Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

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

Chapter List
- 34
- 35
- 36
A/N: Many thanks to catcachoo (from PI) for beta-ing the chapter! Special thanks to Nerys for looking it over for FLOW. Huge, huge thanks to those of you who read, faved, placed on alert, and especially those of you who reviewed: Rena, Aviendha, bluelagoon, Abyss, Vella, mirrorofrapture, and Lady Miya!
Review replies can be found on: http://serp-replies.livejournal.com
~-0-~
Chapter 35

"Hermione? Are you alright?" Merrythought asked when she did not so much as reply or move.
Blinking her eyes rapidly twice, Hermione looked at her and replied almost mechanically, "Yes, Professor ... I ..."
A sympathetic and kindly expression appeared on the professor's face. "Don't you worry too much, dear. Just try your best. I'm pretty sure that you can give Tom a run for his money." She glanced at Tom, who gave her a smile.
Hermione swallowed, but it hardly helped her overly dried throat. Merrythought did not understand that this was not about if she could win or not ... well, okay, perhaps it did. She knew that he must have gotten an "O" on his O.W.L. In contrast, she had only gotten an "E," something which she did not like to think about. The thought of losing to him in a duel and in front of so many people ... that was just intolerable to Hermione.
She shook her head, almost finding it laughable that she was worrying about winning or losing. Her main concern right now should be the holly wand lying in the palm of her hand.
Taking a deep breath and shooting another glance at Harry (who looked like he was permanently frozen to his seat), Hermione walked up the stairs with as much courage as she could muster. Iris, who was standing in the crowd behind Tom, smirked at her. That tiny motion made her straighten up her back, and when she got to the center of the stage, she was pretty sure that her face was composed enough to not show how afraid she actually was.
Tom's posture was relaxed, and a single pale, long finger slid down the yew wand, as if he were already contemplating on what spells to use. Hermione's eyes flickered upwards and met with his. He tilted his head to one side, his gaze holding unspoken questions.
"Bow to your opponents!" Merrythought instructed on the sidelines.
Hermione was not positive, but she thought she heard a speck of anticipation in the professor's voice. Nonetheless, she still bowed towards Tom the same moment he did. A hint of a smile appeared on his face when they straightened themselves up.
"Begin!"
Surprisingly, he neither took on a defensive nor offensive posture.
"Ladies first," he said, gesturing towards her.
Hermione hesitated, trying to remembering everything she needed to about the twin cores. Harry and Lord Voldemort's wand connected because they cast simultaneously. If she avoided casting at the same time as Tom did, perhaps the Reverse Spell Effect would not occur. Perhaps she could try elemental and object magic, too, so that her spells would not directly come in contact with his.
A worried frown appeared on her face as she contemplated what would happen if she lost the duel. Would it have any effect on future events? Well, it was obvious that it probably would, but would it directly lead to Harry losing against Lord Voldemort? The thought in itself made her anxious. For the sake of Harry, she could not afford to lose to Tom in this duel.
Tom quirked a single eyebrow, obvious wondering when she planned to start. Finally, she positioned herself for attack. With a quick swirl of the wand, a shard of ice rushed towards Tom. Almost immediately, he stepped to the side, and a spell was flung her way. Not wanting the spells from the wands to connect, Hermione dodged to the side instead of putting up a Shield Charm.
However, when she turned around, she stared. The spell traveled at an impossibly slow speed before it finally shriveled up and disappeared, two feet away from where she was standing previously. Initial confusion turned into unprecedented anger that boiled inside Hermione, and she narrowed her eyes at Tom, who shrugged.
"Oops," he said, an annoying smirk lingering on his lips.
She tightened her grip around the wand, the rational side of her mind trying to urge the annoyance down. However, the recklessness in her was winning quite effortlessly. What fueled it even more was the fact that he was now standing there, twirling his wand idly as if he were not in the middle of a duel. He was obviously not taking this seriously, and it thoroughly irked Hermione.
"Reckon you can win the duel by kissing her, Tom?" someone shouted from where most of the Slytherins were standing.
"Mr. Rosier, five points from Slytherin," Merrythought spoke up, frowning while some other students snickered. "You know quite well that taunts and jeers are not allowed during a duel."
