Those who knew Hermione well, basically her teachers, would have guessed she would either take the book to her parents and muse over the coincidence or assume it was an odd prank, and recall that the shopgirl seemed to know her name and birthday.

Her parents might have guessed that she did neither of those two things. First she closed the book and laid it down as if it were a strange dog that might bite her. She opened her bag and took out the next book. She flipped through the pages. There her name was, again. " Harry missed his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They, however, didn't seem to be missing him at all. " She lost some of her sympathy for the book's Hermione.

She closed it and opened the third book. " Harry's other best friend from Hogwarts, Hermione Granger, hadn't been in touch, either. Harry suspected that Ron had warned Hermione not to call, which was a pity, because Hermione, the cleverest witch in Harry's year, had Muggle parents, knew perfectly well how to use a telephone, and would probably have enough sense not to say that she went to Hogwarts. " On the one hand, this was proof positive Ron Weasley was no friend of anyone nice. On the other hand, yet again, the book's Hermione was in some sort of thrall to him. If Ron told Hermione not to do the right thing, apparently, his wish was her command. The chilling thought occurred to her that she didn't have to be the hero's love interest. In fact, even if she was destined to be with the hero, if this was a romantic YA series, it was typical for the damsel to throw herself at the wrong person, especially a stealth villain. "Hermione, you great idiot!" she muttered.

Once Hermione started something, she finished it. Fourth book. By this point, the likelihood someone had written a mocked-up set of books as a prank became vanishingly small. "At once, Hermione Granger's voice seemed to fill his head, shrill and panicky." Am I? Am I really? Shrill AND panicky? I mean, is SHE? She thought. "Your scar hurt? Harry, that's really serious … Write to Professor Dumbledore! And I'll go check Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions . Maybe there's something in there about curse scars." At least at this point, in the fourth book, Ron wasn't around, vetoing whatever ESP Hermione and Harry were using. Maybe that's why they learned it? It was also interesting that Harry, like Frodo, seemed to have a cursed scar. Hopefully, it was just something that healed slowly or something, not like Frodo's, which gave him a connection to the evil wraiths and pained him whenever they were around. Oh, and Hermione was still a fool, telling him to go to the arch-villain. The readers were meant to go, "Oh no! Don't!" and Hermione admitted it was working.

The fifth book was, sadly, a reversion to form. "If he was lucky, there would be owls carrying letters" Owls? she thought, confused. " from his best friends Ron and Hermione, though any expectation he had had that their letters would bring him news had long since been dashed. 'We can't say much about you-know-what, obviously … We've been told not to say anything important in case our letters go astray …" By Dumbledore! Hermione snorted mentally. " 'We're quite busy but I can't give you details here … There's a fair amount going on, we'll tell you everything when we see you.' But when were they going to see him? Nobody seemed to bothered with a precise date. Hermione had scribbled 'I expect we'll be seeing you quite soon' inside his birthday card, but how soon was soon?"

No, it wasn't a reversion. It was worse . Ron had clearly been the only one allowed even to write to Harry. Given that they seemed entirely under Dumbledore's thumb, and to a degree, Ron's, Hermione had to assume Harry Potter was still, even in the fifth book, confined to his abusive, Dickensian prison. My God, he really won't be able to stand up in that cupboard , she thought. If he'd been eleven in the first book, he could be thirteen, fourteen, even fifteen by now. And she noted with alarm that Hermione had been reduced to "scribbling" hurriedly inside a birthday card to send Harry a message. It was even money she was imprisoned, too. What had started as a light fantasy was shaping up to be a rather grim novel of suspense. Still suitable for YA, hopefully. Otherwise, what Ron and Dumbledore might be up to with Hermione was quite unsettling. She read on a bit. It was clear Hermione was, indeed, bookmarked for Ron by Dumbledore, and Harry was quite jealous about it. Maybe there was a sign of hope there. Perhaps by the time Harry won his way to her side, he'd be fed up enough to tell them all off and escape. She noted that Sirius Black apparently hadn't freed Harry yet - five books in and counting was a bit late if anyone was going to be training Harry to confront Voldemort and his less obvious enemies. She wondered if Black was injured, imprisoned, or worse. As for the owls, perhaps they were like the paper owls in The Owl Service , capable of coming to life and delivering messages.

The sixth book had a chapter, "Hermione's Helping Hand," but she forbore skipping ahead to it. " 'You can't Apparate anywhere inside the buildings or grounds,' said Harry quickly. 'Hermione Granger told me.' 'And she is quite right. We turn left again' " So, nothing. She gave in and turned to her chapter. Hermione was definitely one of the main characters - the series was nearly over and she was still all over it. "As Hermione had predicted, the sixth years' free periods were not the hours of blissful relaxation Ron had anticipated … " Well, of course not, Hermione fumed. "And to Hermione's increasing resentment, Harry's best subject had suddenly become Potions, thanks to the Half-Blood Prince." It would be a cold day in hell before a Hermione based off of her would resent someone having a best subject. This was decidedly not a good sign. Apparently, the Dumbledore/Ron group had managed to turn Hermione against Harry to a degree. This was probably the proverbial "lowest point" the hero had to go through, where everyone deserted him. Still no mention of Sirius Black, though to be fair,, she was only looking for mentions of Hermione. Perhaps the villains had already managed to turn Hermione against Sirius Black, and they didn't interact.

She pondered the possibility she'd sort of scoffed at - that there was some sort of unimaginable truth or reality to the books. That she was like Bastian Bux, reading some sort of Neverending Story about her own analogue. If that were so, it would still be odd if it followed a standard fantasy storyline so closely. If that weird thought had any truth to it, then definitely some things would be modified and distorted to fit the narrative. She'd have to read the books very, very carefully and make note of any contradictions or dubious assertions.

It was in a grim state of mind that she closed the sixth book and opened the final one. As she had with the sixth book, she skipped ahead to "The Wedding," looking for the end of the ceremony to determine whose wedding it was. Well. "Hermione turned and beamed at Harry; her eyes were too full of tears. '... then I declare you bonded for life.' " Well, thank God for that. Now, in more of a disciplined mood, she turned to the front of the book. "Making a mental note to ask Hermione … The idea of a teenage Dumbledore was simply odd, like trying to imagine a stupid Hermione … There was a general cry of greeting as Hermione flung her arms around him." Clearly, the 'Hermione problem' had been cleared up, and presumably, they were uniting to take on Dumbledore and Voldemort. She decided that the author had dropped the ball with Sirius Black. Perhaps he'd died before he could rescue Harry, and was relegated to serving as an example to be striven for.

If the more likely scenarios were true, she'd already spoiled some of the series. So, she resolved to start over from the beginning. But she'd be taking notes, that was certain. And if it were all a prank or a fluke, it would, nonetheless, always have a special place on her bookshelf. It was a unique series for her in particular, no matter how you looked at it.

And the mystery her teachers (and perhaps even her parents) would have noticed could be cleared up if they'd known about Hermione's own personal history. For a while, as a toddler, Hermione had had what amounted to a poltergeist around her. It had made her mother, in particular, collect books on hauntings and the paranormal. After it seemed to cease, they had an unspoken agreement not to mention it again. Hermione didn't really remember the floating books and toys. But she was, it so happened, very familiar with absolutely unexplainable, weird things happening around her. When she made it up to her room to put the books away - and perhaps take a nap, for she felt exhausted for some reason - there it was. She had packed away her dolls and their table and tea service when she decided the sixth year was her time to reinvent Hermione Granger.

And yet, the table and chairs, and all the dolls, were out and arrayed in front of her bed. And as she entered, they all turned and regarded her. Expectantly.