Early in the morning she stumbled out of bed with a bad headache and blocked nose. Sneezing several times she made her way to the bathroom. She had hardly gotten any sleep last night and now she had the cold. She might have avoided the cold if Tom had used the drying spell but the evil bastard hadn't bothered. Swearing that she would make his death as painful as possible she gathered her things. She put on her thick woollen cloak and headed to the great hall for breakfast. She didn't feel like taking her hands out from under the warm cloak. She stared at the food shivering.
"Hey Maya" Susan said sitting next to her. "Are you ill" she said touching Hermione's forehead.
"Common cold" Hermione said sneezing.
"You should be in bed"
"I can't miss classes, I'll get behind"
"At least get a pepper up potion from Madam Whittaker"
"If I see her she won't let me leave"
"Are you going to eat something?"
"I can't be bothered to move"
"Here" Susan said holding a toast up and Hermione nibbled on it. Her throat was sore and she forced down the thick bread. Halfway through she pulled away.
"I don't want it anymore"
"At least finish it off" Susan tried to encourage her but she nodded refusing to eat.
"Can you get me some juice" Susan held up a glass of orange juice. While she drank from it she looked towards the Slytherin table to find Tom staring at her expressionlessly. Too bad she wasn't dead like he wanted her to be. She stared back at him hateful but his expression didn't change.
"You need to see Madam Whittaker" Susan said making her look away.
"I'm completely fine"
"Hey Maya his looking at you again" Susan said in a high pitched voice.
"I wish he would stop" She muttered angrily. Tom was probably trying to use Legilimency on her but she could easily block him with her Occulumency.
"Your weird I'd give anything for him to look at me" Susan said with dreamy eyes.
"His all yours" she said closing her eyes in irritation. Why couldn't any of these idiotic girls see past his physical beauty?
"I'll be back" Susan said running towards the Gryffindor table. Probably of to gossip to her friends about her and Xavian. Some things never changed with time she thought rubbing her temples. She looked up to find Tom reading a newspaper and eating at the same time. Thank Merlin he wasn't looking at her. She went to the library to skim through a couple of books of interest then she made her way to the potions dungeon.
She was starting to feel uneasy about facing him after last night but she told her self she wouldn't let him scare her into obeying him. When she had first arrived she had been scared of him and a part of her still was. But she didn't want to live fearing Tom. He wasn't the dark lord yet and she would use that to her full advantage. Blowing her nose she stepped into the class room and sat at the front. Slughorn came in a few minutes later and started to explain how to make a complex healing potion.
"Who knows what the best time is to harvest blood grass" Slughorn asked. Immediately two hands shot up into the air and no one was surprised to see it was her and Tom. She slightly turned towards Tom to find him glaring at her and she glared back. "O ho two students, which one shall I ask" he said smiling. Hermione sneezed. "Maya are okay"
"Fine sir" she said sitting up straighter.
"Maya why don't you answer the question"
"If blood grass is harvested on the month of February it is the most effective in potions"
"Correct 10 points to Ravenclaw" Hermione beamed while Tom appeared unaffected. Tom raised a hand into the air. "Yes Tom"
"Sir the answer is incomplete" incomplete, what was he talking about. February was the best time to harvest it. Even Slughorn appeared puzzled. "It is most effective when it is harvested at the full moon on the month of February" Slughorn paused thinking for some time. "You are right my boy" he suddenly said. "Only someone like you could remember the small details, 20 points to Slytherin" he said loudly clapping his hands. Okay so she had forgotten the full moon thing, big deal. But Tom had obviously won the question time game in potions. She caught his eye and he slightly smirked at her knowingly.
"Let's make the potion, pair up with your partners" Blowing her nose she reluctantly made her way towards Tom's table.
"Sit down, I'll make the potion" he said lighting the cauldron. She stared at him unmoving. "Sit down Granger" he commanded.
"No" he stared at her in disbelief. "I'm not scared by the likes of you"
"You should be because last night was nothing" he said icily.
"What you did last night was very cowardly Riddle" she whispered. "You attacked me when I couldn't even move and that's the same as hitting a disabled person" both his hands clenched into fists.
