CHAPTER FOUR

Author notes: Thanks to my friend, Bella, for reading and leaving a review. Love ya!

Disclaimer: Jo, the amazing, spectacular, incredible, sweet, creative, smart, inspiring, kind, wise, and all powerful owns all of the familiar content.

-o0O0o-

Hermione caught up with Minerva and Tyler.

"Guys!" she called, struggling to be seen through all of the students. Minerva heard her and grabbed Tyler's arm, pointing at her through the crowd of gigantic third years.

Well, they were gigantic to Hermione, anyway.

"Guys!" Hermione said again, visibly shaking from excitement, "I've been sorted into Gryffindor!"

Minerva squealed and hugged her while Tyler pumped the air with his free fist, all three of their trunks still supported in his left arm. They had lots of questions about why she had been sorted ahead of time and not at the annual sorting at the feast, but she just said that Dibbet had not wanted her to feel embarrassed, being sorted with the first years and all.

"Oh, that's wonderful, 'Mione!" Minerva said, and Hermione inwardly flinched at the term Harry and Ron had used, back when they were alive. "Anything else you want to tell us?"

Hermione chose her next words carefully. "Dippet has promoted me to head girl because of my perfect record from the last school I had attended."

Minerva and Tyler's jaws dropped. "Head girl? No way!"

Hermione sighed in relief. She had been worried that they would get jealous. She hadn't been as concerned with Tyler as she had been with Minerva, who she was sure had wanted to go out for Head Girl, but the prefect seemed just as excited for Hermione as Tyler was.

Hermione followed Minerva and Tyler into Hogwarts, pretending she didn't know every nook and cranny, every hiding spot and statue that they came across. They started up the stairway, towards Gryffindor Tower.

"Watch the-" Tyler started turning around, but Hermione had already jumped the trick step.

Tyler looked at Hermione meaningfully; she was busy talking to Minerva and didn't notice his inquisitive stare. She had jumped the trickstep,Tyler thought, almost like… almost like it was second nature. Like she had been here before. Tyler shook his head, scattering his thoughts. No, that couldn't happen. That was impossible.

"You know," Minerva whispered to Hermione, "We got a new Head Boy this year. The other one graduated last year."

Hermione already knew who the Head Boy was. She inwardly prayed she was wrong- that she wouldn't have to share Head duties with that son of a-

"His name's Tom Riddle. He's pretty cool. Have you met him yet, Hermione?"

Hermione fought to keep a smile on her face.

"Uh, yes, I bumped into him on the train. He's a nice fellow."

"Yeah, but he's in Slytherin," she said, shaking her head.

Hermione had to pretend she didn't know what that meant. This was going to kill her.

"Oh," Minerva said to Hermione. "Slytherins are like, evil. We have this whole rivalry thing going. There's even a prank war. All of the teachers know about it, they don't interfere. One, because they're scared- we Gryffindors have the best pranksters, and two, it's pretty amusing. Last year, Tyler replaced all of the game quaffles with blast-ended skrewts that were rolled into a ball. It was great! When Malfoy picked one up-"

Hermione thought she was hearing wrong. "Malfoy?"

"Yeah. Elijah Malfoy. He's also a Slytherin. A real jerk, too. He plays seeker."

"Oh. Cool, I guess."

It was definitely not cool. Another Malfoy? At least she didn't have to share a Head's dormitory with him. Minerva seemed to think that Riddle was nice enough.

However, what REALLY interested Hermione was the prank war. She had practically grown up with the Weasleys, including the twins, Fred and George. Though their memory brought Hermione a twinge of sadness, she couldn't help looking forward to seeing the pain she would bring upon the Slytherins.

"Let's go put our stuff in our dorms," Minerva said. "The Head Dorm is down the hall, past the staircase, and to the left. It's right next to the-"

"Library, got it," Hermione said, already taking her trunk from Tyler. "Dumbledore told me." She dashed off through the crowd of enormous third years and followed the instructions Minerva and Dumbledore had given her. She already knew where they were; she had had to report to the Head Dormitories when she was a perfect to discuss the school's priorities, most of them being "Let's have a year where nobody is in mortal peril" and not "Slow down, no running in the hallways" as it should have been.

Anyway, she was rushing down the hallways, and, of course, being the girl who always happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, had to bump into Señor Spooky himself.

"Hello, Granger," he said, grinning merrily. "I do believe you're lost. The kids who are being sorted are that way, near the Great Hall." He pointed in the direction that Hermione had come from.

"Oh," Hermione said. "No, I do think I am correct. Dumbledore sorted me in his office ahead of time, see, he didn't want me to feel embarrassed, getting up with the first years and all."

"Of course," he said, still smiling to Hermione, who was finding that it was getting harder and harder to hate him. "Well, what house are you in?"

Hermione stuck out her chin defiantly. "Gryffindor."

"Ah, shame," he said. "It would be cool to get some new Slytherins. The ones who are already in this house are kind of boring. The Gryffindor dorms are still nowhere near here, though, so-"

"Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you," Hermione began. "Professor Dumbledore and Professor Dippet thought that since my record from the last school I attended was close to perfect, I should be this year's Head Girl, since the other on transferred to a different school."

"Oh," said Riddle, his smile as wide as ever. "Then right this way." He made a large flourish with his arm towards the sturdy oak door next to the Library.

When Hermione opened the door, she was not surprised. The room had not changed much- there was a miniature common room, not unlike the Gryffindor common room that Hermione herself had loved. The only difference was the lack of red and gold decorations and furniture. The walls were instead a warm and inviting tan color, with the Hogwarts insignia painted above the door to the common room and the doors of the individual bed rooms. The couches were all made of fine leather, and the hardwood floors gave the room an almost earthy look. Potted plants were in the corner, and Hermione recognised a lot of plants that had been in her textbook when she had taken herbology with Professor Sprout.

