Invictus [Tom Riddle / Tomione]

Fatal Fudge

Hermione was seated on her garden terrace on a balmy spring morning, two days after the arrest of Edward Rosier and Maximillian Dolohov. She had not heard from Tom since.

On Tuesday, the two wizards were brought in for questioning and their wands confiscated by the DMLE. When performing Prior Incantato, it was revealed that Dolohov had cast both the bombarda maximus and morsmordre , the spells which had resulted in the breaches in France.

The search of Edward Rosier's wand had resulted in a few spells which may or may not have been incriminating. Despite the ambiguity of his spell work, he was apprehended on the basis of his connection to Dolohov in purchasing Polyjuice ingredients. Eyewitness accounts stated that the breaches in Paris had been carried out by a pair of wizards, so Dufresne made it clear to Rosier that unless he revealed the name of the witch or wizard who orchestrated the attacks, he would likely be incriminated and imprisoned in Azkaban for his connection to the breaches.

Rosier remained silent, eerily so.

A physical examination uncovered magical etchings on their forearms, revealing a skull with a serpent exiting its mouth.

The wizards would give no explanation as to what these marks meant.

Investigative legilimency yielded no memories of the events, and the DMLE reports recorded that the wizards had seemingly been obliviated.

Hermione sat at the little wrought iron table on her terrace, wearing a black robe trimmed with lace, her legs crossed and a tea cup in her hand.

I won't contact him until he contacts me , she thought.

This would be the real test of their relationship.

Hermione was relieved to know that neither wizard would give Tom up.

She decided she would give Tom the chance to explain to her why he had orchestrated the breaches. Hermione didn't recall anything like this ever having happened in the original timeline, so how could her presence have changed his actions that much?

It didn't make sense.

Her brows were furrowed and she was deep in thought when her owl, Perdita, flew in with the morning post. She perched on the table as Hermione took the bundle of papers from her beak.

She untied the parcel and lifted the first paper from the stack, and then her heart stopped beating.

There, on the front page of The Daily Prophet, was a moving photograph of her and Tom.

She watched from the aerial view of the photographer as she and Tom stared into each other's eyes, then Tom moved in for a kiss.

Her stomach turned flips.

The headline read: Riddle & Dumbledore: Feud Forgotten in Favor of Budding Romance!

Hermione's mouth went dry and she blinked.

Hastily, she rifled through the stack of papers until she found a copy of Rumours!

The same photograph was on the front page, but the headline was less favorable.

Dumbledore, a Fraud? Secret Romance with Sworn Enemy!

The arrest of Rosier and Dolohov appeared to have taken a back seat, as it appeared on the bottom of the page in smaller print.

Hermione sat the papers down and dropped her head into her hands. Once again, nothing could be simple.

She'd dealt with slanderous rumors for her entire life, it seemed, so she could deal with them once again.