Hermione had been adopted as a young child, she had always known that. Her parents hadn't exactly been upfront about it (not wanting her to feel as if she wasn't their child was their reasoning, she knew) but she had always been different in looks and personality. Some parts of nature just could not be overcome by nurture, she supposed. Hermione had always thought that she had been adopted at just the right time in her development - she was old enough to have forgotten most of her time with her biological family, just some blurry memories and feelings remaining, easily forgotten in place of new memories, of new parents.
Though she had some memories of her biological family it was easy enough for her to acclimate to her new parents, and as she grew it became easier to forget that she was adopted. She belonged in the Granger family, even if she didn't exactly fit in perfectly. Hermione was the Grangers daughter, no questions asked. Blood doesn't make family, her mum had always said. When she'd first said it, Hermione had been confused because everything she knew about DNA and genes suggested that yes, it did. It had been a long conversation with her mum about feelings and belonging being more important than biological relation. It was followed with almost an afterthought that her biological family was still family, even if she didn't live with them for whatever reason.
When she turned eleven, Hermione learned that magic was real - that she was magic! It opened up thoughts of her biological family, if they were magical too, if she would find brothers or sisters at Hogwarts. If she would recognise anyone in the magical world and if she in turn would be recognised. She would stay up late at night and daydream about the school and siblings that she imagined she would find there. About how they would study together and she'd be introduced to their friends and she'd finally have something other than blurs to figure out her early life. Hermione would wake up, tired and guilty the next morning, telling herself that it was only natural to wonder about it. Her parents couldn't follow her to the magical world, couldn't understand Hogwarts and everything that it would encompass, but maybe if her biological parents were magical, then they could.
Her hopes of finding her biological parents in the wizarding world were somewhat dashed after reading about recent wizarding history. A civil war, that the majority of England were completely oblivious to. A civil war where people were tortured to death, to insanity. She hoped her biological parents were muggles. Whether they were fighting either side of the war was horrific for her to imagine. Having Death Eaters for her parents would be terrible; there was still a lot of unrest in magical Britain and families that were seen as Dark had a reputation that could ostracise her from her peers. Equally, having parents who fought on the Light side could be as devastating - what if her parents were killed and that was why she was adopted? What if her parents had been tortured?
While she was filled with daydreams about her biological family in the magical world, she had never really given much thought to them. Hermione had been loved and cherished by her parents since she was a little older than a toddler. Her parents had given her everything she had ever needed. They had encouraged her in a multitude of hobbies, had given in to her childish demands of what she wanted. They had supported her throughout her worst days, through the bullying and loneliness that came with it. She truly felt she couldn't have asked for better parents.
Hermione was so excited to start her schooling at Hogwarts but was a little apprehensive. It was, quite literally, a whole new world for her. But no matter whether they were magical or muggle, children were children. And Hermione had never gotten along with her peers in primary school. It wasn't her fault that she had never gelled with the other children - she was just too far ahead of them, intellectually which didn't earn her any friends. It wasn't helped that in regards to her emotional development, she was behind them. Social norms were something that she knew and understood, but something that she occasionally forgot. She blurted things out in excitement that she could see something that was trying to be hidden or that someone older would have the social tact to know not to comment on it. One detail that she had blurted out was that one of her classmate's parents was cheating on the other. Vivien, while a kind girl, did not appreciate being told that her mummy and daddy were going to get a divorce because her daddy was cheating on her mum. She especially didn't appreciate that it was said in the hearing range of the entire class and began crying.
As Hermione grew older, she realised that this was not acceptable and became more tactful, keeping her observations to herself. Even the mundane ones, like a crush between classmates. She had realised the harm that little observations that no one else was able to see could cause and clammed up about them. She selfishly did this, in part, to try to help her make some friends, but it didn't work. The teachers and students remembered the trouble that she had caused, and she had heard the teachers talking about how it was almost unnatural that she was so smart and observant.
The ability to observe and reach conclusions wasn't the only thing that had differentiated her from her peers, though. She was so far ahead in her schoolwork that her teachers wanted to skip her ahead a few years. They did skip her a year ahead after it became clear that she already knew everything that was on the curriculum and that she hadn't made any friends in her year group. They thought it might be good for her, a fresh start in a new class where the curriculum could challenge her. A year ahead wasn't a big enough leap for her to not almost immediately learn that curriculum too.
