Hermione shot him a look that said, WHAT THE FRICK IN THE NAME OF MERLIN WERE YOU THINKING in large caps.
Ron gave him a thumbs up which earned him a clout upside the head from Hermione.
Ginny looked longingly at Riddle as he made his way onto the stage. Riddle moved like a panther, seamlessly gliding in and out of every step, somehow exuding confidence, danger, and (dare he say it?) sex appeal. On Riddle's damnably pristine face was an impossibly kind, caring smile; one that was supposed to completely belie the bloodlust in his red eyes but somehow fit snugly into Tom Riddle's completely messed up persona.
The lights dimmed, and Riddle began to speak. It was a very moving and nice speech, it really was, despite the fact that Riddle probably meant zero of what he had just so passionately depicted, given that Riddle was an anathema to all babies, puppies, and rainbows. The important and informative parts of the speech could be summarized into a "we're going to be in China and we're gonna probably ILLEGALLY raid some ancient tombs for ancient magical artefacts and we shouldn't be doing this."
Harry really wanted to believe that he wasn't the only one who caught up on the underlying meaning, but since Hermione was just absorbing all the lies Riddle threw into her face, Ginny was too busy taking pictures and being starstruck to care, and Ron just was Ron, he realized that convincing his best buds (minus Ron) of Riddle's evil would be almost fruitless and his energy would be used more wisely if he buried his head in his arms and sobbed.
But whatever, the things he did for his friends.
Riddle went on about roommates and passed out papers with list of who was in what room (the same list Ron had gotten in the mail), a map of the hotel, a list of important spectro-communication numbers (aka magic camera phone numbers), and the itinerary. He perused them as Riddle said something about fees and possible dangers and life insurance.
Rooms List
Room 500-Tom Riddle (The devil incarnate got his own room while his poor, abused subordinates had to share. Totally fair.)
Room 501-Bellatrix Black, Hermione Granger
Room 502-Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter (Riddle must have done this on purpose or something)
Room 503-Alphard Black, Abraxas Malfoy
Room 504-Cygnus Le'strange, Zevi Prince
Room 505-Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle
Room 506-Cedric Diggory, Ron Weasley
Room 507-Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley
Some people had it way worse than he had. Poor Hermione, getting paired up the possibly insane girl. How many years in Riddle's company did it take for her mind to deteriorate like that? He tacked "making sure Ron was comforting and checking up on Hermione" onto his mental checklist. It was a pity that Hermione had decided to stay with the expedition crew, despite the dangers posed by some of the more shady characters. Ron had obviously agreed to it too, since he made "tagging along with Hermione like a stalker" and "insulting Riddle" two of his highest aspirations for this year. Inner Harry struggled between wanting to protect them and wanting to do his morally correct obligation.
As a troubled Harry stared off into space, a glowing green snake floated by, throwing a hissy fit about minimum wage and the incompetency of the ssstupid young sssnake internsss.
Harry was brought back to Earth as the green snake latched itself onto Diggory's forearm and curled itself into a curved bracelet made out of jade. Inner Harry giggled at how feminine the accessory was before being interrupted in mid-thought by a young snake slithering his way.
As the glowing snake stopping in front of him and stared, Harry, feeling slightly embarrassed at being enough of an oddity for even snakes to look at him intensely and still recovering from the aftereffects of the Riddle Stare, froze up a little. He failed to notice that all the others were holding out their bare arms for the snakes to wrap around.
With a sigh and a resigned mutter of "ssstupid male biped ssspeciessss," the snake, having no bare arm to latch onto, dove for Harry's neck. Harry reacted a second too late and the Boy-Who-Lived was graced with a brand-new, high-quality jade choker. Several amused glances were sent his way, and Diggory snickered at the femininity of the choker, which would have won first hands down in an "It" item competition for Elle or Vogue.
Karma was a bitch.
