Chapter 6 - Of Wands and Warnings
"Chocolate?" Cygnus inquired, handing her a bowl full of it as she picked up some toast and spread some raspberry jam on it.
"At breakfast?" Hermione frowned, crunching on her toast.
"Well, why not?" Cygnus demanded, "You need something to get you through the school day."
"Ah, why not," Hermione smiled, taking a square of chocolate and popping it in her mouth.
"Nice?" Cygnus asked.
Not as nice as Honeydukes, Hermione was about to say but stopped herself just in time.
That was not a good thing to say when she was supposed to be from Norway.
"Yeah, lovely," Hermione nodded.
"Better than Norway chocolate?" Cygnus inquired hopefully.
I wouldn't know, I've never been further East than France, Hermione thought bitterly.
"I'd say they're just as good," Hermione lied.
"No, no. One has to be better," Cygnus insisted.
You just don't know when to shut up? Do you?
She thankfully was interrupted as Fomalhault, Abraxas and Leonis sat down at the table, spreading a yawn between themselves.
"Good sleep, Hermione?" Leonis smiled sleepily.
"Good enough until Cygnus started banging my dorm door down," Hermione laughed.
"Hey! You had to get up! You hadn't tried Hogwarts' breakfast yet!" Cygnus argued.
"Well, you didn't have to wake my dorm up at six am to do it!" Hermione retorted.
"Well, the people in your dorm are early birds anyway!" Cygnus protested, "There only is two of them!"
"Then why were they both screaming at you?"
Cygnus didn't reply and started engaging himself in conversation with Fomalhault as he tried to escape from the argument that he couldn't win.
"I feel outnumbered," Hermione commented to Abraxas.
"How so?" He asked, smiling weakly at her.
"So far, I have no female friends, I'm surrounded by a group of arrogant wizards and there are two girls in my dorm," Hermione explained.
Abraxas blinked in confusion as he noticed her insult and went to reply but Leonis beat him too it.
"All the pureblood girls go to Beauxbatons in France," Leonis told her.
"Je vois..." Hermione said slowly.
"Am I supposed to know what that means?" Leonis frowned.
"It's French," Hermione said.
"I'll ask again... Am I supposed to know what that means?"
"It means I see," A cold voice said.
Everyone at the top of the Slytherin table (where Hermione and the JEDs were sitting) jumped in shock.
"Tom! I didn't see you there!" Abraxas exclaimed.
"That's because I didn't want you to," Tom smirked, grabbing a piece of bacon and cutting it up on his plate.
It was then that Slughorn came over, clutching his pounding head while handing out timetables.
"Are you all right, Professor?" Orion asked as he sat down at the table beside his brother with Propus, Izar and Augustus.
"Fine, my boy," Slughorn replied, passing a timetable to him, "Just drank a little bit too much wine at the Sorting Ceremony last night... You know?"
Orion didn't reply as he scowled down at his timetable.
"Ah, Tom! Tom Riddle!" Slughorn exclaimed.
"Yes, Professor?" Riddle said blandly, snatching his timetable from his hand as if the Professor would contaminate it.
"Slug Club's back on... I take it you'll be attending?" Slughorn asked, clutching his head again as a wave of nausea hit him.
" Of course, sir," Riddle replied, not even looking at him.
"Good, good. That's my boy," Slughorn smiled, handing out timetables to the other JEDs, "You can even bring along your girlfriend."
"Girlfriend, sir?"
"Yes, Miss..." Slughorn trailed off, clicking his fingers and pointing at Hermione.
"Westron?" Hermione said slowly.
"Yes, Miss Westron," Slughorn repeated.
"Sir, she's not my girlfriend!" Riddle protested just as Hermione spoke.
"Girlfriend?" Hermione shrieked.
"Here's your timetable, Miss Westron," Slughorn said loudly, talking over both of them as they started to babble, "I'll see you both on Wednesday, my office, six pm for the first meeting."
And with that he walked away.
Riddle and Hermione turned and glared at each other.
"You are not my girlfriend," Riddle said coldly.
"And we are not going together," Hermione snarled.
"Agreed," Tom replied.
Hermione looked down at her timetable in annoyance.
How could anyone think they were together?
With a huff of annoyance, Hermione rose with Abraxas and Fomalhault and headed to her first class of the day - Transfiguration.
Hermione was rather looking forward to Transfiguration.
