The Sortinghat's Mission

Chapter 7

History of magic was exactly how it has always been, so she could add that to her list of normality in this strange world. The only difference was that Professor Binns was actually alive, so he came through the door rather than the wall as he had done in her own time. She didn't take notes as fiercely as she normally did, considering she had actually already been to this lesson, just some years later in the future. She considered this to her advantage, now she could glance around on her classmates. Beside her sat Riddle, he was taking notes as fiercely as she normally did. Suck up. A few benches down she saw Thomas Frank from her year, he caught her gaze and gave her a cheerful wave. Hermione smiled and waved back. He seemed nice.

"You just can't stop flirting now can you?" Riddle mumbled through the corner of his mouth. Hermione turned to face him. Rage racing through her once again.

"That's actually one of my new friends, IF you don't mind" she whispered back more loudly than she had intended.

"Oh trust me, I don't mind. I couldn't care less about you or what you do, mudblood" he said in a voice so quiet only she could hear it, and his tone was as deadly as a sword.

It made her shiver visibly to her great discontent. But his words made her angry, hell, anyone with eyes could see he had fixated himself upon her.

"It sure as hell doesn't look like you don't care, of how much you're watching my every move, Riddle" she hissed back, emphasizing his last name knowing just how much he hated it.

Two girls in front of them gave them an odd look and giggled a little. They were two Hufflepuff girls, one with honey locks and the other had pitch black hair, just like a raven. Hermione didn't know who they were but they gave her a feeling of being tremendous gossips. They even reminded her a bit about Lavender and Parvati, and not in a good way. Riddle just raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

Great, now they'll think we have a thing for each other. She shook her head so her curls bobbed, gaining another stifled laugh from the girls. She decided not to give them or Riddle the time of day. In fact, for the whole class, Hermione didn't look up. She just scribbled notes as she listened halfheartedly and doodled on her notebook.

When Binns wrapped up the class Hermione hurriedly gathered her things and vanished down towards the great hall and lunch. She wanted to see some friendly faces and tell them about how awful Riddle was. Maybe she could bully him into isolation and then he wouldn't be able to rise to power since he had no one. Although, that group of Slytherins looked particularly fond of him. She only knew of Malfoy, whom the other wizards were she did not know. Maybe she could get away with asking about it during lunch without gaining attention to herself.

Hermione quickly located Thomas at Ravenclaw table and sat down next to him, if not because he had been very polite towards her, then for the possibility that it could make Riddle tick.

"Hello Thomas! How are you doing?" she asked him as she helped herself to some chicken.

"Oh hello Hermione. I'm alright, quite excited to be starting this new term. I noticed you were in my history of magic class. I do love history of magic. I also enjoy charms. Maybe we could compare notes in the future? Also I saw that you sat next to Riddle, maybe you could get his notes? I noticed that you were talking and therefore I assume you are friendly and he is the top student in our year and I just think that would help us out tremendously, don't you think?"

Thomas said all this in one breath before he gulped down a whole goblet of pumpkin juice. He also never made eye contact if he could avoid it. If Hermione hadn't talked to the boy during yesterday's feast as well as the breakfast she might have thought him weirdly talkative, but it turned out Thomas just behaved like this. Hermione thought she had read the muggle term for it, something about being "on the spectrum", a form of autism. She liked him anyway, he was always very straight forward. However, getting Riddle's notes would be an impossible task considering she did not really care for being in his presence and he seemed to go hot and cold from everytime she saw him.