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Somewhere in Time	By : serpentinred Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 64526 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 8
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 23
- 24
- 25
A/N: Huge thanks to my wonderful beta, LSMerlot! Special thanks to Nerys, for reading this over and making sure everything seems logical. Many thanks to those of you who've read, rated, and Mr. Galion for reviewing!

Mr. Galion: Eek! Oops, sorry! Yeah, it would have been fun to see Harry and Ginny's reactions if they saw Tom kiss Hermione, but ... meh ... XD LOL, I don't know if that's a word or not, but hooray for making up words! Eh, trust me when I say I would love to just throw the two of them into a room and make them face their desires, but both of them would glare at me whenever I so much as suggest it. *sobs* I AM the author here.

*gets a cold glare from Tom and shivers* But of course, I'm also a loyal follower of the Dark Lord, so I would never go against his orders. *end shivering*

All kidding aside, meh, I would love to write all day, but alas, that's not an option. *sniggers* Love that visual you've provided me with. I'll make sure to let the loaners know that you'll pay off my debts. ;) Sure, although ... I have to admit that I'm getting Alzheimer's, so I might forget. But I'll do my best to remember to alert you about an update.

~-0-~

Chapter 24

When Hermione finally returned to the Gryffindor common room, she found Harry and Ginny chatting beside the fireplace. They looked up when she entered the room, and as discretely as she could manage, she placed Ernest Night's book into her bag.

Harry and Ginny shared a glance with one another while she walked towards them, which alerted her. Had Ginny convinced Harry that her worries were not pointless?

They motioned for her to sit in the armchair near theirs next to the fireplace, and Hermione could not help but feel that their smiles were a bit strained.

"So how are you feeling now, Ginny?" she asked after she sat down.

"Loads better," Ginny replied and wrinkled her nose. "Though, the tastes of the potions they've forced down my throat before we left St. Mungo's are still in my mouth."

"And the memory loss ... they haven't found a way to reverse it yet?" Hermione asked.

"They're still researching it," Harry answered, "but they haven't come up with an answer yet. I thought Dumbledore might be able to help us, but he's not back from Germany."

"No, he's not," Hermione confirmed with a sigh.

It had been one and a half months already, and there were still no messages about Dumbledore. She could only assume that Feierabend was harder to find than he had presumed.

A momentary pause fell over the trio, the crackling of the fire being the only sound breaking the silence. Most of the Gryffindors had gone home for Christmas. The remaining students who stayed were outside playing in the snow, so the three of them could speak without worrying about a fourth pair of ears hearing their conversation. The quietness unnerved Hermione. It felt like the calmness before a storm, the subtle rumble of an impending flood, and she could tell that both of them had a lot of questions that they wanted to ask her.

"You ..." Harry suddenly spoke up, catching Hermione's attention. She glanced at him and found him looking at her rather apprehensively. "You ... seemed to have gotten closer to him while we were gone ... Riddle, I mean ..."

She nibbled the inside of her cheek. She had always found it difficult to deceive her friends. Her enemies, or even acquaintances, she could easily lie to, but not her friends.

"Slughorn made him my Potions partner while you were gone. It's rather ... difficult to not speak to him throughout the entire class, and as you know, he's quite the talker," she explained in a soft voice.

"Why did Slughorn make him your partner?" Harry asked.

She contemplated the situation before her and suddenly realized that if she went ahead and told Harry about Slughorn's presumptions, they might understand. They might even find it funny, and if they heard the rumors from the other people, they would not be too worried.

"Slughorn ... he ... Oh, Harry." With that, Hermione gave a short laugh. "He thought Tom and I were a couple."

She threw up her hands in frustration—it was not too hard to fake that since she was thoroughly confused about her "relationship" with Tom, if she could even call it a relationship.

"And he just doesn't get it, and it just complicates everything because Tom ... you know how persistent he is when he wants to get information from you. He still isn't convinced that we're from Durmstrang."

Unexpectedly, the complaints came out of her mouth easier than she had thought they would. In fact, something seemed to come off her chest as she spoke. Although she did get ... some benefits along the way, she could not deny the suffocation she felt, being under the scrutiny of Tom Riddle and being isolated from the rest of the castle. Up until her rendezvous with Tom in the classroom, she had been downright miserable regardless of how well she protected herself from those awful, awful Slytherin witches. And without her friends at Hogwarts to support her, it was ten times worse.

"He hasn't hurt you, has he?" Harry immediately asked, alarm flashing through his eyes.

"No! No ... no, he hasn't," Hermione replied quickly, worried that this conversation might prompt him to attack Tom.

