Hermione might be called the brightest witch of her age when it came to matters of magic and learning in general, but when it came to matters of dating, she was ashamed to say that she was considerably less than brilliant. She had only really ever been on one date before and that was when Viktor Krum had asked her to the Yule Ball, and it had taken her hours to get ready.

Knowing very little about fashion in general, let alone the fashion of 1940, she decided to enlist the help of her two roommates, whom she knew to be experts on all things girly. Druella and Rosaline were of course over the moon with excitement.

Friday night was spent pouring over the dozens of magazines that the two girls had on hand, some of them even from France. Hermione couldn't believe some of the ridiculous articles inside, instructing girls to basically just sit still, look pretty and wait for the boys to make all of the advances.

As if she was going to sit around like some perfect little princess who was incapable of doing anything for herself. It was a blatant disrespect to her own intelligence and power. Any boy who didn't accept her for being who she truly was, wasn't worth her time.

After breakfast on saturday morning, the three girls locked themselves up in their dormitory and got to work. Hermione insisted on at least picking out her own outfit, settling for a nice sky blue dress with short lace sleeves and a white sash tied around the waist. It was one of her favorites, as it wasn't overly frilly and was reasonably comfortable, yet still nice enough to wear on an outing.

Pairing it with a silk neck scarf that she had gotten from Druella and a purse, she resigned herself to sitting down on the chair that Rosaline had transfigured, letting them do as they liked with her.

They doused her hair with bottle after bottle of hair potions until every last frizz was gone from sight and styled it to the latest fashion. Her eyes were brushed with a bit of light eyeshadow, her cheeks with a bit of blush and her lips painted bright red. They curled her eyelashes and applied a bit of mascara, which they had to physically restrain her for.

"There, you're all done," Rosaline said at long last.

Reluctantly, Hermione stood and went over to the full length mirror in the corner of the room. What she saw took her breath away. It was still her, that much she could see, but she looked almost exactly like the girls she had seen in the fashion magazines. She had to admit that it wasn't actually that bad of a look. Slowly she was starting to get used to the different styles. Though she was still secretly counting down the years until jeans and jumpers came into style.

"Très magnifique!" Druella exclaimed, coming up behind her.

"Abraxas won't be able to keep his eyes off you!" Rosaline squealed.

Hermione rolled her eyes. He could barely keep his eyes off her to begin with.

This would be her first real date, and with Abraxas Malfoy no less. She tried not to think about the fact that he was Draco's grandfather. Abraxas was nothing like Draco. Well… Maybe he was a bit like him, but not nearly as snooty. Abraxas was a nice boy who genuinely seemed to care about her.

Taking a deep breath, she gathered every ounce of courage she had to fight off the nervousness, and stepping back from the mirror, started out of the dormitory and into the common room, Rosaline and Druella scampering after her.

The boys were already there waiting for them when they arrived. Abraxas was seated on the edge of the sofa talking with fourth year Milton Mulciber, who was Rosaline's date, and Thorus Nott, who was Druella's date. Cygnus was nowhere to be found, and Tom was seated with his nose glued to a book as usual, no doubt reading more about Salazar Slytherin.

She never thought she'd be so annoyed at the sight of someone reading…

"Hermione!" Abraxas exclaimed, as he climbed off the edge of the sofa and came towards her. "Wow… You look beautiful."

Hermione felt her cheeks grow hot, "Thank you, Abraxas. You look nice as well."

And that he did. Having ditched his usual school robes, he was dressed in something a bit more casual and comfortable; a pair of plain black trousers, held up by suspenders and a white button down shirt tucked in.

He gave her a dreamy smile. "Are you ready to go?"

She nodded her head and had just taken hold of his arm, winding her own arm around his to head out when they stopped short.

"What's going on here?"

Turning, they found that Tom had finally tore his eyes away from his book and opened his eyes to what was going on around him.

"Have you forgotten, Tom? Today's our first ever trip to Hogsmeade," Abraxas reminded him.

If Tom was surprised by that, he certainly didn't show it on his face. His face was almost completely devoid of emotion, save for the dangerous look in his eye.

"Yes, I'm aware of that Abraxas, but I wasn't aware that you were going with Hermione."

A wave of coldness washed over her as she was bit by the realization of what was going on. No… It couldn't be… Could it be that Tom was jealous of Abraxas. She felt like screaming at the top of her lungs. He spent days obsessing over his new found ancestor and now all of a sudden he was acting all jealous? Unbelievable!

Abraxas opened his mouth to respond, but he never got the chance as Hermione beat him to it.

"Well, it's not like you were paying attention to anything but your books," she told him straight. "Honestly, what did you expect me to do? Sit around and wait for you to remember that I even exist?"

The room was so quiet after that, as no one dared to say another word. The only sound to be heard was the sound of fish from the Black Lake bumping against the glass of the windows.

"Now, if you don't mind, we should get going before everyone else leaves without us."

Leaving Tom standing there, she turned and started out of the common room, pulling Abraxas along with her as she went. Druella and Rosaline scurried after her a moment later along with their dates.

"I can't believe it!"

"You're incredible, you know that?"

