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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
- 27
- 28
- 29
A/N: Huge, huge thanks to my wonderful beta, LSMerlot! This chapter has to be the longest chapter thus far for "Somewhere in Time." *checks* Yes, it is the longest chapter so far. You can all thank Nerys for that, since she threatened to leave me "NO TOM" reviews otherwise. This chapter has to be the longest chapter thus far for "Somewhere in Time." *checks* Yes, it is the longest chapter so far. You can all thank Nerys for that, since she threatened to leave me "NO TOM" reviews otherwise. Special thanks to Nerys for looking over the chapter to make sure everything seems logical. Huge, huge thanks to those of you who read, rated, and especially those of you who reviewed: Lady Miya, Deea101, Mr. Galion, and Abyss!

Review replies can be found here: http://serp-replies.livejournal.com/

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Chapter 28

Three months ago, she would have rolled her eyes if someone were to tell her that she would travel more than fifty years back into the past. Two months ago, she would have been more than happy with the scene of Harry and Draco sitting in one place without biting each other's heads off. A month ago, she would have been sure of herself when she said she had nothing to hide from her friends.

Standing at the bottom of the staircase leading to the Gryffindor girls' dormitory right now, at this moment, however, everything simply felt surreal to Hermione Jean Granger.

At the sound of footsteps, the three sitting in front of the fireplace had already turned their heads towards her. On top of Draco's anxious expression, the worry on Harry's face made her feel repentant and apprehensive. Ginny's look of horror and restlessness upped the guilt Hermione was feeling.

The moment they saw her, Harry stood up.

"You were in his dorm last night? Alone?" he immediately demanded.

His voice mirrored the franticness on his face and made her stop in her stride.

"Er ..."

She twisted her hands around in her pockets, her mind quickly picking and choosing what to say to her friends. Before she could decide, Draco stalked up to her, grabbed her left arm, and pulled up the sleeve.

"What the—"

Noticeable relief washed over his face. Before she could finish her question, Draco quickly cut in as he dropped her arm, "What happened up there? The other people didn't see you come in, so you must have gone into his room before they came back."

The alarm on Ginny's face was even more pronounced with Draco's words; it was obvious he had not gotten the chance to tell them everything before Hermione came down.

"Did he Cruciate you?" Ginny immediately asked, her brown orbs filled with concern as she, too, stood up.

Hermione bit into her lower lip. Well, it was not the first time they had heard about Lord Voldemort torturing someone, so it should not be too big of a deal, right?

Wrong.

The moment she nodded, Harry's hand flew to the pocket which most likely held his wand; his head twitched slightly towards the portrait hole, almost as if he were trying to decide if he should hunt down Tom immediately. Profanities left Draco's mouth, and in other situations, Hermione might have found it amusing how creative he could be. Ginny shut her eyes with suppressed anger, and her body was visibly shaking.

"No—wait—I mean—" Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Great job, Granger, a voice resounded in the back of her head. It sounded suspiciously like Tom's voice, but she pushed it away; it was not the time now to think of twenty different ways to banish the Dark Lord's voice from her head.

"I Cruciated him back," she quickly said, hoping it would calm them down. However, the outcome was the complete opposite of what she had wished for.

"You what?" Draco was the first person to speak up. "You've got to be joking—"

Ginny shook her head from side to side, her eyes wide open again and staring at her as if doom's day were here.

"It's not going to work, Hermione—It's not even funny—Cruciating Voldemort—" Harry muttered, ignoring Draco's wince at the name. "If you think I would believe that, which I don't—"

"Are you insane, Granger?" Draco asked at the same time. "Do you know what you're doing? You're going to put all of us in danger! You Cruciated the Dark Lord?"

"He would never take that lying down ... He's going to want vengeance ... Oh, Hermione ... What are we going to do ... What are you going to do ..." Ginny whispered.

Hermione swallowed. She should have realized in advance that they were going to be fretting about what happened, but rather than letting them know about what really happened, this was perhaps a better alternative.

"Well, as you know ... he did Cruciate me ... and then Draco was on the floor ... I didn't know if he were dead or not, and I was really angry about Tom threatening to harm those around me ..." she explained.

"Who cares if—" Harry stopped in his words.

