Authors Note: Is it so much shorter than anything I usually ever write? Yes. But only because the next chapter is going to be incredibly long and I honestly wanted to leave them being on vacation alone and away from anything else because I needed it to be it's own chapter. So I'm sorry for this short nonsense that really didn't lead much anywhere, I feel bad but not too terrible because it's not as bad as I'm making it sound.
I love Private Intentions so I of course love every single chapter that comes from this because I am in love with my Tom characterization because it's so different than angry formal smart Tom which I'm so used to reading in everything and writing about lol.
Anywhom. So Don't Eat The Apple is coming up next. Still nobody has really reviewed it but I will do a second chapter because I have high hopes for all my writings. (PSST READ THAT SHIT AND TELL ME IF YOU LIKE IT OKAY) but I won't bring much attention to it.
Review and Rate this even though it was short and pointless, again sorry bout it.
Enjoy!
(P.S. I'm also glad this writing one a time is working out, at least for now. I'm enjoying not worrying about all three stories and just worrying about one at a time. Also gets rid of the terrible writers block that comes from trying to think of three story lines at once)
Hermione's first official week dating Tom Riddle was probably just as bad as she imagined it would be. If she thought the students had been awful to her before, they were particularly nasty now. The worst moment had to have been opening her locker and what looked like a thousand condoms and notes reading words like SLUT, WHORE, CUNT, and BITCH. It might have not been that bad except it felt like the entire school had laughed at her and for the rest of the day, she'd had condoms thrown at her as she walked down the hall.
"So could you remind me again why I shouldn't just dump you?" Hermione was kicking her bag under her desk for Biochemistry picking a piece of paper from her hair that had been chucked at her in the hall, not caring to read what was written on it.
"You know how much people hate you for dating me?" He reached over and grabbed another piece from the back of her hair. "Can you imagine how much they would hate you if you dumped me? Not to mention I'd be devastated, breaking the heart of the school's golden boy is bad juju."
"Who even says that word?" She rolled her eyes opening her book.
"The schools golden boy, that's who. Don't be upset because I have a large vocabulary."
"I wouldn't call your list of words a large vocabulary. It sounds more like you read some children's books and threw some words together in a sentence." She fiddled with her pencil. "At least when you're around no one makes fun of me."
"See, I told you being around me was a good thing."
"You're the reason they're making fun of me in the first place!" She gritted through her teeth.
"Are we having this argument again? Should I find another supply closet?'
"It was an empty storage classroom, and no. You made your point just fine…I'm so ready for winter break. It's calling my name."
Tom didn't have a chance to reply for Professor Slughorn had walked in, his eyes shooting straight to Tom and Hermione giving them such a wide cheeky grin it almost made her sick. Ever since he found out that Hermione had finally decided to date Tom he'd been incessantly making comments about how cute they were, how they belonged together, how he knew they were going to date, how they were going to get married. It all made her astonishingly sick and it didn't help that he'd "randomly" rearranged the room so that Tom and Hermione were permanent lab partners.
"Today, we will be watching a movie-"The class cut him off, cheering happily. "Now…now. That's enough. We will be watching a movie going over the Molecular Orbital Theory-"The cheers turned to groans of disappointment.
Hermione was with them, while she loved this class in general and usually enjoyed the lessons, movies usually ended up boring her. The slow moving pictures and examples mixed with the sluggish molasses voice of some dainty old man often put her to sleep. She drowned out the rest of Slughorn's speech realizing today was going to be nothing important, the video wasn't going to teach her anything that Slughorn hadn't already gone over. She might as well get out some of her other homework so it at least looked like she was taking notes on the film.
"Why so excited for break? I thought you said your parents were making you stay here." Tom's voice whispered from beside her. The light in the room flicked off illuminating his face with only the wavering lights from the television.
"And they are, but I know for a fact that half of the school is going home and I don't have to leave my room for anything. Ginny is going home with Ron and her brothers so I'll have the entire room to myself, nobody to pointedly ignore me or made snide comments about my choice in men."
