Hermione sat in the great hall having breakfast and reading the daily prophet. Tom was missing from the Slytherin table and Malfoy kept giving her hateful glances. She ignored Malfoy and wondered where Tom was. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she looked up to find it was Susan.
"Maya I---I know about last night" Susan said in an excited tone. Merlin what kind of stuff was this girl going to come up with now.
"What about last night" she said nervously.
"Morgana saw you and Tom coming out of a broom closet" Susan whispered.
"Oh that" she said feeling worried. "It's not what you think Susan"
"Yeah right, why were you two in a broom closet then?" Susan smiled. She had to convince Susan that there was nothing going on.
"We were patrolling and we heard shouts coming from the closet but no one was there" Susan's smile fell.
"That's what really happened" she said in a disappointed tone. "You guy's were just inspecting a haunted closet"
"Yeah, it was probably peeves trying to scare us" she went back to reading her paper.
"Peeves is such a pain" Susan said making a face. "The other day he made me spill an ink bottle, anyway I'll catch you later" She was probably running back to tell the others about her newfound knowledge. Hermione emptied a glass of orange juice and stood up. She walked out the great hall and glanced at her wristwatch. She had 30 minutes till class started and she decided to go down to the library for a quick read. She walked down some stairs and turned into a corridor to her right.
"Miss Granger" Slughorn's loud voice sounded behind her. Hermione paused and turned around. Slughorn had a smile on his face and he was holding a large bottle.
"Morning professor" Hermione said eyeing the bottle curiously. The bottle was made of green glass and it had dark liquid inside but there were no visible labels attached.
"Good Morning to you as well" Slughorn said cheerfully. "Can you drop this of to the hospital wing for me" he said holding out the bottle towards her.
"Okay" Hermione said taking the bottle.
"5 points to Ravenclaw" Slughorn said winking at her and turned to leave.
"Professor" she said making him pause. "What is it? I mean what's inside the bottle?"
"O ho, I forgot to add the label" Slugorn pointed his wand and a label appeared. "It's Dittany" Slughorn turned to leave once again and Hermione started to walk towards the hospital wing.
She pushed open the door and walked inside. A line of empty beds met her eyes and she could hear voices conversing inside the office. She walked closer to the office door and she nearly dropped the bottle as she recognised Tom's voice. The door suddenly opened and Madam Whittaker stepped out followed by Tom holding some cotton reels. A flicker of surprise passed across his face as he noticed her and then it became expressionless.
"Maya" Madam Whittaker said excitedly. "Are you hurt?" she said in a worried tone.
"I'm fine" Hermione said. "Slughorn told me to give this to you" she said holding out the bottle.
"Ah yes the Dittany" Madam Whittaker said taking the bottle. "Mr Riddle if you could place those on that shelf" she said pointing.
"Madam I have time to make a few more" Tom said moving towards the shelf.
"You have been very helpful Mr Riddle but I insist you go down and have some breakfast." Madam Whittaker said. "You're thin as it is and Dippet would have my head if his brilliant student started to fail due to a lack of energy"
"As you wish madam" Tom said placing the cotton reels on the shelf. Madam Whittaker motioned for her to come into the office, Hermione stepped inside to find a fairly large room filled with bubbling cauldrons and various bottles. In one corner of the room a table was littered with cotton plants and a pile of seeds lay close to them.
"Why do you need cotton?" Hermione asked walking closer to the table with a puzzled expression.
"To make bandages, hospital gowns and bibs but mostly to make bandages." Madam Whittaker waved her wand and placed the plants inside a box. "Too expensive to buy from a company, it's much cheaper to make our own since the forbidden forest is filled with cotton plants." She levitated the box underneath the table. "The seeds are hard to remove from the cotton but their useful for replanting" she placed the seeds inside a jar. "It's a time consuming process making cotton reels and it requires advanced magic. It would have taken me twice as long if Mr Riddle hadn't volunteered to help"
"Volunteered" Hermione said in disbelief. Well of course the dark lord would help out to keep up the act. No wonder people never thought he could be evil, who would ever suspect the kind and helpful orphan boy?
