Jessi Brooke: I am SO sorry I haven't posted in forever! I have finals and tests, and I just learned I have to write a speech for my graduation, and half my class is protesting it because they don't like me, because I am not a popular conformist person, and I've been really depressed. Your reviews really meant a lot, I'm glad I've got something good going for me. I hope this chappie is good though, its far from my best, but I wanted to give you something.
Also, as you may or may not know, I started my own C2 for Tom/Hermione stories. Anyone willing to help in anyway possible (like joining the staff, or a suggestion for a better name for the C2itself) please e-mail me or add it in a review. Thanks in advance!
FredandGeorgeWeasleyareMYKings: Thank ya!
readerofHP: Glad you found what you were looking for. Keep Tom evil? This is Tom Riddle we're talking about, right? Of course he's evil, he's Tom Riddle. He's very evil, and no one shall ever pound all of the evil out of him, no matter how hard my friends may try.
BlueCami: Thanks for your review!
Jess: I like the way you think. Hehehe, Riddle is my man slave, but you may borrow him.
JamieGirl: Glad you like. Plots are funny, especially with the twistiness of chapter five. Hehehe, let's just say we should be wondering more about the real Odessa Todd...
Colby: Well, here it is.
"You just had to mention the jello," Luci grumbled as she sat on the couch, "Now Riddle's mad at her. She landed in the hospital last time they dueled, and last time he wasn't even angry at her, aside from the standard Slytherin hate of Gryffindor."
"It was last week for Merlin's sake, and he still hasn't done anything! Maybe he got preoccupied with his evil Slytherin evilness and forgot. You don't sound too confident in her, anyways" retorted Fritz as he lounged on the couch across from her. Gabe was out at Quidditch practice, leaving just the three of them.
"It's Tom Riddle we're talking about! He's not going to forget something like this, something that humiliated him in front of the entire school. And I, unlike you, am trying to look out for her best interests," Luci snapped back, folding her arms. Hermione sighed as she sat next to Luci, she and Fritz liked to fight more than Ron and Hermione once had.
"What are you, her mother?" exclaimed Fritz, "Odie's a big girl; she can take care of herself."
"That's not the point," Hermione cut in, for fear that their bickering might never end, "The point is, we need a plan of defense for when he attacks. We need to do research; put together everything we know about Riddle to find out what is the best course of action." The other two sat in astonishment for a moment. She had gone back in Hermione mode again.
"What else is there to say besides the fact that he is an evil, conniving, mean, sixth year Slytherin and did I mention he is pure evil?" blabbed Luci.
"For every action, there is an equal reaction," quoted Hermione, "What I mean is, that he has to be the way he is for a reason. Something really bad had to happen to make him so bad today."
Fritz and Luci continued to look at her funnily. Apparently Hermione wasn't acting the part of Odessa Todd very well. But at a time like this, she needed all the information she could get. She didn't know about Odessa Todd, but Hermione Granger like to get as much information as possible, as soon as possible.
"You want dirt on Riddle? A bit of a challenge, but give me a day or so to talk to some connections and I'll give you all there is to know about Riddle," Luci offered confidently.
"Finally, advantages to being friends with the school gossip," remarked Fritz.
"Andrew Fritz Potter, how dare you-" Luci started angrily, but he cut her off. Hermione wasn't even paying attention to their conversation anymore, it was pointless to try and make peace between them. Hermione had to inwardly admit that she agreed with Fritz. No one would suspect a thing if Luci asked about Tom Riddle, and she probably had all the right connections that would lead them to the truth. But then again, Luci knew about just about everyone now, why didn't she know about Tom? True, he was creepy, not very friendly with the other students, but surely someone had to know something about him.
It was right then that Gabe came running back into the common room. He looked exhausted already, his face was red and he was huffing and puffing and he leaned on the arm of Hermione's couch for support.
"Hey Gabe, what's the matter?" asked Fritz, sitting on the edge of his seat, "You usually like it when the mob of girls chase after you."
"Not, that," he said between breathes, "You, you gotta come down. You have to see this."
At this point, at least half the common room was looking at Gabe. If their Quidditch captain was running up here looking so worried, something really had to be wrong.
"What is it, Gabe?" asked Hermione worriedly. Gabe seemed like too laid back a person to get this worried over nothing.
