Title: Not Quite Expected Rating: PG (just to be safe)
Pairing: Ginny Weasely/Tom Riddle
Summary: They'd expected underhanded means, actually.
Author's Notes: This is completely unbeta'd, so all mistakes are irrevocably mine. It was written in response to a challenge meme on Live Journal.

They'd expected underhanded means, trickery, and terror for Voldemort's next attack: entering the Three Broomsticks and
being greeted by the sight of Tom Marvolo Riddle sitting at a table, chin propped up on one hand as he smirked, was not on
the list of expectations. Only Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley recognized him; gone was the skeletal snake-like figure,
replaced by a slightly older version of the Tom they'd met in the diary, and the rest of the Gryffindor parade behind them came
to a messy halt when they did.

His dark hair was casual in its disarray (which, of course, must have taken hours to do), and his clothing was almost Muggle.
He watched his arch-nemesis and his almost-liberator stop in their tracks and stare open-mouthed at him; one dark eyebrow
arched as if to question their astonishment. The Weasley girl--no, she was newly seventeen, wasn't she?--looked much more
interesting than she had as a frightened child losing her soul; Potter, Tom noticed with an internal sneer, was still pale and
awkward and short.

No one knew what one said to one's mortal enemy when encountering him in a pub; several whines from Harry might have been attempts at words. Ginny, however, was the first to recover from her shock: the horrified astonishment melted from her
expression, turning to distinct fascination. Without another look for her companion she stepped forward, and a faint smirk
began to curve her mouth. "Go right ahead and have your wicked way with me, Tom," she murmured as if this was exactly what one said to one's mortal enemy in a pub.

Oh yes, she was definitely more interesting. He thought he might do just that.