"He's such a kind boy, bless his soul" Which part Hermione thought, that is if he had made a Horcrux and split his soul. She wasn't sure if he had made one yet. "So did you follow him here?" Madam Whittaker said smiling widely. "Were you missing your eye candy at breakfast?" Hermione looked disgusted at what she was suggesting.
"No, no it's not like that" she said stuttering. "Slughorn asked me give you the bottle, I had no idea he was here"
"Are you sure you didn't beg Horace to let you take the bottle" Madam Whittaker said raising an eyebrow.
"No of course not" Hermione said with high pitched voice. "I told you I didn't know he was here"
"Okay Maya, calm down. It's not a crime to have a crush on someone" Madam Whittaker grinned and she glared at her.
"I do not have a crush on him" Hermione hissed.
"If you say so" she said in a disbelieving tone.
"I have to go now, class is starting in 5 minutes" Hermione said opening the door.
"See you later then, come by some time" Madam Whittaker called out.
"I'll try" she said closing the door. She wouldn't see Madam Whittaker unless she had to, she had no desire to talk to someone like Susan. Honestly, what did the women see in Tom Riddle? Why couldn't they see past his beauty and notice the monster underneath? She paused as the cotton reels on the shelf caught her eyes. There were three on the shelf but she was sure she had seen him hold four. But surely if the dark lord was going to steal something it would be a dangerous potion ingredient or something useful. Why would he steal a cotton reel and what use would it be to him? She had probably made a mistake, he must have been holding three. She glanced at the clock and ran out the door. She had three minutes to get to class and all thoughts of the cotton reel vanished from her mind.
For the rest of the week she did her best to avoid making Tom very angry. Although they did argue and disagree about a lot of things she made sure it didn't get to the point where they would have to attack each other using wands. It was surprisingly more harder to remain calm than being violent. It took all her energy and effort to restrain herself from her usual behaviour. Sometimes she thought she would burst from the pressure but so far it had been going well.
She arrived early for transfiguration and Albus Dumbledore stared at her for a while. She kept her mind blank as possible and sat at the back. Tom entered the class room and looked at Dumbledore with pure hatred clearly showing in his eyes. Hermione knew he hated Dumbledore since he was the only person that knew what he really was. Tom sat in the middle row. In all his other classes he always sat right at the front but this was the only class he ever sat in the middle. Dumbledore looked at him disappointingly then made writing appear on the black board. They were meant to turn water into an ice sculpture of anything they desired. Dumbledore demonstrated by turning water into an ice statue of a phoenix. Everyone seemed impressed even Hermione but Tom stared at his fingernails with a bored expression.
"This is a complex spell that requires great concentration and focus." Dumbledore said turning the statue back into water. "It can take months of practice to achieve any results but you mustn't be discouraged by----" Tom coughed loudly interrupting. "Is there something you wish to say Mr Riddle?" Dumbledore said with an irritated expression.
"No sir" Tom said with a voice that almost sounded mocking. Dumbledore carried on speaking and Hermione noticed one of his hands was clenched into a fist as he stared ahead blankly. They were told to pair up and practice the spell. Hermione knew she would have to work with Tom and this time she didn't wait to be told she had to. Tom must have decided to do the same as he came up to her table when she was gathering her things to move to his table. "Granger lets stay here" Tom said pulling out a chair. She always moved to join him at the front but this time he had moved to join her at the back. It obviously had something to do with him hating Dumbledore and wanting to be far away from him as possible. She didn't say anything and put her things back down. He kept a distance of two chairs between them and started to work on the spell. She pointed her wand at the water inside her cup and tried to get it to rise up but it swirled around instead.
