Why the hell would he come down to see her unless he knew something about her? She backed away dipping a hand into her pocket and touched her wand with her fingertips. His eyes took on a questioning look.

"Headmaster sent me to give you a tour of the castle" he said looking at the hand resting in her pocket. She felt so relieved after hearing him say that. So he didn't know anything about her. Dippet had sent him and she was getting all scared for no reason. She noticed his eyes on her hand and she slowly removed it from her pocket. "After you" he said holding the door open. Hermione couldn't see a way out of this. She was supposed to be new around here. It would be suspicious if she knew where everything was without being shown around first. She didn't like the idea of prowling around the entire castle all alone with Lord Voldemort but she didn't have a choice. Dippet wanted Tom to show her around and she would have to go through with it. She reluctantly walked through the door avoiding his eyes. Madam Whittaker suddenly appeared carrying a huge box.

"Maya" she said breathlessly. "Where do you think your going?" Before she could say anything Tom stepped out from behind her. "Mr Riddle" Madam Whittaker said excitedly and gave Hermione a knowing smile.

"Allow me Madam" Tom said taking the heavy box out of her hands.

"That's very kind of you Mr Riddle" She said stretching her arms. "Just place it outside the office door" While Tom disappeared inside with the box Madam Whittaker came up to her grinning. "Sneaking of with him were you" she whispered.

"It's not like that, headmaster told him to give me a tour of the castle" she whispered back defensively.

"That's great. It will give some time to be alone with him" She did not like what she was hearing. "Just imagine how romantic it will be Maya, You and him up on the astronomy tower with all the stars in the night sky" Hermione pictured throwing an unsuspecting Tom of the astronomy tower. She unconsciously smiled at the thought and Madam Whittaker took it in the wrong way. "There he comes now" she said hurriedly stepping back. Hermione couldn't help but look ill. Why couldn't anyone see through Tom Riddles shell? All he had to do was smile, talk politely, lift boxes and everyone thought he was great. Madam Whittaker noticed her expression and looked worried. "Maya are you okay"

"I'm fine, honest" she said quickly putting on a fake smile.

"Mr Riddle if I may ask you to take extra care of her. She's been feeling faint lately"

"Of course Madam"

"Don't keep her too late" she said walking past Hermione.

"I will bring her back as soon as I can" he said walking in front of Hermione.

"Shall we" he said turning to look at her. She nodded in response and trailed after him. He started to explain things and point as he walked along but she wasn't really paying attention. He was a fast walker and she was having a hard time keeping up with him. Soon she was slightly out of breath and extremely bored from his explanation of moving staircases. As he launched into a detailed explanation of the four houses she realised he was quoting Hogwarts a history, word for word. She had thought she was the only person that knew it word for word. Never in her life had she thought she would come across someone else.

But her brain couldn't cope anymore with hearing things she knew already. She zoned out and focused her vision on something new. It was completely unintentional but she found herself closely observing Tom Riddle. He was much taller than her she noted looking up at the back of his head. She looked down at his shoes. They looked worn out but they were very clean. He pointed to the left and she noticed his fingers were unusually long and thin. She could make out faint outlines of the blue veins on his hand as they easily showed through his pale skin. She looked away and noticed they would soon be arriving at the final floor. "Maya" she still continued to look in the opposite direction thinking he was still talking about the founders. "Maya" he said a little louder and Hermione realised with a start it was her new name.

"Yes" she said hurriedly looking at him. He was staring at her with a suspicious expression and she felt her heart rate increase. "Not feeling well, sorry I didn't realise you were calling me" She tried to look ill and hoped it looked genuine.

"Were you paying any attention" Although his face was back to being expressionless again she detected a slight tone of irritation in his voice. She summarised the Hogwarts a history's chapter written about the four founders to prove she had been listening. If he was impressed he didn't show it. "We are now at the final floor" he announced walking ahead. Her legs were aching badly. They were supposed to be walking but with the speed he moved at she felt like she had been running instead. "We are now heading up to the astronomy tower and the final destination of our tour" she followed him up to the tower. Her legs were really numb and she felt like she couldn't stand anymore. She sank to the ground trying to steady her breathing. He stopped in the middle of explaining something about divination as he turned to look at her.

"I'll get Madam Whittaker" he said turning to leave the tower.

"Wait, theirs no need. I'm just tired from walking" she said breathlessly.

"We'll wait here until you can breath then I'll drop you back" he turned and walked up to the front of the tower. With his hands behind his back he silently stared up at the starry sky. With the resting she found herself feeling better and she looked up at the sky. The stars were beautiful but that wasn't the only thing in the sky tonight. The moon was also out and its silvery light poured over the whole tower. She looked at him and his pale skin almost glowed in the moonlight.

She stood up deciding to announce she was well enough to walk back when she thought of something. She hadn't been serious when she had thought of throwing him of the tower. But now it looked like the perfect opportunity to kill him. He was of guard with his back turned towards her. His hands were behind his back where she could clearly see them. They were all alone and past curfew so the chances of someone coming up was slim. Trying to push him off wouldn't be practical. He was obviously much heavier and he might fight her of. But she could easily use the killing curse on him. A quick movement of her wand with the words Avada Kedavra and Lord Voldemort would be no more. She let all her feelings of hate for Voldemort fill her up. She thought about the way her family and friends had been murdered. Ron's lifeless face and Harry falling filled her vision as she slowly drew her wand. Quietly walking closer she pointed her wand high at his back and held her breath preparing to shout Avada Kedavra. He suddenly turned around and drew his wand at lightening speed.

