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

Chapter List
- 45
- 46
- 47
Chapter 46

Tom's eyes flickered from Dietfried's body towards where Hermione was standing, hidden underneath the invisibility cloak.

"Who's there?"

Completely forgetting Harry's warnings, she pulled off the cloak and stalked towards him.

In contrast to Hermione, Tom's body visibly relaxed upon realizing who it was and a single eyebrow rose in answer to her rage.

"You," she hissed when she stopped right in front of him. "And here I was worried that it was Nicholas you might have killed. But apparently, I have to put a Trace Charm on every person we come across, don't I?"

"A Trace Charm," Tom snickered and muttered. "If only you knew how easily it could be dispelled." Before Hermione could say anything, he continued, "You've known about Myrtle. So what did you expect? For me to start handing out lemon drops like Dumbledore?"

"Argh!" Hermione screamed out and threw her hands up in frustration.

She had to use all the control she had to stop herself from pummeling him the Muggle wa—

Forget it.

With all the strength she could muster, she threw a fist at him, but he easily caught it, the amusement on his face growing by the second. That, in turn, made her even angrier, so her hand flew to her pocket, in search of her wand. Before she could find it, he swirled her around, so that her back was towards him and making her fall into his embrace.

"Good Merlin, you're viole—"

Tom's words turned into a hiss the moment her foot stomped down on his, and taking that chance, Hermione struggled out of his hold.

"Why did you kill Dietfried? What did he do to you now? For all I know, Slytherin doesn't have a Chamber of Secrets here for him to find. Or did he forget to pass you the butter this morning?" Hermione sneered once she turned around to face him.

Tom rolled his eyes. "No, he forgot to brew coffee for me this morning, and you lot all had two biscuits while I only had one."

"Don't play cute with me, Tom Marvolo Riddle—"

He snorted at her words.

"—Dietfried had been nothing short of kind to us throughout our whole stay, and he took care of us after we've nearly gotten killed by those trolls. There are no reasons for you to kill him."

Guilt flooded through Hermione as she realized that she could've saved Dietfried from his death. If only she had stopped them from coming into the forest today. She had only been worried about Nicholas, but she had no idea that others would have been in danger, too.

And then it hit her.

"Where's Nicholas?" she asked, her eyes slightly narrowed.

Tom raised an eyebrow at her and crossed his arms over his chest. The expressions on his face receded until it became that blank façade again.

"Weren't you the one who was following him?" he asked quietly.

Under other circumstances, Hermione would've heard the dangerous undertone of his voice. Unfortunately, now was not one of those times.

Nor did she care.

"You were the one who set everything up, weren't you? You've lured Nicholas away, preparing to kill him, but got caught by Dietfried. That was why you killed him, didn't you? You killed Dietfried because he saved Nicholas from you," Hermione accused. "What were you thinking? We came to Germany to save Dumbledore—"

"You came here to rescue Dumbledore, Granger," Tom corrected as he twirled the wand in his hand casually. "I never said I was here to save anyone."

"Oh right, I've forgotten. Your biggest ambition in life is to cause a bit of havoc here and a bit of wreckage there," Hermione said sarcastically. "I just never realized that you were so adamant in getting yourself arrested that you'll just find an innocent bystander to kill."

"Who said anything about getting arrested?" Tom asked, amusement returning to his voice and face.

"What?"

He did not answer her. Instead, he tilted his head sideways and scrutinized her. "Funny how you know everything about my biggest ambitions."

"This is not a time to play cat and mouse or speak in riddles, Tom!" Hermione snapped.

Tom nodded. "Touché. I only have approximately twenty minutes to get everything done."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked cautiously.

Her fingers wrapped around her wand, preparing for the attack that might occur any second.

"As exciting as your theory about why Dietfried died might be, I'm afraid that that's not the right answer," Tom replied. His lips curved into a faint smile. "My apologies, Hermione."

Immediately, her wand was out.

