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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
- 53
- 54
- 55
Chapter 54

"Legilimens."

He entered her mind before she could even think about how to stop him for doing so.

Walls were disintegrated before she could even build them up, and he invaded the corners of her mind, wrenching out any memory he wanted to and most of the memories she had wanted to keep a secret.

She would've screamed if she could the moment he touched upon memories from her futures—both the original and the wacky one. He went from thought to thought, emotions to emotions, and she felt herself reliving her worst nightmares as well as most embarrassing moments. As hard as she could, she tried to push him out, but he mercilessly brushed her aside, leaving her out of breath in the wake of his intrusion.

Mustering all the strength she could, she physically pushed him away, breaking off their eye contact. He seemed somewhat surprised by the turn of events but strangely made no move to use Legilimency on her again. Taking his surprise as her advantage, she shoved him again, this time with her feet and putting her whole weight on it, and successfully throwing him off the bed. Vicious satisfaction bubbled up upon hearing the sound of him hitting the floor and him yelling—she had no idea if it was from the pain or surprise, though she hoped it was both. However, that didn't last as long as she would like it to, due to the woozy feeling of after getting her mind invaded.

The moment she got her breathing back to a normal rate, she glared at the man who was responsible for it and had by now stood up. Though she had ended it prematurely, he had still gotten a good amount of memories from her mind. That smug smirk on his face pushed her over the edge, and without a second thought, she pushed herself off the bed, made her way over to him, and clamped her mouth on his shoulder, biting down hard.

A hiss of pain left his mouth and he grabbed her hair, trying to pull her away.

"Granger, you're much too fond of biting," he growled.

Yeah, and that wasn't the only thing she was fond of. The moment she released him from her bite, her knee went upwards, nearly successful in hitting its target. However, he suddenly lifted his leg, and her lower leg crashed into his knee. A pain-filled cry left her mouth, and tears sprung to her eyes. Before she could crouch down to rub the spot where she had gotten injured, he swirled her around and shoved her towards the wall, restricting her hands and legs with his own.

"Let go of me, you prick!" she yelled, struggling against his hold. "How dare you enter my mind like that? How dare you use Legilimency on me?"

A derisive snort left his lips before his mocking gaze landed on her. "Did I need a written permission for that then?"

She growled out of frustration and continued fighting against him, trying her best to get out of his hold. She was going to kill him—no, that would be an easy out for him. She was going to rip his hair out one by one until his head resembled the one he'd have in the future and then flay him alive. How dare he intrude upon her privacy like that?

However, her ideas for his punishment could only remain inside her mind, since he was physically stronger than her.

"Let go of me!" she screamed.

"No," he said coldly.

It made her even more exasperated that he seemed to be restraining her effortlessly. Finally, she ran out of strength and couldn't do anything but fix her glare on him, all the while panting.

"Are you finally done?" he asked coolly.

For now, yes. If they were going to stay in the same bedroom, she would have plenty of chances to get back at him, and the longer it took her to get vengeance, the better her plans would evolve.

Of course, it wasn't the first time he had used Legilimency on her. However, this time included memories from the original and the wacky future. She had no idea which one she wanted to keep a secret more, but all in all, her anger and embarrassment had reached an all-time high. It was to the point that she hadn't even had the chance to wonder about what happened to the mental wall that had prevented Tom from sifting through memories about the future before.

"If you attempt to hurt me again, Hermione, once I've released you, I will put you under a Full Body Bind for the rest of the night," he said quietly. "I assume that I wouldn't need to tell you precisely how uncomfortable it will be after being under that spell for an entire night."

Her lips thinned, and she refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing an answer from her. He raised an eyebrow at her silence. She mimicked his action, a daring look in her eyes. The corners of his mouth curled upwards into a sneer.

"Well, if you prefer to have me put you under the spell now—"

"Fine," she said in a forced voice. "I won't try to hurt you tonight."

She could wait until after midnight.

