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Somewhere in Time	By : serpentinred Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 64471 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 8
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 22
- 23
- 24
A/N: Huge thanks to my wonderful beta, LSMerlot! Many thanks to those of you who've read, rated, and especially those of you who reviewed: Mr. Galion, Lady Miya, scarlet, and e-cam157!

Mr. Galion: I can definitely see the Weasley twins using that curse every once and a while as a prank. Or they might even come up with some WWW product using that idea. Ah, Harry ... we shall see soon how well the Boy Who Lived takes these rumors. ;) Yup, Tom's quite possessive, and I really doubt Hermione has a say (or at least, Tom would like to think that way) in her status. *snorts* *hides in shame* I'm very, very sorry for the long waits in between. I'm still trying to balance between real life and writing time, so ... I'll try to make the next update swifter, but no promises there, since I'm taking classes along with working. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Lady Miya: *giggles* Now there's a thought ;). But I doubt Harry and Ginny would be too happy about it. Oh, of course those Slytherin girls. They'd love to kill Hermione if that were to happen. Yup, Hermione realizes that it's no fun for him to take the initiative any longer, so take that, Tom! *checks behind shoulders and is relieved to find a certain Dark Lord not behind her*. Hope you'll like this chapter, too!

scarlet: Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, I realized the beginning might be a bit overly dull at some points, but some explanations, formalities, etc. had to be over and done with. Hopefully, future chapters would be up to par to what you expect, and hope you'll enjoy this chapter, too. Sorry for the long wait; real life's been a pain and I'm still working on how to balance between writing, work, and stuff.

e-cam157: Thanks for the compliment! Sorry for the long wait and hope you'll enjoy this new chapter!

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Chapter 23

Much to Hermione's delight, there were no Drying Spells for the wet spots caused by her personal little thunderstorm. Of course, that caused an uproar among the Slytherin girls when a thoroughly wet Tom Marvolo Riddle appeared in the hallways of Hogwarts. The traps and assaults on Hermione naturally increased in number, but no longer was she going to sit around and take their trash. It was rather satisfying to her, as well as to most students, to see a shrieking Iris being rushed to the infirmary after Hermione's Itching Hex hit her. The curse differed from the Tickling Charm in that the victim would feel an itch right beneath their skin—in other words, they could not scratch or stop the itching.

The icing on the cake was when one of Tom's admirers decided to send a curse towards Hermione at the end of Herbology. She immediately scooted to the side, and the spell hit the Heir of Slytherin instead.

After a moment of stunned silence, Hermione promptly burst out laughing uncontrollably as daisies, ivies, and mushrooms started growing on Tom's head.

She definitely did not want to be in the caster's shoes; the silent fury on Tom's face was definitely bone chilling if she were not so immersed in laughter. She could only assume that the girl got what was coming for her since there was no sight of her the next day. Unfortunately, the tiny garden was also removed from Tom's head, causing Hermione to regret that she did not take a picture of her source of entertainment before it was taken away. She was sure Harry and Ginny would have found it hilarious, too.

Most of the students, including Gareth, Joseph, and Alphard, went home for Christmas break. Much to Hermione's relief, a good portion of the Slytherin girls also went home for the holidays.

Well, except for the incessant cow.

Truth be told, Hermione could care less about what Iris did as long as the latter did not try to kill her again.

Or stick around Tom, a little voice in her mind nagged her.

Her forehead creased into a frown as she glared at the book in her hands. There were ... more important things to do than to think about these petty things. She should use the vacation to read through the contents of the Slytherin book from the library. With so many things happening in the past few days, she never had the chance to actually sit down and read it. Of course, having a raincloud directly above her head had also prevented her from reading the book without distraction.

Thank Merlin Madam Pomfrey and Professor Fireswish finally found the counter-curse.

She took a deep sigh and shifted to a more comfortable position on her bed as she turned to the first page of the essay by Mopsa Meadowes. She was still curious about what she might find in it, even though Tom had brushed it aside that day.

