AN: Long time no see! I left this story hanging for far too long and I am so, sincerely sorry to anyone who has been waiting. This update is thanks to an anonymous reviewer who told me they revisit my stories for updates. I felt terrible for making them wait and kicked my butt into picking this up again. I'm a little rusty, but I'm back! ENJOY!

CHAPTER 4

Draco had barely avoided Riddle the first night he spent in the Slytherin dorm; it was only thanks to the tight huddle he and several other Slytherin had pulled into after dinner that had excused him from further questions. As the warm morning light stretched along the aged wooden floors, he knew it wouldn't last, he had maybe another hour of peaceful denial before he and the rest of his year would shuffle down to the Great Hall for breakfast. He slowly showered, taking his time waiting for his fine platinum hair to dry, rather than using a charm, before he painstaking gelled every lock into place and picked scattered lint from his robes.

He was chewing on the idea of hemming his pants up just a quarter inch before someone coughing behind, caused Draco to spin with whiplash speed. It took considerable control to meet Abraxas Malfoy with a blank, perhaps slightly irritated stare. The elder Malfoy unknowingly gave his future grandson an inherited sneer. 'Trying to impress already, Lucius?'

'Durmstang was quite strict on presentation,' he said nonchalantly, running a fingertip over each eyebrow. 'It's just habit.'

'I'd be careful if I were you, that's all,' Abraxas shrugged as he rubbed a pinch of gel between his palms and drew his finger back though his shoulder-length blonde hair. 'I'm sure Riddle can tell you better than I, but some of the Slytherin girls can be rather forward.'

'I'm sure I'll find a way to fend them off.'

With a chuckle, the elder Malfoy waved Draco out with him and they joined the rest of the group following the regal carriage of Riddle into the Great Hall. Draco recognised a few younger faces from his own life, one of which was Regulus Black who almost walked straight into Abraxas as his gaze was anchored firmly across the hall.

'Find some distance, Black,' he growled, pushing the taller boy back. 'What are you looking at?'

Regulus, barely seemed to register Abraxas' tone, instead he just waved him off and stood, ankles crossed and arms folded, gazing over the Hufflepuff table to the Ravenclaws. Having caught his grandfather's venom, Draco turned to follow Regulus' interest and felt a drop of panic in his stomach upon seeing the target. Hermione had just slipped next to Merida at her house table, her courteous smile in place, but there was a dullness to it that tipped him off to a rough night.

'She had to choose now to stop looking like an old maid.' Malfoy groaned internally, begrudgingly acknowledging Granger cut quite the figure in the waist high skirts of the era.

She politely listed to Merida recount her dream from the night before, while mentally making a note to count how many beds were between them in the dorm. Hermione tastelessly chewed a piece of toast, the realisation from yesterday was still weighing heavily in her mind and she threw a cautious glance over to Draco. He was chatting to a Slytherin boy with lush raven hair, both of whom were looking directly back at her and she felt her eyes widen. Dropping her line of sight back down, she felt fear and a blush creep up into her pale cheeks before nudging Merida into movement.

'I'd like to get a desk at the front if possible,' she said lamely. 'Do you mind if we go to Potions early?'

'Hm? Oh, no of course not. I like the front seat too, I don't like staring at the back of people's heads; it's hard to to tell when they're thinking.'

'...Right, of course. Shall we go then?'

Nodding her head eagerly, Merida lead Hermione from the hall and continued to chat her ear off all the way to the Potions room. 'Do you think that means anything; dreaming about a Thestral stealing first dance at my wedding?'

'I imagine it does,' Hermione giggled as a genuine frown creased Merida's brow. 'But I think you'll only spur more dreams thinking too much about it.'

'...That's true.'

'Well, well girls, you're very eager today. I hope I haven't caught you planning some terrible prank.' Slughorn's self-amused laughter brought a sigh from Hermione.

'Oh no, Professor!' Merida cried, scandalised. 'We would never.'

'Easy, Miss Lovegood,' he held up a sausage-fingered hand. 'I was only pulling your leg, come on inside girls, class will start in ten minutes anyway.'

Hermione nodded as Slughorn held the door open for them and Merdia bustled to the table up the front. They carefully placed their books down and the bubbly Ravenclaw shoved a chipped, badly thinned cauldron between them, scarping the rock floor as the Professor waddled to his desk. The robust man busied himself with scattered papers as more student filtered in, taking their seats and rolling cauldrons into place.

'You didn't need to swap classes for me, you know,' Hermione smiled. 'I'm slowly finding my way around.'

'Not another word. I was told to make you feel welcome and I couldn't do that from a totally different room,' Merida brushed off her concern. 'Besides, it means I have time for Divination now.'

