Hey everyone

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry it took so long to update. I lied. I had major writer's block and I've been overwhelmed with swimming and school and all that good stuff, but now, I hope I'm back!

A bunch of awesome stuff has happened so far! Breaking Dawn came out! YAY! :D It didn't exactly live up to my expectations, but it was still pretty good. Team Edward forever! I can't wait till the Twilight movie! I already have my Edward Cullen/Rob Pattenson poster up in my room!

Brisingr also came out yesterday! I admit, i peeked towards the end. We'll just have to see how it turns out!

I really enjoyed writing this chapter! It was great fun writing in Tom's perspective. This chapter mostly displays his thoughts, but has a couple of Hermione's as well.

This chapter is dedicated to roonilwazlib1992 for chastising me about not updating. I apologize!

Please enjoy! I'll try to update as soon as I can!

Chapter 10

Tom glanced around nervously. He hadn't been this anxious before. Not even when he first told Orion and Abraxas of his master plan. But now, that seemed like the distant past. Right now, World Domination wasn't on his mind. He had another problem that left his palms sweaty and his mind working a million times faster than usual, going through the possible ways that the situation could go wrong. He could trip and his face could fall into someone's dinner, he could spit while he was talking. It didn't help much that he had waited till the end of the day to do this, because all that did was intensify the number of bad thoughts as the day went on.

It was simple. Walk up. Smile. Give it. Walk away. So simple and only required a few minutes of his time, yet Tom was sitting at the opposite side of the Great Hall, wiping his sweaty hands off his pants, receiving strange looks from the people around him.

"Hey Tom. Are you sick?" Abraxas asked.

"Should we be worried about the steak?" Orion asked, seriously concerned about the possibility of food poisoning. "I bet the Gryffindors did it. They must've sneaked in some potions or something because they knew there'd be no way they could beat us in Quidditch this year…"

But Tom wasn't listening. He was too busy looking nervously over at the brunette sitting across the hall, laughing at when her friend, Jack or something of the sort, had dug his elbow into the potatoes and squirted out the pumpkin juice he was drinking when one of his friends had done an imitation, and what seemed to be a pretty good one at that, of Professor Binns.

It seemed the Gryffindor table was much more cheerful than his side of the Great Hall, and it seemed that it was much more lighter too. It was so much more different than the Slytherin table, and he added the difference in houses to his growing lists of "cons."

Taking a huge gulp of his pumpkin juice, wishing that it was some kind of alcohol, preferably firewhiskey, he got up, not even seeing Abraxas and Orion's confused expressions, and headed towards the Gryffindor table. Halfway there, Tom made a detour, his brain's loud protests finally convincing him to give the damn thing to Granger in the common room.

Of course, he soon regretted this, considering that his brain had been the reason why he hadn't been able to give it to the Gryffindor Head all day. Quite frankly, he was being pushed around by his own brain. I'm going bloody senile.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

After waiting for Hermione to finish up her dinner for the past half hour, Tom was just about to blow up the grandfather clock in the Head's dorm. Of course, it would've been very difficult to explain should Hermione walk in on the scene, with Tom standing amidst the remains of old clock that was probably older than Dumbledore himself. So, all Tom could do was sit at the couch, balling his hands into a fist to prevent himself from reaching into his pocket and Avada-ing the clock.

Of course, sitting in a large room by oneself, trying to convince that one was not going crazy did not do well for one's mood. Tom was not particularly in a good mood when a certain brunette walked through the door, and his face, which used to hide his emotions very well, betrayed his emotion (which seemed to happen a lot more since Hermione was around, he admitted begrudgingly), and causing the brunette to stop in her tracks.

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Hermione was startled to see Tom Riddle, the object of her thoughts glaring at her as she walked into the Common Room. Uh oh. What did I do wrong?

They locked eyes for a few minutes, the only noise that was heard was the Grandfather clock ticking in the background. Summoning up her Gryffindor courage, Hermione timidly greeted Tom, hoping that he couldn't sense the hesitance in her voice.

Tom stood up, still staring at Hermione as he walked over towards her. This is not good. She looked behind him, not wanting to look into his eyes. She noticed that he was holding something behind his back. She gulped and her heart rate accelerated. Looks like he found out. Hermione shut her eyes tightly and waited for Tom to reveal the wand behind his back and avada her into nothingness.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Hermione couldn't hear his footsteps anymore. She slowly opened one eye, only to see Tom's face, merely inches away from her, staring at her with a confused expression.

