Invictus [Tom Riddle / Tomione]

Fixed

August 6, 1948

Miss Dumbledore,

I hope that this letter finds you well and in the best of health. I have extended many invitations to you now to visit the Manor in the past weeks since I had the pleasure of being your escort to the Ostara Ball. You have most kindly and graciously rejected my every attempt to reconnect, therefore, I have aptly deduced that I have somehow offended you. Please accept my sincerest apologies if I neglected my duties to you as your escort on the night of the Ball. This was indeed a very grave error on my part and one that I have regretted daily since our last meeting. May I be so forward as to say that I have missed your sweet laugh, and your smile? If you will not so much as accept an invitation to visit, I beg you to acquiesce to regular owl correspondence until such a time comes that I may win back your regard.

That said, I would like to extend one final invitation for you to visit the Manor. If you choose to reject this offer as well, then I will humbly cease to burden you with further invitations in the future. As it stands, in a fortnight, there will be a little get-together of like-minded friends and acquaintances at Malfoy Manor on the night of August 21st at seven o'clock in the evening.

It would be my immense pleasure if you would attend, Hermione.

Please RSVP by owl.

Affectionately,

Abraxas Malfoy

What a finely worded letter, Hermione thought wryly. Even if the poor man seems rather miffed.

Of course, she was not in the least bit offended at Abraxas Malfoy. She did not, however, intend to run into Tom Riddle at the Malfoy Library, nor did she think that Malfoy was the type of person she wanted to be running with regularly.

Still, it sounded as if she would greatly offend the fellow if she didn't accept his invitation. She would have to go, or he would think that she was truly angry at him.

But how would she get around seeing Tom Riddle?

She imagined that most of the Death Eaters would be there. Could she possibly invite Alphard Black to escort her? Perhaps he was already invited. She would owl him and ask him immediately.

Maybe then, with Alphard Black on her arm, Riddle would get the picture and leave her alone. Perhaps, it would keep Abraxas at bay as well. Kill two birds with one stone.

Besides, it wouldn't seem too strange for her to show up with Black. Most of Britain's wizarding population assumed they were a pair anyway. Were they? No, not exactly... But no one needed to know that.

Hermione sat down at the antique desk in her sitting room and drafted a response for Malfoy, and sent it off with her owl, Perdita. Then, she wrote off a little note for Alphard and saved it to send with the owl later.

Hermione changed swiftly into a set of black robes that laced up the front and which allowed for swift and fluid movement. It was Sunday, after all, and she would be meeting Dumbledore at Hogwarts for her weekly training session. Hermione had grown rather proficient at bi-casting and dueling occlumency, and was ready to practice casting triple spells. Dumbledore had applauded her progress and magical stamina, and he seemed to be very optimistic that she would be able to learn the difficult technique.

Their Sundays had evolved from a quick "catch-up" over a cup of tea, to three and even four-hour-long training sessions, followed by dinner in Dumbledore's office, where they usually laughed and laughed together over the absurdities of Ministry politics. They were each quite relieved to find that the other shared the same feelings and opinions about a great many things. Still, they avoided any topics which might bring up future events.