Hope y'all liked that chapter. This story's starting to come to a close as you can tell. A couple chapters more, I would say. Tom and Hermione are going to seem pretty ooc at first, but bear with me. Anyways, here's chapter 18!
Tom gave Hermione a little nibble on her bottom lip to which she squealed in pleasure as he held her in his arms. In response, all she did was kiss him impeccably fiercely on his lips, and she even gave his tongue a small joining with hers. He was honestly surprised that she reacted like this. Like she didn't care he was completely evil. She just threw herself at him with all her being and indulged his pleasures. He was, however, glad that she did. When she wrapped her legs around him, or even when she jumped into his arms, he found that she was enjoyably light.
Still, he had noticed the look of disappointment and hurt on her face when Avery had told him that it was what he had ordered. It was true; Tom had said to bring Black to him for questioning. He hadn't however known that Hermione would come back to him, as enthusiastic as ever. He now had a higher respect for—Antares, was it?—because whatever Antares had done with Hermione, it caused her to still like Tom more. But, then again, he was also feeling slightly friendlier with Avery, considering he had interrupted Hermione and Andy's kissing session. But only a small bit friendlier.
He was kicked out of his thoughts by the loud chirp of a bird outside—not Avery's Animagus form, but a regular bird. He looked around, discovering that it was starting to get light outside. He hadn't been paying attention at all to the time; it seemed to pass too quickly.
Hermione must have noticed too, because while she didn't let go of him, she looked at him with a worried look in her almond eyes. He gave her an impish grin and gave her a euphoric kiss while spinning her around again. She laughed in joyfulness, but jumped down from his arms. She was not acting at all like herself, Tom realized, but he decided almost instantly that he liked the daring Hermione better than the studious, uptight Hermione.
"Tom." She said laughingly. "We have to go inside! Madam Pomfrey will have a fit when she notices I'm gone!"
"Aw, do we have to?" Tom said mockingly; a tone which he hadn't heard himself use before.
"Yes, Tom." She replied bossily, placing her hands on her hips. She was back to the old Hermione again.
"Okay, you're right. Here, I'll take you there." He surrendered.
"Tom, I am perfectly capable of bringing myself there." She responded defensively.
"You sure?"
She started to nod in agreement, but she swiftly cried out in surprise as he picked her up again in his arms. She hit him once lightly on the arm in mock anger, but he just arched a dark eyebrow at her and smirked as he placed another playful kiss on her lips. He brought her effortlessly up the steps and somehow managed to get them both inside the doors.
"Let me down!" Hermione shrieked softly when they reached the Hospital Wing.
He grinned at her, but obliged. "Anything for you, my dear." He said politely.
"Oh, shut up." Hermione said bewitchingly. She planted an impetuous but quick peck on his cheek and felt her lips burning up with his touch. She looked back at him and disappeared into the room.
Tom was still temporarily in shock at Hermione's change of mood and behavior, but he didn't—and couldn't—dwell on it for long. He swiftly turned around and nearly ran into a certain blonde-haired boy. Tom's anger was quickly rising, though now it was more annoyance than pure hate. He glared at the boy, who stepped back in apology."What is it?" Tom snapped shortly.
"M-My Lord. I have always wondered…why Granger? Do you even know her really? Because if she was involved with Black…who knows what she is up to?" Avery said bravely.
"It is not your job to delve in my affairs, Avery. You'll do what I tell you." Tom said softly but commandingly.
"Yes. As you say, My Lord."
"And do not call me your Lord, Avery! It is really getting on my nerves. It's Riddle or Voldemort to you. Anything else you wanted?" Tom ordered.
"Yes, actually, My Lo—Voldemort. Do you still wish me to watch them?" he asked nervously.
"There is no need anymore. Though you can check in every now and then on Black. Do not trail him, but make sure he does not do anything foolish. He's a smart man and he is capable of doing just about anything. He is an Animagus; watch out for any suspicious forms. He seems like a wolf or dog kind of person to me. Oh, while you're at it, give those orders also to Mulciber. You seem to need an accomplice." Tom said scathingly.
