Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

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
- 49
- 50
- 51
Disclaimer: All of my stories, unless I specifically say so, are based on the books, not the movie. I feel it prudent to put this disclaimer here after I've watched Deathly Hallows Part 2. (To avoid spoiling things who haven't gone to watch the movie yet, I will not mention here what parts I'm referring to. If you don't mind spoilers, I point you to my profile on FFnet). Lord Voldemort did not do the should-not-be-mentioned-spoilers in the books, and thus, I refuse to believe that the book Voldemort would do so. End of story. Though no complaints from me about Voldemort speaking in Parseltongue. XD

~-0-~

Chapter 50

Hogwarts had turned into a battleground between Hermione Granger and Lord Voldemort. Again.

Sometimes, Hermione wondered if there were something wrong with the school. Events always seemed to inevitably evolve into something bigger and completely out of her control. However, after thinking things through more meticulously, Hermione came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the place. There was simply something wrong with the idiotic Lord she was talking to.

Of course, she had been angry with Ron that day, and she had felt a strange sense of satisfaction, watching him getting paler and paler out of fear. However, that didn't mean that she was going to stand back and allow Voldemort to bring Ron to another room. Who knew what would be left of Ron afterwards?

The moment Voldemort told Ron to leave the room with him, she had known that things were not looking good for Ron. There could be only one reason why Voldemort wanted to speak to Ron "in private." With Harry, Ginny, and Hermione there, he obviously knew that it would be impossible to hurt Ron without the three of them intervening.

So without a second thought, she had exited the room with them before realizing that she should have told Harry, Ginny, and Draco to follow suit. Nonetheless, by the time she had remembered, she was already standing in the hallway and the doorway had disappeared. Therefore, she had decided to focus on saving Ron first. Voldemort had been most displeased when she pulled Ron behind her, and somehow, everything had escalated from there.

In retrospect, Voldemort had probably seen it as a hit to his pride when she openly defied him in front of other people, especially when said person was her former boyfriend. However, even if she were given a second chance, Hermione would have done the same thing; she could not bring herself to step aside when she knew Ron was in trouble.

She saw the outcome as a small victory for herself, since everything ended in somewhat of a stalemate. After all, she doubted most people could claim that they had had an argument with Lord Voldemort without ending up in St. Mungo's—or perhaps it would be a bit more appropriate to say, without ending up in a graveyard.

The moment Voldemort realized that he could not convince her to step aside, he had attempted to grab her and Apparate out of Hogwarts. Before he could have done so, she had pulled out her wand.

"Try Apparating with me, my Lord, and I'll make sure we both end up getting Splinched somewhere in Africa," she had warned, staring at him pointedly.

She had been slightly afraid that he might decide to duel her on the spot. After all, she was no longer facing that seventeen-year-old Slytherin Head Boy back in the forties. This was Lord Voldemort, who had years of dueling experience. She was not sure if she could beat him—unless she was extremely lucky.

However, the gods were with her, since McGonagall had suddenly appeared and whispered something to Voldemort. Apparently, it was something important, since after staring at Hermione for a short moment, he Disapparated on the spot.

Ron had looked awkward, probably due to the fact that he realized that she was trying to protect him, even though it was obvious that he had no idea what was going on. After all, it was not common knowledge that "Professor Riddle" was Lord Voldermort himself. Apparently, the Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Draco from this timeline wouldn't have had any idea either, if they hadn't traveled back in time.

That thought had made Hermione frown, since that meant that there was also someone in this timeline who had sent them back in time and planted memories from the other timeline in their minds. But who? The answer came rather swiftly, and Hermione realized that it was most likely Voldemort from this timeline. Though the information Harry, Ginny, and Hermione had given Joseph, Gareth, and Alphard were minimal, it was most likely enough for Tom Riddle to deduce the rest. He must have realized the amount of changes he had made to his agenda after the time travelers appeared in his life; enough changed to insure his victory, so she doubted he would let that alter. Although, it must have been hard for him to send Harry, Ginny, and Draco back to his past, and that thought brought a grin to Hermione's face.

Hermione had tried to convince Ron to stay, but he refused. Later on, she wondered if he would have stayed if Harry and Ginny were there, too. She had followed after Ron, trying to tell him how dangerous his conditions were. However, she was forced to stop once she reached the entrance of Hogwarts; there seemed to be some kind of ward holding her back. Therefore, she could only stand back and watch as Ron walked some distance away before he Disapparated.

