Disclaimer: these characters are not mine – they belong to JK Rowling

AN: I didn;t want to keep you guys waiting long with that cliffy, so here you go! Things are about to get interesting! Please review! xo

~~{0}~~

Harry stormed out of the Great Hall, the doors banging open from the force of his anger as he shoved them aside.

"Riddle!" he yelled seeing Tom up ahead walking out the front doors towards the black lake

Harry ran after him with Hermione hot on his heels pleading with him to stop.

When Tom didn't turn around, Harry pulled his wand and shot a hex at him, which Tom blocked as he spun around quickly.

"Are you sure you want to duel, Jones? It might be the last thing you ever do…" Tom said dangerously as he took his dueling stance.

"You don't scare me, Riddle." Harry spat as he mirrored Tom's stance, oblivious to the crowd of students that were beginning to gather around them.

"Please both of you, stop this…" Hermione pleaded trying to make them see reason.

"Hermione, back away." Harry said dangerously without taking his eyes off Tom.

Hermione's eyes widened, she had never seen him act like this…he was going to kill him.

"Harry, don't do this, please…he's not worth it…" Hermione pleaded

Tom's eyes snapped to hers and narrowed at her words.

"Final warning Jones…" Tom said holding his wand steady towards Harry's chest

Just as Harry was opening his mouth to curse Tom, both his and Tom's wands flew out of their hands and into the hands of an irate Professor Dumbledore.

"My office. Now." He said angrily before he turned sharply and marched back into the castle.

Tom glared at Harry before striding past him, bumping him with his shoulder as he passed.

"Harry, let's go." Hermione urged softly as she reluctantly followed Tom into the castle and up to Dumbledore's office.

When Tom, Harry, and Hermione stepped into Professor Dumbledore's office, the Professor was sitting behind his desk, looking at both of them angrily.

"What is the meaning of this?" the professor asked, and both Tom and Harry tried to speak at once before Professor Dumbledore raised his hands and shouted over both of them.

"Silence!" and then his eyes landed on Hermione, "You, Miss Jones. Tell me what happened."

Hermione swallowed thickly, and glanced towards Tom and then to Harry who both looked at her as if she had just slapped them.

"Well, sir…it was my fault, really….that is to say…" Hermione stammered

"Miss Jones, I am neither blind nor an imbicile. You were not the one with your wand raised, so do not insult my intelligence. The truth now, please." Professor Dumbledore said stonily.

She took a deep breath and told him only as much as she felt he needed to know, "You see Professor, Tom and I well…we had a misunderstanding, and Harry got upset seeing that I was upset, and he was only being protective of me. Things got out of hand." She said twisting her hands together nervously.

The professor sat looking at both Harry and Tom silently, as both boys appeared to look contrite. After a long while, he finally seemed to come to a decision.

"Both of you will serve a month's detention with Horace Slughorn cleaning all of the Potion's cauldrons without magic. You will serve it together so that you might learn to get along. If I hear of even one more incident like this involving either one of you, you will both be expelled, am I clear?" Professor Dumbledore stated angrily.

"Crystal, Professor." Both boys said in unison looking down at their shoes.

"You may go." He said setting their wands on his desk in front of them to take.

Hermione ran out first before either Harry or Tom could say anything to her.

~~{0}~~

Hermione burst through the portrait hole into the Slytherin common room, seeing several heads turn to look at her as she did, and she made her way quickly to her dorm room not wanting to talk to either Tom or Harry.

"Hermione" she stopped at the sound of her name, she hadn't realized anyone else was in the dorms.

"Dorea, I didn't see you." She said stiffly as she sat on her bed.

"I just heard about what happened by the lake…" she said cautiously

"Yeah…uh…Boys, right?" Hermione said dismissively not really wanting to discuss it.

"Hermione, from what I heard, they were going to try to kill each other." Dorea said evenly.

Hermione sighed; she supposed since half the school just witnessed it, there was no sense in lying about it.

"Yeah, it was pretty scary. Thank God Dumbledore was there to stop it." Hermione said.

"You're telling me. I almost lost my date to the ball." Dorea said causing Hermione to look up at her and snort with laughter.

"That would have been tragic." Hermione agreed realizing that Dorea was actually trying to cheer her up.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened? It seemed like you all were friends?" Dorea asked gently.

"Well, it's complicated. I wouldn't say they were ever friends, but they tolerated each other for my sake…that was until…" Hermione's her breath caught in her throat when she thought back to Tom calling her a mudblood whore while they were having sex.

"Until what?" Dorea prodded.

"Tom and I had an argument, and when I stormed out of the library because I was upset, I realized I left one of my books behind. I went back to retrieve it, and I walked in on him snogging Isadora." Hermione said angrily, one of the drapes on her bed bursting into flames.

Without batting an eyelash, Dorea whipped out her wand and put the flame out, "That bitch. She really has it coming."

Hermione looked up at her in surprise. Dorea had a problem with Isadora too?

"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked wanting to know what happened between her and Isadora.

"Well, let's just say that she came between Cygnus and I last year, and clearly now she's decided to move onto greener pastures. She's a man-stealing slut to put it bluntly." Dorea explained.

Hermione bit her lip and nodded. As much as she disliked Isadora, she blamed Tom. He was the one who hurt her first.

"So you and my brother, huh?" Hermione said smiling at Dorea.