"Can't. You. See it, yourself," was all he managed out. Everyone was looking at her expectantly. Why did it have to be her? Why did she have to be the hero- she didn't want this. More and more she was feeling what it was like to be Harry.
"Let's go," she turned to Fritz and Luci, her hand already holding her wand. She just hoped it would work for her like it would work for Odie. The wand picked the wizard, and this wand certainly did not pick her.
She followed Gabe, running down the stairs, followed by Fritz and Luci. She wondered wildly what this was all about. They had run down two flights of stairs so far, and now were running down a hall of classrooms. Her muscles were burning, hopefully they would reach their destination soon, and she didn't know if she could take anymore of this running.
"So, can someone remind me why we are running madly again?" asked Fritz as he passed Hermione and ran aside Gabe.
"Because," Gabe replied, "A couple of Slytherins were picking a fight with your sister and her little friends down the next hall."
Hermione could have sworn that time stopped for the brief moment as Fritz took in that bit of information. After a second of shock, there was a light of rage in his eyes. Hermione felt a bit intimidated by her new friend, and took a step back from the rest of the group.
Apparently, that was just about the worst thing she could have possibly done.
Out of nowhere, a hand reached out and covered her mouth, and an arm wrapped around her waist, and pulled her into a nearby classroom. She didn't need to look at his face to know who he was. The feeling of extreme loathing was all she needed to identify him. It was Riddle. Damn him.
"Ger'off ah meh," Hermione yelled, her voice muffled by his hand over his face.
"Sorry mudblood, didn't catch that," he said releasing her as the door closed behind them. He pointed his wand at the door, and muttered a curse to lock the door before turning back his attention to Hermione.
"I said get off of me, Riddle," retorted Hermione, whipping around to face him, "Now get out of my way and let me out."
Tom laughed, and that only added to her rage, "Why? So you can follow that impressionable friend of yours?"
Hermione stared back at him, confused. Impressionable? But that would mean… nah; it couldn't be- could it? But how could he have mastered something like that yet?
"Yes, Todd, it was the Imperius Curse," he said lazily to her surprised, "Didn't think I could do it, did you now? Surprises lurk behind every corner."
"Literally," muttered Hermione, "Now what do you want with me?" She tried to go to the door again, but he blocked her way.
"Expelliarmus," he said in a bored tone, and the strangest thing happened. It was as if Hermione knew exactly where and when the spell would hit. It was a strange feeling, one she could only call instinct. And, using this instinct, she stepped out of the way with ease.
"Oh, come now Todd, I don't have time for games," he said, annoyed.
"Then how about I get to keep my wand and you tell me why I'm here," she held her wand tightly and glared at him.
"And what do I get out of it?" he asked, "Either you give me your wand and I tell you why you're here, or I'll just keep you in here, wand and all, with no idea in the world as to why you are stuck in this room until you die of starvation."
Pleasant. He was making her choose between two deaths. But could he kill her really? How long before her friends would find out and break the curse, or get a teacher? Of course, he had killed Moaning Myrtle, so why not her? She laid her wand on top of a nearby desk, and he gave her a calculating look before he grabbed it away, as if he were afraid she might change her mind.
"That's just what I want to talk about, Todd. Under normal circumstances, you would never submit your wand to me. You would be just like any other foolish Gryffindor and stand there stupidly," he remarked. Hermione noticed he kept trying to look her in the eye, and the more he did that, the more it angered her. She simply could not look at him without having the irresistible urge to hex him to kingdom come. So she focused on his nose instead, trying to think up a valid excuse.
"The potions they made me take," she said quickly, "The ones I had to take because of you, they have unusual side effects."
"Do you really take me for an imbecile?" he asked, annoyed, "What kind of potion changes a person's personality."
"Been studying me for the past week, Riddle?" she raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you have evil plans to plot or friends or something?" His eyes narrowed when she mentioned the word "friends". Good, she was hitting a nerve. That meant that she was getting somewhere with this conversation.
"That's not the point. The point is that you are obviously acting out of the ordinary, and I want to know why," he said in a low growl.
"Riddle, even if there was something wrong, what would ever make you think that I would want to tell you about it?" asked Hermione, folding her arms expectantly.
"Nothing, but that is of no matter. It would be much easier, and much more amusing for me, to force it out of you," he smirked at her. She hated his smirk, more than anything else that she loathed about him.
"So your just going to corner a wandless witch for your retribution, are you? Is that how you try to get back your dignity?" spat Hermione.