But before she knew it, a spell impacted her from behind, and she fell to the floor, unconscious.

~-0-~

When she woke up, she was no longer in the forest. In fact, nothing about her surroundings seemed familiar to her.

Where am I?

The words Tom had said before she was knocked out came back to her, and for a moment, she wondered with fear if Tom was going to blame Dietfried's death on her.

"Harry, Hermione's awake!" she heard Ginny exclaim, and the redhead came into her line of sight seconds later. "Hermione, are you all right?"

Hermione nodded as she blinked her eyes a couple of times to clear the blurriness away.

"Where are we?" she asked, pushing herself up to sitting position.

They were clearly not in some kind of refuge. Merlin's pants, this place could not be even called a prisoner's cell. It reminded Hermione of those cages used to house lions and tigers for circuses.

"Welcome to our new home," Draco's voice sounded from behind her.

She turned her head around and found Draco sitting at the corner, a distraught expression on his face.

"Great … this is just great. Can you believe this? The old coot gets a bed, and we get a cage," Draco muttered sulkily.

Hermione followed his line of sight, only to discover that Albus Dumbledore was lying on the bed a few meters away from them.

"Professor … Professor!" Hermione called out.

However, he did not answer them. His eyes remained closed, and if it were not for the steady up and down movements of his chest, she would have thought him dead.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Hermione tried again.

"It's no use, Hermione. We've tried for nearly an hour already," Ginny said.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, there's really no point in waking him up, Granger," Draco said. "The old coot really has a knack for choosing the greatest batch of friends. Not only was he friends with the mass murderer Gellert Grindelwald, he manages to befriend Salazar Slytherin. Who next? Merlin?"

"We're at Slytherin's place, aren't we?" Hermione asked Ginny and Harry, determined to ignore Draco who was going off on one of his rants again.

"Yes. We tried to follow after Nicholas, but …" Ginny trailed off. "I think it was all a trap, Hermione."

"It's too late to think about that. We'd have to find a way to get out of here," Hermione said in a low voice.

"And how do you think we can do that without our wands or Potty's invisibility cloak?" Draco asked from his corner. "I don't think old Sparkly Eyes is much help here anyway, awake or unconscious, the old hypocrite."

"What are you going on about, Malloy?" Harry asked, annoyed.

"Didn't you read Skeeter's book about how he wanted to rule over Muggles? Apparently, he's not much better off than Snakeface," Draco answered.

"As if you're any better," Ginny huffed.

A soft tinge of pink appeared on Draco's face. "I never tried to take over the world."

"Professor Dumbledore was misled by Grindelwald," Harry spoke up.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Did Dumbledore ever appear to be a naïve person to you? Certainly not to me. As far as I know, he knew how to manipulate people just as well as Snakeface did, and he probably knew half of the things that were going to happen but didn't even try to stop it."

"He probably just wanted to give others a chance. If he did everything for us, then we wouldn't have known how to get things done when he's not around," Harry argued.

"Right, because it's absolutely normal to pit a seventeen-year-old—oh wait, you were eleven when you first encountered him, weren't you, Potty? —an eleven-year-old against a sixty-something-year-old most feared wizard in history. That sounds like a sane idea to me, especially when he probably could've easily defeated Snakeface," Draco mocked.

Harry's mouth snapped shut, and he and Ginny shared a look with one another but could not come up with something to say back to Draco. Even Hermione could not think of anything to say in Dumbledore's defense. Regardless of what Dumbledore’s intentions were, he was taking too much of a risk when he allowed Harry to fight Voldemort. What if Voldemort had won? What if Harry hadn't gotten the Elder Wand in the end? The wizarding world would have been left in the hands of the Dark Lord.

"Just because he's Dumbledore doesn't mean he always does the right things. You do tend to believe the best in people, don't you, Saint Potty?" Draco continued. "Oh, right. Didn't you offer someone the chance to show remorse for what he had done? Had you even considered what would have happened if he had said ‘yes?’ We would have been stuck with him. Forever."