"He hasn't tried to attack you, has he? Or his cronies?"

Not unless she counted the DADA class when they were practicing the second vampire spell, but that was because he had wanted revenge, and secretly, Hermione could not find it in her to blame him. After all, he was trying to help her during Hunting Day.

And so, she shook her head.

Harry's expression visibly relaxed after her reassurance, his care for her so apparent that it deeply touched Hermione. Ginny was still quietly monitoring their interactions on the side, and Hermione momentarily wondered if the "trial" were still going to happen in the girls' dormitory.

Well, now that she saw that it was completely unnecessary to mention what happened between Tom and her, it would be a lot easier to explain things to Harry and Ginny.

"Do you at least remember why they captured you though?" Hermione asked Ginny, changing the topic altogether.

Ginny shook her head. "The only part I remember is up to the point when we were sitting in Three Broomsticks. I can't remember anything after that."

"Well, it's pretty obvious why they wanted to capture Ginny, isn't it, Hermione?" Harry said. "It must be Riddle behind all of this."

It certainly did not look good on Tom's part unless the person who cursed Ginny was another talented wizard or witch. There was no evidence that the attacker had to be a Hogwarts student, although Hermione could not comprehend why a random witch or wizard would want to capture and hex Ginny. Biting her lower lip gently, Hermione stopped herself from arguing in Tom's defense, knowing that it would undoubtedly seem condemning in Harry and Ginny's eyes.

She knew that it probably was Tom, and anyone with half a brain would think it was him. However, she could not shake off the feeling that he was not the one who harmed Ginny, or else he would not continue trying to corner her for answers.

"Did Ferret boy do anything to you while we were gone?" Harry suddenly inquired.

Hermione beamed. "You probably wouldn't believe it, but I think he's slowly opening up to me. At least, he seemed sort of worried about me when Tom cornered me at times."

"Riddle cornered you?" Harry asked, a look of horror on his face. "I thought ... you said he hadn't hurt you."

"He didn't hurt me, nor did he attack me," Hermione responded, a bit flustered that she had unwittingly steered the conversation back to the topic she had wanted to avoid the most. "He wanted answers, so he would try to blackmail me into yielding. I mean, it obviously hasn't worked. The Slytherin witches ... that was mainly why he cornered me. He wanted other students to be under the impression that I'm abnormally close to him." She then quickly added when she saw Harry open his mouth, "But you know how those banshees are. They may know some Dark Arts, but they're not nearly as maniacal as Bellatrix Lestrange or the other Death Eaters."

His frown lightened, but it had not completely gone away, allowing Hermione to deduce that her best friend was still worried.

"Harry," she called.

He glanced at her with uncertainty but remained quiet, waiting for her next words.

She heaved a sigh and gave him a reassuring smile. "I know you're worried about me, but please do trust my judgment when I say that I'm not in danger of dying. Those banshees are nothing to worry about. You've seen Iris Parkinson cast. It's not a big deal."

"Well, none of the sixth year Slytherin witches are in Hermione's league, either," Ginny spoke up. "So, you don't have to worry about them."

Harry drew a deep breath before saying, "Fine. But if they try to harm you ..."

"I'll tell them to look for you first because if Lord Thingy—"

Harry and Ginny could not suppress their snorts at Fudge's "euphemism" for Voldemort's name.

"—can't kill you, then it's obvious that nothing can." Hermione grinned.

"Ron had a pretty good shot at it while we were playing Quidditch last August. The Bludger nearly took my brains out," Harry joked.

"Or the time when he opened George's parcel in front of you without knowing what was inside," Ginny added.

Hermione's stomach lurched at the mention of Ron's name. She had not smiled in response to Harry's joke, but neither of her friends noticed since they immediately started talking about fond memories.

It was the second time Harry had mentioned Ron's name after their return from St. Mungo's, and this time, she could not bring herself to push away those feelings of guilt any longer. It had been easy to forget everything and allow herself to become reckless. After all, everything almost felt like a dream. But now, with Harry and Ginny back, she could not allow herself to escape any longer. Who knew when they would be traveling back to the future? It would be unfair to both Ron and ... Tom.

She nearly closed her eyes and sighed. Her heart constricted at the mere idea of leaving him, but she knew that she was not given an option in this situation and that she would inevitably have to return home.

Therefore, she mentally vowed to sort everything out as soon as possible—at least, before she returned to the future. Even though she might be ... attached to Tom, it was an impossible relationship. She should not cling onto it. Her future was ... in the future.

As they returned to their rooms, Ginny stopped Hermione before she could enter her dorm.

