When Hermione first saw him, he was walking down the corridor near the entrance to the great hall. He walked elegantly, so graceful that it almost seemed unnatural. Like every step was measured. Harry described him as handsome. And he was, very much so. He was the kind of handsome you would read about in novels. All tall, dark and brooding. The cut of his jaw, his thick inky black hair, his beautiful cold eyes, his pale almost translucent skin that somehow didn't make him look sickly. Honestly, he was probably the most physically beautiful person Hermione had ever seen. It seemed that Harry had described Tom riddle to an almost perfect accuracy.

Riddle suddenly locked eyes with Hermione, a polite smile graced his face as he slowed down and stopped in front of her and Slughorn. "Ah, Miss Greene, this is Tom Riddle. He is the head boy I was telling you about. A charming young man, he is. Yes, and very kind. If you don't mind Mr Riddle, would you show Miss Greene the Slytherin common room and her dormitory?"

"It would be my pleasure, professor." Riddle smiled again. It looked wrong. Unnatural, like he'd practiced smiling a few too many times in the mirror. "You're new and you were homeschooled overseas, is that correct?" Riddle spoke as Slughorn was leaving. Hermione felt a cold feeling of dread settle down deep in her gut as she realized she was alone with the future dark lord. She honestly couldn't believe that she was here, in 1944. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be standing next to a young Voldemort.

Hermione was absolutely terrified to open her mouth, what if she said the wrong thing and he finds out about her being a time-traveler. He would most definitely force information about the future from her. Hermione knew that Voldemort was already a practiced legilimens in his seventh year at Hogwarts. Hermione, herself was a powerful occulmens, having been taught by Snape indirectly through Harry. She had continued practicing until she was confident that she could protect the Order's secrets. She didn't know if her occlumency was strong enough to stop Tom riddle from entering her mind. She had yet to assess how powerful he is at this point in time. She knew better than to underestimate him, though. From what she had gathered from both Harry and Dumbledore, Riddle was extremely powerful even during his Hogwarts years. Better than most of the professors, she reckons. Hermione knew that by Riddles seventh year he had opened the chamber of secrets and killed myrtle, had murdered his father and both his grandparents and had created two Horcruxres. The diary and the gaunt ring.

"Yes I…I am" Hermione managed to stutter out. She was so anxious, she could barely breathe. "My name is Hermione." Her anxiety was most definitely showing on her face but Riddle wasn't looking her way. Instead he was facing forward, his face a mask of polite intrigue.

"A beautiful name for a beautiful girl, indeed" Riddle spoke smoothly. Had Hermione not known who he was, she probably would have blushed. "Thank you" she muttered. Riddle lead her forward through the halls of Hogwarts, every once and a while showing her around important parts of the castle and occasionally sprouting facts about Hogwarts and its history. Tom Riddle seemed so normal at first glance. Like a charming and intelligent young man, who loved Hogwarts just as much as she did. She realized abruptly how similar her and Riddle's experiences entering Hogwarts were. Leaving the muggle world, eager to prove themselves to the magical community through the only way they knew how, knowledge and power.

Hermione's responses so far had been as dry as the Sahara. A few nods and some hums of agreement. Hermione knew that she had to be unassuming, uninteresting and forgettable. Tom Riddle and Hermione had to interact as little as possible in order to preserve the timeline.

The sorting hat did imply that she was on a mission of some sort. So perhaps she was meant to change things. All the lectures she was given from McGonagall in third year swirled around in her head. She must not be seen by her future self. That wasn't an issue considering the year she was currently in. McGonagall had also told her not to change the past because it could have catastrophic consequences. But at the end of third year, Dumbledore himself had told Harry and Hermione to change the past and that had turned out for the better. So would changing the past and consequently changing the future really be a bad thing. Hermione decided that she needed to do more research on the matter before making any drastic decisions that would alter the timeline.

"Serpentem" Riddle muttered the password to the Slytherin common room. Slytherin house was located in the dungeons and its entrance was an inconspicuous stone wall, which once the password was spoken would disappear. The Slytherin common room had a low-ceiling and its walls were cold stone. The room was furnished with dark green couches and silver carpets surrounding a large fireplace, expensive lamps and beautiful paintings. Intricate tapestries hung on the walls near the large bookshelf in the corner. The slytherin common room was beneath the great lake so one side of the room had a glass wall which displayed the bottom of the lake. It was beautiful, in a dark haunted sort of way.

"To the right are the boys dormitories and to the left are the girls. Your dormitory is the last room at the end of the corridor. Your belongings should already be there" Riddle spoke in a well-mannered, confident tone that would only belong to an individual who knew just how important they were. "If you need help with anything, don't be afraid to ask," he continued. Hermione nodded and thanked him quietly before rushing to her room. She could not stand to be in his presence any longer.

Hermione knew she needed to pull herself together. She could not act this way around him, she needed to be polite and normal, like she had nothing to hide.

/

Tom was confused. He was usually quite adept in reading people. In knowing what they were thinking only by studying their body language, their mannerisms, their tone. It was easy, most people were the same. Girls usually wanted his attention and did whatever they could to capture it. Hermione Greene didn't. She avoided eye contact, spoke quietly and only when needed, did not ask questions or fill the silence with small talk.

And she seemed oddly frightened of him.

Tom had not done anything to garner this sort of reaction. In fact, he was being the perfect gentleman. He had everyone in this school wrapped around his finger. All the students were enamored by him and the teachers were impressed by him. Except Dumbledore, the old wizard seemed to see right through his act. He even suspected Tom of that little girl's death. Myrtle Warren, If he remembered correctly. He had murdered her using the basilisk and used her death to make his diary into a Horcrux. His very first one. Oh, how proud he was of that but it only fueled Dumbledore's suspicion of him. Even after framing that imbecile Hagrid for it. Like the fool could have ever opened the chamber of secrets, like he could have ever been the heir of slytherin. How thick could Dippet be, honestly.

Dumbledore had been suspicious of him after their first interaction in that disgusting muggle orphanage. He was just a child then and did not know the power of his words. He had told the old coot that he could make people hurt if he wanted to. What a foolish thing to say, however true. It had made the professor wary of him from the beginning. No matter how hard Tom tried to convince him otherwise. His knights knew how he truly was. Though obviously not to its full extent. Tom knew his followers would never speak a word of his true nature to anyone. They were ruled by their fear and reverence of him. He had made sure of that. And if they did speak of it, they had not one shred of evidence. The Knights of Wulpurgis did not know much of his plans, although they did play a role in it. It was imperative no one suspected him until he wanted them to.

But Hermione Greene had known Tom all of twenty minutes and it seemed as though she was already wary of him.

Authors note:

I am planning on making this fic pretty long, maybe 40 chapters or so. And I want to update a few times a week. I am also unsure if I wrote tom's pov well. Let me know if you want to see more of his pov.

Keep in mind, I have never written anything besides short stories for English and so I would love any comments and reviews on my writing or the plot!