To solve a riddle

Tom

I can’t believe I am going to have to marry one of these fools. All of the girls have already started staring batting their lashes and twirling their hair around their fingers. Well I wouldn’t mind marrying Hermione, that wouldn’t be too bad then I could find out her secrets and she could be my dark lady and we could rule. Oh my god there is something wrong with me. I turned to my left to see Hermione staring at me with a frown on her face. “So what do you think of the law Tom?”

“I don’t mind it as long as I am paired with someone with the same interests as me and is actually intellectually stimulating,” I said looking at her hoping she got the hint. She just murmured something to herself and put all her attention on Quenes. “The sorting ceremony will now begin, we will be going in random order.” Quenes said grabbing a list and placing the hat on the old wooden stool. “Charlus Potter,” He sauntered up to the hat and placed it on his head “Rosemary Gates!” it yelled, Charlus shrugged and went and sat next to the Ravenclaw. This happened several times with everybody getting paired off with ladies who were not bad on the eyes if I had to admit it, thank god nobody claimed my Hermione she was going to be mine I could feel it. “Tom Riddle,” the room fell silent, everyone clearly desperate to see which girl would be my beaux. I walked up to the stage, sat down on the stool and the hat was placed on my head. “Ah, we meet again Tom, the pleasure is always mine,” the hat began, “I think it’s quite obvious who I am going to you with,” Hermione I thought, “Yes she will be good for you,” the hat said nothing for a while then hollered “HERMIONE DELACOUR!” victory I thought. I walked back to my seat next to Hermione. “Hermione?” I said looking at her. “Hermione, are you all right?” I said tapping her, “Do you need me to take you to the infirmary?” she slowly nodded. I stood up and went over to Professor Merrythought to tell her Hermione was feeling a bit under the weather. Walking back over to her deciding that she wasn’t strong enough to walk to the infirmary even with my support, so I put one arm under legs and the under on her upper back, with her head resting on my chest.

 As we walked down the hallways, she started to wriggle and squirm mumbling something, that mumbling slowly escalated to a hear able whisper. “Tom, Tom no, please,” she whispered “Anything but that, I’ll do anything just don’t do it.” She gradually quietened down and went back to a relaxed state. I hope I didn’t hurt her I thought however judging by what she said I must have, and it must have been pretty bad. This only made me quicken my pace allowing me to reach the infirmary faster.

“Madame Pince, Madame Pince,” I yelled running into the infirmary placing her on the first bed in site. “What is it dear?” she replied running out of her office.

“She fainted during the sorting ceremony,” Madame Pince ran over to Hermione and ran numerous tests on her. After what’s seemed like hours but was actually mere minutes, she came from behind the screen covering the bed and gave me the rundown of her current state. “She is very dehydrated, and is practically starving, due to lack of food and water,” sighing I walked over to her bed stared down at her. How could you do this to yourself? I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by Madame Pince asking me if I wanted to stay by her side. “Of course,” I replied sitting down on the chair next to her bed. As Madam walked away I held Hermione’s hand and rubbed circles on the top of it with my thumb. Gradually Hermione woke up, slowly opening her eyes adjusting to the light, seeping through the closed curtains situated around the room. “Where am I? What am I doing here?” she whispered hoarsely.

“What do you remember?” I asked leaning in towards her.

“I… I remember being at the sorting ceremony and you going up and my name being called, and then nothing I guess.”

“That’s okay, you fainted so I took you here. You were dehydrated and starving, how could you do that to yourself?”

“Hmm. Oh I was so busy delving into the dark arts that I completely forgot that I needed to eat,” she said yawning. Yes I thought she is just as obsessed with the dark art, I have finally found my match, seems like the sorting hat was right about us being together. “Even still, no matter how intriguing the dark arts are one must always remember to eat,” I said still stroking her hand.

 “Anyway,” she began, “have I missed anything important?”

“Well I was given a sheet of important things. We must get married this year, within three years of our marriage we must have produced at least one heir and we are going to be having Family Consumer classes, so we know how to live as a family.” I said hoping she wasn’t too worried about the whole have heirs soon and get married soon situation. I checked my watch, “in fact are first lesson starts in 10 minutes,”

“Oh we must go, we need to learn all about being family since we will be becoming one in the near future,” she said smiling and squeezing my hand. She slowly got out of bed and transfigured her hospital gown into her school uniform, she went and signed out then grabbed my hand and pulled me with her down the dark winding passage ways to our first Family Consumers class.

Knocking on the door to our classroom it opened and we went inside and sat down facing each other as if we were dining at a restaurant. “Now class,” we all turned and looked to see Professor Slughorn standing there, “This year I will be your teacher for this class, now first things first we are all going to learn about are life partners, I want you each to learn five things about each other, I will then call on some of you to hear what you learnt,”