"Hermione ..."She gnawed on the inside of her cheek, seemingly unsure of how to put her thoughts into words. "Hermione, I was ... well, sort of acquainted to him. I know how charming he could, unfortunately, be. You don't have to worry; you can tell me. I promise I won't tell Harry a thing."

Out of the random, Hermione suddenly felt the urge to search out Tom's diary and make the stupid Horcrux disclose what "interactions" it had had with Ginny—and may luck be with him if the answers did not make her pleased. However, it would probably have no idea what she was going on about since the events technically did not occur yet.

"Ginny, he's going to try every method to get answers out of us," she said, followed by a short pause.

She had to take caution with her words; she did not want her friend to have a heart attack right after a visit to St. Mungo's. It was clear that Ginny kind of guessed that she might have fallen for Tom.

She released a sigh and said, "I know how charming he can be; I've been Harry's and your friend long enough to know what a manipulative freak he is. Remember when we first got here?"

Ginny nodded. "I know ... but ... I'm just worried ..."

Hermione laughed. "What did you expect him to do, Ginny? Track me down and throttle me for not giving him answers he wanted?"

Ginny snorted as she considered Hermione’s comment. "Just remember," she said after a moment, "if there's anything at all, anything you want to talk about, you can trust me. I might not be the best person when it comes to ideas and solutions, but I promise you that I'll be a good listener."

Hermione knew that Ginny was a great friend, and she was grateful that she was offering her help. Nevertheless, the situation between her and Tom was not something she wanted to pull her best friends into. No, it was best for Harry and Ginny to stay out of it altogether.

"Thanks, Ginny. Don't worry," Hermione reassured her with a warm smile.

~-0-~

After a night of unsettling dreams about Harry and Ginny finding out and reprimanding her, the next day was finally here. Pulling her tired body out of bed, Hermone changed into her normal wear and met up with Harry and Ginny to go downstairs for breakfast. Midway there, they ran into Draco, who was also heading there. Much to Harry's dismay, Hermione started chatting with Draco, so there was no way for him to shoo the Slytherin away.

When they entered the Great Hall, the girls promptly gasped. Hermione had thought that there would be no decorations since she had not seen the professors working on them for the past few days. However, it appeared that they had either worked on it last night or the house-elves had made miracles out of nothing.

Snowflakes fell down from the enchanted ceiling, and the moment they touched the tables, glittery sheens were formed, creating a rather fantasy-like wonderland right in front of their eyes. Silver wind chimes hung in midair, giving off tinkling sounds whenever snow fell on them. The four House tables were nowhere in sight. Instead, a single long table sat right in the middle of the room. Candelabras stood on top of it, their flames flickering ever so slightly whenever the shiny particles in the air interacted with them.

A gigantic Christmas tree was positioned right behind the staff table, filled with ornaments and with a huge golden star sitting at the very top. All of the windows had icicles hanging at the top and piles of snow on the sills, no doubt magical ones since the temperature inside was cool, rather than cold. Even Draco and Harry had to stare in awe at the floor, which made them feel as if they were walking on ice, though without the slipperiness.

To prevent Harry and Draco from getting at one another's throats, Hermione sat with Draco on one side of the table while Harry and Ginny sat on the opposite side. Once they sat down near the end of the table, their eating utensils appeared in front of them, closely followed by the food.

A few moments after they sat down, a booming voice caught their attentions. Harry and Ginny turned around to see Slughorn sauntering up to them with Tom closely in his wake.

"Mr. Evans, Miss Weatherby, how wonderful it is to see you two again!" Slughorn exclaimed.

Tom's eyes landed on Hermione. His lips curved into a faint smirk, and Hermione felt her heart skip a beat.

This was definitely going to be harder than she realized.

While Slughorn unintentionally distracted Harry and Ginny, Tom walked behind Hermione and bent down until his lips were near her ears.

"Had fun last night?" he asked, his breath brushing across her earlobe and nearly causing her to shiver.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she replied under her breath.

Her eyesight was then caught by Draco who was sitting next to her. He raised his eyebrow at her, although he did not look particularly surprised at their closeness. With her heart speeding up, Hermione suddenly realized that Draco had yet to comment about her absence from the latter half of Slughorn's party, nor had he commented on her and Tom's supposed relationship. An uncomfortable feeling welled up from the pit of her stomach. Had Draco told Tom everything? Was he the "newest" Knight of Walpurgis walking around Hogwarts?

Her mind was suddenly crammed by the excess of questions, and her expression probably showed her suspicions since Draco frowned. However, Tom, who was standing behind her, had no idea about it, and he merely thought that Hermione had forgotten his presence.

