Here's the rest of chapter 3! :) Enjoy!
(I'm sorry for all the possible mistakes. It's quite late over here, but I wanted to finish this one today. So… here you go!)
"Meeting a Genius – The life of Tom Riddle Jr.
He is young, he is painfully handsome, he is awfully rich – and incredibly intelligent.
Without a doubt, Tom Riddle belongs to the elite of this country.
Not only being the last heir to the royal name of Slytherin, but also the only child of the already deceased businessman Tom Riddle Sr., young Riddle's stand in the world is full of responsibilities.
Finishing school at the incredible age of 16 (due to being one of the brightest kids in the country, as nationwide competitions have shown), Riddle started his career at university rather early, while at the same time taking over his dead father's positions as a business consultant in various companies all over the world, helping them to double most of their yearly income.
The question how Riddle is able to maintain his position as one of the top students of his university is probably going to stay a mystery forever – no one knows when he finds the time to learn. His professors claim he never needs to study, he just "gets it by looking at it once" – though not a day goes by when you don't see him with a book under his arm.
Even though he looks like a Greek god, the young man prefers to spend his time alone in his manor house in Little Hangleton, a small village nearby. According to fellow students, he rarely visits parties or goes out with friends, which makes him a popular mystery everyone would like to solve – not only the girls!
"He keeps certain people close," states a student. "But he normally holds everyone at arm's length."
Who are those people Riddle "keeps close"? This question is easier to answer than others: boys like Abraxas Malfoy, Cygnus Black, Antonin Dolohov, Rabastan Lestrange, and Alexio Avery are often seen hanging around him – all of them being either royal or a child of an influential family.
Tom Riddle, the polite, handsome young man who knows what he wants. He seems to be content with the life of a quiet genius; he doesn't like to feel the public eye on him.
But who knows? Maybe we'll be able to interview him one day. When he has become the next Prime Minister, he certainly won't get around talking to the press.
We can wait.
Rita Skeeter"
She heard a knock on the door.
Without hesitation Hermione went to open it.
On the other side stood a slightly surprised looking Tom Riddle, and behind him an apparently bored Cygnus Black.
"Give me a second, I'm just going to get my stuff." Hermione turned around, grabbed her bag and her keys and went back to Riddle and Black. Only then it was that she saw what they were wearing… Hiking boots?!
She stopped and raised her brows, before her eyes traveled upwards to meet Riddle's mildly amused look.
"What are we going to do?" she asked warily, though she already knew the answer.
"Isn't that obvious?" Riddle retorted, and Hermione could tell that he was trying to suppress a laugh. She probably looked as if he had told her that she wasn't allowed to use the library for two days. "We go on a little hiking tour."
"Now, that's what I call time well spent." Hiking. She hated hiking. Who had come up with this stupid idea?!
Oh, right. Probably the genius himself.
"You don't seem all too pleased," Riddle observed, folding his arms behind his back. "You don't want to come along?"
"Of course I want to," Hermione answered, maybe a bit too fast. She froze on the spot. That had been a mistake. Now all she could hope for was that Riddle wouldn't get suspicious.
She thought she saw something flicker in his eyes – but in the next moment, the strange look was gone and Riddle bowed his head.
"I take that as a compliment." The corners of his mouth wandered upwards, allowing Hermione's heartbeat to go back to normal. "Then let's not waste any time. Do you have hiking boots? I don't think wearing sneakers will do you any good…"
She shook her head. "No. I normally prefer to spend my time indoors, so I never saw the necessity of buying… hiking boots." She wasn't sure if she had ever used the word. It felt strange in her mouth.
Honestly. Hiking. Hermione Granger rarely found the time to do anything else than studying; if she did, she still spend her time surrounded by books because that was her hobby! Why would anyone want to go hiking if there were so many more useful things one could do?!
Riddle took a step back and indicated her to go first. Black, who hadn't said a word the entire time, just seemed to wish to be somewhere else. Hermione couldn't blame him.
But she needed to go.
She had to go.
"By the way," Riddle began after sitting down beside her in the backseat of his black Mercedes and telling his driver where he should drop them off. "Nice… flat you have there."
