Chapter 2
“In your seat Mr. Crabbe, thank you. Now, class, you will be assigned partners for this upcoming project. Pay attention please, your group will be given a certain Variant that you will have to do research on and present to the class. Now, this can range from heroes, villains, even just well-known figures. After I call out your group names, go meet up with your partners, there would be about three to a team but one group will have just two people.”
Harry was trying to listen but honestly, Binns was droning on and on, it seemed like it would never end. So he opted to doodle in his notebook instead, he’ll have to read over the paper for the instructions anyways. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw someone move, it turned out Hermione’s name just got called. Looking up he saw her make a face, it was a pinched one. Turning to see where she was looking, he found out exactly why. Out of all people, it’s fucking Malfoy, that prat.
“Hermione,” he softly started, his hand moving to hold hers lightly in support. She just shook her head while giving his hand a tight squeeze in return. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” she gave a smile in return to say she’ll be ok but it came off as more of a grimace.
“Don’t worry Mione, if that ferret tries anything, his hair isn’t the only thing that’ll be in danger,” Ron added as he gave her his well-known bright smile, further cheering the brunette up a bit. Hermione pulled up her hair in a bun after gathering all her stuff and walking over to the sneering blond.
Hermione always puts her hair up in a bun whenever she has to be anywhere near that bleached lemonhead. It’s better safe than sorry she would always say. In their first year, that asshole decided to pour gorilla glue over most of her hair resulting in Hermione having to cut her hair. Although the bob cut wasn’t such a bad look on her, it really affected her self-esteem a lot and it didn’t help that Malfoy and his posse constantly made fun of her. And to add salt to that wound, Malfoy never got in trouble for it because nobody saw it.
Well, the school may not have done anything but he and Ron sure did, of course without Hermione knowing. If she had known what they would have done, that plan would not have come to fruition. She would have likely stopped them so they wouldn’t get expelled. Really it was just karma coming to bite that ferret in the ass, they were just speeding up the process.
The plan only required one of them to have the prat distracted long enough, which by the way, wasn’t that hard seeing Malfoy had a penchant for running his mouth whenever he saw them. Ron had done the honors of having to listen to the blond basically spit bullshit out his mouth. While he, with the help of the twins’ gadgets, got into Malfoy’s locker and added a little extra something in his precious hair gel, just a little extra boost to make that big head of his smoother.
It was quite the sight hearing the youngest Malfoy scream so high like a banshee and all the more when they saw his hair falling off his head, being swept away by the water. Needless to say, the rumor spread fast like water out of a broken dam. The blond had even stopped coming to a school until his hair grew back, although once he did return he was still made fun of or even teased by his peers.
Even getting scolded by Hermione was worth it, it was a very very long lecture. Well, it was longer for him than Ron seeing how he was the mastermind behind it all. Although at the end of it Hermione did tear up hugging him with a ruthless strength that was probably on par with that of an adult bear. Even though Hermione didn’t like them breaking the rules, this certain event did make her feel better, she started to be more like herself and her confidence came back. Even if he had gotten caught, it would’ve been worth it, no one gets away with hurting basically his sister at this point.
It also didn’t help that this tidbit came up during their family and friends gathering, Fred and George of course couldn’t help but brag about it. His father and Sirius were losing their marbles patting him on the back proudly while his mother leveled him a look saying they’ll be having a talk later on. Although after learning that it was for Hermione she basically told him how to really hit where it hurts. His father and godfather may be the pranksters in the family but his mother, well she was just something else, what a truly vicious woman and he’s proud to say he’s her son.
Harry realized that all his friends had already paired up and it seems he was the only one left. Shit, did he really zone out so much that he didn’t hear his name being called? He really needed to get his out of the clouds, he couldn't quite pull it off like Luna did. He was however broken out of his inner panicking when his name was called only… It was more of the name that came after his that had the class quieting down.
“Harry Potter and Tom Riddle.”
Tom Riddle?
The Tom Riddle!
This is going to be one hell of a project, Harry can already foretell, no need for a Sphere of Prophecies.
