A/N: Many Great Thanks To My Reviewers:
pottersgirl91 - YAY! I'm so glad that you finally decided to read this. I hope that you'll keep on reading because you have no idea how happy it makes me to have my bestest friend reading one of my favorite stories that I wrote.
Alexathenle - Horray! One of my favorite writer's coming to read my fic. I'm flattered, and of course I agree with you, there isn't enough of this 'ship out there in fanfiction world. Glad you like Dumbledore, I like him a lot too and I think it's only right to have him in the story since he was so unjustly plucked from us in book 6. Yes, Riddle is hot and I must say, you've gotta love him. Thanks for the review and happy reading!
Reanne1102 - Flattered, simply flattered... and very grateful, too! Yes, I love Tom/Hermione and Cedric/Hermione and I'm glad that you think I'm doing well with them. There just isn't enough of those two pairings, so leave it up to me to fix that. Yes, I feel it's only right for Tom to show Hermione that side of him because he's suspicious of her... and why shouldn't he be. Some girl just suddenly appears in the halls of the school, makes great friends with his most hated teacher, and has no real solid alibi until going on a specialy trip with said hated teacher! Hermione who plays Quidditch? Hm... not in this one, sorry. Quidditch is canceled in this fic because of the play, but I will see about putting that in in another one of my Tom/Hermione ones! I'll let you know more about that later... thanks for reviewing.
All-American Vampire - Just for you (and possibly out of my own impatience) I'm going to start updating more often. Your favorite fanfiction? Oh golly gee, I'm speechless... and smiling very broadly. Many, many large and tremendous thanks to you! Continue reading please!
Now, on with the show...
Chapter 7 – Plans for a Play
"Ah, Miss Granger, there you are," Dumbledore called happily as Hermione, Sandie, and Tiffany entered the Great Hall with their books and things. "Would you like to accompany me? I've a few things to discuss with you."
"Certainly," Hermione beamed. She was so thankful for this Dumbledore because it kept her from feeling too lost or nervous. He made her feel somewhat at home with his fatherly ways. "I'll see you two in class," Hermione called to Tiffany and Sandie as she and Dumbledore started up the stairs for Dumbledore's office.
Hermione was sad to leave the Great Hall just as she had entered it, though. She was actually quite hungry because she only ate half of the chowder she had gotten while out with Dumbledore. She had smelled the delicious food that the house-elves had made. But Hermione said nothing as she continued to follow Dumbledore.
They went into the empty Transfigurations classroom and into an office just off the classroom, the same one Dumbledore had escorted Hermione to last night before going to Dippet's office. Dumbledore pointed to a chair and Hermione sat down as he conjured a platter of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes, and hash browns.
"Thanks," Hermione said as she watched a knife spread marmalade on her toast.
"Your welcome. Now, Miss Granger, today is your first day of classes and I think that it would be wise to put you in contact with Tom quite a bit. Just to kind of get things rolling," Dumbledore informed.
"O-Okay," Hermione said as she gulped down her toast and prepared to take a bite of egg.
"I believe that Tom's schedule is as follows: Advanced Potions, Advanced Transfigurations, Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts, Divinations, Care of Magical Creatures, Advanced Charms, Advanced Arithmancy, and the usual study period."
Hermione reviewed the schedule Dumbledore had handed her. 'Care of Magical Creatures? Divinations?' Then Hermione's mind sputtered incredulously when she thought about that last one again.
"Not Divinations!" Hermione groaned as she thought about the teacher she had when she took that class. Then, like lightning, something hit her. "Wait! Trelawney... is that the teacher's name?"
"No, her name is Alvinia Staffer. She's quite good actually, though many of the students dislike her," Dumbledore replied.
"Great," Hermione mumbled. "So, I'm just supposed to have classes with him? Possibly ask him for help?"
"Well, I believe I've found a way for you two to get closer. You'll have that schedule and not the one we originally planned on, but you're okay with that, right?" He didn't give her time to answer though as he continued on with a smile. "So, that's that and like I said, I've found a way for you two to get closer."
"Really?"
"Yes," Dumbledore beamed, a gleam streaking across his glasses as his eyes twinkled brilliantly. "I talked with Armando and we decided to hold a play."
"Wait now...," Hermione said in a warning tone. "I don't ac-"
"But, Miss Granger, this could be your calling," Dumbledore chuckled. "You've got to try."
