2 Familiar but Different

"Okay I'll try!" Devlin said without complaining this time and continued to eat his breakfast. Devlin's father, mother, and sister all stared at him with surprise. They were expecting a bratty response from Devlin but instead they look at this boy in confusion.

"Well...alright then.." Devlin's father responds awkwardly. He prepared himself to put his foot down but unexpectedly didn't have to say anything.

"You okay Dev? You seem...calm?" Devlin's mother asked as she went over to feel his forehead.

Devlin smiled in comfort feeling his mother's love "I'm okay mom! I'm really just interested in it." One thing Devlin always wanted to try as a kid when he was an adult was to do back flips and move like a ninja or move like the wind like in those parkour videos. Now that he is young again, this was an opportunity to him to see if he can do it.

"Weirdo...." His sister responded as she eats a spoonful of cereal. She thought that he never really had a big interest in anything so this gave her a weird feeling.

"Okay okay, go finish up and get ready for school! You are running late!" Devlin ate his breakfast and rushed into his room to get ready. He looked around at his messy room just now remembering the supernatural event that happened before breakfast.

"What if I unlocked some sort of system?" Devlin thinks to himself. Even as an adult in his previous life, he was an avid reader of webtoons. He waved his hand in the air and says the words expecting something to show "STATUS!"

Devlin stands in the middle of the room with his hand reached out expecting a screen to show up in front of it. But nothing is happens. "INVENTORY!" he screamed out in another pose hoping an inventory screen from a class rpg game would open....nothing happens.

"What are you doing?" Devlin's sister giggles staring at her silly little brother. "Hurry up and get ready! We'll miss the bus!" His sister was leaning on his door entrance no longer in her pajamas. Embarrassed to what his sister just witnessed, he went and got dressed as soon as possible.

He grabbed his book bag, he took a peak inside to realize he's in Year 5 in school. He looked at the calendar and finds out its end of June. "It is close to the end the school year. I'm ten now." Devlin remembered when he turned ten, he was excited to reach double digits in age and felt like an adult. He found it funny that he's ten now with the memories of when he was an adult.

"We're going! Byeeee." Devlin and his sister scream out to their parents as they rush out of the house and down the street. Seeing the other kids still at the corner of the street, they knew that they didn't miss the bus. Shortly after the bus drives up towards the stop. Devlin and his sister dashes towards the stop and while the bus driver waits for them noticing them running towards him.

"Phew! That was close!" Devlin said gasping for air. He felt good being able to run as fast as he could. He doesn't remember doing that anymore before he got hospitalized. Walking down the aisle of the bus, Kate finds her friend and sits next to her. Devlin continues to walk towards the back of the bus. He finds something peculiar...He doesn't recognize the kids on the bus.

"Maybe my memory has gone bad? I don't remember anyone here.." Devlin always prided himself at least with good memory, but instead he finds himself in an unfamiliar surrounding filled with unfamiliar faces. "Did I not talk to anyone back then?" He thought to himself. Now that he recalls, he can at least remember one or two people on his bus that is supposed to be on this bus but is not here.

The bus took a couple more stops and more kids got onto the bus. Devlin takes a peek at everyone from his seat and still doesn't recognize anyone who got on the bus. Even the girl his sister is chatting with happily, he doesn't remember her.

"Nah, maybe I just don't remember." Devlin shrugged off his doubt as the bus arrives at his school. "Who remembers every detail of their primary school life? See, the school looks the same, I probably just don't remember." Even with his good memory, Devlin started doubting himself.

Devlin looked around at the crowd of students in the hallway and still does not recognize any of the kids. He found himself in a familiar yet unfamiliar scene. "If I remember correctly, my classroom is this way." Just as he was thinking where to go, he felt a sudden slap on his shoulder.

"Alright there Dev? What you are doing standing around?" A chubby boy a little taller than him with brown hair and freckles on his face smiles at him "Come on lets go!" As he walks into the classroom before him.

"Finally! A familiar face!" Devlin cheers himself up seeing his childhood best friend. "Steve! Long time no see!" He said excitingly!

Steve looks at Devlin in confusion. "Long time no see? You okay there? We saw each other yesterday!"

Devlin clears his throat. He just realized what he instinctively said out loud. "I mean it feels like that! Forget it!"

"You seem off today Dev! You okay? Finals got your brain all muddled together?" Steve teasingly said to Devlin

"Hmm, I guess I'm not worried at least." Devlin says confidently.

"Studied hard did ya?" Steve laughs. The warning bell rang and students start to rush into the room and find their seats. Once again Devlin stares as his classmates realizing while there are similar faces, there are some that aren't.

The teacher walks in and starts taking roll call. "I'm going to have to accept the fact that this is not the same as my childhood. While there are some similarities, it looks like I will have to reacquaint myself with some of these kids."

