A/N - Imagine the Conspiracy Theory meme for this, that's what I have in mind
Some light lemon warning as well in this chapter

Chapter 6 - Contrivance

Once Alphard got started, they decided to tackle the 4W, they took turns trying to guess who was the investigator of the whole thing, sometimes blaming Dumbledore as some sort of long game, or any and all known future Death Eaters. They were getting nowhere and losing themselves to talking in circles, when Hermione suddenly gasped "What about the diary?"

"What diary?" Alphard asked immediately, not having seen her notes from yesterday.

"You wrote the diary was an Horcrux yesterday, what was it?" Thomas wondered.

"Yours." Hermione replied succinctly.

"I'm sorry, what the fuck? I don't own a diary?"

"It was a black leather diary, stamped Tom Marvolo Riddle, Harry told me a spectre of sorts came out of it, a teenage version of you spouting a lot of blood purity and wanting to use the Basilik to kill all the muggle-born at Hogwarts... Harry destroyed it with a Basilik fang in the end.
I believe that's the reason Dumbledore believed you made Horcruxes, that and your conversation with Slughorn when you were a student."

Thomas' face became more and more grim as she spoke, "I did have a diary like that, I wrote in it mostly during my 5th and 6th year and during the Chambre incident. It was teenage boy diary, it wasn't pretty I won't lie."

"Where is it now?" Alphard asked, feeling saddened by what happened to his friend when he graduated from Hogwarts.

"I don't know, I kept it in my trunk at Hogwarts but by graduation it was gone and I never found it again, I honestly haven't really thought about it since..."

"Weren't you worried your most inner thoughts could be viewed by someone when you couldn't find it?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"Not really... A lot of it was written down in parseltongue so I knew no one would be able to read it, and the rest... Let's say the diary was full of privacy charms. Maybe I was arrogant but I didn't believe anyone could be able to crack it. I didn't even think someone had stolen it, I thought I may have misplaced it or something. I wasn't proud of what I wrote in there by the time I was done at Hogwarts, I didn't really want to keep it so I didn't try hard to find it, and again, it was spelled for privacy really strongly."

"If it was in your trunk in your dorm, I think we can narrow down the suspects to your dormmates, who were they your last year?" Alphard asked, ready to write down a list of suspects on the "Who" column.

Who?
Igor Karkaroff
Randolf Lestrange
Thorvald Rowle
Abraxas Malfoy

The trio sat in silence, contemplating the list. Trying to figure if one of those names could be the mastermind in using Thomas as a scapegoat and being and/or creating Voldemort as well.

"Karkaroff gave up every names he knew at his trial to escape Azkaban, he went on to become the headmaster at Dumstrang, when Voldemort came back he didn't want it and was punished rather strongly for his cowardice and betrayal, I doubt it's him." Hermione speculated.

"It's not, he wasn't that smart honestly, he was never able to over-power me, he mostly ignored my existence to follow Malfoy like a love-sick puppy, he's a follower not a leader."

Alphard nodded and crossed off his name, "What about Lestrange?" Hermione flinched and put her hand over the scar on her forearm, the reminder of the torture she suffered at the ends of what she assumed was his daughter-in-law. "His sons were sadists, tortured people to insanity, but they were both followers and certainly didn't behave like they were the heirs of Voldemort, besides his daughter-in-law was sickly in love with Voldemort, she was insane so I wouldn't really take it into account but still... Either way, I never heard of him except in relations to his sons so he either never joined or died early." Hermione finished and Thomas put his arm around her shoulder in silent support, remembering the scar he had seen on her forearm yesterday, neither saw Alphard's small smirk at their behaviour.

"Right, let's cross off Lestrange too then, what about Rowle?"

"He was weak and so dumb I'm surprised the boy even graduated, you can cross him off the list too." Thomas said, while Hermione snorted "His brother wasn't much better."

Alphard crossed him off too, "Well, that leaves us with Malfoy as the only possibility."

"Why am I not surprised." Thomas muttered.

"Merlin that reminds me, Dumbledore was always taunting Voldemort by calling him Tom and he hated it, not that surprising if Voldemort is Malfoy! Dumbledore taunted him so well, without even knowing, it's hilarious.

Is Lucius born yet?" Hermione wondered, trying to piece a timeline for the Malfoy family.

Alphard shook his head no, "Abraxas just got married though, some French pureblood who can barely speak English. I was at the wedding a few months ago, she looked meek I guess would be the best word."

Hermione hummed, "Abraxas stealing the diary makes sense, it got into Hogwarts in 1992 because his son put it in Ginevra Weasley's cauldron."

"They really don't care about hurting children do they?!" Thomas exclaimed, incensed.

