Disclaimer: don't own.

That's what happened in chapter 7:

Draco looked helpless and Harry obviously felt sorry for him. Probably for the first and last time of his life. "May we come with you, Mister Riddle? After all, we could also do with some fresh air."

"No, you may not. Enough. Hermione and I are going to go outside, because we need to discuss something ALONE. We'll meet you back here in 20 minutes." And with that he swept Hermione away; Hermione letting him.

On with the story:

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Neither Tom nor Hermione noticed that both of their drinks glowed silver for a fraction of a second.

What would he want to talk about now? Hermione was curious. Deeply curious. It didn't seem as if he were mad at her... to the contrary; he had been very pleasant this evening. Only a handful of students were outside as the air was very cold and Hermione involuntarily shivered in her short sleeved dress.

Tom, the gentleman of the 40s, noticed and put his jacket around her shoulders without being asked to, but Hermione had to admit, that she quite liked it. "Here... you are cold."

"Thank you." Hermione smiled up at him and took a sip from her wine. Hmm, delicious.

In silence they walked to the fountain which was half surrounded by rose-bushes and Hermione decided she couldn't take the silence any longer. She stopped walking and Tom stopped directly in front of her. Too close for her liking... but then not close enough. Hermione wanted to scream! What was the matter with her? She acted like a hormonal 13-year-old.

"Soo... what did you want to talk about?" She asked hesitantly, avoiding his gaze. They could still hear the music from the dance floor and it made Hermione calmer.

"Well..." Tom nervously drank from his beer but then thought better of it, bent down and unexpectedly took her hand. His hand was as cold as hers, but it was as if heat shot through their hands. Hermione felt her spine tingle.

"Actually, I would like to try something out." Tom whispered and Hermione noticed that his voice trembled slightly. "May I, Hermione?" He was so close now that Hermione could see his long lashes and every pore of his face.

"...Yes." Hermione whispered back so lowly, she wasn't even sure, he heard it.

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"I will kill you, Potter, I will kill you with my bare hands!" Harry and Draco were in a deserted hallway and Draco was furiously strangling his enemy. He already had both hands around Harry's throat. "How dare you!"

Harry cowered in a corner – shielding his face from Draco's punches – and try to make him see sense. "Look, Malfoy, just let me explain and stop punching me or I will have to hex you!"

"How dare you destroy my date!" Draco yelled. "You stupid son of a..."

"Impedimenta!" Harry pointed his wand at his Slytherin comerade. "Stop it this instant. Just let me explain... I had a good reason to."

"It'd better be good..." Draco growled. "You'd better have a good reason why you slipped a love potion into Riddle's drink."

"It's not a love potion." The boy who lived shook his head. "It's actually a very new invention. It only let's the drinker fall in love faster with the person he is meant to be with."

"But Riddle isn't meant to be with anyone and Hermione is meant to be with me." Draco growled out.

"If this is the case then the potion won't have any effect on either of them."

"You poured it in Hermione's drink as well?" Draco asked aghast.

"Of course. What if Riddle declares his love for her and she doesn't react?" Harry shook his head. "It isn't a love potion that lets you fall in love with SOMEONE; it's a potion that shows you who your second half is."

"You'll ruin my life, Potter!"

"You were never meant to marry Hermione."

That shut Draco up, but he tried a different track: "Dumbledore never asked us to use a love potion."

"It's not a love potion." Harry actually stamped his foot. "And now let's go into the gardens and find out if they are meant to be together."

"How will we do that? Riddle 'll kill us if we walk in on his first kiss." Draco said sarcastically.

"Invisibility cloak." Harry smirked as he slid if out of his pocket. "Let's go!"

"I still say, Hermione and Riddle are not meant to be together." Draco grumbled when Harry covered both of them with the cloak.

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And at that moment it happened.

Tom bent down and KISSED her. It was unlike any kiss, EVER. Neither Krum, nor Ron, not even Draco was as good a kisser as the future Dark Lord. His lips were soft but hard at the same time, warm but cold, night but day, Hermione didn't know how to describe the feelings that shot through her. She really felt as if she were in paradise or on cloud seven.

Slowly, very slowly, she inched nearer towards Tom and he pulled her even tighter towards him. His hands rested on her waist and her arms were around his shoulders, pulling him close. When Tom entered her mouth, Hermione couldn't suppress a moan. This was pure bliss!

She didn't know how long they kissed; she didn't know how long they stood there afterwards, wrapped around each other in each other's arms... it could have been years, it could have been seconds. All she knew was that she was extremely happy and never wanted this moment to end.

When Tom finally had the courage to speak, his voice was all husky. "Did you like it, Hermione? Did I startle you? I didn't mean to –"

"It's fine." Hermione smiled at him and silenced him with a kiss. "I liked it."

Tom grinned like a five-year-old on Christmas Day and hugged her tighter. "Thank you."

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"That's just sick!" Draco said incredulously as he watched the pair in front of him. "Eeeurgh."

"Shhh... Malfoy..." Harry inwardly felt triumph. He had finally got Hermione and Tom to at least admit their feelings to each other. 'Thank you Fred and George for inventing this super potion.' But he also felt worried. Was it right to sell his best friend to the Dark Lord? Should he not have used the potion? Was Draco right and Dumbledore didn't want them to use it? So HOW did Dumbledore expect them to solve this? No, he shook his head. It was right. If they hadn't been attracted to each other the potion would have been useless anyway.