"Oh, please!" Hermione rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the sensation of feeling his left leg pressed against her right one. This was not what she was here for, after all! "I know it's tiny and that you're used to… other things."
His eyebrows went up. "Oh. I conclude you did some research, then."
Hermione felt herself blush – and cursed inwardly. Why was it always so easy for everyone to see through her?!
Ah, right. Because she was incredibly crappy at behaving unsuspicious.
She had the feeling that lying would do her no good, so she simply changed the truth slightly. "Maybe I found an article about you on the Internet." She couldn't bare to look at him, so she turned her head to the left – just to see Black shaking his head in amusement.
Great. So she really was good at making bored people happy. What an unexpected talent!
"You really shouldn't read about Tom on the Internet," Black told her, and Hermione felt Riddle shaking beside her. Was he laughing?!
She turned her head around once again, just to find that, yes, Riddle was indeed laughing silently, his finger resting under his chin. But something bothered Hermione about his laugh. It didn't seem…
genuine.
"Why not?" she asked Black who just shook his head once again.
"Because what you find on there is completely made up," responded not Black, but Riddle. He had stopped laughing and was looking out of the window. "They don't have confirmed information, so all they do write is either a good guess or something even they don't think is true."
Hermione thought about that for a moment.
"So you're not royal?"
"Well, yes, I am-"
"You're not rich?"
"I do have a lot of money, that's right-"
"And you're not one of the top students at university?"
"Of course I am!" Now he looked as if she had insulted him. Oh, great.
"Then I don't know why you're saying that they make things up."
Riddle slowly let out his breath. "I think we're here."
"What?" Hermione blinked in bemusement.
Riddle just gave her a smirk. "What I mean is that we can get off this car and start our little hiking tour."
Right. She had nearly forgotten about that. How utterly unpleasant.
At least the sun was shining.
Hermione sighed.
"Black really likes nature, doesn't he?" asked Hermione. She had completely lost sight of their companion and had a hard time keeping up Riddle's pace.
"Oh no, he doesn't," answered Riddle, and there was not a hint of exhaustion in his voice. Hermione's mood dropped.
"But you do?"
"Actually no, not really."
"Then why are we out here?!" She couldn't suppress her anger any longer. After wandering around for about 4 hours straight she had nearly reached her limit. All she wanted to do was to sit down and never move again in her entire life.
"Because," Riddle replied smoothly, "I thought you would like nature."
Hermione frowned. "Now, enlighten me: why would you think that?"
"As far as I know, you originally started off studying Biology before changing your course of studies. Am I right? Well, I figured this would mean you have a… soft spot for nature."
Hermione froze. What?
How did he-
Riddle had turned around and was now looking at her. Hermione suddenly was very glad for the space that lay between them.
"I have my sources," he explained with a slightly arrogant smirk, as if he had read her thoughts. Ah. So he was he aware of the fact that he actually wasn't supposed to know about that piece of information.
"Sources?" Hermione echoed, still trying to comprehend what was going on. "Why would your sources tell you something about my background?!"
Riddle looked at the ground and shoved his hands in his pockets. "You see, they tell me about your background because I ask them about your background. That's how those things normally work. At least in my world. I don't know about yours."
She still felt as if someone had turned off the lights in her head. What he was saying made absolutely no sense. Why would he want to find out about her past? Did that mean that he…?
"Why?" She heard herself intone. This couldn't be happening! After everything she had done to prevent such a situation as this one… everything was about to be destroyed! And it was so easy for him, so easy to corner her…
What would she do, then? How would she answer him?! The same way she had told her professor why she needed to stop?
Riddle raised his voice. Hermione felt in shock that her hands were shaking. Hastily, she put them behind her back.
"I wanted to know about you, of course," Riddle explained, slowly taking a step towards her. "I wanted to know some things about you before meeting you a second time. I wondered if we would have enough to talk about." He gave her a wry smile. "But I guess we do, because I really want to ask you something."
Hermione was prepared. She knew what she would tell him.
The truth. It was the only acceptable thing.
