. This is horrible! What am I going to do?' "
"How pathetic!" Amber rolled her eyes.
"I know!" Kelsey and Molly said in unison.
"Here, your turn," said Molly as she handed the book to Hermione.
"I-I don't want it," she stammered, refusing to touch the forbidden book.
"Aw, c'mon, Little Miss Perfect," said Amber with a menacing leer.
"I am not perfect!"
"Prove it," taunted the stringy haired girl.
Hermione glared at her. She should not have come. So what if Danielle was the most popular girl in the school? The only reason the poor girl passed the year was because Hermione gave her the answers to her homework. And at least Hermione knew who to not hang out with…!
She shut her blazing eyes, willing Danielle to come in and see what her so-called friends were doing. Nobody, not even the girl who only spoke to her for the answer to assignments, had the right to have people like these for close companions. No one.
Someone shrieked loudly.
Hermione's eyes flashed open in time to see the pink diary fall to the floor before her, the cover quickly consumed by the hungry flames. She gasped horror and grabbed the leather jacket next to her in order to smother the blaze.
"What happened?" she asked, coughing as smoke filled the room.
"That's my favorite jacket!" screeched Amber, tearing the material out of Hermione's hands. "You're going to pay for this!"
"But what happened?" Hermione asked again, looking around for the source of the fire.
"It-it just caught on fire," said Kelsey, whose eyes were still wide with horror. "You just closed your eyes and it—it—"
"What?"
"You're a witch!" Molly said breathlessly, an accusing finger pointed at Hermione.
"What?" she said in a louder tone, disbelieving what she just heard.
The door swung on. The person at the door started to cough.
"Did you guy start a bonfire?" asked Danielle after her fit of coughs ended.
"She did it!" Amber also pointed an accusing finger at Hermione. "She was reading your journal to us—mind you, we tried to stop her, but she just kept going. I tried to take it away, but she just looked at me and closed her eyes and my jacket caught on fire! Then she did the little witch blink thing again and your journal caught on fire!"
"That's a lie!" said Hermione as she glared at the Amber and her evil, greasy head.
"Oh no you don't!" said Amber, dodging to one side. "You're not blowing me up, you little witch!"
Danielle was shaking with fury. "You—read—my—diary? MY DIARY?"
"No, it wasn't me it was—!" Hermione began, pointing at the other three.
"It was you!" said Kelsey. "It was! It was!"
"I can not believe my Mum made me invite you!" shrieked Danielle.
Hermione was stunned. "What?"
"That's right," snarled the dark-haired girl. "My dear mummy found out that you were giving me all the answers to the assignments. I should have known something was up because my Mum usually doesn't care about where I get my answers from as long as I pass the year. Then she told me that I had to invite you over to say thanks."
Molly burst out laughing. The once pretty twitter now sour and acidic, biting into Hermione's innocent eardrum. "Look at her, she actually thought a freak like her was a friend of ours!"
The other three also cackled, the notorious giggles reddened our heroine's face and sent sad tingles down her spine.
Kelsey leaned forward and whispered in her nasty, evil voice, "Freaks like you are only good for project topics."
"I should have known that you would try to pull something like this!" growled Danielle. "Makes sense doesn't it? You, always giving me the answers? I should have known that you were going to dig up some dirt and ruin my reputation!"
"Aw, look at the little baby cry," sneered Amber.
Hermione, who had been sitting in silence, put a hand up to her cheek in time to catch the stream of tears. Quick as a lightning, she scooped her bag up and ran out the perfect room, down the perfect stairs, through the perfect hall (ignoring Mrs. Reeves' curious stare) and out the perfect door and into the world of imperfection. The world where she could make a difference. Her feet pattered on the concrete of the sidewalk as she disappeared into the slowly setting sun.
"I'm never going back there," she whispered, folding a sheet of tear-stained paper,
"Was it that bad?" asked Olive as she perched on Hermione's shoulder.
She nodded, but didn't say anything. She was not going to recount the humiliating experience again. She opened the black book and turned to the first page of the highlighted section that told of the Trojan War. She still had yet to read it. She tucked the poem that she wrote between the first and second page of the section before closing it.
"I'm glad I didn't tell Mum and Dad where I was going," she told her best friend.
"Are you sure you're going to be all right?"
"Yeah," said Hermione.