Hermione, however, was not concentrating on what Merrythought was saying. She could always deal with Mercurius Rosier later on.
To hell with "E" for Defense.
Her hand moved quickly as her mind concentrated on the spells she was going to cast, and she consecutively threw four different spells at him, completely forgetting that she was trying to avoid casting simultaneously with him until the last spell left her wand. However, her worries were quickly forgotten when her strategy worked.
She purposely placed less force behind the first and last spells; they worked somewhat as lures. Most wizards and witches would fire consecutive spells to confuse the opponents, with the most force behind the last spell cast. Tom would have guessed that Hermione would not do something conventional and that her last spell would not be the most powerful one, but he had not foreseen that she would risk shooting two stronger spells, one after the other.
A grin blossomed on her face when the second spell caught Tom off guard, making him take two steps backwards. A look of surprise appeared on his face, and he stepped to the side a millisecond too slow. The third spell grazed against his leg, making a slash in it and causing him to fall down to knees. Blood splattered on the ground as a few girls from the crowd gasped, and the chattering from the rest of the students stopped, just as the fourth and last spell swiped against his arm, giving him a smaller wound there. More blood joined the red stains on the floor, the sound eerily loud against the silence of the crowd.
Suddenly, someone who sounded suspiciously like Joseph cheered loudly in the crowd.
"Excellent, Miss Granger! I've always known you had potential," Merrythought muttered on the side, scribbling something on to her piece of parchment.
Calmly, Tom waved his wand over the afflicted areas before he stood up and stared back at Hermione. She swallowed hard when she saw that expression on his face, suddenly remembering that it was not a very good idea for her to taunt him when she was trying to avoid letting the spells from the two wands come in contact with one another. After spending quite a good amount of time with him, she could safely say that she knew what some of his expressions stood for.
And right now, she was a hundred percent positive that he was infuriated.
Merlin's pants! Chamber of Secrets tour definitely cancelled. I'll be fed to the basilisk this time for sure.
Knowing that matters would probably be worse if she stood around and allowed him to hex her to oblivion, she flicked her wand.
Don't let the spells hit one another directly, she chanted to herself like a mantra.
"Flammaritimus!" she cast, sending a mass of flames towards him and glad that, somehow, Harry's wand was working better for her than Bellatrix's.
With an intricate twirl of his wand, a light blue shield—the color of which indicated that it was not the normal Shield Charm—surrounded him. The moment her flames touched his shield, the light blue film concaved towards him before splashing over the sea of fire like an ocean wave.
It was all over in a matter of seconds, and before she had a chance to cast another spell, he had already thrown three spells towards her, the one in the middle headed directly towards her and the other two racing towards either side of her. She immediately threw herself on the floor to avoid getting hurt by the spells. Rolling clear of the curses that flew over her head, she immediately jumped up, only to be hit in the stomach by a fourth spell he had thrown her way.
"Oomph," she grunted from the impact as she landed on her behind.
She distinctly heard a gasp, and she could only guess that it was from Harry; she did not have enough time to look. Someone else laughed, obviously quite happy about her situation. She immediately got up, disregarding the pain, and moved to the side before another one of Tom's hexes could hit her.
He was not holding back anymore, and Hermione could obviously feel it from the strength behind each and every one of his spells, even the ones that did not directly hit her. The speed at which he was throwing them at her also told her exactly how furious he was.
Perspiration formed on her forehead, and she wiped it away with her free hand. Her shirt stuck to her body, and she was slightly afraid that the wand would fly out of her hand from the sweat that had formed there. However, she could not take the chance or allow the hesitation. As quickly as she could, she flicked her wand upwards before drawing an imaginary eight in the air. Thrusting her wand upwards again, a flurry of pebbles was pelted at him.
A wall separated him from the pebbles before they even got close, and before she could react, the wall turned into liquid form and swished towards her. Out of reflex, she cast the Shield Charm. The moment the liquid covered her ward, it solidified into an almost stone-like dome around her.
"Expulso!" she cast towards the dome.
However, she had not anticipated what would happened in the next few seconds. The moment the incantation left her lips, the dome had already disappeared. Her eyes widened as the spell she had cast left the wand unhindered by anything in its path.
Except for the spell that had left Tom's wand.
