She feels frozen after the Sorting Hat's pronouncement, and she can see that Neville Longbottom is both confused and fearful. She doesn't understand, because she is - was - sure that Slytherin only takes purebloods, and barely tolerates half-bloods, but there she is, a Muggleborn, and she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Of course, she does neither, and after she is Sorted she calmly hops off the stool, returns the Hat to a stunned Professor McGonagall, and makes her way to the Slytherin table. Very few know of her heritage so far, although there are some who are already giving her nasty looks, most likely presuming her to be a half-blood. She dreads the moment they realize that she's a Muggleborn, but she makes sure not to panic, ensuring that her face is very carefully blank, because she doesn't know who to talk to or what to say and she needs help but she won't find it here or anywhere else.
She watches as Neville Longbottom is sorted into Gryffindor, along with Harry Potter and the redhead that he was with, to the raucous cheers and applause of the entire House. Malfoy and his cronies are all sorted into Slytherin, although only the girl looks at her - and only to glare - before turning to whisper something to the girl beside her, who smirks. Suddenly, the table is crowded with a variety of foods, and the Slytherins around her start to get themselves food. She waits until most people are eating before starting to serve herself some pie, and she really should have known something was wrong when the other Slytherin first-years didn't say anything about her heritage, because suddenly someone bumps into her and she feels a flash of heat as a scoop of beef casserole is dropped into her lap with a snarky "oops."
The table is still buzzing with conversation, but everyone's eyes are on her, waiting to see how she'll react to this. She clears her throat and summons an innocent, friendly smile before turning to the boy beside her. "That's alright. I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?"
He stares at her, looking dumbfounded, and the whole table seems disappointed for a second before everyone slips back into their conversations. If she doesn't know better, she'd think that she hasn't been noticed at all. The boy finally seems to come to his senses, and he gives her a confused glare before turning back to his meal. She stares down at her robes then, thinking a bit mournfully that she'll have less in the rotation for the week, before levitating the pile of food onto an empty plate, suddenly thankful that she spent some time practicing a few of the first-year spells in the train.
She tries to stay calm as she serves herself some pie and pumpkin juice and primly and methodically makes her way through these. She knows better than to stand; knows now that despite being treated like she's invisible, gazes sliding over her, everyone is actually watching her. By the time she's done eating her dinner, the school skirt under her robes is damp as well. Nobody bothers speaking to her again.
Malfoy holds court among the first-years like some fairy prince, complete with hulking bodyguards, a simpering admirer, and knights. Not everyone is impressed though, and she watches as he exaggeratedly moves his hands and accidentally knocks his elbow into a third-year's face, then apologizes, face a bit pink. The third-year just stares at Malfoy for a few seconds until the boy starts looking panicked, then turns back to his conversation with his friends.
Gradually, the food on the table disappears until nothing is left. Professor Dumbledore rises, and she stares at her folded hands while listening to his announcement about the Forbidden Forest, Quidditch trials, and a third-floor corridor being out of bounds. The other Slytherins at the table are quietly talking amongst themselves all throughout, but select upper years seem to be listening carefully to the announcements, too. After singing the school anthem, during which a pair of redheaded twins take their time singing it to the tune of a funeral march, the students start standing and dispersing. A pretty girl with pin-straight brown hair and blue eyes walks over to Hermione. "Hello. I'm Gemma Farley, Slytherin prefect. I'll be escorting you first-years to the dungeons. Follow me."
She spins and weaves through the crowd, and they jump to follow her. She leads them down the stairs and through a hallway that brings them into the depths of the castle. Just when Hermione starts wondering if they'll even get there that night or if this is some form of hazing, the prefect stops in front of a stretch of plain stone wall. She clears her throat before saying the password loudly. "Non ducor, duco."
The air in front of them shimmers, and a door suddenly appears. Gemma gives them a sly smile as she strides forward and taps the door, which subsequently swings open, revealing a short passageway to a large room. It's large and cool, with a green glow about it. The sofas are black and green leather, while the chairs have beautiful, intricate carvings.
Most of the Slytherin students seem to be clustered in the room, talking with their friends in low voices and looking through books. Nobody is playing games - the closest anyone comes is a chess match between a serious-looking boy and a smirking girl. A tall boy near the fireplace separates from his group of friends and comes closer to them. "Good evening. I apologize for not approaching earlier. I'm Hugh Darker, prefect. Boys, I'll be showing you to your dormitory."
The boys silently follow the prefect, and Gemma turns to the girls. "We expect all students to respect each other. While you will have access to each other's dormitories, you are in no way allowed to break into others' dormitories without their consent." A feral grin overtakes her face. "We have our ways of finding out and punishing offenders."
Hermione tries to look unaffected, but she flinches a bit. The girl from the train as well as her friend shiver visibly, while the other two girls pale. Gemma appraises them for a few seconds before gliding to a doorway off the side of the common room that branches out into seven hallways. They follow her down the first hallway, which is dimly lit by glowing green sconces, and stop at the door at the end. "This is your dormitory. You will each have your own beds, and there will be an adjoining bathroom to be shared amongst the five of you." Gemma opens the door and herds them inside, watching them take it in for a few seconds before leaving.
The girl from the train sits down on the bed farthest from the door to the bathroom. "Pansy Parkinson. I'll be taking this bed, and Millicent Bulstrode will be on the bed beside me." Her friend immediately sits where directed, and Pansy wrinkles her nose as she looks around. "I don't care where you guys sleep, as long as that Mudblood stays away from me."
The girls' eyes immediately swing over to look at Hermione in shock, and she raises her chin a bit before smiling. "No matter. I'll take the bed by the bathroom, then. I'm Hermione Granger. May I ask about your names?" she says to the other girls.
