Chapter Five

The train ride to Hogwarts had been uneventful as she had managed to commandeer a compartment all to herself. She spent the majority of the ride reading over An Appraisal of the Magical Education of Asia as she had just managed to get a copy of it the day before she left for Hogwarts and her mother and father had spent the previous weeks buying her as many muggle school books and language books as they could find in such a short span of time, glad that her trunk could hold as many books as their daughter could possibly want to read.

When a giant met them to lead them across the lake Hermione was shocked but used her years of training as a doctor's daughter to keep the shock from showing on her face. The castle itself was magnificent in its splendor, Hogwarts: A History didn't do it any justice.

They followed Professor McGonagall through the doors and up the stairs before she stopped just outside the Great Hall to speak to them.

'Welcome to Hogwarts,' said Professor McGonagall. 'The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
'The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
'The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarted yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.' Her eyes lingered for a moment on boys cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on a red head's smudged nose while a dark haired boy nervously tried to flatten his hair.
'I will return when we are ready for you,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Please wait quietly.'

Hermione waited patiently while the rest of the students where called up, in alphabetically order, to be sorted into their houses before it was finally her turn. She didn't mind if she wound up in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, either would work for her but she was truly hoping not to wind up in Slytherin, she hadn't read anything good about the house of Slytherin.

When her name was called she did her best not to shake as she bound up to the stool. She had barely sat down when the Sorting Hat yelled out, surprising Hermione.

"RAVENCLAW"

After its declaration one particular table lit up with applause, which indicated it was her houses table as she made her way to the table, finding her way onto a bench next to the other first years. One was Terry Boot but the other boy she didn't remember his name.

When food suddenly appeared on the table most first years where surprised but Hermione just raised an eyebrow at them as it had been mentioned in Hogwarts: A History before she began selecting what she wanted to eat for her dinner.

After Professor Dumbledore left them with his parting words, leaving a lot of first year students very confused, even after the older years just waved it off, they began the trek to the Ravenclaw Dormitories.

Penelope Clearwater, a fifth year Ravenclaw Prefect, led the first year girls to their dorms as she began to talk.

"For tonight I'd suggest you get unpacked and then set out your supplies for in the morning. I'll be back to get you at six forty five. Classes don't start until nine but I want to have time to give you a tour of the castle so you won't get lost in the morning. Your curfew is ten pm while third year and above is eleven. If you find you need a library book after ten but before eleven just ask an upper year and they'll get it for you. Luna Lovegood and Lisa Turpin, you have the first room on the left, Padma Patil and Crystal Smyth second room on the left. Hermione you have the only bedroom on the right, we had an odd number of girls this year, the winner of the single room is done by a draw hence how you got it. You'll find all your belongings are within your room, your time table should be on your desk as well as your Ravenclaw Time-Table which has a noted attached to it to explain as well as a few odds and ins and have been added to your bookcase and your desks. Each bedroom has an attached bathroom with plenty of cupboard space and next to Hermione's room is your personal brewing room. If you need a potion sometimes it's better to brew it yourself than go to Madam Pompfrey for it and it gives you practice, just be sure to take your supplies out of the room when you finish your potions." The girl that introduced herself as a prefect said before leaving them to their own devices as Hermione entered the room that would be hers for the next seven years.

As Hermione entered her room she was amazed. There was a four poster bed that could very well hold four of her that was done in a lovely shade of blue and bronze. There was a nightstand on either side of her bed and to the side of one nightstand was a closet and on the other side a chest of drawers.

Her trunk sat at the foot of her bed but what amazed her the most where the five bookcases that covered the walls of her bedroom and an average sized desk that looked like it was stocked to the brim with muggle and magical school supplies.

Making her way over to her desk she pulled out the chair before pulling her schedule from the bottom of the pile and looking it over. Tomorrow, a Monday, she had Defense Against the Dark Arts, a break, then Herbology until eleven thirty. From there it was a break until two when she had Transfiguration and then Charms back to back but only for a total of an hour and a half. After that from three thirty to four fifteen she had her Astronomy Theory and then was free for the rest of the day.

The rest of the week she was usually out by one or two pm expect for her Astronomy Practical which was at seven forty five to eight thirty on Wednesday and Friday she had no classes at all which she thought was rather odd, but she had a feeling that the amount of homework that had to be accomplished would more than make up for that.

Gathering all the books that she would need for her first day of classes she placed them inside her school bag which she had pulled from her trunk before adding the appropriate binders she had taken notes in over the summer before placing it on her spare nightstand. Once that was accomplished Hermione pulled the second piece of paper towards her that showed her Ravenclaw schedule.

