Chapter 4: Judgment
Perhaps it is time for a new home amongst the snakes and not the lions…
Hermione froze, and could fell her face drain of what little color she had as her palms got sweaty and her heart started pounding furiously in her chest.
Oh Merlin no…
Oh yes Ms. Granger. I think for the rest of your stay here, you will be in SLYTHERIN! The hat cried out around the room causing a bemused Headmaster Dippit to come towards her. Hermione felt close to crying again.
Do not worry Ms. Granger. All will work out in the end.
'Yeah, my death set in stone!' she cried into her mind feeling faint before the Headmaster took it off. He gave her a surprised smile.
"Well then Ms. Granger. We will announce your new home with the Slytherins during dinner later this evening. If you would like, I could get your schedule set up for your classes…" he suggested but the words barely registered in Hermione's frantic mind. She could only manage to shake her head slowly, still in complete shock and denial as to what house she was now in.
Yet, there was not much she could do. She couldn't beg the Headmaster to resort her cause then he'd wonder why she didn't like Slytherin and she couldn't let on that she knew anything about this place or suspicions would arise.
No, she needed to be calm and take it in stride. No matter how shaky her stride was. The sorting hat was smart, it would not put her into a house that she was deliberately begging not to go into if it wasn't for the best.
Surely, there was a reason that it put her to live, literally, in the den with snakes that would just love to rip and claw her apart. Surely, there was a reason she was in the same house as the future Dark Lord that would ruin the lives of thousands. Surely, no one would try to kill her in her sleep…
'Oh Merlin!" Hermione thought feeling as if she was about to hyperventalate. 'Just breathe Hermione, breathe. You can do this. Dumbledore wouldn't have put you through this if you couldn't handle it Hermione! Just Breathe!' She told herself as she struggle to regain a steady breath. She didn't even care if Dippit was giving her odd looks. It was better than having a nervous break down for no apparent reason.
"Ms. Granger. Would you like me to fix up your classes?" he asked this time a little more sharply. Hermione gazed at him trying to squash her maddening panic and when she felt she had successfully composed herself, she opened her mouth to speek.
"Actually sir, I was hoping to talk to you about some things." she said, surprised at how calm she managed to get her voice. In the past she most sounded like a hysterical banshee when she felt as she did now.
"Yes?" he asked clearly surprised. Hermione cleared her throat and again took a deep breath.
"Okay. I was hoping sir, if we could keep my percentage and name out of this strange occurance in case…well, should anyone find out I'm still alive. I know it might seem paranoid but I'd feel a lot safer knowing that my identidy could not be traced back here." Or in the future… Hermione thought, heart thudding wildly in her chest.
Armando, his face changing from surprised to concern, just shook his head.
"I'm sorry Ms. Granger but a majority of the teachers here and the minister himself already know what your name is and situation. I'm afraid-"
"Well I'm sure that they could be owled and told that this needs to be kept under raps. Or I could simply change my name to something like, like Jean Granger-Sanders a pureblood witch from France. I just- I can't be Hermione Granger, muggleborn witch from France." I said pleadingly. He just gave me a skeptical look but shrugged.
"As you wish… Ms. Granger-Sanders. I guess I could send on owl to the ministry and alert the staff…" he trailed of when Hermione gave him a relieved smile.
"Thank you so much Headmaster!" she said and he smiled slightly at her.
"Right then, so getting back to your classes?" he asked and Hermione nodded enthusiastically, still feeling very grateful that he had actually listened to her.
"Well, since I wasn't able to get an owl to fly out to France, I have no idea where you are at in your education. I suggest you take the standard classes you need such as Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, charms and such. If you wish to take any other extracurricular classes than that would be no problem either, it's up to you." Dippit told her.
"Well I already know what classes I would like to take headmaster; your courses aren't really any different than the ones in Beauxbaton's." Hermione said, knowing this to be a fact from all her reading.
"Well what did you have in mind?" Dippit asked. Hermione took a breathe, mentaly preparing herself from what she was about to do.
"In Beauxbaton's I was in Ancient Runes, Potions, Defence Against the Dark, Charms, Athrimancy and Transfiguration. Oh, and Herbology." Hermione responded. Dippit's eyesbrows rose until they reached his hair.
"Those are a lot of classes Ms. Gr-Sanders," he said, Hermione nodded almost feeling like she was going to cry. It wont be nearly as hard since they aren't advance classes. "Well if you're comfortable with it that we can set up your schedule right away, but if you get overwhelmed, feel free to alert the Head of your house Professor Slughorn." Dippit said and again Hermione nodded.
