It was her 10th birthday and Hermione had no one she wanted to invite over.
Usually, as in past years she would simply select one of the girls in her class (whoever was willing) and it would be an awkward event. She wouldn't even enjoy it but she would do it simply to stop her parents worrying about her.
It was always a different person because as she reasoned, friendships and relationships changed all the time. Still, she could suspect her parents knew she had no long term friends. No best friend throughout her childhood but she had never liked anybody enough for a long time.
Tom was pretty much the same. She had never invited a boy over and so that was a new experience. It was something of a reciprocal gesture though as she had visited him on his ninth birthday and he lived just next door.
Her parents had heard about Tom of course, but their last encounter saw Tom quite literally blowing up their house in order to alert the magical authorities and so she had fully expected him to refuse.
And he had, she later found out, but his parents had made him come. She then fully wished she had picked someone else, another girl perhaps.
Why had she selected him though? Hermione wasn't quite sure. For someone who usually thought things through, it was quite instinctual.
When he came in, he was dressed uncharacteristically in a neat white shirt with a tie as if he was about to give a music recital.
He shook hands with her parents "Mr and Mrs. Granger" with an innocent suaveness that she knew she could never do and was perfectly polite, courteous and mature beyond his age to the point where it almost puzzled them. Her mother gave her that questioning eye but she was certain that given they knew her predilections it would not remain surprising for long.
Very unlike a typical birthday party for a ten year old, they went to the book fair at Olympia. Tom browsed a lot, didn't buy anything. "Have you got anything more for me to read?" he teased her in a good-natured way. Hermione actually felt happy for once as she didn't have to spend the day at a theme park before they drove for lunch and then the Kew Gardens for a tour of the botanical park.
The good thing about Tom was despite his crueler side, he appreciated more sophisticated things. Had she invited anyone else and spent the day as she wished, she would surely have had to endure bullying the next day as the entire class found out how she decided to spend her birthday…
When they returned home, Hermione was surprised to see Mr. and Mrs. Wilson invited over who duly wished her a happy tenth birthday. After receiving a loving call from her grandmother, she unwrapped her gift from Tom: it was a classical music CD of Chopin. That was another thing she had learnt from Tom; it was how to appreciate good music.
With a communicative wink, she could tell that he hadn't really chosen the gift but it was his parents' idea. Then, to her surprise and probably from a stern look from Mrs. Wilson, Tom went over to the piano and asked if he could play.
Tom was a gifted pianist and he was already playing some of Beethoven's sonatas. But he never performed in public and she knew he was only willing to play in front of his teacher, sometimes his foster parents, and herself. His parents had wanted to enter him into a music school for a scholarship but Tom insisted otherwise.
Hermione just could remember what he had told her before, "For me, music is my private affair, a bit like magic. I don't want to show others everything that I can truly do."
Hermione felt an annoying stab of jealousy that she ruthlessly suppressed as her parents stood stunned as Tom played a section from Pathétique.
If there was one thing Tom Riddle took seriously and cared about other than his magic, it was definitely playing the piano and classical music. It was probably the closest thing to magic he could find in the muggle world. He really might have gone to music school if not for Hogwarts
He played in a somewhat forceful manner that was still beautiful however before stopping abruptly as he looked up.
Her father was the first to clap and everyone followed with an air of uncertainty. "Absolutely wonderful talent," was how her mother described it.
Hermione had heard the music before and she could recognise it from one of the classical music discs he had lent her from the public library. Her attempts at learning the piano however had not really been successful and she had given it up once she realised she would never reach Tom's talent in this area.
And after dinner their parents retreated to the sitting room to continue with adult conversation, he played that section again for her amusement - almost perfectly but entirely with magic only, as his face frowned over the keys in concentration his hands folded behind his back.
So to recap, why did she Hermione Granger invite somebody who she knew was probably actually a scoundrel. She couldn't help it even though she knew (with an almost certainty) that his charm was fake and superficial.
It was far more complicated than that however. He was magical, she was magical. She couldn't have wanted to introduce more magic to her parents after what had happened to her?
Perhaps she wanted to make them less suspicious of magic. Ironically, it had been a refreshingly normal day though perhaps secretly she wished it hadn't been.
It was clear enough that Tom's parents wanted him to make a better second impression of himself (they also wanted to show off Tom's talent a bit) and he hadn't objected. They would soon not be attending the same school anymore; they had both been moved up a year. At the prospect of not seeing each other daily anymore perhaps she felt it was a bit disconcerting to say that she would miss his company.
She would have the privilege of attending the nearby Henrietta Barnett School which was one of the best academic schools in the country for girls aged 11-18. But she knew in 2 years, they would be going off to Hogwarts wherever that might be.
Her parents didn't want her to leave home as they considered boarding schools to be a barbaric relic. Ever since that accident (where they literally watched her disembowelled), they constantly fussed and worried over her and it was an understandable yet unnerving thing. They could no longer see magic without some prejudice after witnessing first-hand what it could do to their only daughter.