"Aqualevionax" she said trying again but no result. She glanced towards Tom to see the water from his cup rising up in a straight line. His eyes looked deeply focused and his jaws were clenched tight as he attempted to shape the water into a sphere. He was already on the next stage and she hadn't even managed the first thing. How did he get the water to rise up? She tried again with more determination and a few drops came up but she needed the whole thing. After a few more tries she managed to get the water to rise up in a straight line but shaping it into a sphere was proving almost impossible. She looked towards Tom again to find a watery snake shape hovering above his cup. He slowly moved his wand unblinking and the shape became more detailed showing its scaly structure. Soon piercing eyes and fangs in its open mouth were also visible. Typical that the dark lord would chose a snake when he could have chosen anything in the world but it was still eye catching to look at.
"Petrihypoficus" he said and the watery snake turned into ice. Hermione stared at it transfixed. The sculpture was so perfect that it appeared to be made of crystal instead of ordinary ice. He gently placed it onto the table and lightly traced a finger across its delicate structure. Why did he have to be so good at everything? She tried to shape the water into a sphere again and she was almost there when it suddenly exploded in her face. What the hell? Why did that happen, was she that bad? She rapidly blinked and wiped away the water with the back of her hand. Most people were laughing at her and right now she wished she was somewhere else. Tom Riddle looked at her expressionlessly and then he went back to staring at his ice sculpture. He had probably done it and she was about to confront him but she stopped herself in time. She was supposed to do her best to avoid making the dark lord angry not the other way around. Accepting defeat she was about to sit down when she caught Malfoy smirking at her. His wand was pointing towards her and his boys were making gestures of water splashing into her face. So it wasn't Tom, it had been Malfoy. Feeling angry she didn't see the need to restrain herself when it came to Malfoy. She walked right over to him and pointed her wand in his face. Everyone in the class paused to look at them.
"What are you going to do about it mudblood" Malfoy whispered lowly so only she could hear. She had been planning to splash water on his face and walk back but calling her a mudblood made her forget everything. She wanted to hurt him in the worst possible way.
"Incendio" she screamed.
"Protego" he blocked her.
"Miss Granger stop this at once" Dumbledore shouted. Everyone started to gather around as they duelled dangerously and it didn't take them long to switch to dark curses. She blasted a table into pieces and threw a hex at him. "Expeliarmus" Dumbledore shouted pointing his wand. Fighting in the war had taught her how to duel with more than one opponent and she easily blocked Dumbledore and Malfoy at the same time. Everyone gasped in amazement and even Tom seemed impressed. Dumbledore looked shocked for a moment and then recovered.
"Sevanamithax" Malfoy didn't manage to block it and his whole face erupted with large purple boils. He screamed and dropped his wand. "Don't ever call me mudblood" Hermione shouted kicking him. She wasn't done with him. She wanted to hurt him even more. The word mudblood was more than just an insult to her. It brought back memories of death eaters torturing her and calling her mudblood. Bellatrix's face, her parent's lifeless bodies and images of thousands lying dead because their blood wasn't pure all came to her mind. That one word was powerful enough to make all her emotions connected with the war resurface. "Sanguifervana" she shouted without caring to think what kind of spell she was using.
"No" Malfoy screamed with fear evident in his voice.
"Protego" Dumbledore shouted blocking the spell in time.
"Dermaferva----" Hermione started.
"Expeliarmus" a male voice suddenly shouted and the wand flew out of her hand. She hadn't thought anyone else would intervene and feeling shocked she turned to find Tom had disarmed her.
"Take Mr Malfoy to the hospital wing immediately" Dumbledore's voice rang out. Malfoy's boys picked up the crying blond and rushed out the door. "Class dismissed" everyone walked out of class talking and pointing at her. Everyone seemed afraid of her and the Slytherin's looked at her curiously. Tom stood pointing his wand at her and kept on staring at her blankly. She glared at Tom wanting to hit him. How dare he intervene but of course he would try and save his secret death eater friend. "Thank you Tom" Dumbledore said looking uncertain.
"It was my duty sir" he said automatically still looking at her. Even though she would appear crazy Hermione couldn't help but laugh out aloud.
"Of course you would consider it a duty to save all your Slytherin friends" Hermione said angrily. His expression immediately darkened and he looked angry. Oops she shouldn't have said that. After all he did want to keep his friendship with Malfoy and the crew a secret, especially from Dumbledore and now she had said it out aloud.