"I know I can handle it sir." Hermione responded with conviction.
"Just so long as you're comfortable. Now, would you like a tour of the grounds Ms. G-Sanders?" he asked and Hermione nodded, feeling very relieved.
Now, she wouldn't have to worry so much about he identity in the future, though keeping Granger within it wasn't a good thing, it would have to do. Besides she could answer to the name Jean Sanders easily since it was her mother's maiden name.
Though, she didn't like having to be in no advance classes but she knew that she had to at least try to blend in. Of course they're would be some spotlight on her being the first transfer student at such an old age, but after that cooled down she hoped she could just fade into the backround. Just the strange new girl and that's it. So that meant being normal smarts. No more 'brightest witch of her age' for her this year. The thought made her heart ache.
She let her mind wander as she followed the Headmaster down the staircases and through the corridors, listening half heartedly to his idle talk about the schools history and such with minimal interest. She knew everything anyway, and then some.
He stopped frequently to point out random things like paintings, tapestries and statues to explain their signifigance. They had just come to a strange cloaked hunched statue when students started coming out of their classrooms and miling around.
"And this figure here was Selestrial Donola. She was a teacher of Hogwarts in the early 1600's and helped protect the castle against the Hungarian vampire Countess Elizabeth Báthory who is known in the muggle world as the 'bloody countess' of-" he explained pointing at the statue but Hermione wasn't paying attention, she was watching the other students as they went about.
Again she was getting that surreal weird feeling that she felt ever since seeing Gale Nott in the hospital wing. The faces passing were all so new and unrecognizable. It was sad the unfamiliarity.
And then they came, recognizable, distinguished, rich and powerful, horrible, cruel, malicious…future death eaters…
People skirted around them like little mice, only to look back at them with awe and lounging after they passed. And they knew it, they relished in it. Hermione could see that from their smirking faces and upraised chins and swaggering, smug footsteps.
Yaxley, Lestrange, Malfoy, Avery, Dolohov, Rookwood. They were all there smiling like the stuck up bastards that they are at all the others around them. And then Tom Riddle, right in the middle of them all with Cassandra Black, the only girl in the group, clinging to his arm with a smug look on her face.
Hermione knew she would be lying if said it wasn't an impressive sight. They were all so, confident, tall, good looking, or at least a couple of them were. They screamed superiority.
And Hermione hated it.
She wanted to march right up to all them just punch them with her own damn fist like she did to Malfoy in third year. She wanted to scream at them that they were all just going to be pathetic, decrepit little minions! She wanted to scream out to everyone who was looking at them as if they were living and breathing gods, just what they really are. Show them her memories of these wretched people and let them feel her pain, anger and anguish because of them…because of him! Their untouchable precious leader Lord Voldermort! Or really Tom Riddle.
As if hearing her angry thoughts, his eyes snapped to hers, cold and dark despite the slight curve on the coner of his lips. They pierced through her. Staring into her own like razor knives, un-relentless and fierce. She didn't like it, she didn't like them looking at her one bit, but yet…she didn't look away. His eyes held hers captive completely.
They continued to stare at each other until the last possible second, Hermione with a racing heart as his gaze grew darker and darker every second she held them. She wondered for a moment if he was trying to read her mind but she didn't feel any intrution. So she stayed staring at him until he was gone along with his other lackeys.
The second he was out of sight, Hermione let out a great gust of air, not even realizing until then they she hadn't been breathing.
What in the name of Merlin's knickers was that?
She wondered still staring off where he had disappeared. A cold shiver went down her spine. Did I just have a stare down with Tom Riddle, the future Dark Lord? She sighed as she realized that that little encounter just completely blew her chance of being un-noticed.It took her a full minute to realize that she could no longer hear Armando Dippit talking anymore. She glanced up looking around for him and was surprised to see that he was all the way down the hall, so she quickly scurried over next to him before he could realize that she wasn't next to him.
Yet her mind stayed jumbled and mixed up for the rest of the day, thinking about Riddle's dark eyed gaze; the awe and respect that practically everyone in the castle gave him, the large group of followers he acquired already and how he already seemed so far gone in his evilness that there was really no way to bring him out.