"We still are," Ginny spoke up.

"All thanks to Saint Potty here," Draco said.

"Well, we wouldn't have been here if you hadn't gone into Borgin and Burkes," Ginny countered.

"Yes, and I hired the two of you to become my nannies, didn't I?" Draco sneered.

"If you hadn't looked like you were doing something suspicious—"

"And how does that concern you, Potty?" Draco interrupted. "Perhaps you should learn to mind your own business next time."

"Yes, and we know what happened the last time you lurked around down there in Knockturn Alley," Ginny bit back.

"Will the three of you stop it already?" Hermione, feeling that things were getting out of hand, interrupted and glared at each of them in turn. "It's not a time for arguments right now."

After giving both Ginny and Harry an angry look each, Draco slouched down in his place again.

"Great, I'm locked up here like a blasted flobberworm," he muttered.

"Thought you would've gotten used to it with Snakeface taking over your house last year," Ginny said scathingly.

"No, he had to barter with Mr. Borgin, remember? And fix Vanishing Cabinets for You-Know-Who," Harry corrected her.

"That's enough," Hermione reprimanded. "The three of you had to pick this time to argue, didn't you? Do I need to remind you what kind of situation we are in right now? Dietfried's already dead, and we have no idea what happened to Nicho—"

"Dietfried's dead?" Harry and Draco asked in unison, disbelief and horror etched on their faces.

"Yes," Hermione replied, her shoulders slumping down as she remembered how kind Dietfried had been to them for the last few days.

She felt the familiar feeling of guilt churning in her stomach. If only she had been a bit more careful, she might have noticed signs that Tom was going to kill him. She might have even saved him. All she had been worried about was Tom's displeasure towards Nicholas … and remembering about Nicholas, she wondered if he was alright. Did Tom kill him, too?

"Why?" Harry asked in a whisper.

Hermione shook her head. "I have no idea."

"Riddle …" Harry stopped in his words, though his eyes still held the question.

"Yes," Hermione answered heavily. "Tom killed Dietfried." She heaved a sigh. "Before I could get to the bottom of it, someone hit me with a spell from behind. That's why we're here, I suppose, so we can't tell others who killed Dietfried."

"It must have been Slytherin who attacked you. He was the one who had captured us, too," Harry concluded. He paused as a frown appeared on his forehead. "Why would Riddle kill Dietfried? There's no reason for him to do that … Could it be because of Nicholas?"

Hermione shook her head. "I accused Tom of killing Dietfried for saving Nicholas, but he said that I had it wrong."

The four of them fell silent, and after a while, Hermione turned towards Draco. His previous argument with Harry and Ginny reminded her of a question she had wanted to ask.

"What were you buying in Borgin and Burkes anyway? Isn't four hundred Galleons a bit much?" she asked.

Draco shrugged. "Father told me to barter with Borgin and said that anything from three hundred and fifty Galleons to four hundred Galleons would be all right."

"Three hundred and fifty Galleons is still a lot," Hermione pointed out.

"He didn't give me an explanation when I asked him," Draco replied.

"You still haven't said what it was," Hermione reminded him.

Draco shook his head. "I have no idea what it is. I just know it's called 'The Coin of Charon,' but I've never read about it in—"

"The Coin of Charon?" Hermione asked, surprise written all over her face. "But nobody's seen one for nearly a thousand years already."

"What's the Coin of Charon?" Harry asked.

Hermione took a deep breath and shifted to a more comfortable position before she began her explanation.

"According to legend, there is a total of forty-nine of them scattered across Earth. The Ancient Egyptians called them the Rings of Osiris, but the Greek witches and wizards call them the Coins of Charon because according to legend, that's what Charon the boat keeper is looking for."

"Wait, doesn't Charon carry souls across the rivers to hell in Greek myths? How would people know that that's what he's looking for?" Draco pointed out.

