A/N: Hello! I absolutely loved the story from sunriseshades so when she let people adopt the story I jumped right into it! I have so many ideas for this story so I hope you guys enjoy it. The first few chapters will be sunriseshades', but I just altered some things. This is the first fanfic that I'm writing (well, the first fanfic that I'm writing when I'm not 13)so I wanted to ease into it by having sunriseshades' story as an outline and starter until I get into the feel of writing fanfiction so the first few chapters are her's, not mine. I just changed some things with wording and added a few things, but this is mainly her chapter I just changed it a bit because I don't think I would have been able to write it in a better way than she has already done. Please excuse any errors! Hopefully I'll be able to edit it more thoroughly later on, but for now please excuse them.I'm always open to reviews to improve so hopefully you guys enjoy this type of story like I have!

A/N 2: Once again, thank you to sunrisesshades for allowing me to adopt the story. The original title is Little Hermione, so you guys should read the original if you would like to see the differences I made.

Disclaimer: I'm not Jo, I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 1

Potions lessons that involved both Gryffindor and Slytherin students were always tense, and that morning was no different. There seemed to be an invisible line that divided the red and green ties, the only form of communication among the two groups were insults. Therefore, Severus Snape, the Potions Master, had set the fifth years on a task to create an ageing potion that, once taken, should increase one's age by ten years for his own amusement. He did it specifically so he can watch his students squirm at the idea of marrying one of their peers when being forced to face how they will look like when the time comes, and of course to add fuel to the fire of insults the two houses are bound to throw at each other. Severus Snape found comfort in making his students uncomfortable.

"Very well," he stood from his chair and slowly began evaluating the colours forming in the cauldrons, all seemed well.

"Take one spoonful each of the potion to your right, no more or less, unless you desire to be stuck looking twenty-five years your senior," he lied, while an increase in portion would merely increase the affects to twenty-five years rather than ten temporarily, he did not wish to deal with them.

Each student looked at each other waiting for someone to consume it first, with all the courage he had, Neville grabbed a spoonful of the potion Ron made and drank it. Once it morphed his face into an older Neville, the rest of the students felt confident enough to take it themselves, their faces morphing into an older version of themselves. Some started to clap and cheer as their acne disappeared, but the others started to cry in aggravation seeing how many of their acne filled faces were being replaces with fine line wrinkles. Snape was definitely enjoying this, that was until the boy who messed everything up, Neville Longbottom, spoke up.

"Professor," Neville called out nervously. Snape turned on his heel, nose upturned in annoyance.

"Yes?" he asked Neville slowly, watching as Neville cowered down in fear.

"Hermione," Neville started, "she's gone… I-I made her disappear," Neville sputtered out as he tried to look into the eyes of the feared Potions Master.

"Excuse me?!" He demanded sharply, taking long strides to the desk where Neville was, where Hermione should have been.

Snape sensed all the eyes on him, as he approached the table he witnessed none other than Hermione Granger's robes laying in a heap on the stone floor. Snape was at a loss for words. Neville was born to gifted parents, but he was incompetent enough to vanish a girl from an aging potion?

At that moment, a small, solemn whimper was heard coming from the disregarded cloth on the floor, and a lump slowly grew and emerged from the clothing showing a naked child which caused shrieks of laughter from one side of the room. Snape wanted to laugh cruelly at the bazaar situation, however now that Professor Umbridge had been sent from the ministry to spy on Hogwarts he realised it would not be appropriate to be seen amused by this situation.

"Granger," he demanded, as his low voice filled the small girl's ears. "Are you in any pain?"

His worst fears were confirmed when the brunette stared at him in fear, wishing to be hidden by the heaps of clothing on the ground. He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache forming. It seemed that Neville's potion had regressed the swot's mental abilities too. He kneeled down and quickly wrapped the too-bigrobes around the child and guided her towards the direction of the door.

"Silence!" He yelled at his students, who were chattering loudly, he mentally cursed himself as he felt the child slightly jump. "You all will work in complete silence until I return from taking Miss Granger to the hospital wing," he slightly softened his tone before walking towards the hospital wing.

Minverva McGonagall had a headache; school had only begun two weeks prior yet the scrutinising gaze of a particular pompous, pink toad- oh, she meant ministry worker- brought an awful prescience and pressure on her shoulders, thus she had decided to take a stroll through the corridors to ensure Professor Umbridge's expectations of the castle.

