Hermione stared at the calendar in her room feeling really sad. It was September the 19th and her birthday. She was 17 today and none of her friends and family were with her. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she touched her neck recalling Ron's locket. She wiped away the tears and forced herself to get ready for morning lessons. People were starting to forget about her attacking Malfoy last week and while they were nice she could tell they were still afraid of her. Susan and the girls were talking to her again but they seemed a bit distant.
She was having breakfast in the great hall when an owl landed in front of her with a letter. She took the letter and stuffed it in her pocket. She was feeling too depressed and she couldn't be bothered to read it. Detention every Friday evening wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. She had to help Slughorn in his office and the potion's dungeon. Slughorn turned out be very interesting company. She had learnt a lot not only about potions but also about the latest happenings in the ministry and the celebrity world. Politics really interested her and she was always eager to learn of new laws and protests. Normally she avoided listening to mundane things like what was happening in the life of a famous witch or wizard but she found herself becoming drawn to gossips and scandals. Every week she found herself looking forward to visiting him and catching up on the latest.
She walked into the potions class room and Slughorn greeted her warmly.
"I couldn't wait to tell you until Friday" Slughorn whispered. "They found evidence to suggest O'Malley killed his wife"
"Really but the prophet said-----"
"One of my contacts at the auror department told me, I'll tell you more on Friday"
Hermione sat near Tom and kept a distance of two seats like he always preferred. He was looking at her in that creepy way and although it annoyed her she didn't say anything.
"What were you and Slughorn talking about" he suddenly asked.
"None of your business Riddle" he was probably feeling threatened by the idea that she was becoming Slughorn's favourite. He glared at her and then he started to stare at the wall ahead. Soon they were making a potion together and for the past 2 weeks she had let him prepare it without giving him any trouble. His adjustments and additions continued to impress her. She didn't know how he knew what to do or where he got his ideas from. She watched him add in 2 drops of liquid silver when it wasn't listed in the instructions. Normally she didn't ask questions but this time she couldn't help it. "How do you know what to add?"
"None of your business Granger"
"Fine Riddle I'll tell you what Slughorn told me" he looked up from cutting ingredients. "His got inside information, there's evidence that O'Malley killed his wife"
"O'Malley did it" Tom said with a tone of disbelief. "But it really looked like Riley had done it" he carried on chopping the ingredients leaving Hermione surprised. The dark lord read stuff like that. Well everyone reads the prophet and he must soak up the non-important stuff as well.
"So are you going to tell me?"
"Tell you what Granger"
"How do you know what to add?"
"I never promised anything" he smiled at her coldly and she glared at him.
She walked down the corridor at lunchtime and remembered receiving a letter. Deciding to read it she pulled it out and tore open the envelope. It was a letter from Dippet wishing her a happy birthday and telling her he was sorry for her parent's death. Someone suddenly snatched the letter out of her hands. She looked up to find it was Malfoy and his crew.
"Give it back" she hissed drawing her wand.
"Patience is a virtue Granger" he said pointing his wand and the rest of his boys drew their wands as well.
"Accio letter" Lestrange blocked her spell. She tried to snatch it back but Malfoy was much taller than her and everyone laughed at her pathetic attempts. Malfoy read her letter and then he passed it to Lestrange.
"I wish I could say happy birthday but I regret to say your birthday will be anything but happy" Malfoy said twirling a finger around his pony tail. "We can't let the birthday girl leave without a present" Malfoy said sneering.
"Give me the letter and get lost" Hermione shouted.
"Or what Granger, you're outnumbered and you're going to pay for everything" Malfoy said pointing his wand. True that there were five people against her but she wasn't going to go down without a fight.
"Incendio" Lestrange said making her letter burst into flames and a pile of ash fell onto the floor. A chorus of laughter sounded from Malfoy's group and Hermione furiously started to throw harmful spells at them.
"You can have the letter back only it's not a letter anymore" Crabbe said laughing.
"If that's not the letter then where's the letter" Goyle said sounding confused.
"It's a pile of ash now" Crabbe answered. "But wait is that the same as the letter or---"
"Shut up idiots" Avery snapped blocking one of her spells.
"Start defending yourselves you thick heads" Lestrange shouted as he stopped a spell from hitting Crabbe. "Next time I won't bother"
"Your parents are dead" Malfoy said in a mock sorry voice. "Poor orphan Granger"
"Shut up" she shouted.
"An orphaned mudblood" he said laughing. "What's the matter Granger, no presents this year?"