She couldn't help but be amazed at the others ignorance of his obvious darkness that seemed so clear on his face. It was as if they were all under a spell. How could they not see the cold, dark evilness his eyes permanently seemed to have? How could they not see past his faux humble demeanor? How could they not tell just how disturbed and dangerous he is?
It irked Hermione to no end yet she had to ask herself. If she hadn't known what she already knew from being from the furture, would she be just like all the others here, in admiration for him? Would she two be put under his spell? She would like to think that she wouldn't be, yet she wasn't so sure.
But she had given people the benefit of the doubt before. She did it with Malfoy in sixth year, and that ended with Dumbledore being killed. Would she have made that mistake with Riddle if she had actually been born in this era?
She shook her head, clearing her head of her trival thoughts. What did it matter if she did or didn't anyway? She was here now and she knew perfectly well what Riddle is capable of. Now the question is, what she is supposed to do about it?
Or more importantly…do I kill him? she asked herself simply since she knew there was no jumping the gun about it. She had to kill him. It was the only way to save them, the people she loves, the life that she could live.
She could make it look like an accident. Perhaps slip some poison into his drink during meal times, or get close enough to stab him in the heart and seal the wound so that it looks like a heart rupture. Maybe then she would be able to go home, except this time there would be no Voldemort, no pain… no suffering. She smiled sadly. Wishful thinking will get me nowhere, she thought.
Luckily for her, she didn't encounter Riddle, nor any of his other fiendish friends for the rest of the tour. She was slightly surprised that her time with the Headmaster's tour went smoothly. For a small while Hermione was even able to get her mind off of everything as he showed her places like the Library, the Greenhouse, the girls lavatory. For a while she felt like she was home again.
But that feeling quickly dissipated as the time for dinner came steadily closer and she remembered again just what kind of position she was in. She was going into the snake pit soon. It left her feeling nauseous.
She really had no idea what to expect. She was never able to go with Ron and Harry down to the dungeons in their second year and she sure as hell wasn't snide, snarky and rude enough to even pass for a snake. She was a lion through and through. She had no idea what the sorting hat was thinking putting her in a house the complete opposite of the house she used to be in for six years. She wanted to cry.
Making enemies with Cassandra Black also did not help her situation at all. She was obviously Queen snake. She probably held reign over all the Slytherin girls in her year and down, not to mention above since she was Riddle's girlfriend, or so Hermione assumed.
Hermione was taken out of her thoughts when the Headmaster Dippit turned fully to her.
"Well Ms. Granger, ahem, I mean Granger-Sanders, this concludes the tour of Hogwarts. I've taken you to all the necessary places in the castle but if you need any help or have any questions the teachers and prefects would all love to help you. I'll leave you now to your own devices. And remember, dinner is at eight o' clock, try not to be late. I'll see you then." he said smiling at her.
"Oh, okay sir." Hermione responded, trying to hide her surprise at how fast it went. He gave her an unsure look.
"Are you sure you'll be alright by yourself?" he asked and Hermione nodded waving his question off.
"Don't worry Headmaster, I'll be fine, if I have any problems I'll just ask another student or teacher." she said placatingly. He nodded his head.
"Good. Well be sure to be at dinner so we can introduce you." he said and then he was hurrying off.
Hermione watched him go for a second, a terribe hopeless feeling in her chest, clogging her throat, before turning around and climbing back off the stairs desperately wanting the comfort of the library. She encountered no one on her way.
Immediately when Hermione opened the great oak doors to the library, she felt better again. It was the same feeling she got when Armando had taken her there the first time earlier. It was the first real familiar place that held no sadness or change. It gave her comfort. She decided in that moment that this would be where she would spend most of her time for the rest of this year and probably the year afterwards.
Idly, Hermione wandered the shelves, occasionly stopping and running a finger down a book she read in the future. Some conjuring a small smile at the memories they might hold and others bringing a stinging pang to her heart.
Slowly she started accumulating some books until her arms were full. She scuttled over to a nearby table and carefully set her selection down before plopping herself into a seat.
She picked up the closest book to her first, her fingers tracing over the cover, Strange Voyages of Time. She quickly flipped it open and read the short introduction.
This book, like many other's that have been published, analyzes and assess strange paranormal phenomenon's throughout wizarding history that is too strange, even for us. This is a book filled with guesses, estimations, speculating and uncertainty, yet it helps introducing these strange occurrences to witches and wizards everywhere and opens our eyes to the idea that something else entirely, is changing our world.
