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Somewhere in Time	By : serpentinred Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 64474 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 8
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
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Chapter 14

Hermione wasn't sure how she should react to the news that Iris was the culprit behind her "colorful experience." On the one hand, the spiteful part of her was happy that the annoying witch got what she deserved. On the other hand, the righteous side of her reprimanded her for wishing ill on others. Then again, there was nothing that dictated that Gryffindors could not be vindictive, and strictly speaking, she had nothing to do with what had happened to Iris Parkinson.

So with that thought in mind, she continued through her school days with the same determination to outshine the Heir of Slytherin in their classes. After all, saving her and competing with her in schoolwork were two different things.

One of the advantages of the rumors was that Abraxas was now wary about saying nasty things to her. Although she found it strange that Tom had not explained to his Knights what had happened, she decided to enjoy it while she could. She supposed that the Master of All Things Evil just could not be bothered by something as petty as clarifying his actions to his followers.

The rumor did prove to her, however, that Slughorn was a radio posing as a wizard. The rest of the professors were being exceptionally nice to her, and she suspected that it was because they thought that she was Tom's girlfriend. At least they were discreet about it. When the teacher in question was Slughorn or Merrythought, however, it was a completely different story.

Slughorn was always alluding to the supposed love affair between Tom and her while occasionally winking in her direction. The class, of course, would always end with most of the girls glaring at her and whispering amongst themselves. Merrythought was, unfortunately, even worse than the Potions professor.

"Now, let's separate into pairs to practice. Please aim at the pillows tied to your partner's body only. Although we're not vampires, the spell will still sting," Merrythought said.

Hermione sighed, preparing herself for another brutal combat with Augusta. She silently waited while the professor paired off the people in class.

She blinked in surprise when Augusta was paired with Alphard instead.

"Hermione, will you please work with Tom?" Merrythought asked, smiling at her encouragingly. The smile, strangely enough, reminded her of Umbridge.

The rest of the class fell silent. Augusta folded her arms over her chest and smirked, obviously pleased with the situation in which Hermione found herself. Alphard raised an eyebrow, and a mixture of amusement and worry appeared on Draco's face. The only noise in the room was the muffled snickers from Gareth and Joseph. Most of the girls were either glaring at her or at Merrythought.

"… It's alright, Professor. I can work with Alphard," she suggested, hoping that the professor would say yes.

"My dear, it's not a problem! I was just worried about you falling behind in your work. As long as you keep up your grades, I don't mind the two of you working together," she assured the annoyed Hermione. "And now ... I'm definitely sure that you will keep your grades in mind instead of your...personal affairs. Excellent."

Hermione almost groaned out loud when a few more girls redirected their glares towards her. Gareth and Joseph were now audibly guffawing in the corner.

She turned around just in time to see Abraxas whisper something to Tom. The latter shot an annoyed look at the blond which allowed Hermione to guess what Abraxas had asked. She took a deep breath and walked over to them.

"You're not going to explain to her?" Tom questioned in mock horror.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, not quite sure any longer who irritated her more, Tom or Merrythought.

"I'd rather work with you than have her going on and on about what a lovely couple we would make," she replied, tapping her feet on the floor.

Abraxas snorted, which earned glowers from both Tom and Hermione. His laugh quickly turned into hacking coughs.

With a curt nod, Tom pulled out his wand. Abraxas smirked at Hermione as he strutted towards Draco. She suddenly had an urge to hex him and was more than delighted to find the professor with her back turned towards them.

Before she could do anything, however, Tom aimed his wand at her. She was just deciding if she should retaliate with a curse of her own or take cover when he uttered a spell that thoroughly surprised her.

"Protego."

She whirled around after a spell impacted with the shield he had conjured and found two Slytherin girls standing behind her, both looking guiltily at Tom.

"I find it hard to believe that you were actually practicing, Rosetta, when Miss Granger is clearly on the opposite side of the room from your target," Tom stated quietly.

Hermione stood there in shock for a few seconds, attempting to digest the fact that he, Lord Voldemort, had saved her twice within the last couple of days. It was downright alarming and what bothered her even more was the fact that she could not find an explanation for his behavior.

"Tom …" Rosetta started to say.

Tom narrowed his eyes at them and Hermione suddenly felt sorry for the two girls. She certainly would not want to be at the receiving end of that look. An uncomfortable silence settled on the four of them, and the two girls slowly began to fidget because of it.