After all, she would be taught be the greatest wizard of all time!
She looked at the two boys escorting her with a big smile.
"What are you grinning about?" Fomalhault inquired.
"I love Transfiguration!" Hermione looked at his blank face. "Don't you?"
"The subject, yes. The teacher, no."
"What's wrong with Dumbledore?"
Abraxas looked like he was going to answer that time, but shut his mouth as Dumbledore swept into the classroom, with everyone following him.
Tom Riddle and the other Knights joined her just in time.
"Well, wouldn't it be wise to enter the classroom?"
Hermione realized that she had been standing outside and no one had moved.
"You could've walked around me!" Hermione snapped as she stepped into the classroom.
Even if she didn't know that Riddle was a torturing murderous psycho, his arrogance would prevent her from befriending him...
Inside the classroom, there was an obvious divide.
All Ravenclaws sat to the right, Quills out and looking very eager.
All the Slytherins were sitting in the left, sneering over at all those with a blue crest on their robes.
Hermione took a seat beside Izar.
Abraxas and Tom sat in front of her, giving her the perfect vantage point.
Up at the front, Dumbledore clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"Quiet down class. Thank you. firstly, I'd like to welcome all of you who made it to 6th year Advanced Transfiguration. You will need to concentrate and work hard this year to get good NEWT scores, but for now, we will start with the basics."
Dumbledore flicked his wand and a piece of chalk started to write everything that he said onto the blackboard.
"Today, we will be attempting a colour-change charm"
In front of Hermione, Tom scoffed quietly. Dumbledore seemed to notice and looked at Tom for a few seconds, before glancing away.
"This is by no means, a simple spell. This is specifically for animal or human colour change and is a basis for many Transfiguration spells themselves. This spell is also not to be mistaken for a glamour, as it does not hide the animal or person's original colour, but completely changes it."
Hermione was frantically scribbling down notes, the ink staining her fingers.
Izar coughed beside her, so she looked up.
She saw him look at her in confusion and shake his head.
That was when she noticed that he had not written anything down.
Hermione was ready to tell him off, before realizing that he wasn't the only one.
All the Slytherins she knew by name had not even lifted a quill. Tom had just spelled his to write for him.
Confused, Hermione turned back to the lesson.
"...and the spell is Culvate Abeo. You say the spell, while making a jabbing motion with your wand toward the creature that you wish to change the colour of. Picture the colour in your mind. You will each be given a rat or toad to change the colour of. The first person to complete the spell twice, will get 20 points to their House."
Dumbledore waved his wand and two rats appeared on Hermione's desk.
She looked around to see that everyone had got a creature as well.
Everyone had started the spell, but with little success.
Even Riddle looked mildly frustrated.
He probably overlooked a spell like this to work on his torture methods...
Hermione picked up her wand and attempted the spell, picturing the rat becoming bright blue.
After a few failed attempts, she noticed that Tom had managed to turn his toad purple. Dumbledore walked past, looking t Tom's work and ignoring him completely.
"How is your spell going, Miss Westron?" Dumbledore inquired, peering at Hermione's rat, which seemed to have a few bright blue hairs, over the top of his half moon spectacles.
"Well... I can't seem to get the technique," Hermione frowned.
"I suggest you try a different technique," Dumbledore suggested.
"...But you said to use a jabbing motion," Hermione said slowly.
Dumbledore shrugged before replying, "The technique depends upon the witch or wizard using it."
He walked on with his arms behind his back, humming softly, to peer at Abraxas's toad which now had a slightly deformed foot.
"No, no, Abraxas! You're doing that all wrong!"
Hermione sighed and turned back to her rat which was scuttering across the table.
She set it back in the centre before pointing her wand at it again.
"Culvate Abeo," Hermione muttered, flicking her wand at the rat.
She grinned in delight as her rat turned a bright, sky blue.
"How did you do that?" Izar demanded, poking his toad with his wand in frustration, "I think there's something wrong with this toad."
"No talking now, class!" Dumbledore demanded, heading over to the Ravenclaws, "Concentration is the key for this spell!"
Riddle's second toad's foot had turned black so Hermione quickly picked up her second rat and put it in the centre of her table.
Flicking her wand again, she muttered the spell before raising her hand and signalling for Professor Dumbledore who arrived by her desk immediately.
"A problem, Miss Westron?" He inquired.