She cried herself to sleep that night.
Three weeks later…
The doorbell rang. Hermione looked out the window of her room and her eyebrows flew up in alarm. There was a middle-aged man with a wild tuft of white hair and he was wearing an emerald green robe!
Maybe it's a door-to-door salesman? she thought to herself as she settled back with another book.
For the past three weeks, Hermione shut herself in her comforting bedroom and read to her heart's content. She did not wish to be the "freak" that Danielle and her group accused her of. When her parents asked where she was on the night she was at the Reeves' residence, she told them that they invited her to dinner. She never mentioned the fact that it was suppose to be a party or that the girls accused her of a crime that she did not commit.
Or didn't mean to commit…
"Hermione!" Mum's voice floated up the stairs, a slight edge in her tone. Hermione marked her spot with her favorite bookmark (a thin piece of white cardboard with all her favorite books written across it in colors) and left her room.
The man with the emerald robes was in the foyer, looking around with interest. Mum and Dad were home (it was a Sunday) and stood at the bottom of the steps, reading a yellow sheet of parchment paper.
"What is it?" she asked, looking around in confusion.
Mum looked up with a strange look on her face as though she couldn't figure out how to tell someone that they were going to have to remove all four of the person's molars. "Dear, I…we…"
"You're a witch?" Dad asked in disbelief.
Her face colored. "No, it's not like that at all! It was that friend of Danielle's, Amber what's her name, she told Danielle that I was a witch, but I'm not! I don't know how the stupid book caught on fire! I didn't—!"
"What?" said the parents in unison.
Hermione look from one to the other, her beet red face darkened to an unhealthy shade of purple.
The man at the door cleared his throat loudly. "Miss…er…Granger, my name is Albert Rumsduffer from the Ministry of Magic, Department of Education," he whipped out another envelope with green writing from his robe. "You have been accepted into Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"What?"
He held the envelope out and she took it with a shaking hand. She turned it over and slit the flap open with her fingernail. A heavy sheet of parchment fell into her hand. She unfolded it.
Dear Miss Granger,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We a wait your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
"I'm a freak," she whispered.
"No, you're one of the few privileged children of this world who have the power to be different," said Mr. Rumsduffer. "If it is all right with everyone here, I would like to take you to purchase your school supply."
"May we come?" asked Dad.
"Of course," said Mr. Rumsduffer in an absent manner as he led them out of the house.
"And this is Flourish and Blotts," said Mr. Rumsduffer as he waved his hand at a large bookstore tucked next to an apothecary and a cauldron store. Hermione looked in and saw rows upon rows of books.
"Can we go in?" she asked, turning to her parents.
"Of course," said the adults.
Bubbling with laughter, she ran into the store and brushed her hand on the leather bound books. This was heaven, row of books that she'd never heard of. She grabbed a random book and smiled. Famous Witches and Wizard of the Twentieth Century.
"I'm so glad I'm me," she whispered, hugging the book to her chest.
BWUAH-HA! DONE! Kinda….
That was a really hard chapter. I hope you all liked it! (Amber, Kelsey, Danielle, and Molly aren't going to appear again…I don't think. But I don't really know right now) Again, it wasn't planned, so yeah. I'll get right back on track after this chapter.
Responses to reviews:
Prin69: Aw, thanks! I thought the whole little brief speech of Olive's was a huuuuge accomplishment for me and I'm soooooooooo glad you like it! And my chapter was cute! Sad and cute…an interesting combination…huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum ------------I feel like Yoda…
Padfootlives101: Here:hands padfootlives101 a kleenex: I'll give you a hug too, if you want! But I'm not the hugging type so… I hope this chapter wasn't as sad as the last one! You're reading "Romeo and Juliet" too! Actually, I'm gonna start reading it soon, but still! And, yes, it IS quite a coincidence. Thanks for reading!
PatronSaintOfEverythingWierd: Oh, I didn't mind at all! Plus, the third quarter of the school year's usually the toughest 'coz the teachers are freaking evil, loading us down when we're REALLY tired. And I wrote more! Don't blame a sudden bought of depression on me, please?
C'mon, guys. Drop a review or two, please! I'll love you forever! Plus I don't think it'll take me that long to update if a comment or two is left behind!
Until next time, my little muffins,
Farfanugans,
Chikin Wang.