Chapter 17

Hermione stared furiously at her reflection. If she had been honest with herself, she would have seen the signs. She would have realised she enjoyed their time together more than she should have, that her admiration of his talents and intelligence went much further than just a grudging respect, and that the way she blushed when he held her hand had little to do with simple embarrassment. She should have admitted that the jealous looks on the faces of Lucretia and Andrea left her feeling somewhat more satisfied than was appropriate. She would have realised that the place that Ron had left vacant in her heart had slowly been taken over by Riddle.

But it had taken that kiss to make her realise, to make her admit to herself that she had feelings for him. And it disgusted her.

I don't like him. I don't, I don't, I don't. I can't.

Even as she repeated those words of denial in her mind, she knew that she was lying.

I do.

She stared at herself desperately in the mirror.

Harry and Ron are going to hate me. He killed Harry's parents. His snake almost killed Ron's dad. I've betrayed them.

The thought caused a tear to escape and slide down her cheek and she hastily wiped it away. Her thoughts wondered back to Riddle and, with a guilty feeling in her stomach, remembered the way he had kissed her.

He was using you, she told herself. He doesn't really care. He doesn't like you. He doesn't like anyone. He was trying to seduce you into talking.

The thought made her feel even more ashamed, especially because she had kissed him back and slipped so far into his ploy. He was manipulating her, and she let him. The thought made her angry, and she stood up straight with a newfound determination.

He won't get to me. He won't use me. I won't let him.

---

When Hermione left the bathroom a few minutes later, she was shocked to see a no longer wet Riddle waiting for her in the corridor, leaning against the wall and looking determined though rather angry. She cast a fleeting look at his lips and felt herself blushing. He stepped forward sharply when he saw her.

"Hermione," he said, giving her a withering look.

"Riddle," she replied, sounding more confident than she felt, her head held up high. "Have you been waiting for me? How very thoughtful of you!"

Riddle narrowed his eyes, but let the comment pass.

"I'm only here to tell you that you can forget about our study sessions. You're not going anywhere near that book until you tell me what you're hiding from me," he said quietly, but forcefully.

Hermione's expression fell.

"You can't – you made the vow!" she said angrily.

Riddle smiled; a cruel, mocking smile.

"I promised I'd tell you how I discovered the magical enchantments that exist on the necklace – and I've done that. I have no obligation to share anything else with you."

Hermione frowned, realising he was right, but another plan came to mind. She had abstained from trying to borrow the other volumes herself while Riddle was sharing the first volume with her, in order not to make him suspicious – but there was nothing stopping her from trying to borrow them now.

Then, uncannily, as though he had been reading her mind, Riddle said smugly, "Oh, and don't even bother trying to borrow the other volumes of Llewellyn's Guide yourself. You don't qualify – the rules clearly state that a review of the student's record for the past half year must be provided and you've only been here for a few months. See you at lunch," he added with a satisfied smirk before walking swiftly away.

Hermione watched him leave, infuriated, before rushing back to the library and asking the librarian if it was true. Predictably, it was, and she was in a very sour mood as she stalked out of the library and hide away in the Room of Requirement.

Hermione skipped lunch that day. Not only did she have a terrible headache because she lied to Riddle, but she had decided for her sanity and safety that she would have to stay away from Riddle. It was not safe – not that it had ever been safe, but the risk seemed to have suddenly escalated. She was attracted to him, and he seemed to suspect it for he was already trying to use it for his own ends. However, she could not possibly give him that satisfaction, not while she knew what he was capable of. To her delight, part of staying away from him entailed putting an end to their supposed "relationship".

By dinner time she knew that she could not continue hiding. For one thing, she did not want Harry and Ron to worry, and at the same time did not want to give Riddle the satisfaction of thinking that he had scared her away from lunch and dinner. So Hermione made her way slowly to the Great Hall, slightly nervous about the fact that she was going to snub Riddle.

He has it coming. Someone needs to put him in his place.