Hermione suspected he was about to say something along the lines of: "Who cares if ferrets were tortured?" Thankfully, he had enough sense to stop himself.

"Good Salazar ... She Cruciated the Dark Lord ... She Cruciated the Dark Lord ... He's going to kill me ... He's going to kill me ... He's going to kill us ..." Draco murmured on the side. He obviously was not concentrating on what Harry was saying.

"Why—How did you end up in the Slytherin common room?" Harry asked.

"I ... er ... confronted him about what happened to Draco," Hermione admitted.

Harry bit into his lower lip, and his eyes were on Draco, obviously holding back an assessment.

"You're mental, Hermione. As if he's going to listen to you if you reprimand him," Draco spoke up instead.

"Why didn't you go to a professor?" Ginny inquired, her eyes still filled with fear for the safety of Hermione.

"Dumbledore's bound to be the only one who would believe me," Hermione sighed. "Without him here, the other professors will just believe in whatever Tom tells them. Plus, what if they thought I was the one who tried to attack him? We've told them that we were from Durmstrang, and that school was known for their loose policy when it came to the Dark Arts."

She could tell that they agreed with her from their lack of responses and deepening frowns. She just hoped that none of them would attempt to pull some kind of stunt to avenge her. Although, the way she saw it now, she probably had to watch out for her own anger rather than the other three's temper.

"You can't tell me you stayed in there for more than an hour and just chatted afterwards," Draco said after a moment of tensed silence.

"Did he ask you anything?" Harry asked.

Draco rolled his eyes. "No, he didn't, Evans. He simply sat there and stared at Hermione's magnificent, all-awing beauty. A little more common sense here, please?"

Harry gave him a dirty look and turned back to Hermione. "Did you tell him anything from the future?"

Draco gave out an irritated noise and plopped down on one of the armchairs again. "Pothead, look at whom you're talking to. It's Hermione Granger. Does it look like she'd let something that important slip?"

"We don't know if he knows Legilimency yet," Harry argued.

"I doubt he would lock Hermione up just to use Legilimency on her," Draco replied, casting a meaningful look towards Hermione. "He was questioning me about your boyfriends, Granger."

Harry stared at her wide eyed. "What?"

For some inexplicable reason, Ginny seemed to be thoughtful rather than surprised. Hermione wondered what was going through her mind right now, but there were no ways for her to find out immediately without raising the suspicions of the other two.

"He thought—" Draco snorted. "—that I fancied you."

Harry laughed humorlessly. "Yes, because I'm sure calling her foul names is a way of showing affections."

"Evans, I haven't called her a Mud—that name for weeks already," Draco replied. "I think he's trying to narrow down on who might be the 'boyfriend' Hermione had so graciously told everyone about a few weeks ago." He studied Hermione again. "I knew the Dark Lord had eye problems the moment he thought that it was a good idea to target Scarface instead of attacking the bigger fish, like Dumbledore."

Hermione ignored his jab at her looks again, though Harry and Ginny both threw angry looks at Draco.

"Was that why you were—" Hermione paused in her words, not sure how she should continue.

"Lying on the floor like I was a victim at a murder scene?" Draco finished dryly for her. "Yes."

A blush appeared on his face presumably because he had to admit the embarrassment he had to endure last night.

"Did you let anything slip?" Harry demanded.

Suspiciously, Draco remained silent, and anxiety began to build in Hermione.

"You did, didn't you?" Harry accused.

"No—wait—I didn't let important stuff slip," Draco defended himself. He shifted his eyes from left to right continually as if he were trying to decide what to say. "I—I just—"

"What did you tell him?" Hermione asked.

"Well ... er ... I told him that Weasel King and Krum were the only ones who liked Granger," he said. When he saw Hermione open her mouth, he quickly added, "But they aren't even here, the both of them. There's no way that maniac's going to harm Weasley and Krum."

"Hasn't it occurred to you that he could harm the ancestors of the 'both of them'? You could very well be preventing the birth of two people!" Hermione screeched.

"Wait—No, I told him the Weasley we knew back home wasn't related to Gareth. It's not really a lie, so even if he knew Legilimency, it wouldn't matter. After all, we don't really know if Gareth's related to her or not," Draco replied, nodding towards Ginny.