Although the method by which it was accomplished still remains to be discovered, there are many evidences that point to the possibility of one of the Four Founders of Hogwarts still being alive. Throughout the years, there have been many sightings of Salazar Slytherin across the globe by different wizards and witches, which Ernest Night wrote about in Unexplained.

As I stated in my other essay, The Truth Behind the Fight Among the Four Founders of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin had always been obsessed with the idea of living on forever.

Hermione raised her eyebrow. She would have to remember to check out the book and the essay later on.

"It would give him a chance, for the eternity to come, to purge the school of those unworthy to learn magic" (Lewis, 3982). This theory is supported by the ceremony of books destruction (held by the three Founders who had stayed in Hogwarts), which occurred right after Slytherin left the premises of the school. Godric Gryffindor was especially appalled by the books that Slytherin had written and kept within Hogwarts. To Gryffindor, the usage of the Dark Magic Slytherin had created was immoral and cruel. "Legend has it that Slytherin had created versions of the Cruciatus and Killing Curse that made the original versions seem kind" (Morgan, 267). The only question would then be: why did Gryffindor allow Slytherin to travel far and wide searching for methods to live forever?

In the past, Slytherin was stated to have appeared in places such as China and Mexico. "Sometimes, he tricked the Chinese villagers into believing that he was a dragon or god from the skies, thus his differences in looks. It was his strategy to learn about the different legends that the Chinese held in regards to immortality" (Ning, 762). Slytherin was known to be extremely talented in wandless magic, something which Pascale LeBeau mentioned in his book Hypotheses About the Four Founders of Hogwarts. Therefore, it would have been easy for him to trick the villagers (most of whom knew nothing about magic) into believing that he was some deity.

Suddenly, it occurred to Hermione that she had not seen some of the mentioned books in the library. She was positive that she had not read the book in her hands right now. Even though she had not read through every single library book, theoretically speaking, she should have at least seen one of the mentioned texts.

Unless ... Tom paid more attention to this book than he had shown.

With that thought lingering at the back of her head, she continued to read and was very disappointed when she found nothing more interesting in the later pages. As she stretched out her limbs, she took a look at the clock and found that it was almost time for lunch. She placed the book back into her trunk and conjured a few wards around it just in case someone decided to take her stuff to play a practical joke on her.

The hallways were noticeably emptier with most of the students gone. Nevertheless, Peeves was still as cheery as usual, singing revised Christmas carols with dirty phrases in between lyrics at the top of his lungs. Other than that, the only other being she saw on her way to the Great Hall was a Hufflepuff girl who smiled hesitantly to her. Hermione gave her a weak smile in return. At least there were still a few people who acted civil towards her.

A hallway away from the Great Hall, someone suddenly grabbed her by her waist, causing her to shriek.

"Merlin, are you trying to break my eardrums now that you can no longer drench me in rain, Hermione?" Tom asked, quirking his eyebrow at her. She twisted her neck around and looked at him.

"What were you thinking, grabbing me like that?" she demanded, scanning the hallways for any signs of the group of Slytherin witches she had dubbed the "Screaming Banshees."

After all, every once in a while, one of them would entertain themselves by cornering her and bawling that she was an ugly hag who did not deserve Tom's love.

"You do realize that most of them have gone home for the holidays, don't you?" he asked, knowing what she was watching out for.

"Except for Iris, of course," Hermione replied as she struggled out of his arms, a blank expression on her face.

"Is that jealousy I hear, my dear?" he teased, running a finger down her cheek.

"Of course. Haven't you realized it already? I am so very jealous of the veela-like Slytherin princess. So I demand that you move out of the Slytherin dorm and into the kitchen right now," she answered dryly.

"Very amusing," he commented, his lips curving slightly upwards at her remark.

She responded by rolling her eyes to the ceiling before saying, "You haven't said what you are here for."

"Hm ... Why do I get this feeling that my presence isn't welcomed?" he questioned her, folding his arms across his chest.

"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps because you're thinking a bit too much?" she replied in the same tone of voice as his, placing emphasis on the last few words.