From that day on, Hermione stayed at Hogwarts, sleeping in the dorm she used to stay in while she was still in school. The strange thing was the fact that Voldemort had not appeared since that day. After all, nagging seemed to be his favorite hobby, second only to killing. Hermione would have felt a sense of loss if she hadn't thought of a way to go into the Room of Requirement without Voldemort's aid on the third day.

She had been on her way to the library when she encountered one of the house-elves by the name of Pokey. The poor thing had been carrying a broomstick and was on his way to the library to tidy it up. She had offered to help him with the job, but Pokey immediately looked offended. So, they ended up walking to the library together instead. If Hermione hadn't needed him to help her with something, she would have tried to convince him about the advantages of being free. As it was, she could not afford having Pokey run away from her.

"Do you work in the kitchens, Pokey?" she asked as she walked through the library door Pokey had held opened for her.

"Yes, Miss, Pokey is works in the kitchen," the house-elf replied in the signature squeaky voice of house-elves. "Pokey is like where all good house-elves should be. Pokey is where there is work to be done."

Hermione bit her tongue to stop a sarcastic remark from leaving her mouth and forced a patronizing smile on her face instead. It appeared that she would have something else to "chat" with Voldemort about when he returned. At the current moment, however, she should concentrate on her plan instead.

"What about the … guests in the Room of Requirement? Do the house-elves prepare food for them, too?" Hermione asked.

She crossed her fingers in private. She knew that the Room of Requirement did not provide food. In the original timeline, the Room of Requirement connected itself to the Hog's Head so that the people staying inside it would have a safe pathway to food. Nonetheless, she doubted Voldemort would add that option in for this timeline. So the only way food could be provided to the "guests" inside was by the house-elves. Surely the house-elves would need a way to enter the room. Nonetheless, she wouldn't put it past Voldemort to starve Harry and the others for a few days. She hoped that that wasn't the case.

Hermione's heart sank when she saw a frown appear on Pokey's face, but his next words made her relax. "The Room of Requirement, Miss?"

"The room on the seventh floor, right across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy … the Come and Go Room!" Hermione exclaimed, remembering that that was what Dobby had called it.

The smile reappeared on Pokey's face. "Yes, Miss, we prepares food for guests in the Come and Go room, too!"

Hermione nearly let out a sigh of relief. "But how do you get in there? Can you get in there? You can't possibly get the food in there if you can't go in there yourself, right? Or can you? I thought … the Dark Lord made sure that no one can get in there."

"House-elf magic is different from Master and Miss's magic," Pokey answered, a humble smile on his face. "If guests is stay in the Come and Go room, Pokey can make food appears in it."

"Oh," Hermione said slowly.

That probably meant that if there were no one in there, the house-elves couldn't have made food appear in it, too.

"What if … what if you needed to go in?" she continued to ask. "I suppose you clean the Come and Go room, too, don't you?"

Hopefully.

"Yes, yes, Miss! Pokey can go into the Come and Go room and Pokey and other house-elves goes into the Come and Go room at night to clean."

Excellent.

"Can you take me in there?"

Pokey's eyes widened. "Master will be angry with Pokey! Master will be displeased! Pokey will have to iron his fingers for weeks!"

Oh, she would definitely need to talk to a certain someone when he appeared.

"Did he say you cannot bring me in there?" she asked, hoping that Voldemort hadn't placed that order.

He couldn't possibly have. Up until that day when he nearly took Ron away for a torture session, he had thought that she was going to stay with him.

"Master says guests cannot comes out of the Come and Go room," Pokey answered.

A small smile appeared on Hermione's face. "But he didn't say that you cannot bring me in there, did he?"

Pokey paused, and then very slowly, he started twisting his big, flappy ears. "No … Master is not says Pokey cannot brings Miss into the Come and Go room."

Snatching Pokey's hand away from his ears, her smile turned into a grin.

"Exactly."

~-0-~

With a crack, Hermione appeared inside the Room of Requirement, startling the people inside.

"Hermione!"

Grins appeared on both Ginny and Harry's faces once they realized who had appeared in the room. The two of them immediately rushed over to her and pulled her into their arms for a big hug.

"About time you found a way to come in here alone," Draco drawled on the side. Despite of what he was saying, there was a hint of relief in his voice.