"Good morning, Severus," she said instinctively, having seen the billowing black robes from the corner of her eye, a small bundle of robes followed him and for a few more steps Minerva thought nothing of it, that was until she realized Professor Flitwick should be teaching, as should Snape be! She retraced her steps until she was standing directly in front of the Potion's Master and looked down to see that it was indeed not Professor Flitwick, it was a child!

"Severus, is that a child with you?" she asked, barely able to keep the shrill of her voice from escalating.

"No, Minerva, I am going into the cosmetic side of potions and gave some anti-wrinkle potion to Filius. It worked wonders, don't you agree?" He answered in his usual sarcastic drawl as his face remained impassive.

"Don't get sharp with me, Severus Snape!" she scolded. McGonagall couldn't help but see her colleague as the student he once was, after all these years it still seemed out of place when he would speak to her in a casual manner. "Where did you get her?" she asked, before he could answer she crouched down so that she was at eye level with the little girl, who looked positively terrified. "And what is your name, little one?"

The child looked hesitant, and waited a few moments before answering. "My name is Hermione."

McGonagall froze. She slowly stood back up so she could look straight into Snape's pained eyes."Severus, are you telling me that somehow Hermione, my Hermione, has been regressed to a child?" she asked furiously, trying to remain calm as she did not wish to frighten the child.

"If you are to be angry, do blame Mr. Longbottom as he is responsible for making a royal mess of what should have been a simple potion," he suggested sharply. "I was merely attempting to resolve this by taking her to Poppy."

"In nothing but a robe that is far too big?!" McGonagall half shrieked, but seeing the little Hermione start to tremble, she wavered. "Hermione, come here, sweetheart, we're going to make you feel better," she said, taking the child into her arms.

It felt rather off to be holding such a small child, she had not done so in many years, however the impressionability of the little one brought out something that could only be described as maternal instinct.

"Am I sick, ma'am?" Hermione asked in a solemn voice, it was clear her level of maturity surely surpasses some of the fifth years' as a child.

"No, little one, not exactly, but it's time to visit a lovely nurse," McGonagall replied and she rushed towards the infirmary with Snape on her heel.

"In all my years, never have I heard of such a thing happening! The ingredients are completely different in regression potions!" Madam Pomphrey vented as she frantically went through her cupboards of medicine.

At this point, Dumbledore had been informed of the incident and arrived at the hospital wing. The four adults remained in the hospital wing with a rather helpless child, who had not been relaxed since she got there.

"Severus, surely you know of a potion to aid Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked in his relaxed, light tone as he sat next to the child on the hospital bed.

"I may know of one, but it takes months to make at least, and I will have to evaluate what Longbottom has put into his potion for this to happen. I cannot guarantee the results due to the potion only being used and tested on those who have taken the original regression potion, but I will see what I can do," Snape replied as McGonagall looked as if she were going to faint at his answer.

"But she has her O.W.L.s this year!" Minerva screeched.

"Minerva, I do believe she is years ahead of her peers, and I am certain you are aware of it too," Dumbledore responded easily before turning to the child who was looking up at him with wide eyes filled with wonder. "Hermione, dear, you wouldn't happen to know how old you are, would you?" he asked kindly.

"Four," Hermione replied with a hint of pride in her voice.

"She must be confused. Hermione should be turning 16 in a few days. Wasn't the potion made to regress her by ten years? She should be one of the older students in fifth year," McGonagall pointed out.

"Ah," Dumbledore started, he never thought to share this, but Minerva was likely to be more than irked that she was kept in the dark, "Miss Granger was placed ahead of her year at her muggle primary school," he explained.

"How does that make her younger than those at Hogwarts?" McGonagall asked, annoyed at the lack of explanation.

"Miss Granger tended to be targeted by bullies at her muggle school, which caused copious amounts of accidental magic so the ministry saw fit to allow Miss Granger to start school earlier," Dumbledore replied, amused by Minerva's exasperation to being kept in the dark.

"Every child goes through accidental magic, what makes Miss Granger's situation different?" McGonagall asked, still not understanding what could have happened for her to start early.

"You see, a few days before her 10th birthday, Miss Granger was being taunted and bullied by her classmates. The whole school, including parents, were brought to the gymnasium for the start of the year announcements. During the announcements, Miss Granger's tormentors were teasing her which ignited, literally, her accidental magic and her hair turned into live flames, spouting out fire in every direction, burning the gymnasium. Luckily, the ministry arrived just in time. No one had serious injuries, but the ministry had to modify the occupants of room's memory, heal their wounds, and repair the school. I received an owl from the Minister himself requesting she start Hogwarts early to control her magic for safety precaution since her accidental magic was not just blowing up a lightbulb," Dumbledore said, amused at the astonished looks of the other three adults in the room while Hermione finally settled down and started to examine the room.

