Severus watched the boy stroke Hermione's hair. He didn't object to the oddly intimate gesture. There were times to observe, and this was certainly one of them. The brown curls wrapped around his fingers as he slid them through their mass. He never caught his fingers in a tangle, but his hand was never free of her hair either. Her hair seemed almost possessive of the young wizard.

Severus focused his attention on her. The bruises were still blooming on her skin. She looked fragile and delicate. He examined her pallid complexion carefully. She wasn't awake, and there was little chance she had been.

The others were back in their dormitory, but they'd done an admirable job of describing the boy's heroic act. It was enough for them. He'd saved Hermione. Severus stroked the warm flesh on the inside of her wrist. It was enough for him as well. He wouldn't scold the boy for lying.

"I'm Tom Riddle, sir." The boy didn't smile or try to charm him. "The newest member of Hermione's house."

"Why did you call me in here?" Severus arched a brow.

"Dumbledore will be back soon, and he will make me leave. That curse, the one that did this, it's not something they just happened on. Abraxas Malfoy learned it from his dark arts tutor. I watched him use it on a house elf here at school."

"You watched him... That takes some getting used to." Severus sighed. "You went to school with my mother."

"We can reminisce at another time." The boys eyes flashed with irritation. Severus his his amusement behind a stoic mask. "Dumbledore wiped Abraxas' memory of the spell and all the other witnesses as well. He only spared me because I was already able to block his invasions and conceal my knowledge. He believed I hadn't seen it."

"So, it's not a common spell." Severus frowned and stroked her wrist again.

"It's rare. I'm not sure it's ever been written down. Roman Dolohov taught Abraxas. I believe it was a family spell."

"There are no more members of the Dolohov family. Karkarov killed Antonin in a duel four years back." Severus closed his eyes. "You think Dumbledore arranged for the boy to learn the spell."

"I think so, yes." The boy nodded. "This felt like an elaborate assassination attempt rather than a dueling club gone wrong."

"Assassination?" Severus raised a brow. "An unusual word choice."

"An apt one. Her refusal to accept the status quo has pushed the old man further into madness." Tom took a deep breath. "He most likely believes she summoned me here."

"I wouldn't call it anything as benign as madness." Severus frowned. "Obsession seems better suited, but that is a semantic argument. Why would he believe she summoned you?"

"He hated me from our first meeting. I was raised in a muggle orphanage in a time quite different from this one." Tom's fingers flexed in Hermione's hair.

"It wasn't a pleasant childhood." Severus spared the boy having to provide the details. "I understand."

"The strong survive." Tom managed a shrug. "My magic protected me. I had already begun to manipulate it by the time he arrived with my letter."

"He took one look at you and saw the next dark lord." Severus chuckled. "He was fairly certain I was headed down the same path. We appear to remind him of an old acquaintance."

"He sees darkness in Hermione as well." Tom's lips twitched. "It's there, but it's in everyone."

"He sees what he wants to see." Severus sighed. "Too many people rely on his faulty vision."

"There is something larger at play here. It's more than a touch of paranoia." Tom frowned. "But, I don't care. I only want her safe."

"We are in agreement." Severus nodded. "She will be my heir as soon as Dumbledore removes the hold he's placed on my filing with the Wizengamot."

"Use this for that. She needs the protection of a house." The boy tilted his head and took a deep breath. "Mine's useless at the moment. She needs to be secure. Whatever that old man is doing makes no difference."

"We need to know what's going on in that old man's mind. I want to be ahead of the problem." Severus noticed her pulse jump under his fingers. "We can't protect her if we don't understand the threat."

"We shore up our defenses and talk to Slughorn. There's a chance he knows something." Tom frowned. "I have to deal with the abusive professor."

"You can't go after Pettigrew." Severus looked into the boy's cold eyes. This child was no stranger to darkness. It roiled within him. "I'll tell him you were just taken with the moment and imply that it's my intention to finish him."

"He's done dark magic. Not bunches, but enough to sense it in others." Hermione opened her eyes. "He'll be scared of Tom."

"He's bound to be more scared of me." Severus grinned down at the girl. "I'm not exactly a fluffy bunny. He has enough sense to be afraid of me, unlike you. You've been listening to us this whole time."

"Not the whole time, but I'm not above eavesdropping when it suits me." She managed a weak smile. "It's all I will be doing for a while."

"You'll be fine in a couple of days." Severus frowned.

"But no one else knows that." Hermione smiled up at him. "Someone told me I should never let an advantage go unused."

"Looking frail is an advantage?" Severus frowned down at her.

"I need to see who tries to take advantage. I know someone will." She reached out and grabbed the boy's hand. Their fingers twined together naturally. "Tom won't let anyone hurt me."

Severus had to agree with her assessment.