A/N Okay a couple of things, I am acknowledging that what I wrote about Ancient Runes is made up and is probably wrong. I have a very limited knowledge about Ancient Runes. I tried to look it up, but I didn't find much. ALSO THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT SO READ THIS PART: I have decided this story will eventually turn M- Rated. There are certain things I feel I need to include for the plot. There will be warnings before chapters with explicit contents and a summary will be provided for those who don't want to read those chapter. Thanks for the support and enjoy the chapter
Chapter 5
Hermione woke up in the familiar sense of security that Hogwarts had always given her. She stretched and rubbed her eyes, glancing at the clock.
'6:30, Ron and Harry won't be down for breakfast for ages,' she thought smiling to herself. Just because her friends were lazy doesn't mean she had to be. She always liked getting down to breakfast early. It gave her more time to read uninterrupted. She walked to the bathroom and flicked on the light, suddenly gasping at her appearance in the mirror. Her hollow face and the abundance of new scars on her served as a reminder of where she had come from.
She closed her eyes tightly and ran her shaking hands through her abnormally coarse hair sliding to the ground. No. She would not allow herself to fall apart now. Not yet. The time would come when she would allow herself to face the tragedy in her life, a time where she would let herself cry for hours over her fallen loved ones and mourn them the way they deserved to be mourned. But she knew they would want her to persevere. She was not safe yet, and she could not show a sign of weakness.
She forced herself to look back into the mirror. She waved her wand and her skin went from being the sickly shade of pale to her normal, creamy color and added a slight blush to her face in order to make herself look healthier. She covered up the bags under her eyes and lightened them up. From there she wrestled her hair that looked even more damaged than normal back to her normal bushy curls. She smiled slightly, enjoying how she looked like her old self again. She only wished she could do something about the dead look in her eyes.
Once she had finished getting ready, she walked out of the common room and directly into a toned figure. She looked up only to find the teenaged Dark Lord staring down at her with annoyance written all over his face.
"You're late," he stated in a cold voice.
She furrowed her brows and looked at her clock which read 7:31. "Hardly, and I just came from a battle. I think I deserved to sleep in, though you obviously did not think the same."
"I specifically stated for you to be here by 7:30, how foolish of me to think that you would be able to handle something as simple as that, and if you please, I do not care to hear about your excuses. You seemed to sleep quite a bit with all that fainting you were doing. You were the one who insisted on starting classes today, if you couldn't handle it, you shouldn't have done it. This way, please," and with that, he turned from her and started to stride away.
She followed after him slightly confused. The Voldemort she knew would have crucio'd someone on the spot for tardiness, yet this younger version obviously had more self-control. It was clear he was annoyed, yet he still held a respectable tone that almost covered up the snide comments he was saying.
'He still needs to keep up the perfect Head Boy image. He can't just go around torturing anyone he pleases. Especially after Myrtle dying.' When Hermione came to the realization, she felt a bit safer, knowing he was restricted from harming her, at least while others were around.
Once they reached the Great Hall, Tom turned to her, "The Gryffindor table is on the far left with the red and gold banners above it, as you probably already guessed. I will be at the Slytherin table on the far right. I will come and get you when it is time to go to our first class. Do try to eat something, you so obviously need it," he said with disgust coming into his voice as he eyed her.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you always this rude to people?"
He smirked at her, "Only the one's I enjoy watching squirm."
She looked down, a blush slightly ghosting over her cheeks as she shifted from side to side, uncomfortable with his sudden scrutiny of her. He walked forward so that he was directly in front of her, and gently pushed her chin up to look at him. She couldn't help but notice how absolutely beautiful he was, and at this proximity to him, she had to actively keep herself focused on his words, "Plus Miss Granger, as I recall you never treated me kindly, even when I was polite to you. I can only civilized to someone as rude as you for so long," he said it so innocently, as if he was secretly hurt by her treating him coldly.
'The time your feelings get hurt will be the time when Snape dresses in drag,' she thought smugly, her face slightly dropping as she remembered when Neville dressed up his Snape boggart in his Grandmother's dress.
Tom stepped away from Hermione and smirked at her, "You're going to have to earn that back, Miss Granger."
Hermione turned and walked off to her House table. She sat down and piled food on her plate, grateful for the meal that, much to her dismay, Tom was correct in saying she needed.
"You're new, right?" she heard a voice say, she looked up to see a pretty girl with a slightly tanned face looking at her with sparkling hazel eyes, "Hermione Granger, I presume?"
Hermione nodded her head, "Yes."
The girl stuck out her long and thin elegant hand, taking Hermione's petite one it in and shaking, "I'm Renée Bryant, I'm your roommate. I really wanted to introduce myself this morning, but you were already gone. So I had to find you now because my curiosity just wouldn't let me wait."
Hermione smiled her first genuine smile at the girl, "Yes, Mr. Riddle made me leave a bit early this morning I'm afraid."
Renée raised her brow, "Tom's showing you around? I don't know whether to envy or pity you."
"Why do you say that?" From what Hermione could tell in the brief time she was in this time period was that the whole school loved Riddle.