"The last thing I want is to perpetuate the idea that Slytherins need to resort to cursing their enemies from behind," he finally said.

Hermione almost laughed out loud.

Oh, really? He was one to talk, setting up traps for others and using the Unforgivables more times than she could count. Then again, he was probably just saying that to maintain his façade while he was at Hogwarts. The show was apparently quite effective, seeing how everyone loved him.

Well, except for those who knew better, such as Dumbledore.

"Let's go over to that side," Tom said, pushing her gently towards where Abraxas, Draco, Gareth, and Joseph were practicing. It was something she found quite odd, since the four of them were hardly fond of one another. She found out the answer once she was close enough to hear the conversation between Joseph and Abraxas.

"Oh, I'm sure you're good at dueling, Malfoy. But I could beat you with my eyes closed," Joseph whispered, rolling his eyes and pretending to be practicing the spell with Gareth.

"Bugger off, Potter. You can't even cast a spell with your eyes open," Abraxas sneered, randomly throwing spells at Draco.

Hermione and Draco exchanged a look. It seemed that the rivalry between Harry and Draco ran all the way back to their ancestors.

"I forget, who was the one with a burning arse back in second year?" Joseph sniggered.

"At least I wasn't the one with a duck's bill and frog legs," Abraxas drawled. Hermione raised her eyebrows, wondering what parents were teaching their children at home.

Most eleven-year-olds arrived at Hogwarts knowing next to nothing about casting magic.

"I suggest that the two of you return your attention to the lesson. I don't think Augusta particularly likes the idea of dodging your spells while she's trying to cast one of her own," Tom suggested.

Hermione turned around and found Augusta smiling gratefully at Tom before throwing angry glances at Joseph and Abraxas.

Tom gave Augusta a faint smile before walking approximately five feet away from Hermione.

"Shall we begin?" he asked, facing her.

Hermione nodded and he motioned for her to attack first.

"Lamia Incideria!" she chanted, waving her wand.

Tom easily deflected it.

"Concentrate, Miss Granger," he said, furrowing his eyebrows a bit, as if he was seeing something distasteful.

"I am," she replied, frowning at the suggestion.

"Are you really?" he raised an eyebrow at her, casting a spell at her. The spell was noticeably faster than hers, and she did not even have the chance to deflect it. "I think otherwise."

She bit back a remark and cast the spell at him once more. Again, her spell was deflected and Tom shook his head.

"Being irritated will only make you lose focus, Miss Granger. If you don't concentrate on what you're doing, not only will you cast your spells poorly, but you could also be hit by a truly dangerous spell one of these days. Don't expect someone to save you every time."

She wanted to argue that she was focusing on the spell, but he had already cast another spell towards her. Before she could finish casting the Shield Charm, Tom's spell collided with her arm. She hissed from the unpleasant stinging sensation rapidly traveling up her arm. At the same time, Merrythought asked them to return to their seats.

"Are you alright?" Tom asked, walking up to her. Any traces of sincerity were diminished by the smirk on his face.

"Splendid," she muttered, pocketing her wand and returning to her seat.

As the students filed out of the class after Merrythought assigned them their homework, Hermione decided that Tom Marvolo Riddle was quickly approaching the first place on her list of most annoying witches and wizards.

~-0-~

Hermione plopped onto her bed that night, waiting for the stinging to go away. Merrythought reassured her that it would stop in a few hours, but unfortunately, it hadn't gone away yet. It was rather gratifying to watch the professor scold Tom for "being hostile to his girlfriend", even if Hermione had to endure her new "title."

Grudgingly, she had to admit that Tom was brilliant at magic. She had never dueled with someone as skilled as he was. Bellatrix was almost nothing compared to him, and he was only seventeen. She had to admit that Harry was very lucky to have had all the help he had gotten to fight against Lord Voldemort.

And he is quite good-looking when he's performing magic, the thought sneaked into her mind. Much better looking than Lockhart with those made up spells. And the brooding look … although it looked good on Krum, with him it's just …

Shaking her head and scrunching up her face in disgust at what she was thinking, she flipped over to lie on her back as she imagined herself stuffing a large textbook down the Lord Voldemort's throat. Suddenly, she heard a tapping at the windows. It turned out to be an owl, carrying a letter on its leg. She opened the window and allowed it to enter the room. After giving it an owl treat and bidding it goodbye, she sat down on her bed and opened the letter. To her delight, it was from Harry.