Hermione sighed feeling slightly disappointed and set the book aside. She picked up the book next to it, hoping that it would be a little more on topic with what she was looking for. She needed to know about time traveling, for after skimming some titles on the shelves, Hermione came to realize that she had a very big problem.
She had no idea how to get back home. All Dumbledore's instructions gave her was how to get to the past, never once did it mention how to get back after she was done with whatever taske he designed for her.
Was she supposed to use the portal that she came from again? Or did that only take you into the past like a time turner? Would she immediately be transported through time after her task was fulfilled? Did she have to make her own time machine to get back? Did she have to get this era's Dumbledore to make the portal for her?
So many questions! So much uncertainty! If Riddle didn't kill her when this was all over, than her unanswered questions will. She just couldn't take not knowing.
That was why she decided to do some research and find out as much as she could about time traveling. It could help her with a lot of her questions for she surely couldn't be the first person to ever go back in time. That could be achieved with a time turner, she knew that. Perhaps some unfortunate soul had gone back too far in time like she went back far. She just needed some hope, something to help her.
She couldn't stay trapped here in this wretched era for the rest of her life! She needed to go back home. Or I'll go insane! Hermione thought.
So she read, skimming around the books on time looking for something recognizable to her situation. Anything…
She found nothing in her second book except interesting facts and opinions about the space time continuum. She was about to open her third book when she realized that the sky outside hade darkened considerably and that her stomach felt hollow and was growling at her.
Hermione froze, dropping her book with a loud clang on the table. She rose on trembling feet and numbly walked towards the doors, her eyes searching for the clock. She closed her eyes slowly when she saw what time it was.
It was time for dinner.
She couldn't stop the groan that escaped her lips. She didn't want to go up in front of all those people, have their curious oblivious eyes on her as she's sorted into…into…she blanched, unable to even think about where she was sorted in.
Slytherin, Hermione. You were sorted into Slytherin.
She felt nauseous, the hunger disappating with her anxiety. How was she going to survive?! They would eat her alive while hissing like the vicious snakes they are. They'd break her even more than she already was, tear her apart into little pieces. Puncture her heart and soul with their little poisonous fangs until she was a massacred mess at their polished and shined shoes.
Calm down Hermione, a voice that sounded a lot like Ron said in her mind, You might be with the snakes but remember, you've hunted with the lions. The thought almost made her feel better until she remembered that her lions weren't with her any more. She was alone.
Yet she couldn't throw herself a pity party, she would have to face it. Face fighting without Harry and Ron. Face the pureblood menaces of Slytherin. Face Tom Riddle. It was inevitable.
So squaring her shoulders and squashing the urge to just stay in the library until this whole mess was all over, Hermione made the first step towards the library doors…and then quickly turned around, breathing heavily. She stayed like that, hands braced on the table and eyes closed for a good minute before deciding that she would go as soon as she put all the books back on the shelves that she collected.
Dippit is going to kill me. Hermione thought when she exited the library fifteen minutes later, yet she couldn't seem to make her feet go any faster as she walked. She was stalling, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want to be there. Not one bit.
Her heart froze when she finally came upon the Great Hall doors only to spring back to life at an abnormally fast rate. She could hear inside the loud chatter of students who should be long since been out of school, could hear the sound of their forks and knives scrapping against the plate, could hear them laughing with unbidden mirth.
Her breathing increased rapidly and a lump formed in her throat as she stared at the doors in horror. This was it. If she opened these doors she would not be able to back down. She would have to see it through. She'd have to endure their stares, let herself be sorted into Slytherin, subject herself to their narrowed eyed glares of hate and suspicion…be in the presence of the worst human being alive. She shivered, closed her eyes.
"I can't do this," she whispered, bracing her head against the doors with sadness. "I can't go in there."
"Well you really don't have a choice now do you?" a voice pipped up from behind her. Hermione jumped about a mile in the air. She swilved on her feet, her face filled with pure shock as she gazed at someone who looked eerily like Luna Lovegood except with brown hair.
"Excuse me?" Hermione breathed out, her heart still jumping wildly in her chest.
"Sorry, did I frighten you? I didn't mean to it's just that- I saw you staring at the door and then I heard what you said and I just decided to point out that well…you don't really have a choice." the girl responded with a smile.
"Um, okay." Hermione said with puzzlement. The girls smile just grew bigger.
