Breaking Hermione

Ride Or Die

Classes were an absolute disaster. Much to my horror Tom Riddle was assigned as my partner during our practical  Defence Against the Dark Arts class. He seemed absolutely delighted at having me as his opponent and didn't hesitate to use a expanse of non verbal hexes against me that weren't in the textbook, enough so that the only spell I got to practice was "protego!"

"You're going to have to step up your game." Tom taunted me, as the force of my shield spell knocked me backwards off my feet.

"I wouldn't have to," I sat up, spitting hair out of my mouth, "if you'd only practice the assigned spells!"

I had a comprehensive understanding and a greatly experienced hand for a wide variety of practical Magic but I was sure Tom had invented half of the hexes he was firing at me. We had a relief teacher overseeing our class, a dim witch who cast adoring eyes on Tom each time she walked past him.

"Excellent work, Tom!" She beamed, walking past the pair of us. "Your wand work is outstanding. No, Granger, your duel stance is wrong. Stand straighter. How are you going to defend yourself if you're slouched over like that?"

I rolled my eyes. Tom snickered to himself as soon as she had her back turned.

"She's right. Stand straighter." He taunted me. "It simply astonishes me that you don't know the fundamentals of dueling, Hermione."

The rest of the day was as much as a failure as the breakfast. A lot of the Slytherins had picked up on Tom's cold attitude towards me. Particularly the girls. There were girls I had never even met making mean jokes about me at the back of each class. Not that it was anything unusual, but it certainly had peaked today out of all days. I figured a lot of it had to do with the fact that I had not only pissed off Slytherin's bad boy Tom Riddle but also had gotten Slytherin's sweetheart Daniel Dolohov into shit with his girlfriend. A lot of girls liked Daniel. Maybe because he didn't give off such a terrifying energy. He was hot, and he was nice. Apparently that was reason enough for hastily written threats to find their way to me in the form of paper planes.  One of them was so badly written I had to laugh.

Your hair is a bird's nest
Your smile is like open sores
Daniel is better than you
Bitch you will get yours

I frowned. Who the literall hell wrote that, a troll? I didn't have the heart to waste the paper, so I pocketed it. Well, until a searing pain flickered up my cloak - the damned thing had caught alight. Someone's sick idea of a joke, clearly. I extinguished it at once, now highly agitated and wanting nothing more than to go back to my dorm and go to bed. Anything to not participate in reality. But then it was History of Magic with the Gryffindors and the old ghost Professor Binns was at the front of the class with a topic that captured my interest.

"Now, as many of you are already aware the Gryffindor Prefects have arranged a lunch at the 3 Broomsticks for select students and their dates.  handpicked by the Prefects of the four Houses who were assigned the job to nominate those who exceeded expectation in class performance. The list of attendees for Slytherin House has been compiled by Tom Riddle. The attendees for Gryffindor, Alison Pottsworth. I won't waste my time telling you Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, that is irrelevant considering none of them are currently in this class."

"Professor Binns." A sharp faced looking Gryffindor girl interrupted, "I've read the list of those invited and Slytherin has selected a Ravenclaw. Would you say that is allowed?"

There were several murmurs of disapproval, but not from the Slytherins.

"If you have any issues with that you can take it to your Head of House." Binns said dismissively while I frowned. What Ravenclaw made the list?