Author's Note: Read my Halloween story, Mistress of Halloween. It's AU for anyone who likes those. Meanwhile, I'm slowly trekking along with my Secret Santa fic, so it might take a while before I upload anything else.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
Prompt: Medicine
"Open up wide. Say 'ahh'"
"The fuck, Granger?" Tom glared as he attempted to push her away from him. Unfortunately, she didn't budge and continued to look at him with the innocent smile of hers plastered on his face. Tom reached for his wand to blast her away, but found that he was dressed in a piece of cloth that barely covered his body, much less any pockets to hold his wand. "What the hell is this?"
She tried to keep the naïve look on her face, but it proved too much for her, as she quickly dropped her act and smirked at him. "That, Mister Riddle, is your clothes. Stop pulling at them. You wouldn't want your bits to show, would you?"
Tom noted that, however, she wasn't even attempting to look at them, and it greatly irked him. He thought about jumping out of the cot and flashing them at her in a way that she would have to look—he could image the look of shock and appreciation that would appear on her face—but decided not to do so. It was too rash of an action, and it was her loss if she didn't want to get a glimpse of the fabulous Head Boy.
"Why am I here?" Tom scowled angrily, rubbing his head. He could not remember anything after coming out of another silly meeting with Slughorn. The professor had nearly draped himself all over Tom, and it took all his self control not to push him off. It had been such a relief to get out of the classroom, though he couldn't remember anything else that happened after that.
Hermione merely shrugged, still holding a vial in her hand. It was a murky brown color with unknown substances floating around, and he eyed it suspiciously. She, however, made no move to explain it and said, "You fell down the stairs,"
Tom narrowed his eyes at her. "I fell down the stairs?"
"Don't act so surprised," Hermione sniped, trying to force the vial in to his hands. He smacked her hand, and she almost dropped it—a pity she didn't. She caught it clumsily and glared at Tom, who merely stared at the vial and its contents with a look of pure disgust on his face. "You're not perfect."
But I am damn well close to it, Tom thought angrily. How dare she use that tone of voice with him, as if she was scolding him? Tom Riddle would get scolded by no one. Anyone who tried to do so would get personally disposed of.
However, he recognized her. Hermione Granger was a Gryffindor mudblood in his year. She was not made Head Girl because she had been absent in the first few weeks of school, but everyone knew that she might as well hold the status anyway. She was a know-it-all bookworm who didn't seem to notice she annoyed everyone with her constant enforcing of rules as well as her bossy lectures. He himself had been very lucky to only have a couple of interactions with her, but even in those rare instances, she never closed her mouth.
True, she could make points that were quite valid and was the only one in the entire school who could make him pause and think about his argument, but she was annoying all the same, so that erased the miniscule amount of respect he had started to build for her.
"Where's Madam Pomfrey?" he asked finally, deciding that any sort of death threats would land him in Azkaban faster than he could blink. Dumbledore was still jamming himself down Tom's throat, and he found he could not do anything with that old codger constantly spying on him.
"She needed to go somewhere, and she told me to give this to you when you woke up," once again, she tried to dump the contents of the vial in to his mouth, but he avoided deftly. Hermione scowled at him. "Just take your medicine, and you can go."
"I can go anyway," Tom glared at her, and made to stand up. However, he realized that he still had a lack of clothing. While he did not really mind others gawking at him—he was perfect, after all; there was no need to be ashamed—he had a reputation to uphold as the Head Boy. He most certainly could not parade down the corridors naked—as much as most of the school's population would enjoy the sight.
Hermione stifled a laugh quite poorly, and Tom glared at her again before settling back under the covers. "I'll give you your clothes back if you drink this," she bargained. "It's not that bad. Look how small this vial is."
Tom eyed it suspiciously. "It looks like shit."
"It does," Hermione admitted, wrinkling her nose. "It smells like it too." She looked thoughtful. "Would you like me to hold your nose and cover your eyes? It'll be just like drinking water if you do that."
Tom eyed the slimy particles floating around. "I'm sure."
Hermione sighed, but almost immediately, a determined look appeared on her face. Before Tom could do anything but eye her suspiciously, she leaned in and stared intently at his face.
"You have a really cute nose."
Tom stared at her with a look of disgust as she started poking and squeezing it. She had a fascinated look on her face, as if she were seeing a human nose for the very first time. "Look," she said happily. "It makes a funny sound when you squeeze it." She squeezed his nose twice to emphasis her point.
Tom tried to push her off of him, but either she had given him something to severely weaken his muscles or she was a wall. Nonetheless, he thought about smashing his fist in to her face to see what noise her nose would make when it broke. He opened his mouth to tell her that he was going to report her for molesting and assaulting him while he was defenseless, when she took the opportunity of his open mouth and stuffed the contents of the vial in his mouth.
The taste was terrible, and the liquid burned all the way down his throat. Apparently, now that her mission was successful, his nose was less fascinating to her. She stopped playing with it and sat back, a look of satisfaction on her face.
Tom glared at her. The taste was all too familiar, and a surge of anger pulsed through his body. "Granger, you—" He lunged for her, but by then, it was too late. He fell down in front of her, dark spots starting to appear in his vision. He tried to crawl towards her, but found that nearly all his strength had left him.
"Sweet dreams, Riddle," the last thing he saw was the girl giggling. He had never wanted anyone dead more in his life—not even his own father. "You'll thank me one day."
A thousand curses and death threats lay on the tip of his tongue, all dying to be said. However, before he could voice any one of them, he felt all of the energy leave him, and he blacked out on the bed.
"Mister Weasley, Miss Granger has been helping me all day. You would do well to learn from her example." Madam Pomfrey shook her head and opened the door to the hospital wing. Ron opened his mouth to protest, but Madam Pomfrey cut him off. "I will not hear a word of discouragement from you. If you have enough time to degrade her, you can put it to use and help out next time."
Ron slumped his shoulders and sighed, but nearly bumped in to Madam Pomfrey. The woman was frozen in shock and staring at something with her eyes wide open. Ron stepped around her, and his jaw dropped.
"Hermione?"
"Hi Ron," she greeted cheerfully. "How did your Quidditch practice go?"
Ron was too busy staring to even acknowledge her question. "What the bloody hell is that?" He finally managed to say, pointing at the hideous creature next to her. Madam Pomfrey was too shocked to reprimand Ron on his language.
"Oh this," Hermione waved it off, as if it was normal for it to be in the hospital bed next to her, as if everyone had something like that. She gestured towards it, beaming. "Ron, meet my newest friend, the Giant Squid."
Author's Note: First ever shipper of Hermione and the Giant Squid! Woot woot. lol Hermione, enjoy the feeling of Tom's nose, because it isn't going to last. ;)