He raised his eyebrow again, catching on to the fact that she was trying to annoy him.

"Really?" His forehead wrinkled slightly as if he were really thinking about her words deeply. "Then maybe I shall test just how much you ... enjoy my company."

Before she could react, he had already pulled her firmly into his arms, causing two very conflicting emotions to well up inside of her. On the one hand, her heart leapt at their close contact. On the other hand, she wanted to place some distance between them so that she could decide with a clear head about what she should do.

To deny her emotions any longer would be stupid, at least to Hermione. So, during the past few days, while she had been walking around with the damned cloud above her head, she had finally gathered enough courage to acknowledge the fact that she might, just might, have feelings for Tom Marvolo Riddle.

She really did try. She tried to think about the things he did in the future. There were no excuses for him. His deeds were evil, and she hated what he did, but it did not stop her from thinking about the way his lips moved against hers or the way his hand tangled with her hair as they embraced. She tried to think about Harry, Ron, and Ginny's reactions if they found out, but other than guilt, she could not find regret. It terrified her. It really did, so she tried even harder to think of ways not to be attracted to him.

Lord Voldemort was evil.

He was insane. He was a maniac. He was cold-blooded. He killed too many people to count just so he could reach his goal, including people whom she cared about. Heck, she had very nearly become target practice for him and his lovely Death Eaters in the future if Harry had not won.

But it did not work. Her heart soared when she thought about him holding her close.

Merlin, she even tried to think about the way he looked in the future, but to her horror, it no longer repulsed or scared her. It was stupid, very, very stupid, but she almost believed that the older Lord Voldemort would not harm her—the key word being almost. It was something she tried to push to the back of her head, but she just knew that if he found out she was Muggle-born, he would not hesitate in killing her. And yet, even that did not extinguish the emotions she had for him.

But naturally, she was not letting him know about that revelation anytime soon.

"Aren't you afraid that Iris might see us?" she asked mockingly, composing her thoughts and focusing on what was on hand—or rather, who was standing in front of her.

He chuckled softly. "Now that isn't the kind of voice I hear from Hermione Granger every day." After a short pause, he continued. "I believe that you would find Iris rather insignificant and boring when it comes to dueling, so attempts to trigger her jealousy would only be pointless."

She huffed in exasperation. As strange as it might seem, she found it a lot easier to deal with him when he had his pretenses and masks on.

"Your anger, however, is something I do find entertaining," he whispered as he pulled her closer again and lowered his head towards her.

"Hermione!"

With a start, she broke free from Tom and looked towards the sources of very, very familiar voices. Initial joy at seeing the fully recovered Ginny Weasley standing at the end of the hallway was quickly replaced by anxiety when she noticed the thoroughly frightened and shocked expressions on Harry and Ginny's faces.

Shit.

She so wished that she could curse the Slytherin standing next to her right now. She was certain that he had known that Harry and Ginny were back in school and had simply been waiting for the chance to let them know about her "relationship" with him.

And that smirk spreading across his face when she glared at him from the corner of her eye only confirmed it.

Hoping that they had no idea about what had nearly just happened, Hermione ran over to the duo with a nervous smile. Thankfully, their expressions softened when she stopped in front of them, and Ginny even gave her a small smile. That calmed her down a bit, and happiness upon seeing a healthy Ginny flooded her heart once more.

Her friends were back.

"Harry," Hermione greeted him before throwing her arms around Ginny. "Oh, Ginny." Releasing her, she took a small step back. "Everything's alright now? Did they find out what potions were used on you? How did they cure you?"

"They—" Ginny was about to reply before another voice cut into their conversation.

"Mr. Evans, Miss Weatherby, what a pleasant surprise," Tom said, strolling up to them with such leisure and confidence that it almost looked like he was in his home. He looked at Ginny with a warm smile. "I see that you are better, Miss Weatherby."

With a nervous nod, Ginny gave him a quick glance before looking at Hermione. Harry narrowed his eyes at Tom and took a step closer to Hermione.