Hermione shot a quick grin to Riddle before walking over to the dorm room on the right and opening it. She hurriedly closed the door and locked it behind her. Hermione sank to the floor, groaning and praying that Riddle couldn't hear her through the heavy wooden door that separated them.

-o0O0o-

Tom fought back a laugh as he heard Granger moan into her hands from behind the door. He opened the door to his own room and began to make himself at home. He opened his trunk and pulled out a small cage.

"Sorry about the wait, little guy," he said, holding the cage up to his face. A small snake about the size of one of the pencils Tom had used at the orphanage hissed back at him.

Yeah, you should be, it said, its forked tongue slipping in and out of its mouth. I got a cramp- and snakes are practically ALL MUSCLE, so you can imagine that it wasn't exactly a nice experience.

"Sorry, Pietro. Here," Tom opened the cage and placed him on the bed. He pulled another object out of his trunk. It was a plastic bag full of balloons. "Resurgemus!" One of the balloons popped out of the bag and began to fill up and float to the ceiling. Tom caught it with one hand and got out a string. He tied one end to the balloon and one end to Pietro's mid section and placed Pietro on the ground so he could wander.

What is this for, boss? Pietro asked, hissing in disapproval.

"It's not for me," Tom said, unpacking his other belongings. "It's for the Granger girl- if she can't see you, she might step on you."

Tom opened the door, and after holding it for his snake, he walked over to Granger's room and knocked on the door. She opened.

"Yes?" she said.

"Um, I let my snake out of the cage- he's wandering around the common room," he couldn't help but smirk a little bit at the look of pure horror that crossed over Granger's face before she could change it back. "It's okay, I tied a balloon to his middle so you can see him. He's totally harmless, anyway."

"Gotcha," she said. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yep."

-o0O0o-

Of course Riddle had a snake. He was the Slytherin King, so a snake was, well, duh.

But Hermione couldn't help hoping, why, why couldn't it have been an owl? Or a cat? Why?

Hermione and Riddle left the common room, Riddle holding the door for her politely, and walked together to the Great Hall. The walk was silent but pleasant, and Hermione found herself remembering odd memories of Fred and George's antics, or the Perfume Incident, which was an interesting story involving a garden gnome, a dung bomb, Neville's toad, and a bottle of Lavender's perfume.

Anyway, when Hermione and Riddle entered the Great Hall, they were not late, but they were among the last to arrive. Riddle waved to Hermione and sat by the end of the Slytherin table, and Hermione plopped herself down in between Tyler and Minerva.

"So," Minerva called over the voices of the crowd. "How was Riddle? Do you think you'll survive?" She said it as a joke, but Hermione was dead serious when she answered.

"I don't know. Did you know he has a pet snake?"

Minerva laughed. "Of course, he does!"

Hermione laughed with her and Tyler joined in. A thought came to Hermione. Professor McGonagall had always been hard on Neville, but she only did it to help him. Was it because she had had a close friendship with his grandfather?

Professor Dippet stood up in his chair. He was a short man with a respectable beard, and an abnormally large nose. His hair looked greasy, and Hermione was instantly reminded of Severus Snape. Professor Dippet clinked his fork to his goblet loudly, signifying that he was going to speak.

"Students," he said much too loudly when all of the children were quiet. "Another year has begun, which brings more of you little monsters into this school." He sighed. "Joy. Let the sorting begin, or whatever."

That's not much of a speech, Hermione thought, but she kept that to herself. Some opinions just weren't meant to be voiced.

Dumbledore set up the stool in front of the students and held up the sorting hat. He pulled out a scroll from inside of his robes and began to read names off the list.

"Abbot, Alyssa."

Alyssa, a small girl with large front teeth and hair that was slicked back into a ponytail marched up to the stool and sat down. Professor Dumbledore placed the hat on her head, and not even a fraction of a second went by before the hat yelled "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The rest of the sortings went by like so.

"Baker, Hannah."
"RAVENCLAW!"

"Fernand, Mason."

"SLYTHERIN!"

Each time a name was called, a cheer went up from the house that was receiving them. Hermione watched and cheered along with her house and new friends, and clapped politely when a student went into a house that wasn't her own.

"Hagrid, Rubeus."

"GRYFFINDOR!"
Hermione clapped and cheered through her shock. Hagrid! She had forgotten that Hagrid had gone to school at the same time as Riddle. She internally slapped herself in the forehead for being so stupid. Of course! Riddle's diary had shown Harry a fake reality that had included Hagrid back in second year.

Stupid Riddle.

"Hey, Minnie," Hermione said to Minerva, "Can you tell me anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"

Minerva frowned. "Not really. All the information we have on it has been from textbooks that are older than Dumbledore himself. I doubt it's real, anyway. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Hermione lied. She felt terrible, but she had to get over it.

She was going to have to lie a lot more before this was over.

-o0O0o-

Author notes: TA DAAAAA! I'm sorry, it's been so long since I have updated, I feel terrible. Well, what can I say? Keystones are absolutely horrible. I'm feeling pretty confident, though. I can't wait until I get my results back:)

Anyway, I hope you guys liked my chapter. Sorry about the 13 Reasons Why reference (don't kill me please), but I couldn't help myself and I needed names. Did you also catch the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets reference I put in there? The way Hermione asked McGonagall what the Chamber of Secrets was, just like she did in the book? Anyone?

Now, I'm just curious about one thing- when does the school year end for you guys? Mine ends on June 9th! XD

Happy Memorial Day to all!

Love, Mallory