Chapter 1
Hermione always knew she was different from her parents. First was appearance. While Hermione had frizzy dirty blonde hair that was kind of a jumbled mess of curls, both her parents had hair as straight as a needle. Her fathers hair was almost black and her mothers was very dark brown. Hermione's eyes were dark brown while her mother had blue eyes and her father had green eyes. She also had an olive complexion and sported lots of freckles along the bridge of her nose and all over her body. Her parents on the other hand were quite pale and burned too easily in the sun.
But maybe the biggest difference is that Hermione could do magic and her parents could not. She found that out at the age of 4. Her mother had put her favorite stuffed animal up on the counter and Hermione couldn’t reach it, she closed her eyes and next thing she knew her stuffy was in her hands. From then on she began noticing anytime she really tried, she could make miracles happen.
At 10 years old Hermione was an odd girl, she didn’t have many friends. People always saw her as a know it all, too much of a bookworm, a weirdo and was picked on because of it. So when her parents told her they were leaving America to move to London, Hermione was excited but nervous. Just one more thing to add, her American accent would definitely make her stand out even more.
Over the past year things were going well for Hermione. As she was getting ready to celebrate her 11th birthday with her parents she heard the strangest sound outside her window, it sounded like an owl. As soon as she opened the window an owl swooped down and dropped a letter on her bed and flew right back out.
Ms H Granger
The bedroom at the top of the stairs
8 Heathgate,
Hampstead Garden Suburb
London
Hermione stared at it for about a whole 3 minutes straight before running down to show her parents. They sat on the couch and opened it together and what she found in that letter changed her life forever.
“A witch, mom I’m a witch….” Hermione wasn’t sure if she was asking or if she was telling them. Her whole life she knew she was different and she finally had a reason why.
“It seems you are buttercup” her dad said and pulled her into a tight hug, “but don’t think this changes anything, you’re still our little girl.”
Later that afternoon there was a knock at the front door, when Hermione opened it a very strange looking woman with the oddest looking clothes and pointy hat looked down and smiled at her. “My you must be Hermione Granger, I’m Minerva McGonagall, a professor from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. May I come in to speak to you and your parents dear?” Hermione was awestruck and could only nod, which made the strange lady chuckle.
“Mom, Dad, a professor from my new school is here to talk to you.” Hermione tried not to yell too loud as she usually does when she’s excited. Her mom was the first to make it into the living room followed by her father.
“Ms. and Mr. Granger, my name is Professor McGonagall and I teach at Hogwarts. I was tasked to greet you as I am sure you have many questions for me.
Over the next 3 hours the tall witch answered each question, telling them where to meet her the next weekend as she would show them Diagon Alley,, the wizarding world in Britain, where she would get everything she needed for school. Including a wand, which Hermione was most excited for, except for the books of course.
The next week went by slower than ever and when the weekend finally came Hermione was buzzing with anticipation. She had gathered all the money she had saved up over the past few years, between Christmas’s and her birthdays she had plenty saved up, which meant plenty of new wizarding books.
McGonagall had met the Grangers outside of a run down looking pub and took them to the back. She pulled out her wand and tapped the bricks, for a second Hermione thought she might have done it wrong as nothing was happening, but just a minute later the bricks opened up to a busy street. Hermione sucked in a breath and couldn’t do anything but stare. She had never seen so many strange looking shops. She saw things like cauldrons and some kind of sports store with lots of brooms. A store full of strange looking animals, one for wands, one for clothes. When Hermione came across the bookstore she peeked in the windows and her heart felt like it was about to bust. It was two stories tall and had so many books, she wasn’t sure where she would start first.
McGonagall cleared her throat and motioned for them to follow her. Before they bought anything they had to go to the wizarding bank to exchange their muggle money for wizard money. Once they did that, the older witch took them to each store and bought everything she needed for school. The uniforms were much like the ones she used to wear at her old private school back in the states.
She knew her parents could afford some of the best there was to offer, as they were both dentists and both came from old money. She never had a want for anything as her parents gave her everything she could ever need, but didn’t grow up spoiled rotten. Her parents made her work for what she wanted, and taught her the value of hard work. Therefore she knew she was getting the best robes, best quills and cauldron, but was to promise to work even harder so as to not disappoint her parents.
Finally after about two hours of shopping for the essentials they were led to the bookstore. McGonagall bid them farewell and told her she was excited to see her next year for school. Her parents let her wander and find some books for her to pick out as they asked the shop owners to help locate the books for school.
As Hermione was roaming the isles, looking at every section and every book in that section she didn’t seem to notice a set of grey eyes watching her. She had about 3 books in her hands and when she turned around to go to the next isle she didn’t notice the boy until she ran right into him.
“Oh I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to run you over.”
“It’s okay, you don’t sound British, where are you from?” The blonde boy asks as he picks up the books for her and hands them to her.
“I moved here from America about a year ago, just got my letter for Hogwarts last week.” She said with a big smile on her face. She was cute he thought, with her busy hair, brown eyes and even though her teeth were a little big for her mouth she still had a nice smile he thought.
“I’ll be going there next year as well, you seem to have picked out some good books, but I have to say you should add Hogwarts a History to your pile, makes a good read, and you can learn lots about Hogwarts” he smiled sheepishly at her.
“Thank you….what’s your name?” She asks “I would shake your hand but my hands are a little full” Hermione giggled.
His smile got a little wider and chuckled back “I’m Draco, and what’s your name?”
“Draco, like the constellation, I like it. My names Hermione, my parents were a little too obsessed with Shakespearean names” she laughed.
He gave her a puzzling look “I’m not sure I know what Shakespeare is, but your name is very pretty.” At that she looked down at her shoes trying to hide her blush, and before she could say anything her parents came around the corner looking for her.
“Come on Hermione, we've got your school books and we have a dinner reservation in about 30 minutes, we can come back next weekend, sound good?” Her father asked.
“Yeah dad I’m coming.” She turned around and gave Draco a big smile. “It was nice to meet you Draco”
“It was nice to meet you too Hermione, I’ll see you at school next year.” And with that she and her parents paid for the books and left the store, leaving Draco more excited to have at least one genuine friendly face at Hogwarts the upcoming year.