House. Slytherin
Category. Drabble
Prompt. [Prompt] He/She/They had a look in his/their/her eyes that made everyone want to run.
Word Count. 457
A/N. Because I have been on a tomione spree lately and wasn't able to help myself ^^
oO0Oo
He had a look in his eyes that made everyone want to run. Even she felt a frisson of fear as she approached him, especially since she knew what he would become. Yet, right now, in this time, he was nothing more than a second year, and so she steeled her nerves. "Mr Riddle," she said, softening her words with a smile. "Are you quite alright?"
He started visibly. "P-professor Granger!" he stammered, his face immediately losing its hard, shuttered look. He gave her an easy smile, one which, Hermione noted, didn't reach his eyes. "I'm fine, thank you for asking."
Hermione hummed noncommittally. "Mr Riddle, would you follow me to my office?"
"But Professor Granger, you teach Arithmancy."
She could see how he stiffened when he realized he had just contradicted a professor, and so to put him at ease, Hermione simply smiled. "I do, but I would like to give you some advice."
"With all due respect, I believe that is the duty of my Head of House."
"It is," Hermione said blandly, "but I believe you shall be very interested in my advice. You see, Professor Slughorn is a very capable man, but he is only a man. We witches… we are the most vicious." She glanced at Tom and saw doubt in his eyes. "You shall see, in time," she said. "Now, come along, there are gingersnaps waiting for us."
She led him to her office, and there she gave him advice for how to deal with bullies, a book of minor hexes, and a repertoire of healing spells. Surprise flickered across his face for a split-second, but then he regained control of himself and answered her questions with an infuriating vagueness.
Nevertheless, when Hermione sent him away from her office, it was with a box of gingersnaps and a promise that "her door was always open for him."
Later, Dumbledore would ask her why she had taken such an interest in young Tom Riddle. He would say the boy was dangerous and suggest she leave him alone; however, Hermione was older now, wiser now, and had buried far too many of her friends to listen to him. Instead, she would smile at Dumbledore, then say, "Do not pity the dead, Albus. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love. It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."
She knew Albus wouldn't understand her, and hopefully he would never understand her. If she befriended Tom Riddle now, showed him kindness in his early years… perhaps he would never become Lord Voldemort. Perhaps that look in his eyes that made everyone want to run would disappear. Perhaps — perhaps he would finally learn to love.