"Orphan mudblood" they all started to chant loudly and Hermione couldn't help it as tears started to stream down her cheeks. No one was watching and she could risk using dark spells without getting expelled.
"Sanguifervana" she roared but Malfoy was ready for her. She managed to stupefy the others leaving only Malfoy and Lestrange.
"I have to say for a mudblood you are very good at duelling" Malfoy said throwing a hex at her and she blocked him. While she was disarming Lestrange, Malfoy threw a skin burning curse at her and she missed. She cried out as it hit her hand and she accidentally dropped her wand. Malfoy knocked her onto the floor. He kicked her hard in the stomach and Hermione gasped as he knocked the breath out of her. Lestrange picked up his wand and threw a stinging hex at her making her cry out once again. "Mublood whore" Malfoy yelled kicking her again and Hermione screamed in pain.
"Drop dead Malfoy" Hermione shouted trying to crawl away.
"You're not going anywhere until you learn your place" Lestrange said blocking her path.
"Think your superior do you" Hermione hissed. "Your nothing but scum" she spat on Lestrange's shoes. Lestrange tried to kick her in the face and she moved sideways. His foot painfully collided with her shoulder and burning pain seared through her shoulder blade. She dropped back onto the floor.
"You're nothing but a dirty bloodied, worthless orphan" Malfoy shouted kicking at her knees and Hermione screamed as her knee caps stung.
"Get away from her" a voice suddenly roared. She looked up with tear filled eyes to find it was Tom. His wand was drawn and his expression was frightening.
"Riddle" Malfoy said backing away with fear clearly showing on his face. "This is nothing to do with you" he said shakily and huddled closer to Lestrange.
"Are you questioning my authority Malfoy" Tom said grabbing Malfoy by the collar and Lestrange ran. He slammed Malfoy into the wall and grabbed a fistful of his blonde hair. "Do I need to remind you of what I can do to people that disobey me?" Tom shouted violently tugging on his hair.
"Not the hair" Malfoy said trembling with fear. "Please, not the hair" Tom yanked his hair even harder making Malfoy scream. Hermione slowly crept towards her wand unnoticed. Maddening anger was flowing through her and she wanted to hurt Malfoy in the worst possible way. "I'm sorry Riddle, I'm sorry" Malfoy shouted and Tom threw him onto the floor. Malfoy jumped up and ran. Hermione stood up swaying and pointed her wand at Malfoy's back.
"Cruci----" She started and her wand suddenly flew out of her hand. She angrily turned to find Tom pointing his wand at her. He stared at her and his face had a mixture of surprise and anger. She crumpled to the floor and tears started to stream down her cheeks. While she lay there crying Tom revived the stupefied boys and they all fled in fear.
"Get up Granger" Tom said walking over to her.
"Get lost Riddle" He grabbed her by the sleeve and dragged her of the floor. He pulled her down the corridor and she tried to get away. "Let go" she shouted trying to pull her arm away but his grip was too strong. She tried to slow down and he violently tugged on her sleeve making the material of her robes painfully cut into her neck. After a while she gave up and followed him mindlessly. Persephone looked alarmed and called Hades as they approached the heads quarters.
"Horrible boy what have you done to her" Persephone shouted.
"Medusa" he said ignoring Persephone. He threw her onto the couch and slammed the door shut. "Are you insane Granger, trying to use an unforgivable in the corridor" he shouted. "Forget getting expelled, that could have gotten you a lifetime in Azkaban"
"Why the hell do you care?" she snapped. He must be pissed that she had attempted to crucio his right hand man. She doubted he would have told Malfoy to let her go if they hadn't been fighting in the corridor. He had probably been trying to keep up his head boy act in case a professor came along.
"I don't" he yelled. "Do you think I really care if you put your life in danger for someone worthless like Malfoy?" Here we go again. The same old stupid I hate Malfoy cover story twice in a row. "I wouldn't give a damn if you got expelled or hanged but you know something I don't" he said walking closer. Now she was starting to get real scared. If he didn't stop her to save Malfoy then why did he save her? He had said he had a reason last time and she had thought he had been bluffing but right now he sounded dead serious. What had he found out about her?
"I don't know what you're talking about" she said looking him straight in the eye.
"Don't you" he said sinking to her level. "From what I witnessed today it looks like you know how to use unforgivables on people" She knew he couldn't be after the knowledge on how to use unforgivables and he was obviously building up to something.