When Hermione entered the Great Hall, she did so with her head held up high. She immediately noticed that the hall was already full and that she was late, and, rather than the customary glares that she was used to receiving, a number of people – mostly girls – were looking at her with expressions of glee, with smirks covering many faces. Hermione wondered at this for a moment, and realised that many students have seen her running away from Riddle, looking distressed.

Oh. No doubt the Hogwarts rumour mill had been running overtime.

Hermione looked determinedly at the Slytherin table and saw Harry and Ron sitting at the edge closest to her, very far away from Riddle. Satisfied, she sat down next to them and she saw, from the very corner of her eye, that Riddle showed no sign of taking notice of her and continued with his conversation with Abraxas. She wished she could say the same for others – Hermione saw Andrea looking absolutely delighted by the fact that she was not sitting next to Riddle, for a change.

"Hermione," Ron said, looking relieved. "Where've you been? We've been worried about you!"

"Wait," Harry said before casting the Muffliato charm.

"Listen, Hermione," Ron said. "This place is going crazy with all these rumours about you and Riddle. Apparently, you were seen running from that room you guys use to read that book, and you looked really upset. According to some Hufflepuff fifth years who claim to have overheard, that pile of doxy droppings dumped you and you couldn't take it so you ran away in tears."

Oh, so that explained the glee, Hermione thought ruefully. They're all happy because they think he dumped me. How ironic…

"Of course, we realised that was rubbish, but the part about you running away does seem to be a common event in all the different versions of the story," Harry added, looking concerned. "So what really happened? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, he didn't," Hermione said reluctantly. "We had a fight. He caught me flicking through the book without permission and wanted to know what I was after. He thought I was hiding something from him about what he overheard you saying, Harry. He hasn't forgotten what you said about us needing to find out something about the necklace to go home. And well, I refused to speak and he got kind of angry. I tried to leave, but he blocked my way and took out his wand. I managed to get away, but I panicked and ran so he wouldn't catch me. I've been in the Room of Requirement since then."

Hermione felt guilty about lying to them, but her guilt at kissing Riddle was worse, and she just could not bear to tell them the truth, especially knowing that they would defend her and that she was not worthy of it.

"That bloody –" Ron said, calling Riddle such names that would no doubt earn him a detention if the likes of Professor McGonagall had overheard it.

"Anyway," Hermione said pointedly, "I've decided it would be best to stay away from him from now on, given that he's getting rather pushy."

"Good choice," Ron said, nodding vigorously.

"I agree," added Harry. "Just stay away – he's too much trouble."

After that, the conversation turned to the upcoming Quidditch match and Hermione was able to lose herself to her thoughts. From the corner of her eye, she could see that Riddle was still acting like nothing had happened, but Hermione was sure that he was fuming on the inside, and only playing along to save face. Hermione knew that she was very lucky. If it were not that everyone already thought that Riddle had been the one to break up with her, they would have thought that Hermione was snubbing Riddle by sitting with Ron and Harry, which he no doubt would not have been happy about.

After a while, the students started to leave the hall, and Hermione watched again from the corner of her eye as Riddle made his way past her end of the table, walking past her, tall and proud, sparing her only the most indifferent of glances. But what really caught her attention was that Andrea had her eyes fixed hungrily on him and Hermione did not miss the smirk on her face that was no doubt addressed to her personally. Andrea stood up quickly and followed Riddle across the hall. She was perhaps lucky that so many other students were also leaving at the same time; otherwise her intentions would have been embarrassingly obvious.

Andrea reached Riddle just before he could leave the hall. Hermione could not hear what she was saying from where she sat, but the hopeful expression on Andrea's face and the way she twirled a lock of hair around her finger flirtatiously did not escape her notice. Riddle's eyes, which had been observing Andrea with polite interest, wandered away from her for a moment, and Hermione started when his eyes locked on hers. The slightest of smirks crossed his features so quickly that Hermione had to wonder if she imagined it. He turned back to Andrea and though she could not make out what he said, it must have been good because he soon left the hall and Andrea practically skipped back towards the Slytherin table were she sat down next to her excited friend.

"Did you ask him?" her friend gushed.

