Chapter 5

"Thanks again Christy for that... er...interesting tour." Hermione called out before finally shutting her bedroom door.

Leaning back against the hard wood, Hermione allowed herself to slowly slide down till she was seated on the ground and was using her fingertips to massage her temples.

How could I have been so careless? He's gonna know that I did that deliberately!

Earlier that day...

"And so Hermione, this is the last room we need to check before we've finished the tour." Christy concluded as she opened yet another door.

For the past half an hour, Hermione was made to endure a tour of the orphanage. Hermione couldn't believe that a building that had looked so small (which is saying something, considering her current height) from the outside, could be so bloody big on the inside. There was a countless amount of rooms in the place. Hermione thought that she might as well of been sleep walking the way she felt.

But it's not been totally useless I guess...

At least, thanks to this 'very detailed' tour, Hermione now knew where Tom Riddle's room was.

The last room Christy was showing her though, did receive some of Hermione's attention. It was the Library.

The room was small, with a little collection of books as there only appeared to be two shelves. The room seemed cosy enough, which suited Hermione just fine and there was a few small stools in the corner and two tables with chairs near the book shelves.

Mrs Cole was seated at one of the tables, with a few children around her, all reading off of the same book and were taking turns to reading out loud. Yet, someone that Hermione didn't really feel like seeing was at the far window seated on top of the window ledge.

Oh great! Hermione inwardly groaned.

Before she knew it, however, Christy was pulling her in the direction of the small reading group, who Hermione could now tell, were reading 'Little Red Riding Hood', until Christy stopped them in order to address Mrs Cole.

"Hello Mrs Cole, sorry to interrupt, I just thought that since we've now finished Hermione's tour of the place, she could maybe come a read with you's? I'm afraid that I have some things to do, and I don't want to leave little 'Mione on her own..." Christy said politely, but then quickly added, "I should only be about half an hour."

Little Mione? Hermione thought with disgust. You've got to be kidding me.

Mrs Cole then turned towards Hermione and gave her a small smile before saying, "Of course! That would be fine. Maybe I'll let you read the next chapter?"

Hermione secretly glared at Christy for doing this before giving the woman a small nod in agreement and sitting herself down on one of the chairs.

Once Christy began to walk away, the reading started up again. Hermione felt the colour practically leave her face and just wanted to cover her ears in fear of a head ache. The girl next to her, who seemed to be about seven years old, was now reading out, her high pitched voice too much for Hermione and the girl couldn't even say a word without stuttering.

Inwardly groaning, Hermione realised she would probably have to seem bad at reading also. After all, she was supposed to be six!

Hermione gave up on trying to make out on what was being said and allowed her eyes to wonder, looking for some sort of distraction. After finding none, other than that of a young Dark Lord, who was reading...

Oliver Twist? Well that's interesting... Hermione mused.

Hermione began to go over the small plan she had made up at the beginning of the tour.

It was actually very simple when you think about it.

Sabotage him, get him detention, sneak into his room, try and find some books, flip through them, find the curse and VOILA!

All in the space of an hour or so...

All she needed now was the perfect opportunity.

Hermione, however, was taken out of her thoughts by a small poke at her arm. When she looked up she could see everyone looking at her. When she glanced at the girl who had been reading only moments ago, she could see she was holding out the book for Hermione to take.

"Err..." Hermione looked a little nervously around her.

"It's okay child, there's nothing to worry about." Mrs Cole gave her a kind smile in reassurance.

"Eh, I'm not particularly... eh... fond of this book. Could I plea-"

"Nonsense child! How about you read a paragraph and that will be that." Mrs Cole made out to ask.

But to Hermione she obviously didn't really have much of a choice.

Hesitantly, Hermione took the book from the other girl's hands and looked for the point in which they had last read. "Li-lit-little red ri-rid-riding hoo-hood." Hermione winced at how bad at reading she made herself out to be, but continued none the less.

As she was reading, however, she managed to sneak a small glance at the, still quiet, Riddle. What she noticed annoyed her though. He had the book right up to his face, but she could see he wasn't even bothering to read it, and had a smirk planted across his face

Prick! Well I'll just show him...

