Hermione's choice.

Nothing from the Harry Potter universe belongs to me, darn it!

Chapter One.

A frantic Professor Minerva McGonagall burst into the girls toilet, followed closely by several other teachers.

"Ex…Explain yourselves!" she demanded of the three students standing next to an unconscious troll.

'What should I do?' Hermione thought quickly. 'If I tell the truth the other kids will hate me even more, but if I lie then nothing changes…' Her future life flashed before her eyes… a life filled with danger, abuse, a loveless marriage to Ron and a son named Hugo. She mentally shuddered.

"I'm sorry, professor. Ron insulted me after Charms for trying to help him in class and I got upset and hid in here while I was crying. I just wanted to be alone while I thought about if I really want to stay here or go home. After this, I want to go home! I want my parents!" Hermione said, breaking down in tears.

Placing a comforting arm around the distressed girl Minerva said "It will be alright, dear. You are safe now." Turning to Ron she asked sharply "Mr Weasley, did you insult Miss Granger?"

"C'mon Professor, she's a nightmare! Always telling everyone what to do and how to do magic. Sucking up to you teachers. No one can stand her and she deserves what she gets." Ron stated belligerently.

Not happy with what she had heard Minerva turned to Harry. "Mr Potter, what is your part in all this?"

"When Ron called Hermione names I didn't do anything. I didn't laugh, but I didn't defend her either. I'm sorry I didn't, now. When we were told about the troll I knew Hermione wouldn't know. I had seen she wasn't at the feast and went to find her. All the teachers were gone before I could tell one of you and Percy is the only prefect I know and he doesn't listen to anything anyone else tells him. So I came to warn her but the troll got here first. I thought it would be safe going to the second floor because the troll was meant to be in the dungeons." Harry answered, looking at the floor. He was thoroughly ashamed of his lack of actions.

"I see. All of you go to the hospital wing and I will see you there shortly and talk to you then."

oo

Once the trio were around a corner and out of sight of the teachers Ron turned on Hermione and started shouting at her.

"What you do that for you useless little teacher's pet! Now I'm in trouble because of you. 'Oh I'm so perfect and can do everything better than anyone else and I like showing off about it.'" Ron mocked. "Why don't you just go home, Muggle!"

Seeing Hermione wilt under the verbal assault Harry turned and snapped "Ron! That's enough. Hermione has done nothing to deserve this so shut it!" He took Hermione's hand and said calmly "C'mon Hermione, I'll walk you to the hospital wing."

"Hey you're taking her side? I'm your best mate!" Ron exclaimed.

"No Ron. I won't be friends with bullies. And that's what you are. Leave me alone from now on."

And Harry and Hermione walked quietly the rest of the way.

oo

Madam Pomphrey was expecting them and bundled them into beds and gave them mild calming potions.

"Trolls in the school! What's next? A dragon? Or a Cerberus?" she quietly muttered to herself as she tended to her charges. "Thank heavens that you are both relatively unharmed."

"Indeed." Said a voice from the doorway. "Not many people could take on a fully grown troll and live to tell the tale, especially when they are only first year students!" Looking around as she entered the ward Professor McGonagall saw that Ron was not there. "Where is Mr Weasley?"

"I don't know Professor. He started yelling at Hermione again so I walked with Hermione here." Answered Harry.

"He was trying to bully me again for telling the truth. Harry told him off and we left him behind." Added Hermione.

"I see. I will deal with him later then. Well, I wanted to tell you a few things. Harry, I am disappointed at you for not speaking up the first time this happened, but you did the right thing to try and rectify the situation and I am proud of you defending Hermione tonight."

Harry blushed at the unexpected complement.

"Miss Granger, I will be contacting your parents and telling them what has happened tonight. I would like you to think about whether you wish to leave the school or not as you said earlier. The choice will be yours and your parents but I hope that you will stay. The courage to stand up and tell the truth in such a horrible situation is something to be encouraged and we would be sorry to lose you."

"I would be sorry to go, but I can't keep dealing with the bullying and the bigotry all the time."

"I understand. For tonight you will stay here, in Madam Pomphrey's care, and I ask that you think hard about what your decision will be. I have arranged for a meal to be brought to you both. I will talk to you in the morning. Goodnight children."

"Goodnight Professor" both children chorused.

oo

Professor McGonagall went to Gryffindor tower in search of her wayward student. She found him with an overflowing plate of food on his knees and was boasting about how he defeated the troll singlehandedly.

"Mr Ronald Weasley! I thought I told you to go to the hospital wing. And yet I find you here after insulting and upsetting Miss Granger yet again!"

Every student carefully backed away from Ron and left a clear path for their angry head of house.

"And from what I have heard, you are trying to take credit for something that Miss Granger had to instruct you to do, step by step! Now you may put your plate down and go to the hospital wing as you were originally told to do!" Seeing Ron was about to object she snapped "NOW young man! Or you will be in detention until you graduate! Move!"

