Breaking Hermione

Defence Against The Dark Lord

Tom Riddle despised Dumbledore. This I knew, but I wasn't prepared for the utmost loathing I saw in his eyes as he watched Dumbledore walking towards us.

"What's the old oaf doing walking out to the greenhouses at a time like this?" He hissed, glaring at me like it was somehow all my fault. "Surely he has a class to be teaching."

Tom was so tall, I had to crane my head back to look at him.

"I don't know." I admitted. "Maybe he's coming to speak to me?"

Tom scoffed, but stopped immediately as soon as Dumbledore got close.

"Riddle, Granger. Wondrous day isn't it?" The Dumbledore of Tom's time said pleasantly. I looked at him closely. He looked extremely strange with auburn hair, for some reason I always considered Dumbledore to be old, I had never considered the possibility he was once young.

"I suppose." Tom said impatiently, and shot him a sharp look which said all too clearly we know you're not really here to talk about the weather.

"I'm here to speak to you both, but first I wanted to inform you Tom that your next class with Professor Merrythought is outside the Quidditch pitch. There's a shortage of space in her classroom for the time being, as we've used it to contain several escaped Boggarts."

He smiled in reminiscence of a memory Tom and I would never know.

"I realise the reason for your lateness too, of course." He said, snapping back to the present moment. "I can assume Professor Beery has asked you to help wrangle the Venomous Tentacular, so I won't be deducting points off Slytherin House today."

"But what about Hermione? Sir." Tom added after a pause, his eyes shining. "What do you need to speak to her about?"

Whatever patience Tom had mustered appeared to have expired.

"That is between both Miss Granger and myself." Said Dumbledore mildly. "Enjoy your lesson Tom. I assure you, Miss Granger will be present in your next class. Now if you don't mind, we really must be off."

Dumbledore didn't stop to talk further, instead he turned and walked up to the castle, his emerald coloured robes trailing in the grass behind him. I followed hastily, almost stumbling, not caring in the slightest about Tom nor the way he stood in silence staring after me.

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I was expecting to be led to Dumbledore's old office up the spiral staircase but instead we took a detour to the seventh floor, coming to stand before the most unexpected of places- the Room of Requirement.

I looked around. Literally no one was in sight, not even Peeves. Wringing my hands, I felt a sort of queasy feeling, the horrible sinking sensation I got whenever Tom Riddle was around.

The sooner we get inside the better I found myself thinking. Goosebumps erupted over my skin, I wrapped both of my arms around myself, trying hard not to let my mind wander to dark places.

"I do apologise," Dumbledore was saying. In silence he walked the span of the wall, head bowed in concentration. "However I do think it best if we were to speak in a place where no one would, for want of a better word, listen in."