His expression was indecipherable, and Hermione wouldn't be surprised if he knew what she was thinking. Nonetheless, he didn't say anything.

Instead, he slowly moved away from her, and the moment she was free, she bent down to look at her leg. A grimace appeared on her face when she saw just how bad the injury was. No wonder she felt a throbbing pain after so long. It was no longer just black and blue; the spot had swollen to the size of an egg. She reached over to her robes—which had ended up on the chair after he'd made it disappear—fished out her wand, and quickly cast a healing charm over it.

All the while, Tom wore a look of deep thought on his face. After she placed her wand back in the pocket and stood up again, his eyes snapped over to her.

"You and Potter knew about the Horcruxes," he said quietly.

Oh right. Well, it didn't exactly take a genius to guess that that would be the first thing he would question her about. However, she wasn't exactly too worried about what would happen to his "fragile heart, mind, and soul" upon knowing that she had taken part in the Horcrux hunt when he first entered her mind.

"You assisted him in destroying them," he continued, fury slowly pricking holes into his seemingly calm exterior.

Instead of scaring her, his anger triggered something inside of Hermione, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Yes, I did," she spat out.

"How dare you? The nerve of you and Pot—"

"How dare I? How dare I?" Hermione screeched, her eyes becoming mere slits as she stomped up to him and poked her finger into his chest, disregarding the irritation that was flowing off him in waves. "Don't give me that crap, Riddle. If you're looking for some kind of remorse, then you better search somewhere else because I'm the last person you're going to find that in. How dare I?" She let out a derisive sound. "Nearly every single one of your bloody Horcrux tried to kill Harry and me, and you have the nerve to interrogate me about the load of shit you drew yourself into?"

He seemed slightly taken aback by what she said; the small part of her mind that wasn't overcome by rage realized that this was probably due to the amount of information that one could get through Legilimency. If he'd spent more time sifting through her mind, of course he would eventually know every memory that was stored there. However, she estimated that he had only been in there for less than five minutes. So he did get memories, but most of them were not in detail.

"If you hadn't tried to destroy them—"

"Oh, that's fresh," she mocked, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. "Did you think that your Horcruxes were just lying around like some kind of fancy accessory? Your diary Horcrux nearly killed me back in second year when I had no idea what the hell a Horcrux was. It set your blasted pet snake on me and if I hadn't found out that it was a basilisk beforehand and held a mirror in my hand, I would've been dead by now! Destroy them, of course I would've wanted to destroy them! Are you telling me that you wouldn't attack first if you knew that you were basically number one on the list to get killed? Not to mention that your lovely Horcrux nearly got Ginny killed back then."

"Granger, they happened in your timeline. You've already acknowledged that the future had been changed, so these events are not going to happen," he pointed out.

"So now it's events that 'are not going to happen.'" She stared at him, her irritation hardly abating. "Just in case you haven't noticed, you were the one who started this stupid blaming session."

She knew the argument could be over now, judging from his softening features. He presumably realized that in this timeline, they weren't given incentives to destroy his precious soul pieces. However, she was hardly done from ranting about his stupid Horcruxes. After all, she had had to go through hell because of them.

"And should I repeat every single wretched thing that locket of yours whispered in my head every night when I was wearing it? 'Always waiting to get noticed by the others, but you know you'll never measure up to them. Did you really think that Potter and Weasley would've become your friend if they didn't need you to check their homework for them? Did you really think you're that important to Potter? Look at who was chosen as Potter's most important possession for the Triwizard Tournament. The two of them care less about you than an acquaintance from Bulgaria. It really shows how inadequate you really are. You've never been into Harry and Ronald's heads. I've seen what they think about you. They will never tell you. Do you want to know what they think? Did you really think that my Death Eaters and I were the only ones who frown upon the impurity of blood?'" she said, adopting a chipmunk-like voice for the Horcrux's words. "Well, haha! Guess who you're frolicking with now, moron."

Amusement flashed through his eyes. "It said that to you?"