"We have come to an agreement of sorts." Dorea said cryptically.

"An agreement?" Hermione asked

"Yeah…it seems he's trying to get Effy Prewett off his back, and I want to make Cygnus out of his mind with jealousy, so Harry is going act like the doting boyfriend and take me to the ball. I wasn't born yesterday though, I know Harry isn't really interested in me."

Hermione nodded. She had to give it to Dorea, she was pretty clever.

"I only wish I knew what to do about this mess with Tom. Part of me hates him for saying what he said to me, but the other part keeps reminding me that he was trying to get me to stay so he could explain…though don't ask me how he could ever explain the awful things he said to me." Hermione said flopping back on her bed.

"You still love him." Dorea said flatly.

Hermione sat up, had she been in love with Tom Riddle? She was definitely attracted to him, unbelievably so, and she admired his intelligence, and she did enjoy his sarcasm, but was she in love with him? And then it dawned on her that she was ready to give up her future by staying with him in the past. She would never do that for someone unless she truly did love them.

"Honestly, even if I did, it doesn't matter now. He's made his feelings quite clear." Hermione said.

"If there's one thing I know for sure, nothing is ever clear when it comes to Tom Riddle." Dorea said and she shoved a chocolate bar into Hermione's hands.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Hermione asked suddenly, her paranoia rising.

"You may be a mud…muggleborn, but you're still a Slytherin. And anyone who hates that blond bimbo as much as I do is okay in my book." Dorea said laughing biting into a piece of chocolate.

"Thanks" Hermione said giving her a genuine smile.

"Don't mention it. I mean that…don't tell the others I was nice to you." Dorea laughed again, and Hermione snorted.

"Looks like I still need a date for the ball now…Tom had asked, but that was before, so clearly, that's not happening. God I'd give anything for Viktor to be here right now…Hell, I'd even settle for Cormac." Hermione muttered to herself.

"Who is Viktor? Or Cormac?" Dorea asked and Hermione's eyes widened at her slip, but she covered quickly

"Oh, Viktor was someone I dated a few years ago…he was a really handsome Bulgarian Quidditch player I met while traveling. Cormac was someone who had a crush on me at one time, but I wasn't interested. But honestly, I just want Tom to realize what he's lost."

Dorea sat up suddenly and clapped her hands excitedly, "Oh, I know just what to do! Leave it to me. By the end of the week, you'll have a date to the ball that will have Tom positively seething with jealousy. I guarantee that even if he takes that hag to the ball, he won't look be looking at her all night, his eyes will be focused on you."

"Who?"

"Orion Black. He's Cygnus' older brother. He's never liked Tom, and it always pissed Tom off that he never wanted to be in Tom's little clique. I am pretty sure he hasn't asked anyone to go to the ball with him yet, and when I tell him that you kicked Tom to the curb, I am sure he'll be eager to snatch you up, even if only to piss Tom off even more."

Hermione bit her lip. It was callous, petty, and completely underhanded. She loved it.

"Count me in." she said smirking at Dorea.

~~{0}~~

That night, Hermione went down to the Great Hall for dinner early, hoping to eat quickly and leave so that she could avoid Tom. She sat down in her usual seat with a huff, noting only a few Slytherins were seated when someone sat down across from her. Thinking it was Harry, she sighed.

"Harry, I don't know what you…" she trailed off, as she looked up to the smirking face of a handsome seventh year Slytherin.

"You're Hermione, right? I haven't had the pleasure of making your acquaintance yet. I'm Orion Black." He said holding out his hand to her to shake.

She bit her lip shyly, shaking his hand, "Nice to meet you."

He ran a hand through his wavy black hair, and looked at her for a moment as if he was trying to figure her out.

"I saw what happened earlier today…you must be something special to have wizards dueling over you." He said giving her a sexy grin as he snatched an apple form the bowl of fruit on the table and taking a bite out of it.

Hermione blushed, meeting his light blue eyes, "I'm just Hermione." She said waving dismissively pouring herself a cup of tea.

"Well, just Hermione, how would you like to go to the Halloween ball with me?" he asked with complete confidence

Hermione smiled, wondering what Dorea had told him. She hoped to God this wasn't a pity date. It didn't seem like a pity, not the way he was gazing at her as if she was a juicy steak.

"I'd love to, Mr. Black" She said wondering what she was getting herself into.

"Orion, please…Mr. Black is my father" he said smirking at her.

"Orion then." She nodded, still giving him what she hoped wasn't a goofy smile. He really was very good looking; maybe not quite as handsome as Tom, but close.

"Excellent. Well, I'll see you around then, Hermione." He said picking up her hand and kissing the back of it just as Tom approached the table. Orion's eyes flicked up to Tom's and smirked as he stood and made to head back to his own seat further down the table.

"Riddle" he acknowledged as he walked away.

Tom sat stiffly beside her, and she didn't dare look at him. She didn't trust herself to speak to him, knowing that if she did, she would probably start yelling, and not be able to stop.

"Hermione, I think we need to talk." Tom finally said.

Hermione clenched her jaw and gritted her teeth. The image of him snogging Isadora kept replaying over and over in her mind, not to mention what he had called her just before that.

"I have nothing to say to you." She said coldly, her appetite completely gone.

"Well I do-" he began before she cut him off.

"Excuse me, I've suddenly lost my appetite." She said and stood abruptly storming out of the Great Hall.