AN: This chapter is filler, but I still hope you all enjoy it. Also I want to thank every single one of you who left me a review. I greatly appreciate all of you taking the time to come and read my story.

Tuesday 4 February 1992 8:23am

Hermione woke up that morning with a smile on her face, a smile so bright that it could rival that of her favourite actress Julia Robert's, and a skip to her step that made her feel as though she were walking on air. She even sang in the shower for the first time in months, something that she hadn't had the heart to do since the summer of the previous year. She stood under the warm spray of water, belting out the chorus to Dannii Minogue's Jump to the Beat.

She felt entirely refreshed almost as if a giant load had just been removed from her shoulders, and she was finally free from the dread of being alone. And she had Tom to thank for it. She remembered the talk that she had shared with him the night before, and couldn't help herself as a smile spread its way across her lips once more. She thought about their conversation, remembering just how understanding he had been when she decided to lay herself bare before him, exposing to him every little thing that had gone wrong in her life after she entered the wizarding world.

:

"Hello, Hermione, I'm sorry to hear that you had such a bad day. My name is Tom Riddle. If it's not too much, I was wondering if you could tell me how you came to be in possession of my diary?" came his response. His writing was impeccable, almost to the point of resembling the finest calligraphy.

"I believe you may have accidentally left it in the library back when you were a student at Hogwarts." She wrote quickly, eagerly waiting for Tom's reply.

"Well, that's rather unfortunate. Lucky for me that I had the forethought to record my memories with something a little more lasting than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not want this journal to be read. But do tell, Hermione... What exactly happened to make your day so terrible?"

"I can't tell you without telling you everything that's led up to this and it's sort of a long story," she wrote, "I'm certain you don't want to hear about it."

"Trust me when I say, I have nothing but time, Hermione."

Hermione held her quill over the page, watching his words as they faded away into nothingness. She let out a great big sigh before placing her quill against the parchment and proceeding to write.

She began to recount the last few months to him, starting with her life before coming to Hogwarts and ending with her discovery that Ronald Weasley had been the one behind the theft on her belongings.

"Well, you certainly weren't lying when you said that it was quite a long story. But I'm happy you decided to share it with me anyway," came Tom's reply as soon as her ink faded from the page. "Also, I would like to add, that I could be your friend, if you like."

"You would?" she wrote in disbelief. "Are you sure? I don't want to get my hopes up and then you change your mind at the last minute."

"I wouldn't have said it, if I didn't mean it." came his response, almost as soon as her ink started to fade away.

She smiled as she read his words.

A friend.

She finally had a friend.

"If you weren't a muggleborn, I'm certain you would've been a Slytherin with the amount of cunning you've shown in handling all of the things you've been through." he added in the absence of her response.

"Really?" she asked. "Because the entire school seems to believe that Slytherin is a house for dark wizards and witches." she quickly scribbled back, remembering what Harry told her about Hagrid and what he said about Slytherin house.

'There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.'

"Well it sounds like Professor Dumbledore has finally been successful in shifting the narrative about Slytherin house to suit him and his prejudice against us." Tom responded, the flashing of his words breaking her from her reverie as they appeared on the page, "I sincerely hope you haven't been naive enough to fall victim to his propaganda."

"Of course not," she scrawled back, "It would be small minded of me to do so. Especially since Merlin himself was a Slytherin."

"I see you read Hogwarts: A History," came his swift response. "It was one of my favourite books when I first came to Hogwarts."

"I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who considers that book one of the bests the school has to offer," she told him, quickly adding. "Though your journal is definitely coming in at a close second."

"I'm happy you think so," came his response, "You sound like such a kind girl, Hermione. I find myself now feeling inclined to ask you whether or not you would like my assistance in handling some of your earlier struggles?"

She stared at the journal confused. How on Earth would he be able to help her? He was in a book for God's sake!

"You don't think I can help you, do you?" he wrote back after a moment.

"No, it's not that." she hurriedly wrote her lie.

"Don't lie to me Hermione, you're terrible at it." he wrote back in response, leaving Hermione floored. How on Earth did he know that she was lying?

"How did you know I was lying?"

"Well, I didn't before, but now I do. Thanks to you."

"Oh," she responded slowly, taking her time as she tried to think of something else to add.

"It's okay," he assured her, "I can usually always tell when someone lies to me, it's not just you."

"How does all of this work?" she asked him, "The journal, I mean." she added quickly before the ink could disappear.

"I don't know if I should tell you now," he wrote back after a pregnant pause, "It's rather a complicated bit of magic."

"I'll have you know that I'm in the top of my class!" she wrote feeling somewhat offended, "All of my Professors tell me that I'm on track to be the brightest witch of the age, especially if I continue studying at the rate that I do."

