A/N: I'm so so sorry for the late update! I didn't like what I wrote at first so I had to edit everything again. I'm not too sure about this one too, but I decided to post it anyway instead of making everyone wait again :) So if you have any comments on how to improve it, do tell me.


But just to play safe, Riddle thought, I'd better keep a lookout for her. I don't want her to meddle in my affairs and spoil things for me when everything is going so well.

Chapter 9: Potions with Slughorn

Monday, September 4th, 1944

7.30am

It was the first day of official lessons on Monday. To her surprise, Hermione found that she was actually nervous about it. Never mind the fact that her performance here would not matter, but nonetheless, she wanted the teachers to have a good impression of her from the start. It would make things easier if she needed any favors from them, too.

At the breakfast table…

"First period is Potions," Hermione confirmed, summoning her timetable over to her.

"Lucky you, Helene! Potions is at least a better class to start off the day than History of Magic," Erika complained, pulling a face. "And the best thing is you're going to be partners with Tom! That means you'll have loads of opportunities to speak to him!"

She looked over at Hermione expectantly, who only raised an eyebrow at her, and sighed in frustration. "Helene Naelitte, I don't get you sometimes! He's TOM. TOM RIDDLE! Shouldn't you be jumping up and down in excitement now?"

Hermione grinned in spite of herself. "I see that you haven't gotten past your obsession with Riddle."

"I give up," Erika replied, shaking her head and covered her face with her hand dramatically. "What, are you a lesbian?"

"ERIKA!"

"Alright! I was only joking!"


Hermione hurried along the empty corridor, glancing at her watch every now and then. Potions was about to start in 10 minutes, and she had no intention of being late. She shuddered as a gust of cold wind blew over her.

Just then, a tall dark figure emerged into the corridor in front of her, and started walking briskly in the same direction as her. Without even looking at his face, Hermione knew instinctly who he was.

Make friends with him. Get to know him better. A small voice at the back of Hermione's head suddenly piped up. She had dismissed this idea yesterday without much thought. But now, as Hermione stared at the figure of Tom Riddle, that idea did not seem so absurd anymore. Not that she actually wanted to be friends with him, of course.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione quickened her pace and caught up with Riddle.

"Hi!" She said brightly, faking a smile at him.

Tom looked startled for a moment, and then recomposed himself immediately. Ignoring Hermione's remark pointedly, he continued walking, not even glancing in her direction.

"The weather is great today, isn't it?" She tried again feebly, immediately regretting what she has said as Riddle wheeled around, looking annoyed.

"What do you want?" He demanded, "Why are you talking to me?"

"Um," Hermione hesitated, not expecting his sudden outburst. "Because I want to be friends with you?" she answered meekly, deciding to stick to her original plan.

Surprise flickered across Tom's handsome face, but it disappeared so quickly that Hermione could have sworn it was just a trick of the light. He did not reply, but from the way his shoulders tensed and his quickened pace, Hermione could tell that she had caught him off-guard.

"You know, since we're going to be partners in class, I though it'd be good if we get to know each other better first, just to –"

"Listen, Naelitte," Riddle cut her off abruptly, glaring at her. "I don't care who or where you're from, but I don't ever want to be friends with you. I'd never want to be associated with you. Do you understand?"

And with that, he stalked off again, leaving her alone in the corridor, stunned.


Hermione tried to ignore the dark-haired boy seated stonily beside her. The event earlier had left her in a bad mood - being the victim of a cutting remark by Riddle, even though she was trying so hard to be nice to him, infuriated her.

To take her mind off Riddle, she surveyed the classroom she was in, which was located in the cold, dark dungeon of Hogwarts. Apart from her and Riddle, there were only 4 other students in the Advanced Placement class – two Ravenclaws, one Gryffindor and one Hufflepuff.

She smiled tentatively at them, who looked back at her coldly. Well, I guess that even in the past, the relationship between the Slytherins and the other houses is not very friendly, she thought sadly. And they don't even know me yet!

"Now then, now then," a round-bellied man entered the Potions classroom, disrupting her thoughts. "Welcome to a new school-year! No time for introductions, now. Let's get busy, shall we? Take out your potion kits and your copies of Potion Making for the Advanced Wizards."