Right in the middle of the arena, they collided. Time seemed to stand still as the two spells connected, and a golden thread appeared between the two wands. Her heart jumped to her throat as Harry's wand started to shake, almost as if it wanted to jump out of her hand.
Shit!
She tightened her grip around the wand, and she frantically looked towards Harry, who had stood up from his chair. Worry was etched on every feature of his face, and his hand tightened around Draco's wand. Merrythought seemed too shocked or confused to notice that her charge had disregarded her instructions for him to stay seated. The rest of the students stood still in confusion, some of them with their jaws dropped open. She turned her head around, and Tom appeared as surprised as everyone else.
Suddenly, both of them were lifted from the ground, causing a shriek to leave Hermione's mouth. Her heart raced as her eyes were drawn back to the connections between Tom and Harry's wands, and she regretted that she had not forced the details about what happened at the graveyard out of Harry. He had never mentioned anything about flying. Harry's wand nearly slipped out of her hand the moment she lost concentration. The feeling of the wand sliding from her hand frightened her, and she immediately clawed onto it again.
She swallowed hard and glared at the beam connecting her and Tom instead, since she got into this situation because of it. If she had been under less stressful conditions, she would have sighed out of relief when they landed a small distance away from the arena.
The beam of light between Harry and Tom's wand started to splinter and a gold cage-like dome started to form around her and Tom. The rest of the students ran over to where they were, surrounding them and taking care not to touch the strange gold light.
Gold, bead-like lights began to materialized between Harry and Tom's wand, and as each of them got closer to Hermione's end, she felt the wand heat up and shake even harder. Ghost images of the spells she had just cast floated upwards, and she felt her stomach drop.
Priori Incantatem.
She had been correct, but the problem was, she did not know how to get out of this situation right now. The dome surrounding her and Tom suddenly brightened visibly for a second before turning normal again. She glanced towards Harry and found that he had Draco's wand extended. He had obviously tried to cast a spell, trying to get her out of the situation, but it had not worked. Merrythought grabbed his shoulder and forced him down, her mouth moving as she chided him for trying to interfere, though her eyes never left the peculiar scene in front of them.
And now, Hermione really had no idea what to do right now as more and more of those bead-like lights got closer to her end.
"Don't let those beads get close to your wand!" Hermione heard Harry's muffled voice yell.
Well, yes, thanks, Harry, for telling him that. As if I didn't have enough problems before, Hermione thought as she gritted her teeth.
And how was she supposed to prevent the beads from approaching Harry's wand?
As if on cue, the beads started to rapidly move towards her, proving that Tom had heard what Harry said. Hermione gripped onto the wand with both hands, willing the beads to go towards the other end. The effort seemed to slow down the speed at which they moved, but it did not stop them from heading in her direction.
"Break the connection!" Harry yelled this time.
How?
She shook the wand, trying to break the connection, but to no avail, and the wand shook even harder, as if it were trying to break free of her hold. Then she noticed that Tom was holding onto his wand with both hands, too, a determined expression on his face, making it rather obvious that he had heard what Harry shouted to her.
Just when she thought all was lost, a beautiful sound seemed to be emitted from the wand she was holding, and suddenly, she felt a renewed boost of courage. Concentrating with all her might, she willed for either the bond to break or the beads to move away.
Surprisingly, it worked.
Slowly, the beads started to move in Tom's direction. She spared a glance at him and found a surprised and frightened expression on his face as the phoenix's song sounded around them. Relief flooded through her, and she wondered if this could be the perfect moment to break the connection, since Tom was obviously not intent on maintaining it anymore.
As if they had communicated it beforehand, Tom and Hermione both slashed their wands to their sides, and the dome around them disappeared.
Time froze.
And then, everyone started talking.
"What just happened?"
"Is that some kind of strange spell that Granger learned back in Durmstrang?"
"She's the first person to hurt Riddle. Ever—"
"Why did that happen?"
"Is it some sign that they should be the one who defeat Grindelwald?"
"I know, I know! It means that they are destined for one another! I've always thought they'd make a good couple!"
The person with the most peculiar expressions was Tom. He stared at Hermione, his eyes slightly narrowed, like he was trying to figure out a particularly difficult puzzle. She tried to look as confused as everyone else was while she kept her eyes on anything but him. Therefore, she did not see the occasional glances he shot in Harry's direction.