"I've never heard of a Great-Uncle Gareth," she conceded.

"Did you tell him anything else?" Hermione asked, still very much annoyed about what Draco had disclosed.

"Uh ..." Draco mumbled. He then said something under his breath that none of them caught.

"A bit louder so that humans can hear you?" Harry commented sardonically.

"He ... might know that Hermione isn't a pure-blood now," Draco said quickly. "I swear it wasn't my fault. He kept going on about how I must be fancying her, and Father's face ... just appeared out of nowhere in front of me ... and I just blurted it out. I swear I didn't do it on purpose, Hermione."

The reactions of the remaining three people in the room were on the extremes. Harry and Ginny both started berating Draco for letting Tom know information that might potentially harm Hermione. “The victim” herself, however, was quietly contemplating to herself.

He did speculate that I was definitely not a pure-blood, she thought, recalling their conversation in the classroom on the day of Slughorn's party.

"Wait, wait!" Draco yelled again. "Look, if Riddle's taken a liking of Hermione, wouldn't it be better for him to know that she's not a pure-blood? It would stop him from pursuing her!" In a smaller voice, he muttered something that suspiciously sounded like, "And he would stop thinking that I'm her boyfriend and stop Cruciating me."

Harry and Ginny both abruptly halted in their rant.

"He's so adamant about making everyone see his ways that if he really wants to get married or something, it will most likely be a pure-blood," Draco reasoned when they did not say anything.

Unconsciously, Hermione's hands tightened into fists, and she was more than glad that they were hidden away from view by the wide sleeves of her robes.

Draco frowned. "Though, of course, I've always thought it was weird that the Dark Lord hadn't gotten married with Aunt Bella. I mean, it was obvious how crazy she was about him."

A tiny smile appeared on Hermione's face before she straightened her expression again.

I'm still angry at him. I'm still angry at him. I'm still angry at him, she repeated in her mind.

"And they do make a good pair with one another. Their craziness levels are almost the same," Harry added.

Hermione resisted the urge to glare at Harry, hating the fact that he had chosen this moment to be in perfect agreement with Draco.

"Can you imagine if they had babies together?" Draco scrunched up his nose.

"Ew, Malloy," Harry and Ginny complained together.

"Although, yeah, I suppose he doesn't like kids, seeing that he aimed his wand at you when you were only one," Draco snorted, addressing Harry.

The three of them shared a small laugh, oblivious to how annoyed Hermione was.

"Not funny, Malloy," Ginny commented, although a grin was still plastered to her face.

"Eh ... you still laughed," Draco said with a shrug. He then glanced at Hermione. "You do remember what I told you last time, don't you?"

The question was so sudden that it took Hermione aback, and a moment passed before she nodded.

"And you still found it safe to be in the same room as him," Draco muttered, slapping his hand against his forehead.

"Well, he has good reason to believe that Hermione's a half-blood," Ginny spoke up for her. "After all, since we're supposedly from Durmstrang, the chances of her being a Muggle-born are a lot lower."

"Let's hope he doesn't open up the Chamber of Secrets again then, shall we?" Draco remarked sarcastically, not noticing how Ginny slightly blanched. "As far as we know, that thing knows how to detect Muggle-borns." A frown appeared on his face. "But then again, he doesn't believe we're from Durmstrang, so what's stopping him from speculating that she might be a Muggle-born?"

"He's probably thinking that with Hermione's intelligence, she couldn't possibly be a Muggle-born. He himself was a half-blood," Harry analyzed.

"True. She's still alive after spending so much time locked up in his room, after all," Draco concluded. He glanced at Harry and Ginny. "The two of you are awfully calm hearing about Riddle being interested in Hermione."

Harry shrugged. "Riddle's been having an interest in Hermione for quite a long time already. I suspect he had gotten curious about her because of the debates in class and everything." He paused for a second. "The real question is what should we do now? We can't have him cornering Hermione when she's alone."

"And me," Draco spoke up.

"You live in the same dorm as him, Malloy," Harry replied, rolling his eyes. "Not so proud to be a Slytherin anymore now, are you?"

"It has nothing to do with what House I am in," Draco objected. "It wouldn't have been a problem without Riddle in there."