"That sounds depressing and hermit like." Hermione ignored him, taking out her Greek History and Theory study guide. "You won't be able to sit in your room the whole time, you'll have to eat. I've seen the way you eat too, you're not going to be able to starve yourself."
"I hope you choke on caviar at the stupid fancy resort you're going too." Hermione sniffed haughtily.
"We're going to Russia, you ought to come. It would do you good to get away from all these heathens."
"Again, who even uses that word? Where the hell are you getting these words? Have you been reading your grandmother's diary?" She heard Tom chuckle from beside her and the sound made her stomach tickle.
"I'm being serious, I would like for you to come with me on Christmas Break."
She inhaled a hefty drag of air before choking on it, coughing loudly and sputtering on her own Oxygen. Her throat racking to take control of the heaving while her face burned with embarrassment. She took another heady breath and turned to look at Tom expecting to find that stupid little obnoxious smile he had on whenever he was joking with her but she couldn't find it anywhere. Just a serious honest look with a face patiently looking for a response.
"You're joking." Her voice came out as a disbelieving whisper.
"Have you ever been to Russia?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.
"No. That happens to be one of the few countries my parents have never felt the need to take me." She shrugged.
"So it's settled then, I'll take you to Russia with my fam-"
"No!" Her voice came out loud and her hand shot up, covering her mouth. Slughorn looked over at the two of them to send them a smile but wagged a ring ridden finger at them. Behind her, she could hear students snickering at her sudden outburst and she glared at Tom angrily.
"No," She whispered starkly. "I don't want to meet your parents. I can't imagine your parents being okay with you dating the daughter of some lowly dentists."
"My father could care less who I bring home, I assure you. The most we'll see of him will be at night at the public dinners. The world will end before you end up alone long enough with my father for him to ask you any personal questions. Not that he would though, he's more concerned with his work that anything." Hermione realized that Tom's voice had taken a rather bitter tone when it came to his father which contradicted with how she had imagined their relationship to be.
When Hermione saw Tom and his father, she saw a son who was spoiled so rotten that his father would shower him with gifts every day. She even had the silly image of Tom as a small five year old child, laughing joyously and carelessly swimming in a room filled almost to the ceiling with wrapped gifts. She pictured him getting out of bed with someone standing by his bedside softly playing a violin, all of his servants taking care of him, brushing his teeth for him, dressing him, and the whole nine yards. It was a funny picture but someone as arrogant as Riddle wasn't just born that way.
She had a hard time believing that Tom's father didn't care about him and that it was probably more of Tom being so spoiled and arrogant that he just saw his father as a figure who was annoying and didn't care. His tone may have been bitter and his face may have pursed itself to a strangely almost angry look, she couldn't believe that someone like Tom Riddle had parents who hated him.
"What about your mother?" Hermione just realized he'd yet to mention his mother and that she'd never actually even heard him talk about her. "Will she be coming-"
"No. She won't." His cheek ticked dangerously and Hermione shrunk back, surprised at his sudden posture and severe emotion change but then it was gone as soon as it flashed over his face. "Just me, you, and my father."
"I haven't even said I'm going yet." She turned back around to glance at the movie screen. "My parents would never let me go."
"Oh, but I can be very persuasive with parents, don't worry about that." He winked at her. "That's the good thing about dating me, all parents love me."
"Had it occurred to you maybe I don't want to go?"
"Okay, so pros and cons. Pros: 1) You're going to Russia; 2) You're going to be with me-"
"That's a con." She interrupted but he continued on as if he'd never heard her, his voice talking over her.
"Number Three: You wouldn't have to be around any students at all, because I promise you the teasing will be a thousand times worse if I'm not here; 4) Think of all the se-"
"What about the cons?" She cut him off immediately.
"Cons? What cons? You think there are cons to being around me?" He gave her another cockeyed arrogant look. "I'm all pro Hermione."
"I don't even know why I started listening in the first place."