Avery flinched but did not say anything. "Yes, sir."
Avery transformed and flew off to the Slytherin Common Room, leaving Tom there to reminisce about Hermione. However, Tom did not notice Avery's devilish sneer as he left.
Hermione leaned on the door of the Hospital Wing once it closed, her heart beating fast and her breath coming in short gasps. She reached a wavering finger up to her lips and felt them still warm from Tom's feverish kisses. She inhaled deeply and smelled his light apple-cinnamon scent on her and still wondered where it had come from. She still couldn't believe how a man that would become the beyond evil Lord Voldemort could pleasure her with such deep, fulfilling actions, yet in the future be colder than ice. She just hoped she could change the future by being here.
She closed her eyes in thought, unaware that she was smiling in happiness. Someone cleared their throat off to her right, and she jumped in surprise. "Don't do that!" she said, still slightly in shock.
"So, uh, do you usually take pleasure in toying with other people's emotions?" Andy asked her accusingly.
"W—What?" Hermione questioned.
"Was I just your comfort zone until Riddle came around? Did you even enjoy it at all?"
Her eyes took on an ashamed and apologetic glimmer as she looked down. "I'm sorry, Andy. I really am. I think I was just hurt by everything that had happened. I do like you, I sincerely do. It's just…it feels beyond wrong. If you knew why, you would understand I hope. It's difficult to explain, but all I can say is I'm terribly sorry and I hope you forgive me. I'll of course understand if you don't and if you never talk to me again, but I really did not mean to hurt you as much as I did. I'm so, so, so sorry, Andy." She said, one tear cascading down each cheek.
She didn't notice him get up from his sitting position to come over to her. "Shh. I should have known he was the object of your desire. I took advantage of you. I suppose I was being a little overdramatic. Do you forgive me?"
Hermione looked up at him incredulously and nodded. He gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head and smiled. "So are you planning on telling me why exactly it would be wrong? Just for my own curiosity. I know you're obsessed with Riddle—and him with you—but if you'd like to indulge me?" he asked wonderingly.
She pondered for a few moments. "I can't say much, but I will tell you the main reason. It's because he's related to you and technically to my friend. And I can't—" she gave him a silencing look at his open mouth, "—tell you any more than that for risk of changing things. I'm really sorry."
"Yeah. Me too." He said sadly, and Hermione joined him in a gloomy grimace.
Avery reached the entrance to the Slytherin dorms and muttered the password ("Parseltongue"). Kicking aside a stray book, he walked blindly into their dormitories, reaching the third bed from the right. Hitting the black-haired boy hard upside his head, Avery was delighted to notice that the boy both woke up and started rubbing his head, looking around aimlessly.
"Get up you useless fool." Avery spat quietly.
"Avery?" Mulciber yawned.
"Of course. Now get up. Voldemort has given us orders and he is not a patient man. NOW!"
Mulciber grumbled something obscene but incoherent, however, joining Avery in the Common Room just the same. "What!" he demanded.
"We are to follow Antares Black around while not arising suspicions." Lawrence quickly briefed him. "Do you understand me?"
"Obviously." Miles Mulciber said redundantly.
Lawrence sneered. "Yes, well. I have surmounting evidence of the Dark Lord's affliction with that Granger girl—quite disgusting, really. She is much more than meets the eye; that much I discern. Unfortunately, our 'oh so levelheaded' Master has seemed to neglect that fact. You and I—" Avery motioned to both of them, "—must do something about it, without raising Voldemort's suspicions. Think you're up to it?" Avery added as a vindictive afterthought.
Miles pondered rebelliously for precious moments before making up his mind. "You're on. But—just so we're clear…he finds out and I had nothing to do with it."