"They never did Thomas, I was fighting the war when I was 12 and I was only 18 when it finally ended, we were child soldiers. The Death Eaters targeted school children without remorse, and Dumbledore used them as pawns in his grand plans to win the war."

Alphard clapped his hands, "This is getting depressing, and it's getting late so I'm going to leave you to it, I'll come back Tuesday evening?" he asked looking at Thomas, when he answered with a nod, he bid both of them farewell and went on his way.

After Alphard's departure, Thomas busied himself preparing dinner and they ate in mostly silence, both lost in thoughts of all the information they had found since yesterday.

By the time midnight neared, Thomas was about to go to bed, but stopped before Hermione turned to her wing, "Hermione, you have a family name now, the backing of Alphard, and from what I understand you already had money when you arrived. Are you going to leave the Manor?" he finished in a quiet voice, his face a mask of indifference.

Hermione studied him for a while, he could pretend to not care but he had been alone longer than she had, she knew what it felt like to lead a lonely existence, he was a kindred soul and she did not want to leave him.

"No Tom, do you prefer Thomas now?" she asked quietly, "Either is fine, you can continue to call me Tom though, but only you." She nodded, "I don't want to leave the Manor no, will you have me?" she asked looking down at the floor, both aware she was asking more than simply a place to stay.

"Yes, always." he replied quietly, she looked up with a small smile and Salazar she was breath-taking and asking to stay wasn't she? Tom thought.

Hermione heard him mutter "Fuck it" under his breath before he came close to her and put his hand on the back of her neck, making her look up at him and asked the same question, "Will you have me Hermione?", at her nod he closed the distance between them and moulded his lips to hers. She fisted her hands to the front of his shirt and they both lost themselves to the kiss, he walked her backwards until her back made contact with the hallway wall, and he licked her lips asking permission, they continued to kiss fully, he started trailing kisses down her throat and she moaned softly, one of his hand found itself on her hip while the one at the back of her neck fisted her hair.

This continued for a few minutes, Tom couldn't stop his body from reacting and was lost to sensations he had never allowed himself to feel before. Hermione was feeling more alive than she had in years and was thankful she had cut herself on that time device.

After a while Tom stopped and put his forehead on hers, "You'll be the death of me witch, we need to slow down. Nothing about this is appropriate and now that you're officially a Black I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to ask Alphard's permission to court or something tedious like that, instead of pushing you against a wall and having my way with you." She whimpered at his words, his voice was husky and even though he had stopped kissing her his hand was still gripping her hip and drawing small circles. "You can ask Alphard, I'm sure he will be fine, but I am a modern witch and I don't want to slow down too much." Tom groaned, "I've never done this before Hermione." That brought up short, "Never?" she asked disbelievingly. He shook his head no, "But you're so handsome!" she out her hand over her mouth in mortification immediately.

Tom smirked fully at that confession, "Why thank you my Hermione, I never said I didn't have any offers. Although most of them were purebloods looking for fun as they couldn't marry the orphan who couldn't prove his pedigree," he said rolling his eyes, "Besides, I've never felt attracted to anyone like that before, now that I've left Hogwarts and see Alphard often, I'm getting better but in general I tend to see people as beneath me, not you though. Since you've arrived you've intrigued me."

"As long as it's never me I can cope with that, but we'll slow down." Hermione replied, kissed him one last time and left him to go back to her room and take a warm relaxing bath, or a cold shower, she wasn't sure.

Thomas on the other hand knew he needed a cold shower, he walked slowly to his wing, his mind drowning in images and sounds of Hermione. He stripped and step inside the shower, turned the dial to the coldest setting and willed his body to calm down as he had done before. It did not work that time, and he relented, took himself in hand and let himself fantasize about Hermione's breathy moans and what it would feel like to be inside her mouth, on her knees in front of him, and he came with a shouted "Hermione!"

The next two days passed slowly for the new but undefined couple, Thomas still had to work and left Hermione to explore the library most of the day, while she continued to work on her lists with the added new angle on how to take down Malfoy.

They restrained themselves to short kisses and small touches in the mornings, and they had spent Monday evening reading together on the couch with Thomas putting his arm around her, and Hermione falling asleep in the crook of his arm after a few hours. He had picked her up and deposited her in her bed without waking her. While fighting his body for control the whole time. His nightly showers were becoming obscene and he couldn't stop himself.

Finally, Alphard knocked on Tuesday around 6 pm and Thomas promptly grabbed his arm and manoeuvred him to his study, ignoring the man's questions.

They entered the study with Alphard grumbling behind him but he finally let the arm go and he was able to sat down on the couch facing the lit fireplace, while Thomas busied himself preparing a glass of firewhiskey each in complete silence, he finally gave him his glass and sat down on the armchair on the left on the couch while fidgeting with his glass without making eye contact.