"Expeliarmus" he shouted before she even had a chance to react and her wand flew out of her hands. In a matter of seconds she found his wand pressing into her neck and her eyes widened in fear.

"What are you doing?" she whispered trying to get away but he poked his wand even further into her neck. His expression was frightening as he glared at her.

"That's what I should be asking you" he said coldly boring his eyes into her.

He was waiting for an explanation and she didn't know what to say. He would probably kill her right now and easily explain away her murder, after all he had done it with moaning myrtle. Suddenly droplets of water started to fall from the sky as it started to slowly rain. She thanked whatever Gods were up there as a brilliant excuse came to her.

"I thought it was cold out here, I was going to use a warming spell on you" Hermione knew he would try to use legilimency and she kept her mind as blank as possible.

"Warming spell" he said staring into her eyes. "Who ever gave you the right to put a spell on me?" She had been expecting him ask that and she already had the answer.

"In the library I didn't ask you to dry my hair. I was only trying to return the favour" she said in a determined voice. "I'm sorry I even bothered" she tried to make her voice sound a little hurt. He immediately withdrew the wand from her neck and stepped back. He levitated her wand into the air and picked it up.

"Your wand" he said holding it towards her and she took it from him with a shaky hand. She felt much safer holding her wand and knowing the fact that he had believed her lie. "It's late we should go back" he started to head out and she followed behind with her heart still beating unevenly. She was lucky he had dried her hair that day without consent otherwise there would have been no other way to explain her behaviour. He must have decided it was fair enough for her to try and use a warming spell on him without his permission if he had done the same to her with a drying spell.

He held open the hospital wing door for her and she stepped through to find the room empty as usual. She was expecting him to leave but he walked inside and closed the door. Hermione walked towards her bed trying not to appear bothered by his presence when in reality she was praying for him to leave or at least have Madam Whittaker show up. She gulped down a glass of water and stared at her pillow. "Maya" he said after a minute of silence and she reluctantly turned around to face him. "I apologise for my behaviour at the tower" she could tell he was forcing the words out of himself. He clearly had no desire to apologise. He was about to walk away but then he paused. With a wave of his wand he made a bunch of red roses appear and she suppressed a gasp. Sure she had seen plenty of red roses before but not ones like these. They were sparkling and glowing with an aura of dark red. "Please accept these" he held the bunch towards her. They were beautiful but should she really accept flowers from Lord Voldemort.

"What are you waiting for Maya" a voice suddenly said making her jump. It was Madam Whittaker watching them through a gap in her office door. Even Tom appeared startled for a second but his expression relaxed as he noticed the plump women. She forced herself to take the flowers from him and he left without another word. As soon as the hospital wing doors snapped shut Madam Whittaker excitedly ran out of her office.

"What happened up at the tower?" Madam Whittaker said taking the flowers out of her hands.

"Nothing happened"

"Nothing eh, I heard him apologising for his behaviour so spill"

"Well he--- erm he----"

"I know what he tried to do" she suddenly said grinning and tapped her fingers against Hermione's neck. "The mark speaks for itself." Tom must have used so much pressure on her neck that it had left a mark and now this stupid woman was thinking it was a love bite. She forced herself to appear shy and looked down. "A word of advice Maya, never go all the way with a man until the wedding night" From the time she had come from the rules in the muggle world were relaxed but the wizarding world still maintained their strict rules. It wasn't acceptable to have a full sexual relationship without marriage and children outside wed lock were shunned in society. Hermione whole heartedly agreed with this rule. She had never liked the way people in the muggle world meaninglessly jumped out of each others beds. How could a man love you enough to have sex with you but not enough to marry you? If he couldn't commit to you it meant he didn't really care about you. At her summer holidays she would watch those muggle soaps with her mother and debate about it.

"I won't" she said looking up.

"That's a clever girl" Madam Whittaker said conjuring up a vase and placed the flowers inside it. "Such fine flowers I haven't seen anything like it before" she placed the vase onto Hermione's bedside table. "Now get to bed you have a big day tomorrow" Hermione appeared puzzled. "Your to be introduced at breakfast, did tonight's excitement make it go all out of your head" she said laughing and headed back into her office. Of course how could she have forgotten it was her first day tomorrow?

She changed into her night clothes and crept into her bed. She blew out the candles and a faint red light emitted from her flowers. She turned and stared at the roses. They looked sinister glowing all red against the darkness of the room. They were beautiful and scarily too perfect just like the person that had conjured them. She had failed to kill him tonight and she was grateful that she would have another chance. The flowers seemed to be laughing in her face reminding her of her failure and she turned away from them and shut her eyes trying to sleep.

A huge thank you to all my reviewers. Tom conjuring her flowers really isn't out of character, if you remember in HBP he conjured flowers for Hepzibah Smith when he charmed her to steal Slytherin's locket. He feels the need to maintain his perfect head boy image and giving Hermione flowers is his way of making sure she dosen't tell Dippet anything.

Now I have to get back to revising for my haematology exam tomorrow and don't forget to review readers.