"Listen, just think of it this way. You can either stay here and stay locked in your dungeon for a month knowing every time you walk out the door, you'll be teased so endlessly you will probably skip most of your meals and end up starving, or," His face smiled and he put his hands out as if he were displaying a banner in mid-air. "You can come with me to Russia for a month and, for one whole month, be free of every student here including the teasing and name calling."
She stared at him and as bad as she wanted the choice to be incredibly simple and just say no and turn away, it was tempting. It was so tempting that she was picturing it against her own will, the comfort of the large comfy room and the silence, the utter silence of the name-calling, the rude gestures, the paper throwing…she didn't think she wanted to refuse. Surely a month alone with Tom Riddle couldn't be as bad as being alone with this school for a month, but her parent would probably never go along with it.
"My parents would never let me." She felt annoyed at the pang of sadness that she would probably not get to go.
"Like I said, let me take care of that. So is that a yes?" His smile widened.
"It's not a no." She said nothing else after that but her fingers itched to slap the large smug smile that had her answer had left on Tom's face.
Hermione sat quietly on her bed studying her laptop shining onto her face while Ginny sat quietly using hers. There was no words, just like it'd been for the past week. There hadn't been any words at all except for some quiet muttering she'd heard every now and then when Ginny seemed stressed or angry and decided being angry about her dating Tom was the best way to relieve that anger.
So Hermione was beyond shocked that while she was sitting on her bed staring at the computer screen when Ginny suddenly spoke up.
"What are you doing for winter break?"
Hermione's fingers slipped on the keys messing up the sentence she was typing on her paper to look over at her, blinking as if to try and really see if she were really talking to her.
"Me?" She asked stupidly.
"No, your laptop." Ginny replied smartly.
She stared at her in amazement and found her mouth working to respond.
"I…I…uh. I really haven't decided. It's between staying here amongst other things I guess." She didn't feel like this was the time to tell her about Tom asking her to stay with him in Russia.
"I wish you had just told me. I mean, yeah I would have been upset, but I mean. You could have trusted me." Ginny's voice sounded like a cross between an angry child and someone trying to sound very mature.
Hermione didn't know how to respond, this had already been said to her multiple times and she was rather tired of trying to explain herself.
"I know." Was all she said. "How much do the boys hate me?"
"They don't, they just think you're crazy like I do. Though, any time we've heard someone trashing on you we've been quick to shut them up, especially Ron. Malfoy was bad mouthing you the other day in the library and Ron almost tackled him."
She felt a small blush in her cheeks, appreciative that at least someone in this place was standing up for her because God knows Tom probably wasn't. If he was nearly as powerful and lovable as he thought himself to be, the school wouldn't be treating her the way they did.
"At least someone cares, did you see my locker the other day?" Hermione snorted. "Speaking of which though, if you and Harry ever decide to…you know…I have enough protection to last you two a lifetime."
That had the two of them splitting sides, something Hermione was eternally grateful for. It felt amazing to laugh with someone that wasn't laughing at her. When they finally stopped laughing, Hermione felt so warm inside she was almost embarrassed. She wasn't sure how long they stayed up talking, but it was late enough to where the next morning she would wake up with dark circles but finally for a good reason.
When they walked out to the common room next morning Tom's eyes met hers with surprise as she walked out with Ginny, talking animatedly. Ginny caught sight of Tom waiting for her next to the couch and stiffened slightly but relaxed after a moment and even walked to stand next to him with Hermione.
"You're back so soon?" Hermione narrowed her eyes at his sarcasm.
"Too bad you won't be leaving anytime soon." Ginny retorted but still remained.
"Will you be joining us for breakfast then?" He grabbed Hermione's bad from her arm and slug it over his shoulder.
"Maybe I will." Ginny raised her nose and followed them as they walked, but neither of them spoke to him as they made their way to breakfast, he just walked next to her as he did every morning. The corner of his lip upturned slightly in some sort of hidden smile.