"You're free to move to our dorm," Harry answered, much to everyone's surprise. "But Hermione will have to Transfigure you into a ferret first. We can always pretend that we have a pet ferret."

"Are you serious?" Draco asked as if he were truly considering the option.

"And have another traitorous pet? We've already had a rat once, Malloy. We don't need history to repeat itself," Ginny said, rolling her eyes.

"What? I'm not traitorous!" Draco protested.

"Says he who had betrayed You-Know-Who in the last battle," spoke Ginny sarcastically.

"That was because he was blackmailing me with my parents," Draco argued.

"Yeah, yeah. That's what all Malfoys say after You-Know-Who falls. Can't use the Imperius Curse as the reason this time, can you?" Ginny teased.

Redness tinged Draco's cheeks, and he huffed. "Look, I didn't say anything of too much importance this time, did I?"

"Who knows?" Ginny answered.

"Hermione saw me on the floor!"

"Why did he let you go? I mean, he had you locked up in his dorm," Harry asked, turning towards Hermione and successfully stopping Ginny and Draco in their bantering.

"He didn't plan to," Hermione admitted a little hesitantly.

"What? Then, how did you get out of there?" Harry questioned her frantically.

"Well ... uh ..." She frowned, wondering if it were a good idea to disclose this last bit. "Ikneedhimdownthere."

"Huh?" Both Draco and Harry scrunched up their faces, not comprehending her words.

Ginny, however, obviously did because her freckles were now even more apparent on her ashen face.

Hermione took a deep breath and, looking at each one in turn, repeated herself. Sure enough, the three of them remained silent. Hermione swore she could hear a pin drop. Draco's face was contorted as if he were afraid and were holding back his laughter at the same time. Ginny's eyes were closed again, but Hermione was pretty sure it was not from anger this time; she seemed more like she was about to faint. Harry's eyes were the size of Galleons, and his mouth hung slightly open.

Then, a second uproar occurred, although this time their worries were a lot less convincing with both Harry and Draco doing their best to suppress their laughter.

"You are insane, Granger. Very, very insane. I'm sure about it now. If they had an extra cell next to Aunt Bella's in Azkaban, they would surely reserve it for the day you broke down like her," Draco commented, his voice cracking at certain syllables.

Hermione suddenly felt extremely annoyed that she was being compared to that person who hero-worshipped Tom. No, it was definitely not because of jealousy from last night. And who had ever said she was jealous in the first place?

"You're going to get killed, Hermione. He is so going to kill you for that," Harry chortled, trying to sound serious but failing miserably.

Harry and Draco shared a look, and they both collapsed and started roaring with laughter. Even Ginny seemed to have recovered from her initial shock and now had a grin tugging at the corner of her lips. After she took a look at the still guffawing boys on the couch, she inconspicuously moved towards Hermione.

"Those weren't the only things that happened, were they?" she asked softly.

Hermione ogled at her. Quickly, she mentally weighed the pros and cons of letting Ginny know about what really happened. Then, she made her decision on the spot.

"Later," she whispered, genuine promise lingering in her eyes.

Ginny gave her a soft smile and quick nod.

"Do you reckon that's the reason why he never had any ... uh ... urges towards women?" Harry asked when he calmed down enough to do so, looking at Draco.

"Well, Aunt Bella was certainly all over him," the latter tittered.

Hermione's eyes flashed, and she subconsciously tuned in on their conversation.

"That's expected. But no reactions from the 'great' Dark Lord, eh?" Harry chuckled.

The two young men took another look at one another and roared in laughter again.

"No wonder he hated Muggle-borns," Draco commented, gasping in between each word. "He remembered you, Hermione. You've made him ..."

Harry and he broke down again with renewed mirth, much to Hermione's renewed annoyance. A soft squeeze reminded her that Ginny was standing next to her. She turned her head slightly, and Ginny gave her a supporting smile.

It took a while, but after the boys finally settled down, Harry reiterated his concern about each individual's safety.

"If we stick together, he won't be able to corner and force answers out of us—"

"You're nutters, Evans. How are you going to prevent Hermione from being alone? Are you going to try to stop Granger from going to the library again? Or do you plan to spend whatever free time you have in there with her?" Draco pointed out.

"Hermione objected last time because last night hadn't happened yet," Harry argued.

