Tom followed the group through the halls. It was interesting to note the slight changes in his environment. The bustle of the other students was soothingly familiar.
"Bugger." Greg, the more mountainous of his two new male compatriots, flicked his wrist and caught his wand.
"Every bloody day." Neville went through the same procedure. He glanced over his shoulder. "Get your wand out, Riddle. This will get ugly."
Tom focused his attention on the rapidly approaching Gryffindors. Hermione stood in front of the group with her hands at rest. She looked at ease, but there was something in the set of her shoulder that worried him.
"You need to fix this." A dark haired witch pulled a tall and gangly redhead out from behind her. He had a knitted cap pulled down low on his forehead. It did little to enhance his appearance.
"No. I do not." Hermione emphasized each word and glanced at the boy's head. "Your boy toy is not my problem, Lyra."
Tom looked the girl over. She was clearly a Black, but the Gryffindor robes were odd. No member of that family belonged in the house of the lions. He studied her more closely. She looked a bit like Orion. It was something in the haughty tilt of her chin and the narrowing of her eyes.
"You designed the charm." The Black witch stomped her feet. "You must have designed a counter."
"I created that charm to prove that none of us were cheating. It has been tested, verified, and patented." Hermione tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Hogwarts has the right to use it for the next ten years without adding to my vault, but I make a tidy sum from Durmstrang and Salem. If I designed a counter, I would lose that."
"You can fix him." Lyra pulled her wand with an elegant flourish. "Galleons won't matter if you don't."
"If you want the mark gone, go to Professor Flitwick. It was his test." Hermione's hair began to sparkle as her excess magic escaped in a dazzling light show. "Don't make hollow threats. We both know I can take you."
"If we go to Flitwick, Ron won't be able to play quidditch this week."
Tom ignored the convoluted exchange of words to study this girl that thought to challenge Hermione. She was lovely in the way all the Black witches were. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. The mugglism floated through his mind. It was untrue. He could see the beauty in her form and the power within her, but she held no appeal. His natural attraction to witches that had annoyed him since the advent of puberty did not respond to the Gryffindor. The only witch that appealed to him now was Hermione Granger.
He paused and considered that. The witch was his. He knew it. It would only be a matter of time until she did. Finding her complicated things.
His plans and ambitions needed thought. Priorities would have to be assessed and reevaluated. There would be a family at some point. Children would cement the bonds between them. They would bind her to him completely.
He would have to research in the muggle world. Wizards didn't examine psychology in any way in his time, and he doubted that had changed. His upbringing gave him no basis for these new roles. He had never planned to be a husband and father. He'd never imagined being either. A wife and children hardly fit in with his previous plans.
Perhaps he could lure her into joining him in pursuing the dark arts. He examined her closely, his witch. She was strong. Her magic was every bit the match for his. The dark would make them great.
The witch that was impeding their progress was starting to make the low voiced, ugly threats that came with the inbred instability of the Black lineage.
"I had nothing to do with what happened to Potter." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You hexed him." The dark haired witch stamped her foot.
"They checked my wand. They checked all of our wands." Hermione sounded bored. "Aurors were called. If we had been the culprits, they would have known. We are hardly his only victims here at school. Perhaps your cousin could explain. Actually, any member of your family in Slytherin has more of an axe to grind with dear Potter than I do, so take your idiotic threats and leave us be."
"I told you she wouldn't help us." The red headed fool finally spoke.
"She will or I'll tell the headmaster about why she attacked Potter." Lyra's eyes sparkled.
"Do it." Hermione closed the distance between them in one stride. "The aurors can come again, and I'll give them the evidence that Dumbledore can't make disappear. Your golden boy will spend the next fifty years in Azkaban, and I will make you wish you could join him."
"Neville." The witch looked toward him with wide eyes. "Please."
"Please what, Lyra?" The boy took a step forward. "Please help you? Why would I? For a betrothal you squirmed out of the day after I was ousted from my house? I owe you nothing. You didn't stand up for me. I won't betray my friends for you."
"Our families..."
"Are friendly. Your parents and my parents get along. I owe you nothing for them. You wanted your freedom. Enjoy it. If you call the aurors, ask them to send my parents. I haven't seen them in two years. It would be a nice visit."
The girl flushed a bright red and stepped back. Her eyes darted between Hermione and Neville. Shoulders drooping, the girl pocketed her wand.
"There's nothing you can do?" She looked at Hermione.
"No." Hermione offered no sympathy. "Are we done?"
"Don't worry Lyra. Harry thinks he can fix it." The daft boy grabbed the witch's arm. "I trust him more anyway."
"Ron be careful not to drink any pumpkin juice in the next two days, Ron." The small, dreamy blonde examined the taller boy. "Your aura is in flux, and red and pink clash."
"See?" The red head pulled the Black witch away. "Loony is at it again. The whole lot of them are barmy."
"He's going to let Potter try to lift that charm and we're the barmy ones?" Greg snorted.
"When it all goes wrong, they'll come for us." Hermione frowned. "We need to get back to the rooms so I can fit Tom with a holster and stitch in the standard protections to his new robes."
"Welcome to The Ouroboros." Greg clapped him on the shoulder. "The only house we don't have regular conflict with is Hufflepuff."
"They'd let us in if we'd go." Millicent smiled. "The poor dears could use the academic boost."
"I'm surprised none of them have been marked by the charm." Greg watched a few younger students scurry by him.
"Not the Hufflepuff way." Hermione waved them forward. "We are running drills tonight."
"I'll need him after." Luna looked first to Hermione and then to him. "The ink will need to be adjusted. His aura isn't clear. I need to compensate for it."
Tom eyed the blonde warily. Hermione accepted her ramblings about auras without problem. Was she truly gifted or did they just indulge her dotty behavior?
"Of course, the yinnyfigits gathering around you indicate that you will be the one to balance him permanently." Luna hummed and smiled at them all. "I like the number six. It breaks down nicely and reforms with such ease. It's also curvy."