Harry and Ron didn't join them as Ginny did, the testosterone apparently proving to be too much for the three of them to be near each other and left the two girls and Tom to sit alone at a table. Breakfast was different, in that Tom was unusually quiet as the two girls chatted, catching up on the past week though it was more Ginny telling Hermione about all the things that had happened between her and the boys. Hermione had nothing to tell Ginny unless she wanted to hear about all the names she'd been called or some of the choice insults she'd heard, some of which were rather witty but still incredibly rude. In fact, Tom was so abnormally silent that after Ginny said her good-byes and made her way back to the boys leaving Tom to walk her to class she found herself needing to ask.
"You were oddly quiet all morning, weren't you?" She nudged his shoulder as some of the younger girls waved and greeted Tom up the stairs they were walking.
"Just letting you and your friend catch up." He said simply.
"Yes, but that doesn't explain why you were so quiet. You're never quiet, you always have something to say." She raised a suspicious eyebrow at him.
"You make me sound so annoying." He grinned.
"You obviously don't know you as well as I do then."
"I know you a great deal better than you know me, and you don't know nearly a quarter as much about me as you think you do." He said in a know-it-all tone.
"That's because when you talk about yourself all you ever do is talk about how great and rich and smart and terrific you are." They reached their classroom.
"Now see, there is another great reason for you to come with me to Russia, just think of all the nice bonding time we could have." He winked at her. "Speaking of which, did you happen to mention to your friends you might be spending your entire winter break with me? It might not be pertinent to lie to them again so soon after regaining their trust."
"I certainly wasn't going to tell her the first day she started talking to me again. I'll probably tell her tonight or tomorrow."
"Just saying, the last thing you need is another situation on your hands." He walked her to the door of her classroom, this weird smile on his face. "Meet you after."
_
The rest of her day, she wanted to say it was perfect even though it was a rather strong word, because for the first time it what felt like a rather long time, she felt so happy. She wasn't lying to her friends and hiding this large odd secret from them and constantly worrying about who would find out, and they were actually talking to her, pretending as though the last week hadn't happened. The entire rest of the week seemed to go that way, even her grades slightly improved. Ginny and them weren't so incredibly thrilled when she mentioned going to Russia for a month with Tom. Ginny more so because she believed a month was a rather long time to spend with someone who she'd just recently starting dating, but otherwise they kept relatively quiet about the whole thing.
Winter break rounded the corner quickly and she wasn't even sure if she was actually going with Tom to Russia, she'd yet to bring it up to her parents. Every time she asked Tom about it he would just smile and give her the same answer…"Don't Worry. I've got it covered." Whether or not he had it covered, Winter break started Friday and she still had every intention of staying here at the school. Even though the students had calmed down in their continual assaults of her, his closest friends including Pansy, were still going strong. She barely had time to worry about Russia or winter break with exams beating down on her. Exams started Wednesday and it was Monday and she at one point had a mental breakdown to which Ron had to consul her out of it, Tom was of no help.
"You could always ask me for help, I'm the smartest student in the school." Tom glanced at her hectic notes she was taking from her Gothic Literature book.
"I wouldn't ask you for help in school if I was failing. You'd probably purposely give me wrong answers and laugh when they gave me my paper back." She covered her paper with her arm, glaring at him.
"Better than your other friends, I don't even understand on Weasley passes any of his classes. I've heard some of the study sessions you've had with him in the library, I'm surprised he can even spell his own name."
"Oh, so now you're watching over me when I'm with other men? Sounds a bit overprotective to me not to mention a tad creepy. You've never had a real girlfriend before have you, just a bunch of sleeping buddies. That must be why you feel like you have to watch me all the time. Don't you want to hang out with your friends?"
"Hermione, I have a little secret to tell you." His voice dropped a few octaves, taking on a rather serious tone and she looked at him giving with a surprised look. "I'm being serious, come here."
"What?"
"No, closer come here." He looked around at some of the other students who were sitting around in the common room near them. She gave him a skeptic look and leaned in closer on the couch pushing her shoulder against his to press her face near his.
