Title: Filter Effect

Summary: In order to change the outsides of something you don't like, you have to change the insides, Hermione realized with a start.

Rating: M

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: There's no excuse. I suck.

Little-Miss-Rachael: Thanks so much! I love those pants too, I wish they existed…heh, and I was worried that I was describing too much and making it seem like a Mary Sue story…thanks for the ego stroke! Feilyn: As you probably know already, I accept your offer. And that means you can leave your own notes, but make sure you label it as a beta note. Again, thanks for the confidence boost. This fic originally wasn't what I had planned, but it's coming together wonderfully. Fairy-Tales123: A lot of people seem to really like the thong part…hahaha I wasn't sure how it would go over, but when you have leather pants that lace up all the way up your legs, you can't exactly wear shapeless granny panties, can you?

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Part One:

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Early morning sunlight fought to pierce the heavy blinds that Hermione Granger kept down over her windows. Thin shafts of the bright light managed to sneak through the cracks and shine across her exposed face, and soon the teenager was burrowing deeper under the dark charcoal comforter and mumbling incoherent curses under her breath.

It was really no use, because now she was up. With a heavy sigh Hermione threw back the covers, and spent some time muttering and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Dragging herself up from the mattress, she staggered to her bathroom and flicked on the light, screwing up her eyes against the harsh glow.

Soon she started the shower, and was pulling off her sleeping attire and stepping into the spray. After standing under the nozzle and adjusting the heat to just below scalding, she turned her back to the showerhead to fully soak her curls and reached for her shampoo. After thoroughly scrubbing her hair with the white lather, she rinsed out her curls and repeated with step two: curl-defining conditioner. Lather. Rinse. Repeat as desired.

After washing with vanilla and jasmine scented body wash and shaving the necessary appendages, Hermione shut off the shower and pulled back the shower curtain, groping blindly for a towel and trying to see through the hair in her face. Grabbing the first towel-like article, Hermione rubbed her face free of water as she stepped onto a towel placed on the floor.

Toweling her hair for a moment, she gave up on that for the time being and simply let it hang down her back as she caught the water droplets sliding down her slick skin. Soon she was dry, and was rubbing at her hair more effectively. After discarding the towel and rummaging in the medicine cabinet, Hermione managed to find her anti-frizz and sprayed it liberally into her damp hair while combing her fingers through the strands to separate them.

Satisfied that her head wouldn't look like a mushroom once her hair dried, Hermione quickly exited the bathroom to sift through the many clothes that draped across her desk chair and lay strewn across her dresser, and littered the floor.

The stuffy and organized-to-the-point-of-anal girl she had been had long since exited the building. In her place was a much more relaxed and pliant Hermione, willing to drop her clothes on the floor and leave them there, because it didn't really matter. Sure, she still cared about her grades, but the stick up her arse had obviously been removed.

'After all, pick your battles,' Hermione thought wryly, as she pushed aside a pile of shirts in search of some jeans. Seeing a pant leg sticking out from beneath the pile she had just moved, Hermione yanked them free and tossed them on her bed. She turned to her dresser and pulled open the first drawer to retrieve a black bra and, quite shockingly, a black thong. It seemed that Jade had won that particular battle, but Hermione, as usual, had her justifications.

It was much easier to be able to pull on a pair of skintight pants and not worry about her knickers bunching was one excuse she managed to unearth. Others were variations of that particular reason, but the one that Hermione didn't tell anyone who asked (although, who would ask?) was that because they made her feel sexy. She felt it was long due anyway, being seventeen and all.

Hermione pulled on the necessary undergarments and followed that with the charcoal gray jeans. She slipped the triple-rowed stud belt through the loops and buckled it closed. Looking at herself in the mirror, even Hermione had to admit that the pants looked much better when there was no unsightly underwear line digging into the skin of her arse.

Pulling on a tight black tank top, Hermione smoothed out the wrinkles with a slightly fussy hand as she looked around for a dark blue one to wear over it. Finding what she was looking for, she tugged the looser article of clothing over her head and arranged it to her satisfaction over the black. Another drawer was opened, and then a pile of clothes kicked aside, before Hermione found her brush. After spraying the bristles with relaxer, she quickly ran the brush through her hair a couple times before scrunching the ends tightly with her fingers.

Her quickly drying hair no longer looked like a brillow pad, and for that, Hermione couldn't be more proud. Falling to her middle back were medium-sized glossy chocolate brown ringlets, and Hermione just loved to brag that they never fell flat. Probably had something to do with the fact that her hair was naturally curly to begin with, even if those curls looked unappealing by themselves.

After smoothing a dime-sized glob of mousse through the hair and parting it down the middle, Hermione quickly swiped some translucent powder over her face to even out her slightly reddened skin tone. A dab of concealer on her cheekbones to tone down the freckles and another swipe of powder over that and Hermione was searching for her eyeliner.

After several inventive curses and about three minutes, Hermione found the elusive black pencil. Drawing a thin line of black over her top lid and then a thick line along her bottom lash line, she extended the bottom line slightly beyond the crease. Hermione then repeated this on her other eye and then pushed some parchment around on her desk, looking for some eye shadow.

The first color discovered was dark metallic purple, so she swiped a thin line of that along her bottom lash line. Putting the container aside, Hermione coated her eyelashes with two coats of mascara and she was done.

Quickly screwing the cap back on the tube of black mascara, Hermione tossed it somewhere on her desk and reached for her cell phone. After some difficulty in trying to shove her cell phone into her front pocket, she finally gave up and stuck it in a back pocket instead, hoping that it wouldn't fall out, again.

Pushing her feet into a pair of scarlet ballet shoes, Hermione carefully stepped around the piles of books and clothes on her floor before making it into the hallway. Closing her bedroom door behind her, Hermione skipped down the hallway and slid down the stairway banister. Passing through her living room to the kitchen, she popped some toast into the toaster and poured herself a glass of juice. She was just getting a knife from the drawer and turning to get the butter when her phone rang.

"Hello?" Hermione said, balancing the phone on her shoulder and putting the container of juice back into the refrigerator. Jade's voice sounded excitedly in her ear.

"Wow Mia, you're up."

"Yeah," the distracted girl deadpanned, reaching for the butter container and nearly dropping the phone. She stifled a curse. "What's up?"

"Not much, really," was Jade's reply. "I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out today."

"When do I not want to?" Hermione was buttering her now toasted bread. "What's the catch? You never ask. You just assume."

Jade seemed to ignore that last bit, because she instead said, "I want you to meet some friends of mine. And knowing how you are, I want you to be nice to them."

Hermione was affronted. "What makes you think I wouldn't be nice?" She bit into her toast and chewed loudly into Jade's ear.

"That is so gross, Mia. Stop it. Just promise you'll be nice." Jade sounded like she was begging, and Hermione tried not to giggle and get bits of toast all over the counter.

"Yeah, whatever," she said through a mouthful of wheat product.

"I'll come over when I'm done getting ready. Okay?"

Hermione 'mmhmmed' and hung up the phone after hearing Jade's click.

A/N Oh, I KNOW this is so short….it's half of what you usually get…but it's been SO LONG since I updated…and I thought it might be nice for you to get like, a filler chapter or something, so you don't think I dropped of the surface of the earth and died. You know you love me! Now review or I will set my computer on fire.

Cianyde