"I know you're scared, I would be two if I were in you shoes but you're going to have to face them sooner or later and not everyone in there is bad." she said. Hermione shook her head, this was too weird for her liking.
"Do you… do you know who I am?" Hermione asked unsurely. The girl nodded her head.
"Of course I do. Everyone does. It's not very common for Hogwarts to get new students and well you're definitely not a face that anyone would recognize and around here everyone knows who everybody is." she said brightly.
"Right. Well that's comforting." Hermione mumbled before sighing.
"Don't worry so much, you'll be fine. Just open the door." she said and it sounded so simple but when Hermione turned back and reached out for the handle, she just couldn't do it.
"I can't." she said honestly. She just couldn't handle this, she knew she seemed stupid and whinny yet she couldn't find it in her to care. No one would understand just why it's so just for her to be feeling such immense fear.
"That's okay. Sometimes it's easier if you have someone to help you." she responded kindly, walking over to Hermione until she was right next to her. Hermione bit her lip with anxiety.
"No, honestly. I'm just-I'm just going to go back to the library. I have a bad feeling about this." Hermione said, stepping away from her and the door. The girl frowned.
"I heard what happen to you. If it makes you feel better, this can't be worse than what you've already faced." she said. Hermione gazed into her face blankly for a second. The girl had no idea.
"What have you heard?" Hermione asked, she needed to know what the gossip was going around about her so that she knew what to deny and what to play up on.
"A couple of things. The most common thing flouting around is that you were found almost dead just outside the forbidden forest and that you were left there to die as a warning to Dumbledore from Grindiwald that he'd start killing younger if he kept foiling his plans. Or something like that." Hermione shook her head. They were way more creative in the future. "They also say that Tom Riddle found you and saved your life."
Hermione's head snapped up, gazing at the girls thoughtful face with barely contained anger. So her little fall through time helped Riddle look even more glorified than he already was. She cursed him in her mind and would have cursed him outwardly if it wasn't for the fact that she had to remain oblivious to him. She took a deep breath in her nerves to calm her anger.
"Is that so?" she said when she realized the girl was waiting for her to respond. She nodded her head.
"So, do you want to go in now?" she asked, her hands on the doorknobs. Hermione's mind quickly flew into a panic again.
"No, n-" she started reaching out to stop the girl but it was too late, she had already swung open the two doors wide so that they banged loudly against the wall, getting the attention of most in the hall.
Immediately, Hermione felt herself freeze, a deer caught in the headlights kind of expression on her face. The girl turned her head back to look at her over the shoulder, a smile on her face as she gestured with her hands for Hermione to step forward. It didn't registure. It was only until the whispers started breaking out that her mind finally snapped out of it's shock and she sent a long, cold glare at the girl's direction before she walked in.
She could feel the eyes of everyone in the hall like daggers on her skin, she refused however to let it effect her like how it would in the past. She needed to get used to the stares and whispers that were going on all around her since they'd probably be following her everywhere she went for the next few weeks. Besides, if Harry could deal with it then so could she.
So she kept her gaze forward and locked on the teachers table. She even forgot that the girl was next to her until she leaned in closer to her.
"See, not so bad. I'm Patty, by the way. If you need me, I'm at that table there with the Hufflepuffs okay?" she whispered before giving her a smile and walking off. It was at the moment that Patty had moved that she finally really saw the faces around her.
She wished they would stop staring at her with those gazes, those wide eyed, curious gazes. It made her want to run away, it made her really miss her friends, hate the secrets that she know kept inside.
She moved with her eyes fixed on all of them, wishing that every face that passed would be the ones that she was already familiar with. Wishing that they were one of her friends, ones that already knew her. But they weren't and it made her feel so incredibly sad cause, she didn't even know if she would ever see those faces again.
Her brown eyes swept across them all and noticed immediately when her eyes started landing on Slytherins. The changes in from their stares to the others was magnificent. They had curious eyes also but the conjured it differently with leering smirks but assessing eyes. Some eyes were narrowed, some unblinking but they all held something: suspicion, malice, distrust so she knew immediately when she was looking into Riddles.
They were unmoving…cold and uncaring. Instead of the eyes that were looking at her to judge, for curiosity for anything, Riddle was looking at her simply just to watch. There was nothing in his eyes, and yet everything that mattered. It was his gaze that she hated most, his dead dark eyes that made her dread so much being here.
She glared at him angrily for a moment, unable to help herself and forced her eyes to keep moving hoping that he'd feel inadequate with her diliberate disposal of him.