"Well, as I've said, everything's a legend," Hermione said. "It's said that holding a Coin of Charon could insure the return of a dead soul."

"The return of a dead soul?" Draco asked, scrunching up his face.

"I think they mean bringing a person back to life," Hermione answered.

Draco's face turned pale, and Harry's head snapped towards him.

"Is your father trying to bring You-Know-Who back? After what happened last year?" Harry's voice took on a harsher edge again as his eyes bored into Draco's.

"Is he mental? Or did he get addicted to having someone run his household for him?" asked Ginny, disbelief laced through her words.

Draco's mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but nothing came out. In the end, he laughed nervously.

"Wait … we're … we're jumping to conclusions … Father couldn't … Father wouldn't think about bringing Snakeface back to life. It's impossible," he said.

Hermione bit her lower lip. For the life of her, she could not comprehend why Lucius Malfoy would want to bring Lord Voldemort back to life. If anything, the Malfoys would be the last Death Eaters who would want the Dark Lord back.

"He's right, Harry. We can't jump to conclusions," she finally said. "It could be because he saw it as an ancient artifact and wanted to collect it, and he could definitely sell a Coin of Charon at a much higher price than four hundred Galleons."

"We still can't rule out the possibility that Lucius Malfoy might be trying to bring You-Know-Who back to life, Hermione," Harry insisted.

A doubtful expression appeared on Hermione's face, but she knew that this was not the best time to argue with him.

Instead, she said, "We only have guesses now and we can't be sure about anything yet. Besides, we're probably returning to a different future from the one we know. Biting Draco's head off right now won't help us. He doesn't know anything about it anyway."

Frowns of worry appeared on both Harry and Ginny's faces at the prospect of returning to a different future; panic was apparent on Draco's face, though he remained quiet, too.

However, the silence did not continue for long.

With a slam of the door, a tall, thin figure swirled into the room.

"Ah, so the little Mudblood is awake. Good. That means I wouldn't have to repeat myself," Slytherin leered as he sat down in a chair between Dumbledore's bed and their cage.

"Why did you kill Dietfried?" Hermione immediately asked.

"Lost your brains in the snow, Mudblood? My heir killed dear Dietfried, not me," Slytherin said.

"Fine," Hermione snapped. "Why did he kill Dietfried?"

"It's none of your concern anymore, is it? You're going home soon anyway," Slytherin answered, tapping his fingers on the armrest and a vicious smile on his face.

"It was not supposed to happen in the timeline we knew. If it's going to change the future as we know it, we might as well get prepared for it," Hermione argued.

She didn't really know if Dietfried died or not in the timeline they had come from, but she was sure that Tom did not travel to Germany in his last year at Hogwarts.

"Well, then that's your problem now, isn't it, Mudblood?" Slytherin asked. He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing into mere slits. "The nerve of such despicable being, seducing my heir."

His words of spite came so unexpectedly that it caused all four time travelers to stare at him. However, their state of shock had no effect on him, and he continued to speak.

"I would've killed you the first minute I had the chance to if I could. And to think that my heir thought about saving you. As if I would allow such impurity to blemish my bloodline," Slytherin hissed, his hand rolled into a white-knuckled fist around his wand. "Granted, you are quite … different from other filthy Muggles and Mudbloods, but dirty blood is dirty blood."

"Dirty blood," Hermione sniffed. "I'm sure you're so incredibly happy then that your heir is a half-blood."

Draco let out a muffled, strangled noise from his corner, but Hermione was beyond caring, especially since Slytherin himself had said that he (for some unknown reason) could not kill her.

"Which is why I can't have you around, little Mudblood," Slytherin said through gritted teeth. "Having a half-blood as an heir is already enough of an insult to last me until the end of time. If he had boys with you, they'll all be Mudbloods. I do not need Mudbloods in my noble line."

