Chapter VIII: She the Pretend-Listener
OWLs week was fast approaching—or at least, that's what it seemed to Hermione. In truth, it was only late October, but that didn't stop him from creating a color-coded study schedule that he dutifully followed. He had already read all his books more than twice, counting the times he read it when he was still in his original time period. This particular free period, Hermione was dutifully creating a reviewer for Potions. If he ever made it in time for OWLs in 1995, Harry and Ron would be able to use the reviewers he made.
He blinked back tears as he thought of his bestfriends. Although Lily was proving to be great company, she could not compare to the utter feeling of acceptance he had with Harry and Ron. The dynamics of their friendship was different—after all, they had faced a mountain troll together. But it wasn't just that. In Hermione Granger's life, nothing was ever simple.
Whenever he was around, Lily seemed to be a bit clumsier, just as Ginny was with Harry. It had been unnerving to see the meaningful looks and coy smiles Lily was sending his way. Of course, he gave her the benefit of the doubt. Really? Lily liked him? It was absurd to even think it. Unfortunately, the proof seemed to be undeniable.
This was the reason Hermione made a speedy exit from their Charms classroom and holed himself inside the Room of Requirement; he didn't want to encourage her feelings towards him. Sending mixed signals was one of the worst things he could do. His lips quirked upward when he remembered Ron and the disastrous Yule Ball; he never could understand just exactly what Ron wanted from him.
Avoiding Lily from time to time might help lessen what she could only call as 'clingyness' towards him. However, until she actually said anything to him, he would try to pretend as if he knew nothing. Women never liked guys that assumed too much, even if what they assumed was correct. It was probably why Lily hated James so much. Harry's father was so arrogant, he believed Lily was dying to go out with him. And Lily hated James because it was true and she didn't want to admit that she kind of liked the arrogant prick. If only James toned down his ego, and Lily swallowed her pride, then Hermione wouldn't be in this situation.
James still glared at him a lot, but he never outright said anything against him anymore, probably because of his newly founded truce with Sirius. When he had told James that he and Hermione were calling it quits, James blew up and prattled on about how Hermione was dark and should not be allowed in school. Sirius' temper had flared and soon he was shouting about how James was a total prat and Lily would never go out with him. The shouting match was broken by Remus, who reprimanded both of them in a loud voice that rivaled Mrs. Weasley's.
In the end, Sirius got James to agree to leave Hermione alone, but he was obviously not happy about it. These days, Sirius greeted him whenever they saw each other and occasionally, they engaged in polite conversation. Although they still weren't friendly towards each other, it was a far cry from the bully-victim relationship they used to have. Oftentimes, however, he would catch Sirius looking at him as if he were a puzzle to figure out.
Hermione sighed and closed his notebook. He decided that he had killed enough time, and headed down to dinner. Upon reaching the Great Hall, he spotted a sullen looking Lily seated at the end of the Gryffindor table and he seated himself in front of her. Alice gave him a smile in greeting, but Lily was too busy glaring at her potatoes to notice him.
Hermione was just about to start eating when someone plopped on the bench beside him and looped his arms around his shoulders.
"And how are you? My sweet desert potato?"
"You're certainly getting more creative," Hermione replied wryly. Frank Longbottom, Neville's future father grinned at him cheekily. He had started hanging out with them a few days back, when Hermione had helped him with his Potions essay. He was in a higher year than they were, and was reluctant to ask help from someone in 5th year. Alice, his best friend and Neville's future mother, was the one who pointed him in Hermione's direction. After explaining his lessons in plainer terms, Frank announced that Hermione was the most wonderful, divine being in this world, and he'd started the ridiculous petnames ever since.
"Not as creative as you, my beautiful pumpkin god," Frank batted his eyelashes at him, which drew a snort from Alice.
Lily looked up and glared at Frank, his statement had interrupted her intense torture session with her now, mashed potatoes.
"Well, you're cranky today." He commented.
"Thanks, Frank," she said moodily. As her eyes slid from him to Hermione, she started and looked absolutely flustered. "Oh, hi Daniel. I didn't see you there." She squeaked.
