Tempus Viatorum

Chapter 4

Tom Riddle was not someone easily impressed, in fact, he didn't think he had ever been impressed with another human since Professor Dumbledore had come to tell him that he was a wizard. The magic he had witnessed then sure had impressed him. But ever since, he had not experienced it again. Not even in his classes since he always made sure to read ahead and try out the spells beforehand.

Tom Riddle was not someone who got impressed. Until now.

Hermione Granger, the new half-blood Slytherin, was actually clever. She beat him to more than a few questions during classes, making him rather peeved if he was being honest. She had, from what he had gathered over the last two weeks, a very organised mind. Moreover, she didn't fall for his charm like all the other girls did. He had gone out of his way to make her feel welcomed, making even Parkinson and Greengrass react to his friendliness, and yet... She simply gave him a few short smiles, a polite hello or goodbye.

Nothing else.

Every conversation he tried to start, she shut down in an instance, claiming she had to go to the library or the loo. One person couldn't possibly need to attend the loo that often.

It enraged him that she wouldn't give him even a minute of her days. He was the heir of Slytherin, and she was... a nobody. An ill-mannered half-blood with no connections.

She wasn't even that pretty, with her too frizzy, untamable hair and somewhat round face. Sure, her brown eyes held a hue of gold in them that occasionally could be considered pretty, and her mouth held pouty, full lips in a nice pink colour.

But that was it.

There were plenty of more attractive girls at Hogwarts; and most of them wanted him. So why didn't she?

And if that wasn't enough, the other Malfoy, Draco, was also keen on raising his hand in class. All of a sudden, there were almost always three hands in the air, making the teachers choose someone other than him ⅔ of the time.

Draco Malfoy was another hard nut to crack. He wasn't as easily swayed as his cousin, nor as easily approached as other Slytherins. He almost seemed to want to seclude himself wholly, but when prodded enough he would open up ever so slightly. Tom wondered if he simply was shy, or if there was more to it.

Sometimes he imagined Draco saw through his charade of politeness, like he already knew his dark inner thoughts and wants. But he had felt no intrusion of his mind, and so Draco could not know. Because no one really knew the depths of his mind.

Tom pondered over the possibility of recruiting Draco for his group, considering he already had Abraxas with him. There was something about having the whole... collection, that spoke to him on another level. It simply had to be done. And with that in mind, it was no bad thing that Draco had brains, but it still peeved him to have competition all of a sudden. Especially when one of them was a girl.

It was these thoughts that had made him make a mistake during Potions class, which evidently made his potion go from perfect to acceptable. It was infuriating. And of course Hermione Granger had to go and make hers perfect. It hadn't even been a particularly hard potion to begin with, and yet he had messed it up because he wasn't paying enough attention to himself and what he was doing, too busy with watching the bushy haired girl seated diagonally in front of him.

When the class was over Professor Slughorn had made it even more embarrassing by patting him on the shoulder and theatre-whispered: not your best batch, mate.

Like he didn't fucking know that. Like it was his fault that she had taken up a residence in his fucking head, making him cut the flobber worms all messy.