"You're not stopping me from going to the library," Hermione said firmly.

"Hermione—" Harry protested.

"Listen, Harry. Madam Pince is in there. He's not going to start throwing Unforgivables at me right in the middle of the library," Hermione reminded him.

"But—"

"Oy, Evans," Draco called out, an impish grin on his face. "You don't have to worry about Hermione being by herself. You should be happy if he catches her like that."

Harry stared at him with a frown. "What are you talking about? How—"

"No, no, Evans," Draco cut in. "If he catches her alone again, she can knee him there again."

Harry looked stunned for a moment, and then both of them started howling again.

"Boys," Hermione muttered, shaking her head when she realized they were not going to stop laughing anytime soon.

Ginny smiled and whispered, "Do you want to talk about it now? We can go to my room or yours."

Hermione nibbled on her lower lip and nodded.

"We're going upstairs. Please do holler when you're finished being immature," Ginny announced, throwing a pillow at each of the boys who could not stop laughing.

The two of them were not sure if Harry and Draco had heard them, but moments later, the girls arrived in Hermione's dorm.

"I'm all ears," Ginny promised as she sat cross-legged on Hermione’s bed.

Hermione had thought that it would be hard to tell Ginny everything. However, the moment she started talking, everything started tumbling out of her mouth: Why she had gotten detention ... the rumors about her fancying Riddle ... their debates in class ... Tom saving her from those nasty attacks by those Slytherin banshees ... Tom assisting her in their classes ... what happened during Hunting Day ... their encounter in the Potions classroom ... the Slughorn party and their disappearance from said party ... the cloud incident and what she had done for vengeance ... her breaking up with Tom ... what happened last night ...

As she had promised, Ginny remained silent throughout Hermione's entire monologue, only speaking up to ask questions when something was not clear to her.

When Hermione was finally finished, she took a deep breath and glanced at Ginny, a bit fearful that she might see some form of condemnation in the latter's eyes. A sense of relief washed over her when she found thoughtfulness and understanding instead.

"And I can't tell Harry and Draco ... especially Harry," Hermione added.

"No, you definitely can't tell Harry," Ginny agreed. "He'd definitely do something drastic if he were to know about what happened." She slightly frowned. "But do you really think of it as rape?"

"What ... do you mean?" Hermione asked. "Of course it is. He used a spell on me, Ginny."

Ginny nodded. "Yes, I heard you the first time." She pushed herself forward and took both of Hermione's hands in hers. "But, Hermione, would you have held yourself back if he were not You-Know-Who?"

"Of course," Hermione replied immediately, although her answer was not as firm as it should have been.

Ginny stared at her with both eyebrows raised. "Liar."

"I'm not lying," Hermione protested.

"Yes, you are, Hermione," Ginny declared, releasing Hermione's hand and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"I may be attracted to him ..."

"Which is perfectly understandable," Ginny agreed with a nod of her head. "He can be charming when he chooses to be."

"But that doesn't mean that I wanted to ... well ..." Hermione stopped in her words as the images of what happened last night flashed through her mind again, causing her cheeks to flush red.

"It's obvious that the only reason you stopped yourself was because you know who he was, who he is, and who he will become, and you feel guilty about the whole thing. You feel guilty that you're attracted to him, and that's not very healthy for you," Ginny pointed out. "You're deluding yourself, and that spell was probably the only way Tom could've broken through that huge wall you've constructed in front of yourself."

"Oh, so you're taking his side now?" Hermione snapped.

"Of course not," Ginny denied her accusations. "Why would I? But it's not helping you at all if you keep forcing yourself into a corner and trying to shut out your emotions. Besides, you really, really shouldn't use the term 'rape' so easily because ... it can be a bit offensive to people who really were raped. In your case ... I really don't think you were that repulsed by him touching you. You were perfectly comfortable around him afterwards. Rape victims just don't ... react like that, Hermione. And you were fine when Draco touched you in the common room."

"But—I—" Hermione stuttered.

"You do remember Padma, Parvati's twin sister in Ravenclaw, don't you?" Ginny suddenly asked. She continued when Hermione nodded, "She was ... During the year the Death Eaters took over, she got ... raped by Amycus Carrow."

