Authors Note:

So, I did my best. I had terrible writer's block but I'm finally getting into the plot with this chapter, though you may not quite realize it! But it's coming, this next chapter is going to be exciting because this chapter had be fucking fucked (excuse my language) forever. But I'm back on track and I've got my other story, and I feel like I'm definitely out of this trap I've put myself in. It's a little short, and I apologize but I knew I had to get this chapter out of the way so I could finally get into the real deal here. The real thing.

and I know, there wasn't any great Tomione Romance in here, but I'm not going to rush this, that's not to say that it isn't coming (oh because it is) but I have my outline and I definitely have the intentions to stick to it. After this chapter, we're really going to jump right into the plot. So you'll understand where I'm going from here. Reviews are still welcome and appreciated!

Seriously though, reviews. Keep them coming, i need them. I need to know if I suck or not.

Hermione's body temperature seemed to have dropped at least a good ten degrees simply walking to her second to last detention. That was how she had to look at it, just one more from the last time. What more could possibly happen? Oh you know what could happen, don't act like you don't. Hermione felt her cheeks redden at such an improper thought and tried to push past it. Her mind was simply spinning from her encounter this morning, if he had become that brazen where he could act such a way in a public library where anyone could have seen, then she had no idea what he had in store for tonight.

Hermione's stomach dropped when she realized she had reached the door, she stood for a second contemplating just skipping but thought better of it when she realized skipping would probably just buy her an entire month's worth of detention. She took her sweet time reaching for handle, she even tried to open the door as quietly as she could, thinking maybe he was already in the room and wouldn't hear her come in.

She was wrong.

"I thought you were going to stand out there all night." He didn't look up from his book, he was still reading Frankenstein.

"I wasn't out there that long." She snipped, setting down her bag and removing her robe.

He placed a slip of paper into his book and stood, staring Hermione up and down taking in her appearance. She blushed lightly at his gaze and turned away to stow her wand into her bag. She had opted tonight for thigh high socks in order to cover any bare skin on her legs. She had even unrolled her skirt slightly so that it went down to her knees, giving Hermione a more matronly look. A part of her doubted it even mattered, if he wanted it so badly he'd just remove the entire thing anyway.

"Snippy already and we haven't even started. In another bad mood tonight Hermione?" He smirked as she stepped past him to go into the storage room.

"It hardly looks as though we've made a difference in here Professor, maybe tonight we ought to use magic?" She ignored his remarks and took her seat on the floor, leafing through papers.

"Like I said, it's character building. We'll just have to stay later tonight won't we?" His voice held no humor and Hermione's stomach began to clench on itself again.

She had nothing more to say to her professor. She had enough of his nonsense for one day and felt an utter desperation to just finish the damn room and leave. She was still mortified by the previous night and was doing her best to hide her thoughts of it. Hermione knew herself better than most and knew that all he had to do was look at her to know what she was thinking. She enjoyed that he wasn't saying much, but in all honestly the silence was killing her. Not that they ever spoke much, but how could you not have anything to say after last night? It she had it her way she would be laying one into him, asking him how he dare touch one of his students like that. She even felt as brave as to threaten him with telling Professor McGonagall. She still had finger shaped bruises littered across her body where he had ran his hands.

In an anxious attempt to hurry and leave the room, she began looking the papers over faster, cleaning the best she could at a speed that she was sure looked absolutely ridiculous. She couldn't let last night happen again, she had to leave. She couldn't be around him any longer. She knew, she knew, that whatever had happened before could never happen again. But you want it to happen again, you even dreamed about. He was right you know? You never pushed him away, you were almost begging for it by the time he was done with you. He has you right in the palm of his hand. Hermione wished there was some way to block the bloody voice in her head from speaking, surely there was a spell to gag the damn voice in your head?

"Slow down Miss Granger, cleaning faster won't get you out of here any earlier." He was examining an old trinket that looked like a broken glass ball.

"No, but it'll certainly save me time tomorrow won't it?" She was on it tonight.

"You can say whatever you want, but we both know how much you love being down here with me. You certainly loved it last night, didn't you?" She was surprised her hair wasn't smoking for how red her face turned.

"That's a little crude isn't it?" She continued placing books on the shelf, continuing to refuse to meet his gaze.

"If that's what you call crude, you have a lot to learn." He grinned.

"Well you'd be the one to teach me then wouldn't you? The way you treat you're students, you're the definition of crude." Hermione retorted, her skin felt hot and prickly under her uniform.

Hermione almost jumped out of her skin when she felt him come up behind her. One hand grabbed her hip, pulling her closer. The other reached into her hair to grasp it and pull it to the side, giving him access to speak into her ear.

"I can teach you so much more than you know." His voice was deep in her ear and her legs grew weak, her eyes closing on their own whim. "You might not know it yet Hermione, but that smart mouth of yours has so many better uses. I can show you every single one."

