For as long as Hermione could remember, she was alone...always alone. Her natural love for learning and her precociousness endeared her to adults but left children her own age jealous and spiteful. They might find her useful for her academic proclivities, but there it ended. Hermione was left alone...always alone.

Hermione had high hopes that things would be different at Hogwarts...she had looked forward to attending that school for over a year and surely there she could find at least one friend. Poor Hermione, it was the same as it had been for her at her Muggle primary school...jealous students used her for what she could do for them and there it ended. Year in and year out, it was the same. She was left alone...always alone...and so it lasted until she was in her fourth year.

Early on in her third year, Hermione developed a secret crush on one of the students who was a few years older than her...Thorfinn Rowle by name...pureblood...Sacred 28...Quidditch star...he could have any witch he wanted and according to the scuttlebutt, he did. Hermione was certain he would never be interested in a witch like her...after all no one else liked her...but still, for some reason, she had feelings toward Thorfinn, even knowing full well that they were non-requited...and never would be.

Hermione decided that she wanted to learn everything there was to know about Thorfinn Rowle. She began to discreetly stalk him and she hovered over every scrap of information on him that she was able to gather. She even found herself attending every game Gryffindor had against Slytherins, watching Thorfinn careful from the stands while pretending to study the book in her lap.

She kept track of him in school...she knew all his courses...knew his study habits...knew of his friends...knew of the many witches who had spread their legs for him...listened to his boisterous laugh in the corridors...she even had even started to pick up on the many pranks he played on the staff.

Certainly, of all his fellow students, Hermione probably knew Thorfinn the best and one thing she knew for sure, was that by his 6th year, he had pranked the professors so often that he was in danger of being expelled.

Any normal student knowing that if they continued to play tricks on the staff that they were facing a suspension, possibly even being expelled, would pull up his bootstrap and buckle down to serious studying...but not Thorfinn...he wasn't normal...he was full of life and he was naturally mischievous...he just had to play one more prank, relying on his charm to get out of it.

Hermione was secreted away in a niche, watching Thorfinn set up his next prank on Professor Snape, head of his own house. Thorfinn loved to live life dangerously and this prank was the riskiest of all he had already played...he just couldn't resist one last time. Once the prank was set up, Thorfinn and a few of his friends slipped down the hall where they could hopefully see the results of their mischief.

Soon, Professor Snape was striding down the corridor leading to his office, classroom, and his own private quarters. Just before he reached his office, a pail that was suspended from the ceiling tipped over covering him with molasses and then the contents of several pillows were blown all over him...he looked like he had been tarred and feathered. Snape was not amused...he even knew who did it! "Thorfinn Rowle!" he roared.