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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
- 14
- 15
- 16
Chapter 15

As the students entered the Defense classroom on Tuesday, their excitement was readily apparent from their bright expressions and eager chatter. It was Hunting Day, arguably one of the most anticipated classes. Professor Merrythought was, as usual, sitting behind her desk. When all students had arrived, she stood up and motioned for them to follow her.

Curious murmurs erupted amongst the students, and from bits and pieces of different conversations, Hermione gathered that this was a different classroom from their regular one. The talking stopped when Merrythought turned around to face them.

"Someone broke into our regular room last night—"

The students broke out into another wave of mutters, and Merrythought had to speak a little louder to make herself heard.

"—and damaged some of the magical foundations in there. Therefore, we will be practicing here instead."

With a wave of her wand, the classroom door opened.

"Probably to take off the wards on the room," Joseph muttered to Hermione.

She nodded in agreement, her eyes unconsciously sliding over to Tom who was listening attentively to Antonin Dolohov's whispered comments. She wondered if they were the ones who had broken into the Hunting Day room, although she had no idea why they would do something like that. There couldn't be anything in there that would hold their interest.

"Hermione, Tom, Abraxas, and Joseph, will the four of you enter first?" Merrythought asked.

Augusta narrowed her eyes at Hermione before nudging her twin and whispering something into his ear.

"Yes, Professor," they chorused.

"Now remember: no dueling. Although I will not be in there to monitor your movements, any spells that are cast inside the room and the name of the person who cast the spell will be detected and recorded," Merrythought warned, levitating protective pads over to the four of them and gazing pointedly at Abraxas and Joseph.

As they entered the classroom, it didn't escape Hermione's notice that the two of them kept their eyes on one another.

Once the door closed behind them, the two young men rounded on one another.

"Boys!" Hermione all but screeched. She did not understand why Professor Merrythought would send the two of them in together if she knew that they were bound to duel one another.

"Go on then, Malfoy. I dare you," Joseph taunted, flicking his wand toward Abraxas without casting any spells of his own yet.

"Professor Merrythought warned us not to duel—"

"And she won't know unless you, Granger, decide to tell," Abraxas narrowed his eyes at her.

"But—"

"As long as neither of them use dueling spells, Merrythought will never find out," Tom said.

She jumped slightly, having forgotten that he was standing behind her until he spoke.

"But—"

"We might as well stay clear of these two floors and start searching for the creatures on the third floor first. They should be through by the time we are," he suggested, steering her toward the staircase.

"But—"

"You've already tried to talk them out of it, Miss Granger," Tom said as the two young men behind them started to throw hexes at one another.

He turned her around and stared in her eyes. She promptly concentrated on his nose.

A faint smile appeared on his face and he continued, "You can't be held at fault. It's their decision and you can't do anything about it."

"But—"

"Let's go," he quietly commanded.

Hermione had no idea why she did as she was told, but it was almost like some kind of natural instinct. It was annoying that he had that kind of power over her. As they reached the top of the stairs of the second floor, she continued to admonish herself, until a cool breeze swept over her and caught her attention.

Dried leaves danced reluctantly in circles on the floor, almost as if they were being dragged by a small whirlwind. Abandoned chairs sat next to the window, half covered by curtains and accompanied by a small wooden table. Cobwebs, nestling in the corners of the ceiling and lining the tea set on the table, moved only slightly as a draft whistled past them. Blurred portraits lined the walls, covering what would have been peeling wallpaper.

It took a moment for Hermione to remember that she was in a magical environment and portraits hardly ever blurred due to their magical properties. She was reminded of the haunted houses in movies, and she would hardly be surprised if a ghost floated past the window.

"This is your first Hunting Day, isn't it?" Tom asked. "The door will reopen when we either run out of time or find all the creatures in this building. The strength of the creatures that we find here are directly proportional to our magical competence, which is why Merrythought let Abraxas and Mr. Potter in here together despite their differences," he explained after she nodded, answering her unasked question.

