She underlines the last sentence. Hermione is proud of her shorthand. She feels especially proud because she taught herself, using only library textbooks. Children her age rarely accomplish something so difficult. Most of the children she knows still struggle with normal writing. She smiles a superior smile, but it does not last. Hermione Granger may be the top of her class, nay the best in her school, but she is friendless. Her classmates find her odd and bossy. They think she’s too "intense". They don’t like how she holds herself with such importance, as if she harboured a dangerous secret.