"I'm finished, sir," She smirked as Tom looked around at her with a glare.
He was obviously used to being the best in his classes.
"Ah, so you are. 20 points to Slytherin!" Dumbledore announced, "When you have finished, put your animals to the back of the room and start copying down the notes on the board."
With a flick of his wand, the notes on the board changed as Hermione went to the back of the room where two boxes sat for the rats and toads.
"You must think you're so clever, Miss Westron," Riddle snarled, appearing beside her and putting his toads into the box.
"My name is Hermione," Hermione scowled, "And as a matter of fact, I am just logical and am able to solve problems that others cannot."
"How very marvellous," Tom growled.
Hermione turned and went back to her seat to start copying down the notes on the board.
Uncorking her bottle of ink, she dipped her quill in and started scratching notes in her parchment filled book.
"Culvate Abeo," Hermione muttered as she wrote the title in her neat hand writing, changing the colour of the ink with a wandless spell so she could underline it.
It was then that Riddle went past, muttering so only she could hear, "People don't like show offs, Hermione. I would watch your back."
It was when Hermione and his Knights were at dinner, later that day, after a tedious Defence Against The Dark Arts class and Divination, that Tom made his way to the Slytherin common room alone.
"Password?" The painting that guarded the common room asked.
"Nex ut Gyrffindors," Tom said clearly, smirking as he said the Latin term.
Death to the Gyrffindors, indeed, He thought to himself, heading up to the 6th year girl's dorm.
A girl getting changed squeaked in fright and ran for the cover of the bathroom as Tom strode inside, heading for the bed that he knew was Hermione.
Her snake - Lind, was it? - was lying on it, hissing at him as he came in.
"Hello snake," He hissed in parseltounge, "You're going to die."
"My mistress will protect me," Lind hissed back.
"We shall see," Tom snarled in English, " Stupefy."
With the snake stupefied on the bed, Tom pulled Hermone's trunk out from under the bed.
If she was hiding something from him, where better to look for it than in her trunk.
Maybe she kept a diary.
He searched through her trunk until he saw her birth certificate and two copies of the Daily Profit.
As he didn't have an owl, he didn't get the Daily Profit so flicked it open and scanned the front page of the first.
The date was 16th July.
NORWEIGAN COUPLE, KILLED BY MUGGLEBORNS.
He continued down the page.
Regor and Chara Westron, parents of Hermione Westron were brutally murdered by Muggleborns a few days ago
So Hermione's parents are dead... Riddle thought to himself, That'll be a touchy subject.
He flicked to the next paper.
The date was 20th July.
HERMIONE WESTRON, KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED
He scanned down again.
Hermione Westron, daughter of Regor and Chara Westron, who were recently murdered by Norwegian Muggleborns, was found in the early morning of July 16th, in the foyer of Malfoy Manor, bleeding out and in dire need of medical assistance after being kidnapped, tortured and branded as "MUDBLOOD" by the same group of Muggleborns who killed her parents. If not for the kindness and healing skills of Mr Brutus Lucius Malfoy, young Hermione may not be alive.
Oh, touché, Riddle smirked, That would cause a bit of a stir.
Although Riddle had a bit of family history on Hermione, he kept searching surely she wouldn't think she could hid that...
It was all over the papers.
Eventually, Tom struck gold.
He was still angry about Hermione get the points for her house instead of him (even if they were in the same house) as he was the smarter one.
He was the one who always got the house points.
Some girl wasn't going to waltz in and change that.
He lifted the 12 and 3/4 of an inch walnut and dragon heartstring wand out of the trunk and replaced everything else inside before pushing the trunk back under the bed.
"That'll teach her not to leave her wand lying around," Tom smirked to himself before looking at the wand again.
It was a strange wand for her to have...
It seemed a bit Dark to belong to a woman but still...
At least now she was defenceless and wouldn't be able to keep up in school.
Try being a witch without a wand, Tom grinned.
He turned to the snake as he was about to leave and spoke some quick parseltounge "Let's see if your mistress protects you now."
It was only when Tom was in his own dorm later, putting away Hermione's wand that he realised that something was missing...
His locket.
His prize.
How could I have lost my locket? Tom snarled to himself, You don't loose things that come for your ancestors, especially not things from Salazar Slytherin.
It was then that Tom realized who the only person was that knew about his locket...
Slughorn.