Thankfully Hermione was spared the task of pretending to be happy for her exuberant friend as Slughorn heaved himself from his chair and began to motion for quiet. The burbling chatter died down and the puffy-cheeked man gave the room a nod.

'Good morning students, today we will be continuing our last lesson on a basic medical Cleansing Potion. Turn to page seventy-six of your book and, in your pairs, collect what you need from the store room.'

'I'll get the goodies!' Merida almost fell out of her chair as she ran to the narrow store cupboard and left Hermione carefully coaxing the brittle pages of textbook over. She knew the potion well enough, having brewed it as part of her exam last year, but knew better than to make it from memory and draw attention.

She lit the fire beneath the cauldron and tidied the table as she waited for Merida to return, looking up with the intent to find her and instead seeing Professor Slughorn's bulging belly approaching. He held out a stubby-fingered hand and gave Hermione's a light shake.

'Miss Viktor, isn't it?'

'Yes, Professor.'

'I thought perhaps you may have tired of being singled out as a new face at the start of a class, so I thought I'd welcome you privately,' he tapped his nose with a grin. 'I hope you're finding yourself at home here.'

It was with genuine gratitude that Hermione smiled in reply. 'I appreciate that, sir, really I do. The castle is so vast, it's easy to lose bearings, but I think I'm finding my way.'

'You'll get the hang of it, dear girl, and if you ever do find yourself lost, the house ghosts are surprisingly accommodating. Most of them, anyway.'

'Ghosts, sir?'

The ingredients Merida dropped unceremoniously on the table cut off Slughorn's reply and he waved for the girls to get on with their task before waddling to the next table where a perplexed looking Hufflepuff was trying to pull spider silk from his eyebrow.

'Sorry that took so long,' Merida puffed. 'They should make that room bigger or Georgia Patil's hips smaller.'

Merida chatted through the rest of Potions as Hermione nimbly fixed enough of her mistakes to get them a pass and quietly nodded as they wandered back into the hallway and the Ravenclaw Prefect praised her own potions skill.

'It comes form my mother, I think, she never had to have the same hair colour twice in one day with her cosmetic potions, you know.'

'Sounds lovely,' Hermione forced a smile before gesturing over her shoulder. 'I have Transfiguration now, how about you?'

'Divination,' Merdia stuck out her bottom lip. 'Need me to show you the way?'

'No, no I had Defence Against the Dark Arts next to it yesterday. I know the way. I'll see you for lunch in the Great Hall when it's over?'

'Of course! I'll save you a spot.'

Hermione breathed sigh as she turned on her heel and made her way to class; at first Merida's demeanour had been infectious and now it was simply unending. Feeling inexplicably tired for having spent the morning with the energetic girl, Hermione ran her hand through her charmed smooth ringlets. She shifted her books from one arm to the other as she reached for the classroom door handle, groaning as they over balanced and toppled to the floor. She crouched down to scoop them up, jumping a little as a pair of masculine hand deftly gathered them together for her.

'Allow me,' Draco helped Hermione straighten as he ushered her into the room. 'Keep walking.'

'I can't tell if this is chivalry or an abduction.'

'It's just the air us Slytherin's give off.'

Hermione smirked as Draco set her books and his on a table near the back, ignoring Hermione's obvious pout at being so far from the front. 'What's with the White Knight act then?'

'It was me or him.' Draco subtly nodded to the side where Regulus Black dropped his books with a thump before turning on his chair to discuss something with Abraxas.

'Is that...Regulus Black?'

'In the pure-blood flesh.'

'Why would he pick up my books.'

'Because you're looking less and less like you fell out of a tree lately,' Draco shrugged. 'Caught his eye it seems.'

'Oh, Merlin,' Hermione's stomach clenched uncomfortably. 'How do Slytherin's handle rejection?'

'We don't.'

Draco's clipped tone slithered down Hermione's spine as the office door opened and a young, auburn figure of Albus Dumbledore made a chirpy path forward and held his arms out in welcome to the class.

'Good morning, good morning,' he beamed. 'I have a busy lesson planned for you all today so let's not waste time. I'd like you all to partner up and hand your wands at the ready.'

Draco gave Hermione the barest side glance as confirmation that they would be partners and both placed their wands in front of them. 'Think we can work without you turning violent, Viktor?' he murmured.

'Think you can keep just two legs this time?'

'If you've all found yourselves a partner, I'd like you to spread out in the room and face one another, a few feet away if you would,' Dumbledore instructed, waving his hands about the room. 'Come, come, let's be quick.'