Andrea beamed and cast a vindictive look over at Hermione before gloating loudly, "Yes, I asked him if he'd want to go with me to Hogsmeade this weekend. He said he was not sure if had the time to go but he'd get back to me about it tomorrow."

Hermione looked away, pretending to be indifferent but found herself fuming on the inside. She had no doubt that Riddle had only said that to anger her. Much to her embarrassment, she felt a pang of jealousy, which only made her angry at herself.

He. Is. Evil. Get over it! she thought, chastising herself.

"Hermione?"

The sound of Harry's concerned voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"What?" she asked, sounding more irritable than she had intended.

"Er, nothing… it's just that your knuckles are turning white," he said, indicating to her hand.

It was then that Hermione realised she had a death-grip on her fork and put it down immediately.

"Maybe it's better if we don't go back to the common room just yet," she said reluctantly.

"Oh, you can stay back and watch us practise for the play!" Ron said suddenly. "We're going to see all the stage props and things today!"

He looked so excited that Hermione did not have the heart to say no, and so she and Harry stayed back with Ron in the Great Hall after everyone else had left. The only other people who remained were a handful of Professors and the three other girls in the play: Scarlett, Bethany, who was a fifth year Gryffindor and, to Hermione's surprise, a Ravenclaw girl of their year who Hermione recognised as Emma Kay, a good friend of Lauren's. Emma was very studious, but she was also very loud, witty, and confident. She was tall and slight chubby, but had a very pretty face that was framed with very short, straight black hair. In fact, Hermione noted, all the girls auditioning were rather pretty. She wondered if Professor Beery had been a bias judge.

"Okay, gather round, everyone!" Professor Beery called. "Ah, Ron, I see you've brought some friends along! Good to see you, Harry, Hermione."

"Hello, sir," Harry said politely once they had gathered around him. Hermione noted in surprise that Professor Dumbledore was amongst the Professors present and was even more surprised to see that he had been looking at her. He gave her a friendly smile when she caught his eye, however, before he looked away.

"Right then," Professor Beery said, looking excited. "As I'm sure you all know, our play is set to occur this very Friday, just under a week away! So, today I thought we could test our stage props to make sure they are all in order and so that our stars –" here he beamed at Scarlett, Bethany, Emma and Ron "– can get any idea of how the stage will be set up. Now, Professer Kettleburn has been good enough to provide us with a gigantic worm, could you please explain for the students, Silvanus?"

Professor Kettleburn shook his head and said, "Now, now, Herbert, you know the worm is meant to be surprise. But I can tell you this – it will be real, and it will be very much alive! Now, that leaves us with one little problem. Bethany, I believe you will be playing Asha, correct? Yes, well I very much doubt that you will like having a giant worm drinking the tears from your face, and even if you did, it would be very hard to get the worm to do so. So, Professor Beery has agreed that we will adapt the play so that the ash – er I mean, the worm simply returns below stage once you've shed your tears."

Bethany simply shrugged and nodded, and Professor Beery ask the other teachers to explain their roles. Hermione had found Professor Dumbledore's explanation of how he transfigured a fountain of water and a hill that slid under the stage as the characters climbed up very interesting, and was fascinated by the explanations of magic that she had never heard of before. She had, perhaps unsurprisingly, been the only one to ask questions, which Professor Dumbledore seemed to appreciate. However, by the time the discussion had turned to clothing, with the promise of make-up and hair styling to follow, Hermione's headache had taken it's toll on her and she hurriedly whispered her apologies to Ron and slipped away from the Great Hall. Not wanting to go to her common room, she rested in an unused classroom for what she thought was at least half an hour before she felt slightly better and returned to watch them practise.

Hermione was surprised that Ron's performance was actually not as bad as she expected. The character he was playing, Sir Luckless, was a rather pitiable man and she suspected that Ron related to the part because the character reflected his own lack of confidence.

Hermione applauded along with Harry and the Professors when the play was over and Ron came over towards them, grinning sheepishly.

"So, what did you think? I mean, it's not perfect yet, and I wasn't wear the suit of armour –"

"You were brilliant, Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. "What other talents have you been hiding from us?"

"Yeh, Ron," Harry said, grinning. "Great job."

