WAKING UP FOR HER VERY first morning in Hogwarts left Andrea McKinnon feeling beyond ecstatic. She was the very first in the entire building to wake, and eventually found herself in some trouble for being up and ready at four am, but she didn't really see the issue. However, despite being up early, Drea hadn't actually begun getting herself ready until five minutes after the first class started.

Fortunately, she wasn't alone, as Ron and Harry didn't wake up until she burst into their room without any warning, begging them to teach her how to tie a tie, which she still hadn't done, due to getting distracted for half an hour by those two also being late. In the end, the trio found themselves sprinting to their first class with breakfast hanging out their gobs.

When they burst into the classroom, they found it in an eerie silence. All heads were down on their work in deep focus, however their late arrival made a few turn. Andrea sighed in relief, finding no teacher around to catch them and smiled.

"Made it," Ron sighed. "Can you imagine the look on old McGonagall's face is we were late?"

Drea snickered. Then, she noticed a tabby cat sitting at the teacher's desk. "Oh no."

Of course, the cat transformed into their teacher and all three of their faces turned pale. Late to their very first class of the year. How fantastic.

Ron shook his head in astonishment as the professor walked towards them. "That was bloody brilliant," he said.

Andrea nodded. "Insane," she agreed.

Harry took the correct route in staying silent.

"Thank you for that assessment, Mr Weasley and Miss McKinnon," the teacher said, although she didn't seem too pleased. "Perhaps it would be more useful if I were to transfigure Mr Potter and yourselves into pocket watches. That way, one of you might be on time."

Harry blinked. "We got lost."

Drea furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "No, we didn't. We —" Ron had to slap his hand over her mouth, but she still didn't quite understand.

Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes at the trio. "Then perhaps a map?" She suggested. "I trust you don't need one to find your seats."

With that, the three late first years strolled around the classroom to find a spare chair. Drea sat herself down beside Hermione, who shook her head. "You said you'd be five minutes," she whispered.

Drea shrugged. "I needed more sleep," she excused, which earned her another head shake. She leaned closer towards the girl. "What are we doing?" She asked, glancing at the writing on the board, which made no sense to her.

Hermione sighed and moved her arm, allowing Drea to read her work. "Thanks."

"Don't copy it word-for-word."

"I won't."

She did.

ꨄ

THE FIRST FEW LESSONS WENT well, and Andrea refused to allow her short-term embarrassment from the first class to ruin her mood. Her mind exploded with all this new information, and she loved it. Although, it was obvious from the beginning that she wasn't made to be the brightest student, but that was okay. She was enjoying her first official day at Hogwarts, and nothing was going to ruin that.

The only word to describe Professor Snape was scary. He strutted into the classroom and immediately started scolding them for no reason. The only students he was close-to-kind to were the Slytherin first years, which was surely biased of the man. And still, 'kind' was a stretch. The professor was brutal, in Drea's opinion.

In the first three minutes of his lesson, he'd shouted at Harry and made him out to be an idiot, talking about his fame. But Harry couldn't have cared less about whether he was famous or not; Snape honestly just seemed jealous of him. It was a bit odd.

In this lesson, she found herself sitting beside Ron, doodling chemistry bottles with her quill and labelling the pieces. She'd always found that diagrams helped her understand a lot more than writing paragraphs did, because she often got distracted and forgot what she was doing. All the teachers had been okay with this way of learning so far, but Professor Snape was unimpressed.

"Miss McKinnon!" he called in front of the entire class, causing everybody to turn to her.

Andrea glanced up at him with an innocent smile, still holding her quill in her hand. She hadn't done anything wrong, so surely he couldn't be telling her off, like he did Harry only a few moments ago.

When the teacher began walking towards her, it confused her. Not being allowed to socialise as a kid, she'd shortly learned in the last 24 hours that she cannot read facial expressions at all. But Snape's expressions were something else. He was always the same. Scowling. And Drea just didn't understand.

Once he got to her desk, he stared at her deeply for a moment. Drea could feel everyone's eyes on her: Draco Malfoy's smirk, Harry's empathy, Ron's confusion.

Then, suddenly, Snape grabbed her piece of parchment and tore the life out of it. "I will not allow this stupidity in my class," he told her sternly. "From now on, you must to things the proper way." His eyes went sharper. "Are you capable of that?"

Drea shook her head. "No," she answered honestly. When he glared, the small girl raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you capable of brushing your teeth? 'Cause it doesn't smell like it."

Everything went silent.

Beside her, there was a snicker, and the teacher's gaze immediately snapped towards Ron Weasley, who couldn't seem to hold himself the way the rest of the students could. There were a few amused grins among the class, but everyone was smart enough to stay silent. Except from Ron, of course.

"Detention, Miss McKinnon," Professor Snape announced. As he turned around to continue his class, she could have sworn she heard him mutter, "Clearly, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree."

And, for some strange reason, that made her smile. Which she definitely should not have been doing after receiving a detention on her very first day of school. After insulting a teacher's breath at eleven years old. God knew this girl was bound to be a trouble maker.

From the desk beside her, Drea could see Hermione Granger watching her. She smiled, but the other girl shook her head and went back to her work.

ꨄ

AT LUNCH, ANDREA MCKINNON FOUND herself giggling with Ron and Harry over their last lesson. They couldn't believe she managed to say all that with a straight face, but she still couldn't see the problem. He made her feel small, so she did the same back. What's fair is fair, what's done is done, but they all knew that there was no way Snape was ever going to let her get away with that.

For now, though, Drea just found herself hilarious.

"No way! Is it true?" As the older years entered the hall for their dinners, Fred and George Weasley rushed towards their younger brother and his new friends.

Ron looked at them stupidly. "Is what true?" He asked with a mouth full of ham sandwich.

"That your mate here just left old Snape speechless?" One of the twins asked, although Drea couldn't yet tell the difference between the pair.

The other laughed. "Apparently, he spent his break begging McGonagall to make his teeth white," he added, making his twin snicker.

Drea shrugged. "Good riddance," she said. "I couldn't look at them monsters any longer. I've seen dragons with better teeth than that."

This made the twins laugh more.

Ron and Harry both grinned from ear to ear.

"It's not funny, is it?" Another voice butted in from the other side of the table. Hermione Granger put her book down, which seemed to be taller than her, and raised her eyebrows at everyone. "She insulted a teacher and landed herself a detention on her first day," she expressed, shaking her head. "Setting a reputation like that so early on is not going to help in your future lessons."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah. What's it for to do with you?" He argued.

Hermione only sighed and went back to her reading, leaving everyone else at the Gryffindor table to chatter about what young Drea had done.

A/N : this is the first chapter that i've written from scratch since republishing this story and coming back from my break. i hope you enjoyed it !!

btw this book is a complete slow burn between drea and hermione as they are only kids in the beginning. the first few years will only have a few chapters in them, as they are more of a backstory between the girls and drea as a character herself. you'll watch them develop and grow until they finally start finding romance from poa onwards. i hope that's okay with you all, i promise the first two years will go by quick.

love, tay </3