"What makes you think I care if someone is able or not" he said turning to read the instructions on the blackboard. "Being brave or being a coward doesn't matter as long as you win in the end" What made her think it would make a difference to him. Of course you couldn't care about things like that if you were planning to become a dark lord.
"I forgot you don't have a conscience" she hissed reading the board.
"You have no idea what people without a conscience are like" he snapped.
Few people near them stopped what they were doing and looked at them. His mood seemed to always change instantly. One minute he would be calm and the next he would be all angry. "What are you staring at, get back to work" he shouted and the staring students instantly went back to what they were doing. He moved away from her and started to chop the ingredients with maddening force making the chopping board split in the middle again. She tossed in a couple of bay leaves and added in half a cup of spring water. He didn't stop her from making the potion with him. But just like last week he was acting like she was contaminated as he did his best to avoid being close to her. She knew she shouldn't annoy him further but she decided to push her luck.
"You know I'm not infected with plague" he didn't answer and carried on chopping the ingredients. "What's your problem?"
"You" he said looking at her and tossed the chopped ingredients into the cauldron. She was about to add a piece of billings root.
"Stop" he said making her freeze. Her hand hovered above the cauldron and a part of her felt like dropping it in. She noticed his tense look and dropped the root back onto the table. She didn't know why she was letting him have his way after what he had done to her last night. But a part of her must have been curious to see the results his adjustments produced. He was still staring at the cauldron uncertainly. He had probably expected her to chuck in the billings root to get her revenge for last night. He visibly relaxed and added in frankincense resin, stirred it clockwise 3 times then anticlockwise another 3 times. He levitated the billings root into the cauldron and the mixture turned bright yellow.
Hermione realised he had changed the order by adding in the billings root after the frankincense resin. She glanced at her text book and according to the book the potion was meant to be orange at this stage not bright yellow. At the final stage it was meant to be blue but if a light blue colour with a silver aura could be obtained the potion would be the most effective. According to the book it was very rare and hard to achieve. She noticed him adding in a few drops of bergamot oil and stirring it twice, then he added another drop and did half a turn. She looked up at the board to find no such instruction existed.
The potion was now muddy brown and she glanced at her book again to find the colour brown wasn't even listed at any of the stages. Then he started to follow the final instruction as written on the board and she drew closer to the cauldron. He held the final ingredient over the cauldron but he didn't drop it in. Hermione waited anxiously and he just stood still. He was doing this on purpose making her wait and after a while she looked up at him. He looked her in the eye and dropped the ingredient. Hermione looked down and couldn't believe what she was seeing. She stared open mouthed as the potion slowly turned light blue and soon a silver aura emitted from it.
How the hell did he manage to do that? It was meant to be rare and unachievable but she betted he could reproduce the same results every time he brewed it. He had to have invented the steps all by himself and even she wasn't capable of such things. The only other person she knew that could do something similar was Severus Snape. Harry had found his old potions book annotated with his adjustments, according to Dumbledore Snape was a potions genius. Dark lord or not she had to admit he was a genius that truly understood the art of potion making. He sat down and stared at the wall silently while she continued to stare at the potion mesmerised. At the end of the class when Slughorn reached their table he stared at their potion and gasped.
"My boy that colour is very hard to achieve" he said peering closer into the cauldron. "This is absolutely genius." He said loudly clapping his hands. Slughorn conjured a large bottle and placed the potion inside it. "I'll send in a sample and you could win the ministries award for young potions master of the year. What do you say Tom?"
"I would appreciate it sir"
"The deadline has passed but I know a few people at the ministry and I can pull a few strings for you" he said winking. Of course he could do that. Even in her days Slughorn was well connected to lots of important people.
"Thank you sir" Slughorn put a huge O next to their names in his book.
"Ah Maya I almost forgot, Good work and I'll try and see if I can squeeze your name in to the competition as well" She noticed Tom's hands were clenched into fists while his face was expressionless. She knew he was pissed of to have her name included when he had done all the real hard work. She did agree with him on this one. If he won he deserved the award alone.