Hermione opened her mouth and was about to say something, but Draco tugged on her sleeve and pleaded her with his eyes to remain quiet. Harry and Ginny, on the other hand, were staring at Slytherin as if he had grown five heads within the last twenty seconds. Embarrassment painted Hermione's cheeks red when she realized that it was because Slytherin had insinuated that Tom and her relationship had gone beyond snogging sessions.

"No … you need to go back to the future to where you belong and far away from my heir," Slytherin continued to say. "I knew the lot of you was no good filth, determined to undermine the purity of bloodlines. First, that Muggle Riddle and now you."

At his glare and words, Hermione's discomfort was replaced by annoyance, and before anyone could stop her, words started tumbling out of her mouth like a waterfall.

"Yes, because all of us know how excellent your line of heritage became in the end. Let's see then: Marvolo Gaunt and Morfin Gaunt, both with nasty tempers and in great need of anger management classes. Do I need to mention that there was also something very wrong with Morfin's head? And what caused all of this? Because of your stupid views about how there shouldn't be mixed blood. Generations and generations of inbreeding caused all these problems, and you, as a so-called researcher, should know something so basic. Even normal Muggles with a few years of education should know that, and here you are, claiming how noble your bloodline is, when it will simply die out in a few years when Morfin dies, if Merope hadn't used a Love Potion on To-"

"SILENCE!" Slytherin screamed, standing up from his chair, all signs of patience and calmness gone and replaced by anger.

Hermione's mouth snapped shut, but somehow, she was unable to bring herself to back down. The logical side of her brain was telling her to look down, look anywhere but at the livid Slytherin. But the louder, much more full of pride side of mind refused to do so.

She knew she was right.

Just when they thought Hermione was doomed for sure, Slytherin turned stiffly on the spot and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Simultaneously, Harry, Ginny, and Draco let out the breaths that they had been holding.

"Hermione …" Harry exhaled. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, though nothing came out.

"Thank Merlin nothing happened," Ginny whispered, her freckles more apparent than usual against her pale face. "I thought he was going hurt you."

"Do you have to piss off everyone from that line?" Draco asked when he finally found his voice back.

"I don't know everyone in that line," Hermione retorted. "Though if I could, I'd give them a piece of my mind."

And Draco looked as if he was very glad that she could not do just that.

~-0-~

With a grunt, Draco threw the piece of bread on the floor.

"For Merlin's sake, can't he bring us something else to eat? How many days of white bread does he think we can take?" he complained.

Hermione lowered the bread in her hand.

"Be grateful that it's not poisoned," Ginny replied wryly.

"Killing us by poison would be stupid when he has us trapped in a cage already," said Draco.

"Well, we wouldn't have to suffer too many more meals of this," Ginny said, biting into her piece of bread. "Today should be the day he's sending us back, shouldn't it?"

"Oh, right." Draco's face brightened and he sat up straighter. "Three days, right?"

Ginny nodded. "And today should be the third day."

It had been three days already. Hermione wondered what happened out there. Was Nicholas alright?

And Tom … where was he? Was he looking for her at all? The question made her wary. Though from what Slytherin had said, perhaps she could be more confident with Tom's emotions towards her, regardless of how absurd it sounded even to her. Instead of feeling overjoyed, however, she felt even glummer. She wanted to see him before she left. Once she was back to the future … she would never get to see him again.

"But it's nearly night, and Slytherin's nowhere in sight," Draco groaned, letting his head fall on the bars behind him.

"Perhaps all his spells work only at night," Ginny said with a shrug. "Who knows?"

As if on cue, the door swung open. The smile on Slytherin's face was unnerving, to say the least. The combination of viciousness and happiness on that monkey-like face caused simultaneous shivers to run down the time travelers' spines.

"So … ready to go back home?" Slytherin asked.

In Hermione's opinion, he sounded a bit too happy, to the point that she was sure that every other conscious being in the room was wondering if he had managed to find a way to send them all to hell within the last two days.