She yelped and jumped back, tripping on her own feet, and fell onto the hard floor.

Oww. She groaned. She was going to feel that tomorrow.She was startled to hear the booming laugh coming from Tom Riddle, who was leaning against the wall for support.

"What's so funny, Riddle?" Hermione questioned, raising an eyebrow at the Syltherin Head, only to be replied by a more laughs.

"Okay, okay. Stop laughing." Hermione said, trying not to reveal the hints of laughter that were threatening to show itself on her face. She wasn't only laughing at how she fell, but also at her ridiculous notion that caused her to panic after seeing Tom glaring at her.

"Now help me up. I think I just broke my bum." Hermione commanded after the loud laughter died down.

Tom smirked and reached down his hand that was not behind his back to help her up.

"Stop grinning like a maniac. Geez. It wasn't that funny."

"Really?" Tom asked. "Because I thought it was pretty funny. Especially that look on your face! Ha!"

Hermione glared at him. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You startled me!"

"Really? I seem to recall you're the one that closed her eyes when you saw me walking towards you. What'd you think I was going to do? Kiss you?"

The meaning of his words suddenly dawned on her. Hermione quickly looked away, her thoughts bringing her back to the moment, making her blush even more.

Tom coughed, bringing her out of her memory. She was surprised to see that Tom's face was slightly flushed, a light pink tinged his cheeks. Reaching out from behind his back, he pushed a beautifully wrapped package into her hands.

"This is for… umm… thanks for the present… Christmas." Tom managed to say.

"May I open it?" Tom merely nodded, abandoning words, as they've seemed to fail him up to this point.

Hermione slowly unwrapped the box, careful not to rip the wrapping paper, revealing what the gift that she had received.

She gasped. (AN: WHA HA HA HA! Keep reading and you'll find out what it is!)

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom's head snapped up when he heard the portrait hole swing open, revealing Hermione. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him staring at her.

"Hey Tom." Tom noticed the hesitance in her voice. Confused, he stood up and walked towards her. Hermione's eyes snapped shut as he walked even closer, puzzling Tom even more. He stopped within a food in front of her and leaned in to shake her, when her eyes suddenly popped open. He must've startled her, for he heard a gasp escape from her lips as she jumped back, lost her footing, and fell onto her backside.

It was silent for a minute as Tom stared in wonder at what had just happened. Then, the laughter that had been bubbling inside him erupted and he had to lean against the wall for support. It was just too… funny! The look of her face when she saw his face inches away from hers, then how it changed when she realized she was about to hit the floor… priceless!

And then she pouted and chastised him, trying to save the rest of her pride, which only succeeded in summoning a new wave of laughter from him.

She glared at him, trying to suppress the smile that was threatening to reveal itself upon her features. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You startled me!"

Tom smirked. "Really? I seem to recall you're the one that closed her eyes when you saw me walking towards you. What'd you think I was going to do? Kiss you?" Tom immediately regretted his comment, for he felt is face warming up. He looked over at Hermione, who's face was bright red, which Tom found extremely endearing. She even tried to hide it, but failed. Tom smiled and summoned up his courage.

He coughed. This is going to be very difficult. Tom scowled as he summoned up the words to speak to her, only to find that they came out completely and utterly wrong. He didn't even form a coherent sentence. Figuring actions spoke louder than words, he flung the gift into Hermione's hands.

Thankfully, she understood what he meant. "May I open it?" Tom gulped and nodded.

She slowly unwrapped the package, careful not to rip the paper. The time seemed to go slowly, Tom controlled his temptation to grab the damn thing and rip it apart himself. He was never one with patience.

Finally, as the last of the paper came off, revealing the gift that he had taken so long to plan out, she gasped.

Damn. Was that a good gasp or a bad gasp?

Fwa ha ha. That was fun. I guess you'll just have to wait till the next chapter to find out what good ol' Tommy got Hermione, huh?

Anywho, you know the drill, more reviews, more updates. And feel free to yell at me about updating. It'll make me more pressured to write faster.

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Thanks so much! CCC