"Miss Granger you are in serious trouble" Dumbledore said looking at her piercingly. "Follow me to the headmaster's office" he said opening the door. "Tom I insist you come along, your actions will not go unrewarded" This was wrong. Tom shouldn't be rewarded for saving Malfoy.
By the time she arrived in Dippet's office her anger had vanished and she started to realise the seriousness of her actions. Dippet had shouted at her for using dark magic and blocking a member of the staff. He had threatened to exclude her at first. She had apologised repeatedly blaming it on depression caused by her parent's death and Dippet had softened. In the end he had given her detention for a whole year every Friday evening. She was glad not to be expelled. The event made her add one more rule to her existing one. She had to control her temper in public even if it was Malfoy. Whatever she did she would have to do it discreetly and undetected. Tom was praised and earned 60 points for Slytherin.
She sat at the lunch table feeling miserable. Everyone including Susan and the girls were avoiding her. All she had done was used a few dark spells and everyone was afraid of her. The dark spells hadn't even touched Malfoy but they acted like it had. She had detention every Friday of the week for a year and people were whispering about her. She couldn't take sitting in the great hall anymore and she went down to the heads common room. It was empty and feeling that she couldn't keep up appearances any longer she sank to the floor and started to cry. After a while a huge spider crawled along the floor and looking at the spider she started to cry harder. It reminded her of Ron and his fear of spiders. She felt angry at the spider for making her remember. Everything that had happened today was making her want to hurt something. During the war whenever she got really angry she would use unforgivable curses on death eaters and right now she was in one of those moods. The spider was the enemy and it would pay for making her remember. Crawling nearer she raised her wand and pointed at it.
"Crucio" she shouted and the spider began to wither and shake. She kept her wand pointed at it for a long time and it made her feel a little better. She smiled as she continued to torture it.
"Oh my god" a voice said making her freeze. She looked up to find the Gryffindor head girl Cynthia Bones looking at her with a frightened expression. She immediately withdrew her wand and stood up.
"You don't understa----"
"Please don't hurt me, I won't tell anyone" Bones said hysterically before running out the room. She sank back onto the ground feeling even worse. Bones was now scared of her. She would probably tell everyone and they would become even more afraid of her.
"Avada Kedavra" she murdered the spider in a fit of rage and placing her head in her hands she started to cry her eyes out. She was crying so loudly that she didn't hear the sound of someone coming inside.
"Granger" Tom's voice said making her head snap up. "Get of the floor"
"Like your favourite armchair do you own the floor as well" she snapped.
"Don't raise your voice at me" She forced herself not to answer back. She kept on staring at the dead spider wishing it was Tom's corpse instead.
"Didn't you hear me? Get of the floor" he shouted making her jump up. She glared at him and tightened the grip on her wand. She really felt like fighting him and it took all her strength to restrain herself. She decided to go up to her room before her anger got the better of her. With watery eyes she couldn't see properly and she tripped on the first stair. She hit her right elbow hard on the stone floor making her cry out. She heard footsteps coming towards her. "Granger stop being so weak and move" She lay on the floor in a heap not bothering to get up and continued to cry. She did not want to cry in front of the dark lord but she couldn't help the tears from falling. He levitated her onto the couch and left her there. He sat in his green armchair and started to read a book while she calmed herself down.
She suddenly noticed him looking down at the floor and her eyebrows knitted together in worry as she realised his gaze was fixed on the dead spider. It wasn't against the law to use unforgivables on animals and insects but she didn't want him to know that she was capable of casting it on them. Casting it on humans took a lot of effort and emotional control but he would obviously suspect her now. How could she carelessly use the killing curse in the common room? Maybe she was getting worried for no reason, all it did was indicate that she was into dark magic and it's not like he hadn't known that before. He had seen her read up on dark spells in the library and she had used a lot of them during their fight. Even today she had just used a bunch of dark spells on Malfoy. So he wasn't exactly finding out anything new and her interest in dark magic didn't really giveaway where she came from or what she was intending to do.