Hermione felt her skin grow hot and her stomach churned, her body yearned to feel the sensations it was given last night, she felt like a drug addict, she craved it. He pulled away suddenly and Hermione gasped at the cold sensation it left when he pulled away, she heard him chuckle softly from behind her, she felt a small hot anger burning its way up her throat. She turned around and narrowed her eyes at his back as he went back over to sorting his broken trinkets.

"You do realize how much trouble you would get in if I were to tell Professor McGonagall about this don't you?" She demanded, she resisted the urge to stomp her feet.

"You won't tell on me." His face was void of anything and Hermione felt her frustration rise from his avoiding gaze.

"You're wrong, I have every intenti-"

"No Miss Granger, you don't." He finally turned his face to face her. "If you had any intentions to speak against my actions you would have done so already, and you simply enjoy my company too much to wish me away."

"You must think so highly of yourself to believe that I enjoy your company!" She huffed turning around and picking up a stack of books to put on the shelf.

Riddle chucked quietly and Hermione felt her anger spike. She continued to shove things into the book shelf and chuck things into the bin at an advanced pace. How dare he just assume that I like to spend time with him, the insufferable git. Just because he was able to take advantage of me last night doesn't mean I enjoy being with him. Hermione continued to angrily rant in her head for the next few minutes. She couldn't believe she was in this situation at all. Sure everyone jokes around about dreams about sleeping with the professor, even Hermione at one point dreamed of being under this man. Every witch in this school dreamed about it when they first saw him. You're not sleeping with him. Hermione shook her head, no she wasn't sleeping with him. She might as well be, last night was bad enough.

She couldn't believe she was still letting herself be bothered by this entire thing. Hermione Granger didn't let men run her life. She was mad at herself for even falling into this situation and letting herself be so upset by the entire thing. She'd even acted out at her friends all day because of this stupid man. She'd helped defeat Grindlewald for heaven's sake. She was eighteen years old, ready to graduate. Just because he was her professor didn't mean she had to let him take advantage of her like this. You could hardly call it taking advantage of you if you're sitting there letting him do it, can you?

"Talking to ourselves now are we?"

"They say it's healthy to talk to oneself every now and then." Hermione replied, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment.

"They only tell people that to make them feel as if they aren't crazy, you'll find that most wizards throughout the ages that spoke to themselves were either delusional or wanted to somehow use magic against muggles in a harmful fashion. I'd hardly be surprised to find that Grindlewald spoke to himself." Riddle's voice held a knowing tone, as if a teacher speaking to a lowly student.

"Don't you dare compare me to that man!" Hermione dropped everything in her hands and turned to stare directly into her professors blazing blue eyes. If there was anything in the world Hermione felt so strongly about, this was it. "He killed my friends, if it wasn't for him I'd have family to go to during the holidays. My family has no idea who I am! Because of Grindlewald I have no family!" Hermione felt herself gasping at her anger.

"I apologize…I misspoke." He held his head down, as if in shame, however it raised back up and his eyes caught her and she found herself holding her breath, waiting. "You ought to learn not to wear your feelings on your sleeve Hermione, it doesn't suit you."

Hermione let out an indignant breath of air, unbelieving of the way this man could go from apologetic in one second back to an unendurable asshole in the next. She rolled her eyes and turned to finish her cleaning. She sat down facing her professor, crossing her legs and began picking up books to sort them. She found herself constantly glancing up at To-Professor Tom to see if he was looking at her. She felt rather discomfited at the thought that she couldn't stop looking up at him every so often. She looked up at the clock to see if she was anywhere close to being able to go back to her dorm, eleven o'clock. Surely she hadn't been down here that long? Had that much time passed? As if reading her mind, her professor finally spoke.

"I'm sorry Hermione, I'd failed to notice the time. Come, let me walk you to your dormitory. It isn't safe for you to be alone in the halls at this hour." He stood up, dusting his pants off and held an arm to the door of the storage closet.

"I'm not a child professor, I think I can handle walking by myself." She grabbed her robes and her bag as she walked towards the door to the dungeons.

"You've proven to me that you're incapable of defending yourself against unseen threats, I'll be the one who makes the decision whether you handle something." He said, his hand hovering over the small of her back to make her move forward.

"Oh, of course, father." She began to make a fast paced walk when his hand caught her from the side, her breath hitched from his touch.

"If you wanted to call me Daddy, all you had to do was ask." He murmured in her ear, his lips brushing her ear softly. "Slow down, nothing's after you."

He let her go and Hermione felt her body temperature roll in heat as she stumbled forward from his grasp. She turned to glare at him and continued slowly with him walking silently by her side. Hermione glanced at him as they walked, his face was handsome. There was just no way around it, he was gorgeous. His face seemed to have almost perfect features, his cheekbones met beautiful with his chin and his hair was parted and waved down to perfection. His skin looked so soft (it is that soft) that Hermione felt the need to reach out and just run her hand down his face, not that she felt he would object.

"Staring isn't polite you know." He never looked at her, his voice held humor to it.

"Neither is feeling up your students, but here we are." She rolled her eyes turning away, her cheeks burned at being caught.