Ron ran from the room.

"Now, I need to talk to the rest of you. First years, can you please point out who our prefects are?"

All the first year students pointed to Percy Weasley, who puffed out his chest in pride.

"Do you know who the others are?"

The question was met with a chorus of "No Professor."

"I see. Will all prefects please stand. These are the people you should be able to go to if you need help. Because they had not done their jobs, a young girl was almost killed tonight and a student who wanted to tell her of the troll danger did not know who he could turn to for assistance. Because of this failure on your prefect's part we almost lost 3 students! This is not good enough! I will not tolerate this any longer. You are all on probation for the rest of this term. Any more slacking off and I will appoint new prefects to replace you. Sit!"

Minerva took a deep breath and then continued.

"It has been brought to my attention that there is a bullying problem here at Hogwarts. Can anyone tell me about it?"

Everyone started just calling out their grievances.

"The Slytherins are always trying to start fights around Professor Snape and even when he sees them start it he blames us."

"Older kids push the smaller ones around all the time. Or they hex us when no one is looking saying they need to practice!"

"The Hufflepuffs try to exclude anyone who isn't a Puff from the after class clubs."

"Professor Snape picks on anyone who isn't a Slytherin!"

"A lot of Purebloods try and push around anyone who isn't 'pure' and keep trying to make us believe that we are inferior to them and calling us the 'M' word."

"The Ravenclaw's always take all the books we need for assignments from the library and don't return them until after the assignment is handed in! And they won't share them if we ask. I tried talking to Professor Flitwick and he just told me to get to the library earlier."

"The Weasley twins!" A timid voice said hesitantly.

"What?" asked Minerva, surprised "what makes you say the twins are bullies?"

Neville stood up. "They think that everyone thinks they are funny. I don't. I have had 2 pairs of shoes ruined already because of them and I have had to go to see Madam Pomphrey a few times because I couldn't undo what they did to me. I… I don't like making a fuss but I don't like not being able to relax because I don't know when they are going to pick on me again! It makes it harder to learn anything if I'm always looking over my shoulder for the next 'prank'." The other 1st and 2nd year students all nodded and murmured their agreement.

"I see. This is going to take some careful thought before we can change much. For you all there are a few new rules I am making for our house. No more 'pranks'. A prefect is to be in the common room at all times to help anyone who needs it. Finally there will be a weekly house meeting to raise any problems that any of you may have, without repercussions. We will have our first one on Friday after dinner." Minerva said standing up. "So finish your meals and off to bed with you all. Good night."

oo

Leaving the common room Minerva went straight to the Headmasters office.

Seeing Albus Dumbledore and the other Head teachers were already there she spoke. "We have a bigger problem than we thought."

"What do you mean?" Albus asked.

"After talking to my students tonight it seems that there is a bullying epidemic going on."

Before she could continue Severus Snape interrupted.

"Oh and I suppose that they blame everything that ever goes wrong on my Slytherins."

"No, I was talking about the school in general. Yes, there was a mention of you showing favouritism and wilful blindness but that was not the only accusation. Ravenclaws have been intellectually bullying the other students by denying anyone not in their house the resources to complete assigned work and the Hufflepuffs have been ostracising the other houses from the clubs. My Gryffindors have even accused themselves of playing pranks that can also be considered bullying. So it is fairly even across the whole school, not just one house."

"What? Do they think we would give them an easier time if they confess to something?" Severus began to rant.

"There were also complaints of being actively persecuted by pureblood students. No houses were mentioned but many of the half blood and muggleborn students said the same things." Minerva spoke over Severus.

"What do they expect? That everyone welcomes them with hugs and cheers while they tear down centuries of tradition?" Severus sneered.

"Enough! Now that we are aware of the problems, what are we going to do about it?" Asked Albus

"I was hoping that we could come up with some ideas before I contact Miss Granger's parents, so that I can tell them that we are working to make sure that this will not happen again. Miss Granger is thinking seriously about leaving the school."

"Let the insufferable brat go then!" Severus snapped. "No loss there."

"Severus! That is enough!" Thundered Albus. "For any student in this school to be feeling so persecuted that they would give up their magic willingly is cause for concern. Does anyone have any constructive ideas?"

"Actually, consistently enforcing the school rules would be a good start." Said Pomona Sprout. "It would mean that no matter your House, the punishment would be the same."

Fillius Flitwick added "What about consistency for point giving and retraction? I know that some teachers give twenty points to one person for doing something and only one or two, if any, for someone else for doing exactly the same thing."

"I think a few new classes would be helpful. The muggle born or raised would take a class to learn about the magical world and traditions and why they happen and the magically raised would take a muggle studies class to understand where certain beliefs and behaviours come from. If we start them in first year we could eliminate a lot of the problems." Minerva suggested.