"What?" Hermione screeched. "No."

Ginny nodded. "Padma ... Lavender told me that it was because Padma couldn't bring herself to cast an Unforgivable. I think Carrow had been waiting for an opportunity anyway. He would have found some other reason even if she could cast that Cruciatus Curse, but ... after that day, she couldn't bear any of the boys touching her. She would start cringing away, or in some extreme cases, she would start screaming."

Hermione fell silent, anger boiling up upon hearing that such a fate had befallen one of her classmates. She was so going to get Carrow when she returned to the future. He had better start praying that he would be dead before she arrived at the door of his cell in Azkaban.

"Hermione," Ginny called out softly, catching her attention. "You know that it's impossible for me to be completely supportive of this relationship, but the way you're going about it now, you're going to hurt yourself. And you do know ... it is easier for him to manipulate you if you keep trying to bury away your emotions. Once you face your emotions, you can stand up to him a lot better and cut things off a lot easier. Running away from it will only make things even more complicated and make your feelings for him even stronger. It ... happened to me with the journal incident. He wouldn't have been able to manipulate me if I had dared to face my fears and emotions for Harry."

"Pushing away your desires, suppressing your emotions, thinking what other people want instead of what you want ... It will only cause you to want something even more, and it will make you miserable if what you want falls into the hands of someone else."

She blinked, thoroughly annoyed at her memory for remembering every syllable he had spoken. As if it were not enough that his actions had bored her sticky consequences, his words had to add fuel to the flame by continuously resounding in her ears and driving her to the kingdom of the insane. She would definitely need a Tom exorcism if this continued.

"Have you thought about what to do with Tom?" Ginny asked after a moment of allowing Hermione to think to herself.

"What do you mean?"

Ginny snickered. "Hermione, you are so bloody intelligent in other cases, but when it comes to relationships ..." She shook her head and clarified, "Have you thought about how to prevent Tom from telling Harry and Draco about what happened? It's too good of a chance for him to taunt the two of them."

Shit, Hermione thought. She had been so engrossed in other things that she had forgotten the biggest problem of all.

"I'll have to speak with him," Hermione said quietly.

"He's not going to listen," Ginny predicted with a frown, "unless he's getting something out of it." She chuckled. "And he's not going to give you another chance to knee him."

"Not you, too, Ginny," Hermione groaned.

"It's not every day you get to imagine You-Know-Who in pain," Ginny said with a grin. "And throwing Cruciatus Curses at him ... I don't know if I should call you reckless or cheer for your braveness." She paused. "I'll go with you to talk with him. If anything, there are the two of us."

"But Ginny ... you ..." Hermione bit her lower lip.

It was no secret that Ginny still felt uneasy around Tom. Standing within close proximity of him would undoubtedly unsettle her.

"You're my friend, and I should support you in whatever way I can," Ginny interrupted her firmly. She tilted her head. "I might be frightened of him, but I'm not going to let him harm my friend. Not anymore."

A small smile appeared on Hermione's face, and once again, she could not be gladder that she had decided to tell Ginny Weasley what had happened.

However, while they were walking out of the dorm, Hermione contemplated on how to dissuade Ginny from going with her. After all, the last thing she wanted to do was to pull her friends into the mess she was in.

~-0-~

When the two of them walked down the staircase, they had no idea if they should be more surprised about the fact that Harry and Draco had not ripped one another's heads off or annoyed that the two boys were still laughing and making knee jokes.

Hermione and Ginny shared an exasperated look with one another, and each of them grabbed a boy and made their way to the Great Hall.

Breakfast was awkward, to say the least. Hermione had no idea if she should be happy or annoyed by the fact that Tom had not bothered to spare a glance her way when she entered the room. Iris, on the other hand, made a point to stick even closer to Tom, nearly perching herself on top of his knees.

"That cow should be glad that wish magic is such an uncommon occurrence in older witches and wizards," Ginny whispered in Hermione's ear, causing the latter to lower her glare and blush.

"She could drown in the lake for all I care," Hermione muttered.

"As long as she's not trying to bewitch Tom," Ginny teased.

"Ginny," Hermione hissed, causing Ginny to giggle.

