Syltherin's golden boy Tom Riddle was everything Hermione wanted to be, someone who was loved and praised for his skills instead of shunned like herself. When Hermione looked to him she saw someone who could be a mentor, when Tom looked back he saw a girl with the potential to be a soldier. Surprisingly their interests lined up better than expected. (I'm aware protégé is misspelled in the title, but you can't use accent marks in the search bar and I wanted to make it easier to find.)