"Well, then, ready or not, one way ticket back to 1998, where all four of you belong," he said. His eyes landed on Hermione. "Especially you, little Mudblood."

"The biased ape really has something against you," Ginny muttered beside her.

With a wave of his wand, the door to the cage opened, but before they could get up from their spots, Slytherin waved his wand again. Their appendages snapped to their sides, and they all toppled over. With another swish, their bodies floated out the cage and followed after Slytherin as he walked out of the house.

Hermione was sure that even normal witches and wizards would have found the sight alarming, four bodies floating merely steps behind Slytherin as he traveled through the forest. The skies were clear tonight again, and the quarter moon shone brightly upon them. A dark figure flew over the skies above them, and absurdly, Hermione was reminded of the night when they flew over to the Ministry of Magic during fifth year.

They were returning home, or more appropriately, "home." She had no idea what to expect, with all the things they had done in the past. What kind of a "home" were they returning to?

Was … Lord Voldemort still alive?

The thought both worried and excited her. If he was still alive, would that mean that Harry and he would have to duel again? Did she really have to live with one of them dying? But if Lord Voldemort was alive, what would that mean for the future of the Wizarding World?

After around fifteen minutes, Slytherin stopped and released them from the spells. They were still in the forest, but a circle of jars surrounded them.

"What was that for?" Ginny asked angrily.

"I don't want to spend the extra energy trying to chase you towards where I want you to be," Slytherin replied offhandedly.

"We weren't going to running away as long as you are sending us back home," Hermione argued.

"Sure you weren't planning on seeing my heir one last time?" Slytherin asked, his voice sickeningly sweet as he looked at her.

Hermione's mouth snapped shut as she stared at Slytherin. He chuckled darkly as he waved his wand, casting a ward around them before turning around to the contents within the jars.

Harry, Ginny, and Draco remained quiet. The atmosphere around them became more and more awkward by the minute, and the silence accentuated it. Finally, Ginny broke the silence with a deep sigh and gave Hermione a comforting squeeze on the shoulder.

Hermione tried to smile, but she didn't need a mirror to know how ugly of a smile it was. Three months ago, she would have been ecstatic that they were finally returning home. However, if her relationship with Tom hadn't developed to the way it was now, Slytherin probably wouldn't have sent them home so readily either, even if he did want to know who else knew the time traveling spell.

As seconds slipped by, Hermione found herself glancing in every direction, half-wishing that the dark-haired young man would appear but to no avail.

Once he checked every jar, Slytherin stood up straight and threw four necklaces at their feet. After staring at it for a few minutes and nothing exploded on her, Hermione picked up the closest one, placed it in the palm of her hand, and studied the pendant hanging at the end of the necklace. It turned out to be a cylinder container of some sort, with bluish-purple liquid floating inside it.

"Once you're back in the future, turn the top of the pendant three times to the right. The liquid will turn white, and it will deactivate the spell that is used to send you back in time," Slytherin said. He then took out a pocket watch and looked at it. A smile appeared on his face. "It's time."

Hermione's heart rate quickened. She was hardly distracted by the fact that Slytherin threw a bag at her feet before pointing his wand at one of the jars and starting to chant in some foreign language.

She kept looking around while Harry opened the bag. It turned out to be his invisibility cloak and their wands.

"Here," he muttered, handing her back her wand.

However, she wasn't concentrating on what Harry was saying or doing.

Tom … Tom …

She screamed his name in her mind as the jar broke with a flick of Slytherin's wand. The liquid seeped into snow and, instead of staying in one spot, flowed underneath them. Gradually, Slytherin's chanting picked up in speed, as did the sound of jars breaking.

And finally, the last jar was shattered, and the liquids beneath the four time travelers started to turn multiple colors. Suddenly, gravity seemed to increase tenfold, and it was at that moment when she saw him.