"Hello, Lily," Hermione gave her a smile to hide the unease he felt at her reaction.
"Where have you been?" she demanded.
"Oh, here and there," he replied vaguely, and Lily glared at him.
Frank extended a finger and wagged it in front of Lily's face. "Nuh-uh. You won't be able to get the dude if you keep on being so pushy and clingy."
"Frank!" they exclaimed simultaneously.
"What?" he bit off a piece of bread and chewed thoughtfully. "I remember the time I dated Sally Watson from Hufflepuff. Damn, wasn't she the most needy woman I ever had the misfortune of dating—"
"Frank! That's really mean!" Hermione chastised him.
"Well it would be mean if it weren't true," Alice amended. "What?" she added at the equally scandalized looks on Hermione's and Lily's faces. "She was considering poisoning my pumpkin juice because she saw me and Frank talking in the corridor."
"Oh, yeah. I remember that time." Frank shuddered. "And she told me to sign a betrothal contract so she'd be reassured I wouldn't leave her for Alice. Pffft." The look on his face suggested that him having a relationship with his bestfriend seemed completely ludicrous. And when Hermione glanced at Alice, he was surprised to see the same expression on her face.
So how in the world did Neville come to be? He tried to wipe the amused smile off his face, but wasn't able to do it fast enough.
"Something amusing, my beautiful cherry-cheeked cherub?" Frank grinned cheekily. "Did you finally see the resemblance between Lily and Sally? Apart from their names?"
Hermione almost nodded his agreement, but the death glare Lily was sending them kept his face straight.
"I am not needy, pushy, or clingy, Frank Longbottom." Lily said waspishly.
"Suuuuure, Evans." Frank gave her a mockingly-indulgent smile and Hermione had just enough time to cover his ears, when the famous Lily Evans shouting began.
"OH MY GOD FRANK LONGBOTTOM, YOU ANNOYING LITTLE—"
"Calm down, Evans! Jeez, if you stop being so high-strung—"
"Frank," Alice said in warning.
"—maybe, Daniel will go out with you!"
"Bugger," Alice and Hermione muttered.
There was a one second-delay before the explosion hit.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT! HOW DARE YOU IMPLY SOMETHING LIKE THAT FRANK LONGBOTTOM! DANIEL AND I ARE FRIENDS-!"
"Yeah, you're about as 'friendly' to him as that girl is to Black!" Frank retorted jerked his head to the entrance of the Great Hall.
Hermione craned his head and caught a glimpse of Sirius with a blonde girl on his arm.
"AND WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" Lily roared.
"Well, in case your mental faculties have shut down yet again—" Frank said jokingly, but he was starting to sound annoyed.
"Seriously how old are you guys?" Alice sighed exasperatedly.
Hermione tuned the three of them out and focused on the two near the entrance. The girl had golden ringlets that framed her small, comely face. The rest of her hair was tied back in a high pony tail, and Hermione was instantly jealous of her beautiful and manageable curls. She seemed very shy, as she was looking down and only snuck glances at Sirius as she fixed his necktie.
Hermione shifted his gaze to the Black heir and was surprised to see him looking stiff and uncomfortable. Had Sirius finally met his match in a girl? He'd never known Sirius to ever be intimidated by a girl, even a ridiculously pretty one. When Sirius had leaned down and kissed the girl on the cheek, then proceeded to walk away hastily, Hermione's eyebrows shot to his hairline. Sirius Black, woman-charmer extraordinaire, running away from a woman? He dropped his gaze when Sirius came within the vicinity of the Gryffindor table, resolutely staring at his plate until the raven-haired boy passed him and took a seat.
He caught the tail of her friends' argument. "…won't you, Daniel?" When Hermione looked up, it was to the expectant and somewhat anxious gaze of Lily. Alice had her eyebrow raised and Frank was surveying him with a bemused expression.