"Ms. Granger you are late!" Dippit said not unkindly, Hermione smiled guiltly.
"I'm sorry sir, I lost track of time and then lost on my way here." Hermione lied, hoping he would let the subject go. He did.
"Well since dinner is almost over…" he said and Hermione looked up at him with hopeful brown eyes, thinking he might postpone her doom, "you're just going to have to finish with dinner at the staff table and then we'll sort you out. Do you still want me to announce you by Jean Granger-Sanders?" he asked at Hermione nodded, trying to hide her disappointement.
"Alright, why don't you sit down over at that empty seat over there alright and when dinners over I'll call you up." Dippit dismissed, turning around back to the students.
"Alright, alright. Hush down everyone and go back to your meals!" Hermione heard him say from behind her as she walked to the teachers table toward the empty seat.
"Um, Hello." Hermione said to the witch who sat next to her on the left.
"Hello young one! I'm Professor Merrythought, the defense against the dark arts teacher. How do you do?" she said happily, Hermione smiled at her.
"Oh just fi-" she responded before she was cut off when a long arm stretched out to her, reaching rudely across Professor Merrythought.
"Proffesor Blubbersby the Herbology teacher." a short, stumpy man introduced, and Hermione kindly shook his hand, mostly because Professor Merrythought looked like she was going to faint having his arm reaching over her so close to her chest.
"H-Jean Granger-Sanders sir." Hermione responded, letting go of his arm. His nose sort of twitched as he stared at her before abruptly turning and going back to his food.
"Don't mind Proffesor Blubbersby, Ms. Granger-Sanders," she said before leaning in a little closer to Hermione with a shy sort of coy look on her face. "He's a little strange you know?" she said before falling into girlish giggles. Hermione smiled at her as she ordered her food, though in her mind she was wondering if they were all on drugs.
"So I heard you were going to be in sixth year for a while, are you excited?" Professor Merrythough inquired just as Hermione's plate popped up. She winced internally.
"Oh, yes. I've missed school a lot." Hermione answered happy she could answer that half truthfully.
"Yes, sixth year is a very thrilling year, though you're probably looking more forward to seventh year." Hermione just nodded, wishing that the woman would just leave her alone so she could sulk in misery at having to be here at all.
"I think, no I know, that you will just love Hogwarts, Ms. Granger-Sanders. This school is truly something purely…magical. Not that Beauxbatons isn't a splendid school in it's own right but there's just something about Hogwarts…" she said wistfully, trailing of with a smile that Hermione, for once, didn't actually have to force herself to return.
"I take no offense." Hermione assured her before going back to twilering her food around her plate.
In what felt like no time at all, the dinner plates disappeared and desert matiralized in front of them. Again Hermione felt her heart jump to her throat and her stomach tie into horrible little knots that fluttered so damn annoyingly in her stomach. She wished on all the things holy that she could just sink down into the floor and never come out, or wake up from this incredibly aweful nightmare she was in. And in even less time, Dippit was standing up and heading to the podium in the front to address the students.
Hermione gazed torturously up at the enchanted nighttime ceiling.
"Please help me have the strength." she whispered, not knowing who she was wishing to. Maybe God, Goddess, Harry, Ron, her parents, anyone.
"Ms. Sanders," Dippit called to her and Hermione let her gaze fall hopelessly onto him, trying to control her nervous heartbeat and shaking hands. She rose stiffly from the wooden chair and onto shaky feet and took a deep breath before heading to him. She felt like she was walking into the gaunlet.
"Ms. Sanders will be joining the sixth years Slytherins for the remainder of the year. I ask you to please give her a warm welcome here into Hogwarts. " Dippit said when she had finally walked over. A polite applause went around the hall and Hermione forced herself to smile. She felt Dippit put a hand on her shoulder.
"Now, I bid yee all a good night, and if someone could show Ms. Sanders to the Slytherin common room that would be lovely." Dippit said as Hermione gazed at all there pursed gazes.
"Your house table is right there with the green flag with a snake on it, you see it? You'll sit there from now on." he said a little loudly over the comostion of the other students leaving the Great Hall. Hermione nodded again, trying not to look so frightened as her eyes trailed over to the leaving Slytherins. She was thoroughly surprised when she saw Tom Riddle walking over to them, his cronies in the back all looking over at him with blank faces as they watched him leave, except for Cassandra who was practically fuming with anger.
