Plot

Hermione regretted her action, she knew she has acted too brashly. She didn't know what was she thinking when she acted out last night.

Being brave was one thing, but charging into the enemy's territory alone without any real preparation was pure stupidity. Hermione blamed herself for letting her emotions get in the way.

Blast those silly feelings, all they did was ruin her plans. She had wanted to immediately kill Tom Riddle when she first came, but she couldn't do it because it went against everything she was taught. Just as she was trying her hardest to fend off the future Dark Lord from prying into her time, she just had to freak out over her suspicion that she had became fri-friend with Tom Riddle and hand herself over to him on a silver platter... Merlin, just when she thought she'd get over her distraught for Harry's death, her sanity seemed to have also slipped away.

Hermione was sure that she didn't wake up any occupants of Tom Riddle's dorm last night, but she was still worried. She nearly got a heart attack when she ran into Tom Riddle in the common room in the morning. Turned out he had been waiting to apologize for being a git yesterday. The sudden uncharacteristic apology unsettled Hermione, it reminded her of Tom's model student act before he did something malicious every time. When Tom offered to escort her to the Great Hall for breakfast, she hastily claimed that she had forgotten something in her dorm. Luckily, he didn't poke through her lie in front of the many Slytherins that were passing by to get breakfast.

Emilia and her gang has left her alone after the bathroom incident yesterday, if anything, the girls feared her quite a bit. They avoided her eyes and moved out of her way whenever she went somewhere.

Hermione paused at the entrance to Great Hall.

Tom Riddle sat at his usual spot - beside her. For some reason, Hermione felt uneasy.

She felt as if Tom Riddle knew about her intrusion last night, but if she lost her composure, then he'd guess something even if he was never disturbed last night.

Hermione squared her shoulder and walked toward the table. Cold sweat was breaking on the back of her neck as she took each step. There was a growing sense of doom as she sat down beside him.

"Pauline? You look awfully pale today." She jumped and dodged when he raised his hand to touch her forehead. His hand paused awkwardly in the air for a moment before he dropped it.

"I-I'm sorry, just not quite comfortable with someone touching my face," Hermione lied nervously. When the other raised an eyebrow, she added doggedly, "I'm fine. The water was freezing this morning for some reason. Yes, that must have caused it...Thanks, Tom," she finished hastily, hoping the other wouldn't pursue the topic any further.

Tom narrowed his eyes. He glanced sideway to Emilia. Before he could speak, Hermione shook her head.

"I do expect an explanation," Tom pressed on, his voice cold.

"It's really nothing." Annoyance was seeping into her voice. Hermione didn't know why she felt this way. She went back to her meal and made a point to avoid his eyes. She could feel Tom look at her for a second before going back to his own breakfast without another word.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. The girls avoided her like a plague with the exception being Jessica, who smiled at Hermione whenever they passed each other. Tom acted friendly with her, it's like the morning conversation never happened. Once again, his "kindness" was making Hermione wary. She sat through every class she has with him fidgeting nervously. Something inside her was telling her to get away.

I must be paranoid, Hermione thought as she walked down to the dungeon after dinner, but the nagging little voice in her head just wouldn't stop.

"Pureblood." The portrait door slid open and Hermione entered. As she turned a corner heading toward her dorm, she heard a voice.

"Good Evening, Pauline." Hermione stopped.

Tom Riddle leaned against the wall. His arms were crossed and half of his body was hidden in shadows.

Hermione had a déjà vu moment of when they first met in this time period.

"Good Evening, Tom." Hermione was glad that the sentence came out light hearted. The other didn't say anything, so Hermione tried navigate around him. Tom moved, too, purposefully getting into her way.

"Yes?" She looked up at him, Tom Riddle's expressionless face was beginning to unnerve her. Her mind, for the thousandth time today, spiraled into suspicion.

Maybe he just wanted to talk because you were the one acting so weird today, Hermione took a deep breath silently, trying to calm herself down.

"If you have time, Pauline, would you care for a chat in the common room?" It was not a question, she could tell it was a command from the way his eyes shone coldly.

So it finally came. Hermione gulped, compose yourself, she repeated the phrase in her head like a mantra.

"Sure, why not?" She muttered lightly under her breath.

He turned to lead her to the common room, Hermione realized with a growing sense of uneasiness that she recognized half of the occupants of the room from Tom Riddle's dorm last night.

As long as are still other people around, he wouldn't want to harm her, Hermione reasoned, but her heart didn't feeling quite convinced, but Emilia and her friends really hated you and the other snakes don't know you, her mind also countered.

With a wave of his hand, those people stood up to go, dragging any others in the room along with them despite those students' protests. Hermione noticed that Tom Riddle gave his followers a curt nod before falling onto one of the black leather sofa lazily.

"Sit." Tom Riddle gestured to the sofa beside him. Hermione realized she had been standing a fair distance away from him.

Stiffly, she sat down on the edge of the sofa across from his. Her heart screamed at her to get away. Adrenaline pumped in her veins. This cannot be good. Hermione was readying herself to maim, if not kill the man in front of her immediately.

"Oh don't be so alarmed," his voice suddenly took on a dark turn, "though no one would come to rescue you now. As far as the others are concerned, I couldn't possibly mean you any harm." He grinned dangerously as he drawled out the last sentence slowly, emphasizing each word in anticipation of fear he would expect to see on her face.

To avoid letting him have the satisfaction. Hermione mirrored his earlier expressionless face.

No wonder, all these poisoned acts of friendship, including the apology in the Common Room this morning had been his plan to stage her. Whether he manage to get everything he wanted out of the deal, others would never suspect him if she was suddenly found dead one day. It would seem that she had overestimated his patience.

"I believe it's time for us to get to know each other better, Pauline," Tom Riddle took out a small vial of clear liquid, "this is veritaserum, you can choose to drink it and we'll have a little chat. In exchange, I'll also answer any reasonable questions." He sounded pleasant, the same tone he'd used as her frie- she meant when he pretended to be her friend for the past few days.

"You say it as if I have another option." Hermione challenged.

Drinking the veritaserum would caused all her plans to fall to pieces. Even worse, who knew what the Slytherin Heir would do with the knowledge of the future? Hermione would rather kill herself than let that happen, but for now, she has to stall for time, to figure out a plan.

Tom Riddle grinned as he nodded, a gleam in his dark eyes, "of course, Pauline, you do have another choice." The faint green light of the Slytherin Common Room bounced off his teeth, making his face even more sinister and wolfish as he stared at her with a certain kind of... hunger?

Hermione shuddered at what she thought she saw in his eyes, but she had to force herself to lean forward to feign interest. In a way, she was curious of what he would come up with as she waited with baited breath.

"You can swear your allegiance to me."

A/N: There you go. I hope you enjoyed reading, as usual, any review/suggestion would be very much appreciated. Thank you for reading! :)

Learned knitting recently, getting super obsessed and typing began to feel weird. :P