Chapter Two

The dorm for the Head students was rather large, and quite homey. A big fireplace dominated one wall, and a few chairs and sofas surrounded it in a circle, probably for holding meetings, Hermione surmised. As they passed the furniture Hermione's eyes fell upon a huge bookshelf full of all manner of reading material, and her mouth practically salivated at the sight.

Amused, Tom dryly commented, "You really are a bookworm, aren't you, Hermione?"

With a blush, Hermione reigned in her impulse to rush over and begin examining the spines right away. "Of course not," she lied. "I like other things, too."

"Like what?" he teased her.

"Just—things," she answered, racking her brain to think of anything she liked more than a good book in her hands and coming up blank. "I like to go walking along the beach, and riding horses, and I really did love shopping in France with my parents—although I suppose I won't be able to do that anymore."

"What, you can't go horseback riding on the beach anymore? Why not?" Tom inquired, trying not to smirk.

"Oh!" she grumbled. "You know what I meant. But even if I hadn't come back here, I wouldn't have been able to shop with them again, since they're both dead now. Or I suppose I should say, they will be dead at the time I disappear and come back here in the future."

"Don't start trying to figure it all out, Granger, you'll only confuse yourself," he said with a small shake of his head. "Anyway, we even have a small icebox for drinks and such in a little kitchenette. Theoretically, we wouldn't even have to go to the Great Hall all weekend with this set up. We could stay in here for hours, and nobody would have a clue what we were doing."

"Probably reading all those books," Hermione said with a grin.

"I thought you said you liked other things, too?"

"I do," she answered. "Let's have a look upstairs, shall we?"

"That sounds promising," he told her as he rubbed her shoulder suggestively.

"I meant so I can see where my own room is, and then you can go to yours," she told him with a raised brow.

Tom smiled and took her by the elbow, bringing her with him up the stairs. Opening one door, he pointed inside and said, "Bathroom. We have to share, of course. We'll need to work out some sort of a system to let each other know when we're in there, unless you're forward thinking enough not to mind if a bloke wants to brush his teeth while you're in your bubble bath," he said with a hopeful grin.

"I don't think I'm as forward as all that," she answered in a lofty tone, and Tom gave a dejected sigh. "Sorry to disappoint you, Riddle, but even in fifty years girls don't simply drop their knickers for a pretty face and a bit of banter."

"Well, you do know, of course, that pleasing the Head Boy is the job of the Head Girl more than any other person in the whole school, don't you, Hermione?" he teased her. "I'll expect the royal treatment, you know. I want breakfast in bed, and foot massages, and I want you to dote on my every word and whim—"

"Shall I praise you and call you Master as well?" she asked hopefully, her hands clasped together.

"Ah, excellent," he chuckled. "Glad to see you're getting into the spirit of the thing."

"Uh, yeah, okay, so I'll get right on that, then," she said in such a way as to let him know she intended to do no such thing.

"Don't you even want to give the plan a bit of consideration before you dismiss it out of hand?" he inquired. "It could be of benefit to you if you did."

"Oh, sure, how am I supposedly going to benefit from kissing your arse?"

"Keep me happy, you don't end up unhappy," he pointed out. "Standard principle of the universe. Cause and effect sort of thing. Keep me happy enough, you might even get to be happy while you're at it." He wiggled his eyebrows at this last bit suggestively, and Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"Okay, I'm just going to go to bed now, Riddle," she said. "Feel free to keep right on dreaming, though. Don't let me interrupt you."

With a grin he said, "Oh, I will. You can be sure of that."

"Which room is mine?" she inquired, and Tom indicated the one to the right of the stairs. Shaking her head as she went in, she closed the door behind her and leaned on it with a sigh.

Too tired even to bother looking around, she lay down on the bed and went to sleep, wondering whether or not she'd even wake up in the same place, or if she'd wake up back in the future again. She hoped very much that this was not some kind of dream.

000

"Granger?" came Tom Riddle's voice as he poked his head in her door. "This is the fourth time I've called. Are you going to wake up or what?"

"What?" asked Hermione as she rubbed at her blurry eyes and tried to remember where she was.

"I thought the handsome prince only had to awaken the beautiful princess one time before they lived happily ever after," he teased her.

"Right," she said dryly as she watched him walk into her room and come to sit on the bottom edge of her bed. "How did you know I'd be decent, Tom?" she added with a raised eyebrow.

"Truthfully, I was rather hoping you wouldn't be," he commented, trying not to laugh at the glare she cast him. "It's almost ten in the morning. Didn't you want to be bright and early for your testing?"

"How come you're not in a class?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Free period," he answered as he leaned forward to rub her arm for her when he noticed she had started to do so. "Stiff joints, huh?"

"Must be leftover from my long nap," she answered. "Now go away so I can wake up properly and go snag the bathroom for my bubble bath."

"Okay," he said. "I'll just go get my toothbrush and meet you there."

"Oh!" she gasped. "You'd better not, if you know what's good for you."

"Hey Granger, do we tease each other this much in the future?" he wanted to know.

"You're an old man!" she protested, not offering any information beyond that. If he wanted to believe they interacted in the future, she certainly wouldn't take away his delusions on the matter.

"So what?" he chuckled. "One of my schoolmates who graduated last year had a huge crush on Professor Dumbledore, and he's pretty old. It could happen."

"I think you just like the idea of me wanting you even in your dotage," she joked, and he raised a brow in her direction. "What, you don't think you'll ever be in your dotage?"

"Certainly not," he said. "I am going to discover the Fountain of Youth one day."

"Good luck with that, Tom," she said. "Now scram."

"See you after you ace all your tests," he said as he swat her behind beneath the concealment of the covers, and then walked briskly out her door. Hermione laid there for at least three minutes just gazing at the place he'd been with a fond smile on her face. Who knew Lord Voldemort could be such a flirt? Perhaps her heart had been right after all.