The Kings Cross Train Station was, as always, filled to the brim with muggles. Another year had come and gone for Tom and Hermione, as they found themselves navigating the crowded train station for their fifth year. However, this particular time was different than the previous times.

Not only were the two of them sporting a pair of matching green prefect badges, which they wore with great honor, but they were accompanied by, not the Malfoy's, though they had initially arrived with them, but none other than Tom's muggle family.

Mary had written to tell them that she would be waiting at Kings Cross to see them off, but she had failed to mention that her husband and son would be joining them as well. You can only imagine their surprise to find the two older generations of Riddle men standing there.

"Why didn't you tell me that my father and grandfather were coming?" Tom whispered to her as they wheeled their trolleys of luggage through the station.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't know they were coming," she whispered back. "As far as I knew, it was just your grandmother."

Needless to say, she didn't know how it had happened, but judging from the particularly displeased expressions on their faces, she could only assume that they hadn't come of their own choice. If she didn't know better, she would say that Mary had dragged them by the ears. The thought was admittedly quite funny to imagine. Mrs. Riddle might have been small and fragile looking, but she was certainly a force to be reckoned with and Hermione admired that about her.

The Malfoy's had gone up ahead, not wanting to be seen with a family of muggles, and were just passing through the barrier as they approached. To Tom and Hermione, this was normal, for they had both seen it and done it numerous times before. However, for the Riddle's it was less than normal.

"My eyes must be giving out on me, because I could have sworn I just saw the Malfoy's walk straight through that wall," Mary claimed.

"If that's the case, then so are mine," said Thomas, as he removed his glasses, wiping them on the sleeve of his coat before replacing them on his head.

"Your eyes are fine, mum," Tom Sr. rolled his eyes. "It's just a magic trick, meant to keep normal people like us out."

Hermione glanced over at the man in surprise. How had he known about that? Most muggles were absolutely clueless about it, and reacted in much the same manner as Thomas and Mary. Her own parents certainly had. Why wasn't Tom Sr. so shocked like his parents?

Tom went through first, to show his grandparents that it was perfectly safe and wasn't going to spit them out into outer space as Thomas seemed to be convinced. It was Mary who took the plunge and stepped forward through the wall. Hermione couldn't help but think that she would have been a Gryffindor. Her husband, not wanting to appear too cowardly, reluctantly followed after her.

That just left her with Tom Sr.

They just stood there for the first few moments, neither saying anything to the other, though Hermione did risk a glance at him every now and then. His gaze seemed to be fixated upon the wall, staring at it as if he was contemplating the mysteries hidden within.

"You seem remarkably calm for someone who prides himself in being 'normal', as you put it," Hermione noted as she lined her trolley up with the wall.

Tom Sr. glared at her with an iciness similar to that of his son's.

"Merope often spoke of Hogwarts, or at least what she had heard of it," he explained, scowling no doubt at the memory of it. "I may have been under the effects of whatever it was she used to drug me, but I was still physically aware of all that was going on around me."

She nodded her head in understanding. It wasn't often that witches and wizards were open with their muggle partners about the magical world, as most preferred to keep it secret for as long as they could, but it made sense for someone like Merope, having just gained freedom from her father and brother, to be eager to share her hopes and dreams with Tom Sr.

"Look, I'm sorry for what you had to go through, Mr. Riddle. What she did to you was not right, but you're not the only victim here. Tom is angry at her too," she explained. "She could have saved her own life with magic, but she chose not to. She chose to abandon her own son. I don't know why, but she did nonetheless, and Tom was left to be raised by a woman who abused him as a result."

Tom Sr. didn't have anything to say to that. He just stood there and stared at her.

To be honest, it felt a bit strange to her. Here she was, standing in the middle of a crowded train station while her friends were waiting for her on the other side of the platform, scolding a grown man who was old enough to be her father.

Yet, at the same time, she knew that it needed to be done. Tom Sr. had told his side of the story, but he hadn't bothered to hear his son's side. He needed to know the truth; that his son hadn't always lived this wonderfully magical life, raised with the wealth and luxuries that the Malfoy's provided. He started off as a poor orphan boy who had become cold and paranoid as means of protecting himself.

She could have said much more to him, but with limited time before the train departed, she held back, turning her gaze away from him as she leaned forward and pushed her trolley through the barrier.

