Chapter 20: Happy Families
Riddle stood before seven kneeling cloaked figures in the forbidden forest. It was past nightfall and Tom Riddle was exhausted. Dark circles around his eyes, hair uncombed and a faint shadow around his jaw was evidence of his late nights in the library and troubled dreams concerning a certain curly haired witch. Riddle could not recall much of that night in the early hours of the new year but since then Hermione avoided him without any indication to her feelings towards him. There was no anger, no fear… nothing. She nodded at him when he greeted her. Worked well with him if they were paired in lessons but there was no laughter, no bickering, just polite indifference. He missed the fire in her eyes when they debated in history of magic. Now she would raise her hand and address the teacher to respond to his views. All in all, she was gone. The distance was cold and for the first time in his life, it hurt. Not that he would ever admit it to himself. Instead he threw himself into his studies, the same way she did, and continued his meetings with his death eaters. He read further into the dark arts and the practical implications of the creation of horcruxes.
"Arise" Riddle ordered. "You are dismissed".
Riddle was almost weary of these meetings. But he was patient. Their allegiance was most necessary for his success. When Riddle returned he saw that he had received a letter from Caractacus Burke. Allowing himself a small smile he put the letter aside and fell into bed.
Slughorn had called him into a meeting one afternoon regarding his future prospects. Slughorn assured him a prominent position in the ministry would be a shoo-in after doing a year or two as junior assistant to one of the department heads in the ministry. Riddle nodded along though he had no interest in furthering his political career. Malfoy could take care of the formalities. He needed a place to read further on the dark arts without looking over his shoulder every ten minutes. A job flexible enough where he could receive leave for excursions, rub shoulders with potential allies and which paid enough to cover his basic needs. That letter was no doubt the acceptance of his application to work for Mr. Burke in his antiques store in Knockturn Alley.
The next day as Riddle stopped at the notice board to put up the new schedule for Prefect rounds he saw a large poster with the words Duelling Club emblazoned in spiky black writing.
Calling all 6th and 7th year students for Hogwarts very own duelling club run by Hermione Prince with the assistance of the notorious Edward Prince. If interested please attend our first session in the Great Hall on Monday at 8PM.
Tonight. Riddle made a note to attend. It would be fine practice and perhaps he could see Hermione in action. He had a feeling it would be a show to remember. Perhaps he'd have the chance to duel her himself. Smiling he walked into the great hall at breakfast and watched Hermione sipping her usual coffee 8 in the morning head buried in the morning paper. AN owl swept down and dropped a copy of the daily prophet on his head causing him to choke on his pumpkin juice. He looked around and saw Hermione reading her paper but he could have sworn a smile was playing on her lips. Wiping his mouth on a napkin he opened the paper and instantly saw the headlines announcing the date of the next wizarding election. The candidates were once again Leonard Spencer-Moon, Wilhelmina Tuft and a new face, Barnaby Crouch. Riddle had little interest in politics. Frankly the whole concept of democracy eluded him. Government should be ruled by the people's superiors not the voice of the everyman. Nevertheless he read the paper every morning, scanning each and every article noting away any piece of useful information. Anyhow, the well informed are never taken by surprise. Grindelwald was a fascinating case study and he was sure to learn from every mistake. The hall became more populated prompting his time for departure. Paper still at hand he crashed into Hermione on leaving the hall.
"Can't you watch-" Hermione hissed, her books, notes and ink scattered on the floor. Riddle used a quick summoning charm and offered her his hand. She stopped talking at once and refused his hand. Silently taking her books she turned and walked away.
Riddle followed warily.
"Hermione." Riddle called after her gently. The name strange on his lips. The familiarity too intimate.
Hermione froze at the sound of her given name.
"I don't understand. Have I upset you?" Riddle asked honestly.
"No" Hermione said bluntly. "But we are not friends."
With that she turned and walked briskly to the dungeons. Riddle flinched. His blood began to boil. Insolent girl.
Taking their seats a vial of potion was found on each desk. Slughorn placed the instructions on the blackboard and wished them luck. Using Golpalott's Third Law brew the antidote to the poison in your vial. On his right Hermione had already gone to retrieve her ingredients. With the skill of a potions master she faultlessly went through the motions whilst every single student struggled, flicking impatiently through their textbooks for more information. Tom flushed at the thought of losing his top spot to Prince and worked feverishly to create the antidote. Half way through the lesson he watched Hermione cork a vial of her solution, take it up to the flabberghasted professor and return to her seat with a book in hand. The Essence of Time. It was a book he'd never seen before and clearly highly theoretical and that of advanced magic. Engrossed she paid no attention to the grumbles of the rest of the class at her ease and perfection. Riddle finished just before class ended. Slughorn patted him consolingly on his back as he passed to his distaste. Hermione left promptly as class ended, still preoccupied in her book as she walked to the Great Hall, unaware or he thought, of Riddle trailing her silently.