Wanting to finish the argument, Hermione nodded, agreeing with Lily. "Of course, Lily." This was expected of him, he decided. Since Frank had started sitting with them, a pattern was established. It usually started with Frank irritating Lily, and Lily overreacting, and Alice attempting to calm both of them down. It always ended when Hermione finally took a side, usually Lily's, just so they could eat their meals in relative peace.
What Hermione wasn't expecting was for Lily to blush brightly and give him the biggest smile he'd ever seen on her face.
Uh oh. What did I just agree to? Hermione conveyed this message to Frank with a look and his friend merely gazed at him pointedly as if to say "This is what you get for not siding with me".
"Thanks, Daniel!" Lily giggled. Hermione winced inwardly. If it was enough to get Lily so excited that she giggled uncontrollably, then he was in some serious trouble. "I'll head to the dorm if you guys don't mind." She giggled again. Very serious trouble, indeed.
Alice opted to go with Lily, and when the two had finally left, Hermione turned to Frank questioningly.
"Nuh-uh, I'm not telling you," he preempted mock-moodily.
"Come on, Frank. What did I just agree to?"
"Not te-elliiiiing!" Frank sang.
"At least please tell me it isn't serious?" Hermione pleaded.
Frank raised his hands. "Hohoho. It is most definitely serious. So serious you could die."
"Die?" He echoed dubiously.
Frank shrugged. "Well not really die. But maybe get seriously maimed if you make a wrong decision."
"That bad huh?"
"Worse."
The next day, Hermione woke up with a splitting headache. He cursed Frank Longbottom to the highest heavens. The young timetraveler barely had any sleep because of his dreaded agreement with Lily Evans. When he pulled back his curtains he was surprised to see Sirius up and about, fiddling with some kind of metal tub.
"Morning." He greeted Sirius. "You're up early."
"Couldn't sleep." The other boy shrugged. "You going to Hogsmeade?"
"Hogsmeade?" Hermione echoed.
"Yes, you know that town near us with all those little shops and creepy haunted house?" he asked sarcastically.
Hermione hadn't even known it was a Hogsmeade weekend. But now that he thought about it, there was a growing pit of dread in his stomach. Please let it be anything but that.
"I might head down to see what's there." He decided.
"Need a guide?"
Hermione's eyebrows shot upwards. "Are you offering?"
Sirius made a face. "Nah, James would kill me if I went without him. Especially since Lily turned him down rather violently yet again."
Oh dear, merciful Merlin.
When Hermione went down to the common room, he found Lily dressed in a pale blue dress and cardigan. Perhaps Snape had finally had the guts to ask her out.
"Hey Lily! You look great!" he complimented sincerely. "Going to Hogsmeade with someone?" he asked in what he hoped sounded teasing.
Lily blushed and hit him lightly on the arm. "You're not so bad yourself. If you must know, I am going to Hogsmeade with someone."
Hermione grinned at her uneasily. "Any chance it's Potter?"
Lily laughed at her and grabbed his arm. "Come on, Daniel, let's get going before we run out of places to eat." She turned away from Hermione, and therefore missed the look of horror that was plastered on his face. He bit back a groan as he realized the consequences of his 'pretend-listening'. James was going to kill him. But not if Snape spotted them first.
On very rare occasions, Sirius woke up earlier than any of his other dormmates; Hogsmeade weekends just happened to be one of those rare occasions. He stretched and stood at the foot of James' bed, contemplating how he'd wake his friend up. He pulled back the curtains and saw that James was at the edge of his bed.
Perfect.
Sirius took his sweet time, the others would wake up after James did, preferably because of him. He transfigured one of the boxes he'd found into a large metal tub. Before he could put his plan into action, the curtains to the bed on the farthest end of their room opened and he found himself looking at Chronos.
"Morning," he greeted him. "You're up early."
"Couldn't sleep." He said and engaged Chronos in small talk. Let nobody say that he was devoid of manners. Until now, Chronos still remained a mystery to him. So maybe James was right and there was indeed something about the transfer student that was off. But that didn't mean it was bad…right? Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, he focused on the task at hand.
Snickering, he placed the tub beside James' bed and filled it with ice cold water.
He positioned himself opposite the side James was sleeping and cast a tickling charm.