"What happened?" he asked in a low voice.

Hermione's mind drew a blank, realizing that he was asking about what occurred moments before they called out her name.

"I ..."

She stole a glance at Tom, who gave her a charming smile in return. The only factor that gave away he was enjoying her predicament was that annoying glint of joy in his eyes. He was a scheming freak alright. But if he thought that Harry and Ginny's return gave him opportunities to make her yield, she would just have to prove to him otherwise.

"Let's go back to the common room," she suggested, thoroughly ignoring Tom for the time being. She would have to "chat" with him about this later.

However, Lord Voldemort was not one to be ignored.

"Wouldn't it be more appropriate to take them to the Great Hall right now, Hermione? I understand that they might be tired from their travels, but I'm sure that they must be starving," he commented.

Harry's eyebrows furrowed in thought as he watched their interactions from the side. When he caught Hermione's attention, his frown deepened. He was apparently confused by Tom calling her by her first name instead of "Miss Granger."

"Right. Let's go to the Great Hall then," Hermione agreed grudgingly. Tom would have to sit at the Slytherin's table while they were there anyway.

During their walk to the Great Hall, she gave him many warning glances, trying to stop Tom from chatting with her friends, but of course, he ignored her "signals."

Merlin forbid Lord Voldemort taking orders from anyone, she thought sarcastically, her annoyance at him increasing by the second.

"So what happened to Ginny?" Tom asked conversationally.

"She had been cursed by Dark magic," Harry answered, looking at him askew, "and force-fed Dark potions."

"I see," Tom responded as if he truly had no idea what had happened.

Although Hermione had no idea if he had a hand in assaulting Ginny, for some unknown reason, she had a gut feeling that he was not the main culprit. However, she was just as sure that he knew who had done it.

"Do you remember who attacked you?" he inquired.

Tensely, Ginny shook her head.

"They don't know what caused her to lose that part of her memory. It could've been the spells or the potions," Harry replied, not taking his eyes off Tom. "It is clear that her attacker took precautions, just in case she was not killed."

A shiver ran down Hermione's spine at Harry's voice. Although it was not exceptionally unfriendly or cold, there was just an element in there that chilled her. She could tell that he still suspected Tom, and she could hardly blame him. She was just glad that Harry was not being rash and pulling out his wand to curse Tom right there and then.

"How unfortunate," Tom replied, his voice laced with concern. "Let's hope that no one else gets attacked by this person."

"Let's hope," Harry agreed.

Despite the fact that the tension between him and Tom had not decreased in the least, Hermione could not help but smile. At least something positive happened because of the attack on Ginny. She always knew that Harry could be strong, especially when his friends were in danger, and she was correct since Harry was facing Tom with more confidence than before.

Theoretically speaking, Harry should have been audacious right from the start since he did defeat Tom in the future. The only explanation Hermione could come up with for his fear was because he was thrown off by the fact that he had to face his nemesis once again, and one that would not die until much, much later.

Thankfully, Tom stopped with his questioning after this, and her friends were not in the mood to strike up a conversation with him either. So, Hermione was allowed a short moment to recompose herself and to think. It was pretty obvious that Harry and Ginny would ask her questions she did not want to answer once they sat down at the Gryffindor table.

And it annoyed her to no ends that there was nothing she could do but take one step at a time.

As she had expected, once they sat down at their table, Harry immediately commented, "He called you ‘Hermione.’"

"Well ..." she replied slowly, picking up a ladle and piling some food onto her plate after she filled her goblet with pumpkin juice. "Yes ... I mean ... I'm calling him ‘Tom’ ... so it would be weird for him to call me ‘Miss Granger’ in response."

She desperately hoped that her face was not as red as she felt it was. As discretely as she could, she glanced at Harry from the corner of her eye. The frown on his face had deepened, and the worried expression had reappeared.

"What happened before we called out your name?" This time it was Ginny who asked the question.

Hermione picked up her goblet and took a long drink out of it. "Hm ..."