No wonder Augusta seemed so unhappy about Merrythought's arrangement.

"What about the other students?" Hermione questioned.

"This classroom has been magically altered. Most likely, other students are in another so-called 'building' right now."

"Sort of like different dimensions?"

He nodded. "Very much so. If I am not mistaken, the creatures that we encounter here will be from levels eight to ten—"

"On what scale?" she cut in.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "On a scale of one to ten, of course, with ten being the highest."

"And whose scale is this?"

"Merrythought's."

"How did she rank them?"

"By the amount of time it will take her to recapture the creatures and how dangerous they are," Tom answered. He tapped his wand on his hand. "I'll take the door to the left."

"We're taking different paths?" she asked, slightly alarmed.

"Naturally, Miss Granger. This isn't a group project," he said, the mockery apparent in his words.

She blinked, taken aback by his attitude. She had thought that he wanted to maintain that disgustingly innocent and angelic look in front of others. Then again, as strange as it sounded, it seemed as if he was dropping his façade when no one else was around. It was as disturbing as it was surprising.

"Of course," she answered stonily, pulling out her wand. "I'll take the door to the right."

With what seemed suspiciously like a smirk, he whirled around and disappeared through the door. Swallowing hard, she turned, and with determined steps, strode towards the door to the right. If anything, she did not want to act like a coward in front of Riddle.

The atmosphere of the room behind the door was similar to the previous room, although the furniture was much different. A large king-sized bed was placed against the wall next to the door she had entered through. Across the room from the bed was an ivory-colored table, complete with a mirror covered with cobwebs and dust. A large wardrobe of the same color stood beside the vanity table. The chair in front of the table seemed to be missing.

She hesitantly walked further into the room and was startled by the door slamming shut loudly behind her.

She narrowed her eyes. For Merlin's sake, she was a Gryffindor. If they wanted to frighten her, it would take much more than a simple door slamming shut. A bit miffed by the lurking creatures, she huffed and started to search the room, her actions towards the furniture more aggressive than they would have been under normal conditions.

Unfortunately, other than a regular boggart in the closet, she couldn't find anything else—although she had to admit that she did get a scare when it transformed into Tom with flashing red eyes and started telling her that not only was he fifty points ahead of her in every single class, but he also knew her secrets.

Thankfully, it wasn't too hard, thinking of something funny for the bogus Dark Lord; recalling how Neville had dealt with his boggart, she simply imagined Tom wearing the dress that Pansy had worn to the Yule Ball.

Rolling her eyes, she continued through the doors until she met up with Tom in one of the hallways.

"Did you find everything?" Tom asked.

"I think so. There weren't too many creatures though," she replied, quite annoyed by this point.

"Typical of Merrythought. I think most of the creatures will be concentrated on the fifth floor."

Hermione snorted, "What's the point of so many floors if they're all concentrated on one floor?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," he answered.

The fourth floor was more or less the same as the third floor and by this time, Hermione had a feeling that Tom was correct in saying that the true dangers lay on the last floor.

"Ready?" he questioned, a hint of wickedness working its way into his words and smile as they stood in front of the stairs that led to the fifth floor.

"Whenever you are," she answered, a challenge in her eyes.

He raised an eyebrow and proceeded to lead the way upwards. The stairs groaned with each step they took, and Hermione nearly screamed when a black shadow jumped down in front of them once they reached the top.

Tom immediately cast a spell at it, immobilizing and banishing it completely before Hermione had a chance to clearly register what the creature was. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

"I'm utterly amazed at how prepared you are," he commented sarcastically, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

Hermione opened and closed her mouth a few times, humiliation pulling on the end of her nerves and changing into anger as soon as his words registered in her mind.

"I—" She stopped in her words and nibbled her lower lip, determined not to jump on his bait and give him a chance to hold something against her.

"Shall we continue?" he asked, ignoring her silence.

She nodded stiffly and was about to walk toward the door to the right when he stopped her.

