Blinded By The Past, Ignored In The Future
Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE: Mistletoe With Some Snow
Response To Reviews:
Miss Mina Murray: I'm hoping I decide to let Tom find some happiness in all this confusion.
Marauder1prongs: If you want to learn about life, Katie, live. There is no better teacher than time…but unfortunately time kills all its pupils.
TiarellaCordifolia: I usually don't read Voldemort/Hermione pairings either but surprisingly this is my best fic so….However I hope you stick with this story.
xcyanide: Don't worry it's closer than you think.
Deadly Fate: I knew it was spelled that way! My friend screwed me up! *Curses*
Taintless: I often find good stories when I go through my review history too. You give to many compliments but you should know that I'm horrible at agreeing with them. I DO, however, think that I may have a talent for writing in some form.
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Previous Chapter: "Sure." Remus said as Tom wiped his eyes dry. He grinned and Remus put him in a headlock and ruffled his black hair so it looked as untidy as Harry's. As soon as the door was open he gave Tom a friendly push out of the room in which the teen didn't seem to mind.
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Harry, Ron, and Hermione all sat by the Christmas tree, quiet, barley moving, and all waiting for Remus to return without Tom Riddle. During the silence Hermione took a small interest in the ground and began to draw different imaginary patterns on the floor, hoping that their arrival wasn't causing problems for Tom or Remus. Even if they were invited it still seemed wrong to bother the Slytherin while he was still recovering.
Hermione fiddled with something in her robes pocket, something she rarely did while in company. She traced her finger along the edge of Tom's diary and jumped when Ron spoke out.
"He's taking an awful long time."
"Yeah let's go see if Riddle's giving him any problems," Harry suggested. Both the boys got up and looked to Hermione. Not wanting to cause suspicion she stood up and followed Harry and Ron down to where Remus led Tom. In front of her Harry stopped suddenly and held out an arm to stop her and Ron as a voice from behind the door art the end of the hall cried out:
"Go ahead! Everyone seems to like to! I'm just a "little weed" that can't understand how humans feel, right? That's all I am! You invited those Gryffindors over here just to make me see that you don't really like me! Truth is you can't stand me! I'm just Lord Vol-Vold-" But the sentence was never finished. Moments later someone began to sob, close to hysterically.
Hermione pushed Harry's arm aside and walked over to the door. Ever so slowly, and as quiet as possible, she turned the doorknob and pushed the door open but only a bit. Ron and Harry came up behind her to peer in with her and she wished that she hadn't let them. There in the middle of the floor was Remus holding Tom close as he allowed the boy to cry into his arms. Hermione could understand why Tom was most likely upset but knew that she didn't have the right to witness his break down. She shut the door as fast as possible and, without a word to her two friends, she rushed to return to the tree.
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With a hand on Tom's shoulder Remus guided him back to the front part of the house and allowed him to take a seat upon the floor by the three Gryffindors. Remus was surprised that not even one of them turned to look at him or Tom, but he decided that maybe they were being respectful of his business.
"So, where were we?" he questioned the teens as if they were in a classroom.
"You were going to show us what all of the tree's decorations did," Ron said when no one else spoke.
"Okay. Well actually I've decided that Tom and Hermione will just experiment a little since they like to figure things out for themselves and they can decorate the tree on their own. So, why don't I get you two started on something else… perhaps some outside decorations?" Remus proposed while motioning for a puzzled/worried Harry and Ron to follow him through the kitchen and into the other room, leaving Tom alone with Hermione.
They both sat upon the floor for a few minutes, not communicating in anyway or even attempting to start a conversation. When the quiet game began to bore Tom he picked up one of the tree ornaments and saw that it was a small picture frame with a photo of Remus and his friends from school.
"What's that?"
Tom looked up and saw that Hermione was watching him with great interest. He grinned; he had almost forgotten that she was in the room. Without saying anything he tossed it to her and she caught it. As she looked at it he got up and found the box that held the tree's lights. Hermione watched him with interest and noticed that he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
"How many times have you done this?" she asked before she could stop herself. "Stupid question!" She secretly scolded herself.
But to her amazement Tom didn't seem to mind the question. If anything he seemed please to talk while he worked. "Actually I was forced to help every year in the Orphanage."
"Sounds like you didn't want to," Hermione pointed out as kindly as she could.
"Well you wouldn't either if all of the people that were decorating with you were after your blood since you were four years old," replied Tom, untangling the lights with great difficulty. He stopped for a moment and looked up at her, turquoise eyes wide and bright, and he grinned. "You know? You never did truly thank me in person for helping you back to that blasted school."
Just as Hermione actually made to she stopped and thought of something else. "Well you never did apologize to me."
"For what, may I ask?" asked Tom, raising an eyebrow.
"For trying to take your own life and scaring me to death when I found out," Hermione responded as casually as she could.
"How did you find out? Did that old fool tell you?"
"That's my secret," insisted Hermione. "Now apologize before I get angry."