"What do you want from me, Riddle?" Hermione asked tiredly without turning.
Riddle came up to walk beside her and replied honestly "I don't know".
Hermione stowed her book away and looked at Riddle, scrutinizing his facial expressions as he looked on, deep in thought.
"Then I can't help you." Hermione said sadly.
Alphard sat beside her during lunch. Hermione saw him now and then and rarely spoke to him beyond matters of schoolwork and pleasantries.
"Good afternoon." Alphard smiled at her as she closed her book and pouted at Alphard.
"Hermione?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Do you ever feel however more you learn you are always going to be completely out of your depth?"
"Yes but I don't see how you could ever feel out of your depth."
"Dumbledore, Flamel, Grindelwald, Cassandra… The most powerful sorcerers of our time. Groundbreaking discoveries on magical creatures, potions, spellcraft, alchemy. By the age of 16 they weren't spending sleepless nights on their NEWT exams."
"How do you know?" Alphard challenged Hermione.
"Dumbledore had won the Barnabus Finkley Prize, received the gold medal for his contributions at the International Alchemical Conference and the Youth Representative to the Wizengamot."
"Fair." Regulus conceded. "But Hermione, we can't all be child prodigies. You'll have your chance. I just know it. Meanwhile coming first in your year isn't going to hurt."
Hermione sighed and sipped her soup. Her achievements so far have been survival. An accomplished dueller with a thorough understanding of healing charms and a sound knowledge on the dark arts.
Hermione hastily kissed Alphard on the cheek before running to the library and looking up further readings on the theories of time travel and destiny. Once she had a basic understanding on the leading debate on time travel she would move onto immortality and the afterlife. Checking out two dusty volumes Hermione hurried to Transfiguration where Dumbledore passed her a note detailing their next lesson and handed her a few essays and journals on mind defence looking at various case studies involving veritaserum, the cruciatus curse, the imperius curse and the memory charm. Riddle looked curiously at her as she balanced several books and papers to her table and eagerly began flicking through some of the essays.
The class was a practical one. The professor placed the class into pairs and transfigured one of each pair into an object or animal of his choice. It was the task of their partner to turn them back into their natural form. Untransfiguration was a vague and complex piece of magic and dumbledore did not expect any to succeed that lesson. Hermione had however, unbeknownst to her classmates, been practicing the spellwork for lessons beforehand in the dark of the night in the room of requirement and after two solid weeks she had finally mastered untransfiguration. It required its own incantation depending upon the transfigured object or animal and a strong envisioned image of the natural state. In ten minutes Scarlett appeared in the place of a disgruntled looking racoon. Dumbledore clapped his hands "Bravo Ms. Prince!" and asked if she was able to vanish living creatures. Summoning a spider, he enlarged one upon his desk. "Evanesco" she waved her wand and surely it had vanished.
"Now Hermione, if you could unvanish the spider" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as Hermione closed her eyes and called the creature back, a wave of the wand and the spider returned to his desk, alive and well. "Wonderful" Dumbledore murmured.
The lesson ended and Riddle was untransfigured into his natural form. Seething Lestrange warily retreated, his back faced the wall.
"Ms. Prince, Mr. Riddle" Dumbledore called her as the class emptied. "Hermione, the improvement in your classwork has not gone unnoticed. Professor Slughorn and Diggory have spoken highly of your performance. Tom, your record speaks for itself. I have thus decided to submit both your names for the International Summer Academy for Young Witches and Wizards. It is a gruelling learning institution that will take place in the States this summer at the Salem Witches Institute. Ten students will work on a personal project specializing in a subject of their choice. The discovery will be published in one of the leading academic journals today."
Hermione gasped.
"To apply you must write a three thousand word proposal of a project of interest accompanied with planned experiments, relevant case studies, bibliography and a working itinerary. The submission deadline is on May the 1st." Dumbledore passed the two students an application form. "I will provide the references and proof-read your proposals before owling them for submission."
Hermione and Riddle walked to their next class with grins plastered on their faces. As they entered Charms they both looked at eachother and Riddle whispered "May the best wizard win" before taking his seat. Hermione knew at once that she would propose a time turner that was yet to be invented. This way she could begin her apprenticeship worthy of Nyneve's time.
A few minutes past 8 Hermione jumped onto the platform and began to speak.
"Duelling is an ancient art form and though no longer as frequent in dissolving disputes it is a skill that may be required in times to come. One dark lord had fallen but somewhere another plots his or her rise to power." Hermione's eyes lingered on Riddle's before continuing. "I lost my parents to dark wizards trained to torture and kill. It would be a disadvantage if we continued to live in ignorance."
