The trust of the innocent is the liars most useful tool.

Stephen King

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If you're reading this, I just want to say you're so fucking amazing thank you for all the support you've given me on this book. I love you guys for real. Have a lovely day/night whenever you are ! X

-Rix

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Hermione P.O.V

"Look at me." Before I could so much as blink Tom Riddle's cold hand was under my chin, forcing me to meet his unfathomable stare.

"What are you thinking?" He demanded.

"Why don't you guess." I retorted. "Since you're going about making all these assumptions about me and what I can and can't do, you might as well."

"Grow up." Toms voice got impossibly lower, chilling me to the bone. "You shouldn't need me to prompt you do want to do these things. You should already have the desire in your heart already."

"But that's the thing," I argued. "To have the want do to those things would mean you'd have to be heartless."

There was a moment where Tom looked too shocked to speak, his face looked surprised and then as sudden as it happened, instantly indifferent again.

"To have a heart is to be weak." He said after a pause.

"That's not really how I see it." I reasoned.

I scooted backwards to put as much distance between me and his intimidating look, but if I thought that was going to help it really didn't. No surprises there.

Out of all the reactions Tom had displayed toward me so far I wasn't expecting him to be amused. And here he was, in my dorm, staring down at me with the most disarming smirk I had ever seen him with yet.

"I've told you that you're going to have to kill so guess what? You're going to have to, and there's no way to escape it this time."

His voice was soft but edged with a distinctive know it all tone. Like he knew me better than I knew myself, and it was starting to piss me off.

"What if I refused?" I snapped.

"If you did," Tom said dangerously. "You wouldn't live to see the next day. This isn't about good versus evil, Hermione. It's about power and those who fear to take possession of it."

He actually reached over and took one of my hands in his own. It took almost all my willpower not to yank it back out of his ice cold grasp.

"You could be extremely powerful." Tom told me. "I myself could train you. There is so much potential in your magical abilities that you are letting go to waste. I don't know if I can just stand back and watch you let it wither away." After what felt like eternity he finally let my hand go.

"Who said I'm letting myself wither away?" I snapped. "It's you that is doing this. Troubling me, driving me insane. Can't you see what it's fucking doing to me?"

I stood up, the burst of adrenaline sparking bringing me to my feet. Tom looked taken aback, but he didn't back down. He stood his ground and I stood mine.

"I'm going fucking insane." I repeated. "You're really upsetting me. And the worst part is that it's like you don't even care."

"Why would you think I don't care?" Tom's eyes flashed, and for the first time I saw a trace of something quite alike human emotion.

"You fail to see that these situations are building you in ways you've never cared to know." His voice was urgent, intense. He watched me with a steady gaze. "Under pressure we are forced to act in ways we could never have thought to act before. You've endured trials that no one else has ever gone through."

"I've had to endure this shit," I said through gritted teeth, "Because you're a psychopath who is obsessed with trying to break me-"

"I'm trying to break you into your real identity." Tom said over the top of me. "You're not thinking clearly. People like you take so fucking long to see things the way they really are. It gets fucking irritating after a while."

Tom turned to walk away. He really was quite tall, he made me feel like a midget since he was almost as tall as my four poster bed. Okay maybe I was exaggerating slightly. Maybe if he was a short dude he wouldn't come across as so intimidating. I don't know.

I watched him walk out of my room feeling something that felt like panic rising in my chest.

"Wait-"

I rushed out after him, not realising how narrow the staircase was until we were both standing on it alone together.

"Was there something you wanted to tell me?" Tom's raised an eyebrow, his mouth edged in amusement. I was on the stair directly above him and he was still taller than me. Just slightly.

"I was just- well."

"Use your words." Tom's eyes shone with malicious enjoyment. He really loved to see me uncomfortable. Being alone with him on a staircase was really not the type of situation I would normally throw myself in.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm not what you think I am." I said stubbornly. "And you won't be able to break me easily."

