Thanks to: EscapedMinds and AliceEnchanted for their reviews!

The time has slowed down a bit for this chapter I guess, and it's not the longest one but I felt inspired, wrote this and figured it was a good place to end it.

oh and the dollar signs $ means Parseltongue

Presents

As usual Hermione's Christmas presents were pretty bleak.

Her father had sent her a letter telling her she better start making the right type of friends. He had also sent her a book on Dark Curses, which of course was cursed.

She sighed, at least he was predictable. She had sent him a couple of leashes, with a scathing letter saying he should have better control over his followers. She had also found a book on parseltongue that they didn't have in the library, but she was saving that for his Birthday. She would need to make amends somehow after her first gift.

His followers had sent her gifts this year as well. The wives sending her various clothes, all in green, and the Death Eaters had sent her jewelry or candy.

Her father had made it to be a huge event back in their house, and it seemed the better presents Hermione received, the more favor the Death Eater had with her dad.

Therefore, Hermione loathed presents, it was just a way of buying people. A way for people to get to her father.

She was surprised to receive one from Lucius Malfoy though. It seemed his father had drilled into him the significance Hermione could play in their lives.

Since she was 5 she had been aware of the battle the Death Eaters had between each other to procure a marriage contract between Hermione and their sons. It did not take long before it grew tiresome, and Hermione had taken steps to prevent them.

She had made it into her own little game. Whomever was the obvious front runner, would suddenly find themselves in trouble for something.

Sometimes she would break a vase or something expensive, right next to the Death Eater in question. They would then take the blame for it, knowing full well what would happen if they lay the blame on innocent little Miss Riddle.

Other times she would run away when they were assigned to watch her. And not return until she was sure they had been found out, or her father had come to find her.

Nobody dared touch a hair on her body, she knew that. Voldemort would not get the money he needed for his army if she was harmed.

The rest of the holiday passed rather quietly. She had found a nice corner of the Library that she vowed to keep for herself for the rest of her school years, and spent all her time there. The rest of the occupants were too busy enjoying the holidays to spend time in the library.

She had gotten another sad look from Dumbledore when she received the Howler for her present.

Hermione I would have thought you had learned better by now than to anger me.

These childish pranks will not be tolerated for long.

Get your act together.

$I would think the Heir of Slytherin to know better.$

$Stop acting like a Gryffindor$

From now on I expect you to keep better company.

Your Father

She watched the Howler disintegrate with little interest. Her father had been angry enough to retort to Parseltongue, it had been awhile since she had managed to get him that riled up. She smiled and collected the book she had been reading over breakfast before going back to the library.

Later that night she went up to the owlery to send her present. She had not penned the letter yet, so she sat down looking at the birds in contemplation. Should she try and make amends, at least a little bit, or should she throw more wood on the fire?

Eventually she decided on the middle ground.

Dear Dad

I hope this present is more to your liking.

Another year has gone by for the great Tom Riddle,

Do you feel older at all?

Love

Your Daughter

She could just picture the clenched teeth of her father as he read her letter. There was only one thing her father liked less than being called dad, and that was his given name. Sure she could get away with saying it, but there were sure to be a few Death Eaters cursing her name by the time the night was over. Her father did have quite the temper.

When school started up again she noticed eyes on her.

It had happened quite a lot, and she would always find Malfoy to be the one staring at her. She wondered if he had taken the mark already, or if maybe he had been given the task to look after her first.

If that was his road to success, he was sure going to fail.

She had years on escaping the senior death eaters clutches, little Malfoy was going to be easy to take care of.

She discovered how easy the first time she jinxed him, and was met with a 5 point deduction. She had just narrowed her eyes at him and said "Really?" before he started spluttering and gave her the points back. She had smiled her sweetest smile at him and skipped off.

But even with his fear of her, it seemed his fear of failure was bigger. He did not relent in his task, and she noticed that the prefect was always circling her when she was out of class.

If this was an example of his followers, there was no wonder her father didn't have any spies in the ministry. They wouldn't be able to steal a candy wrapper from a house elf.

One day she was sitting at her secluded spot, a Gryffindor asked to join her.

"My name is Lily Evans."

Hermione smiled brightly at her. She didn't know that last name, so it was clearly not someone related to Voldemorts merry band of fellows.

"Hermione Riddle." She answered.

They studied together for the rest of that day. And several other days Hermione would find Lily coming to join her.

After a while a gangly black haired kid joined the two. He was immensely curious about Hermione, being a Slytherin he knew a little about who she was.

The last name Snape was new to her as well, and one day she had to ask, out of curiosity, who they were.

"I mean, are you Mudbloods or Halfbloods?" when Lily started tearing up and ran off, and Snape chased after her, after sending Hermione a scathing look, she was lost. She noticed an older Gryffindor staring at her with disdain.

"What did I say wrong?" her voice was meek and subdued. These were the first friends she had made at Hogwarts, except that annoying ghost.

She had mostly been talking to herself, sure that no one would take the time to answer her. The boy searched her face for something "You called her a Mudblood."

"Yes?" she looked at him, and noticed that despite his scorn he was quite attractive. "Isn't that what it's called?"

"It means Dirty blood." Hermiones head rushed with thoughts, what exactly did that mean dirty blood? She came to the startling realization that essentially she had claimed that Lily was lesser than her. That since she hadn't inherited her magic she was a lesser witch than her, and Hermione was distraught.

"I never realized." A tear escaped her eye, how stupid could she have been? "I'm so sorry." She whispered to no one in particular.

The boys features softened a little "Why would you call her that then?"

She sighed "It's just the word my dad use, and his followers." She wiped the tear away.

"Followers? Don't you mean friends?" his eyes glinted, like he had caught a Ravenclaw slip up and say something stupid.

"No I meant followers."

They sat in silence for a bit "Your father isn't that nice is he?"

She bit her lip to stop from laughing "You could say that."

He smiled a brilliant smile at her, and she felt her breath catch. He was extremely handsome, his chiseled features looked like that of a Greek God. His bright green eyes seemed impossibly big.

"Thanks for not thinking I'm like him, like them." She nodded her head towards a group of Slytherin boys sitting nearby.

"You're welcome."

Before they could continue their conversation, the boy was accosted by a very pretty blond girl that plopped herself on his lap and proceeded to snog the living daylights out of him. Hermione felt herself blush, and she put her head down in her book to control it.

They left before she could ask the boy his name, probably to find a broom cupboard somewhere. Hermione realized she could probably not get Lily back after what she had done.

The next day she received a letter where her father praised her for ditching her friends the moment she realized they were Mudbloods. Hermione set the letter on fire right there at the Breakfast table, and didn't notice the curious glance of the boy she had talked to earlier.