Hermione Jean Granger awoke, her midback length curly chestnut hair splayed out on the pillow. No pillow she had ever slept on had been cool throughout the night, so she figured, it must have been a Cooling Charm. She sat up and swung her leg around the bed, making sure the curtain was shut. Her prosthetic leg was carefully wedged in between her nightstand and her bed. Hermione took a deep breath and released it.

Hermione had lost her leg in an accident, a car crash that rendered her father an amputee as well. Hermione, however, got the worst of the backlash: while her dad had gotten off with a crushed hand and her mom had escaped the accident unscathed except for a few scars, Hermione's left leg, her shin down, had been crushed. Her left leg was amputated, 5 inches below her knee; she now had a prosthetic leg.

Hermione took another breath and summoned her magic. Waving her hand, she watched as her temporary magical leg came into being. Testing it, she thought about how she had got here. When she has turned 11, a letter had arrived, saying she was invited to come to Hogwarts. That night Hermione argued with her parents about going: if magic was real, they said, it would have saved you so you wouldn't be disabled. Hermione was furious, and her magic had flared up in response. Her parents were pushed back into the couch and Hermione reminded them dangerously that despite having a prosthetic leg, she wasn't helpless. She was still Hermione. And learning magic would make her stronger because it would allow her another method of defending herself other than self-defense. Hermione also pointed out that if they didn't let her go... her magic would have merely grown stronger and stronger and she wouldn't have known how to control it because she wouldn't have gone to school. Her parents, seeing proof of this because their daughter had just pushed them and made them shut up, agreed and said they would get her books in the morning.

And they did. For the first week, Hermione practiced on growing her magic after first learning to feel her magical core. But there was only so much growing her magical core could do.

Hermione walked to the shower, turned it on, and dissolved her artificial leg. She took the opportunity to wash her hair, leaning the front of her body on the wall. Her bouncy curls laid limp and heavy against her scarred her back, and she scrubbed her scalp with her short nails. When she was done, she rinsed her hair and washed her body, taking extra care with the stump that was now her leg. When she was finished with this, she recrafted her leg again, then stepped out and toweled. Wrapping hers around her body, she walked to the door and opening it.

Going to her bed, she sat down and pulled the curtains around it. Hermione let her towel fall and dissolved her leg. Reaching over, she opened a drawer and grabbed part of her prosthetic. She secured the rubber slip over her stump and then secured her prosthetic leg over it. Standing up, she looked at her feet: one was plastic, attached to metal; the other was flesh and blood, attached to a flesh and blood leg. Hermione sighed and walked in place, testing her leg. It was good and secure. Hermione then got dressed.

And she exposed her leg.

Hermione grabbed her wand, her bookbag and, making sure she had everything, went downstairs. Harry was already there, reading a book in Braille. So was Ron, watching him.

"So by running your fingers across the page you can feel the dots and make out letters, forming them into words?" Ron asked Harry.

Harry's head was turned towards the direction of the redhead. Hermione noticed that his ears perked up as she walked down the stairs, indicating he was listening. "Yes I can," Harry answered. "It's called Braille, and it's a way for the blind to read. Hermione, I've meant to ask you-your footsteps are strange. What's up with your feet? I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, I was just curious-"

"Harry," Hermione said, coming to sit next to Harry and laying a hand over his. "Really, it's okay."

Before Hermione could speak, Ron answered: "She has a fake leg. That's why her steps are so uneven, because one leg is real and heavy, and the others are fake and lightweight."

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Hermione said, idly checking her watch. There was 30 minutes until breakfast. "My leg got crushed in a car accident. They couldn't save it, so they had to amputate. And I got this." She stuck her leg out. "A fake leg. An imitation of life."

"At least it's something," Harry said, and Hermione pondered what he said for a moment before it clicked.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Harry," she said. Harry shook his head.

"Not your fault. You only met me yesterday," he said.

Hermione checked her watch again. This time it was 27 minutes until breakfast. "We should go, guys," she said, "if we want to secure our seats."

"Alright," Ron said. "Let me get something first." Ron got up from his seat and scurried up the stairs. Harry and Hermione, although Harry was blind, exchanged a glance. Ron came back down with his bag and wand, which he hadn't had before. The three went through the portrait hole and out Gryffindor Tower.

They talked about the classes they would probably have. "The twins have told me about Potions-apparently the Potions professor is harsh. McGonagall is strict, and…"

Hermione began to pay little attention to the conversation. Instead, her mind wandered to her new friends. Harry Potter was blind and famous, but he was acting as if he knew little about why he was famous. And he remembered little about seeing. Hermione supposed that had to do with being a baby when he was orphaned and not really being able to comprehend anything really.

And what of Ron? He was a pureblood from what she had heard of the Weasleys, but he didn't act snobbish or rude. He did to his siblings, however; she supposed that was because his siblings were there when he was born and thus he had a brother sister relationship with them. Of course he does, she thought to herself, they're his siblings.

And what of herself? She was a Muggle-born witch. She was smart and a bookworm, sure, but she knew little about magic. She came from the Muggle world. Would she fit in here? Where there many Muggle-borns? Was she behind in her classes? Would she become as good as a pureblood?

Hermione's mind went to her parents. Were they worried about her? She was in a strange new world after all, and didn't know how to navigate it. Did they think she was doing all right? She was a girl with magical powers and a prosthetic leg. Did wizards have prosthetic limbs?

Can magic possibly let me recover what I have lost?

A/N: Hey! I hope you guys liked the chapter (it's edited), and please leave a review. As you have no doubt discovered from the revised title and summary of this story, all of the Golden Trio are handicapped. Harry is blind; Hermione is an amputee. So what's Ron's disability? You'll have to wait and find out!