He could already see his classmates giving him looks, most of them jealous and scorned it wasn’t them working with him. Really how troublesome, how is it even his fault? Shouldn’t they be looking at Binns that way for actually being the one that chose their partners, he would never understand these people.
He can’t say he likes the guy but he wouldn’t use hate either, just a little dislike? Well, it’s more of the people he hung around. With the likes of Malfoy, Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, Avery, Mulciber, and really he could go on. They are all basically bullies, picking on anybody outside of their clique, they think they are the creme de la creme of society. Beyond insufferable, the amount of ego they have, it’s surprising their overinflated heads haven’t burst already.
No, that's not why he may have a slight dislike for the other teen, it’s the fact that he doesn't do anything. He neither joins nor stops his friends, well more like acquaintances, from being complete and utter asses towards other people they believe are below them. Sometimes they just verbally bully but it has gotten physical and very hurtful most times and the school, useless in all its entirety has done nothing. That fucking greasy bat of a teacher always lets them get away with everything. He is really grateful for all the Gods and greater beings out there in the universe that his mother did not end up with that grease ball. Heaven and hell and everything in between and outside of it forbid.
He had actually felt bad for the man when he had learned that he was bullied by the Marauders when they had gone to Hogwarts together and was not happy to have learned that at the start of his first year. He was going to make his father and godfathers even apologize to the man but then he witnessed firsthand just how the man treated the students, his students! Of course, he got the worst end of it. He really couldn’t fathom how a man who knows how it felt to be treated like that, do the same to his own students. How miserable really.
He looked around as he made his way over to the front and thankfully he was able to see the leg sticking out in hopes of tripping him and was able to avoid it. After a whole journey of having to fight against jealous furies, he finally made it to Tom’s desk, small miracles do indeed happen.
“Hey,” he greeted as he took a chair from the surrounding desk and brought it to sit in front of the teen who’s basically voted to be most successful. Well, it’s not all baseless, he actually ranks higher than Hermione which says a lot in itself. And in return, he got a simple curt, “hello."
Now actually taking a better look at the teen, he’s not so bad looking but hmm… He’d definitely look better if his hair was ruffed up more but that little loose strand of hair right over his forehead is kinda… Cute?
Woah.
No.
No! Definitely not.
Snap. Out. Of. It.
This absolutely cannot be happening.
Harry James Potter, you must be mad. A fucking nutcase.
NOPE!
Just a big NO.
“Hello?”
Harry looked up to meet brown eyes, he blinked blankly before it all came back to him. “Oh,” he had a sheepish smile, “could you repeat that again.” To this, the other teen gave a nod and begin to talk.
“We are assigned the villain, Voldemort, as our topic. We are supposed to do research on them, anything that we can find about them. In the upcoming month, the class will be required to go on a trip to the Flamel Inc. building to learn more about Variants and how they came to be, which we have to incorporate into our presentation. As of now, I think we can just search up any information we can find on Voldemort. Seeing how big of an assignment this is, would you be fine with meeting in person about twice a week. For anything else, we could just text. How does that sound to you?”
He was a bit surprised that Tom wasn't unnerved by calling out the villains name. Few and he means very few as in mostly just his parents and that in itself is rarely do they ever call the villain by the given name. He didn't really understand what all the 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' was about but fear can make people irrational or it was just his reckless bravery or idiocy. He likes to think it goes hand in hand although his friends and family would say it's idiocy that outshines all else.
But, wow, he’s really a no-nonsense guy, Harry thought. Seems like he won’t be stuck doing all the work this time, a lesson learned to never work with your friends unless of course, it’s Hermione. “Yeah, all sounds good to me. Here’s my number,” Harry handed Tom a piece of paper with his number, “so how would you like to present this? Poster Board? PowerPoint?” Tom gave a thoughtful look, “for now we don’t have much information. I think it would be best to wait a few more weeks and see how best to present our information.”
“Alright, I think it’s easier that way. So…” Just like that he and Tom continued talking about their project until the bell ranged. The whole time Harry was left thinking that Tom might not be so bad as he first thought.
Might …