"I didn't mean to offend you, Hermione," Tom responded quickly, "I was being honest when I told you it's a very complicated bit of magic."

Hermione stared at the ink, watching as it sat there on the page for a moment before fading away. She didn't know what to say to him now that she had gone off and made a fool of herself by assuming he was trying to slight her with his comment.

"I can teach you, however, how to ward your belongings so that you're not at a disadvantage with your treacherous peers." Tom added during her moment of inaction. "If you're interested, that is."

"I'm very interested!" she wrote quickly. "We wont learn about wards until sixth year."

"Well, it's lucky you have me then, right?" came his response, "Though I do need one thing from you, something that you might find a little strange."

"What's that?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"I just need a small drop of your blood," he wrote, "Don't be alarmed though, it's to activate some of the magical properties of this journal."

"A drop of my blood?" she asked in confusion. "What is my blood supposed to do?"

"Like I mentioned earlier, it's nothing to be alarmed of. I simply need a drop of your blood to activate some of the magic that has been imbued into this journal. It'll allow me to show you things I otherwise can't if my journal remains in it's current state."

Hermione stared at the page pondering her response, even long after his words had already faded away. He seemed so understanding, he wanted to be her friend, and he said he would help her protect her things. But she couldn't help but wonder why exactly he needed her blood.

"Don't you trust me?" came his next words when she didn't respond.

"Yes! Of course I trust you!" she wrote quickly, hoping she hadn't offended him. "I just need you to tell me what to do."

Tom's reply came quickly, his writing becoming untidier, as though he was hurrying to tell her all he knew.

"Grab the athame you use for potions class and make a small incision on your thumb. Then place your thumb against the inner cover of my journal and say the incantation. 'Adiuro me tibi'. Once you've done that, I can help you."

Hermione read the incantation several times, memorizing it before it disappeared. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, before pulling her satchel up from the floor and onto her bed with her. After fishing around inside of her bag, she finally felt the handle of her athame. As soon as her fingers grazed the engraved handle, she pulled it free from her bag, and unsheathed it. Staring nervously at the pointed tip of the blade, she shakily raised it to her left thumb before quickly nicking the center of it. She hissed in pain, and inspected the small cut as blood began to pool on the surface of her skin. Pressing her thumb to the centre of the inner cover of the journal, Hermione slowly repeated the incantation.

"Adiuro me tibi," she said as she held her thumb firmly to the cover.

Suddenly the pages of the diary began to blow as though they had been caught in a high wind, stopping midway through the journal. Mouth hanging open, Hermione watched as a little square had appeared in the centre of the page and seemed to have turned into a miniscule television screen. Her hands trembled slightly, as she raised the book to press her eye against the little window, and before she knew what was happening, she had begun falling forward; the window abruptly began to widen, and she felt her body leave her bed as she was pitched headfirst through the new opening on the page and into a whirl of color and shadow.

As soon as she felt her feet hit solid ground, she stood, shaking and scared as the blurred shapes around her came suddenly into focus.

She knew immediately where she was, the Hogwarts library.

"Hello Hermione," she heard someone say from behind her. She turned around, trying to find out who it was that was with her and found a boy of about sixteen standing there behind her. She could see that he was very tall and quite handsome, with his pale alabaster skin, jet black hair, and dark hypnotic eyes. On his robe hung a silver prefect's badge that glinted in the light as he approached her. As he came closer, he held his hand out to her, "Nice to properly meet you. I'm Tom."

She swallowed thickly and stared up at him with wide eyes before realizing what he had just said.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said dumbly as she reached to take a hold of his hand and was surprised when instead of shaking it, he lifted it to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

He smirked at her, and the look made him appear even more dashing to her, "Why don't we get started on learning those wards now." he told her as he turned on his heel and exited the library, Hermione following close behind him.

:

She still couldn't believe just how beautiful he was and the wards he taught her had certainly done the trick. That morning as she showered, while standing under the stream of hot water, she heard the unmistakable sound of one of her roommates screeching like a banshee. Once she went back into their shared bedroom, there standing in the middle of the room was a very bald and hysterically sobbing Lavender Brown. As soon as her eyes landed on Hermione however, she became completely incensed.

"YOU!" she yelled, "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

Hermione remembered looking at her and attempting Tom's smirk.

"No Lavender," she smiled at the bald headed girl. "You did this to yourself."

She didn't even spare her a second thought as she turned and headed to her trunk to pull out a fresh uniform and pair of school robes to dress herself in and head on down to breakfast.

She couldn't wait for her next lesson from Tom.