"We Slytherins have other means of payback that you Gryffindors can never hope to understand. Dignity and nobility hardly matter, it's getting what you want that counts. What use is it to be dignified and have nothing?" he glared at her.
She stared back at him, attempting to understand him. He really wasn't a very bad looking boy, if she didn't want to hurt him so much she might have gone so far as to say that he was handsome. But his heart had been hollowed by his hunger for power, which gave him a cold and emotionless presence. It disconcerted Hermione, Riddle was no open book, it would take a while to get him to crack.
"I'd rather die knowing it was for something I believed in, than die cowering in a corner trying to save my own neck," Hermione said
"I'd rather not die at all," he said curtly, "I'd rather be the one on the other side. The one who has the power to choose who will die and who will live."
"You'll wait forever, I think, but you won't ever get that power, no matter what spells you use, no matter how hard you try," she said in a deathly whisper. True, it was a lie, but not yet, seeing as she was in the past. And he didn't need to know anything about the future, anyway.
His eyes widened in anger at her rudeness, and he grabbed her tight wrist and pulled it high over her head. She tried not to yelp in pain, or wince or show any signs he was hurting her. She would not give him that satisfaction.
"Do not ever speak like that to me, mudblood," he growled at her. He was staring her straight in the eyes now, and Hermione was infuriated. All common sense left her now; she just wanted to hurt him so bad.
"Or what, you'll go running to your father? He can't do a thing about it, anyway," she glared at him. He threw her back, and she crashed into a desk before falling to the floor.
"What did you say?" he said in a very dangerous tone. Hermione's eyes widened. She shouldn't have said that, now he knew for sure that something was different about her. Only he was subtle enough to pick it out. Damn him again.
"I thought I asked you what you said," he kicked her hard, and she curled up in a fetal position on the floor. Her eyes closed tight as he continued to kick her even more.
The instinctive feeling came back again. This brave foreign feeling that felt extremely humiliated to be in such a position. And quite suddenly she got a plan in her mind to beat Riddle. The style of thought was so different from her own; she wondered how she could have gotten it in the first place.
"You win Riddle," she said weakly, "I said, I said that…" her voice trailed off for a second, and he was distracted by her voice, he didn't happen to realize that one of her legs had kicked out at him, and kicked him hard just below the belt. He stumbled back and fell to the ground as she quickly jumped to her feet, swiping her wand from his hand and pointed it down at him. The status quo had changed, and in Hermione's favor.
"I said that you won't ever overpower me, ever," she said with a satisfied smile, one she used to wear in school whenever she got a question right. But school, in her time in the future, had gotten a lot more solemn and serious since then.
"You're still the same old Gryffindor brute inside," he muttered, "Still the same ideals. Going to curse me, Todd? Whatever it is that's making you act different, you and I both know you wouldn't dare. It would be against all of your idiotic Gryffindor beliefs."
"You take that curse off of Gabe, and I won't do anything to you," she said behind her teeth.
"I already have," he said smoothly, "Slytherin's honor."
"Slytherins have no honor," she rolled her eyes, stating the obvious. There was a strange glint in his eye, and he gave a smirk.
"You're learning quickly," he said. His gaze was distracted for a moment, as he looked to somewhere behind her. She tried not to turn as well to see whatever it was he was staring so intently at. She didn't trust him enough to turn her back just yet.
"Well, time is of the essence," he said, and her insides began to crawl, "And I can't grace you with my company much longer. But don't fret, Todd. I'll find out what's going on with you, sooner or later. It's only a matter of time."
Chills went down her spine, she stood there in shock. He knew? How did he know? Oh Merlin's beard, this was the worst thing that could possibly happen to her. Other than dying or having her identity and the future revealed to everyone, of course. But this was still pretty bad. A part of her wanted to punch Riddle and ask him what was up as she let him slip out of the door without protest. That foreign part of her, that was Odessa Todd, the real Odessa Todd. And she wasn't sure whether she liked her presence there or not. Hermione of course, knew what she had to do. She had to go straight to Dumbledore right away. He would have to know what to do.
Out of curiosity, she turned about to see what Tom had been staring at so intently. She breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe, for now. She laughed at her paranoia as she walked out of the classroom. Once Luci was done fretting over her run in with Riddle, and Hermione was done making sure Gabe was okay, she would have to tell them she had almost had a heart attack over a simple wizard's clock.