"Now duelling requires skill, speed, intuition, stamina, creativity and experience. There are other precautions that would aid you in a fight to death. Wandless magic, occlumency, legilimency… if you are a metamorphosis or animagus. But today we will begin with the most basic of spells. Disarming and shield spells. Pair up please and attempt to disarm your partner."
Most succeeded.
"Now attempt to disarm your partner."
A third of the class fell to the ground. Hermione cast a blanket charm and as they arose she asked the class for useful spells they could use to hinder their opponent without causing them serious harm. Once they had suggested the spell Hermione asked that they demonstrated. Binding charms were used, petrificus totalus, impedimenta, sleeping charms and so on. Hermione then proceeded to demonstrate a wider range of protective shields that were stronger and lasted longer. Finally she welcomed Professor Prince to the platform to duel Hermione. The duel last twenty minutes as Hermione sidestepped a freezing charm, transfigured into a dragon and breathed fire on the professor. Professor Prince fell to his knees, summoned an ice shield and was drenched in water. Untransfiguring herself she performed a Gemini spell to create six doppelgangers and casted a fog between the professor and herself. Distracted as he cast spell after spell on each of the copies, Hermione disarmed the professor and bound him in ropes. Bowing deeply she received the applause from the open mouthed crowd.
"Next week we will be working on target practice. Goodnight."
That night Hermione gathered all her notes on time travel and began sketches of the time turner she had used in the future and places to begin researching the power and properties of types of magical sand. She worked in the library with a lantern and fell asleep long after the last of the candle had melted and was shaken awake by none other than Riddle.
"Time travel?" Riddle enquired marvelling at the amount of work she'd already done, the sketches of what looked like a pocket watch and countless papers on the properties of stone and sand in different parts of Africa.
""Riddle?" Hermione yawned. Riddle had a number of books piled in his arms. Taking the seat opposite her he began organizing his workspace. Hermione noted the books were on concerned with elongating life spans and immortality.
"I suppose we could both get in." He shrugged as he opened a dusty book and continued his research.
At sunrise Hermione decided to complete her morning run earlier, go to the kitchens for breakfast and get a nap in before first lesson. Riddle has passed out on one of his books. Hermione conjured a blanket and placed it under his head, taking a minute to appreciate his long dark eyelashes and pouting lips before heading to the grounds.
Malfoy joined her as she finished her weight training. Hermione was wearing a sports bra and leggings. Abraxas released a low whistle when he saw Hermione's bare arms and stomach. "You have lady muscles!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and decided to have a nap outdoors and she can head to breakfast with Abraxas. An hour later a sweaty Abraxas tackled her and doused her with water. Hermione sent a stinging charm to his privates causing him roll off over her in pain.
"So…" Abraxas hesitated. "What's happening between you and Alphard?"
"Nothing." Hermione shrugged. "What about you and Rosier?"
"As far as my parents are concerned it's only a matter of time." Malfoy grimaced.
Hermione stood up and offered Abraxas her hand. Taking it he got up and placed his sweaty arms around her. She ducked and raced him to the shower rooms. Walking to breakfast twenty minutes later Hermione debated whether she should ask him about Riddle's late night activities.
"Abraxas?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Hmm?" He replied, too focused on filling his plate with every possible dish.
"What does Riddle get up to in those meetings in the forbidden forest?"
Malfoy missed his mouth and spilled his pumpkin juice over his shirt.
"Hermione!" Malfoy hissed.
"Yes?" Hermione replied sweetly.
"How do you know?" Malfoy looked around him nervously.
"I like a late night stroll." She explained nonchalantly.
"None of your business." He growled, returning to his eggs.
"Abraxas." Hermione threatened lightly. "If you don't tell me I'll have to see for myself."
Malfoy grabbed her upper arm tightly and hissed "No."
Hermione decided to let it go. For now.
An owl flew by and dropped a letter on her lap. It was from Tom Riddle Sr. He was inviting Scarlett, Hermione and… she almost choked on her coffee. Tom Riddle Jr. He wanted to begin making amends. Looking across the Gryffindor table she saw a bleary eyed Head Boy downing coffee and nibbling on buttered toast. Finishing the last of her coffee she walked to the Slytherin table and sat opposite Riddle. Yawning he looked questioningly at her.
"I have an invitation for you." Hermione started nervously.
"Spit it out." Riddle ordered.
"Your father is having a dinner this Friday evening. He would like you to accompany me so you can officially meet your aunt and.. be reacquainted with your father."
"No." Riddle stood and marched out the Great Hall.
"Riddle, he's trying."
"Tell him there's no need."
"For me?" Hermione pleaded.
"Under no circumstance." He spat out turning to face her. "He lost any right to call me his son when he abandoned my mother."
"Riddle!" Hermione almost begged him. "Everyone deserves a second chance. You could make up for all those lost years. You don't have to live with him, just one dinner."
