Menteur

Chapter 20: New Resolutions

December 10th, 1943 –The Winter Break begins

AN:mild swearing ahead..

The cold wind blew through the valley, tossing and twisting Hermione's curls, and immensely annoying the witch. Tucking most of the loose strands away from her face and underneath her woolen hat, she continued dragging her feet through the deep snow towards the horseless carriages at the school gates. She couldn't believe she got persuaded to see her new Slytherin 'friends' off before they board the train home for the winter holidays. Normally, she would not bother and simply come up with some lie as to why she couldn't go, but Dorea Black was quite insistent and had pestered Hermione until she'd agreed to meet them.

"Well, f**k!" Hermione cursed loudly as the ice covering a small puddle below gave out and her left foot almost completely disappeared in freezing muddy water.

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth, Durand?" laughed Thaddeus, while Cygnus offered to help get her foot out of the mud.

"Why, jealous?" shot back annoyed Hermione, quickly drying her wet shoe with heating charm.

Thaddeus, with a very sly grin planted on his face, leaned ostentatiously close to her face and whispered: "Hmm…and if I am, are you going to 'kiss' it better?"

Mimicking his sickly sweet tone, Hermione responded: "No, but I COULD take the BIGGEST icicle I can find and shove it up your-"

"Thaddeus!" Dorea's high-pitched voice sounded behind them. Both Slytherins immediately stopped their bickering and turned towards the group of newcomers let by irritated Dorea. The group consisting of Belvina, Septimus and Marius quickly approached the three Slytherins ahead of them.

"Thaddeus Victor Lestrange, don't you dare bothering Serena!" scowled Dorea at her fiancé, forcefully pulling him towards the carriages. Too self-satisfied, and for good measure, Hermione stuck her tongue out at Thaddeus' retreating form.

The whole group gathered at one of the carriages and started to load their trunks and other baggage, when Marius suddenly slapped his forehead, reached into his pocket and pulled out a large envelope.

"I almost forgot, Serena, headmaster sends you this" he said, handing her the envelope.

Hermione frowned: "What is it?"

"Your official permit to visit Malfoy Manor, I think" shrugged Marius, leisurely tossing his knapsack inside the carriage.

"Ah…" nodded the witch and pocketed the document.

Belvina, who was so far completely silent, turned to Hermione with an excited expression: "Are you going to see him, Serena?"

Raising eyebrows at the girl's unnecessary excitement, Hermione just shrugged her shoulders: "Yeah, probably. Abraxas seems like a nice person…"

Hermione still wasn't sure how much the Slytherins knew about the nature of her and Abraxas' relationship so she decided to stick with the most non-descript answers she could muster.

"A nice person?" asked Belvina disbelievingly, as if Hermione just denied the existence of magic all together.

Unsure, the bushy haired witch frowned. What is wrong with her statement?

"Yes. I mean… we have become good friends, I would say." Stated Hermione. Belvina bit her lip nervously and Dorea, who was already seated inside the carriage, poked her head out of the small window.

"Oh no, silly." Dorea laughed in her rich voice: "He has invited you, so his parents can meet you."

"Eh…Why?" asked Hermione, more confused than ever. Why would the Malfoys want to meet her?

Obviously her question must have sounded little more strained than she had hoped, because Belvina gently petted her arm, saying: "Oh, don't worry, darling. Here, in England, it is a tradition for the parents to meet the girl their son wants to marry."

What?

Suddenly everything went still… well, at least in Hermione's head. She was positive that if she have had a drink in her mouth, she would have choked.

"M-m-marry?" she managed to squeak out through her slowly constricting throat. Hoping that this was just a very bad dream or the biggest prank anyone ever pulled on her, Hermione's mind raced at the speed of light.

How did this happen? Wasn't Abraxas engaged to Letitica?

No, the idea of Abraxas wanting to…she couldn't even bring her mind to say it…the idea was just preposterous!

Dorea laughed at Hermione's frightened expression, likely mistaking it for shyness, and assured the witch: "Of course, he wants to marry you, darling!"

"Yeah, why else would he break off his engagement to Letitica…" commented Cygnus plainly, like he was describing the weather, and stepped into the cart.

Well, there went the last hope that this was just some sort of a mistake. This time Hermione's brain actually screamed. This was not supposed to happen! Their liaison was never supposed to go this far. Abraxas was supposed to marry Letitica and father that piece-of-sh**t son Lucius, who will in turn become father to the love of her life. Now everything was wrong...because of her!

Tears of despair reached the corners of her eyes, but she quickly blinked them away and attempted to smile as she waved at the retreating carriage containing her Slytherins classmates. By the time the vehicle finally disappeared behind the hill, tears were freely streaming down Hermione's cheeks.

This time she really screwed up.

How could she be so stupid? What if Draco wouldn't ever be born?

Tears still clouding her vision, Hermione turned around to head back to Hogwarts, but her body unexpectedly collided with another.

"Sorry..." she whispered, her voice sounding sullen, and hastily wiped the moisture from her eyes. As soon as her cheeks were acceptably dry, she looked up to apologize yet again for being so careless, but the words died on her lips. The person, she so unfortunately ran into, was Tom Marvolo Riddle himself. Hurriedly, she took a step back, forcing all the haze veiling her eyes to dissipate.

The younger wizard simply stood motionlessly in front of her like a marble statue. Even though his skin was sickly pale as always, the top of his cheekbones were reddened from the cold wind and hair tussled. Their eyes met and Hermione could swear she saw glossy moisture rimming the bottom lash lines of his eyes, but it was gone with a single blink. Was he…crying? The discussion with Dumbledore immediately popped to her mind- what if there was really a connection between them beyond their control? What if to some degree he was forced to experience everything she did and vice versa? One thing was for sure- Riddle looked just as distressed as her. Hermione's gaze traveled down from his red-rimmed eyes, over the narrow tip of his nose, across his pale lips and sharp jawline until it settled on his chest, where a familiar octagonal pendant glowed brightly. Involuntarily, her fingers twitched, suddenly too eager to touch the glowing jewelry, but Riddle noticed the direction of her attention and before she could even attempt anything he quickly tugged the strange jewelry into his coat and frowned at the witch. With a single movement, he pushed her aside and walked straight past her towards the remaining carriages, never looking back or otherwise acknowledging her existence.

With her mind still swirling around recent events and discoveries, Hermione was determined to finish this once and for all, no matter the consequence. This whole mess had to be resolved and the only thing she needed was a good plan.

TBC