And one could not just disregard Lord Voldemort.

He sat down in the seat next to Hermione, and his arm slipped around her waist, causing her to almost squeak out loud. Her horrified expression caused Draco's eyebrow to disappear further underneath his bangs, although amusement was now clearly imprinted on his face.

She could not open her mouth and protest, in fear that this might alert Harry and Ginny, so she shot Tom an angry glare instead.

"Do I have your attention now?" he asked softly next to her ear.

Her fury redirected itself towards Draco, who was sitting there doing absolutely nothing while his fellow comrade was being harassed by the future Dark Lord.

The bloody ferret was definitely a traitor. She was sure of it now.

Before she could extend her leg and kick ferret boy, Harry and Ginny turned around, and much to her relief, Tom's arm readjusted so it was still on her back, but no longer in sight of her friends.

However, his choice to sit next to the bushy-haired witch was enough to cause the duo to stare while Slughorn continued to chatter on without noticing the oddness of their expressions.

"I need to speak with you," Hermione said below her breath, making sure to keep the movements of her lips to a minimum. She was very glad that Slughorn was asking Harry and Ginny more questions, so they could not monitor all of her actions.

Tom stared at her quietly and did not answer, but she had a feeling that she had his consent. Suddenly, she almost wished that he would tell her that he was busy and did not have time.

How was she going to tell him?

It made her want to bang her head against the table, and being this close to him made it even harder for her to make up her mind. Especially when Iris walked through the doors and took the seat right next to Tom.

Therefore, after breakfast she bade Harry and Ginny good-bye and went to the library. The two of them shared a glance, but Hermione could not care about that for the time being. They could question her all they wanted later on, but right now, she had something to resolve first.

She gave Madam Pince a short nod and hurried over to the end of the library where students hardly went to, even when it weren’t during the holidays.

Moments later, she felt his presence.

She closed her eyes, breathing the air in, and for the first time, she felt helpless. She did not want to do this. She did not. As stupid as it might sound, she did not want to leave this man who had made her experience every kind of emotion possible. She did not want to leave the man that had finally given her the opportunity to experience what it was like to love someone, regardless of whether he may or may not love her.

But she must.

Taking a deep breath, she turned around.

The sunlight poured through the window, shining on the pale skin of his face and the shiny black locks of hair. The darkness of his eyes was strangely enhanced underneath the brightest object in the skies. His arms were crossed in front of his chest, and he was leaning casually against the edge of the library table, waiting for her to speak.

And she so wished that he would not allow her to speak her mind.

What happened to the super talkative Dark Lord?

Minutes passed, and words still did not make it out of her mouth.

He raised an eyebrow at her, thoroughly mystified in regards to why she had asked to speak with him and had not spoken a word.

"I ..." she opened her mouth and found that her throat was beyond dry. Gathering up all the courage she had, she tried again. "I ... I can't do this anymore."

He did not reply. He merely stood there and gazed at her. His expression had changed from mildly interested to indecipherable, his emotions hidden behind that indifferent mask that slid over his features.

"I ... It's wrong. I feel ... guilty every time I do this. It's not fair to ... to him," she said. Her volume as well as her head lowered with each word she said until she was nearly whispering and her chin was nearly touching her chest.

Another period of silence went by, and she did not know what she was wishing for, but she knew she could not open her mouth to repeat what she had just said.

He finally replied, "I see."

Unsurprisingly, his tone of voice bordered on "freezing," but it still caused Hermione to look up at him. His eyes were as cold as his voice, and his posture had taken a certain rigidness to it.

A short, soft laugh erupted from his throat. "I should have guessed. Mr. Evans is back in Hogwarts, after all." A sarcastic smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Before she could ask him what he meant, he continued, "If that is all you have to say, I'm afraid I will have to take my leave of you. I still have some homework that I have to finish."

Without waiting for her reply, he turned around and swept out of the library.

She stared after him, not believing how the conversation turned out.

What had she expected? She certainly did not expect him to beg her to stay—he would not be Lord Voldemort if he did. Had she expected him to throw a tantrum? Well, this was the library, so he would not risk his reputation for whatever reason.

However, she could not help but feel a deep sense of loss as she stared at the place where he had been standing a few minutes ago. Additionally, she could not forget that look on his face right before he had stalked out of the library. It was ... dangerous, far too dangerous for someone his age and far too calculating. She felt as if she were facing an older version of him.

And somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that things were certainly far from over.

~-0-~

That day, she skipped lunch altogether, feeling no appetite whatsoever after breaking things off with Tom. Therefore, she was practically starving by the time it was dinnertime. She stayed in the library and did not even attempt to seek out Draco. That could wait until later.