"You don't have to sir" she said hoping he wouldn't enter her name.
"Nonsense, you both worked together on the potion" Slughorn said walking over to the other table. Tom silently gathered his things and quickly left the room. He appeared calm but she couldn't tell if he was still angry with her or not as his face never betrayed any emotion. In all her other classes throughout the day they kept on competing with each other at question time but other than that they didn't interact. Susan made conversation with her before asking her to sit with her group. She couldn't remember all the girls names except there were 2 from Hufflepuff and the rest were Gryffindor. While the girls whispered among themselves she was busy listening to the professor and taking notes. The last class of the day was with professor Bins and he was boring as ever. She couldn't be bothered to concentrate and she joined in with the girl's conversations. Talking to them she almost felt like she was back in her time talking with Parvati and Lavender.
In the Ravenclaw dorm she was about to change and go to bed when an owl arrived summoning her to Dippet's office. Susan peered at it over her shoulder.
"The headmaster wouldn't summon you this late unless he had to tell you something important" Oh my god. What if Dippet had run a background check and found out she had been lying about everything. What could be so important that he wanted to see her at this hour? Would she be expelled or sent to Azkaban for fraud. None of that could happen. She had to stay at Hogwarts and eliminate Voldemort. Susan noticed her pale worried expression. "Are you in trouble, did you do something against the rules"
"No" Hermione said quickly.
"Well then don't worry" She forced a smile and headed towards the headmaster's office. She took a couple of deep breaths outside the office door then knocked.
"Enter" a voice called out. She pulled out her wand and raising it she cautiously entered. If they had ministry officials inside to arrest her she would have a better fighting chance with her wand drawn. No one was there except Dippet and Dumbledore. They both stared at her raised wand questioningly and she immediately lowered it feeling stupid. She noticed a raven occupying the space Dumbledore's phoenix usually occupied.
"I heard the raven tries to bite anyone who enters" she said quickly thinking up an explanation. Dippet laughed but Dumbledore continued to stare at her gravely.
"You were misinformed Miss Granger, my bird never attacks anyone" Dippet said staring at the raven fondly. "Isn't that right Kakon" the bird croaked in response. That went well, Dippet had fallen for it but Dumbledore obviously knew she had lied. "Sit down" She pulled the chair out with a shaky hand and sat down with a nervous expression. "You are not in trouble Miss Granger" Dippet said noticing her behaviour. She let herself relax. If she wasn't in trouble then Dippet didn't know anything.
"How have you found Hogwarts so far?" Dippet asked.
"Challenging but everything's going well" she said cheerfully.
"That's good to hear. Now all the professors tell me you are an excellent student and all your exam results are outstanding. Recently the Ravenclaw head girl transferred to another school and I would like you to replace her" She stared at Dippet in disbelief.
"Ravenclaw head girl" she repeated. She didn't want to be head girl and live in the heads quarters. That meant she would have to share a common room with the dark lord and have her bedroom close to his. "Can't someone else do it?"
"No one else fulfils all the requirements except you. Congratulations Maya and you should move into the heads quarters tonight" he handed her a badge and a Hogwarts heads handbook. Great just when I thought things were going well something crappy always has to happen. She reluctantly put on her badge and forced a smile.
"I apologise for calling you at this hour"
"It fine sir"
"Goodnight and good luck" Hermione opened the office door and walked out.
"Ah Albus where were we with the forms for the----" She shut the door blocking his voice and speed down the stairs. Why did this have to happen? She couldn't stand being near him in all her classes and now she would see him day and night. Well it isn't entirely a bad thing she thought arriving at the Ravenclaw tower. She would be more closer to him and that could make the whole assassination business a lot easier. Why hadn't she thought of it that way earlier? Sure having the dark lord in your face the whole time was going to be annoying but it would be worth it in the end. Feeling much better she went up to her room. Susan was wearing a pink night gown and reading in bed.
"Hey Maya what did Dippet wa--" Susan paused and stared at her head girl badge. "Oh my god" Susan shouted jumping out of bed. All the girls in her dorm turned to look at them. "I can't believe it, your the new head girl". Most of the other girls congratulated her and looked at her with a new found respect. "I'm so going to miss you, when are you moving?"