"He was holding you in his arms," Harry pointed out.

"Oh. You're talking about that," Hermione answered, placing the goblet back on the table.

"You're not ..." Ginny stopped in her words and bit her lower lip as if there were something she wanted to say but had no idea how to put it into words. Harry looked at her, obviously uncertain what she had in mind.

Hermione, on the other hand, had a hunch about what she was thinking, but she still hoped for the better and wished that Ginny had not caught onto anything.

"It almost seemed as if ... he was about to kiss you," Ginny said instead, a frown marring her face, too.

Hermione quickly covered up her nervousness by laughing, and Harry was apparently taken aback by her reaction, but soon, he joined her with chuckles of his own.

"Ginny, that's impossible," he replied for Hermione. "He hates Muggle-borns. Even if he doesn't know Hermione's background, Granger isn't a pure-blood surname, and I doubt he would want to be linked to a half-blood." He gave another affirmative nod. "And there's no way Hermione's going to let him out of all people kiss her. Ron's waiting for her, and Riddle ..."—Harry lowered his voice—"Hermione knows how Riddle's like."

Eh ... on a completely different level than when we first got here, Hermione mentally agreed with Harry's words as guilt upon hearing Ron's name caused her stomach to flip-flop again.

"Yes ... but ..." Ginny trailed off in her words again, eying Hermione worriedly. "He ... he could be very charming when he wants to be."

"Very charming" certainly doesn't cut it.

"But he's still Riddle," Hermione replied softly, the truth of her statement somewhat hurting her in the process.

She had spent the last few days worrying about everything there was to worry about, and she would be a downright fool if she had not thought about the thin line she was walking on.

She knew she was meddling in dangerous things, things that she should not have touched upon since the first second, but now was not the time to dwell on that. She could tell that Ginny was already suspicious, so she could not afford to let Harry get worried, too.

So, with that thought in her mind, she added, "Does it look like I'm the type to fall for charming blokes?"

Harry and Ginny shared a glance, obviously uncertain in regards to how they were supposed to answer that question, so Harry changed the subject instead.

"Did he try to get answers out of you again?" he asked, believing that that was the case.

"Of course. It's him, and you could only expect that much," Hermione answered, mentally letting out a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness for the Harry-given answer.

"But he didn't try to harm you, did he?" Harry asked.

She shook her head. "He was just ... frustrated that I wasn't giving him the answers he wanted."

That seemed like a good enough answer for Harry since he gave her a nod and turned his attention to the food. However, Ginny was still shooting concerned glances in her direction, but it did not matter to Hermione. She was already grateful that no more questions were thrown her way for the rest of the meal. She knew that their investigation—or at least, Ginny's investigation had not ended yet, and that would most likely occur tonight in the girls' dormitory.

Nevertheless, it was not the nighttime interrogation she was afraid about. The Christmas break would not last forever, and once their classmates returned to Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny would soon learn about the rumors, the true and the false ones.

And then, all hell would break loose.

~-0-~

Hermione was pretty sure that Harry and Ginny would stop her from going where she wanted to go once they found out about those rumors. So, after lunch, she immediately bid them good-bye and rushed to the library.

When she entered the library, she ignored the suspicious stares Madam Pince was giving her and walked straight to the desired bookshelf.

She scowled as she double-checked the names of the authors; she could not find "Meadowes," and she was positive that she was in the right section. Growling softly to herself, she gave up and went to another bookshelf to search for Ernest Night. To her relief, she immediately found it. She pulled it out of the bookshelf and flipped to the table of contents.

She made a face when she saw three of the four Founders of Hogwarts listed there.

"Sure. The Founders really had nothing better to do than to make themselves immortal and make sure people across the globe see them," she muttered to herself as she sat down on the floor and turned to the section about Slytherin.

There is no question about Salazar Slytherin's obsession with being immortal. Known for being the most cunning of the four, there were legends about Slytherin using many different methods to trick Rowena Ravenclaw into tweaking different potions, spells, and hexes to accomplish the deeds he had in mind. Of course, this is not to say that Slytherin was not an intelligent wizard. It was quite the contrary. However, he had better things to do than discovery.

