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Masters of Manipulation	By : Nerys Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 28506 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Chapter ten

Hermione was pacing to and fro in the Room of Requirement. Every now and then she would throw an annoyed glance at the clock, which had miraculously appeared on the wall when she started to wonder what the exact time was. It was nine-fifteen and Riddle was nowhere to be seen. She felt like trashing something, preferably the stupid Head Boy for keeping her waiting. But he wasn't around, so she blew up one of the chairs with a carefully aimed Blasting Charm instead. It didn't make her feel any better. She stared at the two books on the table, and a devious smile made it to her face. If Riddle couldn't make it on his own accord on time, then perhaps she should force him here. So she pulled up a chair, picked up Godric's book and started reading vigorously. Hermione was halfway through the first page, when…

'Finally, I thought I would be stuck in that corridor and sprout roots, before it would occur to your feeble little mind that I can't get into this Room on my own. Something we definitely have to fix before this evening has passed.'

Tom Riddle, who sounded as annoyed as Hermione felt, slammed the door behind him and walked into the Room of Requirement. It was going to be a cosy evening.

'What's the matter Riddle? Am I imposing on your busy schedule of badgering Quidditch Seekers?'

He snorted. 'Really Evans, I have better things to do with my time than waste it on some mindless game.'

'Oh, I suppose Macmillan flew into the wrong direction on her own merit.'

Riddle eyed Hermione for a moment, before he slouched down into the chair at the opposite side of her table and responded. 'Actually, she did. I never told her to do that. She figured it out all on her own.'

And he started grinning. 'Women. They're so easy. Always so willing to please another; to place someone else's happiness above their own, to put aside their own best interest for some bloke they think fancies them, when they hardly even know him. Let's say this is a good learning experience for sweet, gullible Eve.'

Hermione was envisioning how Tom Riddle would look if she were to practise the last charm that came from her wand on him. Alas, she still needed the information from Salazar's writings, so she settled for a nasty reply instead.

'Well, congratulations, Riddle. You were able to trick a fourteen year old,' she sneered, 'I hope you're proud of yourself, because I can imagine that must have been really, really hard work.'

'Hmmm… I think you will find out that I am even capable of tricking someone who is supposed to be slightly more mature, Evans,' and he was clearly staring at Hermione here.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. 'Really?' she said angry.

'Yeah, really,' he said smugly. 'Feeling slightly aggravated, are we?'

And he was definitely snickering underneath his breath, when he picked up Eternity in Time to start reading from it.

'Did the chair perhaps do something to you too, Evans?' he added, chuckling from behind the book.

Hermione snatched the book out of his hands. 'Not so fast Riddle. I have something to add first.'

Riddle sighed, and stretched out his hand, demanding the book back. 'I think we've wasted enough time on those … Gryffindoresk morals of yours. Let's just do what we came here for, so our time spent together can be as brief as possible.'

Hermione merely smiled, and went to sit further backwards in her chair, using Salazar's book as a means to wave air in her face, like she needed cooling down in the middle of November. 'What's in here, Riddle?' she said annoyingly cheerful.

He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. 'If you want to find out, then I suggest you hand me the book, so I can read all about it and inform you afterwards.'

'Not good enough,' Hermione said sharply, 'I want you to tell me what you, or your lovely older counterpart, have done with this book. I want to know who it was that spoke to me when I was underneath the Sorting Hat, and I want to know why and how I travelled here, and why I am feeling the bloody way that I am feeling, whenever I am near this blasted book or you. I want to know it all, Riddle. And you're going to tell me.'

'Oh… well, if you say so,' Tom said sarcastically, and he also started to lean backwards in his chair.

'Will you, Tom Marvolo Riddle, tell Hermione Jean Granger the entire contents of Eternity in Time?'

Hermione repeated the vow in an upbeat, triumphant tone of voice. Riddle frowned and stared at her obvious victorious expression.

'The entire contents, Riddle,' Hermione explained smugly, 'not just the text. It's as you said, simple vows are the best. We wouldn't want to get confused about its meaning, now would we?' she added with an infuriating smirk upon her face.