When she walked down to the Great Hall, as if drawn by fate, Tom arrived at the door at the same moment with Iris trailing not too far behind him. Upon seeing Hermione, Iris narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

Pushing a lock of hair behind her ear, Hermione ignored her and quickly walked into the Great Hall without casting another glance at Tom.

She sat down at the end of the table again and prayed that Tom would not sit down next to her. It would thoroughly tear down her resolve to suppress urges of making up with him. Her worries were pointless; he took a seat on the other end of the table, near the staffs' table. As hard as she tried, her heart still fell down to the pit of her stomach and made her feel woozy.

Moments later, the other four Slytherins who had stayed for the holidays joined him. Iris, as usual, sat down next to him and immediately started latching herself onto him. Not that Hermione had never seen this happening before. It was a regular occurrence, even after Tom openly walked around with wet spots from her thundercloud, and Hermione never took a second glance at it. However, it just ... bothered her beyond reason today and made her want to rip Iris's hair out.

"Oh, so Iris is back in school, too," Harry remarked, sitting down opposite side with Ginny as Draco slid into the seat next to Hermione.

"Yes, she is," Hermione replied in a clipped tone of voice. She mentally decided not to question Draco in front of Harry and Ginny; they were bound to become worried, and there was no point to that.

Ginny gazed at her, concerned. "Are you alright? Did she ... try to hurt you when we weren't here?"

"Of course. You could only expect that much from a cow like her, and it's not like she could succeed," Hermione huffed, causing her two best friends to laugh at her nickname for Iris.

However, little did they know that Hermione's anger had nothing to do with petty things like getting hexed by mild curses.

Ginny snorted. "She must be related to Pansy." She glanced at Draco askew. "No offense to you, Malloy."

He raised an eyebrow. "No offense taken." He then wrinkled his nose. "And I have to admit that Pansy could be quite whiny sometimes."

Both Harry and Ginny chuckled at this statement even though they still did not trust him completely, and they remained unaware of Hermione's frustration.

Tom chose this moment to look up, and as casually as she could, she looked off to the side. She could avoid looking, but she could not escape the casual chatter that went on between Tom and Iris. The small, familiar chuckle that belonged to him ... she could almost imagine the half-smile he would have when he found something amusing or that slight quirk of his eyebrow when he heard something that was even mildly absurd to him.

By the end of the most torturous dinner of her life, she no longer had any idea if she were more irritated by Tom or Iris.

Or herself.

~-0-~

Although she saved herself from the insane amount of guilt she was suffering from and, surprisingly, Harry and Ginny had not questioned her about Tom's actions during breakfast, she still could not get a good night's sleep. She tossed and turned throughout the entire night, and before she knew it, the morning was here again.

Heading out of the portrait hole by herself since Harry and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, she was grabbed by none other than Draco Malfoy.

"What happened between you and Riddle?" he immediately questioned, his face paler than usual and even more so with black circles under his eyes. His usually neat hair was disheveled as if someone had just thrown him into a tornado.

She narrowed her eyes at him and pulled his hand off her.

"What did you expect?" she asked coldly.

Her tone took him by surprise, but he did not let that stop him from standing in her way.

"I stayed up for the entire night," he said.

"And how does that concern me? I stayed up for more than two-thirds of the night, too," she snapped.

By now, Draco finally noticed her difference in attitude towards him.

"Is there something wrong?" he carefully inquired.

"Is there something wrong?" she repeated, mockery working its way into her words. "Is there something wrong? Merlin, Draco Malloy, you must think that we are all fools for believing in you."

He took a step back, presumably out of fear because of how venomously she was looking at him right now.

"What are you going on about?"

"What am I going on about? Let me think," she said, tilting her head and pretending to think. "Should I be kind to a traitor? Should I bloody care about what's going on in said traitor's life? The answer to both of those questions is, unfortunately, ‘no.’ So, I suggest that you get out of my way before I hex you, Malloy."

"Wait—What? You—You're accusing me? As being a traitor?" he asked, disbelief ringing from his voice and written on his face.

"Who else?" she replied, folding her arms across her chest.

"You're mental. Why would I betray you?" he demanded.

"I'm not going to talk about it right in the middle of the hallway. But then again, you've probably already told him every single detail, haven't you?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes at him.

He threw a frantic look around and said in a lower voice, "Room of Requirement."

She gave him a long, hard stare, rejection right at the tip of her tongue. In the end, however, she finally inclined her head.

~-0-~
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Somewhere in Time