Some people might remember the legend about the Chamber of Secrets, a "legendary" room located in Hogwarts. I place quotation marks around the word "legendary" since there is no doubt in my mind that there is such a secret lair in the school and the existence of a horrible monster within its confines. Although I, like all others, have no idea what this creature is, I still believe that only the true descendant of Slytherin or Slytherin himself could control this monster.

The reason I mention this legend is because I believe that while Ravenclaw was busy working with the potions and spells, Slytherin was spending a large amount of time caring for this monster and setting up wards so that people unrelated to him would not have access to this dungeon. Although some might believe this to be ludicrous, we must reinvestigate the environment of the time period we are talking about. There is no question about Ravenclaw's intelligence, Gryffindor's bravery, and Hufflepuff's determination. Why, then, were they unable to find this hidden place?

Hermione raised her eyebrows. It appeared that the book was not as full of junk as she had presumed, and she was about to continue reading when a shadow loomed over her.

"Still researching about Slytherin?" a voice asked.

She looked up and found Tom looking at her with a faint smile on his face. She narrowed her eyes at him as her previous anger rushed through her veins once more.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here?" she asked, the words slipping out of her mouth before she could stop them.

He tilted his head to one side, and his smile widened, annoying her thoroughly. She snapped the book shut and stood up.

"Aren't you going to thank me?" he questioned her softly, placing his arms on either side of her to prevent her from walking away.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and her hands tightened on the book.

"Pray tell what should I thank you about?"

"Hm ... It was quite a hard thing to restrain myself from telling Mr. Evans and Miss Weatherby about how passionately you kissed me in that deserted classroom."

At his words, Hermione's cheeks rapidly turned pink.

"I do believe that I deserve your thanks after that," he continued teasingly.

"Oh, really?" she asked, a mocking laugh erupting from her throat.

"Yes, really," he replied cheerfully as if she had just agreed to what he had said.

Thoroughly frustrated with the young man standing in front of her, she humphed and tried to push his arm away but to no avail.

"Let me go," she demanded, glaring at him.

"We're not finished with our conversation yet, dearest," he said, moving closer to her.

She took a step back until her back was right against the bookshelf.

"Oh, yes, we are," she firmly said.

"No, we're not," he murmured, touching her cheek gently with his hand. "I think we should finish the 'conversation' that got interrupted by Mr. Evans first."

If possible, her face turned even redder.

"Harry and Ginny aren't here right now," she snapped, although her heart could not help but skip a beat at his suggestion.

He laughed as he shifted even closer to her.

"It was certainly delightful watching your interactions with them," he admitted, running his hand through her hair, "but that doesn't mean that that was my only intention."

Her breath hitched, but before he could close the distance between them, the sound of someone clearing their throat nearly made Hermione turn cold. She whipped her head around and was more than relieved to find Madame Pince glaring at them like a vulture.

It was worth earning the wrath of Madam Pince as long as the person who caught them was not Harry or Ginny.

Tom released Hermione before approaching Madam Pince with a charming smile plastered on his face. After a short exchange of words, Madam Pince softly reprimanded them, warning them not to commit the offense again, before sending them away.

Well, at least there are benefits when your partner in crime is Tom Marvolo Riddle, Hermione thought.

He even had the librarian charmed, which was an almost impossible feat.

Though frankly speaking, that in itself did not amaze Hermione any longer. She was not very much immune to Tom's charm either. If someone had told her three months ago that she would become obsessive about Lord Voldemort, she would not have hesitated in hexing that person. Now, however, it was getting harder and harder for her to resist him. It seemed as if the harder she tried to push away her feelings, the stronger they hit her whenever he appeared.

How things change with time, especially when time travel is involved.

And as she walked back to the Gryffindor tower, she had to agree with one thing: Time was definitely something that should not be tampered with.

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Somewhere in Time