She wasn't challenged. She didn't make any friends. Skipping ahead didn't work for her because she was extraordinary.
Even on the playground Hermione would much rather curl up with a book or sit quietly (meditating, she told the teachers who bothered to ask) than run around playing tag or skipping rope or anything of the sort.
Hogwarts was supposed to be a new start for her. A fresh start, like the teachers had promised when she was skipped forward in primary school. They'd been optimistic about it then but it hadn't worked - the other students knew about her blurting out embarrassing things about the other students, and weren't interested in getting to know her. They thought she was a freak.
But at Hogwarts, no one knew her. She'd learned since then and while she'd never actually managed it before she was sure she could make friends at this new school.
Her hopes of making friends turned into an abysmal failure. The girls in her shared dorm were too different from her, she could tell from a glance at them. Her performance in class had bothered most of her peers, as it had in primary school, but Hermione refused to dumb herself down to cater to the feelings of others. Her intense study of the textbooks means that she was once again too far ahead in the material to be challenged. The people who reluctantly sat next to her either wanted to use her to copy her notes or would take offence when she corrected them.
It changed after the troll. She knew was being stupid and overly emotional but she had never felt so lonely. She was so far away from her parents, and they would want to take her out of Hogwarts if they knew the bullying she faced. They had certainly threatened it enough at her muggle primary school. Ronald Weasley, the boy who had been mean to her had never felt lonely, she thought to herself. He had six older brothers, some who had graduated and some who were at Hogwarts with him and she was so jealous. He even had a younger sister who was due to attend Hogwarts the next year. Whereas Hermione was an only child, with no idea how it would feel to be babied and teased by older brothers who looked out for her or wanted the best for her. She didn't like the idea of having a sister, though. It made her shudder.
The thought didn't seem quite right, though. It couldn't be wrong - she was the Granger's only child. She dismissed the thought but couldn't dismiss the picture of a boy with hair as curly as hers grinning down at her, holding his hand out for her to take. It must have been from her daydreams of finding siblings at Hogwarts. Her memories of her biological family had mostly been forgotten.
Exams were coming up and she didn't have the brainpower for anything other than revision, so even that niggling thought was pushed to the back of her mind. She probably didn't need to revise as much as she did but she wouldn't risk getting lower grades than she knew she was capable of.
Summer came and it felt like it did nothing but point out the differences between Hermione and her parents - the most obvious being that she was a witch and they were muggles. This wasn't unheard of in the wizarding community or even exceedingly rare but something that every muggleborn struggled with. They were straddling two worlds and trying to make them come together was impossible. Muggles were seen as inferior beings by most wizards and magic was something preposterous in the muggle world. They couldn't mix together. She would have to choose eventually, one or the other.
It was like joining the wizarding world would stop her from advancing in the muggle world. Other students at Hogwarts sometimes referred to muggle England like it was a foreign country, and in a way, it was. The social and cultural norms were different between the two of them, with the wizarding values feeling very much outdated to Hermione. But the muggle world wasn't where a wizard would live - perhaps somewhere they would visit, if they were feeling adventurous but never somewhere they'd live or spend a majority of their time.
And in attending Hogwarts, Hermione had segregated herself from the muggle world - she'd never be able to get a job there because her academic achievements at Hogwarts wouldn't be understood by muggles. The only thing she was able to do to keep up to date with her muggle education was to try to cram a year's worth of work in the six week holiday. With the coursework at Hogwarts, she would only ever be able to apply to wizarding jobs and from what she understood about wizarding culture, she was not very likely to gain good employment because she was seen as lesser. It was the old families who enjoyed the highest positions and most successful careers.
That was really driven home to Hermione when Malfoy called her a mudblood in second year. It was really nice of the Weasleys and Harry to defend her, and she appreciated it but she could tell that Malfoy didn't really mean it. He didn't really even understand the intricacies of the word and the culture of blood purity was something that he had been raised into. He was just repeating what he had heard his family and their peers say. Not that Hermione fully understood either, but she was doing the best that she could to integrate into the magical world.
The wizarding war was still an open wound, with many believing that it was over and done with, but not all. Professor Dumbledore was a smart man and he believed that it wasn't finished and Hermione was smart enough to know that it must be for a reason. It wasn't the delusions of an elderly man who was still reliving his glory days of being a figurehead of the Light, as many claimed he was. Even the Ministry seemed all too happy to forget about the war, no doubt helped along by Death Eaters shoving money at them to stay out of Azkaban.