"Theirs nothing wrong with being interested in black magic" she said looking down at her hands. Once she had thought it was wrong to learn about black magic but over time her views had changed. She didn't see the harm in being knowledgeable in the black arts and it was better to know what the enemy could throw at you. The war had taken her further closer to darkness and completely shattered her view of right and wrong. It didn't matter what kind of magic you used as long as you won. The death eaters were merciless and after her parents died she couldn't see how it was wrong to use unforgivables on evil people that really deserved it.
"I completely agree. There is no good or evil and only power." He said with a high pitched voice and his eyes lit up with a strange glint. Hermione felt a chill spreading down her spine. She had once heard Voldemort say those exact words to Harry during one of the attacks. "Considering how stupid you are, it is almost admirable to find that you don't think yourself too weak to seek power." Was that his twisted way of complimenting her? That was probably the closest thing she would ever get as a compliment from him. "You have enough power and skill to use unforgivables and--"
"You want me to teach you how to use unforgivables on people" she wasn't supposed to know his past and she thought it would be suspicious if she didn't question it. Besides she wanted to see how he would react. He let out a cold high pitched laughter and Hermione shrank back further. It reminded her too much of future Voldemort. If there was one thing that remained completely the same between Voldemort and Tom, it was the laughter.
"You have no idea how skilled I am at using those" he smirked at her. "I was going to say, since you are powerful enough to master unforgivables I'm sure you could have managed to achieve something far more complex. I want to know how you did it"
"Did what?"
"Get past the Hogwarts barriers" She felt knots form in her stomach. So that's the real reason the dark lord didn't want her to get expelled. He wanted her around to question her and know the secret of passing through the barriers. Stupid selfish idiot, she should have known he was after something like that. To bad there was no secret method that she knew but he couldn't know about the locket. That would reveal she was from the future and jeopardise the mission.
"Riddle you were there on the night I was being questioned. I don't know how" he suddenly drew his wand and poked it into her neck.
"I think you do Granger"
"I just woke up here, I have no idea how I got here"
"You can tell me nicely or things can turn nasty" he said poking the wand further into her neck.
"I have no idea"
"If you don't tell me soon your skin's going to start burning off" She felt the tip of his wand slowly starting to heat up.
"Please, I have no idea" he obviously thought she was the type that would confess under torture. He had no idea what kind of torture she had experienced in the war and it was nothing compared to what he was proposing to do. She had never cracked under pressure and given away information to death eaters but she had never come across the dark lord. Voldemort had the ability break down the strongest mind barriers and rip the necessary information out of a person's head. He achieved this using an advanced legilimency technique that required the use of a wand and only advanced occlumency with a wand could block it. She had no idea if Tom was capable at this age and if he was, he could easily use it on her. She could block wand less legilimency but she had no wand to block advanced legilimency cast with a wand.
He lowered his wand and bore his eyes into her. She knew he was trying to use legilimency and she easily blocked him with her occulumecy shield. She had read about an advanced occulumency technique that lets you project certain thoughts and memories while shielding the others. She had never used it before and if she did it incorrectly she could expose her whole mind but she had to risk it. He might know the advanced technique and any minute now he could use it on her. Keeping the rest of her mind blank as possible she brought forward the memories of her confusion when she had arrived. She filled her head with thoughts of the fact that she really had no idea how to get past the barriers and still didn't know how to get past them. She kept on repeating it loudly in her mind while blocking the thoughts of the locket with great concentration. His forehead creased and his expression changed to reflect anger. All the things he had sensed from her mind were true and now Tom also knew it was true. Breaking eye contact he punched the floor and Hermione took in a deep breath feeling relieved. Now that he was convinced she really had no idea he wouldn't try anything else.
"You really don't know do you" he said looking at her.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you Riddle"
"All those times I could have gotten rid of you for good" he snapped pressing the wand into her neck again. Even though it would make him angrier she couldn't help but smile and his expression turned murderous.
"Don't worry Riddle, I won't forget your advice and get expelled." he painfully dug the wand in deeper making her wince. "I should learn to play dirty just like you and do everything behind closed doors" The common room door suddenly opened. Bones and Longbottom stepped inside holding hands and it was obvious from the way they were looking at each other that they were dating. Tom managed to lower his wand in time but he was still kneeling in front of her. Longbottom stared at them concerned while Bones looked frightened. Hermione knew she was thinking about the time she had seen her crucio the spider.
"Get away from him" Bones suddenly screamed drawing her wand. Riddle looked surprised while Hermione stared at Bones opened mouthed. Bones couldn't be serious, she actually thought she was attacking Tom when it was the other way around.