He looked around again and leaned forward, his voice quiet and low in her ear.
"I really didn't want to have to tell you this, but all my friends hate you." He whispered softly into her ear.
"Tom! God!" She shoved at him. "So what, your friends won't hang out with you because they hate me? I see you with them all the time, that's the biggest load of bull-crap I've ever heard."
The smile on his face was huge and annoying and she shoved at the book in his lap pushing it to the ground but he just laughed aloud.
"Now you're just being childish, you're not going to fail your tests Hermione. You act like this every night before we have a test, like you're the dumbest person you know and you know for an absolute fact that you're going to fail and then you know what happens? You ace the test, I mean you don't get as high as a grade as I do, but you pass. There is no point in freaking out like this, it's stupid."
She stared at him her mouth pursed but she still kicked his book with her foot when he tried to reach for it causing him to laugh out even louder. Hermione was only really annoyed because she knew he was very correct. She wasn't sure however whether she was really annoyed because he was correct or because he knew her well enough to the point that he was correct.
"So should I assume I'm not going with you to Russia? Because I've yet to hear from my parents and I'm not just going to go and not tell them." She looked back at her paper, marking out whatever she'd just written.
"Oh, so you want to go now? I thought you didn't know if you wanted to go or not." He had turned back to his book as well. "You seem to be asking about that trip a lot, you're beginning to make me think you really want to go."
"There's a lot of history in Russia and I've always wanted to go to St. Petersburg." She shrugged nonchalantly.
"I'm not even going to think about taking you until you admit you want to go with me because you love being with me. Here we are, been dating for a month and a half now and we haven't made out in forever-"
"Oh my God-"
"And you still won't admit how much you like me and that you actually like me to the point that you consciously want to spend a month with me in a resort for the winter in Russia."
"I didn't say I didn't want to spend time with you. If I didn't want to date you, I wouldn't still be dating you." She said glaring at him
"Yeah and you haven't said it either." An alarm going off on his watch warned them of their upcoming curfew. "But we have ten minutes if you want to spend five of it wisely."
"I've got a rather pounding headache…" She rolled her eyes, trailing her voice off as she packed her things.
"I thought we didn't start that until we got married, does this mean you're proposing? Oh but Hermione, I had no idea!"
She ignored him packing up her bag to go back to her dorm room. She glanced out the window and felt a pang of happiness when she saw that fat fluffy flakes were slowly coming down and coating everything they touched. She sat at the window watching wistfully as they fell and almost had the notion to sit on the pillowed ledge and watch but Tom came from behind her.
"This week will go by fast and we'll be lost in the snow before you know it," His hands came up behind her and wrapped around her and it surprised her, her body stiffening as his head rested on her shoulder. She felt herself relax softly when his breath blew softly into her ear and his lips placed themselves gently onto her neck. She knew there was no point in denying how she enjoyed his touch and it showed when his fingers squeezed her body and pulled her closer. "Goodnight Hermione."
The week did go by quick and just like Tom had promised, she passed all her exams with flying colors and when Thursday night came and she'd yet to hear from her parents and was starting to stress, she would actually be left here to deal with the students. She thought she might actually feel like she was stressing more about not going on this trip, this trip that she thought she didn't even want to go on. Hermione however was coming to her last straw with Pansy Parkinson. Hermione Granger was not a fighter, she did not hit, she did not curse very often (or she hadn't since she'd met Tom), and again, she was not a fighter.
Hermione Granger wanted nothing more than to slap and beat the ever loving shit out of that tall large boned prissy girl. Ginny wasn't as helpful as she was supposed to be either, almost seemingly egging her on whenever Pansy pushed her buttons.
"Just hit her, she'd never expect it from you." Hermione had clenched Ginny's hand fiercely in hers trying to calm the anger burning in her throat.
"You're going to get me expelled." She gritted her teeth as Pansy smirked at her, walking off but not before sending Hermione a very rude hand gesture to which Ginny jumped forward causing Pansy to flinch sending them to tears laughing. "At least we know she's full of it."