If it was, he wouldn't be keeping Professor Snape (obviously a spy) so close to him. He wouldn't be setting up challenges for Harry and his friends, either if he wasn't trying to prepare Harry for something. The obstacle course to get to the Philosopher's Stone in their first year was far too easy to be expected to keep out a fully trained wizard and was a little too in line with the things that the three of them would be able to easily overcome. The challenges were laughable to a grown wizard - they didn't require anything more than the first year of Hogwarts education and some strategy.
Harry was obviously meant to take the flying course (youngest seeker in a hundred years), Ron was well known for his prowess at chess and Hermione was highly logical and able to figure out a little logic puzzle. It was practically advertised, with the warning to stay out of the third floor corridor. That was practically a dare to the Gryffindors.
Dumbledore was making the three of them get used to jumping headfirst into danger for some reason. The war wasn't finished. They were going to be soldiers in the next war and were being covertly trained for it. Hermione saw through it.
She wasn't impressed with the whole idea. Child soldiers were always bad, even if they were fighting for good - they just weren't prepared to fully understand the risks and possibilities that came with fighting a war. Dumbledore was supposed to be a pioneer of peace, according to the press, but he was creating a war within Hogwarts.
It was subtle, and it worked so well because it wasn't new. The Sorting Hat had been at Hogwarts since it opened its doors to students but it was just an aptitude test to see where students would fit best. Dumbledore used it to decide which students were good and bad and the students and teachers echoed his bias.
Even before they had been sorted, Ron had been insulting the Slytherins and there had been scorn from the Slytherins about the possibility of going anywhere but Slytherin. Clever to create a gap that wide between the houses and in a way that seemed natural. Gryffindors weren't friends with Slytherins and vice versa.
From there it should seem obvious that the people fighting the other side of the war were the people that they had been arguing with since they were eleven.
Hermione didn't buy it - Gryffindors weren't all wonderful people and Slytherins weren't all evil. If that was true, it wouldn't have been Gryffindors that were subtly bullying her for the first month she was at Hogwarts. The Slytherins had ignored her, acted like she didn't even exist. In groups so large there were bound to be a few outliers.
Her hypothesis was cemented in their third year where it turned out that Ron's rat was actually a person and that he had been a Death Eater. And a Gryffindor. Hermione felt so stupid, why hadn't she worked it out? When she looked back on it, it seemed so clear that something was wrong with Scabbers after he had heard about the escape of Sirius Black. Some animals in the wizarding world were smarter than normal animals but none would be so stressed as to start losing weight and fur at the news of an escaped criminal unless they had a reason to be.
She could at least say that she had worked out the other mystery of the year. Professor Lupin was a werewolf. Unfortunately, the knowledge of what he was didn't come in helpful in stopping the transformation and capturing Pettigrew.
The timeturner she had did, though.
After an hour or so lying in the hospital wing, she had come up with a plan that would fix the mess that the night had turned into. She couldn't stop Professor Lupin transforming because they'd all seen it, it was a fixed event. However, she could go back earlier in the day to steal his wolfsbane potion and make sure he took it so he was no risk to them. She'd wait in the forest to draw him away (she'd heard the howl the first time around) and then it was just a matter of finding the right rat. Considering that there were likely hundreds of them in the Forbidden Forest that bit was surprisingly easy.
She bumped into Professor Dumbledore as he exited the hospital wing and explained that she had found an escaped criminal. Luckily the Minister for Magic was there too and nearly fainted when the criminal was not Sirius Black, but Peter Pettigrew. He didn't appreciate the speech that if Pettigrew was still alive, then Black must be innocent. And after thirteen years in Azkaban, without a trial, what a travesty of justice.
Sirius was innocent but he was also a Black, and they had a deserved reputation. No wonder Fudge was so scared of him. He was more scared when he knew Sirius was innocent - the things it could do to his chances of being re-elected.
The next summer was a bit of a whirlwind. Hermione's parents had decided that she should continue her muggle education and sit exams so she would have a backup plan if everything went wrong in the wizarding world.
Hermione already knew that everything would go wrong, but that she wouldn't leave. She studied anyway - knowledge is power.