Avery stared at him unblinkingly. "He told both me and you to trail Black. Therefore…you do have something to do with it. As such, you have agreed nonetheless, and so I will now leave you to your piteous sleep. Until then, Mulciber."
Mulciber stared at Avery's retreating back with a look of utmost loathing. Contorting his face into a mix of a sneer and of great dislike, he stormed up to the dormitories again, but was afraid he wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.
Hermione woke up to a bright stream of light glistening through the window. She smiled gleefully as she recalled the events of last night. Suddenly, her mouth was claimed by a set of full, enchanting lips covering hers. "Good morning, Sunshine." A low, seductive voice said next to her.
"How long have you been here?" Hermione asked woefully.
"Oh, about an hour. Been watching you sleep. Don't worry; it's still before Pomfrey's shift starts. She hasn't noticed I'm here." Tom confided.
Hermione smiled again. "Yeah, well, you'd better get out soon otherwise she will come in!"
"I was just going to leave anyway. Oh, I almost forgot. These—" he pulled out his wand, which now had a bouquet of red roses stemming from it, "—are for you."
He removed them from the tip of his wand, and handed them gracefully to her. "Tom!" she said breathlessly. "They're beautiful!"
"Yes, I know. I'm rather gifted."
She punched him lightly on the arm. "Cocky is more like it." There were sounds of distant footsteps coming from outside the door. "Tom! You have to go!" she said worriedly.
"I'll be back." Tom replied invitingly, placing a harsh kiss on her lips. He swiftly left the room, though Hermione clutched the flowers closer to her.
"Miss Granger! You're up early!" a bustling Madam Pomfrey said, coming briskly into the room. "Have a good rest?"
"Euphoric. Thanks." Hermione answered with an impish grin.
"Yes, well." Madam Pomfrey said, almost flustered. "I'll just take another look at your side there dear, and then you should be free to go."
Hermione refrained herself from jumping in glee, but just barely. Madam Pomfrey checked Hermione's cuts which were now non-existent, except for one small mark, which Madam Pomfrey said would go away by the evening.
"Oh," Pomfrey added, "when Mr. Black wakes up, you can tell him that he can go—" she stopped and looked over Andy's bed in horror. He was missing.
"What do you want!" Andy said through his agony. He was now sporting a rather large gash above his left eye, and he had brutally been kicked in his right side, which happened to be where one of his ribs had been broken. He also felt—and rather accurately—that he had at least sprained, if not fractured, his wrist. He hadn't known what he had done to deserve this.
"You conflicted with our Master's plans." Miles said, half his face covered in shadows. "And for that you must pay." He added simply.
"I didn't do anything!" Antares reiterated. "Seems like your buddy Riddle has got just what he wants from Hermione. So I don't see why you're interested in me." He said bitingly, trying to ignore the drops of blood sinking into his shirt.
Mulciber and Avery laughed sickeningly. "And how are you planning to convince us that you're not still…involved?" Lawrence asked dismissively.
Antares stared at him in disbelief. How was he going to get out of this one? He knew that you could not Disapparate inside Hogwarts, so that was not an option. And his chances of getting away from them in an animal as big as a wolf were slim. They had taken his wand away, and he thought he was too weak anyway to Summon it without some sort of implement. There was no other option. He was standing upright now; if he could just get into position to get his wand…it was dangling loosely in Miles's hand…there was no other way. He had to go for it. It was now or never…
"One last time," he said to them breathlessly—his wand was still in reach--, "I didn't do anything with Hermione! But you can tell your Master you failed! No one captures a Black and gets away with it!"
He transformed into his Animagus form, and taking a great leap, grabbed his wand from Miles's hand, grateful and surprised that it didn't break in his hard bite. He felt Avery make to grab his tail, but he kicked out hard, feeling with satisfaction, Avery howl in pain as Andy's nails dug into his face. His paws were slipping on the slick tile…if he could just make it into the Hospital Wing, he would be safe…he could hear their footsteps lugging lethargically behind him…
With a painful bound, Andy jumped an entire flight of twelve stairs, his legs almost buckling underneath him, but grateful at his canine nails able to dig into the wood floor (though he cringed at the marks left in it). He turned a corner swiftly, and felt his side collide with the wall, but only whimpered as he continued. Looking up just in time, he stopped, his feet slipping from lack of traction.
