It took her a while but afterwards she started to accept the wand as her own. Using the new wand she found her magic was more stronger than before and spells took less concentration to cast. Her old wand had been like using someone else's wand and her new wand felt like it had been made for her. Over the next two days she had sat the sixth year exams. She wasn't surprised when the results came through a day later telling her she had achieved outstanding in all subjects. Dippet had been extremely pleased with the results while Dumbledore looked at her suspiciously. Slughorn had praised her and asked her to join his slug club. Some things never did change with time but she had accepted his offer in the end. She didn't really care about being a part of his club but she knew Tom was one of the members. It might be useful for her to keep a closer eye on him and maybe it could help with her plan.

She was privately sorted in Dippet's office. Hermione had been afraid of where the sorting hat would place her as over the year she had really changed as a person. She knew that there was no way she would be placed in Gryffindor again. All that courage and bravery had gone down the drain last year. When it was war you quickly learnt that it didn't matter what method you used as long as you won in the end. She had become more sly, cunning and cruel to defeat her enemies. Even right now she was secretly plotting to murder someone and this wasn't the kind of thing Gryiffindor's did. She knew there were only two houses she could possibly be placed into. It was either Ravenclaw or Slytherin. When the Hat had been placed on her head it had taken it a very long time before it suddenly announced Ravenclaw. She was glad to have been placed in Ravenclaw, she didn't think she could stand living with Slytherin's. Slughorn had been disappointed she wasn't in Slytherin but he had gotten over it fast. She was told she would be introduced to everyone at breakfast tomorrow. She would also have to stay at the hospital wing for one more day as the house elves prepared a place for her at the Ravenclaw dormitory. She guessed it was being magically extended to fit her in since it was taking so long. When she came back to the hospital wing she found a brand new Ravenclaw uniform neatly folded on her bed. Since she was bored she decided to try it on. It was a perfect fit but she found it strange to see an eagle instead of the usual lion etched on her uniform.

"Your really eager to start" Madam Whittaker said pushing a trolley into the room. "Wearing your uniform a day earlier" She started to shift bottles onto the shelf from the trolley.

"I was just trying it on and there isn't anything to do around here"

"Actually there's plenty of work to be done but your not qualified"

"Can I Help?"

"Well I don't know, the headmaster might not approve the regulations state th-----"

"He doesn't have to know and it is my last day"

"All the better reason for me not to get used to you" She pushed the trolley into her office. "I'm going to really miss you when you leave"

"I promise I'll visit as often as I can" she smiled at Hermione and gave her a brief hug.

"In that case I'll turn a blind eye to the rules" The doors swung open and a familiar boy ran through holding one of his hands. "Good lord Ben not again" Madam Whittaker said looking annoyed but then she looked at Hermione and her expression relaxed. "I'm going down to fetch some supplies and you can take care of your first patient" she said winking at Hermione and walked out of the room. For an awkward couple of seconds the boy and her just stared at each other until he broke the silence.

"Are you supposed to heal my hand" he asked.

"Yes I am" she said uncertainly drawing her wand. The boy held his hand up towards her and she took a closer look. The skin had turned purple and red pimples were all over it. She had seen Neville's hand turn like that before in Snape's potion class. They had been brewing an antidote for a poison and Snape had told them to avoid skin contact with the potion until the final stage had been reached. "Were you making the antidote to Velminus staminax" the boy nodded to say yes.

She had an idea on how to reverse the effects. At the Potion's final stage the plant blood grass that affected the skin became inactive. Active Blood grass normally reacted with the skins keratin and turned it purple while inflammation made the red pimples appear. Well if she just undid the reaction with the keratin everything should be fixed and for that she needed a solution of zertomin and a spell for absorption. She scanned the shelf behind the boy and found a bottle labelled zertomin. Uncorking the bottle she poured it into a dish and made the boy dip his hand inside it. Once his hand was soaked with zertomin she pointed her wand at it. "Sorptsurra" she said expecting the hand to instantly heal but to her horror cracks appeared on his skin and blood started to heavily pour through.

"What did you do to me" the boy screamed clutching his hand and Hermione panicked. She was about run out and find Madam Whittaker when Tom Riddle walked through the door. He took one look at the boys hand and waving his wand he summoned a bottle of the shelf. He threw of the lid and poured the contents over the boy's hand. He muttered a few spells making complex wand movements and in a couple of seconds the boy's hand was healed.

"Thank you" the boy whispered and Tom nodded in acknowledgement. The boy turned towards her and giving her a frightened look he ran out the room. She felt really bad, its not like she had done it on purpose but the boy obviously thought otherwise.

Tom was staring at her with his usual expressionless face and it was creeping her out. She couldn't understand how a person could achieve such an emotionless face. It was like he wasn't a person but a perfect doll made from wax. In fact now that Hermione took a closer he appeared like a wax doll so much that it was uncanny. His skin was so pale and his black hair was so well kept that not even a single strand was out of place. Judging from the worn out look of his uniform she guessed it was second hand since he was an orphan with no money. But not one crease or even a small wrinkle was visible on his uniform. His appearance was just too perfect to be human.

"Ravenclaw" he said breaking the silence. "Unbelievable" What did he mean by that? If he was finding it hard to believe that she was in Ravenclaw did he mean to say that she was dumb?

"What do you mean unbelievable" she said trying to sound like she wasn't really bothered but she couldn't help the traces of anger from creeping into her voice.

"Anyone with a brain would know not to add zertomin" he said sneering at her.

She couldn't understand where she had gone wrong. For the first time in her life she felt less intelligent. Now she knew how Neville felt like in Snape's class.

"But Zertomin undoes the reaction with the skins Keratin and that----"

"Is exactly what we want to avoid" he said cutting in. She waited for him to go on and explain why, but he stayed silent looking at her expectantly. She realised he wanted her to ask him for the explanation. She knew he was enjoying this by making her feel inferior to him. He wanted her to confirm it by begging him for the answer. It felt really degrading but she was Hermione Granger and she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep at night if she didn't know the answer.

"Why" she whispered looking down at the floor.

"The reaction with the Keratin stops the blood grass from proceeding any further. Although Zertomin reverses the reaction it does not inactivate the blood grass, leaving it free to move past the skin and into the blood vessels. The blood vessels then rupture causing heavy bleeding" Still looking at the floor, at that moment Hermione felt like dying of shame. How could she have not realised the blood grass would still be active. "What you want to do is inactivate the blood grass first then undo the Keratin reaction." His answer made perfect sense. Why hadn't she thought of that? "Calamus vivariae is what you are supposed to use. Never Zertomin" he said emphasising the last words. She snapped her head up and looked at him straight in the eye. There was absolutely no need for him to say that at the end. It's not like she had a degree in healing and she was bound to make mistakes. He was obviously enjoying making her feel stupid. He continued to stare back and she looked down at the floor once more feeling uncomfortable.

"Madam Whittaker's not here" she said hoping he would go away.

"I'm here to see you" he said making her look up immediately.

Please review, they really make me happy and a happy writer means faster updates. I should really be revising for my uni exams but my muse just won't leave me alone.