Disclaimer: don't own.
"See you tomorrow, Natalija." Draco said and turned on his heel, a mixture of fear and anger on his face.
"See you then, Maxim." Hermione called after him very quietly.
Inside, she was fuming. How dare Tom do that! Of course, it was sweet of him, wishing to take care of her, but on the other hand it disturbed her greatly. He still had too much power and influence, but she couldn't disagree with him. It would be too dangerous to start a fight with him or get on his wrong side.
Therefore, she looked at Tom and smiled. "Thank you again, Mister Riddle."
Tom also smiled at her, which didn't reach his eyes, Hermione noticed. "Always for you."
To Hermione's shock, she blushed and felt her heart beat faster. What was that now?
It was nothing out of the ordinary, Tom reprimanding students, Tom blackmailing students, Tom "helping" students. All of that was nothing new. But the sudden anger he felt – and he would hate to admit that it was jealousy – was new to him. Especially for a mere girl.
"So, Miss Karkarova. How do you like Hogwarts so far? Is it very different to Durmstrang?" Tom said in an attempt to make small-talk as they made their way up the staircase to the Ravenclaw common room.
"Yes, it is very different. Our grounds are larger on the one hand, but on the other hand, our castle is neither as beautiful or as huge. And the food is just plainly boring and really heavy. I prefer Hogwarts." Hermione told him. She was glad that she had memorized everything Victor Krum had told her when they were together. Oh and of course, thanks to her favourite novel Hogwarts, a history.
"Indeed? Wait until you go to classes. I expect, we will be seeing a lot of each other!"
"A lot?" Hermione squeaked.
"Well yes. Ravenclaw and Slytherin are almost EVERYWHERE paired up. Don't ask me why." Tom concluded with a slightly bored but still friendly voice. His acting skills were undeniably perfect, Hermione had to admit. No wonder the teachers and other students fell for him and his charms.
"There we are." Tom said when they stepped in front of the door with the eagle-shaped knocker.
"Thank you again." Hermione could finally breathe properly. Why didn't she breathe before? Because she was scared? Excited? Or another reason.
"Well it is my head boy duty, isn't it?" Tom almost cracked a smile, Hermione could see the corners of his mouth twisting upwards. "However, it was my pleasure, Miss Karkarova. Good night, sleep well."
"Good night, Mr. Riddle. See you tomorrow then. In potions." Hermione mirrored his expression.
"Yes. We'll see how far Durmstrang is behind." he joked, which was so unlike him. But with this new girl he felt totally at ease and if he HAD to do it.
"I might have to take remedial lessons. Hmm, know a good teacher?" Hermione was now flirting heavily with him. Ewww that wasn't her. But it was so easy with Tom. And it was so much fun. So why should she stop?
'Because he is dangerous. He is a charming player and uses all the people. He is a dark wizard. STOP it this instant!' her mind screamed.
Tom's eyebrows rose. "A good teacher? Hasn't it made the round yet that someone who looks remarkably like me is the top of every class?"
"No. Sorry." Hermione smirked.
"Everyone was probably just talking about my good looks. I don't blame them." Tom was now grinning broadly. The half joking, half flirting talk with Hermione was actually fun. And he liked it immensely. Since when did he do something that was not really useful but just fun?
"Yep. Sorry, if it is degrading to you." Hermione grinned and bit her lip.
"Yeah. Too bad. You will have to find out tomorrow then." Tom said with a knowing smirk.
"Probably. Or I will have to find that Hogwarts is far behind my already existing knowledge." Hermione challenged him.
Tom's eyes flew open in mock shock. "Then I couldn't teach you anymore! That would be just devastating for me… just pretend that you don't understand then." he grinned.
"Let's see. I might. Or might not. It's your chance to find out how good I really am. But all of that tomorrow." Hermione yawned.
"Very well. Good night, Miss Karkarova."
"Good night, Mister Riddle." Hermione turned and knocked on the door. "What is the key ingredient of the Polyjuice potion?" was the low musical voice that Tom still heard.
Natalija Karkarova. He couldn't stop thinking of her. When he had seen her with this new kid, his heart had almost burst. He wanted to rip that boy apart and tear limb from limb. He wanted to crucio him on the spot. Why? Tom was clueless. Little did he know that this feeling was called jealousy.
"Boomslang skin." Hermione said clearly and the door swung open.
Some Ravenclaws were still in the common room, sitting around the fire, reading or doing homework.
Hermione looked around for faces she knew but didn't find any to her dismay. Therefore she walked over to the bookshelves and browsed through them. Ten minutes later, she emerged with her favourite book. Hogwarts, a history 1943 edition.
She went into her bedroom and noticed that Sarah was already inside her bed, the curtains drawn and a silencing spell casting. She seemed to be asleep already. Wow, the Ravenclaws went to bed pretty early, Hermione noticed. Not that she minded that terribly.
Sighing, she cuddled herself into the blue sheets. To her dismay, the image of a handsome, tall dark young boy didn't go away. Hermione still remembered his smile and his beautiful, sexy voice. She sincerely hoped that he wouldn't be in her dreams tonight…
The next thing she knew that she was awoken by her alarm clock.