She gave them an odd look. "What are you talking about?"

"You just stood up to Tom!" Rosaline explained. "You're the only one who's not too afraid of him to do so."

She faltered in her steps. They were all afraid of him? Why? When did this begin? It wasn't like he had done anything bad to them, at least not that she knew of, but she was starting to think that there was a lot going on without her knowledge. Were they really that afraid of him just because he was a Parselmouth, or did they already know that he was the Heir of Slytherin?

"Did you see the way he looked at you, Abraxas," Mulciber asked.

"You'd better watch out," Nott teased. "He might set a snake on you."

Abraxas stiffened slightly, but said nothing.

Hermione rolled her eyes. They were all being ridiculous. "Look, you have absolutely no reason to be scared of him. Sure, he can talk to snakes, but he would never set one on someone he considers a friend. Don't worry, I'll talk to him later, but for now we should forget about him and just focus on having fun."

They all agreed to that.

The walk down to Hogsmeade was quiet for the most part. Once there, the group split up, each couple going their own way. Druella dragged Nott off one way, eagerly listing all the places she wanted to go such as Madam Puttifoot's Tea Shop and the Blue Bauble Boutique. Meanwhile Rosaline and Mulciber made a beeline towards Honeydukes, both having a bit of a sweet tooth.

"Is there anywhere in particular that you would like to go?" Abraxas asked.

Of course, Hermione could think of a couple shops she wanted to visit, but she didn't want to end up dragging her date around to shops she knew he wouldn't like as the other girls had.

"Well, I wouldn't mind visiting Tomes and Scrolls, but aside from that I don't really care where we go," she said.

Arm in arm the two of them strolled the streets of Hogsmeade. It was different than she remembered it, much like Diagon Alley and pretty much every other place in the wizarding world. The main difference was that there was no Shrieking Shack towering ominously over the village. Then there was the fact that some of the shops were different.

Their first stop was Tomes and Scrolls. Hermione had to physically reign herself in to prevent herself from buying out the whole store. There were so many books that she would have loved to have, but she limited herself to no more than three that she simply couldn't resist buying.

She had just picked out her final book when she came across an intriguing book that she had never seen before. It was a thick book with a black spine. Written in neat gold script was the title 'The Fine Line between Dark Magic and Grey Magic'.

Glancing over to her left, she saw that Abraxas was still preoccupied looking through a copy of 'Quidditch Through the Ages'. He didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to leave, and so she allowed her curiosity to take over and began to flip through the book.

It talked about wizards who had pushed the boundaries of Dark Magic and what had become of them as a result. One paragraph on Emeric the Evil in particular caught her attention.

'Emeric the Evil, drunk with power, delved deeper and deeper into the dark arts until he was driven mad by it. There was nothing he would not willingly sacrifice in his pursuit, even his own wife and children … To this day, no one knows how or why, but it is said that he performed a spell so horrible that, while it gave him power beyond what anyone had seen before, transformed him into a beast so vile that he could not bear to look upon his own reflection.'

There was something about that paragraph that reminded her of Lord Voldemort. She wasn't sure if it was referring to horcruxes or if it referred to some other dark spell that was long lost to wizard kind. Either way, it still struck her all the same. The exact same thing was going to happen to Tom if she didn't stop it.

After a few moments of debating over whether or not to buy it, she finally relented and put back one of the books she had previously picked out. This one seemed like a more useful read than 'The Isle of Avalon: Myth or Reality', no matter how much she wanted to know if it was in fact real.

Tucking it in with the other books clutched in her arm, she made her way over to where Abraxas was still flipping through his Quidditch book.

"You know, you should probably buy it if it's that interesting."

"I don't usually buy books for myself, but I think I will this one time," he said, closing the book and tucking it under his arm. "You must be rubbing off on me."

She giggled. "Well done, I'm so very proud of you."

They paid for their books and went on their way. Seeing as Abraxas had been so patient with her at the bookstore, she decided to indulge him by going with him to Spintwitches Sporting Needs, where he picked up a new pair of gloves and some broom polish, and of course, he couldn't leave a Quidditch shop without ogling over the newest and latest model of broomstick. What was it called again? The Nimbus 1000? She could never keep track.

Then they stopped by Honeydukes for a bit of a sweet treat as well as Zonko's Joke Shop. They didn't actually buy anything from there, but it was still fun looking at all the funny products.

At a quarter to noon, they met back up with the rest of the group at the Three Broomsticks. Hermione knew she shouldn't have, but she couldn't help but burst out laughing when she saw Nott and Mulciber come in, their arms filled with all the purchases their dates had made. Dropping the bags and boxes to the floor they all but collapsed into their chairs.

"You're lucky, mate," said Mulciber. "You got yourself a girl who doesn't treat you like a pack mule."

Rosaline and Druella just huffed and mumbled something about the obligations of men to cater to their ladies.

Abraxas smiled. "I am quite lucky, aren't I?"

Hermione rolled her eyes but couldn't help the bit of pink that spread across her cheeks.