"I suggest that we go through the rooms together," he said, his dark eyes impassive once again.

She eyed him suspiciously. "I think it would be faster to continue doing it the way we were."

"Perhaps I should remind you that the creatures here are—"

"I know," she cut in. "I heard you the first time you told me. I think we can handle the creatures by ourselves."

He looked at her without saying a word for a few minutes, and she stared determinedly back, a stubborn expression on her face.

"As you wish," he finally smiled, bowing slightly to her before he exited through the door to the left.

For a moment, Hermione considered running after him. For some reason, the expression on his face before he left made her feel uneasy. She attempted to shake that feeling off, but there was still a nagging feeling that she was making the wrong choice.

Heaving a sigh, she slowly made her way towards the door on the right, looking in all directions with every step she took. Soft whispers coming from behind the door caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. With a flick of her wand, the door opened and she entered the room. After clearing the next two areas of its creatures (three Erklings, one particularly nasty mummy, two Pogrebins, and two Yetis), she was seriously doubting Merrythought's sanity as she entered the next room.

It was identical to the room on the third floor where she had found the boggart and, as it had before, the door slammed shut when she walked further in. This time, however, there was an ominous feeling that had not been present in the previous rooms.

Her eyes darted around, taking in the environment around her. A shriek echoed throughout the house, momentarily startling her. She amused herself for a minute, imagining that it was Riddle who had made that sound, and then quickly brought her attention back to the room. With careful steps, she walked toward the table.

She was about to open the drawer when something in the mirror caught her eyes. She immediately turned around. The specific page on mirror ghouls entered her mind a moment too late, and she promptly screamed when a pair of dark, hairy arms grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her toward the mirror.

"Confringo!" Hermione yelled, pointing her wand backwards.

She immediately moved forward when she was released and turned toward the mirror ghoul, which had jumped aside to avoid the spell. Mirror ghouls were generally invisible when they were hiding inside mirrors, and they had the ability to alter the reflections in the mirror. When the person standing in front of it was caught unawares, the mirror ghoul would drag the person into the mirror and devour them.

Teenage years, most likely fourteen to sixteen years old from its height; reddish hair, female.

Suddenly, the growling behind alerted her that what she saw in the mirror was probably not an illusion, and she and the mirror ghoul were not the only occupants of the room. Panting slightly, she turned her body so she was facing both creatures at the same time. She nearly groaned when she noticed that it was yet another pair of Yetis.

Wonder if professors here have a pension plan. If they do, I seriously hope they consider subtracting a huge amount from Merrythought's.

The four of them remained still, sizing one another up and waiting for each other to make the first move. Hermione evaluated her options, but nothing seemed to work. She did not want to risk being attacked by one creature while she was trying to hex another.

As much as she wanted to deny it, she suddenly wished that she had agreed to Tom's suggestion to clear the rooms together. It would have been a lot easier and less dangerous. Nevertheless, there was no point regretting her decision at the moment.

The stalemate ended when the door on the other side of the room was flung open, revealing Tom Riddle. Hermione would've exhaled out of relief, if she hadn't been in danger of being ripped to shreds by the Yetis and mirror ghoul.

Tom raised an eyebrow at her. "Impressive."

Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor when he sat down in the chair nearest to the door he had entered through and furthest away from where she was standing with the creatures. She nearly threw a Riddikulusat him , just to make sure he was not another boggart.

The problem was the three creatures hardly glanced at Tom after he had entered the room.

Gritting her teeth together, she turned her attention back to the creatures with her mind working as quickly as it could to find a solution to her problem.

"The other rooms on this floor are cleared," Tom announced. "This is the last room."

She quickly glanced at him and looked back at the monsters in front of her. That poor excuse of a human (let alone a wizard) was just sitting there as if nothing concerned him.

She mentally counted to ten, reminding herself that she had other, more important things to do.

