Hermione's Riddle

A Change in the Lord

"Well, that was uneventful," said Hermione as they entered their private dorm. She was referring to their rounds around the seventh floor. One of their Head duties involved patrolling the school with the prefects for any students out past curfew.

"Yes. I was looking forward to abducting some house points, particularly Gryffindor," this earned him a snort from Hermione, "and Hufflepuff."

Tom faked a yawn. "Good night, Hermione." He went into his room and shut the door. He actually wasn't tired but he needed to buy some time until the meeting later on in the night. He pulled out his homework and sat down at the desk to work on it.

After a while, Tom pulled out his pocket watch to see that it was time for him to leave. He shut his text book and got up.

He was dismayed to find Hermione still up. She was sitting in their small common room working on homework. She looked up when she heard his door open.

"I thought you were asleep," said Hermione almost accusingly.

Tom sighed. He didn't want to lie to her nor did he want to have the argument over his followers again. Hermione had somehow figured out all of his secrets and was not all that happy with them. Again, Tom found himself asking why he cared so much about the little witch's opinion.

Tom settled with a half truth. "I am meeting a friend."

"You don't have any friends," accused Hermione. "You don't have to lie to me. I know you're meeting your followers," her tone bordered on disgust.

"What are you going to do about it," Tom quirked his eyebrow challengingly.

Hermione sighed in defeat. "Nothing this time. Just promise not to hurt any of them. And. . .look out for Abraxas."

"I promise." Damn, why did he just promise something like that? He was a man who kept his word and that meant he could no longer set the cruciatus curse on Snyde. He would just have to find other means to make the fifth year's life a living hell.

Hermione turned her attention away from him and back to the book in front of her. Tom pulled his eyes away from Hermione and left. He made his way to the Room of Requirement and paced three times. A door appeared and Tom entered.

The room was decorated as a simple common room. A fireplace crackled in the front of the room. His followers were already there waiting for him. Bollocks! The little witch caused him to be late. Tom hated being late unless it was on purpose.

All of his followers looked toward him with shock evident on their faces except for Abraxas. The white-haired boy just smirked before offering Tom a polite bow.

"Let's get down to business," said Tom in a commanding voice. "I would like to welcome our newest member, Abraxas Malfoy." Tom folded his hands behind his back to assume a more commanding pose. The next he would say will most likely cause most of his followers distress and anger. "The main point I would like to get across during this meeting is a new policy. We will no longer see muggle-borns as our enemy." Many of his followers grumbled at that, well, all of them except for Abraxas. Tom sent his followers a glare that shut them up pretty quickly. Normally he would have just cruciated them all but he remembered the promise he made to Hermione not even an hour ago.

"I have come to the realization that some show potential and could help our cause, not hinder it," continued Tom. "Also, with the recent downfall of Grindewald, who was a muggle and muggleborn hater, I have come to another realization that we must do things differently then him. His short sighted views and untamed hatred caused him to not see the bigger picture. We will not become like him. We will succeed where he failed. We will let the wizarding world know of our power and determination and we will do it as a whole, not a divided community."

His followers clapped at the end of his speech. They may not like his new view on muggle-borns but they were too terrified and awed by him to speak against him.

"That is all for this meeting. Get back to your dorm. Oh, and make sure to increase your grades. It does not look good to have some with poor markings, especially when we want the elder generation to recognize us."