Two and Three Quarter Months Earlier

Hermione could tell, Tom Riddle was beyond angry. For the past half-month, he had remained persistent and asked Hermione out daily. It got to the point where Hermione stopped being polite and would answer with a simple, "No thanks."

Hermione often wondered how Riddle could be so dense. He was supposed to be the smartest wizard in Hogwarts, but he would not let go. Much to Hermione's relief, the female population of Hogwarts went back to treating her normally. After her tenth refusal of their heart throb, they stopped seeing her as a threat.

Though Hermione would never admit it, there was something there. It was small at first and easily ignored, her heart beating faster, noticing how his eyes smoldered when he looked at her ... definitely ignored easily. She was able to shake her head and clear her mind of these thoughts.

And then he turned the charm up.

The first time Hermione experienced it was when she returned to her dorm after studying in the library. She entered the common room and was ambushed by her room mates.

"You are so lucky Hermione!" gushed Harriet, a pretty, however clueless, seventh year.

Everyone else agreed. "I wish I was you!"

"Are you going to respond?"

"I don't know how you could say no after this!"

"Do you think he's in love with you?"

"Of course he's in love with her, when else has he shown so much interest in a girl?"

"I bet they'll go to the Holiday Ball together!"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione said loudly, nearly shouting to be heard over all the noise the other girls were making. Realization dawned upon one of them and she smacked herself on the head.

"You haven't seen them yet!" she cried out. In a sudden movement, she started to drag Hermione up the stairs. Hermione, thinking her room mates had all gone insane, started struggling.

She heard sniggers to her right and saw that Will and Henry were there, laughing at her. She glared at them and said, "Want to save me?" They both just smiled evilly and did not respond. When more girls went to help force Hermione to go upstairs she looked back at her two friends and yelled, "When I escape from them, you are dead!"

No one paid attention to Hermione though, They were too absorbed in making her see whatever it was that had caused such a commotion.

Hermione gave in and let the giddy girls pull her upstairs. She opened the door to her room, after being instructed to do so, and gasped at the sight before her.

All around the room were bouquets filled with the deepest red carnations she had ever seen. All were in full bloom and all were gorgeous. There was a message hanging in mid air written in gold, elegant script.

Hermione, what can I do to get you to say 'yes?'

Hermione shook her head, unable to move her feet. "He didn't," Hermione muttered to herself, disbelieving.

She fought against it, and then managed to repress it, but Hermione was slightly touched by Riddle.

After that, Riddle never held back in trying to get her to go on a date with him. He was determined and it seemed as if nothing could get in his way, he would make sure that Hermione would be his. He sent flowers, presents, candy, cards and everything else he could think of to get her to say yes. She was just as stubborn as he was, though. Each time Hermione refused him and each time he just vowed to try harder.

Never would she admit it, but Hermione was slightly, only slightly of course, tempted to say yes. When this temptation came over her, she would remind herself that it was Voldemort that she was dealing with. Voldemort. She told herself constantly that he was responsible for so many deaths and that he would go on to ruin countless lives.

But as hard as she tried, she could not escape that temptation.

During a free period, Hermione decided that she wanted to spend some time alone and went to walk along the lake. This was something that she had taken to doing lately. Whenever had the time, she would just walk and think.

She was halfway around the lake when she heard someone call out to her, "Dumbledore!"

She recognized the voice and continued to walk, hoping that he would not ask the same question again. She could resist for only so long.

"Dumbledore," the voice caught up to her and Hermione reluctantly turned and met the eyes of Tom Riddle.

"Why won't you go on a date with me?" he asked. Hermione was taken aback, not expecting this question. He did not give her the opportunity to answer though, and kept talking. "I've tried everything. Flowers, poems, presents, surprises, none of it is good enough and you refuse every time. Tell me why."

Hermione shook her head. "You don't want to know," she responded.

Riddle rolled his eyes. "No, I really do. Tell me why you are so adamant about not spending time with me. Tell me why you keep avoiding me. Tell me why you ignore your own feelings."

Hermione glared at him. "What feelings, Riddle? There are no feelings there, at least, not the ones you seem to think are."

He shook his head. "You and I both know that's a lie. But why? Why are you so determined to not let anything happen?"

"How can you be so sure that something should happen?" Hermione responded, answering with a question.

Riddle was becoming angry. "You know it's there. Just as much as I do. I just don't know why the hell you won't admit it!"

"You want to know why?" Hermione shouted, her anger over flowing. "Because of you. I know the things you've done and I know who you want to be. It's something that I never want to be a part of."

"You don't know anything about me!" He yelled back, matching her anger and intensity. "And even if you do, you can't possibly understand the reasons and what I've lived through."

"No, I can't. But even if I wanted to, you won't let anyone get close enough to tell them. You'll keep it all to yourself and plunge farther into hatred, driven by something that I will never know because you won't let me know."

Riddle's eyes flashed. "You would never understand. Not everyone is as blessed as you are, Dumbledore."

Hermione laughed humorlessly before saying, "You think you know everything, Riddle. You think that you have me all figured out. Guess what, everything you know about me is a lie. My name isn't Dumbledore and I'm certainly not a pureblood."

He did not believe her. "Right, of course you're not. I'm not going to fall for that and tell you about me, so you can just forget about it."

She shook her head. "Alright, believe what you want, Riddle. But keep in mind that what you want to believe is not always the truth."

Riddle snorted. "Right, coming from the girl who just lied to me. You may lie to other people but don't lie to yourself about your feelings."

"I'm not lying!" Herminoe yelled. "I don't want anything to do with you are with the Dark Ar-"

Hermione would have told him how she knew about his involvement with dark magic and then, she would have walked away had she got the chance. She was interrupted by Riddle grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her into the most passionate kiss she had ever had. In that moment, all thoughts of walking away left her and she melted into the kiss, wrapping her arms around him and holding tight.

They pulled back panting.

"Somethings you just know, Hermione," Riddle said softly. Hermione's breath caught in her thought when he said her name. "And I know that we could be happy if you just said yes."

Hermione later credited it to the kiss, claiming that it had momentarily relieved her of her common sense, because the next words that came from her mouth were, "Alright, I'll go with you to Hogsmede."

Riddle did the unexpected. He picked her up and spun her around, grinning. He put her down and then kissed her once more, this time softly and tenderly. When he ended the contact and pulled back, he smiled at Hermione. The smile was genuinely happy and Hermione could not tear herself away from the look in his eyes. He had never looked better than when he smiled down at her and she was wrapped in his arms.

Unknowingly to the two of them, the moment she said yes, was the moment that his fate was sealed.

A/N: YAY! They're together! YAY!YAY!YAY!

review?