Dear Hermione,

I'm still at St. Mungo's with Ginny, but I figured you might want an update about what's going on with her.

The Healer told me that she was indeed hurt by Dark magic and possibly force-fed some illegal potions. Ginny's not in any immediate danger right now, but the Healer said that she probably won't wake up without the correct antidotes to the potions. Without that knowledge, they don't want to risk feeding her random potions. The last traces of Dark magic were successfully removed two days ago (by the way, the Healer praised Madam Pomfrey for her great handling of the situation; it could've been much worse without the care she had given Ginny).

I hope that everything's okay back at Hogwarts. Is Malloy doing anything stupid to you? If he is, tell me and I will curse his arse off when I return to school.

Hermione smiled at Harry's concern. She realized that he must have tried his best to sound unconcerned while he was writing the letter, but she knew him too well to be deceived. It was quite clear that he was still worried sick about Ginny since she had not woken up yet.

By the way, did Dumbledore find out anything about our situation? I really don't fancy continuing our little adventure.

Harry

P.S. Don't get yourself killed.

She grimaced at the postscript. He simply did not understand that Tom Marvolo Riddle was not someone who could be easily ignored, especially when he held some sort of interest in you.

And when you're being called his girlfriend ...

Hermione groaned at the thought, feeling that everything was just going haywire around her.

And her arm was still stinging.

With a sigh, she decided that she should probably see Madam Pomfrey. The letter to Harry would have to wait.

~-0-~

As she walked through the hallways, she continuously shook her arm, trying to get rid of that stinging feeling. She shook her head and sighed when she saw three Gryffindors and three Slytherins rush towards the Infirmary. There had obviously been another battle between the members of the two Houses.

Suddenly, she was pulled into a classroom. Out of reflex, Hermione immediately approximated where the person behind her was and kicked, causing the person to grunt in pain and release her. She pulled her wand out and was about to hex him when she recognized who it was.

"Alphard," she stared at him. "You scared me!"

"I'm sorry," he grimaced, rubbing his leg where Hermione had kicked him. "A couple of Slytherin girls are down the hall, setting up some kind of trap again. They realized that you might go to Madam Pomfrey after being hit by Riddle's spell."

Hermione sighed and sat down on one of the desks. "They just don't know when to stop, do they?"

Alphard smirked and studied her face for a few minutes.

"Do you really fancy him?" he asked.

She looked at him incredulously. "Have you gone mad? Of course not!"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I've been hearing otherwise."

"Well, whatever rumors you're hearing are wrong," she said firmly. "Slughorn thought we were meeting one another, but Tom simply caught me when I was walking back to the dormitories from Dumbledore's office."

"I wasn't talking about that," Alphard replied.

"Then what?"

"Well," he replied, picking out a desk and sitting on top of it, "there are a few more rumors going around the school. I'm surprised you haven't heard them."

"Well, I'm mostly around Harry and Ginny. I really didn't have the chance to make new friends. And you already know about my wonderful friendship with Augusta Rookwood," Hermione rolled her eyes.

Alphard snorted.

"I should be thankful that I'm not being hexed while I'm sleeping. Do you really think any of them are willing to befriend me? Gareth and Joseph are always gossiping, but they never tell me about the rumors unless I ask."

"Weasley seems to be quite fond of that idea; about you and Tom becoming an item, that is," Alphard observed.

She nodded, a bit annoyed that her boyfriend's relative was trying to set her up with someone else. And the Dark Lord, no less.

"So, what are these rumors?" she asked carefully, hoping that they weren't as bad as she thought they were.

"Well, we all know the rumors about the two of you fancying one another," Alphard answered.

Hermione snorted. "I would think that it was obvious that he wouldn't be attracted to someone like me. The girl he'd be attracted to would probably have to be some Veela's descendent or something."

Alphard laughed and shook his head. "You're talking about Malfoy, not Riddle. Riddle's not fond of pretty girls without brains. You don't see him being overly nice to Iris."

"Perhaps she's just not his type."

"Come on, Hermione. You have to admit that he's nicer to you than to other girls."

At this statement, she could feel her face getting warmer. She was thankful that the room was quite dark, preventing Alphard from seeing the suspicious flush on her cheeks.

"He's probably just curious about us … me, Harry, Ginny, and Draco, that is," she replied.

