Tom really disliked girls, they seemed dedicated to batting their eyelashes at him and trying to act cute. The idea of a relationship in general baffled him and physical contact was something he generally avoided, but no many how many times he rejected girls they didn't give up on him. At least Hermione whose crush was obvious didn't try to do anything, of course he noticed her eyes on him, but at least she never acted on it so they both ignored easily ignored it.

How could a first year Gryffindor mud-blood show restraint where pure-blooded Slytherin girls two years older couldn't, it was honestly baffling. Thankfully he chose to surround himself with other boys not that he particularly cared for any of them either, he didn't want or need friends, but followers he could use. So he ended up with a posse of mostly idiots who had good connections.

Abraxas, one of the few associates he could trust was speaking to him, but Tom was only listening with half an ear, the rest of his focus was on how to figure out who his family was. He'd checked the school records for anyone named Riddle, but he didn't come up with anything. He needed to figure out where to search next, most of his house chose to ignore his status as an orphan and just pretended he was as pure as anybody else. Charm and fear were a good combination, still he was only a third year so it wasn't so much that the older students ignored his status it was just that they didn't care. It was his younger peers that he had to convince and he had been able to, they were all just cattle willing to go along with him.

Hermione stepped into her defense against the dark arts class and with just a glance she could see Harry was in a good mood, it wasn't a surprise considering their professor and his love of the subject. It was probably Hermione's weakest subject if only because her straight forward knowledge wasn't always applicable in the face of subjective hands-on work the professor favored, though she maintained her position at the top of the class.

She would certainly admit that professor Lupin was probably the most interesting instructor she had, professor McGonagall was her favorite, but as a werewolf professor Lupin had experienced things none of them could fully understand. He'd worked at the school for a few years and opinions of him were split the Gryfindors all loved him, but some Slytherin disliked him because of his status as a werewolf. The rest of the students opinions varied, the fact that he didn't exactly suit the idea of a werewolf was helpful. He did have a few visible scars, but because he wore old jumpers and soft smiles most people thought of him as harmless. She knew he even had a few fans, kids who didn't realize the danger of werewolves. Though he was almost fired every year, out of panic from first year parents when they learned a werewolf was teaching, he maintained his position because he gave the students a good education.

She knew he was like an uncle to Harry, apparently he was extremely close with his father and mother, but she didn't make a point of prying into her professor's private lives. He was always nice and that's what she chose to base her opinion on, not his status. He always made time to speak to her when she asked about how werewolves were treated by society, in general not his personal life, she wanted to change things when she grew up and Lupin seemed to appreciate the sentiment. His position in Hogwarts allowed him to live a very different life than most werewolves who were ostracized in society.

"Today we'll be learning about the smokescreen spell, can anybody tell me the incantation?" He asked and pointed to Hermione when her hand shot up first, "Miss Granger?"

"The incantation is Fumos," she answered confidently and ignored the huff of annoyance from someone behind her.

"Correct, take five points for Gryffindor," he replied easily and asked, "Does anybody know the wand movement?"

"Miss, Granger," he pointed when her hand was again first in the air, once again she ignored the grumble behind her and showed the movements, "Take another five points and class do try to remember I have excellent hearing. If you want to complain about someone answering the questions I ask, I will know about it. Let's all respect each other," he very politely chastised whoever had been behind her. "Now I'll show the class," He cast the spell easily and a wave of smoke sprayed from his wand, after letting it hang in the air for a moment he waved his wand and vanished it. "Who wants to be the first to try it? How about you Mr. Malfoy?" He asked Draco who she guessed had been the one complaining about her.

Hermione was a bit annoyed when Draco managed to cast the spell passably. "Nicely done Draco, try to be a bit more fluid in your movements, but for a first attempt I think that's worth five points for Slytherin," he patted the boy on the shoulder and Draco threw the class a smug smile, sometimes professor Lupin really was too nice. "But if I hear you talking about other students again, I'll gladly take those away," he added and Draco's smirk disappeared as he walked back to the group. Hermione decided that was a bit better.

"Now everyone spread out and let's all try the spell, I'll be coming around to correct you so don't worry if it's not perfect," he gestured for everyone to take a spot and with a flick of his wrist all the chairs moved to the corner of the room. Hermione was briefly reminded of Tom, but she didn't let the thought distract her from casting the spell correctly.

Class ended fairly uneventfully a few students had problems with wand movements or mumbling, but it wasn't a difficult spell so there were any injuries aside from a few people getting a face full of smoke and a few scalded fingertips.

Immediately after class Draco headed her off in the hallway his friends with him, "You really can't stop showing off can you, Mud-blood? You had to have that werewolf defend you, what a pair," Draco tried to mock her, but honestly she wasn't particularly bothered today. She cared more people being rude when it was her own house, she just expected Malfoy's rotten behavior, it lost its effect after a certain amount of time.

