After her little run in with Riddle, Hermione made sure to not be alone with him again. She kept herself the company of the other Ravenclaw girls as well as Thomas Frank. And when it was time for her advanced classes that they didn't share with her, such as advanced runes, she showed up precisely on time. There was a slight inconvenience with this plan though, and that was the fact that she was paired up with the jerk during this particular class.
Their first class after the incident she had been extremely nervous, although she didn't want him to know that of course. So she had used occlumency to keep her thoughts clear and only focused on the work that was before them. To her great surprise, Riddle never mentioned anything about their incident. Never made a remark about it again. It was almost as if it hadn't happened. In fact, he barely talked to her. He made a few comments about their work, and that was it. Not even during the other classes, where he usually made some remark or at least made his dummies make one, did he say something. Even Malfoy was treating her better, with respect even. There was no more curd flirting or touching her inappropriately every chance he got. Malfoy simply gave her a few compliments on her spellwork and that was it. It was messing with her brain. Hermione couldn't figure out what had changed, except for that one incident in the corridor with Riddle. But had he actually believed her story? Had she fooled the great Voldemort himself? Maybe she actually had succeeded. Maybe she could actually have a normal life here. Maybe.
It was the week before the Halloween dance, and naturally it had all the girls giddy and jumping with anticipation. All but Hermione of course. No one had asked her to the dance which didn't bother her at all. She really just wanted to go and enjoy it with her friends. However, they all had dates and acting as Hermione not having one was the end of the world. Isabella and Prudence kept commenting on boys they knew were solo, urging her to ask them out herself. Something Hermione refused to do. It wasn't that she didn't want to ask anyone, she just wasn't interested in anyone. And if she went solo, she could always sneak off to the library to study. She really did have a few essays to keep up with. One was even due next week! Hermione's master plan quickly went into bits during a defense against the dark arts lesson though.
Lee Wood had quickly become her partner during these lessons, mostly because he saw to it. But Hermione didn't mind. He had a good mind for the class and was a nice person. They usually chatted a bit during class. Lee had even started greeting Hermione in the corridors between classes, to the girls content. Whenever he did so, they whispered that she ought to ask him out, or at least take him up on the date he mentioned after that dueling class. And she never did. But Lee, however, finally got the guts to ask her out.
"Hermione..." he whispered during professor Yang's presentation about protective spells.
She hmm'ed an answer, not taking her eyes off her notes.
"Do you... er, I mean... would you... that is to say... uh..." he struggled, ruffling his hair a bit.
She glanced up at him and saw that he was blushing ravishingly.
"Do I what, Wood?" she asked, a small smile on her lips.
It was cute the way he struggled to get his words out. Usually he was the fitting image of a quidditch player, all muscles and confidence.
"Uh... I'd like to ask you... you know, uh... the dance" he mumbled and fumbled with his notebook, not meeting her eye.
Hermione almost giggled. How in the world could she say no to someone who struggled so badly to ask her out? It would ruin him. But that didn't mean she couldn't mess around a little bit.
"What dance?" she said, a smile tugging in the corner of her mouth.
It took Lee a few seconds to answer, probably trying to figure out if she were messing with him or not.
"Uh... the Halloween dance?" he said questioningly. "You know, next Friday?"
"There's a dance next Friday? How exciting!" she exclaimed, now putting down her quill.
"Yes, er... why..."
He finally met her eyes and saw that her smile had grown teasingly. Quickly, he shook off his frown and glared at her.
"You tease," he muttered.
"Of course I'll go with you, dummy!" she giggled and playfully hit his arm.
"Really?" he said hopefully, his eyes lighting up.
"Really, Lee. You know, I'd be honored." she said and bowed her head at him which gained her a giggle from him.
"I'm glad. Maybe we could, uh, meet beforehand? Like in the entrance hall or something?" he asked shyly.
"That sounds like a good idea." Hermione said, forced a smile and then put her attention towards professor Yang once more.
Lee had a smile on his lips for the rest of the class. And should she believe the girls, the whole day. Hermione however, felt a bit queasy. Truth be told, that arrangement screamed resemblance of the one she had made with Viktor Krum. And that night had been a disaster. She really wished this one would prove her better.
It was a little weird when you thought about it, being asked out by Oliver Wood's grandfather. But Hermione had decided to stop thinking about such facts, simply because it made her get the ick from every boy and the blues from thinking of the people she knew in her own time. So, she had simply been asked out by Lee Wood. Simple as that. And she had said yes, more for his well being than her own. Nevertheless, she had a date for the dance next Friday. Maybe the girls would finally shut up now.
The girls could never shut up, Hermione concluded. Gosh, they were even worse than the girls in her own time had been. Their dinner, and the lunch before that, and even the freaking breakfast, all they had been talking about were who would attend the dance with who and what dresses they knew someone would be wearing. As well as a few remarks on who they believed Riddle would attend with. To Hermione's great discontent Prudence even suggested he'd ask her. As if. He never even spoke to her anymore. This was of course precisely how Hermione liked it. She didn't want anything with him, not a single thing. But it was a bit odd, wasn't it? How he had just believed her and then stopped pursuing her all together? It wasn't that she missed the attention, not at all. She wasn't a girl who enjoyed attention. But to have both Malfoy's undivided attention as well as Riddle's ripped away after a single night? It was odd.
It was Friday afternoon, she had another history of magic lesson before there was a long awaited weekend before them. Hermione, Alice and Millicent had made plans to go into Hogsmeade the following day to buy the last of what they needed before the big dance. Apparently you weren't just supposed to dress nicely in a dressing gown, you were also supposed to have something covering your face.
"It is Halloween, 'minoe! Of course you need to have some sort of a costume!" Alice exploded when she had questioned the fact.