"Calm down sugar" Longbottom said. "Let's not jump to conclusion before we know what's actually going on"
"William you don't understand. She's evil" Bones said lifting her wand higher. Tom raised an eyebrow at Hermione and she glared at him. The epitome of evil was sitting at her feet but she was getting accused of being evil and him the victim.
"Cynthia put the wand down, your over reacting" Longbottom said lowering her wand. "Riddle is everything alright" he said stepping forward. Noticing Hermione's burnt hand Tom touched his wand onto it making her wince. She had forgotten about Malfoy burning it. After all the torture sessions she had gone through she could tolerate most mild forms of pain.
"Nothing to worry about Longbottom." Tom said. "Malfoy's burnt Granger's hand and I'm just healing it" a blue light came out of his wand and her burnt skin healed instantly.
"See doll you were just jumping to conclusions" Longbottom said putting an arm around Bones. Still looking unconvinced Bones pulled away from Longbottom and ran up to her room.
"Your wand Granger" Tom said holding out her wand and she took it.
"Malfoy and his lot are very hard to control" Longbottom said. "Good work Riddle"
"Thank you Longbottom" Tom said standing up and dusting his robes.
"You alright Granger" Longbottom said.
"Fine" she said gloomily putting her wand away.
"I'm sure she didn't mean to call you evil" Longbottom said. "I apologise on her behalf"
"It's okay" she said standing up.
"Riddle when's the next heads meeting?" Longbottom asked.
"Next week, I'll let you know the day and time" With a nod Longbottom disappeared into his room. Tom turned around and smirked at her but his eyes remained cold.
"What's so funny Riddle" she hissed.
"She thought you were attacking me" he let out a cold high pitch laughter making Hermione cringe. "Come on Granger don't you think that's funny."
"Everyone thinks you're such a good boy" She said in a loud angry voice. "No one seems to be able to see past your fake image so forgive me if I fail to see the fun part"
"Well I found it highly amusing" he said stepping closer. "It just shows how good I am at keeping up the act" He smiled at her coldly.
"You can act all you want Riddle but I will always be able to see right through you" his smile immediately dissolved. "You can't hide from me" Hermione said in a determined voice and she immediately regretted it. She shouldn't have said all those things. He might get all violent again and she wasn't supposed to make him her surprise instead of attacking her he took a step back and she could have sworn he had looked alarmed for a second but now his face was expressionless.
"You don't scare me Granger" he said boring his eyes into her. "You only see what I want you to see" He calmly walked up the stairs and one of his steps seemed a bit unsteady but he immediately recovered. Hermione wasn't sure if she had imagined it or if it had actually happened. He shut his door noiselessly when she had been expecting him to loudly slam it shut. Did that mean he wasn't angry with her? Because whenever he was angry he always shut the door loudly or clenched his hands into fists. Tom had always been hard to read and now she had no idea what he was feeling, not that she really cared about what he felt. But it was always good to know what kind of mood he was in so she could be extra careful not to send him over the edge. She had afternoon classes with him soon and she decided she wouldn't say much. He couldn't be in a good mood after he had found out she didn't know anything about getting past the barriers.
Rubbing her neck she walked up to her room and she could feel a small bump on the place he had poked. She entered her room and sat on her bed. She looked at her healed hand and touched it lightly. He had used a very advanced spell that only qualified healers could manage and even she couldn't manage something like that. She had attempted it during the battle and while she could stop the burning sensation she couldn't heal the skin. She suddenly found herself jealous of his abilities. He was too perfect to be true and no one could be 100% perfect. Everyone had a weakness and she knew what his was. His madness to dominate the word and become immortal. She rubbed her stomach and it hurt. Malfoy's kicks had been hard and who knows what shape she would have been in if Tom hadn't come along. From the way they were scared of Tom it was obvious to her that he was in charge of them. Well now she knew the real reasons behind his actions. He had wanted to save Malfoy and find out how she had gotten past the barriers. It's not like the dark lord would ever care about anyone without selfish reasons like gaining more power and knowledge.
A huge thank you to all my reviewers. I know people think Tom's too mean and cruel but he's Tom Riddle. I can't have him being all lovey dovey because that would be out of character for him and I always like keeping my characters in character. He's not mean to Hermione because he enjoys particularly torturing her, he doesn't like people disobeying him and he always likes to be in control. Anyone else threatening his control or standing up to him would get the same treatment. There will be romance in this story otherwise I wouldn't have added romance to the genre but I have to make it all believable and justify it. Leave reviews and I'll update as soon as I can.