Hermione recognized the man as Horace Slughorn at once. He looked much younger, of course, with thick, straw-colored hair and a gingery-blond moustache. Hermione stifled a laugh when she saw that although Slughorn was not as rotund as the one that she knew, the buttons on his golden waistcoat still looked ready to burst off at any time.

"To start off, I will introduce you to a few potions. This is for enrichment purposes, of course, so I will not expect you to be able to make them. Now then, take a look at this one over here."

He pointed to a cauldron behind him. Does he do this every year? Hermione wondered, as she got a glimpse of the colorless liquid which was emitting a light, silvery vapor. Her hand shot up into the air at once before everyone else's. Wincing slightly, she realized that she still could not resist the urge to answer a question that she knew the answer to, no matter what period of time she was in.

"It's the Draught of Peace potion, sir," She said when she saw Slughorn looking at her expectantly. "It is supposed to relieve anxiety and agitation."

"Very good, my dear!" the professor smiled, peering at her with interest. "I have not seen you before. Are you the new transfer student from the Salem Witches' Institution?"

"Yes, sir," Hermione said in a small voice, hating to have to lie to the professor, who beamed at her widely and nodded his head in approval. "I always knew that school was good, see; told my cousin to send her daughter there. Her name is Emma. You wouldn't know her by any chance, would you?"

"I'm afraid not, professor," she answered carefully, averting his gaze.

"Well, that's a pity. She's a nice girl," Slughorn replied with a smile. "Now, can anyone tell me what this potion is?" He continued, nodding his head towards a cauldron on his right which was boiling with acid green liquid.

Hermione was just about to raise her hand again when a smooth voice beside her answered quietly, "Shrinking potion, professor."

"Brilliant, Tom! Always my star student, eh?" Slughorn said cheerfully.

Hermione turned and met Tom's eyes. It was hard to read his expression. His eyes were dark and piercing, and she shuddered involuntarily.

"What about this? Who could tell me?" The sound of the professor's loud voice jerked Hermione back to the on-going lesson. He was indicating the potion which was sunshine yellow in color beside him.

"The potion is –"

"It is called –"

They both spoke at the same time.

Tom narrowed his eyes as he glanced over at Hermione. He didn't look very happy about me stealing his limelight, Hermione thought, inwardly rolling her eyes. Sighing, she kept quiet, not wanting to start a row with him.

"Elixir to Induce Euphoria," Tom turned back to face the professor and answered, when Hermione remained silent.

"Excellent! Twenty points for Slytherin!" Slughorn praised, clearly oblivious to the sudden tension between his prized students. "Now, let's get to work."

"Well, today we will be making Befuddlement Draught - something easy to start off with." He waved his wand and the instructions for making the potion began to appear on the board in large golden letterings.

"Just to get you all started, we shall have a little competition today." He lifted his hand and Hermione saw that he was holding a miniscule glass bottle of molten gold liquid. "As you all should know, this little bottle that I'm holding contains Felix Felicis, or what is better known as the lucky potion."

At his very words, the classroom suddenly fell silent and Slughorn finally had everyone's full attention. Hermione hid a smile as she felt a familiar sense of déjà-vu. This was exactly what had happened in her sixth-year, too. Seems like Slughorn uses the same teaching style every year, then, she mused.

"….The pair which makes the best potion shall win this little bottle of Felix Felicis," Slughorn said. "And we all know which pair that will be!" He winked at Riddle, who smiled back politely.

I bet no teachers display their favoritism for their students as openly as he does. Hermione observed silently, rather amused but annoyed at the same time.

"Well, hurry up and get started, then!" He clapped his hands, and there was a scraping sound of chairs as everyone scrambled up, gathering and weighing ingredients hurriedly.

Hermione held back, glancing at Riddle, who was beside her. For once, she was unsure of what to do. Should she get the ingredients? Prepare the cauldron?

Hermione Granger was not used to working in pairs.

"Stay away, Naelitte, and don't come near my cauldron," Riddle saw her hesitation and ordered her before she could open her mouth to argue. "I don't want you to mess up my potion by doing something wrong."