"Interesting" he said levitating the spider into the air. He suddenly locked eyes with her and he kept on staring at her unblinking. Being used to his staring she wouldn't have been disturbed if she hadn't noticed a strange look in his eyes. She had never seen him look at her like that before and she couldn't quite place what it meant. "You used the killing curse" he suddenly said looking at the spider and she started to feel panicky. Merlin, he knew. How did he know?
"What makes you think that?" She said in a forced calm voice. "It could have just died naturally"
"Do you think I'm stupid" he hissed punching the armrest and she bit the inside of her cheeks. "A spider as large as this doesn't just crawl into the middle of a room and die naturally" he said in a calm voice. "There are no injuries on its body and it was lying on the same place as you were. The truth isn't so hard to figure out, well at least to someone with brains" he said sneering at her. There was no point denying it now and she could almost feel sweat forming on her forehead.
"It's not illegal to kill a spider" she said with a controlled voice. He expressionlessly stared at her for a while and she crossed her fingers feeling uncomfortable.
"It isn't against the law but using unforgivables is against Hogwarts rules" he suddenly said. "You obviously haven't bothered to read the Hogwarts rules or the heads handbook" he said with a disapproving tone. "And Dippet thought you were fit enough to be head girl" Anger filled her up and she couldn't control herself from answering back.
"So you're the golden head boy that always follows the rules" she snapped. "Torturing people in empty classrooms and broom cupboards is within the rules, is it?" He smiled at her coldly and made the dead spider move up and down.
"It's important to be aware of the rules but that doesn't mean I'm going to actually follow them" he started to make the spiders legs move about and she wondered how he was doing that since it was dead. "Or be stupid enough to get caught breaking them." With a wave of his wand he set the spider on the floor and crossed his arms. He stared at the spider and to her horror the spider started to crawl towards her. How was that possible? The spider couldn't be alive, she had just killed it. The dark lord couldn't resurrect things could he? That was impossible, nothing could bring the dead back to life unless you had a Horcrux and the spider definitely didn't have one.
"It's dead, how are you doing that?" she said with a high pitched voice and she moved to the other end of the couch.
"I modified the inferi making spell" he said making the moving spider vanish. Now it all made sense, although controlling corpses was a terrible thing she couldn't help but be impressed. The inferi spell was difficult and it must have taken a lot of effort to modify "But someone like you wouldn't be able to understand something so obvious" She felt her anger flare up at his words and she couldn't help what she said next.
"You must have killed a lot of things to master that spell" she immediately regretted saying that but his blank face didn't betray a flicker of emotion. He slowly clenched his hands into fists and her heart beat speed up knowing he was angry.
"Yes I've killed a lot" he said in a cold high pitched voice that sounded so uncannily like Voldemort's that it sent chills down her spine. "Killing animals doesn't matter" he said venomously and she shuddered hearing the raw hatred in his voice. Is that what he thought of the people he had killed? Did Voldemort think of them as mere animals when he mercilessly slaughtered them? "You said it yourself" he said in a calmer tone. "You should try a larger animal, their more satisfying in relieving anger" he said unclenching his fists. "You can actually watch the life drain away from their eyes, knowing that you're the only one that can stop it" he said in a low voice and she stared at his blank face feeling sick. "The power to stop death itself in your hands" he finished in a high pitched voice and she shivered as he sounded like Voldemort again. He was definitely crazy and no doubt obsessed with gaining immortality. He went back to reading his book and she rubbed her hurting elbow but the pain didn't fade. "Granger" he suddenly said making her look up. "You managed to block Dumbledore" he said watching her intensely. Knots of worry formed in her stomach but it didn't really prove anything other than she was skilled.
"So what if I did?" she said sounding indifferent when her heart was hammering away.
"The only student that can block Dumbledore is me" he said narrowing his eyes at her.