'Wow that had been peaceful!' she thought, she had never slept that well.
"Slept well, Natalija?" Sarah asked smiling politely.
"Yes, I did. Surprising though. I have never slept that well in Durmstrang." Hermione remarked.
"Of course. It is the blue of the Ravenclaw rooms that makes you relaxed and easier to go to sleep."
"Oh that's why." Hermione noticed. 'Gryffindor's were red.'
"Want to go down to breakfast after our make-up?" the girl asked and Hermione nodded. She took out her cosmetics from the year 2008 and Sarah looked at them curiously.
When the other girl was brushing her hair, Hermione quickly did a nonverbal spell and transfigured the writing on the cosmetics into Russian letters so that Sarah wouldn't notice that they were indeed in a year that she would only know in the far future. If at all.
After their shower, make-up and hair do' they went to breakfast together. On their way down the staircase they bumped into Richard Goldstein and Matthew Nott.
"Good morning ladies. Coming to breakfast as well?" Matthew asked gallantly.
"Yes indeed that's where we are heading." Hermione replied with a small blush and smile.
"Care if we go there with you?" Richard asked with the same polite voice as Matthew.
"Not at all. It would be lovely." Sarah answered with a similar voice.
Matthew Nott took Hermione's arm and Richard Goldstein took Sarah's who giggled. Darius didn't seem to be around that often.
So the quartet headed towards the Great Hall where about half of the students were already seated, eating breakfast.
They sat down at the Ravenclaw table and Hermione took care to face the Slytherin table to see where Draco and Harry had gone. To her surprise they weren't there yet. Not even Ginny seemed to be awake as only a few people were at the Gryffindor table.
"In case you were wondering Natalija, the Gryffindors like to sleep in late." Matthew told her, noticing her glances.
"Definitely. And the Slytherins as well. Or rather most of the Slytherins." Sarah told her, giving her a small wink.
Hermione's eyes flew open for a small part of a second when she noticed who she meant. Tom Riddle was sitting alone at the end of the table, reading the Daily Prophet, and the others were too scared to sit near him. But there weren't any 6th or 7th years around.
"Soooo potions first thing this morning. What is it like?" Hermione asked in general to steer away from the topic of Tom.
"It's great. Our teacher is fun, but he doesn't know a thing which is a pity actually. We are paired up with the Slytherins and it is down in the dungeons." Richard told her in a quiet voice. He obviously didn't like the dungeons very much.
Hermione nodded and they finished breakfast, without sparing the Slytherin table another chance.
"Where have you been? Not having breakfast?" Hermione asked furiously when she was standing in front of a sleepy-looking Draco and Harry in front of the potions door. The door was closed.
"Why are we waiting in front of the door? Why is it closed?" she couldn't help add.
"Because Slughorn will let us in when everyone is here." Draco answered. "And to your other questions, NO we had a party last night." and with that he looked at Harry uneasily who also didn't look Hermione in the face.
"A party? Why that? Who organized it?" Hermione asked testily.
"Yes, a party. because we are new and Orion Black organized it. We kind of had to prove that we are Slytherin material. And after we had shown them that we INDEED were real Slytherins we had firewhiskey, butterbeer and pasties." Harry told her, a bit of a smirk gracing his lips.
Which was sooooo unlike Harry.
"Perfect. Partying while I sleep!" Hermione grumbled.
"Excuse me? You were in BED sleeping?" Draco's voice was full of laughter.
Hermione turned around sharply. "YES."
"Too bad." Harry grinned. Hermione shook her head. The hat had been right. Harry was not a real Gryffindor. Slytherin suited him much much better.
"Did you at least find something out about HIM?" Hermione asked quietly though still furiously.
"Yes. He wasn't there."
"WHAT?"
"He was in the Head dorm. But Abraxas and Orion did say something interesting." Draco added his voice barely above a whisper.
"Aaaaaand?" God, did being in Slytherin mean being slow on the uptake or what?
"That we seemed to be real Slytherins and that we could be allowed into this special pure-bloods-group, called the "followers"."
"Malfoy, it seems crystal clear to me what kind of group this is." Hermione pointed out.
"Yes, but we could find out a lot about the early Death Eaters if we actually join them." Harry suggested.
"Probably. Being a spy is the riskiest thing but very useful." Hermione amended.
"We could at least try to get in." Draco said.
"But isn't it very dangerous?" Hermione couldn't keep the concern out of her voice.
"It is. But we are strong. We can take care of ourselves." Harry said. This sentence wasn't new to Hermione.
Professor Slughorn chose precisely that moment to appear and opened the door.
"Come in come on in." he boomed and looked wide awake and the class assembled in the back of the class.
"Why isn't anyone sitting down?" Hermione asked Richard who was conveniently next to her.
"Slughorn will divide us into groups or pairs and then we will sit at the table with our partners or people from our group and then brew the potion together. But he always likes to pair us with Slytherins." Richard answered, his brow furrowed.
"Good morning 7th years Slytherins and Ravenclaws, my two favourite houses." Slughorn boomed. Tom rolled his eyes so that the teacher didn't notice. Hermione, however, almost jumped when she saw that Tom was right behind her.