"Andy?" she asked frantically. She looked up and saw Miles and Lawrence slow their running, but they were still looking at the pair anxiously.
Suddenly, Mulciber and Avery were thrown backward no less than twenty feet, landing at the base of the stairs. Miles looked up deliriously, but Hermione noticed that Lawrence did not get up, and she assumed with a grimace that he must have hit his head on the stairs and was knocked out. Now she was incredibly pleased that she had suggested Harry continue with the DA meetings, for she was really getting the hang of the Non-Verbal spells now, though she was marveling herself at even her ability to do a spell as simple as 'expelliarmus'. Still, it was a spur-of-the-moment thought that she had and frankly, she was glad it worked.
The wolf that she knew was Antares was looking up at her with his amazingly green eyes (the only feature telling Hermione that he was Andy), a look of both awe and thankfulness bestowed upon them. She smiled, and realized that her wand was still out. Blushing, she stowed it away again. She noticed that Miles was starting to stand up, but she had no intentions of letting him.
"HEY!" she shouted.
He flinched and looked up at her. She could see even from that distance that he was contemplating whether to run away or not. She was happy that she had made an impression on them, but her rule-abiding side was kicking in, and she was desperately hoping she didn't get in trouble for it. Mulciber's dark blue eyes were darting from Hermione to the hallway on his left, and she knew he was two seconds away from sprinting in the opposite direction.
Hermione put her hand in her robes as if to reach for her wand, and she saw his eyes widen; she smiled. Mistakenly, she stole an amused glance at Antares, but unfortunately by the time she looked back up at Miles, he had his wand out, and she stumbled backward with the force of his spell.
"Impedimen—"
"Protego!" another voice shouted from behind Hermione and Andy.
Miles was flung backward with his own incantation, though Hermione still felt a tingling sensation in her body from it almost hitting her. She looked at her defender, and saw none other than Minerva McGonagall stowing her own wand away. McGonagall adjusted her book strap looking smug and pleased with herself, but regained composure as she approached Hermione.
"Thanks." Hermione said gratefully.
"No problem. I was wondering if I'd catch up to you again. You should be more careful next time. If you'll want to follow me, I have some long overdue points to take away from Slytherin. Care to join me?" she said satisfyingly.
Hermione smiled as she followed her future Transfiguration teacher up the steps. Minerva peered down to Miles's face and pursed her lips in a very stern-type way. "Now that will be 20 for attacking a student, 10 for using magic in the halls, and 10 for poor, unconscious Mr. Avery over there. Now you'd better run away before you get found by a teacher."
Miles stared defiantly up at her, though the rattled look in his eyes could not be mistaken. "You can't take points away! You're only a Prefect!" he said indignantly.
"Look at the badge, genius. Head. Girl." She emphasized, pointing at her robes which, indeed, had a large silver pin on them.
He grit his teeth and gave her the most vicious look he could before turning on his heel and swiftly striding down the hallway. "What do we do with him?" Hermione asked nervously.
"Well, one side of me wants to just leave him there to die, but I suppose we should take him to the Hospital Wing." Minerva said woefully.
"Yeah…I guess. Ennervate." Hermione cast unwillingly.
Avery moaned as he rubbed his head, but upon looking at the two girls, he scrambled up, regaining himself, though his eyes rolled slightly in his recovering state. "Y—You know, if I were you, I'd check on your boyfriend over there, Granger. He's not looking too well, is he?"