Immediately, James woke up and started laughing. He tried to find where he was being tickled; he rolled over and then—
SPLASH.
"HOLY—FUCKING—" and the room was filled with expletives from James and raucous laughter from Sirius.
Remus' curtains were ripped open and the werewolf glared balefully at the two of them before flopping back down on his bed with a groan. Peter groggily stepped out of the bed and looked at Sirius, who was still laughing, and James who was still spluttering. It took him a while before the hilarity of the situation hit him. And soon, he joined Sirius on the floor, laughing.
Sirius recovered enough to toss James a towel. The said boy made a rude gesture—which made Sirius laugh even harder—and slammed the door to the bathroom to take a long hot shower.
"Was that really necessary?" Remus rolled in bed and raised his head to look at Sirius. "I wanted to sleep a little bit more."
"It's Hogsmeade day," Sirius reminded him. To Remus, Hogsmeade weekend equals chance to buy loads of chocolate from Honeydukes.
"Hogsmeade!" he jumped to his feet and ran to the bathroom. Finding it locked, he banged on the door, "MAKE IT QUICK! WE'RE GOING TO HOGSMEADE! IF ALL THAT SWEET CHOCOLATE IS GONE BY THE TIME I GET THERE, SO HELP ME JAMES POTTER—"
Sirius held on to his bed frame to keep him from falling down with laughter. All thoughts of Daniel Chronos were forgotten.
Chronos had a death wish, it seemed. The Marauders had been shopping at Honeydukes when they spotted Lily on a date. Naturally, James forced Sirius to go spy on them, since he believed going himself would be too 'conspicuous'. Sirius scoffed, as if his spying wasn't at all noticeable. Peter was probably the more suitable candidate, but he didn't want any part in it.
To his surprise, it was actually Chronos with Lily, and he felt a surge of anger at the boy. That filthy liar. He said he wasn't at all interested in Lily. Obviously, that wasn't the case, as they were walking arm in arm to the village's bookshop, Tomes and Scrolls. Once they entered, Sirius counted to ten before following them inside, arriving just in time to see Lily excuse herself from Chronos and head to the washroom. They were the only people in the shop apart from the shopkeeper who was discussing something with a tall hooded gentleman at the counter.
He approached Chronos, whirled him around and grabbed him by the collar.
"Are you out of your mind?" he whispered angrily. "What happened to 'I'm not interested in Lily'!"
It took a moment before Chronos recovered from his surprise. "Black, let me explain—"
"Yes, I would very much like to hear what you have to say," he spat venomously.
"It isn't like that!" Chronos said. He kept glancing at the door to the restroom. "You have to help me!"
"Help you—what?" Sirius asked, confused. What could Chronos possibly need help in?
"It's Lily! I was pretending to listen to her raving last night and unknowingly agreed to a date!"
Sirius let out a disbelieving laugh. "You expect me to believe you accidentally—?"
"Yes!" he huffed. "It's the truth. Frank wouldn't tell me what I ended up agreeing to. I didn't know it was even a Hogsmeade weekend. Please I need your help!"
Massaging his temples, Sirius said, "All right, calm down, what help could you possibly need?"
"I need you to sabotage this date."
Sirius blinked at him. "What?"
Chronos looked guilty at the very idea, but also resignedly determined. "There is no other way. I have to get her off my back!"
"You really don't like Evans, do you?" he had to make sure this wasn't a joke on Chronos' part.
"I swear. I don't like doing this to her, but she just won't be dissuaded." Chronos was washing his hands in his palms at this point. Boy, he was actually serious.
"Have you tried talking to her?" Sirius asked sarcastically.
"Well I—"
"Mr. Black, how fortunate that we should encounter each other here." A third voice interrupted.
Sirius' insides froze. He knew that voice, and he hoped never to hear it again, especially in such close quarters. He looked over Chronos' shoulder, and saw the man at the counter was less than a foot away. Unwillingly, he raised his head to meet those piercing gray eyes that radiated power and coldness.