"Good morning, Miss Karkarova." Tom whispered and smirked down at her. Hermione returned his smirk and smiled back only nodding as a greeting.
"I will again pair you into groups of TWO people and afterwards you will find what kind of potion we are going to brew today." Slughorn grinned.
"Malfoy – Clearwater!" Draco was about to head to the first table, but Hermione held him back just in time. "Your name is KRUM." she hissed when Abraxas (who looked so much like Draco that she let out a small inaudible gasp) made his way to the beautiful dark-haired girl.
Draco blushed but didn't say anything. "Poliakoff – Goldstein." Harry and Richard nodded at each other and sat down at another table. Riddle was paired up with a boy called Edward Patil from Ravenclaw. Matthew was put together with a hard-faced Slytherin boy called Orion Black. After a while "Krum – Karkarova."
Draco's POV:
Draco was soooo happy that he was paired up with Hermione as he had really grown fond of her. He didn't see her as the stupid frizzy-haired mudblood any longer. He saw her as the beautiful young lady with long blonde hair and beautiful eyes, an intelligence that could rival Rowena Ravenclaws. And her smile was even prettier… Hermione and Draco smiled at each other and were about to sit down when a velvet voice spoke up.
"Sorry professor, may I speak?" Draco thought he didn't believe his ears. Tom again?
"Sure sure, Tom." the professor bustled.
"I was wondering why you put the two new students together, sir. I am of the opinion that it would be more prudent to mix them with the Hogwarts students. They are both new and wouldn't know what to do." his voice was perfectly controlled in a mixture between friendliness and authority. 'Come on, asshole. You broke us apart yesterday as well and now you try to do it again. What's in it for you? You're not jealous, are you? But well, I do not care, you will NEVER get her. Hermione doesn't like Dark Lords like yourself.' Draco thought grimly.
"You are totally right, Tom. You will work with Miss Karkarova then and Mr. Krum can be with Mr. Patil." Slughorn said. Draco's tan face paled considerably and he looked furiously at the Head Boy when he sat down next to the Ravenclaw.
Smiling slightly, but obviously confused, Hermione sat down next to Tom. Draco pitied Hermione immensely. She was probably dead-scared. Oh how he wished how he could be there for her now.
Hermione looked at Tom calculatingly when she sat down next to him.
Tom's POV:
Hermione and Draco smiled at each other and were about to sit down. Tom couldn't bear it. That Krum boy was so infuriating. The way he was smiling at Karkarova and the way she smiled back. As if they were in love. But he couldn't let that happen.
"Sorry professor, may I speak?"
"Sure sure, Tom." the professor bustled. Inwardly Tom smirked in victory. That old fool would do anything for him.
"I was wondering why you put the two new students together, sir. I am of the opinion that it would be more prudent to mix them with the Hogwarts students. They are both new and wouldn't know what to do." his voice was perfectly controlled in a mixture between friendliness and authority.
"You are totally right, Tom. You will work with Miss Karkarova then and Mr. Krum can be with Mr. Patil." Slughorn said. Draco's tan face paled considerably and he looked furiously at the Head Boy when he sat down next to the Ravenclaw. 'Serves you right, Krum. Why are you constantly clinging to that girl. Hmm, maybe you are really fond of her… what a pity. You can never have her, I will make sure of that.' Tom thought grimly.
Smiling slightly, but obviously confused, Hermione sat down next to Tom. His breath got caught in his throat when he looked at the beautiful girl who was walking gracefully towards him.
Hermione looked at Tom calculatingly when she sat down next to him. A look that he didn't like. Why was he actually so concerned about her? He shouldn't be…. It was not in his nature to be interested in a girl. And not to be jealous.
Hermione's POV:
Hermione was more than glad to be with someone she knew. Even if it was Malfoy. Hermione and Draco smiled at each other and were about to sit down when a velvet voice spoke up.
"Sorry professor, may I speak?" 'What now?' Hermione thought exasperated.
"Sure sure, Tom." the professor bustled. 'Didn't that teacher have ANY backbone?' Hermione couldn't believe it.
"I was wondering why you put the two new students together, sir. I am of the opinion that it would be more prudent to mix them with the Hogwarts students. They are both new and wouldn't know what to do." his voice was perfectly controlled in a mixture between friendliness and authority.
"You are totally right, Tom. You will work with Miss Karkarova then and Mr. Krum can be with Mr. Patil." Slughorn said. Draco's tan face paled considerably and he looked furiously at the Head Boy when he sat down next to the Ravenclaw. 'Why does Tom always try to keep Draco and me apart? It's not as if we are together or in love. Me and Draco… Ewwww.' Hermione thought enraged.
Smiling slightly, but obviously confused, Hermione sat down next to Tom. Why was he doing that? It seemed as if he wanted to make her furious. Or did he really care about the students?
No, definitely not. There had to be some kind of ulterior motive.
Hermione looked at Tom calculatingly when she sat down next to him.
Back to normal view:
Tom and Hermione didn't talk while the other students were paired.
"Today we will brew Amortentia. Who can tell me what this potion is?" Slughorn asked and hermione's and Tom's hands shot up simultaneously.