Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, no profit is being made, this is just for fun
AN: Here's the next chapter! A Big thank you to all of you who took the time to review the last chapter, MauraderinSecret, Morethanbooks, Laumirot, Beestung2025, Chard0, Skyrosediamond, Gullb3rg, Infernalbooks, and a few Anons who reviewed as Guests! And NINTY-TWO follows! You guys are awesome! xo
"A Month?!" Harry roared as he stared at Hermione in disbelief.
"Honestly, Harry, keep your voice down. Yes, a month, but it's better than losing the Head Girl position." Hermione said quietly focusing on the food on her plate, "Which reminds me, I have to meet Professor Slughorn tonight after dinner, so I won't be able to meet you as planned. Let's meet after curfew instead. Same place." Hermione whispered making sure Ron was also listening.
"Alright. We'll meet you after curfew then." Harry nodded, his eyes drifting over to the Slytherin table to glare at Malfoy.
"Oi Hermione, I think Spencer's smartened up after all, he's not sitting next to Malfoy tonight." Ron said as he stuffed a large spoonful of mashed potatoes in his mouth.
Hermione wrinkled her nose at Ron's disgusting eating habits, and snuck a glance towards the Slytherin table. Her mood darkened further when she saw Tom was sitting next to Astoria, smiling at something she said.
"He's not worth it, you know?" Harry said, when he noticed her frowning towards the Slytherin table.
"What?" Hermione asked in surprise
"Malfoy. He's not worth getting upset over. Everyone knows he's a complete berk." Harry said giving her a half smile.
"Right." Hermione said, relieved that Harry assumed her reaction was caused by Draco, "Well, I should head down to the Dungeons, then, I wouldn't want to keep Professor Slughorn waiting." she said , pushing her plate away and grabbing her bag as she made her way out of the great Hall.
She never noticed the pair of ice blue eyes following her movements as she left.
~~{0}~~
"Miss Granger, punctual as always I see." The Professor said jovially as he made his way over to her.
"What will I be doing for detention this evening, sir?" Hermione asked with a sigh, setting her heavy bag down on a nearby chair. Her class schedule had been so full that she hadn't any time to drop off her bag before dinner.
"I actually have a little task for you, nothing too dangerous mind," the professor rambled as he twirled his mustache with his fingers.
"Nothing dangerous, sir?" Hermione asked questioningly, wondering what it was he was going on about.
"Yes, yes, You see, it is a full moon tonight, and the Moonflower stocks are in dire need of replenishing-" Professor Slughorn began before she interrupted
"But Professor, Moonflowers only grows in the Forbidden Forest! Surely you know that students are not allowed-" she started to argue before he cut her off
"Normally, yes, without the presence of a staff member to accompany them, however, as you are Head Girl, which is technically a staff level position-"
"You can't mean for me to go in there alone, Professor!" Hermione said in shock.
Professor Slughorn laughed, "Of course not, Miss Granger! The Head Boy was gracious enough to agree to accompany you this evening."
Hermione's mouth dropped open just as Tom stepped into the room, giving the professor his best ass-kissing smile.
Hermione glared and clenched her jaw. Of course. She'd be perfectly safe alone in the Forbidden Forest with Tom Riddle.
"Now, if the two of you don't mind, I have rather a lot of essays to grade, so I'll just leave you to it then." He said patting the wicker basket he had set down on the bench between them.
"Of course, Professor." Hermione relented, glaring up at Tom, as he bit back a smirk.
As soon as the Professor was out of earshot, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Tom accusingly.
"You planned this." She stated, daring him to deny it.
Tom scoffed, "Why the hell would I do a thing like that?" he asked incredulously at her accusation.
"That's what I'd like to know." Hermione snapped, pulling her cloak on and grabbing the basket with more force than necessary.
"Why would I purposely give up my free time to go traipsing through the Forbidden Forest, when I could be doing much more pleasurable things?" He argued, chasing after Hermione as she walked quickly from the room without bothering to make sure he was following.
She stopped abruptly, almost slamming into his chest as she spun to face him, getting flustered by his closeness, and snapped, "What, like Astoria Greengrass?"
A smirk began to form at the edge of his lips, as his hands reached out to steady her, "Where would you get an idea like that?" he asked knowingly, watching the blush creep down her neck.
"I'm not deaf, Tom, her incessant giggling in Potions class put Lockhart's fangirls to shame." Hermione snapped, trying to extricate herself from his grasp.
He released her arms, and continued to smirk as she spun away from him, stepping through the doors of the castle out into the chilly night air.
They walked in silence, Hermione doing her best to ignore his presence as they entered the forest.