"I highly doubt that, but if that explanation makes you feel better, that's fine with me," he laughed.

"Oh, and we did fall on top of him when we first arrived," she added, laughing gently at the memory.

"I was going to ask you about that. Why did you suddenly fall out of the skies? I've heard rumors about the four of you traveling by Portkey, but if that's true, there should have been someone there to monitor it. Or at least Dumbledore would've marked off some area so nobody would get hurt," he said, watching her with curiosity written all over his face.

Hermione bit her lower lip and glanced at him, wondering if she could trust him. He was the person who would give money to Sirius so he could run away from home. Then again, Draco didn't even trust his own grandfather. Just how much information could she give Alphard Black without harming the four of them?

"It's alright if you don't want to tell me," he said with a shrug when she did not answer him. "Everyone has their own secrets."

"It's not … that. It's a long story. I'll tell you … after I talk about it with Harry and Ginny … when they come back," she replied. That way, she didn't have to lie or tell the truth.

"Hey, I don't mind," he smiled. "I'm already grateful that you trust a Slytherin. I can't ask for more."

She returned his smile. "Anyway, back to the rumors?"

"Oh ..." he frowned. "There was this rumor about a library date between the two of you?"

"A what?"

"The time when you screamed his name? Some girls said that it was because he wouldn't kiss you because you didn't brush your teeth that day," he replied, the laughter apparent in his eyes.

She stared. Sooner or later, they would start spreading rumors even if she just happened to walk through the hallways with Tom.

"Alphard—"

Her explanation was cut short when the door swung open, and the other subject of the rumors appeared at the doorway.

Tom raised an eyebrow at the pair, "Good evening."

"Good evening," the two of them murmured. He gazed around the classroom.

"Quite a gloomy place to meet," he commented, folding his arms across his chest.

"We were just talking," Hermione replied, wondering why she bothered explaining herself to him anyway.

The three of them fell silent, each of them either immersed in their own thoughts or looking at the others. The atmosphere was not exactly hostile, nor was it welcoming. It was almost like a scene from the jungles, in which wild beasts sized each other up before making a decision.

The decision to attack or to make peace with the opposite party.

It was a strange thought. Although Tom had saved her twice in a row (which threw her into a dilemma since she did not know how she should treat him anymore), it was a given fact that there could never be peace between him and her. Harry and he were destined to be mortal enemies. Since she was Harry's best friend and a Muggle-born, she would naturally have to fight against him.

Always.

"You will serve your first detention this Thursday night," Tom suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence.

Hermione frowned, frustrated that she was forced to spend more time than necessary with him.

"Fine," she muttered, sliding off the desk. Patting away the dust that had attached itself to her skirt, she glanced at Tom. "Er …"

His eyes slid over to her.

"I was just wondering … did you get to talk to Slughorn yet? About the … you know …"

Hermione thought she saw his eyes flicker for a second, but then decided that it was her imagination; the light in the room was too dim for her to possibly see his expression, let alone his eyes.

"I haven't had the chance to speak to him yet," he replied, leaning against the edge of the doorframe.

Great. That means that I still have to watch my back wherever I'm going, Hermione thought as she rubbed her arm, which was starting to feel numb from the stinging.

Tom's eyes landed on her hand, and she quickly dropped it to the side.

"My apologies," he said. The mockery in his words was so undisguised that it led Hermione to believe that he was probably not putting up any pretense in front of her any longer. "I wasn't aiming for your arm. I thought you would've known better than to try to block the spell with your hand—"

"I wasn't trying to block it with my hand," she cut in.

It was getting harder and harder for her to control her temper, even though she knew it might be fatal if she decided to take a swipe at him; she couldn't help it. It seemed as if he was quite set on aggravating her.

"I was going to cast the Shield Charm, if you hadn't noticed. It required my arm to be where it was."

She then quickly walked past him, determined to leave the room before she did some irreversible damage.

And the attacks she had in mind were not limited to verbal ones any longer.

Wringing the neck of the future Dark Lord was such a tempting thought. It would save Harry plenty of trouble, too.

Her stride was cut short when she accidentally crashed into someone upon leaving the classroom.

"Attempting to vent your anger on me, Granger?" the person drawled. She looked up and found herself looking into the stormy grey eyes of Draco.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

An amused expression appeared on his face as she detangled herself from his arms. "I happen to live in this castle, too, Granger. It's not past curfew so I—" he stopped talking when Hermione backed up into someone behind her.