It wasn't much, just a print out or copy of a calendar for the current month that showed their biweekly house meetings that were required to be attended and where subject to change based on Qudditch practices. Remembering the packing and unpacking spell she had memorized over the summer Hermione pointed her wand at her trunk before saying "Unpack" very clearly; glad when her books started making their way to her bookcase and her clothing organized itself within her closet and dresser. Upon later inspection she noticed that her books had categorized themselves under several different subheadings. The first major rift was muggle and then magical. From there her muggle books had divided between fiction and nonfiction and her magical books had divided themselves by their Hogwarts subjects or their close equivalents. Anything that didn't fit under a Hogwarts subject had filled itself after that, but there wasn't much that didn't fall under that category.

Upon inspecting her desk closer Hermione found a drawer that was full of suduko puzzles, crossword puzzles, cryptograph puzzles and much more. She assumed they had been added there as a way of relaxation that still kept the brain busy which was a very nice thought.

Just as she was about to change into her pajamas she heard a rap at her door, when telling the person to enter she was surprised to see it was the blonde prefect from earlier, carrying several large tombs with her.

"I thought these might come in handy. When you have potions you won't be able to leave your hair like it is. Look for the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. It will help tame it, once you use it for about two weeks your hair will become more naturally wavy, until then, keep it in a tight bun or braid and don't do anything to antagonize Professor Snape, he isn't the nicest of Professors. It only takes an hour to brew and shouldn't be too hard but if you don't have all the ingredients you can always order them from the apothecary by owl order." She said, before mentioning a few different potions that Hermione might be interested in before leaving the young girl to her own devices.

Hermione was slightly offended at Penelope Clearwater's tone at first, but decided that it was probably a smart move on her part to follow through with brewing the potion that Penelope had given her a book for. Gathering up her potions supplies and cauldron, she quietly made her way to the brewing room before she began the rather short process of brewing Sleekeazy's Hair Potion which was located in a giant tome called Magical Beauty for the Young Witch. Once it was set to where it could brew she began flipping through the tome that she had been gifted jotting down several different potions or crèmes that she thought would be useful in her time at Hogwarts before she bottled up her newest potion to start using it the next morning before classes.

Hermione woke the next morning at five am, intent on keeping up the routine that she had stared while attending the medicine conference her parents had sent her to over the previous summer. Because of the instructors upbringing he believed in a "well-rounded" education, which meant physical education at five am, just as her boarding school had, although it wasn't usually that early in the morning.

Finding her running outfit as well as her trainers she quickly dressed before pulling her hair up into a ponytail and then braiding that ponytail before making her way out of the castle and onto the grounds.

It was quiet which something that made her happy; she wouldn't have been able to focus on her morning run had other students been up and about. The run had been therapeutic and helped clear her head as she made her way back to the Ravenclaw common room long before anyone under Year Four had woken up.

Their where a few Year Five and Year Seven students mulling about, wanting to get a jump start on their OWL and NEWT revisions that would soon start for them but Hermione paid them no mind as she quickly took a shower before applying her new hair potion to her untamable hair and pulling it back into what would become her customary school braid throughout her years at Hogwarts before deciding on finding the library on her own.

Finding the library was rather tricky since the staircases kept moving which was just flat out annoying and shouldn't have been logically possible but she eventually found it with the help of a Ravenclaw prefect who allowed the young girl to follow her through the winding staircases until they reached the bottom floor where the giant library was located. She had read something over the summer about an undectable extension charm which sounded like it would be rather useful as soon as she caught sight of how large the Hogwarts library was.

The first thought that came to Hermione's mind was I'm behind if most pure-blood and half-bloods had access to this many books before I did which made her feel anxious which reminded her she needed to find out if there was a potion for anxiety. It wouldn't do to have to go to the doctor…no…healer she thought it was called, every time she had an anxiety attack, which was usually when everything wasn't perfect.

Summoning a calming draught from her bag, Hermione quickly downed it, glad when it started to kick in almost immediately which was a great relief to her as she started browsing the books that the rather large library held when she ran into a stern looking older lady with wire framed glasses.

"Can I help you locate something dear?" she asked, noticing she didn't recognize the girl that stood in front of her

"Yes ma'am. I was wondering where I would locate the Arithmancy books. I can't believe that they don't allow us to take math class until our third year." Hermione said more to herself than the librarian front of her.

"It involves Trigonometry which most first thru second year students aren't quite ready to master. Do you already know Trig?" Madam Pince asked as Hermione followed her to a portion of the library she had yet to explore.

"Yes ma'am. I'm starting on Calculus as a self-study while I'm here this year." Hermione replied, not noticing when Madam Pince's eyebrows went up into her hairline before she schooled her features as they found the section Hermione was looking for.

"It's not common for a first year to be accepted into Arithmancy but I'll owl Professor Vector for you to see if they'll make an exception to the rule." Madam Pince said as the girl before her checked out the books before she started making her way to the Great Hall, leaving behind a very curious librarian.