Riddle merely continued staring at her. His face set in that cool, collective, blank expression; like he hadn't a single care in the world. Like Hermione hadn't just outwitted him greatly. It was rather irritating, so Hermione added a little more hurt to injury. 'After all, it was you who wrote down the vows.You were the one who came up with the brilliant sentence. Thank you for that by the way, it was most accommodating of you.'

Silence filled the room, until Riddle let out a deep sigh of boredom.

'I've got to say this is most disappointing. I thought you would have gone through every book in the library about Blood-Binding Charms by now, Evans. Especially after I already informed you there was one inside of Eternity in Time, but I guess I must have overestimated you and your powers of deduction. So, if you want to waste our precious time here, with me telling you something you could have figured out on your own easily, then who am I to refuse a lady's request,' Tom said sighing.

'You know perfectly well that the only books who elaborate on Blood-Binding Charms are of such a dark nature that I would never get permission from a professor to extract one from the restricted section in the library. It would be very much against the rules of the ministry to allow a student access to that kind of knowledge,' Hermione replied.

It already had irked her severely that she had been unable to get to those books without Harry and his invisibility cloak. She did not need Riddle rubbing it in.

'Pffftt… rules and regulations,' Riddle said tauntingly, wondering if she would recognise the wording.

She did and he ducked just in time to avoid a collision between his head and a thick, green leather binding. His laugh filled the Room of Requirement.

'Really Granger, don't tell me you actually thought Salazar Slytherin would waste his time with the likes of you? And you did recognise my voice at first, didn't you? I really thought the game was up then, but fortunately for Lord Voldemort his enemies are rather dim-witted and gullible, easy to manipulate.' And he started laughing again.

'How could you have known that you needed to manipulate me into Slytherin, when I had only arrived 24 hours ago and you had no idea that I had that book?' Hermione asked through gritted teeth.

'Oh, was I not clear enough for you, dear?' he continued in an infuriating cheery tone.

'I was, of course, speaking of my lovely older counterpart. After I obtained the book from you, he kindly informed me all about the nice, charming discussion the two of you had. Very enjoyable I must say. I especially liked the little sop-story I had invented about Salazar's hatred for Muggle-borns being derived from the persecution of witchcraft by Muggles. I could not believe you actually bought that one. I was certain a witch of your calibre would have to remember the Chamber of Secrets, but I guess the book already was too long in your possession for it to not have an effect on you. I suppose the powers of the Blood-Binding Charm must have been far greater than I first assumed them to be, and they had already taken on at that time to influence your mind away from the tiny detail of the Basilisk. Because I doubt that I, Lord Voldemort, would have chosen an unworthy witch to be sent back to me. And I guess I was not mistaken, because here you are, willing and able to tell me all about what's in that blasted book over there.' And he pointed to Godric's writings with a smug grin.

However, Hermione's mind flashed back to the locket Horcrux. She had been in possession of that damn thing for quite some time, before the book was delivered to her. That must have been the real reason behind the fact that the Blood-Binding Charm proved to be more powerful than Voldemort had expected. She had already been under his influence. There was, however, no need to inform him of this information, even though she needed a lot more on the charm.

'What exactly does a Blood-Binding Charm do?' Hermione asked, ignoring the taunts and cold-hearted observations.

'Ah… yes, my most ingenious choice of action… Make sure Harry Potter loses that last bit of support that's available to him and bring her over to me.'

And he laughed again at seeing Hermione's shocked face, when she heard Tom Riddle reveal to her that he was very much aware of the existence of The-Boy-Who-Lived.

'I already told you, Hermione Jean Granger, you have no secrets from me,' he said, amused, and he appeared in deep thought, before continuing his explanation of the Blood-Binding Charm.

'To put it in the simplest way possible, so even you can understand it, I guess you can say that a Blood-Binding Charm enables the caster to control whoever is foolish enough to donate their blood to them.'

'What?' Hermione thought utterly appalled at this notion. A freezing cold fell upon her and the blood rushed from her face. 'He can control me? Surely, that can't be. I'm certain that I've done things he hasn't wanted me to do since my arrival here.'