"But what if Tom doesn't try-out?"
"That's where you come in," Dumbledore said nonchalantly. "Mr. Riddle is quite intrigued by challenges and things of that sort. I believe we can make you intriguing enough to make our young Mr. Riddle try-out because he'll see you as a challenge... or you could make a challenge to him."
"You mean you want me to taunt him into trying-out?" Hermione said as she almost choked on her pancake. She didn't want to even imagine taunting the future Lord of Darkness.
"Why! What a superb idea! You're brilliant, Miss Granger!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
"Wait! I was just asking," Hermione argued in shock as she tried not to choke on her bite of bacon.
"And I'm telling you yes. You should taunt him," Dumbledore explained.
"Why is it I'm not comfortable with this idea?"
"You'll get used to it," he assured her as he rose from his desk when the bell rang. Hermione frowned and grabbed her bag, leaving his office slowly on her way to Advanced Potions.
"Mr. Granger... Mrs. Granger," McGonagall greeted as she rose from a table at the Leaky Cauldron in London to shake hands with her guests.
"Headmistress McGognall, is it?" Mr. Granger asked as she shook her hand and pulled out a chair for his wife.
"McGonagall," the Headmistress corrected as she sat down.
"What is it that you wanted to talk with us about?" Mrs. Granger inquired.
"Is our darling, Hermione, in some kind of trouble?" Mr. Granger questioned.
"Well, not the kind of trouble that you might expect. Nothing to do with grades or anything... but to do with her uh-," McGonagall paused here as she tried to figure out how to explain to these practical Muggles that their daughter disappeared while staying at the magical school she headed.
"Her what?" Mrs. Granger ventured as she looked nervously from McGonagall to her husband, grabbing his hand to calm herself.
"Her disappearance," McGonagall finished with a sigh.
"What?" Mr. Granger half laughed. "I must have heard you wrong. I thought that you said her disappearance."
"I did, Mr. Granger," McGonagall confirmed.
"Well, where is she?" Mrs. Granger voiced sounding every bit hysterical.
"That I'm not sure. I believe that she's either somewhere in the future or in the past. The good thing is, that she's somewhere near Hogwarts castle. The device that caused her disappearance can only transport you to different times, not different places."
"In another time? What other time?" Mr. Granger intoned incredulously.
"That I'm not sure of. We are conducting a search for her... but it's not turning up any results because it's very hard to search in the future or the past for someone. The only way we can is by the art of Divination," McGonagall informed.
"You mean... fortune telling?" Mrs. Granger gasped.
The Granger's had heard Hermione talk about this hated class before. She had said it was unreliable and stupid. So how in the world could it be used to find their daughter?
"It's really fortune telling as much as it is future and past reading," McGonagall reasoned. She could hardly believe that she was defending the ridiculous art of Divination.
"God help us," Mrs. Granger sighed as tears spilled forward and she buried her face in Mr. Granger's shoulder. McGonagall frowned at the sight of her star pupil's parents in despair about their missing daughter. She felt that she wasn't turning out to be the Headmistress that she had hoped she would.
Hermione entered the Advanced Potions classroom and watched students come in until she saw Tom Riddle enter. He was flanked by a group of six boys, all looking arrogant and Slytherin-ish. Hermione frowned and turned away quickly as Tom made eye contact and one of the boys nearest her with white blond hair glared at her.
'Must be one of Draco's relations' Hermione thought as she watched Tom take center seat at one of the tables holding three of the boys. She watched him unpack his things, so rapt in what he was doing that she never saw the person next to her approach.
"Ah, a new student," they boomed causing her to jump in her seat. Her heart was pounding away as she turned and looked at a face she had seen once before. Slughorn.
"Pr-Professor Slughorn," Hermione stuttered as she sat up straight in her chair and smiled at him.
"I see no introduction on my part is needed here. But your name, m'dear?" Slughorn demanded pleasantly.
"Alice Granger," Hermione obliged.
"Welcome to Advanced Potions, Miss Granger. Seeing as this is your first day, I think it wise that you work with our most talented and gifted student in the area... Eileen... will you come here please?" Slughorn addressed.