"You duelled Dumbledore" she said disbelievingly. She knew Dumbledore and Voldemort had fought each other a lot but she hadn't expected him be powerful enough at this age.
"Duelling club" he said making her relax. So he wasn't powerful enough to fight Dumbledore yet. He had just blocked him in some duelling club sessions and from the sour look on his face, he had obviously lost. "Now you're the second student that can block him" he sounded pleased. "Dumbledore can't be as powerful as he thinks if someone like you can block him" Hermione reddened with anger but she didn't say anything. "But then again he must have been taken by surprise and he probably wasn't even using his full ability."
He went back to reading his book and for a while they just sat in silence "You shouldn't let Malfoy get to you like that" he suddenly said looking up. She glared at him and her insides burned with anger as she recalled the memory of him disarming her.
"I would have got him if you hadn't interfered" she whispered instead of shouting at him.
"If I hadn't interfered you would have been expelled" he said glaring at her. "According to rule number 66, section C. The use of class 3 dark spells on a fellow student results in a permanent exclusion. The curses you seem to be so fond of using publicly happens to be in class 3, and you would have hit Malfoy if I hadn't prevented you" This was ridiculous. He had clearly done it to save his secret friend and now he was making it out like he had done it in her best interest. Like he even cared about her.
"The real reason you stopped me is to save your Slytherin pal"
"I hate Malfoy" he said venomously. The hate in his voice was so realistic it sounded genuine. He was obviously using his Order of Merlin worthy acting skills.
"So you decided to save me out of the goodness of your heart" she said sarcastically.
"Of course not" he snapped throwing his book on the table. "I don't like your tone Granger" he said walking over to her and she pressed herself further against the couch knowing he was in a violent mood. "I did you a favour and you should be more grateful" he shouted stabbing his wand into her hurt elbow and a cracking sound echoed through the room. Hermione screamed and clutched her broken elbow. Tears formed in her eyes as a stinging pain shot up her arm and he smiled at her coldly.
Normally at this point she would have drawn her wand but she repeated her rules loudly in her mind and took a couple of deep breaths. "I have my reasons Granger" he suddenly whispered and his words made all the sensations of pain vanish from her mind.
"What reasons?" she couldn't help keep the fear out of her voice.
"Now's not the time?" he said glancing at the clock. "We have a class soon"
He picked up his book and resumed reading. Stupid evil git, she wasn't going to believe his lame I hate Malfoy theory. Like he would ever really do her a favour, it was just a cover story. A minute ago he had just poked his wand into her elbow. It was clear that he hated her. There probably wasn't any reasons he wanted to keep her around. He was just saying that to distract her from thinking about the real reason he had saved Malfoy. She hoped she was right but a part of her felt scared that he might know more about her than he was letting on. Her arm was really starting to hurt and it looked like it was at an odd angle. It was probably broken, she should go see Madam Whittaker and explain how she fell down the stairs.
"I think you broke my arm Riddle" she said using her good hand to open the door.
"Granger when I break an arm it's usually chopped in two" he said without looking up from his book. She shut the door and the woman in the portrait gasped.
"Did that horrible boy break your arm?"
"Unfortunately I think he did Persephone" she said holding her arm carefully. "About what I said the other week, I never meant to say that about you and Hades"
"Don't worry all is forgiven" she said cheerfully.
"I'll see you later" Hermione rushed of to the hospital wing.
"Remind you of anyone dear" Persephone said turning to Hades.
"Us in our early day" Hades said grinning.
"I wonder" Persephone said rubbing her hands. "This could be an interesting year"
A huge thank you to the people that explained the grammer thing and I hope this chapter has less errors. Just to clear things up, Hermione isn't weak and she's perfectly capable of fighting back but everytime she picks a fight with him she takes a risk of getting seriously injured. She dosen't see the point in risking her life when the important thing is to kill him, not fight him. She's trying to tolerate him and make him think he's in control while she works on her goal.
I made another picture and my picture making skills have greatly improved. The links on my profile page and please leave comments. Now, I have the flu and I may not update as fast but I'll try. Don't forget to review.