The day of her departure came, and her parents took her once more to King's Cross Station. This time, rather than having to mill about for an hour before figuring the trick, she found herself on the platform with that distinct engine, with her parents beside her, the three of them trying not to say anything too incriminating this time. She had trusted to luck in Diagon Alley to keep people from paying attention to her, but here, amongst other students, her words might stand out too much.
Luckily, despite her performance during the Rites, and her academic performance that had helped keep them from last place in the House Cup competition, none seemed to care for her. She should have been miffed at that. Recognition, however, was not her desire, and saying farewell to her parents, she told them she loved them, and whispered a time tonight when she'd send her first note.
The trip up she had expected to be uneventful after that, and for her it was, as she read 'Magical Me' in a compartment all to herself. But apparently there was some hubbub elsewhere in the train. She wasn't sure what, as even listening to the gossip, it was too disjointed. She caught 'flying car', 'Harry Potter', and 'Weirdest thing I'd ever seen' out of a few of the conversations, however.
Arriving once more after the sun had set, she kept her eyes open and did indeed make note that, as she gathered with the second years, to be taken by a seemingly self motivated carriage, she saw not hide nor hair of the 'Boy Who Lived'. She did, however, notice hoofprints in the dirt, and realized that the carriages were, in fact, being drawn by some kind of invisible horses, making her wonder what breed they were.
She was still speculating on the breed of horses that were invisible, going over all the ones she knew of from her 'reading', when they were seated in the Great Hall, and the new first years were brought out, and then shown to the Sorting Hat. Interestingly, it had a different rhyme this year, making her train of thought derail from invisible horses into how sapient the piece of cloth really was.
She was still thinking about that when the feast was over and she was sent back to the tower with the rest of her house, including the new first years. Most were in awe of the world around them, which made sense as it seemed Gryffindor attracted more 'Muggleborn' like herself than the other three houses combined, a fact she had to admit, once more sent her on a thought spiral as she went to bed that evening.
Luckily, her mind was clear by the time she rose, and she quickly set about going to the space beside her bed and opening the slide that would lead to Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom again. Oddly, it was just a little easier this time, perhaps the Castle itself remembering her requested feature. She even found it simple to once again pull her still from the wall and set it up, all done before the first class of the day.
She went, not completely unexpectedly, but some of her yearmates were shocked to see her nonetheless. She had to explain that her exemption only applied to that year, she'd have to take the tests again this year to get out of classes again. And she had other things to do than to prepare for that test again, so she'd be attending her courses for the moment, something that Professor Flitwick approved of, pointing out that she needed to get her feet under her, before she decided to go running ahead again.
He was still startled when she demonstrated not only the charm he was trying to show before he'd even finished the demonstration, but even recited all the history of it, pointing out its use as a fundamental part of a series of charms they were going to learn this year, and why it was important. He squeaked with delight, and offered her a total of almost twenty-five points by the end of class.
Her other course of the day, Herbology, went much the same, with Professor Sprout pleased with her explanation of Mandrakes, the course's major project of the second year to grow a set of them. Mind, she was positively giddy when Hermione, rather than using the earmuffs, did a spell she'd learned about that, rather than trying to stifle sound, instead created a kind of counter sound that cancelled it out.
This proved advantageous in many ways, as it meant while the cry was silent, none of the other noises were, so Hermione was able to 'tap its belly' to find where her mandrake was lacking in certain nutrients, listening to the way the sound reverberated in the odd plant. She quickly and easily found the fertilizer specific to her plant's needs, and Professor Sprout clapped in joy, anticipating quite the harvest this year.
With a further fifteen points under her wings, Hermione retired for the rest of the day to her bathroom, startled to find a note left on the stall with her still in it. She had no idea who left it, especially given the 'Notice-Me-Not' charm was still just as strong, without a single thread of spellwork disturbed. Still, it simply told her some advice on the temperature of the water she was using, giving her a specific one, and even advising the use of certain minerals in it, which she could apparently request from the school.
So a teacher had found her setup then? And obviously understood what she was doing. Which one though? It wasn't Snape. He'd never have allowed such a thing outside his overwatch, just in case she did make a mistake or the like. She might not like him, but the man had a respect for his own profession, she'd seen it in how he treated her and others, that if he discovered she was experimenting, he'd have done everything in his power to keep her safe, to have another Potion Master in the world.