'So my older version sent the book to you, knowing full well that you would try to make the book work by using that despicable blood of yours. You see, the charm takes on its most powerful effect when the blood is freely given. I trust no one forced you to splatter it all over the pages?' he said, watching her apprehensive state with clear satisfaction.

Not waiting for her to reply to the question he already knew the answer to in the first place, he continued sneering: 'Your parents really should have warned you about the dangers of using blood on magical objects… Oh, whoops.'

He slammed himself into the mouth mockingly and started laughing again.

'Petrificus Totalus.'

The laughing ceased abruptly, and with a loud crash, Tom Marvolo Riddle toppled backwards to the floor, chair and all. Hermione had cast the full Body-Bind Curse upon him. She stood up at her side of the table and leaned over it to watch the result of her curse.

'Hmmm… If I can do this here with Eternity in Time present at the scene of the crime, then I guess that control thing is somewhat exaggerated,' she said, thoroughly satisfied with the view of the rigid Head Boy.

She pointed her wand back at him and undid the curse.

'Mind telling me the truth now, Riddle? Or do you plan on testing out your Horcruxes against an Unbreakable Vow?'

He stumbled back to his feet, grabbed the chair and sat down furiously.

'Don't you ever hex me again, Granger,' he said menacingly.

Now, Hermione started laughing. 'What's the matter Riddle? Experienced a lack of control over your blood buddy? Now, what is the true nature of this Blood-Binding Charm?'

'I already told you the true nature.'

'I don't mean the theory of it, Riddle. I live in the real world, remember. You have vowed to tell me what's hidden beneath these pages, not give me a lecture on Blood-Binding Charms in general. So tell me about the Blood-Binding Charm in this volume,' Hermione ordered and she glared at him, demanding an answer with her eyes.

Abruptly, Tom moved to his feet, his wand in his hand, and he walked over to Hermione's side of the table. He calmly shook his head when he noticed her hand was on its way to her pocket, and he pointed his wand at her. 'Don't move, Hermione. You asked, remember.'

'I asked you a question,' she said coolly, 'I don't recall saying you should threaten me.'

'Ah, yes, you wanted to know about the effects of the Blood-Binding Charm inside Eternity in Time,' he said quietly, while sitting down on the table right in front of her.

Their legs brushed each other and Hermione pressed her back into the chair in a futile attempt to place some distance between the two of them. But to her horror the next thing she felt was Riddle's wand touching her face. She froze up and stared at him apprehensively as he, slowly, moved a stray curl out of her face. She could see the amusement in his eyes at her fear and she inwardly scolded herself for allowing him to get to her like that. However, she was too aware of what kind of curses the owner of that wand could produce, so she said nothing and waited for him to continue his explanation of the charm inside Salazar's book.

'Well, it appears that the protective magic of the book is interfering with the forces of the Blood-Binding Charm,' Tom said softly, while removing his wand from her face. 'You see, Lord Voldemort used his blood as main actor upon the charm, knowing that if you would donate some of yours, the two would mix and you would fall under his control. Now, being the Heir of Slytherin, his blood was accepted without provocation by Eternity in Time, and therefore the charm could be placed within these pages. However, he has, apparently, underestimated Salazar Slytherin's protections on this book and it appears to have a significant problem with allowing the blood of a Muggle-born to remain present on these pages. I believe it is the main reason as to why the binding has remained incomplete.'

'If the book has such a problem with my presence, then why was I able to summon and activate it?' Hermione asked, slightly amused at the fact that, no doubt unwillingly, Salazar Slytherin had been her saviour.

'I can only make an educated guess to that matter, because honestly, I do not know for sure, but I remember you were covered in my blood at the time and you used my wand. So I'm guessing that was the activating factor,' Tom said, thoughtful.

'And prior to that?' Hermione asked.

'You mean your little time travel over here?' Tom questioned, and upon seeing her nod in an affirmative manner, he answered: 'I don't know how I did it yet, I haven't completely read the text after all, but I do know Eternity in Time was set for this destination by Lord Voldemort before he sent it to you. He told me this.'