Primary school level education was quite boring for Devlin now with what he knows. After going through his classes in literacy and math class, he heads to the cafeteria with Steve. He sat next to Steve and listened to the kid's conversation as one of the boys was particularly energetic. "In order to fit in, I'll have to accept their moments of immaturity, I can't give any hints of being what I am."

"I'm telling you she's getting on my nerves! She's so stuck up its annoying!" One of the boys said complaining. "She's such a...such a... such a know-it-all!" The boy was frustrated as he didn't know the words to express his anger.

"Whoa what happened?" Steve cut in curious to know the tea.

"It's that Granger girl! You know..the one with the frizzy hair!" The boy complains. "She was like.." The boy then changed his posture into a mockingly feminine stuck-up pose. "You really shouldn't chew with your mouth opened. It's improper to do such a thing in front of people." the boy mockingly said. "Who cares what you like??" the boy slammed the table in front of him in frustration.

"Wait!" Devlin stepped in. The name sounded familiar, but he didn't want to believe it. "Are you talking about...Hermione Granger?"

The boy and the rest of the table turn their head towards Devlin. "Yes Her! So annoying! Just because she's the smartest in the class, she thinks she's above everyone!"

Devlin gave a dumbfounded look. "Hermione Granger....." Devlin quickly stood up and looked around the cafeteria room staring at every female in view seeing if he find her.

Devlin felts a tug as Steve forces him to sit down. "Be a little more obvious why don't ya?"

Devlin shook his head. "I'm sorry, I was just curious. I mean she's the smartest girl in our grade."

Steve grinned mischievously. "Why do you have a crush or something? On the biggest nerd in our school?" The boys laughed as well.

Devlin smiled playfully as well. "No no no! I mean, seriously just curious!" He continued to look around. "I was just curious if her hair is as frizzy as they say!" Devlin says quite awkwardly at his kid-like excuse.

The boy who was venting out smiles. "Well you won't find her here mate. She got no friends you see. She's probably eating alone somewhere else." The boy laughed. "BUT her hair is really frizzy! She got bucked teeth like a bunny!"

Devlin smiled awkwardly. While it was just a bunch of kids, it is still awkward and cringy for him to go along with it. If this was the same Hermione he read in the books in his previously life, then he quite liked her character. Intelligent and a great friend, but also not that great of a people person. It's not hard to understand that Hermione was trying to be helpful so she can give them a positive impression, but her blunt and corrosive way of dealing with her peers blindsided them and caused her efforts to fail. It wasn't until that Ron's tactless remarks and the life threatening troll event, she started to calm down.

Curiosity filled Devlin's mind as he was hoping to see if this was indeed the Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter world, or a coincidence.

"There is no way to search for her now. I'll just leave it up to fate." Devlin and his classmates continued the rest of the day attending their classes. By the end of the day, Devlin confirmed with himself that he will have to adapt himself to this new world and life he is in. He has to now consider unlike his life in the past, what will he work towards now?

As he is lost in his thought while leaving the school building.

"Excuse me.."

Devlin continued walking thinking that there might be a possibility of magic existing in this world.

"Um..hello? Excuse me!"

Devlin heard something, but didn't bother as it probably wasn't for him.

"You there!" Devlin heard the voice get closer and instinctively stopped finding a girl a little shorter than him with frizzy uncontrollable brown hair, catching her breath, rushing over to get in front of him. She looked at Devlin in frustration and then presents to him a pencil case that looks oddly familiar.

Devlin stared blankly at her noticing that while the traits are similar, she doesn't look much like the Hermione from the movies. "She is a bit different and her front teeth are a bit more distinct but she is a bit more normal looking than I thought." Devlin thought in his mind. "Then again, she's 9 or10 years old? Her glow up hasn't happened yet!"

"You dropped this...back there and your bookbag is unzipped, did you know that? Be careful." As she rolled her eyes and starts to walk away.

"Thank you...ummm you are.." Devlin wanted to make sure this wasn't a coincidence.

The girl paused for a second, took a breath and turns around. "Granger...Hermione Granger."

Devlin smiled but all of a sudden got excited and nervous. "Right, Hermione. The names Devlin. Devlin Delwyn...p-pleasure.." He laughed awkwardly as he puts in his case back into his bookbag and properly zipped it up.

Hermione looked confused for second but then replaced it with a proud look. "Right..Good bye then." She was about to say something more but then left in a hurry instead.

Devlin snickered on what just happened. "Way to go Devlin. A second lifetime with an adult mindset and you still choked up in front of a girl just like when you were kid." Devlin bowed his head in shame. "What are the chances I would meet a real Hermione in the flesh?"

Devlin returned home and couldn't believe what happened today. He started thinking about his day so far..."I'm back in my young body and my family and home are still the same. At one point all my toys were floating in the air. I'm at my same primary school, but while some faces are familiar, some are total strangers I'm sure I've never seen before in my life. And now a familiar name and person who shouldn't exist...." Devlin was gathering all information he can think of right now. "It can't be, but is it possible? A world that is familiar, but different.."