"He didn't … punish you for what happened that day, did he? I mean … you followed right after him … he was going to punish Ron that day and you stopped him, didn't you?" Harry asked in a low voice.

"Just a second," Hermione said before turning towards Pokey, who had a very sad expression on his face. "Pokey, I forbid you to tell anyone—house-elves, witches, or wizards—that you were the one who brought me in here and I forbid you to punish yourself for bringing me in here."

It was pointless trying to hide the truth from Voldemort, but the least she could do was to try and protect Pokey from being tortured. If she could, she would've sent Pokey away to somewhere safe, but she knew that it would devastate the poor thing, and she doubted Pokey would actually listen to her and leave. In fact, he might just turn around and look for Voldemort to tell him what happened immediately instead.

After giving Pokey instructions to return in three hours to take her out of the room, she, Harry, Ginny, and Draco sat down in the armchairs provided in the room.

Taking a look at each person in turn, Hermione then said in a low voice, "We should check out if the Muffliato works in here."

"Even if it does work, we still don't know if it necessarily means that he wouldn't find out what we've said in here. He might've added some kind of function that would neutralize all kinds of spells in here," Draco hissed.

Harry frowned, and after a moment of thought, he said, "But it's worth a try. Go ahead, Hermione."

Giving him a curt nod, Hermione pulled out her wand and first tried casting the spell on Harry and her. After receiving confirmation from Draco and Ginny that they could not hear what she and Harry said while they had the spell cast, Hermione waved the wand around and cast the spell around the four of them.

"How's … Ron?" Ginny asked slowly.

Hermione wondered what the reason behind the uncertainty on Ginny's face was. Was it because Ginny was unsure about if Hermione were still angry at Ron? Or was it because she was worried about Ron's condition?

"He's fine. At least, I think he is. I stepped in before Vol—" Hermione stopped in her words.

Was there a Taboo on his name in this timeline? Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in thought. It seemed logical for Voldemort to do that, since the Order should be the only ones who would speak his name. Hermione really didn't need the Aurors Apparating in on them right now. Looking around the room, Hermione wondered if they could Apparate into the Room of Requirement. None of the books she had read talked a lot about the room, let alone about the extent of magic that went into it. Was there some kind of protection in it that would prevent others from Apparating in?

Harry, Ginny, and Draco seemed to have caught on to what Hermione was thinking because they shared a look with one another.

"We think the Taboo might be in place. For the time being, we have been calling him 'You-Know-Who' instead, just in case," Harry answered.

Hermione added in agreement. "That's probably our best option."

"So Ron's safe?" Ginny asked.

Hermione nodded slowly. "I stepped in before You-Know-Who could take him away, and then Professor McGonagall appeared and told him something. It seemed like something important, since he Apparated away shortly afterwards. I tried to convince Ron to stay, but Ron … well …"

She wrung her fingers together, wondering if she should have tried harder. What if Voldemort decided to catch Ron on his own after doing whatever he left with Professor McGonagall to do?

"I guessed as much," Ginny spoke up, breaking her train of thought. "It's so … him." She narrowed her eyes, and Hermione realized that though Ginny cared about Ron's well-being, she was still angry at him for what he had said about Hermione. "What an idiot!"

"He didn't really mean it," Harry said, looking back and forth between Hermione and Ginny. "He was just being … He was angry, so he was just lashing out and saying stupid things."

"Stupid words from a stupid git, how appropriate," Ginny scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Anyone with at least half of a brain cell would've realized that those were just rumors spread by people who were jealous about Hermione's grades." She stared meaningfully at Draco.

Draco stared back. "You thought I, I was the one who spread those rumors? Does it look like I would do that?"

"Yes," Harry, Ginny, and Hermione said in unison.

Draco's mouth dropped open, and then he quickly closed it again. "Alright, I admit that I'm a Slytherin and I might have done something like that—"

"Says he who wanted to deny it," Ginny snorted on the side.

Draco gave her a look, but he didn't stop talking. "—but! But does it look like I have a death wish?"

"What are you going on about?" Ginny asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Riddle, Weaselette. Does that name need further explanation?"

"So? What about him?" Harry questioned him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"If I were to spread those rumors around Hogwarts, does it look like Riddle would let me live to see the daylight? He was the Head of Slytherin and how easy would it have been for him to murder me while I was sleeping? I mean, right, Lockhart, I might have helped spreading that rumor around—" He ignored the angry look Hermione shot in his way. "—but I swear, I have nothing to do with spreading the words around about her and Riddle. Pansy was the one who started talking about it."