Albus was scribbling down the suggestions as they were given. "Severus, do you have anything to add?"

"No, the little brats will ignore them anyway so why bother." Severus sneered.

"I do have another idea," said Minerva. "I think we need to enforce the teaching rules as well. There have been numerous reports of unprofessional behaviour and staff bias and I think we should lead by example."

"How dare you! How dare you accuse me of being unprofessional and biased!" Severus shrieked, jumping to his feet.

"Did I mention you by name, Severus? You must have a guilty conscience to immediately think I was speaking of you." Minerva replied coolly.

"Sit down Severus, no one accused you of anything. However, as the saying goes, if the shoe fits…." Albus said sternly. "I agree with what has been suggested as a start to combat the problems you have raised Minerva. I think a school meeting tomorrow morning would be beneficial to everyone. We can announce the changes and have the students write out any other concerns they may have and place them in a box, so that there can be no repercussions for speaking out. Minerva, when will you be writing to the Granger family?"

"I was going to visit them personally tonight."

"Then please tell them that we are trying to rectify the problems and that they may visit their daughter tonight if they wish. Does anyone else have anything constructive to add? No… then goodnight. We will have a staff meeting at 6am and then the school meeting after breakfast and please tell your students that attendance is mandatory."

oo

Minerva McGonagall found herself at the gate of a house she had visited a little over a year before. Unfortunately, this time she was not here to give good news. Ringing the doorbell she braced herself for what she had to do. It was never easy to say that someone's child had been in a life or death situation.

"Mrs Granger, I am Professor Minerva McGonagall from Hogwarts. May I come in? I am afraid I have some news for you."

"Yes, I remember you. Is Hermione alright? Come in, we are in the sitting room."

"There is no easy way to say this, there has been an incident tonight involving your daughter, she is alright but the incident has left her questioning if she wishes to continue at Hogwarts or if she wished to return home."

"What exactly happened?" asked Mr Granger.

"A classmate humiliated and belittled her in public because she had tried to assist the boy in class. She ran into a girls lavatory and stayed there for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, a troll somehow entered the school and your daughter was trapped by the creature. Two of her classmates went looking for her and together the three of them incapacitated the troll with only minor injuries to themselves. Miss Granger spoke up and told me of the bullying that she was enduring and the person responsible is being appropriately punished."

"I want to see my daughter!" Mrs Granger demanded forcefully.

"Certainly. If you would please touch this sock, we will be on our way."

oo

Arriving at Hogwarts Mrs and Mr Granger took no notice of the obviously magical items but concentrated on getting to their daughter. Hurrying into the infirmary they saw Hermione resting in one of the beds and ran to her side as Minerva stopped to talk to Madam Pomphrey.

"Mummy! Daddy! I am so glad you're here! I missed you so much." Hermione said as her parents hugged her tightly.

"We missed you too, sweetheart. What happened? Are you alright?" Mr Granger asked.

"I'm ok, but I think I want to go home. Ever since I got here I have been teased and bullied worse than at primary school and it just got to be too much for me today."

"Sir? Ma'am? The other kids tease Hermione because she is so smart and she can do everything better than they can in class." Harry offered hesitantly.

"So you make her so upset that she wants to leave and you think that's alright!" Mr Granger yelled.

"Daddy! Harry was one of the few people that never teased me. He came to warn me about the troll tonight. AND he defended me against one of the boys who puts me down all the time. Please don't blame him." Hermione said quickly as Harry cringed.

"I apologise, Harry is it? It is upsetting to know your child is so unhappy somewhere they should feel safe." Mr Granger apologised.

"'S alright," Harry mumbled.

"What do you want to do, Sweetheart? It is your magic that we are talking about, so it is your decision."

"Just take the know-it-all away!" Ron called from his bed. "She doesn't belong here anymore than you muggles do!"

"Ronald Weasley!" Cried Minerva angrily. "I think that a month of detention and a meeting with your parents is appropriate right now. I do not want to hear your voice again tonight. Am I clear?"

Ron nodded hesitantly.

"I apologise for that outburst. Unfortunately several students think that because their families have been magical for a long time they are 'better' than newly magical students. We are implementing several new rules and classes to try and combat this style of thinking. There will be a school wide meeting to discuss this in the morning."

"New rules? Maybe I could see if they help and if things don't improve by Christmas then I can come home. What do you think Mummy? Daddy?" Hermione said thoughtfully.

"It will be your decision but I think you should give the school one more chance." Mrs Granger replied.

"Alright, one last chance." Hermione said firmly. "But if things don't change do you think that St Trinnians will still take me at half year?"

"I am sure they will." Smiled Mrs Granger.

"I am glad that is settled. Mr and Mrs Granger, you are welcome to visit for another hour and then I must take you home. Hermione will need her rest."

oo

TBC