Thankfully, the two young men were still joking under their breaths and so did not hear the conversation between the girls. Nevertheless, by the time they sat down, Hermione was no longer sure if she wanted a truce between Draco and Harry or not. At least she did not have to put up with their tasteless jokes when they were still at one another's necks. Therefore, for the first time, she sat down next to Ginny, and Harry sat down next to Draco. The former nemeses did not even notice the peculiarity of the seating arrangements as they continued chatting with one another.

Strangely enough, Alphard was nowhere in sight, so Hermione asked Ginny his whereabouts.

"He's probably still at the Quidditch Pitch. He asked us if we wanted to go this morning, but you know what happened," Ginny answered, nodding her head towards Draco.

"You should have persuaded Hermione to stand in front of you during that final battle, Evans. You-Know-Who would have dropped his wand immediately—" Draco was whispering.

"—and run the other way with his hands covering parts that might get kneed again," Harry finished, and the two of them got immersed in muffled laughs again.

Hermione sighed, realizing that this was going to be a common occurrence from now on. Therefore, she tried her best to tune out their voices while she scooped some potatoes onto her plate.

"You might want to catch him right after breakfast," Ginny suggested in a low voice. "The earlier you confront him, the less of a chance he will get to talk to those two morons sitting across from us."

Hermione nodded, realizing that that was probably the best for the current situation. However, she still had not thought of a way to make Ginny not go with her.

"Hermione, Hermione!" Draco hissed.

She turned her head and looked at Moron Number One.

"Can we get front row tickets next time?" Moron Number Two joked.

"No," Hermione deadpanned.

"Aw, come on, Hermione," Harry pleaded.

"Grow up," she snapped.

The two of them then stared at her, as if they were insulted by her comment, before they started whispering to one another again, presumably plotting on how to get her to knee Tom again while they were present. Hermione concentrated on eating, deciding that she should ignore them, and then maybe, just maybe, they would learn to stop irritating her with their stupid jokes.

It was easier said than done. By the end of the meal, Hermione contemplated on throwing the plates and goblets on the table at the two of them to shut them up for a moment.

"He's leaving," Ginny said quietly, and Hermione's eyes flew over to the other end of the table.

Tom was standing up from his seat, his eyes on Dolohov as the Knight told him something. After a frown appeared shortly on his forehead, he gave a swift nod and said something in return.

Hermione turned around and gave Ginny a nod. They had decided while they were walking down from the girls' dorms that it was better to ambush Tom in one of the corridors rather than follow after him. They did not need the rest of the school thinking that they were following Tom around.

Before they could tell Harry and Draco that they were leaving first, however, a voice called out to them.

"Mr. Evans, Miss Weatherby!"

The four of them turned their heads and found Professor Nostredame striding up to them.

"Please meet me in my office. We need to discuss the assignments that must be covered in order for the two of you to catch up with the rest of your classmates," he addressed Harry and Ginny.

With a short nod, he exited the Great Hall.

"Uh ... I thought that was the Head of our House's job," Harry spoke up.

"Dumbledore's not here right now, so Professor Nostredame is the substitute Head for the time being," Hermione explained, relieved that Ginny could not follow her now.

"But what about Hermione? We can't leave her by herself," Harry said, still wary about the safety of his friend.

"I doubt he's going to Cruciate her in the middle of the hallways. As long as she sticks to the library and the common room, he's not going to risk his reputation," Draco muttered.

Harry cast an unsure look towards Hermione and continued listing the reasons why he should not leave Hermione alone.

"Harry, stop worrying so much already. I'll be fine. Professor Nostredame is waiting for you, and you can't leave a professor waiting like that," Hermione reprimanded, cutting him off.

"But—"

"I'll be fine, Harry," Hermione repeated herself for what seemed like the twentieth time that day.

After a bit of internal struggling, Harry finally nodded. "But please don't confront him by yourself, Hermione. He's ... dangerous, far too dangerous for his age already."

"I know, I know," Hermione promised offhandedly, trying to keep her eyes from leaving Draco's face when she noticed Tom walk out of the Great Hall with Iris following after him like a sick puppy.

She had better hurry and get Draco to leave her side if she wanted to catch up with Tom.

"Wait for me," Ginny murmured before she walked away with Harry.

Hermione turned around to look at Draco, who raised an eyebrow at her.

