With a heavy heart, Hermione spent her Wednesday morning watching the Matron fret from one petrified victim to the next. She noted all the visitors dropping by to see their frozen friends, morbidly curious. She observed a tall man walking around the Infirmary, dirt clinging to the hem of his robes, mud tracking up his long sleeves.
Must be the Herbology professor, Hermione noted.
She finally got a minute alone with the Matron, and with a skip in her step and a quiet Abbott following her, she made her way to the Library. She gave the borrowed books back first, before diving headfirst into the hallowed stacks.
She would be lying if she said she didn't hear the whispers.
"-Another attack-"
"-That Warren girl-"
"-Closing Hogwarts-"
"-One too many Mudbloods-"
She stuck closer to Abbott this time around.
It was nearing lunchtime when she noticed Riddle sitting on his own, stacks of parchment and books around his little nook. She thought back to Umbridge, the forest, the centaurs-
Mind made up, Hermione moved.
Riddle looked up with a raised eyebrow as she placed her own stack of books on the table, before taking a seat right next to him. He shared a look with a dazed Abbott, who was looking at Hermione as if she had grown a second head.
She ignored him.
"I saw them bring her in," was how she started their conversation, and Lord, she would be suspicious herself if someone came up to her with that! "I mean, Myrtle, or whatever her name is," she clarified, looking at Riddle's face carefully. "Petrified apparently."
"A true tragedy," Riddle replied, his voice sombre.
A tragedy because she survived? Hermione asked irately in her head.
In person, she replied with, "I heard they're going to shut the school down."
Riddle raised his second eyebrow, before finally putting his quill down to turn to look at her. Hermione noticed that he kept his distance, and his hands on the table. She also noticed him share another look with Abbott, and okay, she was going to kill whoever sent her to this backwards decade.
"It doesn't seem wise to dwell on schoolyard rumours, Miss Graves," he finally replied, his face almost soft. It made Hermione want to hurl.
"Who said it was schoolyard rumours?" Hermione shot back, her voice challenging.
Now she had his full attention. His eyes narrowed, his face got colder as he gained a sharp edge to his handsome features.
That's better.
"I heard Headmaster Dippet speak to Professor Dumbledore," Hermione continued, lying her arse off. If she could lie to Umbridge long enough to lead her to the Forest, she could lie to the Darkest wizard of all time for five bloody minutes. "It's one too many accidents, one too many problems, if you catch my drift."
Of course, there was no threat of closing the school down, not without a body. But if it forced Riddle to consider stopping, especially without framing someone…
"Ah, I understand," Riddle nodded, but Hermione could see that brilliant mind of his whirring behind his dark eyes.
"It really is a tragedy," she continued. "Just as I was going to start my NEWTs here. It would be a shame to see the doors of this school close, and I do hope whoever perpetrated these crimes comes forward."
Riddle shot her a sharp look.
Oops, might have gone too far there.
Hermione shrugged as casually as she could, and continued. She had an agenda, and she was going to get him to listen. "I mean, it's someone in the school, right? Someone with access to most of the grounds, and has the free schedule to do so. Probably a professor, or something," she theorised, leaning her chin on her hand that was propped on the table by her elbow. "Clearly quite adept at magic too; petrifying humans is no easy task, and there aren't too many branches of magic capable of it… maybe a potion? A plant? Or maybe… a beast?"
Hermione resolutely ignored the burning sensation in the side of her head, instead staring absentmindedly at Abbott's confused face.
"What do you think, Abbott?" she asked, her tone light.
"Ah… I don't have much knowledge on these matters, I'm afraid," the blond answered, his face apologetic.
Dull and diplomatic as ever, Hermione thought with a mental roll of her eyes.
"No worries," she dismissed. "Although, I'm pretty certain the perpetrator doesn't need to be caught." At his confused face, Hermione explained it to Abbott. "I mean, if the attacks were to just… stop, well, I don't think the Board would be too fussed with whoever started them, right? They'll just assume they left, or graduated, or whatever. Seeing as no one is actually dead … No permanent harm done, right?"
There was a few moments of silence as her two companions comprehended what she said, before-
"That is definitely an… interesting perspective," Riddle said from her right, and she turned to finally look at him. "What makes you so sure?"
"Intuition," Hermione shrugged, and for the first time in the conversation, she spoke truthfully. "No one cares if a few Muggleborns miss some months of school."
Riddle seemed to scrutinise her face, his odd blue-grey eyes fluttering from her own eyes down to where her hands were gently clasped in her lap.