She shrugged, "Well he's gorgeous, there's no doubting that. I definitely wouldn't mind having to look at that sculpted piece of perfection all day," she laughed lightly before throwing a glance at Tom then leaning in towards Hermione. Hermione copied the action, "But he's a bit off, if you know what I mean. He comes off as this proper and polite gentleman, but it seems a bit forced. Plus, he acts like a forty year old instead of a teenager. Though I heard he's had his fair share of girls." She leaned back and sighed, taking a bite of her eggs, "And there lies the confusion that is Tom Riddle."
Hermione furrowed her brows in confusion, but returned the smile Renée flashed her. This girl was definitely not like Harry and Ron, she was much too gossipy and talked too much to be like them. But she sent off a friendly and welcoming air that Hermione could appreciate.
Hermione spent the rest of breakfast listening to Renée insist on introducing her to everyone on the surrounding area, the stories that Hermione had missed, and the details of Hogwarts that Hermione already knew. Although Hermione would normally be annoyed with such insistent chatter, she now was relieved by it because it kept her mind away from the dark memories that were waiting to pounce on her.
A shadow fell over Hermione as a silky voice halted Renee's high-pitch one, "Miss Bryant," it greeted.
"Tom," Renée said, throwing away the formalities that Riddle had used causing his smile to tighten a bit.
"Pardon my interruption, but I must escort Miss Granger to her first class."
Renée scanned Hermione's face to see her reactions finding a strategically placed blank look in place. Renée nodded, flashing both of them a wide smile, "Of course, we don't want you to be late to your first class at Hogwarts! I'll see you at the dorm or common room or something later, Hermione," she turned to Riddle and nodding, "Tom, always a pleasure." A well hidden tang of sarcasm went through her voice at the last statement.
"And to you as well, Miss Bryant," he turned to Hermione and gestured towards the door with his hand, "Miss Granger, if you please."
Hermione got up, said her goodbyes to Renée, and allowed Tom to walk her to class.
Her first class was Advance Ancient Runes, where she situated herself in the back row with her head down, trying to not attract too much attention to herself. Voldemort had already seen too much of her and Hermione needed to tread carefully. The rest of the class consisted of mostly Ravenclaws and a couple other select few Slytherins, two of which she recognized as Abraxas Malfoy and Alphard Black.
The tall and extremely thin professor walked to the front of the class with his glasses looking as if they were going to fall off the brim of his nose. He turned to the board and started drawing runes of various levels of difficulty. "Welcome to Advance Ancient Runes, I am Professor Achak. Now can anyone tell me what this rune represents?" He asked pointing to the simplest rune. The entire class raised their hands and he called on a petite Ravenclaw boy, "That represents two, sir."
"Correct." As the Professor progressed along asking more and more difficult runes, the number of hands fell dramatically, leaving on Tom's confident hand, and Hermione's half-hearted one.
"And this last one, ah our new student, Miss Granger?"
Hermione blushed deeply as she realized she had raised her hand out of habit, not even realizing she had. Tom's gaze bored into her with a look that clearly showed that he doubted she knew the answer.
She ignored him and turned to the gaunt professor, "That rune can heal those who have suffered from curses concocted from very Dark magic. Of course, this rune is peculiar because unlike most healing runes that help witches and wizards with very light and good-natured magic, this rune used Dark magic to fight the dark magic of the injury. You have to carve it into the person's stomach for it to be able to work. It is a very painful process and most feel as though it is not worth it." Once she had finished she shot Riddle a smug look, suddenly off-put by the sheer intensity of his gaze.
She immediately looked down, 'Stupid.' This was not the way to go unnoticed. After the class had finished she quickly gathered her things and raced out of the room towards her next class, not bothering to wait for Tom.
Suddenly, she heard fast footsteps catching up to her until cold hands wrapped around her shoulders pulling her backside flush against a muscular body.
"And where do you think you're going?" A smooth voice whispered to her against her ear, causing her to involuntarily shudder, in which he smirked at.
She looked around for help only receiving angry glares from girls that Hermione could only presume belonged in Riddle's fan club. She pushed herself away from him and spun around. "To class, if you don't mind," she snapped at him.
"Really?" he said smirking at her.
"Yes really, though you don't seem too keen on allowing me to continue on my way."
"You seem very comfortable at Hogwarts," he started in a conversational tone, "for someone who just arrived here for the first time yesterday."
Her face fell slightly, "Y-yes, well I heard one of the Ravenclaws saying that he had Herbology next as well, so I was following him."
"I see," he said, glancing around them at the now empty corridor they stood in, "Well since you seem to have lost him, allow me to escort you to the class."
She noticed he was staring deeply into her eyes, 'Legilimens.' She thought, quickly placing her eyes on the floor.
He smirked at this and began walking away, casually calling back a, "This way, Granger," to her as she tried to catch up with the Dark Lord.
A/N Please tell me your opinions on Renée because I'm deciding on how big of a role she will have in this story and it's really up to you guys. So I really need to hear from you all!