When her eyes finally landed on Harry, she found him with the frown on his face, as if he were in deep thought. When she caught his attention, he blinked once.
"Who won?" he mouthed to her.
Hermione stood still as a frown appeared on her face, and she stared at Harry with the same expression of contemplation.
Because she seriously had no idea what the answer to that question was, too.

~-0-~
Potions class turned out more complicated than Hermione had anticipated. Not only were they troubled by the possibility of Lord Voldemort winning in the future, Harry was worried about Tom cornering her again.
"He's going to try, I know he is," he said while they walked through the hallways.
When they entered the classroom, life proved to be less kind to Hermione than she had thought because lo and behold, Tom Marvolo Riddle was already there, staring at a particular spot on the wall and twirling his wand as he sat leisurely at their table. Harry had been less than happy to hear about the fact that Slughorn had insisted that Hermione and Tom had to work together and very nearly threw a fit when Tom refused to budge from the seat.
"We were working on the project before the holidays. It's called combined effort, Evans, in which each person who worked on the project would get the same grade, and I hardly feel inclined to give you a free 'O,'" Tom sneered.
After confirming with Slughorn that partners were, indeed, already chosen and could not be changed, Harry sat right beside Hermione, watching their interactions—or rather, scrutinizing the Dark Lord's every movement. He would have really liked to sit in between them, but both Slughorn and Tom would most likely object to that. Without a partner and without starting the project before the holidays, Slughorn had advised Harry to look on with other students. Thanks to Harry's presence, nonetheless, Hermione did not have to be pestered by Tom about what happened during the duel. However, it also provided him with an opportunity he hardly wanted to miss.
It started off with occasional brushes against her hand when he was passing her an ingredient or checking the fire. As they waited for the potion to boil, Tom leaned close to her ear without taking his eyes off the cauldron, disregarding the fact that Harry narrowed his eyes and had his hand gripped around his wand.
"You still have detentions to fulfill, Miss Granger," he whispered, causing her hair to slightly move and tickle her cheek.
Her face flushed red at the overly intimate gesture, and she was about to answer when Harry spoke up.
"Stay away from her, Riddle."
With a smirk on his face, Tom leaned slightly backwards, surprising Hermione. Since when did Tom Marvolo Riddle take commands from someone? Especially when said someone was Harry?
Indeed, her suspicions were instantly confirmed when someone's hand landed gently on her knee, causing her to gasp.
"What's wrong?" Harry immediately asked, eying her with concern.
"Nothing," she murmured, gesturing towards the pickled Moonflower roots in front of her. "I thought I cut them the wrong way."
While she spoke, her free hand went under the table and brushed away the offending hand. However, mere seconds later, Tom's fingers started tracing small circles on her thigh. She made a grab for them, but they kept evading her capture, as if he knew precisely what she was going to do.
She shot a glare at him, but he wasn't even looking at her. Instead, he was still calmly taking down notes and observing the cauldron. It made her frustrated. Half of her mind wanted to smack him. The other half, however, was busy fighting the strange excitement she felt from what he was doing. She knew it was wrong, but that was precisely what was so tempting about it: It was forbidden.
"I think we're missing some ingredients. Please do excuse us, Mr. Evans," Tom suddenly said, standing up.
"We are?" Hermione asked, checking over the list of ingredients on her desk.
She glanced at the remaining things beside the cauldron and found out that they were, indeed, missing a couple of ingredients. She frowned, since she clearly recalled Tom getting them before the holidays.
"I'll go," Harry immediately offered.
"It's our project, Mr. Evans. You're only supposed to watch," Tom replied smoothly. Strangely enough, Hermione thought there was a tinge of sarcasm in his voice.
He then swept out of his seat. When Hermione did not stand up, he turned his head and stared at her. She stubbornly gazed back at him, suspicion written on every feature of her face.
"If we don't get the ingredients, we can't finish the project, Hermione, which means we might fail it," he reminded her, his tone almost mocking.
His words only caused her to become even more suspicious, and she crossed her arms over her chest, wondering what he was getting out of this. He certainly would not risk torturing her for information in the storage room, given that there was a whole classroom full of people right outside of it. However, she wouldn't put it pass him to have his hands all over her before suddenly pointing his wand at her and threatening her.