"Butterbeers for everyone!" Professor Beery, who had clapped harder than anyone else, called out. "Excellent job, you four. Just excellent! Emma, Harry, you're closest, could you fetch the butterbeers, please? They are just behind the door of the staff entrance."

Emma and Harry both did as Professor Beery asked and walked away from the group towards the staff entrance, which was just behind the staff table. Hermione watched as Emma opened the door and was surprised to see her freeze before letting out a heart-stopping scream. Everyone turned in shock and saw Harry, looking pale, pull Emma away from the door. She looked terrified and had tears in her eyes.

Hermione, along with everyone else, ran forward and looked though the doorway in search of what Emma had seen and she, too, stopped in terror, her mouth hanging open in shock.

Across the room, Andrea was lying stiffly on the floor, undeniably Petrified.

Hermione, who felt suddenly nauseous, felt herself being pushed out of the way as the Professors rushed into the room. In the Great Hall, Scarlett and Bethany were trying to comfort Emma, who was now crying uncontrollably. Harry and Ron stood to a side, looking grim.

"She did it! I know she did, who else could have done it?" she heard Emma sob. "First Lauren, and now Andrea!"

"Don't be silly, Emma," Bethany soothed, "she couldn't have done it, it must've been someone else. Look, don't cry, I know you're upset about Lauren but –"

"She did it!" Emma shrieked, pushing Bethany away. "She knew Lauren was the one who hexed her, and we all saw the way Andrea was flirting with Tom! She did it, she's jealous. She's green as gillyweed!"

Hermione stared in shock as she realised what Emma was saying.

"Emma, Hermione isn't the Heir, anyone could have –"

But Emma shook her off and gave Hermione a terrible glare before storming out of the Great Hall. Hermione was painfully aware that Bethany and Scarlett were now staring at her, and that Scarlett was looking at her somewhat uncertainly.

Hermione turned away from them and hurried out of the Great Hall, feeling terrible. She could not believe that Emma had come to that conclusion, and she was terrified that others might agree with her. And the thought that Riddle could have Petrified Andrea after toying with her affections just hours earlier sent shivers down her spine.

Harry and Ron caught up with Hermione just outside the Great Hall.

"Hermione, don't let her get to you," Ron said emphatically. "She's being stupid; no one is going to suspect you of opening the Chamber. That's just crazy. And according to Scarlett, she's been an emotional wreck ever since Lauren was Petrified. They were really good friends, you know."

"That's right, and I just can't believe Riddle got into the chamber without me seeing him on the map again. I can't believe I let myself get distracted! But what I really want to know is why Riddle attacked Andrea?" Harry said angrily. "She's not a Muggle-born, is she?"

Hermione shook her head.

"She doesn't really know what she is," she explained. "She lives with her mum, who is a Muggle, but she never knew her dad. Her mum doesn't even know who fathered her. He might have been a Wizard, or he might not. Riddle was taking a gamble with this one… but I don't understand why."

"He might have finally gotten sick of that girl flirting with him," Ron said darkly. "Probably thought it was a good way to get rid of her. And we know he was going for Lauren since before Slughorn's party anyway, so he can't have chosen her on purpose."

Hermione nodded but still felt uncertain. Did Riddle perhaps have some sort of agenda against girls who liked him? And would people really think along the same lines Emma did?

She found out the answer to query the next the morning. The news that Andrea had been Petrified spread across the school like wildfire. Fortunately for Hermione, she did not hear a single word of accusation from the Slytherins, although many of them were visibly shaken by the attack on Andrea. They had not been expecting an attack on one of their own. Not even Abraxas was gloating. Infuriatingly, the only person who did not seem overly bothered by the news was Riddle, and that was to be expected. Naturally, he pretended to look worried when the news broke, but had returned to his study shortly afterwards. He was the only person in the whole common room studying.

It was painfully obvious at breakfast, however, that the rest of the school was not of the same opinion. When Hermione entered the hall with Harry and Ron, almost all eyes at the Ravenclaw table were on her, as were a handful of the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors – no doubt Emma had spread her suspicions. Some of them looking simply curious, others suspicious, and yet some people were looking at her with pure hatred in their eyes. It was the most uncomfortable breakfast she had ever sat through and she finally understood what Harry had been through in his second year.

