While reading was a great comfort for little Hermione, it was also a compulsion. From cereal boxes to her mother's Mary Balogh novels to dentistry handouts, she read . Eventually, she could not control how much she read, just (somewhat) what she read. It was a miracle she'd never needed spectacles, if one looked at it objectively. But these rare fantasy books were a particular treasure.
As part of her initiative to re-create herself, she paced herself by explaining to her parents why she came home late before opening the first book in the series. Normally, the look on her mother's face when she admitted she'd been a bit downcast because even after she mentioned it to several students, she'd only gotten four "Happy Birthdays" would have put Hermione off talking to her parents, but she steeled herself to stay calm and objective.
Her parents were fascinated when she told them the old curio shop was still going, and still doing business as it had in the time of Charles Dickens. Her mother worried aloud that any boy who could keep up with Hermione would of necessity be much older, and therefore, untrustworthy.
Since she'd brought it up, Hermione forthrightly requested that she get braces as soon as possible. She would work on her hair, she said, but to have two parents as dentists who'd allowed her to be tormented over her teeth for five years now was like the cobbler's children having no shoes. At first, her father especially looked offended. Then both parents sighed. They'd actually been planning on getting her braces within about a year's time. They weren't completely convinced that it was entirely healthy to give very young children braces, but they had probably left it too late, and they grudgingly said so.
Her mother raised the issue of the brand new plastic trays that some girls substituted for braces. Hermione, surprisingly, had read up on them and declared they took too long. A bit more discomfort and unsightly braces were well worth saving six months or so of time. She was, she said frankly, basically writing off her primary school years. Furthermore, getting braces would mean she wasn't, at least, being mocked any more for being a dentists' child whose parents clearly didn't care about her.
Because she sensed her mother was going to suffer further pangs of guilt over that , and she'd guessed correctly that the braces issue was a solved problem now, she changed the subject to the books she'd bought. Neither of her parents had ever heard of either the series or the author. It was decidedly odd, they all three agreed, that someone would have as many as seven books out in a series without Hermione, a fantasy novel collector, having heard of him or her at all. Especially when it had a quote from the Guardian about it in an early edition of the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone .
Her father's only comment was that the name, J. K. Rowling, resembled J. R. R. Tolkien's eponym. "It would be funny if one day people just said 'Rowling' and you knew whom they were talking about, wouldn't it?" he mused. With that hanging in the air, Hermione tucked herself in to the sofa and opened up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone .
Hermione's heart immediately went out to the Dickensian waif that was the title and main character. Like Oliver Twist, but more so, he was ludicrously abused. Clearly the old wizard Dumbledore was going to be the early villain, and whoever You-Know-Who was, assuming he was ever named, would be the power behind him. She didn't have any respect for the old woman, who apparently made noises about doing the right thing before doing Dumbledore's bidding - in this case, leaving an infant on a doorstep in November like a bottle of milk. And that on the doorstep of a family she'd watched all day and declared "the worst sort." The Hagrid oaf seemed like genial but dim-witted muscle. Hermione surmised Sirius Black would eventually rescue little Harry Potter, and probably train him to be a hero; he was the only character with an obviously heroic name.
The next chapter continued the Dickensian atmosphere - no wonder the books were sold in the old curio shop! Hermione couldn't help herself - she looked over at the stairs by the living room and imagined living beneath them. She speculated their house, being only four bedrooms, was probably half the size of the Grangers' home. As such, the stairs there would likely be only two-thirds as tall as theirs. It was an open question if even a child could stand up anywhere but the entrance, assuming it was on the tall part of the wall .
So. The boy's gifts apparently included talking to animals (of course) and having magic happen around him in a haphazard fashion. Hermione would never have tormented a boy like that, but apparently his aunt and uncle were imbeciles.
Then again, she learned in the third chapter that "Hogwarts," the alleged school presided over by the villain Dumbledore, was filled with idiots, too. Presumably including whoever named it. Instead of following up in person when Harry failed to respond to his invitation letter, they wasted inordinate amounts of time and money terrorising Harry's relatives, and he still never saw one of the hundreds of copies of the letter his relatives were swamped with.
The actual appearance of the Hagrid oaf didn't add anything nice to the picture. The only clever thing he did was steal the Dursley's boat. Even that might have opened him up to an attempted murder charge if the Dursley family remained trapped on the island too long.
The shopping trip with Hagrid saw him dismiss a whole race of intelligent beings, but also buy Harry the obvious mascot of the series. Hermione wondered when Hagrid would see the light and turn on his headmaster. It would depend on when You-Know-Who or rather "Voldemort" appeared and aced out Dumbledore as the main antagonist. Hermione confirmed with her well-used French-English dictionary that his name very roughly translated as "Flight of or from Death." She wondered if the spoiled Malfoy boy would end up as Harry's friend, or his rival. He reminded Hermione of Ethel Hallow from the Worst Witch.
Finally, the book arrived at the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had waited patiently while they established Harry Potter's situation and character, but now the story really could begin!
As to it being a school of "witchcraft AND wizardry," she assumed girls and boys would be separated, with the girls learning witchcraft and the boys learning wizardry. She enjoyed good world-building like that immensely.
She immediately wondered at the red-headed woman and her family. How she got away with tossing around, quite loudly, the general insulting name the wizards called normal people, then following it up by having her small daughter shout about "Platform 9 ¾ !" Hermione couldn't imagine. It seemed, combined with the nonsense with the letters, the author equated magic with whimsy. This made it more resemble Alice in Wonderland, so presumably the author was a fan.
It was also somehow fishy, and when one of the children obviously lied to get in Harry's compartment, she decided the red-headed family would turn out to be villainous. That guess was helped along when Ron turned out to be the only wizard with a rat as a familiar.
Hermione immediately identified with the girl who came in helping another student find his toad. She could tick off all of her perceived flaws - hair, teeth, "bossy" voice. She was immediately rooting for her. Since she was introduced early, she had a good chance of becoming a friend to the main character - possibly even a love interest. Hermione could dream. It was while she was musing thusly that her thoughts almost skipped past the girl's name. She'd gone on to think it was a good sign the villainous Ron Weasley disliked her.
Then she froze.
She made herself trace back with her finger to the girl's name. No matter how long she stared at it, it didn't change a single letter.
Hermione Granger.