Hermione and Draco set themselves in the back corner of the room, Hermione freezing in her attempt to smooth the pleats in her skirt as she watched Riddle sidle across from them with Regulus Black in tow. Catching her wide-eyed pause, Draco glanced over his shoulder, snapping back with a slightly tired look of exasperation.

'Now if you would all take turn at gently waving your wand in a figure eight-type motion while using the spell Engorgio and enlarge your partners robes.' Dumbledore demonstrated the motion with his finger. 'Then, once both have over-sized robes, reverse the motion and use Reducio to return them. Do take care not to aim at anyone's face as you may accidentally enlarge their eyeballs to the point their skull can no longer contain them. Come, come, have a try.'

Swapping mildly amused looks, Draco motioned for Hermione to go first, holding his wand behind his back and straightening his robes. 'Right up your alley, hm, Hermione? Blowing something out of proportion.'

Hermione mocked a laugh as she aimed the tip of her wand at Malfoy's chest. 'First time you will have used this spell on something not attached to you, Lucius?'

Although his powder blue yes narrowed in a glare, Draco's pale lips curled into a smirk as heheld out his arms and watched his plain black robes slowly engorge until they were just barely hanging onto his lithe frame. He nodded approvingly, swaying the droopy sleeves back and forth as he looked up.

'Not bad, Viktor,' he pulled his wand from the vast shelter of his sleeve. 'My turn.'

Hermione clutched the front of her robes, pulling them right across her chest to make a larger target. 'Robes, Lucius, just the robes.'

'A little credit, please,' he twirled his wand nimbly and recited the spell as a short, bright pulse of green washed over Hermione's clothes. 'I'm not totally incompetent.'

Hermione smirked as her robes slowly grew, hanging from her much as they had Draco and she giggled as the hem pooled around her feet. 'Just partially.'

'Just do the spell.'

'Reducio.' Hermione watched as Draco's clothes returned to normal and watched her own sleeves creep back into shape as he cast his own. They reached their original length, but it seemed she had misremembered as the cloth continued to shrink. Perhaps the style was different in this time and she had not realised. The robes continued to tighten and Hermione was certain they had not been this tight.

'Oh no,' she tried to wriggle her arm from the constricting sleeves and, seeing something had gone wrong, Draco rushed to her side and helped to yank a single arm free. 'What did you do?'

'I didn't do anything,' Draco growled under his breath as he tried to pull her other arm free, but the robes had shrunk too much and caught at Hermione's elbow. 'Damn it, it's not coming off.'

By now several other students, including Tom Riddle, and Professor Dumbledore had noticed the hushed whispers from the new students and there was a feminine gasp from somewhere as Hermione's arm began to turn a funny colour. Her fingers were aching and icy cold, Hermione had dropped her wand from her numbing fingers and looked up to see Riddle walking over with his at the ready.

'D-Draco...,'

Glancing behind to see what had given the uncharacteristic break to Hermione's voice, Draco's stare hardened and he pulled his wand free, pressing the tip into the vicious black cloth band beginning to draw blood from Hermione's arm and muttered.

'Diffindo.'

The sound of the cloth ripping was loud and sharp as it floated to the ground, continuing to shrink into barely more than an eye-patch. Draco took Hermione's arm in hand, frowning at the vivid red that encircled her elbow and trying to swallow the uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling of apology welling inside.

'Miss Viktor, are you alright?' Dumbledore came to tower over the students, taking her arm from Malfoy and examining the marks left. 'Hm, I think you'll be fine but perhaps you should go to the Hospital Wing regardless.'

'I'll take her.' Draco tucked his wand in his pocket, ready to go and glaring slightly as Dumbledore motioned for him to stay put.

'Very admirable of you to offer, Mr. Lucius, but yourself and Miss Viktor are new, in the interest of safety I'd prefer a more familiar student take her. Mr. Riddle, if you'd be so kind?'

'Of course, Professor.'

Hermione caught her protest at nothing more than a slight squeak which it seemed only Draco caught. Although it was fleeting she could have sworn there was flash of sympathy in his eyes as he was forced to take his seat once more. Riddle held the door open as Hermione tucked what was left of her robe in her pocket and, lightly gripping her elbow to her chest, followed him into the hall. The door clicked behind them, but Hermione didn't dare look behind as she made a brisk pace through the cold halls with Riddle keeping step just behind.

Resisting the urge to run or scream or fake her own death, Hermione forced herself to slow down, knowing she could not explain how she would know her way around after only one day. Riddle's clipping steps came closer and she shuddered as his shadow washed over her and they walked side by side. A small show of mercy, it seemed he was not one for small talk and their journey was silent, but his gaze was heavy and unmistakeable for the entire trip.

