The Sortinghat's Mission

Chapter 12

To get Hermione alone again after that incident proved impossible. The witch was never seen without her little posse of girls. He could of course always hex them and get her alone that way, but she'd known it was him if he did. So he kept watching her, with the same amount of interest, but made sure she didn't know he was watching her. He told Malfoy to tone down his flirting, make her like him and maybe she'd tell him her secrets. That way Tom would know anyway considering Malfoy told him everything.

He told her dumb stuff like her eye color, like he didn't know that, or how she favored her left hand over her right for both writing and spellwork. It wasn't necessary for him to know, but Malfoy told him anyway and Tom simply... let him. Somewhere inside of him he needed to know everything there was to know about the girl, including what he thought was the silly stuff. He made sure none of his 'friends' were calling her a mudblood, or anything else for that matter. He told them all during a meeting that it was of uttermost importance that Miss Bernard didn't feel threatened by them, or felt watched for that matter. They all agreed of course, not knowing the real reason behind his request. That's why he liked Lestrange, Avery, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle so much. They simply just... obeyed.

The first class after that night Hermione had looked a bit... dazed. Tom wondered if she had touched herself like he had after their little get together. He wondered if she liked the way his body was pushed against hers, the feeling of her pulse racing and him looming over her. He wondered if she wanted it to happen again, as badly as he wanted it.

With just those small thoughts he felt the now common feeling of his cock twitching. Tom quickly adjusted his trousers somewhat casually and hoped that she hadn't noticed the body warmth now radiating through him. It was incredibly hot today, wasn't it? He cleared his throat.

"Miss Bernard..." he begun,

Hermione jumped high on her seat as he addressed her. Tom almost smirked.

"Would you agree that these runes would translate to partnership?"

Tom knew they did. He just needed to include her in their group project of translating words so that Professor Murphy would see that they were actually working together. They did no such thing, both of them were happily working by themselves. Another thing that Tom noticed they had in common.

"Er... yes. Though it's easy to mix it up with the word eihwaz that translates into defense." she answered thoughtfully, just a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Not that hard if you think about it. Eihwaz has an i in it, hinting for the fact that 'I need to defend', when ehwaz doesn't have an i, and can then be thought of that you're more than yourself, hence, partnership." Tom explained with a light tone.

Hermione was now staring at him with an open mouth. She had a lovely mouth. He could do vile things to that mouth. She quickly composed herself and shook her head.

"I've never thought about it that way..." she muttered.

"It's all about breaking the runes down, Miss Bernard." he had said and continued his work, feeling her eyes on him for the rest of the lesson.

One Monday morning they had potions class together, as always. Hermione was seated behind her two fellow Ravenclaw's, as always. Tom quickly wondered why they never sat with her, always in front of her. It didn't seem to bother Hermione though. Tom knew it wouldn't have bothered him either.

Malfoy slid down next to her on the bench, as always. But he didn't make a move on her, he didn't shuffle closer. He even made a point not to touch her if he could help it. Hermione looked bewildered, shooting him glances through her eye lashes during their whole lesson. Tom smirked. Malfoy sure was obedient, he was going to award him for this later.