"Some people are so ridiculous," Ron muttered.

A few minutes into breakfast, Headmaster Dippet stood up to make an announcement and it was only then that Hermione, who had kept her eyes on her plate the whole time, noticed the three unfamiliar men seated besides him.

"Attention, attention, please," said Headmaster Dippet, his voice only just loud enough to carry across the hall. "Due to the very unfortunate events that have taken place in Hogwarts over the last few months, the Ministry has called in its Aurors to run a full scale investigation at Hogwarts, with my approval. The head Auror in charge, Auror Pollux Purcell," he said, indicating to a rather severe looking man on this right, "will be conducting interviews with staff and friends and family of students over the next few days. Anyone with any information should step forward immediately and contact Professor Dumbledore, who is in charge of taking care of our guests. Thank you."

Hermione noticed uncomfortably that faces were shifting towards her again, and she could see Emma Kay over at the Ravenclaw table, looking as though she were eager to speak to the Aurors that very minute. Hermione chanced a glance at Riddle, and saw that he was sitting completely at ease, watching the Aurors with polite curiosity. He did not seem too worried, and Hermione knew he had nothing to worry about – only Dumbledore ever suspected him, and even that amounted to little.

Hermione wanted nothing more than to leave breakfast early, but her pride would not allow it. It would come across as weak, and it would only fuel those who hated her. So she waited, along with Harry and Ron, until a number of people started to leave the hall (which took a while given that it was the weekend).

"Come on, Hermione," Harry said gently. "Let's go."

Hermione stood and followed him and Ron out of the hall, her head held high and making eye contact with no one. Once out side of the hall, she breathed a breath of relief.

"That was terrible," she said sadly.

"Don't worry, Hermione," Harry said, shaking his head. "They'll get over it soon. It's the same thing that happened with me."

"And even if they don't… well, it's not like we plan to stay here for too much longer," Ron added.

Before Hermione could reply, a boy who looked to be in his seventh year called out to Hermione from the near the staircase.

"Off to the Chamber, are you, you little shrew?" he called, giving her an ugly look. "They'll have you out of here in no time. Filth like you don't belong here."

His words left Hermione with a terrible feeling inside, but she had no time to even consider retorting as Ron had already pulled out his wand and was advancing towards him, looking furious.

"I'll show you, you rotten –" Ron started, but was cut off by a sharp, authoritative voice from behind them.

"Wesley, wand away. Now. Scantlebury, twenty points from Hufflepuff and if you don't leave right now it'll be thirty."

Hermione spun around and was shocked to see that Riddle was standing just behind them, giving the boy who she assumed was called Scantlebury a cold, hard look. Scantlebury did not need telling twice. He indicated to his friends and they hurried away without another glance back.

Hermione turned back to Riddle, torn between gratitude and fury. She was not sure what to say, but Riddle simply gave her a swift look, his expression still hard before simply walking away.

Ron, who was still holding his wand, glared at Riddle's back before he disappeared into the corridor that lead to the Slytherin common room.

"Filthy git, didn't need him to interfere…" he murmured angrily.

"Thanks Ron, I appreaciate it. But you shouldn't have lost your temper," Hermione said, shaking her head.

"He had no right to talk to you like that!" Ron said indignantly. "I couldn't just let it pass."

"As much as I agree with you Ron, Hermione's right. He might be the first, but certainly not the last," Harry said grimly. "It's just like what happened in our second year. The only thing we can really do is ignore them."

Hermione nodded absentmindedly at Harry's words, her mind too preoccupied with the cold look Riddle had given Scantlebury. Much as she tried, she could not understand it at all.

---

A/N - I hope you enjoyed that! I'm sorry about the delay! I actually had this ready two days ago but when I went to post it I couldn't login in! Also, I start uni again next week and I'm in for a very busy year, so updates won't be coming as often as they used to! I'll try to have a chapter up every 10-14 days though!