"Oh, adult Yetis. And I thought the only ones we'd be seeing today were the teenage ones," he commented, further aggravating her.

"Less distraction would be much appreciated," she muttered.

"Of course. My apologies," he said, his eyes glinting with amusement as he twirled his wand.

With a snarl, the mirror ghoul suddenly stomped toward her. As if the movement was a signal, the Yetis also charged in her direction.

"Protego!" she cast, attempting to force them backwards before she cast a spell on one of them.

Her eyes widened when Tom stood up from his chair with his wand extended.

"Incarcerous," he cast and ropes flew toward her.

Without thinking, she cast a spell towards it. "Incendio!"

Fury erupted in his dark eyes as he frowned and strode toward where she was standing.

"Expelliarmus!" she screamed out. In her state of panic, she had forgotten that the spell would be recognized by Merrythought as a dueling spell.

Her spell was easily blocked by Tom before he turned his wand on one of the Yetis and successfully banished it.

She took it as her chance and quickly chanted, "Impedimenta!"

The spell successfully hit its target, causing Tom to stumble backwards. He quickly regained his stance, glaring at her before banishing yet another Yeti.

Hermione was about to cast another spell at him when something grabbed her from behind, successfully stopping her and causing her to scream for the second time that day. Unable to use her wand, she proceeded to kick the creature with all the strength she could muster. It was then that she realized that Tom wasn't trying to attack her or tie her up; he was attacking the monster behind her.

"Relashio!" Tom cast, knocking over whatever was holding Hermione and causing it to release her from its grip.

She fell onto the floor, yelping in pain from the scratches the creature had left on her arms and scraping her knees across the floor. She looked up just in time to see the mirror ghoul taking a swipe at Tom, who had his concentration on the creature that had been holding her seconds before—which turned out to be a yet another Yeti—and successfully slashing his arm. She screamed before she realized it.

This isn't supposed to be real—why did it hurt us—I thought this is only a test, monitored by magic—

Many questions flashed through Hermione's mind, but she had no answers.

Tom stared coldly at the mirror ghoul that had wounded him, unrestrained anger and power radiating throughout the room. Hermione suddenly gasped for breath, nearly suffocating in the magic that he was giving off. It was powerful, too powerful for someone his age. At that moment, she fully realized how he became Lord Voldemort—she realized how he could become the darkest wizard in history.

With a wave of his wand he destroyed the two creatures, yet his fury did not decrease. She could clearly feel that his thirst for vengeance had not been quenched.

What frightened her the most was the fact that he was staring directly at her, his eyes narrowed and his hand gripping his wand with more strength than necessary.

"I … I …" she stuttered, not knowing what to say.

Without another word, he turned around and stalked out of the room.

On their way down, Hermione wanted to say something to Tom, even thank him perhaps, just to break the silence. However, every time she gathered enough courage, he would glance at her with another look that would be enough to freeze the fires of hell. That, of course, would cause her to swallow all thoughts of friendly conversations or words of gratitude.

As Tom had predicted, Abraxas and Joseph had cleared the first two floors despite their duel, although each of them had ended up with no less than five wounds. The Abraxas's eyes widened when he saw the gash on his Lord's arm.

"How …" he trailed off when his master's eyes landed on him.

Still remaining silent, Tom exited the room. There were no other students present yet, so Hermione assumed that they were still inside the classroom.

"Excellent work, the four of you," Merrythought praised them. She paused and looked at Tom and Hermione with concern. "Follow me, please."

She led them to the side and sighed.

"I realize that … it is hard to keep your personal issues out of the classroom, especially in a class like this," she gestured toward the classroom they had just exited. "It's just so easy to take it out on one another through a duel. However, I would like to ask you to refrain from doing so and to work things out outside of class."

"We … we weren't really dueling, Professor," Hermione quickly explained.

A sideway glance from Tom made her swallow the rest of her words.

"We just had a mild disagreement while we were in there, Professor. We'll be careful not to let our personal differences work their way into our class work next time," Tom replied smoothly.