/\\\\\\\
Bellatrix Black shrieked and cackled humorously as she watched the green-eyed boy try to tear the choker off his neck. The jade collar made him look like a sullen puppy, and she found strangling puppies strangely endearing. Why, when she was young, she shoved her adorable little Chocolate Labrador, Saminhita, into the chimney while the fire was going and watched her suffocate to death! So cute!
Bella turned her attention to the brunette, Granger. When their eyes met, she gave little mudblood princess a shark-like grin, cackling when the mudblood quickly adverted her eyes. She was going to love her dormmate! She had so many new spells to try out, one of which was a very dark human transfiguration spell. Granger as a puppy would be the best, Bella cooed.
/\\\\\\\
Abraxas tsked to himself. He should have expected this. Leave it to his lord to stir up trouble amongst his followers when he was bored. There was bound to be bloodshed if his second, Zevi and Le'strange were paired up, and he and Black were together.
Abraxas gagged elegantly. Salazar, that idea came out wrong. Black was a horrendously loud, horrendously unkempt, and horrendously idiotic philistine. He was in no way even close to matching a Malfoy, graced with natural elegance and refinery. Black could not hold conversation on topics that extended beyond Quidditch, eating, pranks, women, and violence. He looked at Black in disgust. The idiot was leaning over his chair in such an animalistic fashion…it made him want to hex Black two hundred years into the future. Hopefully, Abraxas would be gone by then. Ideally, the Blacks should just cease to exist.
The only person who could aggravate him more than the Blacks was Le'strange. The creepy man was such a sycophant, always pandering to his lord's needs! As if the man was a baby! And he was aggressive, it was unbecoming and uncouth! He held less brainpower than a sloth, and to top it off, his hair was a disgusting mess! Abraxas had half a mind to just banish Le'strange's hair.
While on the topic of hair, Abraxas had noticed the annoying boy who had humiliated his younger brother in front of fourteen people and the Dark Lord also had disgusting hair. Actually, this was more than just disgusting. It was absolutely grotesque, the abomination! What in Salazar's sweet name did the boy piss off to get him hair like that? Every time he walked past the boy he wanted to faint because his hair was such a nightmare.
/\\\\\\\
Alphard was excited to go on this trip. The Dark Lord had told them there were visiting a sinkhole…the largest sinkhole in the world, in fact. It was located near Xiazhai, a little village abandoned overnight because of muggles spreading superstitions about hearing voices or whatnot. Apparently, children had also wandered into the pit and fallen to their deaths, as if possessed. It was a little less than half a mile deep, but the portkey would take then to a hidden temple his Lord had discovered from "anonymous sources." The portkey was an ingenious piece of work; it was activated by tapping twice on the bracelet and saying "exitus acta probat" when within 10 meters to the sinkhole.
He glanced distastefully at the Weasley girl. He had no idea why his Lord had brought her along, but she was annoying since she was constantly ogling at his Lord. She didn't even truly understand who she had been ogling at! She almost ranked as high as the Malfoys on his list of annoying people.
/\\\\\\\
Cygnus loved his Lord. Since he loved his Lord and his Lord hated muggles and despised mudbloods, he hated muggles and despised mudbloods. It was all so simple.
Cygnus scratched it head. So why had his Lord brought the mudblood auror along? He scoffed. Only Dumbledore would use mudbloods to fight. They had nobody else.
Cygnus returned to the question at hand. His Lord loved double meanings and hidden objectives, so maybe…this was a test? To see who would be brave enough to kill the mudblood first? Oh boy, he bet that was it. And Cygnus Le'strange, soon to be right-hand man of his Lord, would show him he could kill mudbloods.
His eyes roved around the mudblood's proximity, sizing up his possible enemies. There were three; two were aurors, and one was a warder. The idiot auror was there, fuming at his choker. Why had his Lord given the auror, a light wizard, a choker? Why was Eimstufid special? Cygnus was pissed. He was going to show that idiot where his rightful place was.
/\\\\\\\
Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Slytherin, clapped his hands and announced that they were to leave at 8:00am tomorrow. They were dismissed.