She shot him an annoyed glance when he snorted at her clumsiness.

"Please do attempt to watch where you're going, Miss Granger," the familiar voice of Tom Marvolo Riddle sounded from above her.

She turned her head and found herself in his arms. All of a sudden, the tingling feeling seemed to spread to the rest of her body. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice was telling her that it had nothing to do with the curse. She promptly told the voice to shove it while she quickly moved as far away from him as possible.

Draco coughed gently, causing Hermione to look at him. She became apprehensive when she noticed the sympathetic look in his eyes before he glanced to the right. Bracing herself, she followed his line of sight.

A group of girls were standing at the corner.

And she couldn't find one who wasn't glaring at her.

P.S. Don't get yourself killed.

She did not know if she should laugh or cry at the irony of her best friend's postscript.

~-0-~

The next day in classes, Hermione was suddenly reminded of her first year at Hogwarts. Until the incident with the troll, she had had no friends. Of course, in this time period, Draco and Alphard could be considered her friends, but since they were both in Slytherin, they hardly had the time to hold any long conversations with her. Nevertheless, she still appreciated the sympathy they had shown her when she was being harassed by Tom's admirers.

"You filthy troll. Go back to your old school and stop trying to seduce our men," a girl hissed at her while she was walking to the History of Magic classroom.

Hermione raised her eyebrows at the two girls blocking her way. She was getting accustomed to the foul terms used against her, but it was the first time a Ravenclaw had openly displayed hostility towards her.

"Is that the best you can do?" she asked slowly. "The Slytherins called me that at least thirteen times already today. I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be intelligent. Perhaps you should think of something different instead of copying other people."

The girl looked at her furiously.

"Come on, Mildred. Did you honestly believe that someone like her would feel ashamed?" the other Ravenclaw sneered.

Hermione sighed as the two of them stalked away.

"That's the Parkinson sisters' cousin," a voice suddenly said behind her.

She turned around and found herself looking at Gareth and Joseph.

"Iris's cousin?" she asked.

Gareth nodded in reply. Joseph clicked his tongue and shook his head at her.

"Hermione, Hermione. I never knew you were so ... wild in nature," he commented.

"Oh, shut it, Joseph. You know that they're just misinterpreting things," she huffed while Gareth laughed.

"But it's fun teasing you about it," he grinned.

"I thought that you didn't like Riddle," Hermione stared pointedly at Joseph. In a lower voice, Hermione hissed, "I thought you even suspected that he was the one who killed Myrtle."

"Well, I didn't really mean that," Joseph said uneasily, not liking the fact that he was placed on the spot. "I meant that Riddle had more reasons to do in Myrtle than Hagrid did. You know ... it's more like aspeculation."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, wondering how her Harry, who was so steadfast in his opposition to Voldemort, could be descended from this waffler. She was just considering whether she should scold him or simply ignore him when Joseph's features brightened.

"And as I said, it's fun teasing you about it. It's not like I really believed you liked Riddle ... unlike Mr. Gareth Weasley here."

Hermione rolled her eyes when Joseph chuckled.

"You do happen to know that he's immensely fond of rumors?" he asked.

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I know quite well about that," she said through gritted teeth.

"He was going on all night about setting you up for a date with Tom for the next Hogsmeade trip," Joseph said.

"What?" she exclaimed, whirling around and glaring at the redhead. "Gareth Weasley!"

"Hermione, I know you like him. He seems attracted to you enough, so why not?" Gareth immediately asked.

He was being too nosy, but it just did not feel right telling him that directly.

"Gareth, I don't like him in that way. Yes, he's charming, handsome, and intelligent, but I have a boyfriend already," she explained, purposely ignoring his comment about Tom liking her.

"You do?" Joseph and Gareth asked in unison.

"Yes," she answered.

She would've laughed in any other situation. However, she felt something squeezing her heart when she thought about Ron. The fact that she was thinking less and less about him with each passing day frightened her. It was just not like her, and she didn't want to think about what was causing these changes in her.

Hermione shook her head, attempting to push away those negative feelings. Without Harry and Ginny, she felt more isolated than ever.

And she wondered just how much longer she could hold up her defenses.

~-0-~

A/N: Many thanks to my betas: Lildaani, Noybate, matterhorn, and Aling.
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Somewhere in Time