The girl with blond hair warily introduces herself as Tracey Davis, while the black-haired girl with aristocratic features introduces herself as Daphne Greengrass. The room, although filled with five girls, is mostly silent after that apart from Parkinson's inane conversation with Bulstrode.
Parkinson and Bulstrode leave the dormitory the next morning with nods at Davis and Greengrass, and without even a glance in Hermione's direction. The two girls look at her with sympathy before leaving the room without a word to her as well.
Breakfast in the Great Hall is much more quiet than dinner the night before. Most students are still yawning and focusing on getting food into their mouths. She sits near Davis and Greengrass; not so near that she'd be mistaken as friendly with them, but near enough that she's seen as part of their group by someone not paying attention. They exchange serious looks but let her sit with them, most likely out of pity.
None of the Slytherins say anything to her throughout breakfast. She feels less eyes on her, and nobody has any 'accidents'. The boy from dinner makes eye contact with her at one point, but he only flushes and looks away.
During classes, her roommates sit next to each other, and the Slytherin boys don't even look at her. She ends up making friends with a Hufflepuff first-year named Susan Bones and a Ravenclaw first-year named Padma Patil, both of whom she ends up sitting with during classes with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. While Susan is friendly from the start, Padma is initially hesitant and reluctant to sit beside Hermione until she finds out that Hermione is a Slytherin Muggleborn.
She realizes later on that Padma must have a lot of friends because by Friday, everyone knows about the fact that she's a Muggleborn in Slytherin. On the way to the Great Hall, several people whisper to each other and stare at her in pity, and a pair of twins even tell her to "fight on" before walking into the Hall for breakfast. The Slytherins ignore her, as usual, although Davis and Greengrass send her sympathetic looks once more. Gemma briefly checks on her to ask how she's doing, while Hugh tips his head to her. The seventh-year Slytherin prefect, Liz, gives her a careful smile before returning to her meal.
She makes sure to keep a friendly look on her face, despite how all the stares make her want to run. On the way out the Great Hall, Padma stops her and apologizes profusely for telling her housemates about Hermione's status. Hermione just pastes a smile on her face. "It's okay, Padma, really. Don't you have class in a few minutes?" It's a wild guess, but it does the job. Padma runs off after apologizing one more time, muttering about Charms with Flitwick.
Thankfully, they only have one class today: Double Potions with the Gryffindors. She wonders how Neville is doing. She hasn't had the chance to speak with him since the train, although she's not sure that he would even want to anymore - he had looked too frightened at the Sorting Ceremony.
She heads down to the Potions classroom in the dungeons a few minutes after her other classmates leave. It's become a way to ensure that they're not given the opportunity to say or do anything against her. She should have thought it through, though, because she ends up arriving just as Harry Potter and his Weasley friend get there. Weasley immediately darts into the classroom, while Potter takes a few seconds to stare at her in pity. She stares back before breaking his gaze and sauntering into the classroom.
As usual, there are no seats left beside any of her housemates. She carefully makes eye contact with Neville and tilts her head to the side. He blinks before wincing and nodding, and she sits beside him with a muttered "thank you", pulling out the necessary writing materials and silently bemoaning the absence of notebooks and pens in the Wizarding World. If she weren't so sure that it would alienate her even more, she would have asked her parents to send some to her by now.
Professor Snape suddenly walks into the room, robes billowing around him. He looks around the room before his cold eyes land on Harry Potter, and he gives a sardonic smile. "Ah, yes. Harry Potter. Our new- celebrity." Potter looks confused, and some of the Slytherins snicker. Snape then goes on to give a short speech before asking Potter several questions about potions - questions that he wouldn't know the answer to even if he had read a chapter or two in advance, because the answers can only be found further in the book. She fights down a wave of disgust toward the professor, keeping her face blank and her head low as she writes everything down even though she already knows the answers.
When Snape finally tires of interrogating Potter, he pairs them up by their seating arrangements and instructs them to mix a potion for curing boils. She quietly asks Neville to gather the ingredients while she sets up, realizing afterwards that he seems to be a bit careless since he forgot to get the horned slugs. She counts the potion ingredients, checking that everything else is in place before moving to get the missing ingredients herself. He looks apologetic, but she only gives him a small smile.
The process of brewing the potion is nerve-wracking, especially since Neville has a hard time paying attention to the details, most likely because Snape has been walking around the classroom and staring at everyone except Malfoy intensely, as if waiting for someone to make a mistake. She watches Neville carefully from the corner of her eye as she adds the horned slugs, and stops him just before he adds the porcupine quills. He looks confused for a second before he reads the steps again, and he looks at her apologetically once more. She just shakes her head and squeezes his arm softly before moving to take the cauldron off the fire.
They finally finish their potion, and it looks perfect - blue with pink smoke. Malfoy looks resentfully at them - his own potion, while blue, didn't produce any smoke. Snape only looks at him in slight disappointment before awarding him and Nott 2 points each. Hermione and Neville, in the meantime, are grudgingly given 5 points each; he can't avoid giving Neville points, since half the work was done by him, after all. The Gryffindors still look shell-shocked at the turn of events as they leave the classroom, and Neville gives her a grateful smile as he is swept away by his fellow housemates, blushing from their praise. Most of Hermione's housemates look at her in annoyance, but Davis and Greengrass congratulate her for successfully completing the potion.
Before dinner, almost everyone is talking about one of two things: Hermione's status, or Snape awarding a Gryffindor points in Potions. A significant number of Slytherins glare at her as she passes, and she realizes that everyone also knows about her involvement in the incident. The same pair of twins from earlier grin at her in the corridors before jogging to catch up to Neville, who is as red as a tomato. She smiles to herself as she walks quickly past them, and her smile only grows when she hears what he says to his housemates.
"It's because of Hermione that we succeeded in brewing the potion!"