When she passed through to the other side, she found Tom standing there waiting for her with his grandparents, who were busy looking around at everything with wide-eyed wonder. She smiled at that. If they thought this was spectacular, just wait until they saw Diagon Alley. She made a mental note to inquire about inviting them along next time.

"Is everything alright?" Tom asked. "I was starting to think my father had held you back to strangle you for being a witch or something."

As fate would have it, Tom Sr. chose that exact moment to step through the barrier. Hermione knew at once that he had heard his son's words, as his gaze fixated on him, giving him something of a dirty look.

"Relax boy, I'm not about to hurt your girlfriend," he said as he moved past them to join his parents.

Tom opened his mouth to object to his statement, but must have changed his mind as he shook his head and shut his mouth.

Hermione raised a brow at this. He wasn't denying it as he usually did. What did that mean? Could it be that he was considering asking her to be his girlfriend and making the claims true?

As much as she loathed the idea of sitting back and waiting for a boy to take the first step, Druella and Rosaline had insisted that it was the proper way to go about it. There were times when she enjoyed living in a time where people actually had manners and conducted themselves by a set of firmly placed rules, but then there were times when she just wanted to be done with it and prove to everyone that girls were just as capable of taking the initiative as boys.

Still, she chose to listen to her friends for the time being and give Tom the chance to ask her when he was ready. She only hoped it wouldn't take him too much longer.

"Fifteen more minutes until departure!" someone called out.

With that, they moved along, steering the trolleys over towards the baggage car to load their belongings. It was strange to think that they had started with only one small suitcase each and now they found themselves with a trolley each carrying a trunk with each of their initials engraved into the side, a much larger suitcase, and a crate to hold their respective pets.

While Tom reached into his crate to let his snake slither up his arm, Hermione opened hers and gently reaching in, pulled out a small black kneazle kitten. The kitten yawned and did a stretch before promptly cuddling into her arms.

"I still don't understand why you bought that fluffy monstrosity," Tom remarked, eyeing the cat warily as he slipped his pet snake into his pocket.

Hermione just rolled her eyes as she cuddled her cat, pressing a kiss to the top of it's head. "He has a name, you know. It's Grimalkin. And he's not a fluffy monstrosity."

She would never understand why people thought that kneazles were ugly. They were beautiful creatures, at least in her eyes, not to mention that they were also magical and highly intelligent.

At first, she hadn't intended to buy another cat, as she felt bad about the idea of replacing her dear old Crookshanks, but they happened to be walking past the Magical Menagerie when she spotted a litter of kneazle kittens in the window. It was a fairly large litter with eight kittens in total, but the one that stood out to her the most was one that was smaller than the rest, and seemed to be left out, watching from the corner of the cage as his brothers and sisters wrestled.

One look was all it took to change her mind. She was in that shop before the others could even notice she was gone.

"You're just jealous because I give him more hugs than you."

"As if," Tom scoffed, though the hint of pink on his pale cheeks kind of gave him away.

With their luggage all loaded onto the train, they turned back to say their farewells to Tom's family. Thomas wasn't actually paying attention, as he seemed to be admiring the exterior of the train, and Tom Sr. was glancing nervously around at all the young witches and wizards that passed by.

Mary on the other hand gave them her full unwavering attention, as she proceeded to fuss over them, tugging any piece of clothing that was even the slightest bit lopsided, straight, and smoothing out any and all strands of hair on Tom's head that she thought looked untidy.

Tom hated it, and tried to squirm out of her grasp, while Hermione giggled, not feeling the slightest bit sorry for him. This was just something he was going to have to get used to. Mary had waited a long time for a grandchild to dote upon and now that she had one, she wasn't about to go easy on him.

"Now, be a good boy and we'll see you at Christmas," she said as she pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

"Christmas?"

She nodded. "Yes, you're both invited to come and spend Christmas with us at Riddle Manor."

"They are?" Both her husband and son turned to look at her.

"We are?" Tom and Hermione exchanged glances.

Mary cast a quick glare at the two older Riddle men before turning back to the children with a smile. "Of course you are. We have plenty of room for you and it will give us a chance to get to know one another better."

Hearing the train whistle, signaling the last call for students to get aboard, they waved goodbye and hurried off towards their compartment.

