Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Thank-you to those who reviewed the previous chapter.
Author Note: This is a re-post with the errors fixed by the wonderful TrulyWarpedReality
Hermione Granger, eleven years old, was sitting around the dinner table with her parents; it was her last night at home before she left for her new school, Hogwarts. Hogwarts was school for witches and wizards.
John and Jean had been shocked when they found out their daughter was a witch. An argument had broken out between the couple. Should Hermione attend Hogwarts? John thought so, and expressed his opinion frankly- Hermione being with other children like her would help her gain social skills, something she was sorely lacking.
Jean didn't want Hermione to attend the Magical School, but refused to give her reasons.
Hermione wanted to go, and told her mother such. That gave Jean two options. She could stand behind her first decision, and eventually be broken down by Hermione's persistent manipulations, or she could just go along with what her daughter wanted. Jean decided to do the latter.
After the decision to enroll Hermione in Hogwarts was made, the Grangers went to Diagon alley to get school supplies.
They had left the alley with everything a young witch could need and bought seven books that weren't on the list Hogwarts had sent. She wanted to be certain that when she started classes she wouldn't be behind everybody else.
Her mother had hesitantly suggested that they might want to stick to the list, after all, some magical books were surely dangerous. Hermione, of course, shot that idea down with puppy eyes aimed at her father. She had known exactly how to push her father's buttons from an early age.
Hermione also got an owl, whom she dubbed Hamlet.
Once Hermione had become bored with shopping and gone home her parents had seen very little of their daughter. It wasn't unusual for hermione to disappear for hours in her bedroom. She had always preferred her own company.
If it was up to Hermione she wouldn't have even left her room to eat, but that was one thing her father had always been firm on. They must eat as a family, which is why she was currently stuck listening to her Father go on about how he would miss her when she went to school. Her mother ordered her to write often, but Hermione knew it was formality and really meant nothing. Her mother had to be more than relieved to send her daughter off to a boarding school, once she realized Hermione would be gone for the majority of the year.
Jean had cooked Hermione's favorite food,mashed potatoes and spicy chicken, but Hermione was barely touching it. Instead, she was concentrating on her approach to her social life at her future school.
How would others view her?
She could act innocent, but people might think she was weak, and that was something that Hermione simply abhorred. She could act ruthless, but that would make people wary of her and it would be difficult to gain allies.
Hermione knew the value of planning. When she first entered kindergarten, the girl had no plan and simply was herself. That was a costly mistake, and it led her to visit a court ordered psychiatrist for three years.
Although the odds of her breaking anyone's arm here were pretty slim, as there were some curses that would do the job so much nicer, she still had to be on her toes. Her favorite one was one she found in one of her new books, a spell called "Vomitare Viridis" It made the recipient of the spell projectile vomit.
The first thing Hermione wanted to do when she got to Hogwarts was to visit the library. Once she got there, she would remove all the reference books and bury herself in them. Woe upon anyone who tried to make her eat.
Hermione had already finished reading all of the first year school books and her extra books.
There were many interesting ideas and facts in her books. She learned about cleaning charms, hexes and history behind the seemingly greatest magical school ever created, Hogwarts. The most INTERESTING thing she had read was about Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. He was the man to her house and explained that she was a witch. It surprised her to find his name in a book, he seemed like such a common place, senile, old man. Apparently, he was powerful and widely respected among light witches and wizards. Among the dark ones, he was feared above no other.
Hermione decided that she was not to trifle with this man. He posed a great threat to her. That is why Hermione was concerned with finding allies. She needed people to stand between her and the headmaster.
From what Dumbledore said, muggleborns aren't always accepted by other witches and wizards. The families who were most powerful, the ones who she would like to ally with, wouldn't accept her.
If the issue was just that her parents were Muggles, she could just dispose of them. But, she could never erase the traces of their blood from hers. They were still connected by familial ties.
It was obvious by Dumbledore's cold behavior towards her that he considered her a threat to the wizarding world. She was callously able to consider murdering her parents and that made Dumbledore shiver in fear, dreading what Hermione Granger would become.
And he was right to do so.