"Ah Tom! You always pull through don't you my boy?" Dippit said to him almost proudly, Riddle just smile cooly back at him.
"Just trying to be helpful to our new student Headmaster." he responded, his eyes flickering over at her. She had to resist a shiver. Something about the way he said that…it made Hermione feel, if possible, even more nervous.
"Of course you are Tom! Anyway, Ms. Sanders, this is Tom Riddle a sixth year prefect, head of his class and even the classes below and above him and heading undoubtedly to becoming Head Boy next year!" Dippit said enthusiastically, looking at Riddle as if he was a shiny new trophy he just earned.
"That's…wonderful." Hermione forced out along with a slight upward curve of her lips. Riddle didn't respond other than a slight incline of his head. It irked her that he got such an extravagant introduction and he yet he was completely blasé about it, as if it was the norm for him.
"Yes, if there's anything you need, Mr. Riddle here will be able to help you out without fail so feel free to ask. Now, I'll leave you to get to bed, you're going to need your sleep for your first day tomorrow, Ms. Sanders. Goodnight Tom." he said clasping him on the back before taking off.
There was a moment of tense silence where Hermione just stood there, cursing her terrble luck at being stuck with Tom Riddle of all people to bring her down the the dungeons. She had to will herself not to go taking off towards the Gryffindor common room anyway and completely desregarding what the sorting hat told her.
"Follow me." Tom Riddle spoke from in front of her. Hermione felt her breathe hitch and quickly snapped her eyes to his. He just gazed down at her cooling again with that stare as if he was watching her just to watch her, or actually not even really watching her, it was almost like he was looking through her.
She had to resist the biting retort that was on the tip of her tongue (to hell I'd follow you, you damn homicidal psychopath!) and simply gave him a curt nod. He gazed at her a second longer, holding her eyes captive before he turned away and Hermione realized in that moment just how tense she was when he was facing her.
Okay Hermione, keep your cool. He's not the Dark Lord yet. You just need to keep your emotions in check and not let him get the best of you. You can do this. She told herself, trying to take a descret deep breathe threw her nose. She immediately caught the intoxicating smell that seemed to be coming from Riddle. Wow he smells really good! Hermione thought before mentally slapping herself. He was a damn snake, everything was posinous, even his scent! So for the rest of the way she kept herself way out of smelling distance from him.
Abruptly Riddle turned towards her and if she hadn't been walking so far back away from him she would have undoubtedly ran into him. Maybe that had been his plan.
"This is the Slytherin common room entrance. The password is Lacrymosa. Any questions?" he addressed her in his deep rich voice that oozed manipulation.
Hermione blinked since she had been staring at him the whole time and forced her eyes away from his face to look at the wall that was slowly sliding away.
"None." she replied, keeping her eyes on the moving wall, though his burned into hers like acid but she didn't dare to return his gaze; not when she was in his domain.
She tensed immediately when she saw in her peripheral vision that he had taken a step closer to her. She almost turned her head to look at him but she refused to give into that urge. But the air grew thick around her with that first step, a step that made her heart start pounding in an alarming rate, that made her breath catch.
She could smell him again, that rich manly scent that seemed to beckon her closer but she fought that urge; though she couldn't resist taking in a deep breath to capture that smell. It was delicious. She wondered faintly if it was some sort of a cologne cause surely no one could naturally smell that good.
It drew you in, made you want to get closer and closer and closer. But no! Hermione couldn't, wouldn't get closer to the manipulating snake. She would not succumb.
Luckily, that absurdly tense moment passed as he took another step towards the opening in the wall and breezed past her form with ease.
"Then follow me." he said as he went in, not turning to look at her. Hermione glared at his back wondering why ever time he spoke his voice always had a way of making things sound like orders, a way of making her feel below him. And they only exchanged a couple of words…
Silently she followed his back into the eerily green, cold common room. A shiver went up her spine as she swept in, she did not like the energy in her. Everything was too formal, the couches stiff, the walls a slimy green, and fancy decrotative artifacts on mantle pieces, tables, night stands that offered no comfort, that had no point other than to look expensive. It was dreadful. Gryffindor tower was a lot more homely and better. She thought distantly.
Though the decour of the room hardly made an imprint on her mind since the moment that she stepped in, every cold, calculating, Slytherin eye snapped to her and if she hadn't been so paranoid and apprehensive about this moment all day long, the attention would have made her drop to her knees in fright.