Hermione looked over her shoulder at the now transformed Antares. She ran over to him, barely hearing Minerva's commanding voice over Avery. He looked horrible—his shirt was ripped on the side, trickles of blood were still falling down his face, and his wrist was at an unpleasantly odd angle. Hermione grimaced at him and looked back at Avery with utmost hatred.
"You're—dead." She mouthed venomously. He just smirked and walked off, seemingly regardless of his head injury. Minerva looked at her with sympathy.
"You go take him to the Hospital Wing," she said consolingly, "and we'll give Gryffindor some points for superior spell work."
A small shower of rubies fell into the bottom hourglass, and Hermione stared at Minerva with gratitude. "Wow. Thanks. I'll see you around?"
Hermione cast a Sleeping Charm on Andy as she started levitate him to the Hospital Wing. When Hermione was almost to the door, she heard an oh-so-familiar voice, and her spirits lightened. She turned around, and lost herself in the soulful, deep chocolate brown eyes belonging to her Tom Riddle.
"MY Tom Riddle? When did I start referring to him as mine?" Hermione asked herself.
"When you started making out with him, you twit." Her all-knowing side said.
"Ah. Right. This could get complicated."
"No. Really?"
"Shut up."
"Hermione! What happened?" Tom asked her worriedly, having caught the glimpse of Andy hanging limply in midair.
"What—What happened?" she questioned incredulously. "Avery and Mulciber happened, Tom! Look what they did to him! And DO NOT tell me you had nothing to do with this, because I know you did. WHAT DID YOU TELL THEM!"
He didn't look hurt or ashamed, but instead angry. "I told them to check in on Black every now and then." He admitted.
"WHAT!" Hermione shouted. She didn't care if anyone heard. "And this is what 'checking in' looks like to you! He could have DIED, Tom! And he would have if he had not been able to transform! If I had not been able to master non-verbal spells! How dare you? I can't believe this!"
He made to touch her face with his hand, but she hit it away, her eyes starting to tear in furiousness. "Hermione…" he started.
"No, Tom. Either you call everyone and everything concerning Andy off and never trouble him again or I tell everyone about what you become and what you have and will do!" she said, trying to convince herself that she wasn't blackmailing him, but was failing horridly.
"Consider it done." He said sadly.
"R—Really?" Hermione asked, taking a deep breath.
"Yes. I didn't know he meant so much to you. I mean, after all, you two did just meet."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Hermione said defensively.
"Nothing. I just didn't want him to hurt you is all."
"With all due respect," Hermione replied firmly, placing her hands on her hips, "you're more likely to hurt me than anyone else is, Riddle."
"I know."
"Oh don't give me that, Riddle! Don't try and suck up now. It's too late. You already said you wouldn't bother him, remember? Last night? Why, oh why, after it was blatantly obvious that Andy and I weren't together did you send a murdering party after him? That was mean, cold, and heartless. And you're turning out to be j-j-just l-like I know y-y-you…" she trailed, thinking miserably of her time.
"All I can say is I'm sorry, Hermione. I don't know what else to give you. And you can be sure that they won't be harming you again. I promise." He said sincerely.
Hermione shook her head. "Well, I hope so. But I can't be trusting your word anymore, now can I? Just let me save my one honest friend, will you? Excuse me." She replied, brushing past him to get to Andy again.
She didn't look back, but if she had, she would have noticed the single, salty, almost non-existent tear slide down Tom's cheek.
So sad, I know. I bet you were wondering if Minerva would come in again, huh? well, there you go. This one was longer than I anticipated! Like literally 10 pages..hehe :)
Thanks to:
emma (omfg, thank you sooooo much, I owe you!), Angelic Bladez, MandaPandaAR (thanks for reviewing, I love you so much!), Caitlin, San01, Indaic, Moonstone, animerocksjapanrocks, Jessi Brooke (again, THANK YOU!), hermionegranger2007 (as always), chipped-nails (love you too and tthhaannkkss!), and Mrs Pierre Bouvier (acid pops sound good too…