"You didn't know Riddle was You-Know-Who back then," Harry pointed out.

"By gods, Potter, you couldn't have forgotten how he taught Defense Against the Dark Arts!" Draco exclaimed.

"… Oh. Right," Harry muttered, running a hand through his hair.

Upon being reminded that they had had their memories "updated," expressions of discomfort appeared on their faces. Though now and then they would still get a random flashback, it was not like when they had first arrived back in the future, when huge amounts of information were being forcefully shoved into their brains. The "updating" appeared to be nearing the end of its process.

The things they had done, the things they had said in this timeline …to say that they were not embarrassed about them would be a lie. It was certainly not a nice experience for Hermione to remember everything from when she first saw "Professor Riddle" to how she … well, how she started having snogging sessions with him in between. But … oh Merlin, she was almost glad that Voldemort hadn't appeared in the past couple of days because she honestly did not know how to face him yet. When she first remembered every single thought she had had about "Professor Riddle," she almost wished that the floors would open up and swallow her whole because she doubted he would have shied away from using Legilimency on her during their interactions.

No wonder he mocked her about whom she had fancied. When she had first saw "Professor Riddle," she had kept on comparing him to Professor Lockhart. She couldn't believe that she actually put up with Divinations so that she could spend more time with Lockhart. What was she thinking?

With memories from both the new timeline and old timeline, she realized that Voldemort had been parading around as "Professor Tom Riddle," completed with the name and the looks, somewhat like an "undercover" or something. It was the perfect way to monitor the children. After all, most of the wizarding world did not know how Lord Voldemort looked like before his snakey looks.

But how did Voldemort get his "Riddle looks" back? She was sure that his snake-like features were not the works of Transfiguration; it would've shown or at least had some kind of magical signature to it. Potions? It was a possibility, but it could not be the Polyjuice Potion; even if Voldemort happened to have kept toenails, fingernails, or locks of hair from his Tom Riddle period, it wouldn't have worked. The piece of whomever they were changing into had to be fresh, so to speak. That was precisely why Barty Crouch Jr. had to keep Moody alive during her fourth year.

"So … what are we going to do now?" Harry suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

Hermione cleared her throat and paused, not really sure what they should do now. Lead a revolution? Against what? Their families were on Voldemort's side, and the thought of fighting alongside Lucius Malfoy … No, definitely not. She could not stomach that idea. The mere thought of it made her sick.

"We can't possibly fight for the pure-blood … Death Eaters … Order members … oh Merlin, what are we supposed to call them now? Death Order Eaters?" Ginny asked, a frustrated expression on her face.

Draco snickered. "Order Eaters?"

His comment made Harry, Hermione, and Ginny chuckle softly.

"Well, whatever they are, we can't fight for their ideas. I doubt they'd only want equality for pure-bloods," Ginny said. She stared at Draco again, who sighed.

"You don't really think I'm going to give you inside information about my parents now, do you?" he asked.

"Do you really think of them as your parents?" Harry asked.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Potty, do you think of those people, James and Lily Potter, as your parents?"

Harry and Draco looked at one another, and after a moment, some kind of understanding seemed to pass between them before they looked away.

"But … you can't possibly think about going against You-Know-Who," Ginny said, staring at Draco in disbelief.

He ran a hand through his hair, fear and anxiety becoming prominent emotions in his grey eyes. "I don't know … I really don't know. It's not like I really have a choice in this situation, is it? I don't even know how to help them. It's not like the Dark Lord's going to send me back to my parents out of the goodness of his heart. And …" He swallowed. "And it's pretty obvious that once Sparkly Eyes is dead, the rest of the Order is bound to be next."

"Some confidence you have in your father," Ginny muttered.

"It's not funny, Weaselette," Draco said angrily, turning his head towards her.

An apologetic expression appeared on Ginny's face, and she lowered her gaze.

After staring at her bowed head for a few seconds, Draco slumped into his chair like a deflated balloon. "It's not like the Dark Lord's going to spare my father's life. Regardless of how I look at it, it's hopeless. I'm not delusional, and I know what those ragtag 'Order members' of this timeline can do, especially without Dumbledore's leadership. Trust me, I knew and lived with them in our original timeline and this timeline. The Dark Lord does not know mercy, and my father is one of the greatest supporters of Dumbledore."