Truth be told, Hermione rather enjoy a walk around the grounds, following some nice and cozy hours in the library with her favorite book, Hogwarts, a history.
"Oh come now, Hermione. It's not that often that we get to dress up, now is it? Surely you'll give poor Alice what she wants, just this once?" Millicent had pleaded with her, a nice set of puppy eyes watching her.
Hermione doubted this was the only time Alice wanted, or got, her way.
"Alright, alright! I'll come to Hogsmeade." Hermione simply stated with a pout.
"That's our girl!" chirped Alice and skipped around them in a circle. "Maybe she'll even let us paint her nails Mill! Can you imagine? Oh the delight!"
"Oh well, anything for you Alice." Hermione sighed as Alice continued to skip.
"You guys better get to divination before you get in trouble!" she said with a fake stern voice.
Millicent glanced down at her arm-watch, yelped, and quickly grabbed a hold of Alice before they disappeared in the direction of the divination classroom.
"Bye 'mione!" she heard Alice's voice echo from where they had disappeared.
Hermione shook her head as she walked the few steps from where they had chatted to their classroom. It was empty. Or at least, mostly empty.
Riddle sat at his usual spot in the top left corner of the room, already scribbling down something at his parchment. Hermione was about to place herself on the other top corner of the classroom, and furthest away from him, when he glanced up and they locked eyes.
"Hello, miss Bernard." he said with the utter most polite tone she had ever heard in her life.
She curled an eyebrow and refused to let the shock show on her face. From nothing to a polite hello?
"Hello, Mr Riddle. On talking terms, are we now?" she said, crossing her arms.
He simply smiled and continued to scribble on his parchment. It made her want to know what he was writing. Probably something for this class, or another. But something inside of her was saying it probably wasn't. She shook her head and placed herself in the top right corner of the classroom. The rest of the class slowly filled the classroom, and Professor Binns entered behind them all, quickly starting off the lesson about another goblin war. Honestly, how many had they fought? Didn't they learn anything?
Riddle didn't look at her again during class. And why would he? But Hermione couldn't take her eyes off of him. She desperately wanted to know what he was playing at. And truth be told, she didn't know much about Tom Riddle. She knew all but everything about Voldemort. But Tom, the teenager, Riddle, was a completely different person. Or was he? Honestly, she didn't know.
Malfoy had seated himself beside her, gave her a small smile when she shot him a nasty look and said nothing. These boys were going to be the death of her.
After class she had gone to the great hall for an early dinner. The hall was almost empty save for a few students here and there. Thomas Frank was seated in the middle of the Ravenclaw table and Hermione slid down on the bench next to him.
"Hello Hermione. How are you doing?" he asked politely.
"Hi Thomas, I'm doing good. I've been longing for this weekend, though I have so much homework. Are you up to something fun?"
"I need to find a suit for the dance. Makayla Douglas said she'd be my date, isn't that nice? She's a hufflepuff fourth year. Quite pretty actually."
"You don't have a suit yet? Very last minute of you Thomas." Hermione teased.
"Well, I didn't think I'd get a date to the dance and therefore opted to not go at all." Thomas explained matter of factly, not having sensed Hermione's teasing tone at all.
"Why wouldn't you go if you didn't have a date?" She frowned.
"I heard a couple of Slytherins say that if you didn't have a date to the dance it equaled social suicide, and I figured I already had a few hills to climb and therefore didn't need to social suicide."
Hermione only shook her head at this. Poor Thomas.
"I need to go now. Artemis promised to show me how to dance. Bye Hermione."
She waved at him and helped herself to some food, after a couple of minutes the girls joined her at the table.
The following day Hermione woke at nine, a rather long sleep in for her. She felt completely relaxed and was looking forward to spending the whole day in the library.
"Ready for a girls day in Hogsmeade 'mione?" asked Alice from the other side of the room.
Ugh. Right. How could she have forgotten she promised to go to Hogsmeade for shopping.
"The whole day?" she whined.
"Oh yes! I have it all planned!" chirped Alice.
"I need to go to Madam Pouf's boutique, Alice! My red lipstick is running low and I can't go to the dance with old lipstick." skipped Prudence in.
Alice just nodded understandingly at this before turning her attention to Hermione again.
"Now, 'mione, we're first going to go to Madam Pudd's to look at dress robes..."
"You guys already have dress robes!" Hermione, angry, interrupted.
"But what if there's something nicer at Madam Pudd's and we wouldn't even know because we're settling Hermione?" Alice said with a stern face.
Hermione just groaned at this.
"Well, after Madam Pudd's we'll go to Madam Pouf's for makeup like you needed Prudence. And hey, did you guys know they're cousins? Who would have thought! After Madam Pouf's we'd need to go for a quick lunch at the three broomsticks and then we'll just browse the rest of the village. But those two stops are mandatory."
Alice said that last sentence, pronouncing every word directly at Hermione who just shot her a nasty look.
"Best just do what she says, 'mione.." whispered Millicent from the bed beside her. "It's best that way, keeping the peace and all that."
"Never thought of you for a coward, Mill" she hissed back.
Millicent just laughed at this.
"That's why I'm put in Ravenclaw, doll. I use my brain instead of reacting to everything." she winked. "The trick is to make her think it's her idea, watch this."
"Oh Alice. I've heard Richard Malcom loves spending time in Tomes and Scrolls before leaving Hogsmeade."
Alice's eyes lit up at this information.
"NEW PLAN. We all need to meet up at Tomes and Scrolls before leaving. MANDATORY."
Hermione burst out laughing and Millicent joined her. Luckily, Alice didn't seem to notice considering Isabella had just started talking about Richard's dreamy eyes.