Disclaimer: I really don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters except for any I might make up. Those belong to me… yeah.
Priorities
Chapter 1
"Hermione! Come on down to breakfa… what happened?!" Mrs. Weasley stuck her head through the girls room and gasped.
"What do you mean Mrs. Weasley?" The girl asked politely, smiling, thought it didn't reach her eyes. No smile had reached her eyes since Sirius had died. She'd just sort of… lost her fire. Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat and bustled into the room.
"Come have a look in the mirror, dear. I think Ginny may have had something to do with this. That girl, I swear!" The older woman handed her a small, silver hand mirror. Hermione took it, and looked into the delicate thing, expecting to see her long brown bushy hair and chocolate brown eyes.
"Holy shit!" The small girl exploded. In place of her normal appearance there was another girl. This person had short, dirty blond hair and intense, violet eyes.
"Hermione! Watch your language!" Mrs. Weasley scolded, ever the prefect mother figure.
"Sorry, Mrs. Weasley. I was just… surprised, that's all." Hermione breathed, staring at her reflection, eyes wide.
"Come downstairs, dear. We'll see what we can do and get you some breakfast. Remember, Professor Magonagall is coming to talk to you today. We can't have you passing out or anything." Mrs. Weasley hustled the dazed girl out the door and down the stairs into the kitchen.
"Hermione! You… you died your hair!" Ron burst out as the newly made blond was ushered into the room. Hermione just nodded slowly and let Mrs. Weasley push her gently into a seat.
"Are you okay, 'Mione?" Harry asked, looking up from his pancakes and eggs. Hermione just slowly nodded again, staring at the table unseeingly. Ginny wandered into the room.
"Here you go, Hermione dear. Ginny sit. I need to have a word with you." Mrs. Weasley ordered, placing a plate heaped with food in front of Hermione. Ginny gulped and slid into a sear next to her older brother. He greeted her with a mouth full of eggs.
"You sure you're all right, Hermione?" Harry asked, looking at his friend, concerned. She was still sitting and staring at her plate.
"Calm down, Harry dear. She's in shock. I went upstairs and showed her her hair and she just went into shock. We're going to try and fix her hair after she eats something. Now Ginny…" Mrs. Weasley smiled at Harry and then turned on her youngest child. Ginny gulped again.
"Yeah, Mum?" The red head mumbled.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?!" The woman screamed. You could almost see the lighting crackling in her hair as she grew to six feet and stared down at the young girl.
"Uh… I bleached her hair and cut it and changed her eye color." Ginny smiled meekly. Hermione finally looked up, glaring at the younger red head.
"HOW!?!" Mrs. Weasley screamed. It seemed that her children responded best to shouting. Many of the members of the Order had made a habit of leaving the room as soon as the twins showed up.
"Um… Wizard Bleach, Witch Scissors and Mystical Contacts. Tonks gave them to me as a present on my birthday last year." Ginny admitted. Mrs. Weasley sighed.
"I should have known. And tell me why did you use them on Hermione?" Her voice had dropped down to a low hiss.
"Because last night Hermione said that she wanted a new look." Ginny tried to smile at Hermione. The older girl pursed her lips.
"Ginny, I said I should probably get a new hair cut. I meant my hair was getting too long for my liking." Hermione sighed.
"How do I change it back?" Mrs. Weasley asked, glaring at her only daughter. Ginny cleared her throat and looked fearful for her life.
"…You… can't…" She mumbled. Silence filled the dank kitchen. Hermione looked horrified, Mrs. Weasley enraged, Ginny terrified for her life, Harry nervous and Ron clueless having lost track when Ginny had said 'Mystical Contacts'.
"What do you mean, 'You can't'?" Hermione said slowly. Harry glanced at her. Hermione's eye's were narrowed and they were almost sending out sparks.
"I checked the containers this morning after I did it. They all said 'Permanent'." Ginny looked about to bolt from the room.
"Your joking, right? This is all a… a prank, right? Fred and George put you up to this, huh? Real funny. Jokes over. Change it back." Hermione seemed to be cracking.
"Sorry…" Ginny mumbled, shooting out of the room with Mrs. Weasley on her tail. Just then Professor Magonagall's voice could be heard from the hall. Hermione made her way shakily into the other room leaving Harry and Ron alone to their food.
"Hermione, Mum says to come down for dinner and to not try to pull your hair out of your scalp because it really does look okay no matter what the twins might say to you." Ron stuck his head through the open doorway, hoping not to see strands of hair covering the floor.
"Okay, I'll be there in a second, Ron. Tell you mother that I promise not to rip any hair out as long as I get to hex Ginny once school starts up." Hermione snapped. Ron raced out of the room hoping not to catch any of the girl's temper.
Sighing, Hermione pulled her new time turner out from under her maroon blouse. It glinted happily in the light radiating from the lamp on her bedside table. Due to the all different N.E.W.T. prep classes she was taking that year she had to once again carry the bloody thing around her neck. If she could only get her nose out of her books and get a life she wouldn't have to be stuck with this kind of responsibility. It was like the rest of her life had been color coded and shoved under her nose. She was going to be Head Girl next year and then pass her N.E.W.T's with flying colors and then get the perfect job and live a perfect life with some perfectly sweet guy who actually loved her or someone rich and tolerable. It was all so painfully charted and set out in front of her just screaming 'YOU HAVE NO CHOICE! DEAL WITH IT!'. If only…
No. No. She was quite happy with color coding. It was the way her life should be. Planned out and prefect. Nothing would go wrong. Nothing would change that. She would bravely face anything in her way and come out perfectly perfect like she was supposed to.
This firmly settled, Hermione stood up and made her way down into the kitchen to start her new color coded life as a blond with violet eyes. Little did she know someone up there was about to change the order of her notes… and her priorities.
Hope you liked it. Tell me if I jacked something up horribly. Bye.