It took an age to reach the Hospital Wing and Hermione never thought she would rather the company of the hook-nosed Nurse Mallard over anyone, but it was practically a friendly reunion as she ushered her onto a bed.

'I've told them once, I've told them a thousand time...,' she muttered under her breath as she cleaned the thin layer of dried blood from Hermione's pale skin. 'Too dangerous.'

'It was just a mistake, Nurse Mallard,' Hermione offered gingerly. 'A transfiguration spell went a little awry.'

'I can see that, Miss Viktor.'

'It barely hurts now, I don't mean to take up your time.'

'It's what I am employed to do, Miss Viktor.'

Accepting that hard outer shell wasn't going to be chipped, Hermione gave up and just allowed the gaunt nurse to do her job while Riddle leant against the wall beside, one ankle crossed over the other and seemingly bored. It was a simple job to patch up the slightly torn skin of her arm and Hermione lightly rubbed the pink, but healed skin as Mallard fetched her papers. She had been unable to shake the weight of Riddle's attention as he rested just a few feet away and, taking a deep breath, she turned to him.

'Thank you for bringing me here,' she tried to muster a believable smile. 'I know my way to the Great Hall, there's no need for you to wait.'

Tom Riddle's misleadingly beguiling face betrayed nothing of what thoughts ticked behind those calculating eyes and he gave a slight wave of his hand. 'The Professor asked me to escort you, I will at least see you back to the Great Hall.'

'It's really not necessary, I've already made you miss part of class after all.'

'Not such a dire consequence,' he dismissed once more. 'I'd taken the liberty of a little forward reading in class anyway; that spell was nothing unknown to me.'

'I thought that too.' Hermione murmured, idly rubbing her arm.

Her shoulders jerked as there was a soft rumble of laughter from Riddle and they practically lodged in her ears as he pushed off the wall and came to stand beside the bed. 'Perhaps Mr. Lucius is not so well practised.'

'I won't be helping him practise again.' Hermione muttered, earning yet another chuckle and she pursed her lips sharply. The nurse was taking an awfully long time for a simple discharge form.

'May I?' Riddle held out a hand and, after a moment of blank staring, Hermione reluctantly moved her arm into his grasp, a horrific, icy shudder wracking her entire body as his fingers closed around her skin. His eyes roved what little was left of the red ring her robes had left and his cold touch traced the bright pink of the seams.

'It's nothing, really, just a bit surprising.' Hermione slid her arm from his grasp, once again, perhaps a little too quickly as she cradled it against herself.

'Yes,' Riddle murmured thoughtfully. 'A lot of that going around.'

Choosing to ignore the depth to his tone, Hermione offered a tight lipped smile, followed by a genuine one as Nurse Mallard reappeared with her papers which she signed in a hurried scrawl and practically leaped from the bed. Riddle held the door open once more and, as she wondered if she would ever know the touch of a door handle again, Hermione vaguely motioned in the direction of the Great Hall.

'As I said, I know my way from here, so...,' she trailed off.

'Perhaps unsurprisingly, I too have my lunch break now, Miss Viktor,' Riddle raised a jet black eyebrow. 'I'll accompany you.'

Knowing any further arguing would be suspicious, Hermione fell into step as Riddle settled back into his quiet, unsettling study. The girl was pleasant to look at with her feminine figure and long, kept curls and yet there was something distinctly uneasy about her. She reminded him of the Hogwarts paintings; made to look like something and yet moved with a purpose and knowledge completely unique to itself. Curious, of course, but not enough to pursue her or her odd friends and delay his own purpose, he had come too far for that.

'HERMIONE!'

Riddle flinched from his thoughts and Hermione leapt into the air as Merida rounded the corner, almost taking a chunk of it with her, as she grasped Hermione's shoulders.

'They told me you were in the Hospital Wing! What's wrong? Are you okay?'

'I'm fine, Merida,' she coaxed the Prefect's claw-like grip away. 'Just a little spell mishap. It was nothing, really.'

'It seems you are in...eager hands here, Miss Viktor,' Riddle gave a civil nod of his head. 'I'll leave you here.'

'Thank you.' Hermione smiled with clenched teeth, feeling a physical weight rise from her shoulders as the raven haired sorcerer made a path to the Slytherin table; students parting for him like the Red Sea before Moses.

'Come on, come eat, tell me everything.' Merida dragged Hermione toward the Ravenclaw table, almost losing her balance as she pulled herself away as politely as possible.

'I actually had something quick to eat at the Hospital Wing,' Hermione lied, 'I think I'll go check in with my friends, I know Ron can get lost easily and that is a story I would want to hear.'

Merida mouthed 'check in' with a slight frown, repeating it over and over as she took a solo seat at the Ravenclaw table.