"Is everything alright here?" Slughorn asked, a wide grin on his face as he looked over the potion brewed by his favorite students.
"We're missing taggleworms and Plucktorian roots, professor," Tom replied, his eyes still remaining on Hermione.
"Oh, right! I recall you telling me during the holidays that yours got contaminated," Slughorn said.
"Yes, professor," Tom answered.
A small frown appeared on Hermione's face. It was only two ingredients. Why would he need help with them?
"Alright then," said Slughorn. "I'll look over your potion while you and Hermione look for the ingredients then." He looked at Hermione apologetically. "I do apologize, Hermione. One of the shelves fell down, and most of the ingredients that you and Tom put back into place are now out of order again. Perhaps you can come in one of these days to fulfill another day of your detention? We can talk about that after class. Why don't you and Tom go look for taggleworms and Plucktorian roots now instead?"
Having no other choice now, Hermione rose from her chair and followed Tom to the storage cabinet. Once the door swung close, Hermione was suddenly pulled into Tom's embrace, and his lips crashed down on hers before she had the chance to react.
"Naughty little witch," he said against her lips as he pressed her against him, almost as if he were trying to squeeze the life out of her.
Not that she really mind him kissing her like this (because Merlin knew how much she was enjoying it), however, she was worried that someone might walk through the door and find them all tangled up together.
"Stop it," Hermione hissed at him, trying to push him away as she stared at the door, like she was expecting Harry to barge in any second.
"Try and stop me," he challenged, and he pushed her against the table, making her sit on top of it.
"We're in here to look for ingredients!" she reminded him in a low voice, wondering if her voice can travel past the thin-looking door.
"Which would take quite a few minutes if we don't know where they are," he replied, and he brought his lips in contact with hers again.
Running his hand through her hair, he pressed her head closer to him, as if he were trying to mold them together. His lips moved downwards, trailing from her mouth all the way to her neck.
"Did it make you excited taunting me, Granger?" he asked quietly when he reached her ear.
A shiver ran down her spine when his breath blew against her skin, and she felt gooseflesh erupting across her arm and legs.
"No," she whispered, her eyes slightly hooded as she waited for him to kiss her again.
"You're a terrible liar as usual, Granger," he said, never taking his eyes off her. His voice, though soft, surrounded her. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. So terribly naughty of you, Granger. Don't you remember that Evans is right outside? He's worried that I might be torturing you into submission ... You like this, don't you? You like the fact that someone might catch us doing something like this." He kissed her softly on her ear. "You like that it's against the rules, don't you?"
Before she could answer, he pulled away, causing a soft growl of protest to leave her mouth. The corner of his lips curved upwards at her response.
"Let's go," he commanded instead, walking towards the door.
"And the ingredients?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and utterly annoyed with him right now.
His grin widened as he slipped his hand into his pocket, producing said ingredients. Hermione's eyes narrowed, and she stared at him venomously as she slid off the table.
"Then what was the point of pulling me in here?" she hissed, slowly walking towards him.
However, Tom apparently found her not too threatening at all and raised a single eyebrow at her. "Do I need a reason for everything I do, Granger?"
Without waiting for her to open her mouth again, he pulled open the door, leaving Hermione behind him. Pushing her anger down, she spent a few seconds mentally cursing Tom before she followed after him. However, that smirk on Tom's face was enough to destroy any barricade she had built to hold back her temper.
"What happened?" Harry immediately asked, noticing the less than pleasant mood she was in.
"An overbearing, annoying git," she muttered as she prepared the taggleworms.
However, she managed to bide her time. She waited and waited for the end of class. After they handed in their work, Hermione made a point to pack extra fast, ignoring the bewildered expression on Harry's face. Pushing back her chair, she kept her eyes firmly glued to her target as she stood up, and then, she stomped down.
Right on his foot.
A pain-filled hiss reached her ears, and a wide, slightly mad grin appeared on her face.
"Oops," she said to Tom. "Sorry."
Without taking a second look at him, she immediately escaped the Potions classroom with Harry, who gazed at Hermione with his mouth slightly opened.
"You're going to get yourself killed," Harry kept muttering under his breath as they placed as much distance as possible between themselves and Tom Marvolo Riddle.