His face turned sour upon that thought. The three Gryffindors remained silent, suddenly feeling uncomfortable about the fact that they hadn't exactly thought about things from his perspective before. Yes, they had been somewhat concerned about Draco's safety, but they had forgotten what this new timeline meant for him. Voldemort was never known for leniency, and with him in power, the Malfoys would undoubtedly be thoroughly tortured before they were killed if they were caught.

Then, Ginny seemed to remember something and turned towards Hermione. "Your parents should be fine."

Hermione nodded. "According to what I remembered in the last couple of days, I think they're fine, safely guarded by the Ministry Aurors." She laughed dryly. "Or at least, until I openly defy the Dark Lord."

"Then how is this timeline any better? We're all trapped in one way or another," Ginny said softly.

And this timeline was created because of us.

That thought was left unsaid, although it was shared by each and every person in the room. Guilt hung heavily in the air before Hermione spoke up again.

"We can't really place the blame on ourselves." She paused, giving them time to digest that comment. "It's not our fault that we were sent back into the past. We've tried to avoid making changes to the timeline, but some things … some things just couldn't be stopped …"

Flashes of her interaction with Tom Riddle back at Hogwarts came into her mind's eye. A part of her conceded to the fact that there were no ways for her to escape her attraction to him. There was an inexplicable connection between him and her, and no matter what they did, that connection seemed to have only strengthened throughout their endeavors.

"Hermione's right," Harry said. "Instead of just moping here and thinking about what we can't do, we should be thinking about what we can do. Just because we can't change what had happened, that doesn't mean we can't influence what might happen in the future."

"So what are we going to do? Storm the Ministry?" Draco asked, rolling his eyes.

"Don't be daft, Draco," Hermione chided. "That's starting a revolution against the Dark Lord, who's endeared by nearly everyone in this timeline. Including Harry." She stared at the young man in question with amusement.

Harry grimaced. "Don't remind me of that."

Draco snickered. "Oh, I remember, and remember the times when he nearly glowed with joy whenever 'Professor Riddle' gave him a compliment?"

"Shut up," Harry said, his cheeks turning red out of embarrassment.

"And when he spoke about the Dark Lord? Merlin, I thought he had a crush on him," Ginny added.

"Not you, too, Ginny," Harry groaned as the other three chuckled at his expense.

Suddenly, Hermione recalled something. "Have the three of you turned the top of the necklace yet? We still don't know when that person is going to appear, the one who made us go back into the past in the first place."

"Oh." Alarmed, Harry quickly pulled out his necklace and turned the top as they were instructed by Slytherin.

"What, exactly, did Riddle do to Slytherin? I thought I saw him appear right before we got sent back here," Ginny asked as she turned the top of her pendant.

"He killed Slytherin," Hermione replied quietly.

"He did?" Harry stared at her, stopping in his motions.

Draco let out a whooping cheer after stuffing his necklace inside his robes. "Served that old bat right."

"Malfoy, he's the Founder of your House," Ginny reminded him.

"Who cares? After giving us white bread for three days, I hope Riddle tortured him for days before offing him," Draco brushed off.

"So we wouldn't have to leave that letter in the Chamber of Secrets for him then," Harry deducted, still looking at Hermione, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Thank Merlin," Draco said with a relieved sigh. "Imagine going in there and meeting the basilisk."

"Your relative," Ginny mocked.

"No, thanks. It's enough having Aunt Bella as a relative. I don't need some deadly snake that might kill me in the middle of night when I'm trying to go to the loo," Draco replied, causing Ginny to laugh.

"But who is this person? Why did he or she send us back in time in the first place?" Hermione mused out loud, the frown reappearing on her forehead. "Unless … unless they wanted us to change the timeline in the first place!"

Harry, Ginny, and Draco stared at her.

"That's impossible," Ginny said. "You've said yourself that time couldn't be changed."

"I think she meant more along the lines of 'time shouldn't be changed,'" Draco said, "because nobody knew what would happen if time were changing. Well, we've found out now, haven't we?"

"So paradoxes wouldn't necessarily make everything disappear," Harry continued.

"But it would just change the world, like in our case, which is why the Ministry didn't try to go back in time with the Time-Turners to change history," Ginny finished for him.