"Honestly Miss Granger, if it really makes you that uncomfortable, say so now. I won't touch you again." He stopped and stared straight into her eyes. Hermione looked forward and she found herself already facing the portrait, why did time seem to fly so fast when she was with him.

She turned to look at him and just stared into his eyes, he was giving her an out. Every part of her screamed to take it but the words didn't seem to want to come out. She was going to have to spit it out, even if her bloody mouth wouldn't let her.

"I do." She finally blurted, it came out very high pitched like she was squeaking for air.

He raised a perfectly arched eyebrow and gave her questioning look but then smiled.

"Of course, I wouldn't want to push the limits Miss Granger." He said smiling, Hermione felt a pang in her stomach, was that regret? "Sleep tight Hermione, only one night left."

He turned and disappeared into the darkness of the stairs leaving Hermione staring into the dark. She turned to face the portrait, she felt slightly confused at the nights events. Did they really go from grouping each other up to just simple perfunctory goodnights? She felt a little annoyed but relieved. Maybe tonight she would be able to sleep without tossing and turning. She crawled in through the portrait and walked into her dorm room, surprised to find Ginny still awake, reading by wand light in her bed.

"Oh, you're back. I was waiting up for you." She said putting down her book. "You were in such a terrible mood earlier, and I know you don't really feel like talking but, you know. I know you need to talk to someone. Even the great Hermione Granger can't keep it all together all the time."

"It's been such a rough week Ginny!" Hermione finally spilled walking over to her bed and sitting down next to her. "I don't think I even had this bad of a week when Grindlewald's followers were all here. I don't understand why he hates me so much, he makes Snape look like a dream." Hermione almost felt the urge to cry, but it was more because of the fact that she simply couldn't tell Ginny everything and get it all off her chest.

"I know, but it's all over tomorrow and I mean honestly, it's not like it could get much worse right? He can't exactly give you a detention every time you ask a question, and he's just an arse anyway. He's not just rude to you, I mean he does seem to pick on you a little more than everyone else, but I mean, did you hear what happened to Hannah Abbott?"

"No, did he trip her and take fifty points for bad posture?" Hermione sniffed, wiping a solemn tear from her eye trying to toughen herself up.

"Hannah got caught passing notes and well…she was passing notes about him. He made her read the note aloud and it wasn't very…appropriate. She was so embarrassed she ran out of the room crying and didn't show up for the rest of her classes." Ginny's face held a look of pity.

Hermione wasn't the least bit surprised that seemed exactly like something he would do. He was just the kind of person to make students cry and thinking nothing of it. He was in simplest terms a complete asshole, and Hermione barely cursed for that matter, but there was no better fitting word for this man than a curse word. She didn't seem to understand him in the least, not that she fully ever understood men. It wasn't like Hermione had much of a past with men, especially ones she understood. She barely understood Viktor when he spoke and that ruined much of anything, especially his complete dedication to nothing but Quidditch. Ron was so unreadable it was a mystery that he was able to decipher what he wanted. How was she supposed to understand a man who read muggle books, acted like he wanted to jump her bones, belittled her in front of all her class mates, and then toyed with her emotions all in the span of one day?

"We ought to go to bed, tomorrow's your last day, I'm surprised he isn't making you stay Saturday." Ginny put her book and muttered Nox letting the light slid from her wand.

"Just one more day." Hermione changed into her pajama's before settling into bed.

She wasn't sure why, but for some reason that book popped back up into her head. What had he done with that book he found? Who would have brought that kind of book into the school? Hermione grimaced at the thought of the things she saw in there, magical ways of stripping the skin off a human like an animal and being able to cover yourself with it, using Unicorn Blood by moonlight mixed with Acromantula to create a poison that would boil your skin while keeping you alive until your bones and organs melted, keeping you alive until the very last second. She felt nauseous, who would need that kind of magic. Who even invented that sort of the thing, surely he had taken it to turn it in. Why had he made such a big deal about it anyway?

Hermione's mind reeled, what if he was going to use it. She wouldn't be surprised, Hermione wouldn't have been the least bit surprised to know he was evil or something. He was the one who warned her about all the dark things he had seen, that had to be a clue. This wasn't some Harry assuming Draco Malfoy was behind everything bad that happened at Hogwarts, this was real. Hermione wasn't stupid. They were partially right about Snape being on the wrong side…even though he had only taken Grindlewald's side to help defeat him, but still. They had been right, Hermione knew there was no way this man was this mean without hiding something.

Then Hermione had an idea, an idea she had promised herself she would stay away from this year. She sat up suddenly, looking over. Ginny had already fallen asleep, Riddle wouldn't be in his room anymore. Surely he had gone to bed too. Hermione slowly stood up, grasping her wand and covering herself with a disillusionment charm and walked crept to the door of the girls' dormitory. She was going to get that book and she was going to figure out what he was up too. She took a deep breath and opened the portrait to the castle.

She had no idea what she was getting into.