Tom laughed, sitting down on a big box and folding his arms over his chest. "You're serious?"
"Yes," she said impatiently, fighting the urge to tap her foot.
"Hmm…" said Tom as he got to his feet. "Okay then, Hermione. I'm sorry if I scared you, and I beg that you can find it in your Gryffindor heart to forgive me. I can assure you though, that I scared myself too."
Hermione rolled her eyes. It was predictable of him to mention her house somewhere in his apology, but she still was a bit happy that he wasn't being at all difficult about it.
"Now if you would help me out we might actually finish this sometime tonight," Tom said with fake gleefulness. She smiled and grabbed the lights in which he had dropped and easily untangled them. Tom smirked in amusement and she shrugged before throwing him an end so they could put them on the tree.
Three sets of lights later they were done with that and were starting on the ornaments. Since there were two boxes of them (and they were determined to make them all fit) Tom took one box and Hermione took the other.
Remus must never have had the nerve to throw any tree ordainments away since he was a child for there were many different kinds that Tom stopped trying to guess when and where he had gotten them. Tom had come across a color changing snowman, a red reindeer, and even a small glowing snowflake ornament. By the mutters of Hermione, Tom could only imagine what she had found.
When Tom was done with his box he waited for Hermione to finish so she could have the honors of putting the angel on the tree's top. He studied her expression and saw that it was one very similar to his when he was deep in thought while working on something and allowing his mind to wonder.
He didn't know why but he found that he cared about what she was thinking of. If possible he wanted to know. It wasn't that he was worried about her well being…it was because well…he had the right to be interested was all. Didn't he?
"Hello? Hermione to Tom? Are you there, Tom?" He looked up and saw that Hermione was trying to get his attention in an annoyed manner.
"What?" he snapped.
"Are we going to put the angel on the tree top or what?" inquired Hermione.
"Of course we are," Tom said, bending down to retrieve the light up angel. He handed it to her." Would you like to do the honors?"
With a surprise look upon her face she took it from him and asked, "How am I going to reach?"
"Like this," he said. Grinning like a moron, he easily lifted her onto his shoulders and held her high so she was within arms length of where she was to place the angel. And then, with her mouth half open in shock from Tom's actions, she put it in its place and practically begged for Tom to put her back down but he held her there.
From the doorway Remus cleared his throat loudly and, startled, Tom jumped and both he and Hermione tumbled to the floor laughing. "Am I interrupting something?" the werewolf asked. Hermione blushed while Tom gaped at him for suggesting the mere idea. Remus laughed at their responses and added hastily, "I'm joking, I'm joking. I just wanted to let you know that Harry, Ron, and I are going out to get something. We'll be back soon so behave until we get back, got it?" Both teens nodded and with one last smile Remus left. As soon as he was out of earshot Tom and Hermione continued laughing until they couldn't laugh anymore.
Silence once again filled the room and Tom looked out the window into the cold night. That's when he noticed small while snowflakes hitting the glass of the window that Tom had cleaned a long time ago. "It's snowing!" he announced to Hermione who turned to see what he was looking at.
"It makes sense. We are in Scotland," Hermione stated.
"We are?" Tom asked stupidly, turning to her.
"Yeah. Didn't Remus tell you that's where his home is?" she replied with a question.
"I never really bothered to ask," admitted Tom, looking back to the window.
"Hey do you want to go see what the others did while we were working on the Christmas tree?" suggested Hermione.
"Sure, why not?" Tom said as he stretched his back. He led Hermione out the front door and down the path so they could see the front of the house and all of its brilliant lights. Hermione wrapped her arms around herself, looking at the creative ideas that belonged to Harry, Ron, and Remus as Tom yawned and realized how cold it truly was when he saw his hot breath in the cold air.
Without saying anything to Tom, Hermione walked around to the other side of the house to see if anything else had been added. Finally deciding it was a bit too cold she walked onto the back porch and waited. Tom arrived seconds after she did and saw that there were lights decorating the porch so it looked as bright as the front. To him it as looked even more amazing with the falling snowflakes to add to the winter atmosphere.
He shook off the snow that had covered his black hair and joined the Gryffindor prefect on the back porch. Though he had no idea why he looked up and saw, to his surprise, mistletoe hanging all around them. He had no idea what made him do it, he didn't even think of doing it, but he did. "Mistletoe," he said, pointing up. On instinct they both leaned forward and before they knew it they were kissing, completely oblivious to the snow around them.
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A/N: Sorry if that was to mushy or to sudden but hey people wanted romance and they just got it. BTW I know that in the last chapter I spelled the word ornament wrong. If no one but Deadly Fate noticed then I'm doing fine. But to those of you who might have noticed and didn't say anything I beg that in the future you may tell me like that person did.
Sorry that this too to long and don't expect a chapter anytime soon (in about a week or nine days the next chapter will come). My friend is moving back from Florida and I hope to get to see he this weekend and next week.
~Marauder3Moony~