Before she could say anything as a retort Harry appeared out of almost nowhere, "Don't talk about her like that just because she's better than you and leave Remus out of it. Barely managing to cast a spell doesn't make you tough," She mentally noted his use of professor Lupin's first name, but it wasn't her place to correct him.

Neither of them were able to fully get into a fight before Remus' voice carried over from inside the classroom, "These werewolf ears of mine are pretty sure they're hearing something in the hallway." His voice was light, nothing seemed to bother him much, but Draco still darted off his goons following on his heels apparently he was afraid he'd get in trouble.

Remus stepped into the hallway closing the door behind himself, "Good job defending your friend Harry, that's what makes a Gryffindor, loyalty." Hermione wasn't sure how to say they weren't really friends without it sounding extremely rude and since Harry didn't seem inclined to correct him, Hermione stayed silent and Lupin addressed her, "Hermione, nice job as usual in class today, I'm always impressed. You'll have to make sure Harry studies once in a while, Merlin knows I was always on James' case, Sirius and Peter too."

Hermione had no idea who Peter was, Sirius she knew because he occasionally filled in for professor Lupin when classes fell around a full moon, those classes tended to be rather disorganized. It was rumored they were lovers or something and if she remembered correctly James was Harry's father. They weren't exactly close enough to talk about their family lives so she could only go on what she'd heard from snippets of conversations.

"Yeah, yeah," Harry answered swatting at the hand Remus had been patting him with, but it was good natured. Hermione felt very out of place with their obviously close relationship so she bade the pair farewell and made her way to the library, she wanted to return some of the books she'd borrowed the other day. The last of them she'd finished earlier in the day during a break.

Wandering to the library she entertained the idea that she and Harry could be friends, but she was knocked out of that thought process when she was intercepted by Tom he was exiting the library just as she was about to enter, "Meet me in the Room of Requirement, after dinner." He didn't pause his steps and Hermione was left staring after him for a moment. She could only assume he meant their secret room, she hadn't even known the room had a specific name, but it made sense considering the room provided what you required. She returned her books and began walking to the Great Hall. Knowing she was going to get to spend more time with Tom only brought her mood up further.

"Alright now this time I'll show you how to defend yourself using offensive spells, or use someone else's magic against them," Tom said in lieu of a greeting when Hermione stepped into the Room of Requirement rather than say anything she simply nodded and took out her wand, which Tom appreciated, he didn't want to chat with her, "Pick a spell and cast it, if there's a way to throw it back I'll do so, if not I'll just use protego or dodge. It's important to have good discernment in battle."

Tom took a few steps further from her before gesturing for her to get to it, the less time he dealt with her the better. "Fumos," she cast a smokescreen at him and it was a perfect setup.

All it took to send it flying back at her was a quick, "Ventus." The blast of wind obscured her vision, if he felt like it he could manipulate the spell into a whirlwind around her, but at that point it would just be showing off and he didn't care to impress her.

It took a few moments for her to clear the smoke and a bit longer for her to recover and stop coughing. "Sorry I breathed a bit of smoke in," she apologized, but he waved it off.

"Now you'll try to intercept a spell I send at you. If you can't think of anything just use protego, the spell shouldn't be strong enough to break through," he explained before deciding on a spell. "Aqua Erupto," he cast the spell keeping the strength just high enough to spray straight at her.

He saw her mentally running through spells and it was only at the last second she finally cast the incantation, "Glacius." Considering her hesitancy and the fact that she had to cast the spell at the last second, he was impressed that it worked fairly well. His stream of water stopped in the air turning into slush, so it wasn't perfect, but it got the job done.

"Decent, now try the same spell on me and let me show you how it's done. Go full power, I want to see what you can do," he commanded wanting to both show her the difference between them and to show her what she needed to be able to do before he'd label her useful.

She cast the spell and he was pleased to note she reigned in any hesitancy about firing on him, clearly it wouldn't be hard to prevent her from holding back against his enemies. He cast glasius as she had, but his spell fully turned the water into ice and with a whip of his wand it broke into shards and went flying at her. She had enough sense to erect a shield to prevent the shards from hitting her, which he supposed was good. He didn't want to have to take her to the hospital wing and explain wounds nor did he have much training in the healing arts. He supposed he could assign that as homework, he was more interested in other forms of magic.

About halfway through their training he noticed she seemed slightly distracted which just meant he was going to waste time if she didn't get herself together. He forced himself to sound concerned, or the closest he could bother to muster, "Hermione, your mind seems to be somewhere else is anything wrong?"

"Earlier today someone called me a mud-blood," she explained and Tom wanted to laugh, it wasn't a lie and that was hardly the worst thing that could happen, however she continued, "I don't really care what Malfoy says and being called a mud-blood doesn't bother me that much, I'm muggle-born and I'm fine with that." How someone could be fine with that Tom didn't know, but she was still talking, "I know you're nothing like him, but I've never asked your opinion about blood purity. I know being in Slytherin doesn't mean you're automatically prejudiced, but I'd feel better if I heard you say it. It's important to me." Her voice was soft at the end and Tom was getting tired.