"Tonight" Hermione removed her trunk and started to pack and Susan tried to help. "You don't know how lucky you are, most girls would die for your position"
"What's so good about it" she could already guess the answer.
"You get to be close to Tom" she said jumping up and down. "This is too much I have to tell all the girls". Giving her a brief hug Susan rushed out of the room. She pulled her trunk down the corridor and after a while she arrived at the heads quarters. A huge painting of Persephone and Hades guarded the entrance.
"What in the world made them get together" she said thinking out aloud, momentarily forgetting that paintings in the wizarding world spoke.
"Why do people keep judging us" the woman in the painting angrily shouted making her jump.
"Now darling calm down" the scary looking man said. "The boy warned us not to speak loudly"
"His ways of courting me might have been frightening and sometimes out of line. But just so you know girl I married him with my own free will. Don't know why people made up rubbish about him forcing me with the enchanted Pomegranate seed curse." Persephone continued with a shrill high voice.
"Darling please, he threatened to destroy the portrait if we disturbed him again" Hades said putting an arm around Persephone.
"I'm sorry" she said hoping Persephone would calm down. "I didn't mean to say it like that"
"I know exactly what you meant" she screamed pulling away from Hades.
The portrait door suddenly slammed open to reveal Tom Riddle looking furious.
"I've warned you before not to----" Tom paused as he noticed her.
"You've made that horrible boy come out" Hades shouted. "Run before he destroys everything" Persephone and Hades fled the painting leaving her all alone to face him.
"What are you doing here?" he said coldly.
"I'm the new Ravenclaw head girl" she said bravely.
"Head girl" he said in disbelief. He stared at her badge then at her trunk and it sunk in to him. "This is just marvellous" he said sarcastically and glared at her. She broke away from his gaze and stared at the floor. He stepped aside allowing her to enter then he banged the door shut loudly. After observing him closely for a week she knew that he clenched his fists or took his anger out on objects when he couldn't directly attack someone. Well the dark lord certainly wasn't happy with her becoming head girl.
The common room was much lager with better looking armchairs and a staircase led to two platforms with two doors on each. One of the doors must lead to her bedroom. "I can never get rid of you can I Granger" he whispered harshly making her flinch. "Bones, Longbottom" he called out. They were soon joined by two other heads. "This is Cynthia Bones, Gryffindor head girl" the blond haired girl shook her hand. "William Longbottom, Hufflepuff head boy" the boy shook her hand. "And this" he said distastefully boring his eyes into her. "Is the new Ravenclaw head girl Maya Granger"
Tom hastily gathered some books from the table and headed up to his room loudly slamming the door shut. Since Bones and Longbottom had come out from the rooms on the right platform and Tom had gone into the first room on the left platform it was obvious that her room was right next to his. She said goodnight to Bones and Longbottom. Then she levitated her trunk and headed up to her room feeling seriously out of place.
Ginger was called Billings root in the old times, not sure what the time period was. In case people are confused who Persephone and Hades are- they are a Greek God and Goddess.
Hades was the God of the underworld and ruled over the dead. Persephone was the daughter of Goddess Demeter, who was responsible for growing things.
To cut a long story short - Hades wanted to marry Persephone but she didn't so he kidnapped her and took her to the underworld. Her mother stopped growing things and the world started to die and the other Gods stepped in to solve the problem. If Persephone hadn't eaten anything in the underworld then Hades would have no claim over her but she made the mistake of eating 6 pomegranate seeds. Because of this she had to marry him and every year she has to return to the underworld for 6 months. While she's away her mother becomes sad and she doesn't grow anything, causing winter to occur on earth. When her daughter returns she becomes happy and starts growing things again, causing summer time on earth. (A likely tale invented by the Greeks to explain summer and winter).
Now I know everyone's gotten used to my fast updates but I won't be updating until late May. I have serious exams and I need to focus on passing my Biomedical science degree. Once my exams are over I'll update regularly again. Please leave me a review, go on press the button.