"On one condition." Riddle moved close to her, cornering her against the wall. "You come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend."
"Fine." Hermione huffed. "I'll meet you at the entrance steps at 7."
The week went past without incident. Hermione continued to impress her professors and Riddle followed a close second. Slughorn began making inappropriate comments to Riddle about how beautiful a woman Hermione was growing into and to Hermione about what a handsome charming gentleman Riddle was. Abraxas was seated right beside her when Slughorn had made the comment and he burst out laughing.
"I'll have you know Tom and I are going to Hogsmeade this Saturday" Hermione sniffed.
"Tom now is it? Does Alphard know?" Abraxas stopped laughing at once. "Is Slughorn your chauffeur?" He smirked. Hermione stalked off leaving a frowning Abraxas behind.
Dinner that evening Alphard came up to her as she finished her dessert. "May i have a word?" Alphard was as polite as ever.
"Abraxas tells me that you and Riddle have a date this Saturday." He kept his voice low barely able to look her in the eye.
"He's been persisting for so long…" Hermione started. "To be completely frank" she sighed "he practically forced me."
Alphard seethed with anger. Hermione placed a hand on his chest and calmed him.
"It's one date." Hermione reassured him. "It means nothing."
"To you." Alphard grumbled. "Look Hermione, it's taken all my willpower to stay away from you. i can't keep this up any longer."
Hermione blushed.
"You do like me?" Alphard murmured in her ear. "Don't you?"
Hermione could not speak so he drew closer and placed a kiss on the corner of her mouth.
"I won't wait forever." He heard the unspoken rejection and walked away without a second glance.
Friday evening Hermione descended the stairs with Scarlett. Both attired in black dresses. Scarlett's longer with a slit up one thigh. Hermione's was backless, just below her knee with long sheer sleeves. Riddle was waiting at the Entrance Hall wearing a tuxedo Rosaline had made for him. Adjusting his bow tie he looked hungrily at hermione before offering her his arm. Scarlett was courteous to Riddle and he civil. She was too preoccupied with seeing her doctor. Once they had reached the apparition borders Hermione apparated them to the manor. It was to be an intimate dinner. Hermione was far more nervous than Riddle who looked a picture of calm.
"Could you perhaps loosen your grip on my arm hermione" Riddle gritted as she knocked on the door. Hermione smiled apologetically and let go of his arm. Diana answered and embraced Scarlett as if they were sisters, then Hermione before looking shyly at her nephew. Clasping her hands her eyes welled up with tears.
"Tom?" She held out a hand, unsure what to expect.
Riddle shook her hand and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. Hermione raised an eyebrow at Scarlett who smiled at the family reunion.
"Aunt" he almost purred.
"Oh do call me Diana dear." Diana said emotionally, taking his hand and leading him into the garden. Hermione had not been back here before and admired the fountain with a nymph statue at its centre.
"This is my husband Edgar Mason, and his brother Edmund." Diana introduced the gentleman smiling despite her tears.
"Tom!" Diana called. Riddle entered with two bottles of wine and almost dropped them when he saw his son.
"My son." Riddle placed the bottles on the table and walked forward with hesitation.
"Father" Riddle offered cordially, shaking his hand. "You have a beautiful home."
"Oh nonsense. All will one day be yours." Diana laughed.
Both father and son looked uncomfortably away.
"I toast a drink" Edmund poured them each a glass of wine. "To family."
"Oh no I'm…" Diana flustered. She looked lovingly up at her husband who poured her a glass of water.
"No!" Scarlett squealed.
"I'm pregnant." She nodded. "You're going to be an uncle." She hugged her brother who was lost for words.
"Congratulations." Hermione beamed at Edgar and hugged him.
As they toasted to family Hermione smiled at Tom Riddle Jr. who allowed a small smile at the sight of his new family. As the evening progressed Tom drank more and more wine. He spoke animatedly with Edgar about the world war and confessed to Diana that he had grown up in an orphanage. Diana held him close and what almost brought tears to Hermione's eyes was that Tom allowed her to. Hermione almost walked into Scarlett and Edmund sharing a heated kiss in the hallway and saw Tom Riddle Sr. happier then she'd seen him in the months she'd known him. The night drew to a close and Riddle Sr. hugged Hermione thanking her for bringing him his son. Supporting a drunken Riddle the two apparated to Hogsmeade and between the two made their way back to the castle. Passed out they had no choice but to put him to bed in their room. Hermione owed him after all. Scarlett fell straight to sleep at the centre of her bed. Hermione yawned and supposed sharing a bed couldn't cause too much damage. She'd wake before him anyway…
A.N. I know Riddle seems too good to be true but... a sadist is not simply born. SinghSong I agree, I think that broken people attract broken people.