That was precisely the reason why Harry was hesitant to leave Hermione all alone to search for Ginny. After a rather long (and in Hermione's opinion, unnecessary) period of persuasion, they parted ways.
After casting a Muffliato on the curtain surrounding Draco in the infirmary, Hermione proceeded to tell him everything that had happened during the duel.
"So what does that mean?" Draco asked frantically.
"Harry doesn't know either, but he's not about to try," Hermione replied as she pulled Draco's blanket up for him.
According to Madam Pomfrey, Draco had broken a few bones in the duel. Although she had managed to heal the fractured bones immediately, she required him to stay half a day to make sure that all of his organs and limbs were in working order.
"So you're saying that You-Know-Who can probably beat Potty now?" Draco asked, frightened. "You've got to be kidding me."
"It's ... not exactly set in stone yet," Hermione answered slowly. "We're not supposed to change time ..."
"Hermione, we're not supposed to, but that doesn't mean we can't, right?" Draco pressed on.
"Technically ..."
Draco sent her an exasperated look, making Hermione sigh heavily and nod.
"But that doesn't mean we should change the timeline, Draco," she added firmly. "We could all—"
"—very well make ourselves disappear, Draco," he finished her sentence, in an eerily good imitation of her. "You've told me at least thirteen times already, Hermione. No need to remind me again. But haven't you thought about it? We would have disappeared already if we did make changes so drastic that we killed ourselves. Perhaps we would have been born regardless of what we did, but we'd just be born under difference circumstances."
Hermione did not answer immediately, trying to digest what Draco just told her.
"But that's—"
"Not what the books say," Draco finished for her again. "But not everything in the books are rules. None of the wizards and witches are all-knowing. Even your hero, Bumblebee—"
"Bumblebee?" Hermione cut in, frowning.
"Dumbledore," Draco explained, earning a glare from her, which he ignored, "did not know everything. This whole time traveling thing is the biggest example."
"That doesn't mean that we should disregard everything and start doing things that might change the future," Hermione argued.
"I'm not telling you to change the future, Hermione," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "I do not fancy living in a future where the Dark Lord tortures my family daily for turning on him at the last minute. I'm just saying, perhaps you should take a step back and not rule out the possibility that every little change we do in the past will kill all of us."
Hermione closed her eyes, trying to fully process that thought. It confused her thoroughly. According to what she knew, people who killed their past selves got wiped off, virtually disappearing a short period afterwards. Nobody understood what happened. Perhaps they were thrown into alternate dimensions or perhaps they were completely wiped off existence. She was pretty sure that alternate dimensions were being experimented upon behind one of those many doors at the Ministry of Magic. However, right now, it was just too much for her to take in.
"And another thing," Draco spoke up, catching her attention. "You'd probably want to be careful about Riddle. He's not going to be too happy about you hurting him during the duel."
"Harry warned me about that already," Hermione said with a sigh. "It means that I probably can't go—"
She stopped herself immediately, almost disclosing the Chamber of Secrets in front of Draco. She did not fancy testing out what spell, exactly, Tom had placed on her. Draco stared at her curiously, waiting for her to finish her sentence. Thankfully, the curtains were drawn open by Harry and Ginny, who slipped in.
"You're trying to get yourself killed, Hermione," Ginny immediately hissed as Harry cast another Muffliato at the curtains. "Just because—" She stopped in her words. Hermione could almost guess what she was about to say, causing her cheeks to turn red. "Just because he shows interest in you, it doesn't mean he would hesitate in killing you if you do something he doesn't like."
"He's going to try to find out more about the wands, too," Harry pointed out, not noticing the change in Hermione's features.
"And you can't tell who won during the duel?" Draco asked.
Harry shook his head. "I'm pretty sure the position of the beads could have told us who won, but they broke off the connection so abruptly that I couldn't quite tell."
"Do you think he might ... try it again?" Draco inquired carefully.
"I doubt it," Harry replied with a shrug, "but I don't know for sure. When he was older—"
The curtains were suddenly thrown open, causing him to halt in his words. Madam Pomfrey bustled in to check on Draco.
"Oh, the three of you are here," Madam Pomfrey said upon seeing Harry, Ginny, and Hermione. She then turned towards Draco, "You have quite a bit of visitors."