"Why did you slap Malfoy?" he asked suddenly, turning her to face him.
"It's not important, let go of me." She ordered.
He chuckled, "I don't think so. Not until you answer the question." He said raising an eyebrow at her in challenge.
"He just…said things." Hermione said shrugging out of his grip, trying to change the subject.
"Malfoy says a lot of things, things that you've always managed to ignore. Now, what did he say?" Tom asked again, grabbing the basket out of her hands.
"Can we just drop it? I'd really rather not discuss this with you." She sighed in exasperation, glancing over towards the clearing where she knew the Moonflowers to be.
"No, we can't. Seeing as how I have already witnessed Malfoy blatantly threatening you, I'd like to know what he said that caused you react that way. I won't allow you to put yourself in danger because of some misguided sense of pride." Tom snapped back.
"Allow me? What, you think I am incapable of handling myself?" Hermione scoffed.
"Well, you seemed to be doing a bang up job of it the other day." Tom said through gritted teeth as his fingers tightened around her arms.
"Well, at least I know where I stand with him!" She shouted at him and made to push him away from her when he instead growled and backed her against a tree, trapping her against it with his body.
Her shock melted into desire as the polyjuice potion wore off just before his lips crashed into hers, his tongue sweeping into her mouth in a demanding kiss. She clutched the front of his cloak in her fists, and she slid her leg up along his to wrap around his hip, pulling him closer. At the sound of his groan, she remembered that they were in fact in the Forbidden forest, and should really be on their guard.
"Tom" she murmured as she tried to get his attention.
"Mmmm?" He hummed appreciatively as he made no effort to stop kissing her.
"We have to get the flowers." she whispered, biting her lip against the delicious sensations he was causing within her.
She heard him make a small noise of frustration, and finally he pulled himself off of her, running a hand though his disheveled hair, "Right."
Hermione bit back a smirk feeling a small sense of triumph, knowing it was her that made him lose control like that; not Astoria Greengrass.
She stood staring at him with her eyes narrowed as if she were trying to solve a particularly difficult puzzle.
"What?" He asked running a hand over his face, making sure nothing was amiss.
After a few moments passed, she finally seemed to make up her mind, "I thought he was right." She said quietly, almost too low for Tom to hear her.
"Thought who was right?" Tom asked giving her a questioning look as he straightened his green and silver tie.
"Malfoy. I thought he was right. That's why I slapped him." She admitted.
"Right about what? What did he say?" he asked once again taking the basket from her, as he fell into step beside her.
"He said that you could never be interested in someone like me. I believed him. It was hard not to knowing who you are, and then I saw you with Astoria..." she admitted, chancing a glance at him from beneath her lashes.
"I have a confession to make." He said trying to bite back a smirk.
Hermione turned sharply to look at him, and forced herself to breathe as she thought to herself, if he says that I should have listened to Malfoy, I swear to god, I'll hex him into next week.
"I only flirted with her because I knew it would upset you." Tom admitted, the corner of his lips curving into a smirk.
Hermione scoffed, "And what made you think I would have cared?" she said putting her hands on her hips turning to face him with her eyebrows raised.
"Don't you? I mean, you're not exactly the type who snogs every bloke you see." Tom smirked at her in challenge.
"That still doesn't prove anything." Hermione sniffed, not wanting to admit defeat.
"Oh, well, if you'd rather I give my attention to Astoria, I'd be happy to-" he began before Hermione snatched her hand out to grab his tie and pulled him to her
"Don't even think about it." She snapped before she kissed him hard trapping his bottom lip between her teeth as she pulled back, letting it go with a pop.
When his eyes opened, his irises were practically black, his pupils blown wide as he gazed at her.
"Noted." He said with a smirk as he took the basket from her fingers and tossed it aside, "it's time to stop playing hard to get." He said as he slid his hands over her hips feeling her melt against him.
Hermione sighed in contentment as his lips grazed her neck, his hands practically setting her on fire, "God, don't you dare stop…" she breathed, and she felt him smile against her throat at her commanding tone and continued kissing the sensitive spot on her neck, "But just so we're clear, if you betray me in any way, I'll destroy you." She whispered into his ear
Tom let out a naughty chuckle that made her knees go weak, "You had me at 'destroy you'" he said as he pulled her down with him onto the soft grass.
~~{0}~~
"Where have you been? We've been waiting over an hour for you!" Harry snapped, opening the door to the room of requirement for Hermione.
"Oh, um…My detention took longer than I thought." She said, trying to hide her blush. Truthfully, she had lost track of time snogging Tom in the Forbidden Forest that they had to rush to collect the moonflowers before they returned to the castle.