She didn't stop however, she followed Riddle carefully behind him, trying so hard to seem unaffected but it was almost virtually impossible since she was so completely affected by everything. It didn't help her at all that the person she was using almost like a shield was the same man that in years to come all around England would fear. It unsurprisingly made it way worse.
She almost wished she could see his face. Was he giving an order to the others around him with his eyes, expressions, dark mark? Where they all the sudden going to turn their wands on her and hex her into next week? Was she just following blindly into a disastrous situation?
Her feet felt so sluggishly slow, as if heavy bricks were hanging deadly around her ankles. Although she knew that they would be as fast as light to turn around and get the hell out of there if need be. She was actually waiting for that.
Again, Riddle abruptly turned around to face her, drawing the attention, thankfully, away from her and onto him as he stood in the center of the room. He stared with dead, blank eyes at her that almost seemed so…inhuman, yet mysterious and handsome, wonderous and deep.
She couldn't help but suck in a breath when those eyes landed on her, hardly believing her treacherous thoughts, her deceived mind. In that moment she knew immediately that should she have been born in this time, she would have actually fallen for his good-golden boy act. It made her feel so ashamed. Ashamed enough to make her turn her head away from him just so that she couldn't see those eyes that made her into such a tratior.
"Welcome to the Slytherin common room." he spoke barely above a calm whisper with a still strong voice.
Such a simple sentence but he made it sound like a vow, a kind of breed of human, one that was way more supreme to the others. Like you should be prideful to be elected into the house of liars and selfish pricks. She thought in disgust.
It was only a second later that Hermione realized everyone was waiting for her to reply, gazing at her with expecting venomous eyes.
She glanced up at Tom Riddle, her eyes, in turn, boring into his, matching his stare with one of her owns that she picked up in her rightful time, preparing herself mentally and physically for whatever was about to come with her nonchalant response.
"Thank you." she said as detached as she could manage. It sounded sort of pitiful in her opinion but it seemed to do the work since it drew the attention away from her and back to Riddle.
He just continued to stare at her, penetrate her… really see her. It was with slight shock that she realized she was being judged, evaluated to see where she would stand in their ranks. And she realized that her judger was Riddle, that he determined her life in the Slytherins dungeons, that he held in his hands her social stadus and the treatment she would get. She was at his mercy. It was him who would either let her swim or sink.
It made her feel sick. It made her want to go running as far away as she could go. To think that Riddle had so much power over her in this moment, this moment of judgement that seemed to never want to end.
For it all came down to his word, they all looked towards his say. He was their leader, their king. It one flicker of his head, one incline in his neck, one shake of his hand, twitch of a finger, frown on his lips, her life could be put through the hell she feared so much. The torment that would befall her was all in his hands…
She waited, meeting his eyes, gathering her strength. If he wanted to condem her in the dungeons to cruelty she wouldn't take it without a fight. She wouldn't let them ruin her without her doing something. She was a Gryffindor, a lion, a third in the Golden trio, or at least she was and in her heart would always be.
His eyebrow rose and a look came to his eyes that Hermione just didn't know what to make of, amusement, anger, incredibility? She felt her heart stop. Was this it? Would they attack her now.
She saw movement to her left and turned her head slightly to see better, if someone was going to attack her she would be prepared. Her hand flickered slightly to her pocket with her wand tucked safely inside. But it was only Cassandra, her face a mask of fustration, annoyance, and disbelief. It put Hermione on super alert. What does that mean? she thought, feeling unsure with that behavior, then suddenly she felt the change, the air around her became less cold, less tense…breathable.
"Welcome to Slytherin." others started to say around her and Hermione tried to mask her shock, tried to stay cool as if she had no doubt that she wouldn't have been excepted but it was hard, she was a person her wore her heart on her sleeve.
She felt as if it was all a joke. Were they trying to lead her into a false sense of security before they turned their wand against her?
Yet she could tell it wasn't. She had missed something vital. Riddle had obviously excepted her, giving some sign of this without her even knowing, but why. Couldn't he tell the hate that boiled and bubbled beneath her skin? Didn't he see her intention clearly on her face as she thought it was? Obviously not, maybe you're better at covering your feelings up better than you had thought…Slytherin.
She wanted to shiver in disgust. Wanted to deny the claim that she know had. But she couldn't
She was a Slytherin now.
And Tom Riddle was now her king.