Chapter 4 - Caller

The next morning found both Hermione and Tom in the dining room for breakfast, prepared by the latter. He had prepared her a cup of tea, with a splash of milk and no sugar as she took it yesterday, several fruits, bread and strawberry jam. He had been focused on setting up the table when she arrived and found himself stunned by her appearance. Gone were the shapeless Unspeakable robes, she was wearing fitted black trousers with a steel grey blouse and heeled black leather ankle boots. He was able to take in her figure for the first time and she was mesmerizing, small curves in all the right places, as petite as he had imagined but beautiful. She had also taken the time to tame her hair, which was now cascading down her back in soft curls. Tom wasn't sure what he was feeling but he was now even more intrigued by his guest, he still had many questions however.

Once they were both seated, he decided to ask the question that was niggling him knowing she had skated past it yesterday, "Hermione, I believe I've answered a lot of your questions yesterday, I would like to understand why you seem so at ease after losing everything yesterday?"

"There was nothing left to lose." she murmured back.

"What do you mean? Clearly you were an Unspeakable, which is an admirable career. You seem a bit older to not be married, but I don't know how much has evolved in social mores, you likely had many suitors as you're clearly smart and beautiful." Tom stated bluntly, not understanding why she would not be perfectly happy in her future.

"Tom, while I liked being an Unspeakable, my career was at stale mate due to my blood status. I knew it would never be better than it was.
Similar to you, I have no family name nor backing to help me. I used to be in a relationship with a pureblood of a prominent family but lost their support when I broke up with him, and the majority of my friends as well."

"It doesn't get better then, does it?" he asked quietly. Hermione could see the vulnerability of the question, similar to yesterday when he asked if she hated him. She realised he likely didn't have that many people either.

"I want to say it's because of you but I'm not so sure anymore. Either way, two wars were fought on the matter of blood purity. The so-called Light side won each time while losing many people along the way. We won for the last time 10 years ago, for me, but it changed nothing. I have come to understand in the last few years that while the Light side did not agree with Voldemort's methods, most people still agreed with his ideology." At his questioning glance, she added "Purebloods above all, half-blood are okay with the right name and upbringing, muggle-born are servant or slaves, muggles should be exterminated. It depends on who you ask to be fair, Voldemort was the more extreme view of course, but the superiority of purebloods is still there, for all. As a muggle-born, I had nothing, no name and no backing even though I was considered a War Heroine." she finished bitterly.

"I have to know, who is Voldemort? You mentioned him yesterday and he's on your list next to my own name, who was he?"

"Voldemort was the Leader of the Dark Side, his followers were called Death Eaters, they had a Dark Mark of a snake and skull on their forearm to affirm their allegiance. He was a Dark Wizard, hellbent on blood purity. He had the Malfoys and the Lestranges in his inner circle, the support of many purebloods either as Death Eaters or as money bags.
People were so afraid of him, they called him You-Know-Who. He killed anyone against him, not caring for blood status there as he decimated whole pureblood families if they opposed him. I only saw him at the end, he had used a resurrection ritual that made him look more snake than man, noseless with a hissing quality to his speech."

"He sounds like a drama queen, but you still haven't answered me, Voldemort is clearly a made-up name, who was he?" Tom insisted.

"Albus Dumbledore said his real name was Tom Marvolo Riddle." she said softly, daring to meet his eyes.

Tom froze, "Excuse me but can you repeat that?" he asked in a steel voice.

"Dumbledore believed Voldemort was you."

"Why the fuck would I do all that? If I was still 16 years old maybe, I had a weird phase when I opened the Chamber I won't lie, but I'm a half-blood, the whole blood purity angle makes no sense for me. Besides, Malfoy hates my guts, he would never be in my inner circle. If I had one, that is. Currently I have one friend and well, you." he finished with a thoughtful frown.

"Why does Malfoy hates you? I assume you mean Abraxas?"