"Excellent." Merrythought smiled kindly at them. "Remember to hand in the fifteen inches of parchment for the next class."

"Fifteen inches of parchment?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, right. You've never been at one of these classes before," Merrythought murmured to herself. She smiled at Hermione again. "After every class such as this one, I require my students to write up fifteen inches of parchment in regards to what they've learned from it and how they could've achieved a better score, to be handed in on the next day of class."

"Right," Hermione nodded.

Tom immediately started toward the library after they bade the professor goodbye. Hermione quickly followed after him. Once they turned around the corner, she cleared her throat. Unfortunately, Tom didn't even bother to look at her.

"Tom," she finally called out.

He stopped, but he didn't turn around.

She took a deep breath and walked up to him. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" he asked coolly, his gaze as indifferent as his words.

"I shouldn't have … well …" she bit her lower lip, a furious red staining her cheeks as she spoke. Her eyes landed on his arm and she frowned. "You should go see Madam Pomfrey—"

With a wave of his wand, he healed the wound and his robes. She stared at where the injury had been seconds ago.

"If that is all, Miss Granger, I'll see you in class later," he said, an obviously faux smile on his face.

Hermione had to suppress herself from shivering. She could not help but notice how menacing his smile was.

And as he made his way towards the library and left her standing in the hallway, she had the uneasy feeling that she was, unfortunately, going to be his target.

~-0-~

Hermione felt as if she was riding on a roller coaster in the dark. The anticipation of hurtling down from the highest point was always there, but she did not know when that moment would come and she had no idea how fast she would be traveling down.

Later that day, she went to the infirmary to get something for the scratches left by the Yeti. Madam Pomfrey was greatly displeased, and Hermione distinctly heard her muttering under her breath about students who couldn't get along with one another and professors who didn't abide by the rules. The nurse had, apparently, heard the rumors about Hermione and Tom dueling with one another in the classroom (although Hermione had no idea how the story had gotten out). The second part of the Madam Pomfrey's complaint, however, was what really piqued her curiosity.

The thoroughly disgruntled Madam Pomfrey had been unwilling to speak ill of her fellow colleagues at first, but in the end, her irritation overcame her. It turned out that Merrythought was taking liberties with what could and could not be used to teach the students at Hogwarts. The wards in the classroom would only kick in when a student was in mortal peril; in other words, the students could still be severely injured in the "building."

On Wednesday, she walked into Transfiguration, wondering if Tom would do anything then. The substitute professor for that class was always quite oblivious to what anyone was doing during that period. However, other than a less than kind smile directed toward her, he didn't make any moves.

In Potions, they were still forced to work together, despite Hermione's protests. They hardly exchanged words over the boiling cauldron, and Tom made no comments in response to Slughorn's insinuations, which made her even more uneasy.

Charms class on Thursday morning passed without any unfortunate mishaps (unless she counted the incident when the fire from Augusta's mispronounced spell started burning the tables and chairs in the classroom), and lunch was just as uneventful as usual.

It was in Defense that Hermione realized that her moment of doom had finally arrived. She could tell just by the eerily pleased smile plastered on Tom's face. His Knights either sneered or guffawed once they set eyes on her. Draco, on the other hand, seemed really uncomfortable in his seat, as if someone had placed a Squirming Spell on him.

While Merrythought was lecturing them about the second vampire spell that they would be learning today, Hermione was desperately hoping that she would be paired with Augusta Rookwood instead of Tom Riddle.

Unfortunately, fate was not so kind to her.

"Hermione, can you please practice with Tom?" the angel-from-hell's voice asked.

Oh, how she hoped that the floor would just open up and swallow her as she stared into the eyes of Lord Voldemort.

~-0-~

A/N: The spell is, again, created through the usage of an English-to-Latin online translator. So any mistakes are mine.

Many thanks to my betas: Lildaani, Noybate, Aling, and Kako.
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Somewhere in Time