If Draco was not having pains all over his body, preventing him from moving, Hermione was pretty sure he would have bolted when Tom appeared behind Madam Pomfrey.
"Good evening, Mr. Malloy," he said genially.
"What are you doing here, Riddle?" Harry demanded, earning a look from Madam Pomfrey.
Tom's lips curved into a mocking smile as he turned towards Harry. "Mr. Malloy did end up in the infirmary because of me. I, of course, have the responsibility of ... checking up on him to make sure he's alright."
His eyes momentarily flickered over to Hermione, and she stared back at him, keeping her mind as blank as her expression. She was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her unsettled.
"I'm sure you really care," Harry muttered.
"Why, Mr. Evans. If I hadn't known better, I would've thought that you were accusing me of trying to hurt Mr. Malloy," Tom said.
"I'm sure that's not what Mr. Evans meant," Madam Pomfrey spoke up, shooting a warning glance at Harry.
"I wouldn't think so, too, Madam Pomfrey. It was merely an ill thought-out joke. I apologize," Tom said smoothly.
"Oh, no need for apologies, Tom. I've always known what a kind, young man you are," she said fondly before she hurried back to her office to retrieve potions for Draco.
"What do you really want, Riddle? We know what's beneath that angelic facade you put up," Harry whispered immediately when Madam Pomfrey was out of sight.
With minimal movement, the smile on Tom's face curved into a sneer, and he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Isn't it quite obvious, Evans? I am putting on an, as you've so eloquently placed it, 'angelic facade,' so wouldn't it make sense for me to visit the person that I've ... accidentally hurt?" he asked.
"But it's obviously not the only thing you're here for," Harry retorted.
"'Obviously?'" Tom repeated.
Slowly, he leaned forward, placing his hands on Draco's bed to support himself. A strange kind of whimper came from Draco as he shrank away from Tom, though the rest of them did not spare him a glance.
"I'm starting to wonder if all Gryffindors are cursed with the same horrible acting skills," Tom said softly, his gaze never so much as flickering away from Harry's face, "but what you're saying contradicts severely with your claim of not knowing about me beforehand, Evans. However," he smiled again, "you are not incorrect. I was searching for Hermione."
"No," Harry immediately answered.
Tom raised an eyebrow. "No? I wasn't asking for your permission, Evans."
"She's my friend, and I know why you're looking for her," Harry said, his body tense as he held on to Hermione's arm.
"Oh?" The single syllable left Tom's lips languidly, and his eyes met with Hermione's, burning into them. "Do you really know why I was looking for her?"
The way he was speaking added a tinge of intimacy to his words, almost like there was some hidden meaning behind them, and despite her previous resolution, her cheeks immediately turned into a deep shade of rouge. The innuendos were obviously missed by Harry, since he continued glaring at Tom. However, it was hardly missed by Ginny and Draco. Ginny already knew what was going on between Tom and her, but when Hermione saw Draco arching an eyebrow at her beet-red face, she lightly coughed, trying to hide away her discomfort.
"Why else are you looking for her? Oh, right. Because you were trying to make people believe that there's something going on between you and Hermione. Well, it's not going to work, Riddle. Hermione doesn't like you. She has a boyfriend already," Harry said furiously.
Tom's gaze visibly hardened before it landed on Harry again.
Not this again, Hermione mentally moaned.
That was the wrong thing to say to Tom. His displeasure was flowing off him in waves, and though she did feel slightly guilty when she remembered about Ron, the mere thought of rowing with Tom made her head hurt even more.
"So I've heard," Tom replied, his voice as cold as his expression. "But that doesn't mean that you can speak for her, Evans. She's a grown woman, and she could very well make her own decisions."
Harry was about to open his mouth to say something but was stopped when they heard Madam Pomfrey walking out of her room. Tom immediately straightened up and recomposed his face, though his eyes were still tumultuous.
"I suppose you can leave after dinner. I will inform the kitchen to bring up your dinner," Madam Pomfrey assessed. She turned towards Tom. "Tom dear, do you mind bringing some potions over to Headmaster Dippet for me?"
"I'd be delighted, Madam Pomfrey," he replied, the previous animosity he had shown towards Harry completely gone.
After shooting one last glance at Hermione, he turned on his heel and left.