He nodded, "Yes, as you can imagine being sorted into Slytherin as an orphan with a Muggle name, my Hogwarts years were not the easiest.
However, like in the Orphanage, I adapted. I focused on defensive spells at first, when that didn't stop them, I added hexes and curses. Some darker than others. They finally left me alone then, around my 3rd year. The next few years were lonely at best, I had managed to have a friendly acquaintance with an older student but he left when I finished my 5th year, which is when I opened the Chamber after finding some relevant information based on my ability to speak parseltongue.
Anyway, you know what happened there. Abraxas had always been the leader in the harassment, and when my only sort of friend left and therefore I lost his protection, Abraxas tried again to make things as worse as he could. I could deal with the harassment, I was used to it by then, and I could defend myself against his hexes and curses, I was much more powerful than him, and likely smarter. By our 7th year though, I believe the peacock was genuinely trying to kill me. I had no support from the staff of course, Slughorn was always nice to me but the Malfoy name means a lot more to him than I ever did.

Anyway, he had it in for me from the sorting, just based on my lack of Wizarding name but when I continually bested him in all subjects and was clearly more powerful, he couldn't take it. He didn't know if I was a half-blood or a muggle-born, but he knew I wasn't a pureblood and that was enough for him."

"He sounds just like Draco it's uncanny."

"Son?"

"Grandson actually, the peacock is also very apt for both and for Lucius, his son."

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree then, well, I still need answers as to why Dumbledore thinks I'm this crazy megalomaniac, I've always assumed the man hated me from the start but I never knew why very clearly, so maybe you'll enlighten me tonight. I have to get to work, I'll see you then."

Hermione stopped him before he could leave, "Can I get my wand back? And access to your Floo or the wards? I need to do some shopping for this time period."

Tom studied her, wondering if he could trust her not to try and kill him again, wondering if she would come back. She seemed sincere, and from what he knew of her, she wasn't likely to lie and he was her only link to this time so he relented and gave her her wand back.

"The floo room is next to the library. You need to call for Riddle Manor to come back."

Hermione was thankful he has trusted her enough to have her wand and to no longer be a prisoner but a willing guest instead. With her wand, she was able to transfigure her bag into a messenger bag of dark brown leather with golden clasps and she went on her way.

She flooed to the Leakey Cauldron and directly went into Muggle London, she could still see the remnants of the recent war but it was peaceful now, albeit strange as she had stepped into a period piece. She went into Harrod's, knowing she would be able to find everything she needed. First on her list, she bought a new bag, in the same style of her now transfigured one, and she had it engraved with her initial "HJG", feeling sentimental to have something with her name, knowing she would likely never use it again. Then she spent a few hours buying a variety of clothes, from casual to ballgowns, trying to find styles that would work in both the Muggle world and the Wizarding world. She acquired a few pair of shoes next, and a couple of warm coats for the winter. She left Harrod's satisfied she had everything she would need and thankful her bag always contained a good amount of pounds, charmed by Gringotts to always appear in the same style of the current notes, which was a policy in case someone kept their money for decades but it worked for her just the same.

She walked around London for a while, had a light lunch at Covent Garden and decided to treat herself to some self-care, she had a new purpose, she deserved to feel good she thought. She went into a salon and got taken care of from her hair to her toe nails. She walked out feeling like a new person.

Mid-afternoon she bit the bullet and went to Diagon Alley, she acquired new robes at Madam Maulkin, from casual to ministry events in dark green, burgundy, steely grey and black, as well as a few cloaks from a simple black to a few elaborate designs. Then she stopped by Florish and Blotts to peruse for a couple of hours and left with a dozen new books.

As she flooed back to Riddle Manor, she took her time to put her new clothes in her walk-in closet, and spelled her new messenger bag to act very similarly to her war bag.

By the time she was done, Tom had come back home from work as she could hear him put the kettle on for a cup of tea presumably.

She went done, and grabbed a cup for herself, as she did so their fingers touched for the briefest of time while their gazes locked, it was a mesmerising few seconds for both until the kettle hissed and the spell broke.

They both went back to the living room, except this time Tom chose to sit in the armchair to the right of the couch and they continued their conversation from the morning, about Voldemort, Dumbledore, and themselves. The hours passed with light-hearted conversations and a couple of glasses of firewhiskey as the evening wore on.