His footsteps came to a stop when he took in the scene before him. She tried to reach out to him, but her limbs no longer listened to her commands. The look of fury that appeared on his face imprinted itself in her mind, and his wand whipped out the next second, pointing towards the monkey-like man who was standing with his back towards Tom Marvolo Riddle.

The last word of the chant came out of Salazar Slytherin's mouth and was quickly changed into a bloodcurdling scream, just as a blinding white light shot through the air.

~-0-~

Unprecedented wrath flooded through Tom as he twisted the wand another angle, increasing the strength with which he was Cruciating Slytherin with. A vicious smile appeared on his face, and with a couple of quick, successive spells, he immobilized Slytherin and confiscated his wand.

"You … you …" Slytherin panted.

Tom knelt down beside him and tilted his head to one side.

"Did you think you can manipulate the whole situation without me knowing?" he asked softly as he ran a single finger down his yew wand. A mocking smile appeared on his face. "Did you think … that because you are my ancestor that I would allow you to control my life?"

"She wanted to return home," Slytherin replied.

"I know she did. And you helped her with it," said Tom, the smile disappearing on his face and replaced by murderous hatred. "She is my Mudblood. You dare to steal from me."

Slytherin laughed. "And you call yourself my heir? Frolicking with Mudbloods and blood traitors … If I hadn't known, I would've thought that you were Godric's heir instead." He narrowed his eyes at Tom. "I've made the right choice, it seemed. If I hadn't sent her back, who knows what kind of descendants I would have in another ten years? As if your Muggle father wasn't bad enough—"

Tom stood up from his position and pointed his wand at Slytherin again. "Crucio."

Slytherin's screams ripped through the air. A few minutes later, his body was contorted into an impossible angle. Yet, Tom's fury was hardly alleviated. He kept the Cruciatus Curse on Slytherin until the latter could no longer scream, lying face flat on the ground.

Tom gave him a kick on the side, forcing Slytherin to turn on his back, before pressing his shoe into Slytherin’s chest.

"Do you know what's your problem, oh great and mighty ancestor of mine?" Tom asked, as if he were having a simple conversation with him. Putting his weight onto his foot, Tom savored the look of pain that appeared on Slytherin's face. "You think that you've had every step of the way calculated. You thought that you could send Hermione Granger back to the future and then inform me tomorrow. It never occurred to you that I would find you with your back conveniently turned towards me, did it?"

With a swift movement, Tom removed his foot from Slytherin's chest and kicked him in the face. Blood splattered onto the ground, and the glaring redness stood out obnoxiously against the pure whiteness of the snow.

"Well, unfortunately for you, it seems like time's up for you, Salazar Slytherin," Tom said quietly as he lazily flicked his wand over Slytherin's body.

Suddenly, Slytherin's skin started to move, as if it were being boiled, and turned an angry shade of pink. An expression of agony appeared on Slytherin's face, but no sounds came out of his mouth as he silently screamed.

"Had you ever imagined how you would die?" Tom asked casually. "Did you ever think about the possibility of being killed by your own heir?" He chuckled as a dark glint passed through his eyes and he circled around Slytherin's thrashing body. "Oh, my apologies. You thought that you would never die." He stopped and tapped his wand on his side. "Well, Lord Voldemort is about to prove you wrong, Salazar Slytherin. You do not have to worry. You will have the honor of being known as the ancestor of Lord Voldemort when I become the most feared wizard alive. After all, your name is quite useful when it comes down to rallying followers."

With another swish of his wand, random spots on Slytherin's body bubbled before bursting open, adding more blood to the red portrait in the snow.

"You've taken something from Lord Voldemort. You should've known that Lord Voldemort doesn't forgive or forget easily. Make no mistake, I will get back what is mine." His lips curved upwards into a cold smile. "With interest, of course—I'm not going to allow you to live past tonight, dear ancestor."

In addition to pain, a new emotion entered Slytherin's eyes. His fearful eyes widened when he realized he could no longer stall his death.

