Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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That afternoon at exactly 3 'o clock, Emma, who was a very punctual person, stepped out of the common room, to find Tom leaning casually against the wall of the hallway. He caught a lot of attention from people walking by, but he didn't seem to notice them much. She guessed he must be used to that.

"Hey sweetie," he said with a smile, as she walked up to him.

She smiled back. Ah, she thought to herself. 'Sweetie', he'd called her. So he was just like all the others, just attempting to get involved with her. She took a good look at him. Well, he sure was handsome, no doubt about that. But what was he like, aside from that? She reckoned she would find out.

Tom read her mind as she was thinking this, and he was more than a little surprised about her reaction to him. He couldn't understand that she wasn't more enthusiast about meeting with him. But, no matter, soon he would have her where he wanted her, and she would be like putty in his hands.

"Come with me, Emma," he said, as he took her hand and led the way.

"Where are we going, Tom?" she asked, struggling to keep up with him as he was walking with a firm step.

"Just some place where I like to experiment," he said.

Experiment? she thought. What, exactly, was he planning with her? "Er…what sort of experimenting?" she asked.

He grinned. "Amongst other things…potions," he replied. "You'll see!"

He took her into one of the secret passages leading away from Hogwarts, one which he did indeed use for his experiments. He led her through the dark and narrow passageway until they reached a point somewhere in the middle. He cast a spell, and a door appeared in the wall, leading to a huge underground room, with rock walls and a dirt floor, lit by candles stuck in candleholders attached to the wall. There were shelves on the walls containing supplies and potion ingredients, and many other things in addition to that.

Emma stared at the room in awe. "Wow," she said.

Tom let go of her hand and summoned one of the cauldrons with his wand. Then he took a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. Curious, Emma looked over his shoulder, and noticed it was her project paper. She stared at it. So it hadn't just been an excuse, he really did want to talk about her paper? But what did he want with it?

As in answer to her question, he turned around and gave her a dazzling smile. "Let's brew your potion!" he said.

She frowned. "Brew my potion? Why? I already did that. It didn't work," she said, puzzled.

"I know," he grinned. "But I made some…modifications." He pushed the paper into her hand.

She looked at it. His changes were easily recognizable, as he had used a different color ink. As she was studying the report, he was busy lighting a fire underneath the cauldron and setting up ingredients.

Once Emma had finished reading the modifications in her report, there was a gleam in her eyes. She felt an indescribable thrill, as every single one of his modifications seemed to make sense to her. How could she have missed those two ingredients being reversed? That was just…well, stupid. And of course, a pinch of ground unicorn tooth! That was so logical, it was just…scary! She stared at him as he started preparing the potion.

Without wasting another moment, she set out to help him, and both of them worked diligently, until the potion was completed.

He looked at her expectantly. "Do you want to try it?"

She wouldn't have been able to hide her excitement, even if she wanted to. "YES!" she exclaimed.

"Alright," he said. "I will leave. Then I will come back. I will either enter, or just open and close the door. If you do not feel my presence, knock on the door and I'll know that you know I'm not there, and I'll try again. If I do enter, I will be invisible. Try to find me then. Okay?"

"Okay!" Emma nodded fervently, more excited than she thought she had ever been in her life. She took the potion and Tom left the room.

She didn't feel anything at first, but about ten minutes later, a strange feeling came over her. A feeling of heightened sensitivity, of awareness. She seemed perfectly in tune with all the items in the room, somehow. She rapped on the door, to let Tom know that she was ready, and soon after, the door opened and closed.

She didn't feel different at all, so she gave the door another knock. Once again, it opened and closed, and once again, she felt nothing. The third time, however, she clearly felt a change in her surroundings. She couldn't see a thing, but something had changed. She felt a presence. She did a three-quarter turn around herself. That was the direction, she was sure of it, and she slowly walked that way. Then she stopped. This was it, she thought, he should be there, right in front of her! She reached out. She gasped. Solid! He was there, not even an inch away from her! The next moment, he became visible again, and she stared up at him. She was speechless. It had worked! Her project actually worked!

He was awfully close, though.

She was just about to take a step back, when he scooped her up in his arms and pressed his lips on hers. She felt herself responding to his kiss, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She gasped as his tongue pushed into her mouth. She had never actually kissed a boy before, so she was taken by surprise and pulled away from him.