"Head Boy?! I wasn't selected as Head Girl, they said it was because I was technically repeating the year but I looked and there's never been any muggle-born Head students."

"... Used a time-turner to go back and save his godfather from the Kiss..."

"A dragon? Merlin woman you've rode on a Hippogriff, a Thestral and a dragon and yet you despise flying?!"

"...the prophecies there can only be touched by the people they spoke of, why would they guard it? Did one person expect to fight off the Drama Queen if he showed up?"

"...it means flight of death, or thief of death, basically the whole idea is doomed by a bad pun from the start."

"and where is this Dolohov now? The name doesn't ring a bell so either not born or Dumstrang maybe? He would fit there sending lethal curses to teenagers."

"No Hermione, you can't blame me! I would never call myself by a bad French pun! I have style!"

"Why don't you claim the Gaunt name? You're entitled to it, you can claim it at Gringotts and no one could stop you. The vault is likely empty so it just gains you the name but still."

"Tom Gaunt? Sounds silly. I can't even use my middle name, Marvolo Gaunt is still recent in people's memories and from I know he was quite the insane bastard, the man crucioed his own children for God's sake."

"Aren't you descended from Squibs? You can probably do a heritage test at Gringotts and claim the name of a random extinct line. Wouldn't it be fun if you were a Mafloy though? I'd love to see the peacock face."

"While I appreciate a lot of things he did, the man was questionable at best, it took me a long time to admit, but he was a grand manipulator who used people as pawns on his own private and secret chess set."

"Why don't you call yourself Thomas then? It would be a fun way to piss of your grandfather, and you can just tell people Tom was a nickname all along."

"Thomas Gaunt, that does sound better."

"Don't you have some money from the Riddle estate? I mean, just look around and sell a painting or two."

"No, I don't have to work, yes I do the Riddle estate money, which wasn't fun to wrangle by the way. But I get bored easily and I'd rather work a menial but sometimes interesting job than start going insane out of boredom and kill cats or something."

"Did he say anything other than sociopathic tendencies?"

"...No I don't have a rage problem Hermione, I have a people problem."

"...put her in an unbreakable jar and left her with an Azkaban fugitive for a couple of months."

"Marry me, right now, I love this vindictive streak you're showing, you were 15 right? And you talk to me about sociopathic tendencies!"

"Gods woman, you do know the legends of what Centaurs do to women right?"

"I don't know if that's better or worse that you knew and did it anyway, I'm torned between horror and horny to be honest."

"...brewing a Polyjuice Potion in an abandoned bathroom. The one where there's the Chamber entrance actually. We were trying to figure out if Draco Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin."

"Offended, I'm very offended you thought the ponce could be the Heir of Slytherin. Your prowess with potions makes the whole thing bearable, but still miffed."

"...no woman, I wasn't having a nice chat with a giant Basilik, the thing woke up when I entered and I was curious."

"He accused me of stealing other children's things, like I would care enough to. The only thing I had was a silver harmonica the matron said my mother had on her when I was born but no the man would only believe the worst."

"Are you kidding? A full blown relationship with Grindelwald? I know the beetle probably wasn't the most reliable but I choose to believe in it."

"You could invest in the Muggle stock market, make a lot of money by knowing what's coming, cheat the system."

"Says the girl who set her Professor on fire when she was 11 years old."

"The Room of Requirements? No, that doesn't ring a bell but I would have loved it though, spent most of my time in the library instead."

"What a bunch of aresholes, cutting you off because you broke up with a manchild! The boy wanted you to basically become his mother, how very Freudian of him."

"Take it back woman, I do not look like Mr Darcy, you're blinded by the time period aspect and even still Austen was last century!"

"I am not small! You're just tall!"

"My favourite colour? Really? Is this a twisted version of speed dating? FINE! Emerald green, take that clichés."

"Foul evil little cockroach! And you punched him! This is glorious, take the memory out right now I need to watch this."

"Dumbledore's Army, were you trying to have him fired? If so, kudos!"

Their banter was cut off by a knock on the door.