Pretending to clear her throat, she took one last look at Tom before bringing the book right up to her face and began reading again.

"'Oh, Grandmamma! What big eyes you have!' Inquired Little Red. 'The better to see you with my dear,' the Wolf replied..."

Hermione continued this way, well past her paragraph, until finally reaching the end of the story. She had kept the book right up to her face, in order to block others out.

Plus she was looking forward to seeing the look on Mrs Cole's face. Hell! She wanted to see the look on Tom's face the most!

Slowly lowering the book down - making sure to plant some sort of a smug smile on her face - she started to look around her. She was hardly disappointed when all the kids were gazing at her in a sort of awe and Mrs Cole looked rather shocked.

Quite pleased with herself, Hermione then took the opportunity to look again at Tom. He still had the book up to his face, but this time his face was, to Hermione's displeasure, unreadable.

Hermione placed the book down, and got up to leave.

She stopped, though, when she noticed another shelf of books, secluded behind the first two. She walked up to it and began to skim through the titles. She finished looking after finding her favourite book amongst them. Yet, when she made to claim it, she was unable to reach it.

Getting frustrated with herself, Hermione went as far up on her tip toes as they would allow her. She stretched out her arm as far as she could, trying to get to the shelf that held her book.

"Almost...there..." Hermione gasped out.

"Having trouble?"

Hermione practically jumped straight out of her skin when she heard a man's deep voice next to her right ear. Spinning round she came face to face with Tom Riddle, who was bent over looking at her with a smirk.

"No." She answered maybe a bit too quickly.

Riddle's left eyebrow lifted, in question.

Hermione let out an annoyed sigh. "Yes! I can't reach a book. There! That's all, now please leave."

Not taking his eyes off her, Tom put the book he had finished reading back on one of the shelves. "So... Do tell how a little girl, such as yourself, was able to read like that?" He inquired.

Tom had decided after breakfast that he would be better off knowing everything there was to know about this girl. He knew everything there was to know about this orphanage. Including the people inside it. And so far he only knew this girl's name, age, and the facts that she could read and could be fairly sneaky when need be.

Hermione was more than a little curious as to why Tom would be trying to make such civil conversation.

He's probably just nosey. I'm six for crying out loud, he obviously isn't looking for a friend! Hermione scoffed at the very idea.

"Something amusing?" Tom asked. Irritation coming through a little bit in his voice.

"No." She answered simply, shrugging his question off.

"How about answering my first question." It was more of order that a question, in Hermione's view.

"Not that it's any of your business bu-" Hermione stopped mid sentence however.

That's it!

"But what?" Tom sounded impatient.

"My mummy taught me." Hermione said, mentally preparing herself for the acting skills she was going to have to pull. She knew perfectly well that Voldemort hated the idea of love. All kinds. And now, she was going to use it to her advantage.

As expected. Riddle snorted. "Mummy? That sounds pathetic." He murmured, obviously no one was supposed to hear it. But Hermione did.

"N-no i-i-it doesn't! M-my Mu-mummy was l-lovely! Sh-she l-l-l-loves me v-very much!" Hermione started to cry.

"I didn't say she di-"

"TOM! What on earth are you doing to the poor girl!"

Mrs Cole now rounded the corner standing there with her hands on her hips. It reminded Hermione a little bit of Mrs Weasley when she was cross.

Hermione ran up to Mrs Cole, wrapping her arms around the woman's legs and started to sob into her skirt.

"He-He s-said my mu-mu-mummy w-was pathetic!" Hermione wailed.

If looks could kill, Tom would have been dead a hundred times over with the looks Mrs Cole was sending his way. But then again... Tom looked pretty livid himself.

"Mrs Cole I-"

"Detention! Tonight at eight! Come to my office, where you will be sorting all the files out for me!"

Back to present...

Hermione let out a frustrated groan as she headed back over to her bed.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time for her, but now the whole thing wasn't looking too good. Tom would be really ** with her. God knows what he'll do when he finds her alone.

I'll have to leave... once I find the curse and remove it... I'll leave tonight...good god Hermione what have you gotten yourself into.

R&R