All of their friends were already inside waiting for them when they got there. Like them, Abraxas was also already dressed in his uniform as was Cygnus, but the other girls weren't. As usual, they preferred to stay in their normal clothes, showing them off to all who passed by, for as long as they could.

"Was that your family I saw you arrive with?" Cygnus asked Tom. "Muggles, aren't they?"

Tom nodded his head, but refrained from speaking as he settled into his seat between him and Abraxas.

Hermione wasn't sure if he was appalled because he had insulted his family, as calling them muggles was in fact an insult when it came to the Black's, or if he was ashamed of the fact.

"Muggles or not, you certainly get your good looks from your father," Rosaline commented. "I was shocked by how similar the two of you look."

Again, Tom made no reply.

The train pulled out of the station, and for once in his life, Tom actually had a family to wave back to, even if he wasn't the most enthused about it. Fortunately, the topic of Tom's muggle family was dropped soon after, as everyone began to talk about how their summer vacations had gone.

Everyone but Cygnus and Druella…

Hermione couldn't help but notice that they didn't quite seem like themselves. Usually, Cygnus would be cracking jokes or at the very least complaining about his mother and sister, and Druella was usually eager to tell them about the newest fashions in Paris. All they did was sit there and stare at their feet, save for a few times when they lifted their heads to glare at each other.

"Is something wrong, Druella? Did you not have a good summer?" Hermione asked, turning to her fair-haired friend.

"Yeah, and what about you, Cygnus?" Abraxas asked. "You've been awfully quiet over there."

Neither of them spoke at first, as they seemed to be having a heated staring contest between the two of them, but finally Cygnus let out a sigh and broke away to look at them.

"Our parents decided to arrange a marriage between Druella and I over the summer," he explained. "As you know, our fathers are old friends, and they thought it would be a good idea to further join the two families."

An arranged marriage? Of course, Hermione had known that such marriages were common with purebloods, but still... She hadn't stopped to consider the fact that it could and probably would happen to a majority of her friends.

"Have they set a date for the wedding?" asked Rosaine.

Druella nodded her head. "The end of the school year."

"What!? But we're only in fifth year! You'll be married for at least two full years before you even graduate!"

"That's just the way it works in our society," Cygnus shrugged as if it didn't bother him in the slightest. "The sooner you're married off the better."

Hermione was absolutely horrified by this. Did pureblood parents really care that little about the happiness of their children that they would force them to get married, to someone they didn't love nonetheless, before they could even finish school? It was totally barbaric!

Seeing that Druella looked as though she was on the verge of tears, Hermione handed Grimalkin over to Rosaline and pulled Druella into a hug. The poor girl was soon crying her eyes out on her shoulder, drenching her sweater in tears.

Cygnus had the nerve to roll his eyes. "Oh come on, you make it seem like a death sentence. I'm not that bad!"

That, of course, didn't make Druella feel any better.

The train ride passed in silence for the most part after that, as no one seemed to know what to say. About two hours in, Rosaline and Druella went off to change, and Hermione decided to tag along for moral support. Something told her that Druella needed some time away from the boys.

"Perhaps you could convince your father to change his mind if you just talked to him and told him how you feel," Hermione suggested.

Druella shook her head, her long golden curls hitting both of the other girls in the face as she did so. "I have already tried, and it did not end well. He says that it is my duty as his daughter to marry and ensure the purity of our bloodline."

Hermione honestly didn't know how to comfort her friend, aside from hugs, which she was always more than willing to give.

"I can only hope that I'll learn to love him," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes, careful not to smudge her mascara. "And if not, I suppose I shall have an unhappy life to look forward to."

It then dawned on Hermione where exactly Druella and Cygnus would fit into the Black Family Tree as she knew it. If Walburga and Orion were Sirius and Regulus' parents, then that would mean... Druella and Cygnus were the parents of Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa!

A chill ran through her whole body. She had unknowingly made friends with the parents of Bellatrix Black. The image of her mugshot from Azkaban on the cover of the Daily Prophet came back to mind. While she had never actually encountered the woman personally, she had heard nasty things… and that face… that was certainly the face of a madwoman.

In the end, she shook the image from her head. It wasn't right for her to think less of Druella just because she knew her future daughter would be a crazed death eater, hell-bent on killing all muggles and muggleborns. Besides, there was no reason why Bellatrix should turn out that way this time around. No Voldemort meant no death eaters.

Just like Druella said, they could only hope for the best.