"Let's go to bed." Harry suggested tiredly.

"No way." Draco pointed at the couple. "They are kissing again."

Harry groaned. "AGAIN? Can't they just stop and go to bed? It's past midnight."

Draco covered his eyes. "I hate you Potter for doing this to me."

"You weren't even together."

"Who cares?" Draco rolled his eyes.

"It's getting late. Let's go inside." Harry said and surprisingly Draco nodded.

"Looks like I have to ask Elladora out on a date..." Draco said thoughtfully, but Harry punched his arm.

"Don't you dare to that!"

"I DO dare." Draco narrowed his eyes. "If you can destroy my date, I will destroy yours. That's the way, the mind of Slytherins work, Potter. If you want to survive in this house, you'd better learn it too – and fast."

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Hermione was greeted with a grinning Harry and an icy, unresponsive Draco at breakfast. She had a feeling she knew why he was so cold and felt incredibly sorry for him. Guilty. She had been his date, after all. But still... Tom and she had felt so real... as if they really belonged to each other. Hermione wondered, if he felt the same?

She was tired and yawned, holding her hand in front of her mouth. Draco glared at her and stood up without a word. "Oh no..." she groaned. "Did he see us yesterday?"

Harry nodded. "And so did I. I have to admit, I like it. That's exactly what Dumbledore wanted."

Hermione still felt incredibly awkward. "But I was Draco's date."

"You aren't even together. You were only friends with benefits..." Harry shook his head. "Don't ask me – I'm not good with these things. All I know is that you did the right thing."

"I'm not sure." Hermione moodily picked at some fruits.

"By the way... here he comes."

"Who?" Hermione had the idiocy to ask – and lifted her head – and she was met with a pair of incredibly dark blue eyes.

Her breath caught in her throat. Bloody perfect. Exactly the person she wanted to see. Or not. Not right now at least.

Tom gave her a short smirk and sat down next to Orion who was about ten seats away from her.

Confused, Hermione turned to Harry. "What do you think is going to happen now?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked alarmed.

"After the kiss, I mean." Hermione wanted to laugh at his aghast expression. "Will he want me as his girlfriend? Would I even want him?"

"Shouldn't you ask this yourself and him?" Harry's face resembled a tomato. "Besides, I'm not good with advice in this area."

"Clearly." Hermione took a mouth full of bread. "I'll head off to arithmancy then. No Tom there." she winked. "No Harry and no Draco either. Pure bliss."

"Oh shut up." Harry joked.

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Hermione's heart beat quicker at the thought of Tom. What would really happen now? Was it just a kiss for Tom? A one-off? Or more? What did he expect? What did he want? She didn't even know what SHE wanted!

"Mooorning." Ethan yawned, sitting down next to her. "Slept well?"

"Uhm... just not enough." Hermione smiled at him. "Did you enjoy the dance yesterday?"

"A lot. Pity that we don't have dances more often."

Hermione couldn't agree with him, so she said nothing.

"Our headboy seemed pretty smitten with you, even though you went there with Lumiere." Ethan said out of the blue and grinned. "Quite the popular one you are."

"What do you mean?" Hermione's pulse quickened and she felt cold sweat on her forehead.

"What I mean is that Tom Riddle couldn't take is eyes off you."

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Tom – though Hermione didn't know that of course – had similar thoughts. 'Was ist just a one-off for her? Would she want more?'

But more importantly, he felt disgusted with himself. He had let his feelings got the better of him. He had given in to his feelings which were normally buried deeply. He was about to become the Dark Lord and consequently Dark Lords weren't supposed to have girlfriends – they were only a waste of time, a waste of money and a waste of power. Tom promised himself that he would never show his feelings again and that he wouldn't talk to Hermione Delacour ever again.

But the thought of it made him depressed. He already bloody missed her! He knew he needed to see her, talk to her, kiss her even.

He looked at his watch. 'Still another 20 minutes before class ends.' Why had he taken Care of Magical Creatures again? He'd rather had Arithmancy now – then he could have been with Hermione instead.

Tom shot a covert glance at her brother sitting two seats away. He probably knew everything about their kiss; he was sure, Hermione had told him, but strangely enough, he didn't seem to mind. Tom was pleased; he was so sure that Harry would make a scene, but he had obviously underestimated him. Harry wasn't the stupid squib either; Tom was surprised at how much Harry knew about unicorns.

"We are going to end class early today." the teacher announced. "I have a meeting with the headmaster."

When the class filed out, Tom made his way to the arithmancy classroom. He had no idea why and he had absolutely no clue what he was going to say to her when he saw her. And then the bell rang and he heard the students bustling around and a babble of talk break out. When would Hermione come out? Tom waited and tried to look like the relaxed headboy he usually was.

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Hermione took her time. Potions wouldn't be starting in another ten minutes and she had more than enough to go there. When most of the Ravenclaws were already gone, she leisurely made her way out of the door – and almost had a heart attack.

HE stood there – tall and handsome, like a greek god; his hair as perfectly unruffled as always, his ironed tie and clean robes standing out from Ethan's. His headboy badge gleamed – and so did his face.

She got lost in his eyes and managed a weak smile. How should she react? He had caught her unawares – she hadn't expected him here; she had expected him in potions... in ten minutes... not sooner in front of the arithmancy classroom.

"Hello Hermione." Tom said softly, a smile playing his oh so kissable lips. "Can I walk you to potions?"