A/N: YAY! Thanks to all those who decided to add this story on Alert. I've now got more alerts on this story than my old one. Also more reviews than I had for my ninth chapter in the old one.

miss bookworm malfoy - Is Adonis dead? Maybe. Read on!

blindfaithoperadiva - Oh the joys of writing cliffhangers and not having to think onwards.. yet. And yes, Earmuffs on itself sounds bizarre. I had been thinking a while when I was writing around Chapter 6 or sometime then about how to fit Nagini in. And voila!

Darkness-Lightness - That's a very good question. And I'll answer that sometime later in the story (smirks evilly)

AriesFireGirl - Dead? hrm. Read on!

killtheenviousmoon - Tom will lose control - constantly, when Hermione is around. And someone's bound to be suspicious.

CherryGrlZuli - Read on to see if he's dead or not!

Gabriella Pheonix - I had this moment where I was obsessed with the word 'bugger' and wanted to stick it in somewhere when I wrote Chapter 9. But the relationship between Nagini and Hermione will become pretty important. Somewhere (which I haven't thought of yet).

Chapter 10 - Ferrety Goodness
 A wave of emotions hit Hermione when she found Adonis, in a bloody mess at the stairwell.

Anger at who did it to her new best friend.

Pity for Adonis. Suspicion. Worry.

She checked for a pulse.

Weak. Fluttering.

Hurriedly, she levitated him, and brought him to the hospital wing.

---

Madame Auclair, the school matron was similar to Madame Pomphrey, but seemed more motherly. Her eyes widened at Adonis' state when Hermione walked in the Hospital Wing.

"Put him on a bed immediately!" she shouted, running towards him, and casting stabilizer spells. In the next few minutes, she had poured countless potions down his throat, cast other spells to check on his condition.

By the time she was finished, she seemed weary. "Mister Prince has what Muggles call 'Traumatic brain injury' to the head. It would be best for him to stay for a while." She fished out a note for Hermione. "This is your late slip for the Professor in your class, along with Mister Prince's absence note. You can visit later, but right now, I need to find Professor Dumbledore, since he was attacked."

Nodding, Hermione exited, bent on finding who attacked him.

---

Tom watched as Hermione entered, late. She had a disturbing look on her face, as she sat at the empty table where she normally sat with Prince.

But obviously, Prince was missing. And the scattered notes, books, and blood and the stairwell was an obvious sign. Someone had attacked him.

High time someone did it.

However, Tom couldn't help but feel uneasy. Prince's attack had caused a whole new side of Ana to surface. The scary, vengance-seeking banshee side.

He had a back-breaking hunch to who did it. Prince was unpopular, but no one wanted to seriously hurt him and get away with it except... Abraxas. It was so obvious.

Abraxas was dead meat. He wanted to see what Burke did to him.

---

Abraxas Malfoy smiled at his two normally dim-witted followers after the lesson, in the Slytherin Common Room.

"Nice work, you two. Who knew you two could be so creative about this?"

Crabbe and Goyle gave him two stupid-looking, toothy grins.

None of them had heard Hermione stalk in, furious. Stunning the two acolytes in their grins, she turned to Malfoy.

"Malfoy, You attacked Adonis, you... FERRET!" A spell shot out of her wand, and Tom watched in amusement in a corner as Abraxas turned into a pale, furry ferret, bouncing around, against the walls, following Hermione's wand.

"You should be thankful that I don't kill you and make sure the line of Malfoys ends with you. But that'd make you the last ferret in the line that I'll see... so..." She flicked her wand to one side and sent the ferret shooting off to the wall and slide down.

Why did she want to see another ferret? Tom was stumped. Ana Burke was so cryptic.

He was thrown out of his musing by her voice, "And what are you doing here, Riddle?"

"Ferret. Creative, Ana. I'll remember to do that to Abraxas next time." The words had slipped so casually out of his mouth, he didn't realize he had called her 'Ana'.

Hermione's legs refused to budge. "Uh... you called me.. Ana?"

Tom's eyes widen, and wanted to slap himself senseless for making such a careless error. "Well, we're Heads now, so isn't it encouraged that we call each other by our first names..."

"Fine, Tom. But 'Ana' is a nickname. Aren't you supposed to call Anaïs?" Hermione wanted to laugh at his priceless expression, but decided not to. Oh, if only I could take a picture, and label it "A Stuttering Voldie, Confused" and show it to Harry and Ron.

Tom didn't know what to say. His train of thought was in shambles, and he couldn't think of an excuse.

Smiling, she mumbled, "It's okay. You can call me that. Don't forget the meeting later on tonight." Her banshee side had finally disappeared, as she left the Common Room.

A squeak from his feet turned his attention from the departing Head Girl to the ferret on his foot. Speaking to the ferret, he muttered, "I should just leave you like this, Abraxas. You deserved it."

Muttering the counterspell, Abraxas seemed ruffled. He was not only physically bruised, but his pride was bruised too. "She.. turned... me into a ferret and flung me around!"

Tom allowed himself a rare smile. Abraxas turned to him, eyes narrowing and a snarl ready at his lips. "And why are you here all the time, around her? You just want her to be in league with us, right? So if I marry her, she automatically follows you. It's a win-win situation for you. So why..."

Tom could remember the countless times he wished Abraxas Malfoy used his brain. But this was not the time. At the moment, he wished Abraxas was his naive little self. Confounding Abraxas, he altered his train of thought, and Obliviated his memory, before knocking him unconscious.

He didn't need someone questioning his motives. At least not right now.