Snape raised an eyebrow at McGonagall in amusement, "wouldn't you recognize the year she was born in considering you did explain she was a witch and is one of your Gryffindors?" He asked her trying to get a rise out of her, but she waved him off.

"We do not keep files on their year of birth, we only keep the month and day so we know who to go to when the time comes. And to answer your second question, we know when the time comes when they appear on the parchment charmed to show the names of those we send letters to," McGonagall explained after she saw Severus' index finger go up and his mouth open to ask another question, but shut once she had answered it. McGonagall knew he wanted to pick at this topic of being unaware of Hermione's age for as long as possible.

"Did you ever think to tell me this, Albus? One of my cubs, who has had a history of being bullied, was a year younger! I could have kept an extra eye on her! What about on her first year? She was only ten!" the head of Gryffindor shrieked.

"You know as well as I do how mature Miss Granger is, she handles herself well now as a four-year-old and as a ten-year-old," Dumbledore was about to continue, but he felt someone tug at his sleeve.

He turned to face the small child with kindness written in the lines of his face.

"Excuse me, sir," Hermione started in her police, childlike tone, "are you Father Christmas?"

All the adults in the room shared looks of amusement at the little Hermione's innocence. Any responsible, mature man in his right mind would respond honestly and say that they were not Santa, that Santa lived in the North Pole. Unfortunately, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was neither of those things, well he wasn't today.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled from behind his half-moon spectacles, and gave a cry of utter elation, "how clever you are! Why, I am Father Christmas!"

He moved closer to the girl, who was looking up at him as if he held the answers to the universe, and clung to every word he said.

"Tell me Hermione, what do you want for Christmas?" He asked, smiling. He enjoyed watching his student's usually serious face break into thought.

"A cat please like Angelica's Fluffy or an orange one. Orange and pink are my favourite colours, if it's not too much trouble, and a letter explaining to mother and father that we must keep the cat under any circumstanshes," she stumbled on the long word, but remained oblivious, "or maybe… maybe a Magic cat that is invisible, but only I can see him," she suggested.

"You want Fluffy?!" Snape exclaimed, only listening to every other word she said.

"Of course I want Fluffy! She's the cutest cat ever!" she replied smiling up at him as he looked at her as his eyebrows furrowed, confused since Fluffy is a three headed dog. She would definitely not want him.

"Ahem, I do believe she is talking about the muggle cartoon show Rugrats, if I am not mistaken," Dumbledore replied.

Snape looked relieved, he didn't believe that anyone, excluding Hagrid, would want such a thing, especially a four year old girl. Snape's thoughts were interrupted by Dumbledore's reply to Hermione's request of a cat, "I will do my very best to get you a cat as soon as I can, one which you can call your own as long as you remain off the naughty list!"

"And on the topic of mummies and daddies?" Snape prompted, and the Headmaster sighed.

"She cannot return to her home in this state. Her brain will begin to flicker and struggle against the sudden changes, she will begin to remember things that have happened to her. Her mind will stretch and constrict and Miss Granger will end up in a lot of pain. In result, it would not end well," Dumbledore replied as he looked away, examining the empty beds of the hospital wing.

"Would that not help her? She has known her parents all her life, wouldn't she be more comfortable there?" Minerva asked.

"No, she would not. We will discuss this later. She should be taken away from the castle before anything ensues," Dumbledore told them.

"Where will she go? Harry and Ronald depend too much on Hermione and will not make it without her," Minerva explained to him.

"There is only one place safe enough from the outside, one that is hidden by the means of a Fidelius Charm," Dumbledore said intently, "Grimmauld Place."

A/N: Thanks for reading! I decided to name the story New Life because after Hermione turns into a four, almost five, year old her life changes completely. There will be things that would have never happened if she didn't turn into a child. I stopped before the first chapter actually ends because I want to change the flow of it a bit more. Please review! Hopefully I can edit this later on and fix errors I made. Another thanks to sunriseshades again for letting me adopt the story! I will be posting the next chapter by next Wednesday. I currently finished writing the second chapter and started on the third, I just need to edit it so stay tuned for that!

If you guys would like to see the progress (and snippets of new chapters), I will be posting them on my tumblr and twitter which are both vnynnmrnn. I'll be posting updates on new story ideas, snippets of new stories or chapters, when I finish writing and start editing, when I update and all that jazzzzzz.