Saviour of Magic

Parents and Children

Hermione Granger rubbed her eyes tiredly as she shut the book she was reading with a snap. It was past six in the evening and she was in the Hogwarts library, studying for her N.E.W.T.s that were scheduled in two days. The stress of the exams was really getting to her and she found herself snapping at several people over the past few weeks.

Seven years ... it had been nearly seven years since she had entered the magical world, and Hermione's life had taken a complete turn since the day she found out about being a witch. Throughout her childhood, there were instances and situations that happened that she could never explain. Her parents were quite worried, but the doctors could never find anything wrong with her. Finally, a few weeks before her eleventh birthday, a woman named Professor McGonagall had come to her house and informed her that she was a witch.

Naturally, she had been ecstatic with the information she was given. Her parents were leery about the concept of magic and about sending their only daughter to an unknown place for ten months a year, but Hermione had managed to convince them. After all, Hogwarts was the best magical school in all of Magical Britain, according to the good professor. Also, since she was born in September 1989, she would have to wait a full year to attend Hogwarts and that gave her enough time to buy books on magic and be prepared for school. Her parents had been awed by what they had seen in Diagon Alley too, and fully supported her decision in studying magic before school started.

Her favourite book of all had been Hogwarts, A History. Professor McGonagall had explained to her about the magical world, but Hermione wanted to learn more. She was quite thrilled to read stories about great wizards such as Godric Gryffindor and Albus Dumbledore who fought for Muggle rights and defeated evil wizards like Salazar Slytherin and Gellert Grindelwald. However, the more she read, the more she thought that the magical world was very backward. So much of what they did was so idiotic, in her opinion. The concept of using birds for mail, quills and parchment for writing, and gold coins for currency was archaic, while in comparison, the Muggle world was so much more advanced.

Of course, she realised later that a few of her theories were wrong. The magical form of parchment was used because paper would dissolve quickly due to potion fumes (she had learnt that lesson the hard way in her first year of school). But the very concept of blood purity infuriated her! Hermione had been determined to get sorted into Gryffindor when she arrived at Hogwarts because she looked up to Albus Dumbledore and the founder of the house of lions, and thus wanted to be like them. Gryffindor House seemed like the best of them all, with their values of bravery and standing up to dark wizards who wanted to harm Muggles. It was natural that she would be drawn there.

When she first met Harry Potter, the famed Boy-Who-Lived, Hermione had thought that he was a very cold person. The way he contradicted her during the train ride only served to reinforce that fact. She didn't bother talking to him after that incident because of the jittery nerves of the sorting ceremony. Hermione remembered that the Sorting Hat was quite convinced that she would do well in Ravenclaw, but she had persisted, forcing the Hat to put her in Gryffindor instead. Unfortunately, everything was not rosy in the lion's den. She quickly realized that just like in primary school, she had managed to alienate herself with her attitude. She had been growing distressed as the weeks passed by, and Ron Weasley's words on Halloween had only embarrassed her more.

Hermione didn't want to think about what might have happened had the prefects not arrived in time to save her from the troll. She probably would have died.

She was determined more than ever to study hard after that incident. After Ron Weasley had tentatively apologised to her after the attack by the troll, the two of them had become friends. She would help him with his homework most of the time, but it was still friendship. At the end of the year, she had been elated to find out that she had stood first among all the students in Gryffindor, only for her happiness to evaporate when she found out that she was not the first among her batch in the school.