Hermione was surprised that Tom continued to ask her out after they had finished school and passed their NEWTs. She knew perfectly well that he had only done it because Slughorn put him up to it, so she had expected it to cease when school ended. She had no illusions that he actually liked her in a romantic way. His attentions were perfunctory and proper: taking her coat, the occasional icy peck on the cheek, holding hands while walking. She preferred not to hold his right hand, because he wore a ring on that hand that had some strange sort of magic charmed into it, something that almost seemed to get into her mind and whisper to her. When she asked him about it, he looked startled for a moment, but he assured her that it was a very old heirloom from his mother and probably was meant to be handled only by someone in the family.