"Why did you stop studying Biology and continued with Literature instead? Isn't that a little far-fetched?"
Hermione felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach.
That was not what she had prepared herself for. No.
She had expected worse. Hermione nearly wanted to laugh as relief washed over her.
"Oh, I just found out that Biology isn't my – how did you put it? – soft spot. I liked it, but not enough to spend the rest of my life with it."
His eyebrows went up once again. "And Literature… fulfills you? Makes you happy?"
She nodded. "Indeed."
They were very close now; Hermione hadn't even realized that he had came thatclose. She started to feel uncomfortable again. Worst of all, she could see that his highly functioning brain had picked up the work and started processing what she had just said. What if he wouldn't be satisfied with her answer?
She had to change the subject. As soon as possible.
"Eh… Tom?" she began, looking at his handsome face which he had tilted upwards slightly.
"Uh," was the only response she got. God, what was he thinking about?! He needed to stop! He needed to look at her. If he would continue thinking about… whatever it was, he would find out. Hermione was sure of that.
So she did the only logical thing which sprang to her mind.
Her last minute rescue.
She took a step forward – and kissed him.
For about ten seconds, Hermione didn't know where her body ended and where his began. She wasn't sure where to locate the sky – was it above or beneath her? How could she even see it when she had shut her eyes so hard it nearly hurt?
And did it even matter?
What she was feeling was a strange mixture of fear, horror, guilt – and excitement. She had never kissed a stranger. In fact, she had never kissed anyone besides Ron at all!
She had obviously surprised Riddle, but Hermione had the vague feeling that he was used to situations like these, which ultimately let her to doubt whether her actions had any kind of effect on the function of his brain. She herself felt her own mind slowly picking up the work again, while Riddle's mouth moved lightly over her lips.
They broke apart after about half a minute, leaving Hermione slightly breathless.
Riddle's hair looked strangely messy. Wait. Had she done that? But… she didn't even remember! What had her hands been doing?!
Hermione wanted to vanish. Where had the stupid idea to kiss him even come from? What was wrong with her?!
Riddle cleared his throat. "Well. I guess my 100,000 pounds were well invested."
Hermione felt herself turn bright red.
Tom Riddle was a bad influence. Of that much she was sure.
Credits go to:
Gimana Nanti51, Zeehana, Golden Aura, Smithback, la-femme-cavalier, Jcst, giada, real talk, Anonymous Presence, Cassie-D1, Nero Basterdino, CatastropheOfEquilibrium, Danish Fantasy Girl, Edge of Sanity, Periwrinkle, Savannah Malfoy, SourlessCherryxx, Supereggbox, UnattainableDarkAngel, kabukienigma, krax0607, maryn90, miscalculation, princess-alice-malfoy-granger, xXSlackerByChoiceXx, skyONflames, B-Mine, Bertoeshie, CassieRenee333, ClaryxJace614, Danigirl84, DeathEaterGroupie722, Eirini, FluffyAnnoyingBunBun, Held Together With Tape, JetBlackStare, KaTeRiNa MaLfOy, LoveThisAwesomeBrat, MRSDARRENCRISS589, Minitiki, Mother of All Randomness, Nadeshiko Black, RARRRRRR, RavenOrozco, Roxolana5, Senbonzakura Kageioshi, ShadowPrincess1621, Sirina Blackwolf, Skatious, The Butterfly Dreamer, TheNarglesStoleMySoul, bnorgren13, darkwinterrose, kathygomez26, lildevil0644, moutonx, obsessiveicequeen, redScate, sakura-kaede, slayerb8, suzy96
I tried to read the list without breathing while doing so.
As you can imagine – it didn't work. Which makes me soooooooo happy! :D (Not that I can't breath, but that there are so many people reading my story!)
I'm so overwhelmed! Thank you!
Oh, there is something else I wanted to tell you: from now on I'll try to announce when I'll upload the next chapter. You can go check out the date on my profile, if you want to know when you have to drop by to continue reading. ;) I can't promise that these dates will always be accurate, though. But I'll give my best! :)
See you soon!
Lots of love!
Herzenslust