Hermione Granger and the Philosopher's Stone (Completed)

Chapter 1 - The Tiny Man

Nothing seemed unusual. The birds were singing, the sun was shining(o.k., we're in England so that is quite unusual); everything was normal.        

Even the road was normal, in fact, more than normal. The residents of this street in Little Winging prided themselves in being as average as you can get, in other words boring. At precisely eight o' clock each morning,  the men would leave to go to work, and the women who lived there would spend the day pruning bushes that they pruned yesterday and gossiping, as they never intend to do anything interesting with their lives. So normal then, obviously(!)

Apart from one thing. A tiny little ugly man was standing by the side of the pavement, annoying people. They couldn't see him, and he found this brilliant, as people who couldn't see him were even more confused when he threw things at them.

He was only a few inches high, with a shrivelled head that looked too big for him and large bony feet. He had a round pot belly and was swaying as if he had had too much to drink and didn't look at all surprised when an owl swooped over him in broad daylight.

Generally, the ministry would find him and force him to go back to the garden he lives in, or set a Jarvy on him if they were feeling particularly cruel, but they were celebrating just like him. No longer would he have to check if anyone was there before merely going for a walk. The dark lord has been destroyed; the gnome didn't know how, but he didn't care. Rumours were flying around, including a really silly one about a year old baby killing him. Something Potter, Henry or Harvey or something. How stupid! A baby couldn't possibly kill he-who-must-not-be-named! He would have to have protection beyond anyone's imagination, and he was just a baby! Ha!

Anyway, he didn't care. There were muggles everywhere who couldn't see him so he was fine! The only time he was even remotely worried was when he could have sworn a cat with markings around its eyes looked at him early in the morning. This could have been considered normal if it hadn't been reading a map. The cat had stared at him for what seemed like hours with what looked like a mildly disapproving expression on its face, before continuing to look at the map and walk down the road.

A family was walking down the street. A tall slim dark haired woman with a dreamy expression and a small bearded man with large glasses, each with chocolate brown skin and each cooing over a chubby baby girl with frizzy hair and similar coloured skin. The girl was waving her fat arms in the air and burbling something that sounded remarkably like 'I am called er my on eey, I am one'

The gnome didn't care about this, but this was the Granger family. They were obviously new to this street, as they almost couldn't be more different from the people who lived there. The man wasn't wearing a suit and the woman wasn't just being the obedient housewife. They were both dentists, which explains why their daughter's first word was orthodontist.

The gnome didn't care. Good, he thought, I can hit that baby girl with a rock and make her cry. He was just about to throw it when she looked up and stared at him. She couldn't see him, surely! Her parents couldn't! No child is that observant!

The little girl jumped out of her dad's arms and toddled towards him. Before he could run away, the girl grabbed him; her long curly brown hair tickled him, but he wasn't laughing.
"Gerrof me!"
Her parents ran towards her, looking horrified at the dirty humanoid thing in their child's hands
"Right, that's it!"
And he bit her hand. The little girl started crying, and the gnome was able to make his escape

***

"Hermione, dinners ready!"
"Just a second mum!"

The girl was sitting in her immaculate room, her long wavy hair tied back to keep it out of the way of her page. She was reading Matilda. She had read it many times before but it was Roald Dahl day in a few weeks so she wanted to be prepared.

Hermione thought that she had a lot in common with Matilda. She had taught herself to read when she was three and she didn't have many friends (Charlene, the school bully, and her gang made sure of that). Though she didn't have magical powers. That idea was preposterous! No one could make things move with their minds!

Hermione looked up and around her room. It was small, at least too small for her books, that were in such a large quantity that anyone but her would struggle to find the bed in the mess, but Hermione had always had the knack of being able to fit large amounts of stuff into abnormally small spaces, as if they shrunk. She was pretty much the only girl in her class whose room wasn't cluttered with makeup, for she found it a waste of time and money to cover your face with powdery pinkish (or brownish in her case) paint. She had never been a particularly creative girl, so the walls were plain white, and in some places you could still see the Mickey Mouse wallpaper from when she was little.

She finished the last chapter and threw the book at the bookshelf. It missed, but she was too hungry to care. She would pick it up later. Hermione shut the door, just as the book flew back onto the bookshelf.