"So you want to tell me why you manhandled me to your study without a word or explanation?" Alphard finally asked, trying to calm Thomas down, who looked ready to jump out of his own skin.

Thomas took a few breaths, trying to control himself and remain calm, "Right, I've read a few books on it yesterday and I'm pretty sure I should have this conversation with Pollux Black, but in his absence you're also allowed to be the one to give permission and well nothing about this is orthodox anyway..." he rambled on until Alphard cut him off, "You want to ask permission to court my sister don't you?" he asked knowingly.

"How did you know?" Thomas asked instead of replying.

"I saw it coming since I saw the way you behaved around her, she makes you look human, it's weird and amazing. However, it's also very fast, why do you want to court her when you barely know her?"

"That's fair, I know it's rather sudden and unexpected from me. I never planned on courting anyone, mostly because I never felt the desire to be with anyone but also because I knew no one would ever be interested in me seriously, I might get some interest now that I'm Lord Gaunt but it will be insincere and simply based on my new shiny title.
She gets me you know, I told her my darkest secrets and she didn't recoil in horror. I mean the witch tried to kill me when I introduced myself..."

"Kill you?" Alphard interrupted.

"Oh right, I didn't mention that on Sunday did I? She tried to avada me when I told her my name, about 15 minutes after she arrived here from 2008."

Alphard hummed, "Right, sure, I bet you were gone for her the minute she tried to kill you in cold blood. Figures that would turn you on."

Thomas smirked, "Maybe, it did play a role in my initial impression of her. She's brilliant, she got better OWLs and NEWTs than me you know, she gloated about it too. She has a vindictive streak to rival my own, remind me to show you her memory of punching Abraxas' grandson in the face.
She didn't pity me for my childhood, she understood, she watched the memory of meeting my father and she said she likely would have done the same thing.
I feel good with her, human, alive, warm, I don't want to let her go."

Alphard nodded, "You didn't mention her beauty in all that speech", he noted with amusement.

"Oh she's beautiful, all wild hair and big eyes, she's mesmerizing. I barely noticed the changes on Sunday, she's all fire and fury. I love it."

"You got my permission for what it's worth, I can grant it as her brother in the absence of our father so it's fine. Although a contract will need to be written down at some point regarding her dowry, children, living arrangement and so on. The courtship can last years so you have time to figure it out."

Thomas smiled at him, "Thank you, we'll do that at some point. I just wanted it to be official. I'll let you finish your glass while I tell her the good news." he sauntered away with a giddy smile while Alphard rolled his eyes.

Thomas walked through the Manor as quickly as he could without running and found her in the library looking at the shelf containing his potions texts, he walked behind her and turned her around in his arms, "Will you be mine?" he whispered, "Yes." she said simply and soon they were lost to each other again, celebrating their newly official relationship.

After a while, they were interrupted by a throat clearing, "Getting your attention isn't easy." Alphard said with a smirk, "While I'm happy you seem to be celebrating the courtship, it's not just my official permission you need, there's a small binding ceremony you have to do."

"What type of binding?" Hermione asked with trepidation.

"Similar to handfasting, it only binds you until the wedding or until you break it off, it isn't unbreakable. You have to hold each others' forearms while I do the chant."

Thomas and Hermione looked at each other in silent communication until they both nodded, "Do it now." Thomas asked Alphard.

Alphard rolled his eyes, "Sure, just clasp each other's forearm in front of me."

"In Nomine Amoris

Per hanc formulam sacram,
Cor ad cor, animam ad animam,
Vos nunc coniungo in amore, stabilitate, et protectione.

Sic fiat."

"You may now kiss your intended, Thomas."

He kissed her chastely on the lips, and smiled goofily.

Alphard shuddered, "I've never seen this expression on your face, it's creepy."

"And you won't, that's just for her." Thomas replied with a small pout.

Alphard snorted, "Right, anyway, it's traditional to give your intended a small token of consideration like a bracelet or necklace, usually from your family's vault so you need to do that quickly and ideally before you go outside together anywhere in the Wizarding world so your claim is clear. When you're ready you can propose with an heirloom ring and then get married. There's no timeline on this, you can do it in weeks or years."

Thomas one-arm hugged him, "Thank you Alphie."

He nodded, "Right, that's enough sentimentality for today, let's get back to the drawing board and figure what to do with Malfoy."

"Can't we just kill him?" Thomas asked seriously.

Alphard's laughter reverberated along the hallway, "Thanks the Gods you're still yourself!"

"I mean, why can't we?" Hermione insisted.

Alphard stopped and turned around facing them, "Salazar there's two of you now."

A/N - Translation of the courtship binding chant:

"In the Name of Love

By this sacred formula,
Heart to heart, soul to soul,
I now bind you in love, stability, and protection.

So mote it be."