Hermione shook her head. "Time-Turners have limitations. They can only take you back, at most, a few days. Going back years is impossible. There had been rumors that the Department of Mysteries, the one in the old timeline that is, had been researching about how to travel further back in time, but it was only in the early stages. They hadn't accomplished it."

"Who knows what they were going to do with it afterwards? I don't trust the Ministry any more than I trust the Dark Lord," Draco commented dryly.

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione nodded their heads in agreement. There was no saying what the Ministry would have done if they had known how to travel back in time. However, Hermione was hardly worried; she doubted the Ministry would ever develop a Time Turner that would allow them to travel more than a couple of days back in time.

"Do you reckon … that it was You-Know-Who who sent us back in time?" Ginny asked slowly.

"Wait, but didn't Potty vanquished him already? In our original timeline?" Draco asked.

"And my scar hasn't been hurting ever since that day," Harry added.

"But your scar hurt because of your connection with You-Know-Who and because you were carrying a piece of his soul in you," Hermione answered.

"You were carrying a piece of the Dark Lord's soul inside of you?" Draco asked, staring at Harry out of disbelief.

"Unfortunately," Harry muttered. "But he tried to kill me that day, and the Killing Curse killed the part of his soul instead."

Draco snorted. "And I thought he couldn't be any denser. That just makes him firing the Killing Curse at you during the final battle so much funnier." He glanced at Hermione from the corner of his eye. "No offense there, Granger."

Suddenly, from the corner of their eyes, someone else appeared inside the room. Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Draco stared as the person stumbled forward. They had even forgotten to help him in his weak state because they were more surprised by the fact that someone else other than Voldemort had entered the room.

"How did he get in?" Harry asked, squinting his eyes at the person as if he couldn't see well.

"No idea," Hermione replied as she pulled out her wand and took down the Muffliato spell before hurrying over to the person. "Are you alright?"

"No."

That was his reply, except it wasn't, since his mouth wasn't moving. Nonetheless, the answer still made Hermione froze on the spot because she was pretty sure she knew where the source of the voice was.

Gritting her teeth together, she tried extremely hard to push down her anger before she glanced at the back of the stranger's head. The moment her suspicions were proved correct, the moment she saw Voldemort's face in the back of the stranger's head, the barricades she had built up to contain her fury broke down into pieces, and words came spilling out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

"You idiot! And to think that you've probably became a bit more intelligent in this timeline, but nooo, you had to go and get yourself some rebounded curses thrown at you—"

"He tried again?" Ginny asked with her eyebrows raised.

"Longbottom this time around, Weaselette," Draco muttered on the side.

"—If you can't get them the first time, it's a bit obvious that it wouldn't the second or the third or how many other times you try it—" Hermione continued to shout.

"Granger, I don't have enough time to listen to your chitter-chatter, so can you shut up and listen," Voldemort said.

"Oh, like you've ever shut up and listen before, which is exactly why you never get anything right. Regardless of what timeline you're in, you manage to get yourself blown up and get left with—" She gestured at the stranger's body with her hand. "—whatever you consider this to be."

"Granger, I'm going to disappear in a matter of minutes," he said.

Hermione stopped and stared at him in shock.

"Quit lying. You've got your Horcruxes, and that basically makes it impossible—"

"Dumbledore," Voldemort cut in, "and Longbottom destroyed all of them already."

Hermione let out a weak snort. "Whose vault did you hide your Horcrux in this time around?"

"The point is," Voldemort continued as if he hadn't heard what Hermione said, "I need to do something—I need you to do something now."

"I'm not digging up your father's grave," Hermione said loudly.

"I didn't tell you to dig up his grave," Voldemort answered. He then paused, and the stranger took out his wand.

Alarmed, Hermione glanced between the wand and Voldemort. "What, exactly, do you think you're doing?"

He did not answer; instead, he, or rather, the stranger brought the wand down to the middle of his chest before bringing it over his head. Drawing an imaginary circle above his head, he then brought it downwards. At the same time, Hermione started to feel tingling in her hands and feet.

"What—Tom Marvolo Riddle, what in Merlin's name do you think you're doing? Stop it!" she demanded as she tried to reach out and grab the stranger's hand. Nonetheless, she could not move.

She looked over to Harry, Ginny, and Draco and found them frozen on the spot.

"What the hell?" Draco squeaked, horror imprinted on his face.

