Hermione couldn't remember the last time she laughed that much. The breakfast was a wonderful idea, and Lestrange had shown her the shop Tomes and Scrolls directly after they left Madam Puddifoot's.

As they entered, he mumbled closely her ear: "I know you love books anyway, so I thought this would be a good start into a day too…" Hermione couldn't stop herself smiling gently at him. He hemmed and mended his pace to the bookshelves. "Oh if she knew…," Clayford thought. He had to bit his tongue not to say "date." And he couldn't remember the last time he was so nervous because of a witch.

Time rushed by and after one and a half hours, they had left the shop. Hermione still smiled at her new book, Beautiful Beasts and Where to Find Them. She held in her hands.

"Do you like it?" she heard his obviously amused voice. Hermione didn't nod but looked directly at him:

"Have you found a book too?"

"More or less, I have to write five parchments about the young history and Mr. Binns said he wants it by Wednesday. I found nothing useful in the library and you know…"

Lestrange didn't feel comfortable as he answered slowly. It wasn't his intention to – well he didn't want her to think of him that he was a swot or even worse a teacher's pet.

"Smart."

it was just one-word Clayford heard from her, but it made his heartbeat rise. "Would you— would you—" Lestrange began stammering. He hated not being confident enough.

As Hermione's smile rose, Clayford didn't look at her, but onto the floor and this frustrated him even more. He kicked some soil away and then he was able to ask her a full sentence: "Would you want to buy some sweets at Honeydukes?" This wasn't his first date, so why was this so complicated?

"Let's go." Her voice still sounded warm and this was like heart-balm.

Lestrange didn't know what he should have done if she ended all of this out of a sudden.

He didn't think of how her reaction could be as he took her hand and he didn't recognize either that her cheeks turned involuntarily red.

During lunchtime, they sat in the crowded Three Broomsticks Inn. Madam Rosmerta came with two another Butterbeers Clayford had ordered after he was sure that Hermione didn't mind. They had already eaten delicious pumpkin pie earlier and Lestrange just smiled at her.

"Thank you, I actually don't know how the last day was so much fun," Hermione began and avoided to look at him. She thought of the past, the sort of past before the war began, and it hurt. It hurt deeply.

He grabbed her hand and mumbled, "Not for that." It was the moment he decided to kiss her. Even if she looked sad at that very moment he would change this. He knew it had nothing to do with him. Yes, he would kiss her and no one would stop him, except Hermione and he didn't think she would.

He felt cold magic and the peak of a wand underneath his chin as he wanted to lean in. One glance aside and he knew Evans was the offender. "Get off of her!" Harry shouted, enraged.

He couldn't see it any longer, Lestrange flirting with Hermione, slightly touching her hand, chatting sweetly with her. Harry was angry, also angry with Seymour because she obviously fell for him. How could she when she knew what kind of man he will be?

Lestrange glared daggers at Harry, especially because he caught him completely unarmed. His wand in his jacket doesn't help him much. How could he have the nerves to bump into it?

"That's none of your business," Harry heard the hissing voice behind him. Hermione looked to Mulciber, Riddle, Rosier and Malfoy. The first one had a ringed snake with him. Then she looked icily back to Evans.

"He's not good enough for her," he hissed in Parseltongue.

"I'm off," Hermione stood up, forced Harry not to point at Lestrange any longer and then she said awesomely frightening to him: "We will talk later!" Then she stormed off.

"Hermione Jean Seymour!" Harry shouted after her but she didn't stop, nor did she say anything else. She knew it better then shouting back the two little words 'fuck off'. No woman in the 1940's would do that anyway, and she wouldn't behave like a child, when Harry was the childish one.

Hermione felt as if she boiled over with rage as she headed back to Hogwarts. "Stupid Harry! How could he do this, behaving like a jerk? How—" She was interrupted in her thoughts as a man's hand grabbed after hers. As she turned, she pointed enraged her wand at his face and shouted:

"Harry, don't dare—! Riddle?" All her anger was gone as she saw him glancing at her.

"You understood it," he said nonchalantly, bringing it to the point. He didn't care about her first reaction, not at all as she squirreled it away immediately.

"What?" Hermione didn't understand anything. What did he want from her?

"The Snake. You speak Parsel." He insisted coldly.

"No, I just know Harry long enough." She answered truthfully and crossed her arms.

"Really?" he wanted to know as he started walking aside her. Hermione still wanted to go back to the castle. "I repeat it for you, Riddle. I'm not a Parseltongue."

Hermione hissed with clenched teeth. Riddle gave her another look. He knew if Harry wouldn't have bumped into this awful situation of Lestrange and Seymour, he would have done it. He couldn't see her with him; and Riddle thought he was clear as he talked to Clayford Lestrange.

"Let's give it another try," he said rigidly and she heard him imitating a snake. Hermione looked unimpressed at him and then she raised an eyebrow. "And? What does that mean?" Riddle smiled knowingly at her. "You have really no idea, haven't you?" he wanted to know. Hermione shook her head and negotiated.

"Interesting..." There were two possibilities, the first one was she to be a good actress, the second that she said the truth.

"Now tell me, Riddle," she tried again.

"Nothing important and nothing interesting," he answered then.

"Is that the meaning?" Hermione asked and she saw how he shook his head this time. As they both stopped in front of the castle Hermione began the conversation once again: "Look, Riddle, I have no reason to lie to you. I'm not a Parseltongue, but I do know some phrases because I often heard Harry say them. That's all."

"I know, now," he looked at her as if it was the first time they met. "Okay, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine too. I'll be in the library then, bye." Hermione waved her hand and turned to go. He just looked after her and smiled.

"Do you know that Lestrange was on the point of kissing you?" Tom couldn't stop himself from asking that. He was amused seeing how Seymour stopped immediately and turned to him again. She nearly fell over her own feet.

"No way, he would never—" Hermione's mouth fell open. "What? When?" It was funny to see how the rational part of her trying to find a logical conclusion, but in the end, she was just a woman. Riddle could see it in her face like in an open book. He smiled even more and decided to change his strategy once more. "No, of course not, just kidding. I wanted to know your reaction, in comparison to the Parseltongue topic…" It was not all a lie, more a half-truth. He really wanted to know how she would act like. Seymour shook her head in disbelief and left finally.

And besides, if she ever found out, that he, Tom Riddle, had said in Parseltongue the three most famous words to her, just to test her, Hermione would be mad at him.