Pointing his wand at Slytherin, Tom's smirk turned into a hospitable smile.

"Good-bye, Salazar Slytherin," he said. "Avada Kedavra."

The flash of green escaped the tip of the yew wand and hit Slytherin straight in the chest. Within a blink of an eye, the skies darkened as clouds moved in and covered the moon from view. Ghastly green flames of light dotted the forest, and a strong gust of wind accompanied the arrival of a dark figure mere meters away from the dead corpse of Salazar Slytherin.

Shrouded completely in black, Death's tall and thin figure could easily be mistaken as a wisp of smoke. The only exceptions were the deathly pale face beneath the hood and the paper-white hand holding onto a scythe.

"Finally," Death hissed as he glided up to Slytherin.

With a snap of his fingers, a dark mist rose from Slytherin and entered Death's opened hand. When the last bit disappeared, Death turned towards Tom, who stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.

After all, he had his Horcruxes. It was not as if Death could take him.

Therefore, Tom was both surprised and bothered when he heard his next words.

"Another fool with Horcruxes, I see," Death said, his lips widening into a smile. "Do you really think that that would stop me, Tom Marvolo Riddle?"

Tom did not answer, though his eyes merely narrowed at the figure standing before him.

A cold laugh left Death as he slid around Slytherin's body. When he was right next to Tom, he stopped.

"I'll see you again, Tom," he rasped before disappearing into thin air.

As the clouds cleared up, Tom stared at where Death had been standing before his dark eyes landed on Slytherin's body. It appeared that he would have to find other ways to insure his immortality. No, if Slytherin could die after escaping Death for so long, then one way was surely not enough.

And the silly old snake was so sure he had found a foolproof way to living forever. Constantly traveling through time was a bother anyway, and one had to remember which time periods and places they had stayed in before to avoid paradoxes.

Lord Voldemort would find the ultimate way to living forever and rub it into Death's face.

Oh yes, Death and he would meet again, but only so that Death could collect the souls from people Lord Voldemort would need to kill.

Such as one particular meddlesome old coot.

Now that Slytherin was dead, Dumbledore would wake up soon. Tom would have to hurry.

Right before he reached the front door of Slytherin's hut, it slammed open. Upon seeing this, Tom slipped into the shadows of the nearest trees. Much to his annoyance, Dumbledore had awoken. Though the old fool seemed a bit unsteady from being placed under a spell for a prolonged period of time, it was risky trying to hex him right now.

A risk Tom did not want to take.

No matter. It was only a matter of time before he killed the old coot. Once he got the Elder Wand.

Tom stayed in the shadows until Dumbledore Apparated away. Before entering the hut, Tom cast a couple of spells to ward against other people Apparating in, just in case Dumbledore decided to return. Once he was inside, Tom combed through the room, searching for anything of use. Thankfully, Dumbledore hadn't thought about snitching anything.

The high and honorable Transfiguration professor, Tom sneered.

A pleased glint flashed through Tom's eyes when he found several volumes of books hidden in various locations. He skimmed through the books and found quite a bit of useful things written in them.

He probably would have been more delighted with Slytherin if the silly old man hadn't tried to outwit him. Him. Lord Voldemort, the one who would become the greatest sorcerer in the world.

Well, that was … fatally miscalculated by the old ape. Nobody took things away from him.

Ever.

No, Hermione Granger belonged to him, and it was only a matter of time before he got her back.

Only a matter of time.

~-0-~

A/N: Many thanks to Marauder’s Wolf for beta-ing this chapter! Special thanks to Nerys for reading over the chapter for logic and flow and suggesting the no need for warnings at the beginning of the chapter. Huge, huge thanks to those of you who read, rated, and especially those of you who reviewed: SarahLuvsZombehs, Lady Miya, Fleur K., and Ms Velvela!

Review replies can be found here: http://serp-replies.livejournal.com/16263.html
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Somewhere in Time