A pale girl in the front left corner of the class arose from her seat and walked back to stand on Hermione's other side. Eileen stood there with her hands folded gracefully behind her back as she looked with patience to Slughorn. Hermione felt an internal groan flow through her thoughts as she felt a bad anticipation for what was coming when she saw Tom's friends snickering.
"Eileen Prince, this is Alice Granger. I believe that it would be best that you work with Miss Granger for this semester... at least until Christmas break anyway. When I'm sure she'll be caught up with us and able to work with someone less apt in the area," Slughorn commented.
"Certainly, Professor," Eileen nodded as she moved around the table and took a seat on Hermione's left, summoning her ingredients and such to her. Hermione looked at her with a sideways glance out of the corner of her eye. The girl was very pale and had a face much like Snape's in it's length and sallow expression.
'Prince? Where have I heard that name before? Prince?' Hermione pondered as she watched Eileen open her book. She noticed a few notes written in the margins and knew instantly. 'The Half-Blood Prince from last year! Snape's mother...'
Hermione's thoughts were broken by Slughorn who was tapping his wand upon a podium in the front for attention. All eyes turned to his massive form as he gestured to the green chalkboard behind him.
"Your instructions are on the board... you have one hour to brew the potion, bottle it, place it on my desk, and clean up anything that you might have left a mess," Slughorn commanded. "Your hour starts... now!"
"So, what shall-"
"Nothing... just stand back and let me do this," Eileen snarled in a low growl as she set to work.
"Well, I have to do something so that Slughorn will let me partner with someone else after Christmas break," Hermione pointed out.
Eileen shot her a venomous glare as she lit a fire under the cauldron and tipped in the first ingredient. Hermione felt a fire rise in her chest as well as she watched Eileen turn back to the plants laid upon the table. Eileen ignored Hermione's glare and began cutting up a rather curious looking root.
"Besides," Hermione argued, "I shall learn nothing if you do everything. So if you would be so kind as to pass me the-"
"What part of I have this under control and don't need your help – or rather hindrance – screwing things up for me don't you understand?" Eileen shot.
"If you're going to be this hard to work with, then it's going to be a long time until Christmas break seems to get here," Hermione hissed. "Now... just pass me that-"
"No!" Eileen grumbled as she pulled toward her the plant in which Hermione was gesturing and began to slice it.
Hermione dropped her knife upon the table, walked around to the front of the table, and grabbed a handful of beetles. She was on her way back to her seat when Eileen noticed what she had done.
"Put those back!" Eileen demanded as she pointed a long, pallid finger at the spot on the table where only one beetle was left laying.
"No," Hermione said simply as her eyebrows shot skyward on her forehead and she threw the three beetles in her hand into a bowl. Hermione looked down at the bowl and picked up a tool for grinding. She was about to begin crushing up the beetles when Eileen reached over and grabbed Hermione's wrist. This jarred the bowl in her hand and sent one of the beetles flying into the cauldron.
"NO!" Eileen exclaimed frantically as she grabbed a pair of scissors, the only thing she could find that would grab the beetle, and tried to pull it out. But she only succeed in pushing the beetle deeper into the potion causing it to hiss and change to a putrid gray with green and orange swirling in it.
"I'm sorry!" Hermione exclaimed as she stared at the potion in alarm. Slughorn looked up from some essays he was grading at the front of the class at the sound of the commotion. He set down his quill and stood up slowly as Eileen began trying to fix the the now mustard yellow potion.
"Now look what you've done," she hissed as she began stirring twice clockwise and once counter clockwise.
"What I've done?" Hermione spat. "I wasn't the one that grabbed my wrist and caused me to drop the beetle in, now was I?"
"You should have just listened to me in the first place and left it to me. Then I wouldn't have had to grab your wrist," Eileen argued as she began adding water to the potion which was steaming heavily.
"And if you just would have let me help in the first place," Hermione fired back as she crossed her arms and glared at Eileen.
"What seems to be the problem?" Slughorn questioned as he fanned his way through the thick steam that hung around Hermione and Eileen's table.
"Her!" Eileen snarled as she pointed angrily at Hermione.
"Now, Eileen," Slughorn chuckled as he placed a hand atop hers and lowered her pointed finger. "Let's try and put this difference aside, and I'll let you come in a lunch time to make this up."
"I refuse to work with her," Eileen snapped.
"Eil-," Slughorn began, but Hermione cut him off.