The week was ridiculously slow but when Thursday night came and she wanted to cry in relief when the commons phone rang and was revealed to be her parents.
"Hermione! You didn't tell us that you were such close friends with the Riddles!" Her mom squealed, her voice in pure delight. "And you didn't tell us that they'd invited you to spend the winter with their family!"
"I didn't think it was that big of a-"
"This is big Hermione! Their family could really help get you somewhere when you graduate! Especially with your grades! You have to go Hermione, you could meet a lot of incredibly important people, and your father is at work but he's so excited too! I wish you'd have told us you were such close friends with his son!"
"Mom, please." Hermione's face was red and she saw from the corner of the room where he sat with his friends Tom was watching carefully. "So you're okay with me going?"
"Of course. I mean, we trust you Hermione and this could be big for you and you've never been to Russia. You have to go!"
She talked to her mom for a few more minutes before getting off the phone, deeply relieved that she wasn't going to have to spend the next four weeks of her break dying in her dorm room of boredom and starvation, as Tom said she would, trying to avoid the demons that this school called students. She searched for her friends and walked back over to them trying to keep the stupid smile that was curling at the corners of her mouth off her lips.
"Was that mother dearest finally giving you permission to go?" Ginny was staring intently at the chess board in front of her, Ron across from her with a smirk look on her face.
"Finally. I was honestly afraid I was going to be stuck here."
"We would have let you come home with us you know. I wouldn't have let you rot here with his lot." Ron jerked his head towards the obnoxiously laughing group of boys Tom sat in the middle of. "Which is odd, you would think with the power he has with this assholes that they'd treat you a little nicer."
"Well maybe if you'd told me that I was welcome to come to your house for the holiday I wouldn't be going to Russia, but it's too late now." She said smartly, pointing to a small square in front of Ginny to guide her.
"We would have told you if you weren't so wrapped up around his litt-"
"Don't even finish that sentence Ron Weasley." Ginny cut him off, moving her piece to the square Hermione had directed her.
"I need to go get packed anyway, we leave tomorrow and I wasn't going to pack until I knew we were leaving."
"Do you even have clothes for a Russian Winter?" Ginny turned raising an eyebrow as Ron knocked over one of her pawns eliciting a curse.
"No but I have money and I can buy things when I get there." She sniffed.
"Another good question, can you even afford to buy the clothes at the shops where you'll be staying?" It was Harry's turn to raise his eyebrow.
"Worst case scenario, I go dumpster diving outside a couple high end stores."
Hermione really didn't have the clothes for where she was going but she packed to the best of her ability and when the next day arrived she was giddy to leave. The day was calm and the students all seemed giddy to leave, the good-bye's quick and departures even quicker. A slick black Bentley was pulled into the curve of the entrance of the school along with several other identical looking fancy cars driving off with the school's students.
"Ever flown First Class Hermione?" Tom asked, holding the door open for her as she slid into the black interior of the car.
"No, can't say I have." She was rather surprised to see that the driver had put up a partition leaving the incredibly roomy backseat blocked from the front.
"Neither have I, always private jet." He smiled taking a seat next to her placing a confidant hand on her thigh. "Either way, it's a first for you."
"So cocky, aren't we?" She pushed his hand from her thigh but smiling none-the-less, the thrill of leaving this god forsaken place for a month too exciting to ignore.
"Of course, I've got just what I wanted, an entire month alone with you. That's not even the best part though," The smile on his face widened and the little dimples in his cheeks flashed dangerously. "The best part is that you have to spend an entire month sharing a bed and room with me and you don't have any option in the part."
"What?!" Her mouth fell open, turning to look at him in shock. "You didn't say we'd been sharing a bed!"
"Awh, too late. We're already leaving and the rooms booked, can't do last minute changes or cancellations." He glanced at the black matte Rolex on his wrist with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "This is going to be the best vacation ever."