Suddenly, a flash of light erupted from the end of the stranger's wand. Before Hermione could scream, the light engulfed her, and she felt a familiar tug at her body.

~-0-~

Once the lighting in the room returned to normal, Voldemort opened his eyes. Much to his satisfaction, Hermione was no longer beside him. That meant that the spell worked, which meant that …

"Master," the imbecile he was possessing—Felland—called out shakily.

If Felland were any more intelligent, he would realize that now was not exactly a good time to speak with the Dark Lord. Of course, Lord Voldemort refused to believe that he was defeated by the old coot—the now dead old coot. Yes, he had managed to kill off Albus Dumbledore, but it was because the old fool had decided to stand in front of Longbottom when Lord Voldemort had been trying to kill the so-called Chosen One. The moment the Killing Curse rebounded on him, he knew something was wrong, and when Longbottom Disapparated with his old diary—his last Horcrux—he knew he didn't have much more time. Never mind when and how Longbottom learned how to Apparate.

This whole fiasco was just a minor setback. The fact that he had seen that pendant around Hermione's neck proved that the fates were with him. He was destined to rule the world and get rid of Albus Dumbledore in the end, or else he wouldn't have been given a way to make everything right.

The moment he saw that pendant, he knew it was from Slytherin. The magical signature on it was unquestionable, but little did Hermione know that he had already known what it was right from the beginning. He had no idea why Hermione needed it and why Slytherin would give her something like that, but that did not matter. What mattered was the fact that he had found a way to go around the spell that prevented Hermione from being sent back into time, and this time, she no longer had a way to block her mind from him. The spell that Felland had cast on Hermione also broke the spell that had been cast on her that prevented his past self from reading her mind.

"Master …" the moron continued to call for him.

"What?" he snapped. It had better be something important, or else Lord Voldemort might have just found his final target before disappearing from this future.

Yes, this future. With Hermione sent back in time, he had no doubts that things would end up differently again, and this time, everything would work out the way he wanted it to.

"The other people that were in here … they're gone!" Felland stuttered.

The other people … Felland could not possibly be talking about Potter, Weasley, and Malfoy. He could not be. Either something suddenly went wrong with his eyes or he must be kidding. If it were the latter, Felland would be very, very sorry when Lord Voldemort was through with him. Just because there was only a few more minutes left before Lord Voldemort evaporated, it did not mean that his followers were allowed to joke with him.

"Felland …"

"They … they were just there … and … and once Hermione Granger disappeared, they did, too," Felland continued.

"Turn around," Voldemort commanded as calmly as he could, completely ignoring the fact that if Potter, Weasley, and Malfoy were still in the room, they would've started yelling and sputtering nonsense at him.

The empty room in front of him proved Felland's words, and Voldemort suddenly felt a dizzy sensation wash through him.

Merlin, they had to be kidding him. If Lord Voldemort had a bit more strength right now, he would've cursed every single object to oblivion at this point. He could not believe that he had forgotten to check if those idiots were wearing the same necklace as Hermione.

However, he could not muster enough energy to be angry any longer; he started to cough and the darkness of unconsciousness started to drift in front of his eyes.

"Master, are you alright?" Felland asked worriedly.

Though this moron was stupid in every sense of the word, he was at least quite trustworthy. Even though Felland could feel the energy slipping out of Lord Voldemort with each passing second, his mind remained loyal to him.

Just then, a crack echoed throughout the room, and from within a funnel of dark clouds, a figure clad in black stepped through. Voldemort took one look at the newcomer—the time traveler—and a smile appeared on his face.

"At least, you—or should I say, I am a bit earlier this time," he whispered before taking his final breath and evaporating into nothingness.

Right in front of Tom Marvolo Riddle's eyes.

~-0-~

A/N: Many thanks to my beta, Marauder's Wolf! Special thanks to Nerys for looking over the chapter to make sure the logic and flow is alright. Huge thanks to those of you who have read, rated, and especially those of you who reviewed: Ikuni Hattori, somebody french, SarahLuvsZombehs, mekom, Malfoys Bitch, Fleur K., Lady Miya, mrequecky, Ms Velvela, Atlantean_Diva, and Megii of Mysteri OusStranger!

Review replies can be found here: http://serp-replies.livejournal.com/18503.html
- 49
- 50
- 51
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Somewhere in Time