'How did he tell you this?' Hermione said, realising he had mentioned talking to his older self before and had not explained this curious event.

'It was written on the empty pages, and it became visible the moment I opened the book.'

'So he left you some sort of letter of his wonderful accomplishments,' Hermione said, aggravated.

'Feeling aggravated again, Hermione?' Tom said, amused. 'Let me change that.'

And he stood up before her, took her hand into his wand-free one, and pulled her out of the chair. Tom wrapped his other arm around her waist and drew her close to him.

'Riddle! What. Do. You. Think. You. Are. Doing?' Hermione said, outraged, and with clear emphasis on every word she spoke. She was unsuccessfully trying to push him away, while he placed his forehead against hers.

'Shh… just a little demonstration,' he said softly. 'I'm not going to hurt you. You asked, remember. You wanted to know about the effects of the charm, after all.'

'Now, stop struggling and hold still, or I'll make you,' he threatened, pushing the tip of his wand in her back.

Out of sheer shock, Hermione froze up and that, apparently, was all the momentum Riddle needed. He closed his eyes, and suddenly, Hermione felt: strange, weird, empty, devoid of all feeling and emotion. A cold sense of calmness, purpose and determination that was unlike her own infiltrated her mind, her thoughts, her very being. She felt lost; falling into the darkness that surrounded her, that claimed her. She couldn't breathe. She was being torn apart inside. A pain unlike anything she felt before. She wanted to die, she was sure of it, anything to stop the hurt. And as soon as it started, it was over.

'Now do you understand?' he said calmly, letting go of her and walking back to his seat at the other side of the table. He picked up Salazar's book and started reading, not paying any attention to the highly distressed girl.

Hermione grabbed a hold of the table, panting, trying to feel again, anything. Even the previously felt aggravation was preferable to that abyss of darkness, that void of nothingness she just exited. 'Do you feel like that all the time?' she asked, appalled at the notion.

Riddle looked up from behind his book. 'What makes you say that?' he said sharply.

Confused, Hermione looked at her still trembling hands. And she sat back down in the chair, without looking at Riddle. Therefore, Hermione missed the signs of alarm that were visible on his face for only a split-second when she murmured, more to herself than to Tom Riddle: 'Don't know. But that was you, wasn't it?'

The rest of the hour the two of them remained quietly, while they each read in their book and took notes. When it was time to leave, they parted ways immediately after exiting the Room of Requirement in a thorough tense silence. Knowing she had to get up real early the next morning, Hermione hurried back to her dormitory to get to bed quickly and sleep. What Riddle was planning to do really didn't concern her in the slightest, as long as he was doing it far, far away from her.

So the next morning, Hermione stood up at a ghastly early time and went to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid. She had been right in her assumption that Hagrid would know where to look for the unicorns and they found a couple of unicorns by a pool in less than fifteen minutes after entering the Forest. Hermione knew for sure she would have never accomplished that on her own. They approached the unicorns carefully. Hermione remembered everything Professor Hagrid and Professor Grubbly-Plank had shared with her on unicorns during her fifth year, and so she proceeded as such. But she was in for quite a shock, because the unicorns did not want her to touch them anymore, and almost all of them ran off.

Fortunately, Hagrid was able to halt a male one, which was exactly the one whose blood Hermione needed. While Hagrid started to communicate with him, he waved with his hand to Hermione to back off quickly, since the unicorn still wanted nothing to do with her. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that she had Tom Riddle to thank for this, or rather the insipid Blood-Bond she was now stuck with. But in the end, everything turned out alright, since the unicorn gave Hagrid permission to extract a bit of its blood. It wasn't much that it donated, but Hermione only needed one drop anyway.

She thanked Hagrid sincerely and finished her potion immediately afterwards. It turned into a bright yellow colour upon adding the blood, as it was supposed to, according to Helga's writings. And she was glancing back and forth from the pieces of parchment to the finished potion, checking everything one last time, as she always did, when it happened… The two pieces of parchment merely vanished into thin air, like they had never been there in the first place. Hermione tried everything she could think of to make them reappear, but in the end she had to accept her defeat. So she picked up an empty flask, filled it with the potion and put it inside her beaded bag. However, the thought of the strange pages never left her mind, though she never found them again.