"And I refuse to work with you!" Hermione grumbled back at Eileen.
"Now, now, ladies," Slughorn laughed uneasily as the two girls glared daggers at each other. The air around them was becoming icy and tense. "Like I said, we'll just come in during lunch or after dinner even and clear this mess all up."
"Fine," Hermione sighed grouchily. "As long as I get a new partner tomorrow."
"Very well, Miss Granger," Slughorn agreed as Eileen and Hermione turned to start cleaning up their mess.
Hermione was glad to get to Dumbledore's classroom and see Sandie sitting there in the front of the classroom. Dumbledore was sitting upon the edge of his desk in polite conversation with her which made Hermione feel immediately comfortable.
"Hello, Alice," Sandie greeted.
"Hey," Hermione replied.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore nodded as he stood up. "How was your first class of the day?"
"Let's just say I hope that the rest of my classes go better than that or I'm running away from school," Hermione sighed heavily.
"That bad?" Sandie asked with concern as she looked disbelievingly at Hermione. "Usually Slughorn's classes are terrific because he's such a pleasant teacher."
"Oh, it wasn't Slughorn that bothered me," Hermione corrected as she pulled out her Transfigurations book. "It was the person he partnered me with?"
"Tom?" Dumbledore asked.
"Oh no," Hermione laughed sarcastically. "It was Eileen Prince. She's quite arrogant and... just so-"
"Slytherin-like?" Sandie suggested.
"Yes!"
"Now, surely she's not all that bad," Dumbledore chuckled, his eyes sparkling with each slight movement of his head.
"Oh, believe me. She is and was," Hermione assured him as the bell rang and he shrugged. "I have to go at lunch and make up what she screwed up in class today."
"I had hoped that we could have a meeting then, but seeing as you have something to do, I'll wait until after dinner," Dumbledore sighed as he turned to his class.
"A meeting? About what?" Sandie quizzed in a whisper to Hermione as Dumbledore began to address the class.
"Probably just about my first day of school and he said something about Hogsmeade trips," Hermione waved airily, knowing full well that the meeting was probably more about the play.
Hermione secretly hoped that Dippet had changed his mind and told Dumbledore no on a second thought. There was no way she could act, not even if she were to enhance her acting skills with magic. Which she promised herself she would never do as she recalled what had happened to Seamus Finnigan once at the beginning of seventh year.
He and Dean Thomas had gotten into a fight over Quidditch which ended with Seamus saying he could do anything better than Dean. Dean told him he would never draw better, so Seamus cast a spell upon his hands to make himself more artistic, but the spell backfired. Seamus ended up drawing all over everything. Books, walls, tables, and even his Potions essay which cost him a detention.
Hermione smiled though as she recalled the look on the disliked professor's face when he saw the drawing that Seamus had done of him. Ron had deemed it as a very accurate depiction, but the professor didn't agree. Hermione missed her friends more than anything in that moment as she thought about how much fun they used to have. 'I wonder what they are doing at this very moment?'
"I'm sorry, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall sighed as she sat at her desk staring across it at Ron and Harry. "There's no sign of her yet."
"I still can't believe that she would just... disappear like that," Ron frowned as he got up.
"All we can do is continue looking and pray for her," McGonagall pointed out.
"C'mon then, Ron," Harry mumbled. "Let's go down to lunch before we go to Charms."
"I'm not hungry," Ron admitted mournfully as he turned and left the Headmistress's office.
"Mr. Potter, do keep an eye on him," McGonagall instructed. "Won't you?"
"Certainly, Professor," Harry obliged as he stood up to leave. Harry stopped short though as a strange feeling over took him. He looked back to McGonagall who had her head in her hands and looked quite guilt-filled. Harry sighed and decided not to ask what he had been going to as he left the office.
"Maybe if you hadn't left that thing sitting on the desk after you used it, then Miss Granger would still be with us," McGonagall scolded herself sadly after hearing the door to her office shut.
"Now, Minerva, you can't blame yourself for the curiosity of teenagers," coached a familiar voice. McGonagall turned around to see Dumbledore's smiling face beaming down at her from his picture frame. "Not to mention that everything happens for a reason."
McGonagall nodded, yet she couldn't help but feel guilty. She wanted so much to go back and see Dumbledore, but something in her brain rang out cruelly. 'That's what got you into this mess in the first place!'