Chronos, who seemed to be able to read Sirius' body language also turned around to face the man. To his credit, the brunette managed to look at the man without any outward display of fear except for his shaking fists, which he hastily hid in his coat pockets.
"Sir, it is indeed fortuitous that we meet here. What brings you to Hogsmeade?" Sirius managed to ask politely, ignoring his instincts to flee and hide under his duvet forever.
"Business, I'm afraid." He glanced at Chronos and smiled, sincerely if Sirius hadn't known just who this man was. "Ah, but we're being impolite. You haven't introduced me to your charming young friend, here."
Sirius would do as was expected of him. He didn't want to introduce Chronos to him, but it would finally prove whether or not the transfer student was a follower of the dark. But he was sure the mystery surrounding him would pique the man's interest.
The Black Heir dipped his head. "Sir, this is my friend, Daniel Chronos, he is a fifth year transfer student from Spellstruck Academy. Daniel, I would like you to meet our family friend, Mr. Thomas Riddle."
The name seemed to be familiar to Chronos as he stiffened for moment, before forcing himself to relax and shake the hand that was extended to him.
"It's my pleasure, Mr. Riddle." Chronos smiled politely.
"Why, the pleasure is all mine, Mr. Chronos." Riddle said. "I don't believe I have ever heard of…what was it…Spellstruck Academy?"
"It is more of a private home tutoring kind of schooling, sir."
"I see. I believe you are the first ever transfer student that Hogwarts has ever accepted. Pray tell, how did you apply for it?"
Chronos was visibly sweating, but he answered in the same confident tone. "I contacted the Headmaster and relayed my desire to join Hogwarts. Naturally, I had to undergo a few tests to ensure that I had the required skill to keep up with my classmates in fifth year."
"I see," Riddle smiled again. "I'm afraid I must take my leave, I have a meeting in a about half an hour that I do not wish to miss." He headed for the door and stopped just before he exited. "I hope that we would see more of each other in the future, Mr. Chronos. And I hope that you will reach a decision on the apprenticeship I've offered, Mr. Black."
Apprenticeship. Sirius would have snorted if he wasn't so terrified. "I shall endeavor to give you an answer by the end of the school year, sir."
"I look forward to it." Riddle gave them one last glance, but his eyes didn't turn red like last time. "Good day." And with that, he stepped out of the shop.
Chronos slumped on the bookshelf behind him, panting, and Sirius braced himself by putting both of his hands on the shelf and placing his forehead on Chronos' shoulder. The brunette was supporting him by his elbows since Sirius' legs felt like jelly. It was utterly embarrassing, but after the ordeal, he didn't believe Chronos would ever mock him for his moment of weakness. There was silence before Chronos spoke.
"Was that…who I think it was?" he murmured.
"Depends on who you thought it was." Sirius still could not stand on his own. Riddle was downright terrifying even when he wasn't trying. He never wanted to be within fifty feet of that man ever again.
"Voldemort." Sirius wouldn't have heard him say it if his ear wasn't inches away from Chronos' mouth.
"How do you know that name?"
The answer never came as a strangled gasp startled both of them. They looked in the direction of the sound and saw Evans looking at them in shock. Only then did the two of them realize how…promiscuous their position looked to an outsider. They flew apart so quickly, one would think they were summoned off each other.
"You and—and him!" she exclaimed.
"Lily! It's not what you think—"
"Evans really you should listen—"
But Evans would hear none of it. "It's okay, I understand. At least I know why you never seemed to have any interest in me." She babbled, but looked on the brink of tears. "Well I'll just, um, go." And she ran off.
"Lily! Wait!" Chronos shouted but made no move to run after her. He groaned and dragged his palm down his face. "Of all the luck…"
"Well," Sirius couldn't help commenting. "At least you have one problem solved."
"And about a dozen other that emerged," he grimaced.
Both didn't want to say it, but they knew that all those problems centered on one person.
Voldemort.
A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry I've been neglecting this fic! It took about two years before I actually got inspired to work on it again. Sorry for that. But I hope you enjoy this chapter. Merry Christmas! Hopefully I'll be able to update sooner! :)