Chapter Twelve: Half My Heart

Tom sat near a tree by the lake, holding a small object in his hand as if it were the most important thing he possessed. It was not his father's ring, nor any other object he would have possessed if Hermione Granger had not come back in time. Secure in his palm was the half of a heart that he and Hermione had made along with their inkwells.

He opened his palm and read the runes they'd chosen again. Her half held the runes for 'M' and 'HE', while his own read 'Y' and 'ART'. He wondered if she'd given him this half on purpose, as if she were asking him why he must always be such an opportunist—why he must be so artful all the time. But if so, what about her own half? Did it perhaps suggest she was already his?

"Riddle, what's that you're looking at so intently?" Malfoy inquired as he stepped up to him.

Tom clasped his fist shut again and unconsciously held it to his own heart as he replied, "Malfoy, have you forgotten how to address your Lord in private?"

"Of course not, Lord Voldemort," he said with an apologetic bow. "My curiosity simply overcame my sense of decorum."

"Don't kiss my boots, either," he grumbled. "If I wanted you to kiss my arse I would have told you so well before this."

"No, my Lord," he snickered.

"What's so funny?" he demanded testily.

"Nothing, I just couldn't help but imagine who you want kissing your arse these days," he admitted. "Has she actually done so yet?"

"If you value your life you'll stop having dirty thoughts about my new dorm mate," Tom growled.

"I'll take that as a no," he said, then sat beside him in the sand. "Or perhaps you haven't asked her after all?"

"Malfoy, why don't you sod off," he said as he turned slightly away. Unfortunately, this made the string on which the half of a heart hung easily accessible, and Abraxas yanked it free with a playful grin. Tom's wand momentarily aimed straight at his heart, making him pause.

When his Lord lowered the wand, Abraxas held up the trinket curiously. "What is it?" he wanted to know as he turned it about in his hands.

"It's half of my heart," he answered with a slight smirk.

"Where's the other half?" Abraxas wanted to know.

"Hermione has it," he said, and felt his face begin to flame.

"This had to be her idea," he commented as he gave it back. "There is no way ultra-sensible, cruel and vindictive, opportunistic Tom Riddle would think up such romantic nonsense."

"Perhaps not, but is it wrong of me to like it?"

"It's unlike you to like it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing," he answered, uncertain just how honest he could get away with being. Riddle may be in a rare mood, but he knew how easily it could turn sour.

"I can't figure out how she's so quickly climbed right over the wall that I so carefully erected," he admitted in a brooding manner, arms crossed over his chest, the little heart once again near his own.

"You haven't gone and told her the 'l' word, have you?" Abraxas inquired.

"Of course not!" he snapped. "Love is nothing but an illusion, easily offered and easily withdrawn. Anyone who believes otherwise is a fool."

"Now there's the Tom Riddle we all know and l—oh, I mean admire?" he chuckled.

"I mean, what do I really know about this girl?" Tom went on. "I know nothing of her family, her upbringing, her breeding—not even her blood status. I'd be a complete fool to fall for her without such details, wouldn't I? To let her near to any part of my heart so she could be in a position to crush it later?"

"Well, don't then," Abraxas said reasonably. "You're Lord Voldemort, not just a young man who fancies a beautiful young woman who is smart, and kind, and worst of all, just as smart as you are. We mustn't forget that last unforgiveable crime."

"Yes, we mustn't forget that," Tom answered with a distracted look as he looked at his half of a heart again. "I must be the best at everything I do, else what kind of a Lord would I be?"

"A human one?" Abraxas offered as he stood to go.

Tom was too distracted to bother hexing him just then. But he promised himself that he would the very next time he saw him. And he might even Obliviate him as well.

#

Hermione was sitting in the library all alone, her hand resting near her heart. She could feel the contours of the half of a heart she'd placed on a cord and put around her neck, and just the thought of the young man in possession of the other half made her feel over-warm.

Not for the first time she wondered what she could have been thinking, to wish herself back here with a man who would one day become a monster. But now that she was here, now that she'd seen him and touched him—and tasted him a bit, too—she knew that she would never be able to deny herself the guilty pleasure of being in his arms.

"This is completely insane," she muttered as she held her head in her hands and shook it slowly from side to side.

"What's insane, Granger?" Abraxas Malfoy asked as he took a seat on the other side of her table.

"Hm?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

"What is it that you think is completely insane?" he clarified.

"Oh, just thinking out loud," she answered as she straightened up in her seat.

Abraxas chuckled. "That doesn't answer the question," he pointed out. "Are you worried about snogging Riddle but wishing you were snogging me instead?"

"You wish!" she scoffed, wrinkling her nose.

"Well, what are you thinking about, then?"

"Malfoy, what's Tom like—I mean, really like?" she asked uncertainly.

"How do you mean?" he asked. "Tom is like many things. You can never be sure which of them he'll be from one minute to the next. He is capable of great cruelty, and until recently I never suspected he might also be capable of an equal measure of other, more loving behaviors."

"Never?" she clarified.

"With Tom Riddle, everything he does usually has some sort of motive behind it," he admitted. "Was your hand perchance on the other half of his heart when I came in here?"

Blushing, Hermione averted her eyes as she said, "Oh, yes, that's exactly where it was."

"Do you know something, Granger?" he said. "I don't think you have a thing to worry about. Things between you two are going to turn out just fine."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, really," he said. "Even though that sucks for me. You know how much I wanted to ravish you myself."

"Yeah, totally," she agreed with a wry grin. "I guess you'll just have to ravish Wally instead."

"Bite your tongue, woman," he said as he stood to go. "I'd just as soon kiss a Muggle."