Professor McGonagall? It seemed less likely. She was not one for breaking the rules, and this was a fairly big rule. Professor Sprout? She'd been in the greenhouse with Hermione. Professor Flitwick perhaps? Maybe even Professor Lockhart? The man seemed irreverent in his books, so perhaps he found a bit of rule breaking, and even not knowing who it was, he had wanted to help?
She dismissed each of them, even Headmaster Dumbledore, who simply would have no reason to be here. So she left that conundrum aside and started her brewing, creating the first batch in only an hour or so, with over twenty vials of her best blood replenishment potion ready to go, as she closed it down for the night, said goodbye to the room's ghost, and proceeded back to the Great Hall.
Apparently, while she'd been busy impressing teachers and setting herself up for the year, things had been spreading through the school like wildfire. The Boy Who Lived had arrived not on the Hogwarts Express, but instead in a flying car. One he crashed so badly it exploded, killing him and the Wea…Ronald, leaving them to create magical duplicates that had been running around all day.
Other rumors included the car transforming into some kind of golem that claimed it was part of an alien race, here to battle a similar thing, that she knew was one of the muggleborns being a twat and pulling one over on the magical born. The others varied enough that it was hard to sort through, and finally, annoyed with all the speculation as the evening feast continued, she just got up and walked over to them.
She proceeded to ask, politely as she felt she could, what had happened, and after mumbling about it for a moment, she got Harry to open up just a little. As it turned out, the pair of them had been late coming to Platform 9&¾ for some Weasly family related things. As such, they were amongst the last ones to arrive, and had found the entrance sealed ahead of them, which had made Harry assume they'd missed the train, literally, despite having seen Ronald's siblings make the crossing just ahead of them.
The platform being sealed forced them into action, being boys who didn't think things through, and they'd stolen a flying car. Which could have belonged to any family, Ronald added, very unconvincingly. Not that he was wrong to try and cover it up, as there were quite a few laws involving 'muggle artifacts' and the enchanting thereof. Not that she wasn't curious how someone had managed to enchant a car, given all the things inside to make it work.
Regardless, they'd flown it here to Hogwarts, whereupon the thing utterly failed to land properly. She had to point out that the school being unplottable probably had something to do with that, and in fact, being drawn to the Walloping Willow made sense. Likely as not, there was some defensive spell that drew airborne intruders to the thing to be dealt with, which was actually fortunate on their part. When Ronald asked her how that was 'fortunate' she pointed out they could have smashed into one of the towers of the school instead.
That shut the git up right quick, and Hermione thanked them both for saiting her curiosity, before returning to her seat. There were mumbles about her 'taking all the fun' out of the wild speculations of the other students, but it was such a silly thing. Why simply spread baseless rumors, when the source of true information was right there? She knew this was a thing of muggles as much as magicals, but it still irked her.
She left the Great Hall to her bathroom, finding the still had done its work well. The water pressure had mixed the ingredients, released from the small boxes as they were needed into the potion, and she was able to get twenty full vials of the blood replenishment potion. This was the thing most requested of her 'medicine', and with a smile she slid up to her room, finding it empty, and quickly emptied all of them into her trunk.
She then entered the 'code' into the trunk, causing it to shudder, shake, and then, when she opened it, found it empty, making her nod, hoping it had worked just like it had at home, but refusing to move until she had confirmation. Luckily, her parents had been told to watch the trunk around this time of night, and so it took less than a minute for the one pip on the side to shine lightly, in the way she'd been told.
Pressing it as she opened the trunk, she found a single piece of paper, which she picked up and quickly read. It was her father by the handwriting, using the code phrases they'd worked out, just in case, to tell her everything had gone splendidly. That was enough to get the girl to laugh to herself, joyfully rather than trying her evil chuckle, as she quickly wrote a response on the same paper and sent it back to him.
So her first full day at Hogwarts came to a close. She was happy with her achievements so far. Impressing Professors was always a fun time in her books, but she'd also stopped by the library to find that she had lost none of her 'reading' potential as she feared she might. No, she had taken in more books, and found that Madam Pince had even given her her own small corner of the library to store her materials in.
All that let her go to bed that night with assurance that her path was the right one for her. She was gaining power, both magical and financial, with each passing day. In time, she would show these wizards and witches what it meant to be 'Good', even if she had to bash their heads in to do it. Even better, tomorrow would be her first lesson with Professor Lockhart, to learn all the secrets of a man who had been on a hundred adventures. She couldn't wait.