After that, several days passed unnoticeable. Hermione and Tom would, every now and then, reconvene in the Room of Requirement and read one chapter, after which they would take turns in telling the other what they just read. It probably would have been far more efficient had they each first read the entire book, before trying to explain to the other what they had just read, because that would, undoubtedly, have saved them from a lot of seemingly endless discussions concerning the true meaning of the wording in the volumes. However, since both of them were still slightly suspicious of the other's motives and plans, they had chosen for this rather inconvenient and timely method. Although a casual, unknowing observer might have thought they were actually enjoying the arguments, they would say that anyone, who knew them, would know better than to think something that ridiculous.

However, even though progress was being made with the two books from Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, there appeared to be no sign of Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's volume. Both Ernest Lovegood and Pomona Sprout had searched their respected Houses and had come up empty-handed. Augusta and Minerva had been keeping a solid eye on Riddle and his activities, and they had, independently from each other, come to the conclusion that he was unaware of the two other volumes. Rubeus Hagrid had been all over the castle trying to find some lead on either the two books or Tom Riddle's plans. And if that turned out to be a useless endeavour, then Hagrid was always perfect in hindering some teenage Death Eater in his activities, since his partly giant blood gave him some protection from most of the curses.

But the frustrating truth remained that both Mind over Matter and Love of Mankind were very much nowhere to be found. And that was eating Hermione Granger up alive. She had obtained a large amount of knowledge about the one volume that she had assumed would be the most trying for her to get. And even though she still had no idea how she ever was going to be able to, actually, activate and truly master it, since it most annoyingly required the use of Parseltongue, she was beginning to understand the foundations of Salazar's method in Time-Travelling.

And she was also worried that the person, who would be able to activate it, was beginning to grasp these basics as well. How was she supposed to terminate the powers of all the books, if she needed them all placed together and she could not find the other two? And how was she ever going to be able to do that, once Riddle would start travelling through time, taking the book from Salazar with him?

And there was still the aspect of the Blood-Binding Charm. She needed to find a way out from underneath it, because even though the hold Riddle had over her was not as great as he had wanted it to be, due to his beloved ancestor, she still felt it was much more preferable if he had no hold over her at all. But she had not been able to obtain the books she needed from the library yet. And she wasn't even sure the information could be found at Hogwarts, since it was some pretty serious Dark Arts stuff to begin with.

And what she did not understand was why Godric's Room had not provided her with an answer to her Blood-Binding predicament. The Room was supposed to provide her with the solutions to her problems. That was the basic underlying thought she had when the Room had been created. And from reading the theory in Infinity in Space, she had understood that the answer should have been provided in said Room, but she had not found it.

Sure, there were books on the shelves about these kinds of charms, and she had read them thoroughly after her experience with Tom Riddle. She had been certain that Minerva must have overlooked something, but she was found mistaken. Minerva had read the books correctly and there was nothing in them that would assist her in breaking said Binding. It was making her feel rather hopeless.

And so here she was, wandering the corridors of Hogwarts with her beaded bag that she had brought along for no reason at all, when she suddenly felt a distinctive pressure to move to the Astronomy Tower. Hermione had no idea why, but she just knew she had to go there. When she arrived at the bottom of the tower, her urge to go upstairs increased severely. She ran up the steep spiral staircase, pulled on the heavy iron ring to open the door at the top of the tower that let outside, and heard the familiar hissing sounds coming from someone, who was speaking Parseltongue, before she moved outside on the crenellated ramparts and received the shock of a lifetime.

There stood Tom Riddle. He was completely dressed for a trip outside. Salazar's book was in his leather gloved hand, and she saw the familiar silvery glow beginning to emanate … Riddle was smirking at her … making a waving motion with his hand … as to say goodbye to her.

'Over my dead body,' Hermione thought, and she took one big, humongous leap…

Her arms landed just around his neck when there was a silvery flash, and they were both gone.

xxx
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Masters of Manipulation