Hermione stared at him, her mouth hanging open with shock at his rude and selfish attitude.

"Fine!" she seethed once she managed to find her voice. Well, I'll show him who the boss around here is!

Looking around, she spotted Slughorn not far away from her.

"Professor?" She called out, and he turned to face her, his face questioning.

"May I have permission to make my own potion? Riddle preferred to do the whole potion by himself," She said, trying not to sound like a tattletale.

"Why, certainly, Miss Naelitte!" The professor addressed Hermione, beaming happily as if what Hermione said made perfect sense. "I must say, Tom is so advanced in his potions-making that it is quite logical for him to complete the entire task on his own."

Hermione tried her best not to roll her eyes at the professor as she scurried off to get the ingredients needed for the potion.


"Stop working, please!" Slughorn called out, when half an hour has passed. "I'll be checking your potions now."

He walked around the class, peering into cauldrons and taking down notes as he did. He gave a nod occasionally, but none of the potions seemed to reach his expectations yet. At last, he came over to Riddle, and a grin broke out on his face instantly.

"Very good, Tom! Excellent! Of course, I would not have expected otherwise from you," Slughorn praised, patting Riddle on his back. "Look, class, do you see this green potion here? This is the color you ought to have! Well, it seems that we have a clear winner now, don't we?"

"I'm sorry, professor, but you haven't looked at mine yet," Hermione's indignant voice broke him off.

"Oh, of course, my dear," Slughorn replied absentmindedly, walking over to survey hers. His eyes widened when he saw the sparkling green liquid in her cauldron. He stared at the potion for a good long while before he spoke again.

"Well, well! Good job, Miss Naelitte!" He exclaimed, surprise evident in his voice. "This is...completely unexpected! Both of your potions are equally good! Hmm...I shall split this little bottle of Felix Felicis into half and you can each take one portion then!"

"Thank you, sir," Tom replied politely as he accepted his portion from the professor. When Slughorn turned away from them, however, Tom shot Hermione a glare that clearly showed his infuriation.


"How's Potions? Was it very different from your old school?" Erika bombarded her with questions once they met each other outside the dungeons after their first lesson of the day.

"Well…a little, I suppose," Hermione said vaguely, brushing aside the question as she descended down the steps to the Slytherin common room. "We made the Befuddlement Draught, and look what I've got here!" she ended excitedly, pulling out a little bottle of liquid which was molten gold from her robes.

"Felix Felicis?" Erika's eyes grew wide as she stared at the bottle. "Let me take a look at it!"

"Yep! Ten points for Slytherin," Hermione said with a laugh, passing the potion over to her friend. "I'm going to up to get my books for Herbology. Are you coming?"

"Yeah, sure. We have the same class, remember?" Erika said, bouncing beside her lightly. She put her History of Magic books down gently on the table of the common room. In her hurry, she accidentally left Hermione's bottle of potion on the table, along with her books. "So, tell me how you got the Felix Felicis!"

"Well, it's quite simple actually. Slughorn wanted us...." Their voices faded away as they as they climbed up to the girls' dormitory

Unknown to them, a black figure was lurking in the corner, listening to their every word.


As soon as he was sure that Helene Naelitte was out of his sight, Tom Riddle hurried over to the table where her prized bottle of Felix Felicis was.

Drawing a bottle of colorless liquid out from his pocket, he quietly replaced the bottle of molten gold liquid with the new bottle. He cast a non-verbal spell on the bottle, and the colorless liquid inside immediately turned golden. It was almost impossible to tell that the bottle of liquid had been switched.

Tom snickered after he had completed this task. He had replaced the Felix Felicis potion with Veritaserum, a potion that forced the drinker to tell the truth. He was going to keep an eye out for Helene Naelitte that day. When she consumes the potion, he would immediately demand her to tell him the truth of her identity, and she would have to obey. Smiling at his own brilliant plan – or so he assumed – Riddle left the common room, with Hermione's bottle of Felix Felicis hidden under his robes.


A/N: This is my longest chapter yet, so please do review! Reviews = Motivation, so I MIGHT be able to update quicker if I have more reviews! & I really want to upload the next chapter soon because I rather like its plot :)

Biology SPA next week - wish me luck! :D