After enjoying a meal of butterbeer and beef pasties, their time at Hogsmeade came to an end and they made the trek back up to Hogwarts. Taking pity on the fourth year boys, Hermione cast a shrinking spell to make it easier for them to carry everything, for which they were most appreciative.

"This was fun," Hermione said. "We'll have to do it again sometime."

Abraxas looked all too thrilled by the idea. "Of course! Whenever you want."

The Slytherin Common Room was mostly empty when they returned, with only a few younger students scattered about. Thanking the boys with a kiss on each cheek, Druella and Rosaline took their shrunken purchases and headed to their dorm to show them off to each other. Hermione knew that she'd probably get sucked into it as well if she followed them in now, so instead she chose to lounge back on one of the sofa's and read through the books she had acquired.

Abraxas went off to put away his own purchases.

Opening the book to the section she had left off in 'The Fine Line between Dark Magic and Grey Magic', she began to read more about how people often divided magic into classes of good and bad, and how the author disagreed with this. He compared magic to money. While useful and necessary in many parts of life, both were neither good nor bad. It was all about how a person chose to use it and whether or not that person chose to let it control them.

A very useful book indeed, she thought.

She had just finished the page and was about to turn to the next when she heard an explosion come from the boys dormitory. A moment later, Cygnus came running out with what looked like an albino rat clutched in his hands. The rat was squeaking in a most unnatural manner, as if it was distressed, and she noticed that it's tail appeared to be singed.

He stopped at the sight of her and held the rat up for her to see.

The rat had bright blue eyes…

"He turned Abraxas into a rat!" he shouted.

Hermione felt the blood drain from her face. She didn't need to even ask to know who Cygnus was talking about. It was Tom… It had to be Tom… She had suspected that he might do something to Abraxas, but this… She supposed that she should just be glad he hadn't set a snake on him as Nott and Mulciber had warned.

Closing her book, she leapt to her feet. "Take him to see Madam Vervain and tell her that there was an accident with your Transfiguration assignment. I'll try to talk to Tom and make sure he doesn't do it again."

Cygnus didn't need to be told twice, as he nodded his head and ran out of the common room, careful not to drop his friend turned rat.

No sooner were they gone, then Hermione marched across the room and through the passage into the boys dormitory. The other boys in their year were found huddled together in the far corner of the room, trembling with fear, while Tom stood at the other end, staring furiously at a scorch mark on the floor, no doubt where the explosive transformation had taken place.

"What were you thinking, Tom!?" she exclaimed as she marched straight up to him, placing her hands on her hips in disapproval. "You turned a boy… a living being... into a rat! Explain yourself!"

He didn't reply, but rather stared past her at the group of boys huddling in the corner.

With a sigh, she quickly turned towards the boys and motioned for them to leave, which they were all too eager to comply with. She had never seen a group of thirteen-year-old boys so utterly terrified.

"He came in here and started bragging about how much fun you had with him and how he had made you forget all about me, knowing full well that I would hear every word he was saying," Tom began to explain. "I figured that if he wanted to act like a rat, he might as well be one."

Hermione wasn't sure if his story was entirely true or if it had been embellished to make her feel more sympathetic towards him. If so, it hadn't worked.

"Yes, I did have fun with him and he did help me forget about you, but only because he knew I was upset. You've been so obsessed with Salazar Slytherin lately that I had begun to think that you had forgotten about me! I've been so worried that I might be losing you to the darkness and then you go ahead and prove my fears by turning Abraxas into a rat without even a shred of guilt!"

She finally managed to evoke a visible reaction from him as his eyes widened. "You… You were worried about me?"

"Of course I'm worried about you, you prat! How could you possibly think that I would ever forget about you? You're not going to lose me so easily, but I need to know that I'm not going to lose you either and right now I don't know if I can believe that."

"Hermione…"

He tried to speak, but she wouldn't let him yet.

"What exactly have you been doing when I'm not around? Are you just going around terrorizing your roommates? That certainly is what it seems like. They are all afraid of you now. Is that really what you want? For people to fear you? For people to hate you? Is it really worth it?"

Feeling that she had said all that she needed to say to him, she let out a deep breath to try and calm herself. Silence washed over them after that, but while Tom didn't say anything, she could see that he was deep in thought. She could only hope that what she had said was enough.

Then she remembered the book, which was still clutched firmly in her hand at her side, and an idea came to her. Maybe the book would be able to help him, or at the very least get the point she was trying to make across. She knew that books always helped her gain understanding, and Tom was quite similar to her when it came to matters of learning.

"I bought this for you at Tomes and Scrolls," she said, holding it out to him. "I thought you might find it interesting."

Pulling his eyes away from her, he glanced down at the book in her hands and reluctantly took it.

"Now, If you'll excuse me, I need to go to the hospital wing and make sure that no one rats you out."

With nothing more to say to him, she turned and left the room.

She wasn't entirely sure, but rather she hoped that Madam Vervain knew enough about Transfiguration to undo such a spell. The only other person who might be able to help was Dumbledore and she definitely didn't want him to find out about what Tom had done.

She shook her head. How many more times was she going to have to cover up for Tom? Quite frankly, she was getting tired of it. For everyone's sake, she could only hope that this would be the last time.