"Going to the library again, I suppose?" he asked.

"Yes. I still need to finish my Astronomy paper," she lied. "Have you finished it yet?"

"Eh ... we still have two weeks before it's due," Draco said, shifting his weight from one foot to another.

"Draco," she reprimanded.

"I think I'll go to the Room of Requirement to get some sleep. I doubt I can get a normal sleeping schedule now that you've attacked him like that," Draco replied, rejecting her before she got the chance to invite him to go to the library with her.

"It's better to get something done earlier, Draco. If you wait until the last minute—" Hermione started to say, knowing that it would sound suspicious if she did not try to persuade him.

"I'm not, I'm not," Draco cut in, waving his hands. "I'll get it done after I get a bit more rest. Have fun in the library, and make sure you're always in Madam Pince's line of sight."

The unconscious tone of care in his voice nearly made Hermione smile, and for a moment, she allowed herself to be happy about the fact that she had insisted on looking after him. They then parted ways, and Hermione waited until she could no longer see Draco's silhouette before she headed down the way she had seen Tom walk.

A few hallways down, and her irritation began to build since Tom was nowhere in sight. She was about to give up when voices could be heard around the corner.

"—Father absolutely adores you, Tom. I can already see Mum treating you like a second son."

Hermione tiptoed over to the edge and looked around the corner. Standing in the corridor was, much to her relief, Tom. Unfortunately, Iris was standing in there, holding onto his hand.

"I'm afraid that I will have to decline, Iris. When we leave school this year, I believe that it will be prudent for me to first find a suitable career," Tom replied.

As a future Dark Lord and where the employees have to pay the employers instead, Hermione thought sarcastically in her mind while imagining Iris's hand on fire.

There were no doubts in her mind that the Malfoys must have had to "share" their Gringotts vault with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

"Father knows a lot of people in the Ministry. He can definitely—"

"If I had wanted to get into politics, Iris, I would've taken up Abraxas's offer last year," Tom interrupted her. "Now, if that was all you wanted to talk to me about ..."

"Tom, you don't understand, Granger—"

"What does all of this have to do with Granger?" Tom asked sharply.

His tone of voice must have frightened Iris since she took a step back, causing a grin to appear on Hermione's face.

What? Afraid of your dearest Tom, Parkinson? she leered in her mind, still annoyed that Iris had not dropped Tom's hand in the process of moving away.

A second later, Iris moved closer to him again. Hermione's eyes narrowed when she noticed that this time Iris was a lot closer to him than she previously was.

"Regardless of what she says, I can assure you that Father never heard of a Granger in the Ministry. She cannot help you. She—"

"Iris, I might be mistaken, but are you suggesting that I might have been befuddled by her?" Tom asked, amusement laced throughout his words.

"I didn't mean that," Iris quickly replied. "I just—"

"Was this the reason why you kept following me from the Great Hall? Because you were worried that I might be—" He sneered. "—enamored with her?"

Iris remained silent; her eyes, however, betrayed her fear and curiosity.

"I do not wish to keep repeating myself throughout the rest of the school year, and I do not want to be constantly pestered by the same problem over and over again," Tom said quietly. He placed a finger under her chin and tipped her head upwards so that she was staring directly into his eyes. "I suggest that you refrain from attempting to manipulate me, Iris, because your lies are transparent to me, as well as to everyone else."

With that, he moved away from her. Iris finally released him and ran a hand through her blond locks.

"Tom, I—"

"What happens between Granger and me is none of your concern, Iris. Do stop embarrassing yourself with your outrageous theories and ridiculous delusions."

While Tom persuaded Iris to go back to the common room and subsequently stop following him, Hermione quickly shot a pleading look towards a suit of armor next to her and hid behind it. Thankfully, the suit of armor kindly shifted a bit to the side so that her figure was completely hidden from view before Iris turned around the corner and walked away, occasionally casting backwards glances as if she were wishing that Tom would call her back.

When Iris finally disappeared around a corner, Hermione waited for a second before extending her head to check before she stepped out of her hiding space.

Although she had been here to talk to him, she still nearly got a heart attack when she turned around and found Tom staring at her in surprise and mixed emotions in his eyes.

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Somewhere in Time