"Hermione, I don't care if you're muggle-born," he wasn't lying, of course her blood status meant she was lower than him just by birth, but at the moment it wasn't important, "I wouldn't spend so much time with you, if that upset me." He carefully didn't mention his views on blood purity in general, though it was more of a hatred of muggles than an inherent belief that being a wizard made you more talented, there were certainly weak wizards among the pure-bloods, not that he thought she'd appreciate that caveat.

"I already believed that's how you felt, but I value your opinion so I just wanted to hear it. Considering you're at least half-blooded though it makes sense," she spoke carelessly not realizing she was walking into a dangerous territory.

"What do you mean?" His tone was deceptively light, but his hand was twitching towards his wand, it was an unspoken rule that everyone avoid this topic. She even implied that he could be a mudblood which was impossible.

"I might not mind not having wizards for parents, but I certainly am interested in looking at how twisted up the family trees are for wizarding families. I did plenty of reading and I'm fairly certain Riddle isn't a wizarding name, so if you're half blooded it must be on your mother's side. What's your middle name? I want to see if I can guess your mother's family," she was still ridiculously casual assuming this was some sort of game. Clearly she didn't know about his status as an orphan, which considering it was another hush-hush topic wasn't shocking.

"Maybe you'll have better luck than me, I'm an orphan so I don't know either of my parents," he didn't allow himself to sound too bitter, lest he seem weak, "My name is Thomas Marvolo Riddle. Have at it."

She looked heartbroken for him and it was ridiculous, he didn't need her pity and he certainly didn't want it. She didn't have the right to look at him like he was broken. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea," and of course she sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"Really it's fine, honestly when people pity me I feel uncomfortable," he tried to get her to shut up in the nicest way possible. He was a good actor, but it almost wasn't worth the effort, all he wanted to do was curse her at this point.

She took a few deep breaths and finally managed to get herself under control, but after a few seconds he saw her expression shift again this time looking like she was deep in thought, "Wait, where do I know the name Marvolo from?"

"What?" He asked, he knew he was named after his father and because he refused to believe his mother was a wizard he'd only searched under Riddle in old records. Tom didn't expect Hermione to actually know anything, he honestly wasn't sure why he bothered to tell her in the first place, but if she could shorten his search it might have been worth revealing a bit about himself.

She repeated the name under her breath few times before looking at him, "Of course, Marvolo Gaunt. I gave most families just a cursory glance and made sure I knew the Sacred 28, but I looked more in depth at recent descendants of the families of the Hogwarts founders." She paused to think again, "The Gaunt family was directly related to Salzar Slytherin and based on timing if Marvolo had daughter, she could be the right age to conceivably be your mother. Of course we don't have any proof, you can't tell just by looks, but it's certainly enough reason to start there. Maybe you were destined to be in Slytherin, I don't know do you think I'm right?"

Tom for once was actually feeling something bordering on shock and suddenly everything made sense. Even if he did have a muggle for a parent he was directly related to Salzar Slytherin, there was a reason he was better than everyone else. It also explained some of his abilities,"I'm a parseltongue," he said not being able to fully hide his mounting excitement.

"Which was one of Slytherin's most significant traits and almost exclusively hereditary," Hermione added which Tom already knew, but he couldn't be bothered to be annoyed. Hearing it out loud was just further confirmation of who he was, he would need to look into this more, but he could feel that it was right.

"You clever, clever little witch," he approached her wondering if his expression was as wild as he felt, "anything, ask me for anything and I'll give it to you." She might be a mudblood, but she'd just given him something nobody else had, his legacy.

"I don't know," she looked a little shocked herself, possibly by his attitude.

He got himself somewhat under control, "Think about your reward, we'll pick this up later. Apparently I have some research to do." He knew realistically he could have found this out and eventually would have, but for now he was in a good enough mood to give some credit to his little soldier. He'd made the right choice with her.

A/N

So a couple things I want to clarify

-Remus Lupin (my favorite character) is the defense against dark arts professor, I have reasons for that, and all the Marauders are currently alive because no Voldemort = no war, at least not yet. I also gave a slight nod to all the Remus/Sirius shippers mainly because I wanted a reason for Sirius having easy access to the castle (It could be important later).

-I'm pretty sure Tom finds out who his family is later than his third year in the books because it's true that he refused to believe his magic blood came from his mom's side, because she died and he believed a witch shouldn't have died, or some odd logic. I figured someone like Hermione who was harassed because of her blood might be interested in seeing how her bullies were all proud of being inbred and her fascination with Hogwarts would make her interested in the founders.