It was like that was the green light Tom had been waiting for. There was no denying the way his eyes shone. I had just presented a new challenge to him, and the worst part was that I didn't exactly realise it until this exact moment. I might as well have run up to him covered in a giant banner that said I dare you to break me slowly and painfully.

"I really think you underestimate me," Tom said. "You are so unaware of what I'm capable of. You think this is a matter of fire and ice? You are ashes on the ground compared to me. You're only going insane because I opened your eyes to what you really are. Nothing."

"I'm not nothing." I said forcefully.

"Well," Tom said thoughtfully. "You won't be when I'm through with you."

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Tom Riddle P.O.V

I left Hermione on the staircase, realising for a second how strange it was that her annoying friends Shalini and Jade were nowhere in sight.

I paused for a second. Hermione was all alone in the dorm. The possibilities of what I could do to her right now were endless.

No. I wouldn't be going back to torment her again. She got the idea. She was a clever girl, I didn't need to overdo anything. I reached the Slytherin Common Room to find no one there. And then I heard a voice.

"Bro, you live in the girls dorm now or something?" Daniel Dolohov was sitting in an armchair by the fire. He looked tired.

"I was taking care of some unattended business." I said shortly. "Is there any reason why you're up at this hour? Mudblood on the mind?"

At the word Mudblood he twitched. It was so subtle that if I wasn't watching him I wouldn't have noticed.

"You need to forget about Isabella Rey." I told him seriously. "Your reputation doesn't need to be tarnished by some Ravenclaw filth."

It was like I was talking to a brick wall. I stepped closer and saw Daniel had a strange look about him, and on a closer inspection I realised why: he was out of it.

"What have you been drinking?" I demanded.

"Isabella was raped." He said suddenly. He turned to look at me, his light eyes locked with mine, and I saw just how haunted he looked.

"You didn't have anything to do with this, did you?" His voice cracked. Beside him were empty bottles of firewhisky and a small bag of something that looked like the sort of synthetic shit muggles use to get high.

"I've had more important things on my mind than screwing filth." I said honestly. "Who did it?"

"She won't say." He said flatly. "I don't know how to get her to talk."

"I wouldn't have minded getting some of that." I reminisced Isabella Rey for a minute, her soft and curvy look. Hermione, Isabella and Shalini were the hottest girls of our year. The others couldn't compete. I supposed Jade was hot too, if lesbians weren't my type.

"If it was me, I would've got a few others on my dick too." I laughed softly. "What's the point of having one when you could have more?" An extremely explicit thought of Isabella and Hermione on top of me crossed through my mind.

"She didn't deserve what they did to her." Daniel sounded like he was struggling to maintain himself. "When I find out who it was I'm going to kill them."

"You love this girl enough to consider spilling magical blood to avenge her?"

I posed the question cleverly enough to make it look like I wasn't judging the fuck out of him, playing my cards just carefully enough for him to think that there was possibility that I was on his side. I was neither.

"Rape is wrong, regardless." Daniel said somewhat distractedly. "Isabella shouldn't have been assaulted."

"You speak about her like she deserves to be considered as one of the rest of us." I didn't bother hiding my disgust. Why should I?

"She's trash. I told you not to become emotionally invested in her. And now look at you, all cut up about her being used as the whore she is."

"She isn't a whore." Daniel said heatedly. "And she shouldn't have been raped.... I should've been there to protect her. So don't fucking insult her around me."

With the ease of only a familiar motion I had my wand out of my cloak and had it pointed directly at him.

"Say that again." I said dangerously. "Go on."

"Say what?" Daniel challenged. "To not call my girlfriend a whore? I know you were involved with this, Riddle. And I'll expose you."

I lowered my wand, a different solution coming to mind. I didn't need to do anything. The possibility of killing Daniel Dolohov had been raised in my mind, but suddenly a better idea had come along. Hermione could kill him for me.