He laughed softly. "First time, sweetheart?" he said, as he took her face in his hands.

She nodded fervently. 'Yes,' she thought. First time… First time on a 'date', first time one of her potions worked out and…first time she was kissed like that.

Tom grinned as he stared into her eyes and read her thoughts. 'You will have a lot more firsts to come, sweetie,' he thought to himself.

He stroked her long, dark, almost black hair and gazed into her dark brown eyes. "Just relax," he said to her. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." With that, he lifted her chin up to him and kissed her again. This time she did not pull away. His tongue started playing with hers, trying to get it to move. She caught on pretty quick and started moving her tongue as well. She relaxed in his arms and was amazed at how comfortable she felt, and how enjoyable it was to kiss him. She moaned softly.

He chuckled as he pulled back from her. "Did you like that, Emma?" he said.

She stared dreamily at him and nodded. "Yes!" she said, trying to pull him back towards her.

He frowned for a moment, but let it slide. He was doing well, let's not ruin it, she would learn later that it was him calling the shots, not her. And so he moved in to kiss her again.

Emma was thoroughly enjoying herself. She couldn't believe her potion was working! This was truly the best day of her life! Tom Riddle was a genius, she thought to herself. He had managed to turn her potion around from a useless-no-good-stupid-idea-which-will-never-work thing to one that actually worked just like she had intended it to! And here he was, kissing her, and it felt really good being in his arms. Maybe the girls were right after all, and she was indeed very lucky.

Her arms were around his neck, and his around her waist. But not for long! One of his hands started pulling on her blouse, and then moved underneath it over the bare skin of her back. She shivered. Oh, man, that felt good! He chuckled as he pulled away from their kiss, and his mouth now traveled over her cheek towards her ear. He nibbled her earlobe for a moment, causing another shiver. Sweet Merlin, he sure knew how to make a girl feel good! Now both his hands were underneath her shirt, and he had started kissing her neck. She gasped and closed her eyes, moving her head back so he had easier access to her neck.

Her eyes suddenly flew open as she felt her bra loosening up. "Uh-oh," she thought. He'd unclipped her bra! And now his hands were moving towards her breasts…

She pushed back from him and slapped his face. Tom looked shocked and angry as he stared at her. "What the hell?" he said.

She was furious. "What do you think you're doing?" she yelled at him. "You can't just unclip my bra! And you definitely can't touch my breasts! I'm leaving. Now!"

She strode over to the door, opened it and left, leaving a highly perplexed Tom Riddle behind. Then she practically ran to the entrance of the passage, crawled out and went back to her common room.

Emma was mad as hell. Who did he think he was? He should have been happy she let him kiss her in the first place! It wasn't as if he'd asked her, was it? She really should have slapped him then. But noooooo, she didn't, she had been nice to him and even played along. And then what happened? He'd try to do even more! He would have touched her breasts, had she not stopped him. The audacity! If she had wanted him to do that, she would have let him know, wouldn't she? But no, he just decided to take what he wanted. Did he think she was a whore, or something, that she was just going to give in like that? No way! No way mister Riddle! If he was to get anywhere at all with her, he really would have to cut down on that rudeness…

"Emma!" yelled Jarinda, as she entered the common room. "You're back! You've been out for hours! How did it go? Tell me!"

Emma gave her an angry stare. "I don't want to talk about it," she said.

Jarinda frowned. "You don't want to talk about it? But did you spend all that time with him?"

"Yes," Emma replied curtly.

"You just spend hours alone with Tom Riddle, and you don't want to talk about it?"

"That's right."

As Emma ascended the stairs to her dormitory, Jarinda yelled up at her, "But Emma, what did you do with him all that time?"

"We brewed a potion," Emma yelled back just before she pushed open the door to her dormitory. And that was all she would say about it.

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Tom was livid. Who the freaking hell did that girl think she was? She was just a bloody Mudblood, nothing more than that, and she had slapped him. Slapped him! And for what? For unclipping her bra, of all things! He'd barely even got started! He had wanted to hit her back, but he knew he couldn't. Not yet, anyway, he had to get under her skin first. But she sure had put a spike in that, for the moment! And just as he thought everything was going so well…