"I do wish the school remains open," he finally said, turning to look at Abbott. "Such wonderful history and rich traditions. It must be preserved."
Hermione's heart went cold as she recalled a familiar speech by a certain toad.
"Hear, hear," Abbott replied with a smile, and she stared as the two boys shared a nod.
It feels like an Etonian old boy's club, Hermione thought with disgust. All nepotism and no equality.
She couldn't keep quiet.
"Change is the only constant," she quoted from who knows where, she didn't even remember now. The important thing was Riddle was now looking at her again. "Traditions are good, they allow us to understand where we are today, but the future is equally, if not more important," she argued. "Schools like Hogwarts should facilitate moving towards a more enlightened society, with better laws and traditions than yesteryear."
"Schools like Hogwarts should also teach us our roots," Riddle answered back, and if Hermione wasn't mistaken, she could hear a hint of annoyance in his unnervingly calm voice. "We should learn how our forefathers learned magic, how we can use their understanding to expand our own."
"What good is learning it how they learned it? Sure, stuff like family magic should be preserved, but not if it's at the cost of progress. If we don't adapt as a society, we will grow stagnant and complacent!" Hermione shot back. "We should test the limits of magic herself, not get stuck in our ways."
"Wanting to preserve magic is not mutually exclusive with testing the realms of magic," Riddle argued. "You can respect traditions and still explore magic."
"They're not mutually exclusive, no," Hermione agreed, "but traditional views on magic do go hand in hand with traditional views on, say, I don't know, magic users." She saw Riddle bristle for a moment, but Hermione powered through. "The only way we'll learn is by acknowledging the diversity of knowledge and backgrounds in our society, and working with that, rather than against."
"So you're pro-Muggleborns?" Riddle asked, his tone getting slightly colder even as it remained slightly curious. Not cold enough for Abbott to detect.
"Come, come, Riddle," Abbott exclaimed, "it's not proper to discuss these things with a lady-"
"So what if I am?" Hermione shot back at Riddle, her own tone getting colder as she ignored Abbott's attempts at pacification.
"Then I would have to say that you're quite delusional," he shrugged back, leaning back in his chair.
"'Delusional'?" she asked through gritted teeth, raising an eyebrow. "Would you care to explain?"
"Muggleborns are simply not good enough," Riddle explained as if he was talking to a child; Hermione bristled. "They've spent a whole childhood in the Muggle world, so they have a completely different perspective on Magic and our society than Pure, or even Halfbloods."
Lord, the self-loathing is strong in this one.
"So integrate them earlier," Hermione challenged, leaning closer towards him.
"Not possible - do you remember the last time that happened?" Riddle replied immediately, also leaning forward.
"Muggles have evolved since then," she declared, raising her chin proudly.
"Not too much, seeing as they're currently waging their second world war!" he replied quickly, his eyes on fire. Hermione had never seen him so… agitated. But Hermione preferred it; it was a lot easier than talking to his mask.
Hermione didn't have much of a reply to that.
"Touche," she said finally, glaring at him as she leaned back with folded arms. She couldn't exactly tell him that this War was a turning point of the Muggles, of the vast inventions that would dominate the second half of the 20th century…
There was a flash of a victorious grin, before he quickly dropped it into a more acceptable, remorseful smile. There were a few moments of silence, before Abbott interrupted it.
"We should probably head back, before Madam Fletcher sends a house-elf after us," he said calmly. Hermione looked up to see the blond sending her a not-so-subtle look.
Oh.
"Yes, we should," she agreed. She stood up, and Abbott immediately stood up with her. Riddle also stood. "This has been a most… interesting conversation," she said, turning to look at Riddle, and okay, it's not fair that he's a whole head taller than her.
"That is has," Riddle agreed smartly, his hands clasped as he nodded slightly.
Ugh, his mask is back on.
Hermione couldn't quite hide her disgust if the slightly raised eyebrow meant anything.
Whatever.
"Good to see you, Riddle," she replied instead, smiling as politely as she could.
"You too, Miss Graves," he replied. "Good day, Abbott."
"Good day," the blond replied with an easy smile, and with that, Hermione and Abbott went to the front desk to borrow four more books.
AN (from Ao3):
The first of MANY disagreements between these two. I hope I made both of their arguments clear enough!
Also, let me know if you guys wanna see more, or less, of a character, theme, or location! I'm definitely open to adjusting this purely-for-entertainment fic :)
This is all that I uploaded on Ao3 - as mentioned in Ch1, I'll be uploading on both website concurrently from now on. I completely forgot to upload it on here ahaha