"I knew he was going to do that. I knew he was going to ask you about what happened during the duel," Harry immediately said after Madam Pomfrey brought Draco dinner and Muffliato was cast on the curtains again.
"What if he finds out about the wands?" Draco asked. Suddenly, he sat straight up. "He's going to think that it's my wand, isn't he?"
"I don't think so," Harry replied, running a hand through his hair. "I think he knows that the wand belongs to me. We ... well, I was telling Hermione what to do when the wands connected. I'm pretty sure he'd work out the truth."
"Are you sure?" Draco questioned him.
Harry nodded, to which Draco gave out a sigh of relief.
"What about you now? He's obviously going to try to get answers from you because he knows Harry's not going to tell him anything," Ginny pointed out, staring at Hermione worriedly.
"I don't think he'd go as far as trying to hex me again," Hermione replied slowly.
"Yeah, because you might knee him again," Draco added.
Hermione glared at him, and he held up his hands in defeat.
"But that doesn't mean he might not try something else ... what if he throws you into the Chamber of Secrets?" Ginny asked.
Harry's eyes momentarily softened. He placed his hand on Ginny's shoulder as a gesture of support, knowing how hard it was for her to mention things pertaining to that particular memory.
Hermione heart raced, determined to keep her mouth shut, just in case any word might accidentally trigger the spell, and hoping they would end the conversation soon without her input.
"What monster lives in the Chamber of Secrets anyway?" Draco asked, stabbing his fork into his pasta.
"Oh, the basilisk," Harry replied.
The fork dropped, and Draco's mouth dropped open. "The basilisk? How on Earth did you manage to live confronting that, Evans?"
"Well, it wasn't all me. Hermione helped a lot," Harry said, looking at Hermione proudly. "She was the one who figured out what the monster was in the first place or I couldn't have prepared for it. I mean, one look in the eyes and then ..." He then shot her a grateful smile.
She gave him a rather forced smile back. She was more than glad when Draco continued asking him questions so he did not have a chance to analyze her expression, though that also meant that the conversation about the Chamber had to continue on.
"So how did you find out that it was a basilisk? There are hundreds and thousands of creatures out there," Draco suddenly turned his attention back to her.
Her body slightly tensed up, and she shifted on her feet uncomfortably. "Well ... it's nothing really ..."
"Now she's being modest. Come on, tell me, Hermione," Draco pestered her.
"We have other more important matters at hand right now," she reminded them.
"But this is pertaining to the 'important matters!' Who knows if Riddle might open the Chamber again or not?" Draco pointed out.
"Don't be silly, Draco," said Hermione. "According to the timeline, he's not going to open it again."
The moment the last word slipped out of her mouth, she felt something sank its teeth into her shoulder, quickly followed by another on her arm. She did not even have to wait for the effects to begin to realize that whatever spell Tom had placed on her was activated.
"But you just admitted it yourself: The timeline can be changed. He might decide to throw us down there, and nobody will ever find out where we've gone," Draco spoke frantically.
"I thought you said the timeline can't be changed," Ginny said to Harry with a frown.
"I didn't say we can't change it. I just said that Hermione warned us against changing it," Harry corrected her.
Hermione, on the other hand, was not listening to their conversation. They were so deep into their discussion that did not even notice that something was wrong with her.
"I ... I'll talk to the three of you later," she stammered as her vision slightly blurred.
She forced a smile on her face and hoped it looked genuine to her friends. She did not need them to follow and find out who she was looking for. Grabbing her bag off the chair next to Draco's bed, she disregarded the confused expressions on her friends' faces and ran out of the infirmary.
Whatever spell it was, it was moving quickly. Her brain was already reacting slower than usual, but that did not prevent her from deducing that there must be some kind of invisible snakes encircling her, and they were slowly constricting around her now. She knew she had to find Tom, but how? Madam Pomfrey had told him to bring potions to Headmaster Dippet, she had no idea if he were still there. However, the moment she thought about looking for him, the image of the Potions classroom appeared in her mind.
Without thinking, she ran full speed towards the dungeons.

~-0-~
A/N: Serp is again not here again. Please refrain from trying to hunt her down for *opens long list* flaying, killing, murdering, torturing, grilling, cooking, wounding, and so on and so forth, since that would undoubtedly slow down the writing process. *sweatdrop*
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Somewhere in Time