2:23 P.M.
"And that one—that one right there—that's a Tongue Twisting Toffee." Hermione pointed at one of the several variously shaped wrapped candies Tom Riddle was holding up in his gloved palm. A strong gust of wind blasted through the small village, and she involuntarily shuddered. "Trust me, you don't want that one."
Riddle sceptically studied the pile of sweets in his hand. "If it were you who had to risk it, which one would you have?"
Hermione furrowed her brow, seriously considering his question. The muffled conversations and sporadic shouts from inside the Three Broomsticks only served to radically disrupt her concentration.
"Well, I actually have to admit, I do like a lot of them—yeah, scary, isn't it?— but my favourite one... would have to be..."
Scooting right next to Riddle, closer than she would have ever dared to be—or even wanted to be, for that matter— before the past few weeks, Hermione poured over his glove, some wisps of curly hair falling into her face as she lightly pawed through her options.
Wait a second. Had she just thought, 'wanted'?
"Umm... This one." She emerged triumphantly, holding up a brightly wrapped spiral. Riddle eyed the candy suspiciously, sliding the remaining sweets back into the bag he had been carrying: a small, red paper pouch with an ornate, cursive gold Honeydukes stamped onto its side. She handed the Heir of Slytherin the spiral, pink paper-wrapped toffee.
"What is it?" he asked circumspectly, eying it warily.
"It's called a Strawberry Surprise; it tastes like mixed berries." Hermione began walking alongside him down the snowy avenue, their feet crunching with each step as they passed a group of frolicking third years, the bright but cloudy morning already having darkened into afternoon.
As Hermione narrowly dodged a rogue snowball, he smirked. "Why is it a surprise?"
Hermione dignifiedly straightened her cloak, tossing a dirty look over her shoulder at Dominic Davies, the culprit of the snowball, which she now figured wasn't as rogue as she had first thought it to be. Turning back to Riddle, she mirrored his expression.
"It's a surprise, Riddle, because you never know what you might get."
Another burst of snow blew up and danced across the road in front of them. Laughing, she grabbed her hat with one hand. Riddle, though, went silent, and the only other noise came in the form of war whoops from the full-fledged snowball fight that had erupted in the street behind them. As even that began to fade into the distance, Hermione could honestly say that she was glad to leave the hectic business of the village behind.
"What does it do?" Riddle finally asked, holding up the spiral toffee once more.
Out of nowhere, her competitive streak reared its eager head.
"Hm, don't know," she mused quite innocently, though the wicked smile that had slid across her face sent quite an opposite message. She nodded slyly at the Strawberry Surprise. "Why don't you try it and find out?". Riddle's eyebrows shot up. He stared at her briefly, then deftly unwrapped the spiral, revealing two toffee cylinders, one pink and one white, wrapped together like a double helix.
Though she still strolled on, Hermione slowed down considerably and reached over. Carefully taking hold of the pink strand, she peeled the two apart so that he was only holding the thin white roll. "All right, you eat that one, and I eat this pink one. On three. One, two..."
Both she and Riddle popped their respective pieces into their mouths, and a familiar, mouth-watering, heavenly fruity flavour burst through her taste buds. Closing her eyes, savouring the taste, she waited for the sure-fire comment from Riddle... and, not surprisingly, it came soon after.
"For as good as it tastes, Nefertari, nothing exciting's happening."
Hermione glanced over her shoulder to making sure that she and he were the only two within a reasonable distance. Momentarily smiling at the flashing cloaks and flying snowballs that she could just make out in the Hogsmeade streets at least a quarter of a kilometre back, Hermione slid off one of her blue gloves and stopped walking. "Now touch my hand."
YOU ARE READING
Misunderstood Maledictions | Tomione
Romance"Have you ever really been hated, Nefertari? Have you ever been disowned by your own bloody father before he even met you? Have you ever been cursed by the woman who called herself your mother before you could even crawl? Have you ever... asked a qu...