Harry didn't seem to notice, and went back to his seat on the couch, "Right, so I suppose I should tell you, that aside from the locket horcrux and the ring that Dumbledore destroyed, that I haven't the slightest idea what the others could be." Harry sighed running his hand through his hair.
Hermione nodded, pulling a sheet of parchment and a quill from her bag, causing both Harry and Ron to look at her oddly. She knew she could ask Tom, but she didn't want to risk Harry becoming suspicious of how she got her information…in order for this plan to work, Harry would need to find the answers on his own.
"Hermione, what are you doing?" Harry asked, his eyebrows lifted in surprise, "I don't think this is the sort of thing we want written on paper, you know?"
"Relax, Harry, I'm going to burn it before we leave this room. I find that writing things down and making an organized list helps me think more clearly." She said rolling her eyes.
"Brilliant." Said Ron, nodding at her encouragingly, and looking at Harry as if to say, What?
"Alright, so in this column, we'll list possible horcruxes, and in this column, we'll list what we think they have in common. That might help us predict some of the others.
"Well, there's the locket, and the Gaunt ring." Harry said with a sigh.
"Excellent." Hermione said as she jotted down the two horcruxes in the left hand column.
"Dumbledore said that he thought Tom Riddle, Voldemort, had made seven horcruxes." Harry said trying to recall everything that Dumbledore had told him before he was killed.
"Why did he think that?" Ron asked looking between Harry and Hermione.
"I dunno, He said that he recalled seeing seven rocks lined up on Tom Riddle's windowsill in his room at the orphanage. He said that Tom had seemed pre-occupied with the number seven. It's an assumption, but one that makes sense." Harry said shrugging his shoulders.
"Seven is the most magically powerful number, if you listen to Bridget Wenlock's Arithmancy theories, anyway." Hermione said nonchalantly, looking up as Harry and Ron both stared at her silently.
"Honestly, don't either of you two read?" Hermione said in exasperation, shaking her head.
"What do the two items we know of so far have in common?" Ron asked, glancing at Harry and Hermione
"Well, he was the heir of Slytherin, which could explain the locket." Harry said and he watched as Hermione's quill scratch across the parchment.
"Right. According to my research, He was descended from the Gaunts who were direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin." Hermione confirmed.
"Wait a second…the ring. I think Dumbledore said it had belonged to his uncle or maybe it was his grandfather... He was one of the Gaunt's, I believe…Morphin, Marvolo…?" Harry said trying to recall the name.
"Marvolo. It must have been, since that was Tom Riddle's middle name." Hermione said nodding at Harry and writing it down.
"Oi, How do you know what his middle name was?" Ron asked looking at her like she had sprouted a second head.
"Honestly, Ronald, it was printed on his Diary. Do try to keep up." Hermione said rolling her eyes and smirking at Harry.
"Both seem to be items relating directly to his link with Slytherin." Harry said tapping his finger on his lower lip as the wheels turned in his head.
"Maybe we should go search the Chamber? I mean, that's where it all began, isn't it. Harry already destroyed the Basilisk, so it should be safe." Ron piped up, and Hermione's mouth fell open.
"Ron! You're brilliant!" Hermione said excitedly, looking down at the parchment, shocked that she hadn't realized it sooner.
Ron snorted, "First she insults me, and then tells me I'm brilliant. You need to make up your mind, Hermione!"
"Harry you already destroyed one horcrux! Tom Riddle's diary! You said he had preserved a part of himself within its pages! You destroyed it with the tooth of a Basilisk!" she said watching Harry's eyes light up.
"Hermione, I could kiss you!" Harry said as he shot out of his seat, running to the door.
Hermione sucked in a breath remembering that the locket horcrux was the only thing shielding Tom's presence at Hogwarts from Harry.
"Wait, Harry! Before you do anything drastic, we should try to see what else we can uncover before you attempt to destroy the locket. We don't want to risk Voldemort discovering what we are up to before we're ready."
Harry stopped with his hand on the door, and turned around letting out a breath, "You're right. We need to have a plan. We can't risk him finding out too soon and making sure the others are protected."
Hermione inwardly sighed in relief when Harry agreed.
"Well, at least now we know how to destroy them." She said, and she saw the first real spark of hope light up Harry's face since before Dumbledore was killed.
Ahhh! So Kinda together now though it's still on the DL...they don't want anyone to know just yet, but at least they can admit their attraction to each other! So what did you think? Love it? Hate it? I felt like Hermione was really on point in this chapter...she's definitely no shrinking violet, and I honestly don't think she would back down from Tom. (At least, not student Tom...Voldemort might be a different story, since he's a bit more unhinged.)