"You think it's funny?" she hissed, her hands clenching up into fists. "You think it's funny, Riddle?"

He did not answer, but the way he was gazing at her said enough. Without thinking, she swung her fists at him, which he caught easily.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Resorting to your unworthy Muggle ways again, my little Mudblood?" he asked, completely enjoying himself.

She growled and tried to wrench her wrists out of his hands. She was just about to stomp on his foot when he swirled the two of them around, causing her to lose balance. Without warning, the both of them fell into the bed, with him on top of her.

"Get. Off. Me. Now," she said warningly.

"I kind of like the position I am in right now," he said, propping up his head with his hand with that infuriating smirk plastered to his face. "Did you forget what I've said about what would happen if you attacked me again tonight?"

She stared at him with a stubborn look on her face but did not answer him.

He raised an eyebrow at her lack of response, and seconds later, his expression changed to a serious one. "Now, first things first, I can be lenient enough to let some … events that will no longer occur pass."

His words made her mouth drop open out of disbelief. How could someone be so absolutely infuriating? Did he really think that she cared about how "lenient" he could be?

"But I want answers, and you will give them to me."

"After going through my mind without my permission and trying to guilt-trip me about your Horcruxes, do you think that I'm up for a questioning session, too?" she snapped.

"You will answer my questions, if you know what's good for you, Hermione," he said.

"I'm not helping you with anything," she said, her voice as hard as her gaze.

"I'm not asking you to help me with anything. I just want to know … something very simple," he said.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I. Am. Not. Helping. You."

"You're not the one with the bargaining chip, Hermione. Either you tell me why the future me felt the need to kill Potter or I'll just do things without taking your silly emotions into consideration."

Her temper flared, and staring at him straight in the eye, she hissed, "If you hurt Harry, trust me, I will kill you with my bare hands, with magic or not, incapacitated or not."

Something flashed through his eyes, and much to her surprise, his lips curved slightly upwards.

"Answer my questions truthfully, and I will consider not hurting Potter unless he provokes me to do so," he said.

"Not a chance, Riddle. Do you think that I'm so stupid that I can't see a million loopholes in that promise?" she asked.

"Don't make me do this the hard way, Hermione," he warned, his voice soft and dangerous at the same time.

"I'll gouge out my eyes before I allow you to see into my mind again," Hermione threatened through gritted teeth.

"Did you think that Legilimency can only be performed on people who have eyes, Hermione?" he scoffed.

"No, but it's much easier for me to hide the information you want to find," Hermione said triumphantly, "and it's much harder for you to navigate the mind without direct eye contact. Not to mention the fact that it takes years and years of practice for a wizard to perform that kind of high level Legilimency."

His eyes slightly narrowed, but his expression remained masked. "Are you suggesting that I've been lax in practicing the art?"

She snorted. "Like you haven't been using it to make sure that your followers weren't planning some kind of revolution against you." She paused. "I know that you know how to perform Legilimency nonverbally, but you still perform it verbally every once in a while, so clearly, you haven't mastered it to the point where you're completely comfortable with it. Therefore, I doubt it will be easy for you to use it without eye contact yet. Not to mention that you didn't immediately perform Legilimency on me after I shoved you away. That proves that there's still room for improvement in your Legilimency skills."

The moment an irritated expression flashed through Tom's face, she knew she was right, and a sense of relief swept through her. At least she had one less thing to worry about now.

Until he did completely master Legilimency, that was.

She would have to worry Harry and the others in private, too, just in case Tom decided to turn his attention towards them instead.

"Most of your arguments are mere assumptions," Tom said slowly, schooling his face once more. "Performing spells verbally does not necessarily equate inability to perform said spells nonverbally." He tilted his head to one side. "I'm pretty sure you know that I can perform the Cruciatus Curse proficiently nonverbally, yet I still choose to say the incantation out loud."

"You know perfectly well that those are two different spells by nature," she retorted in what Ron used to call her "know-it-all voice." "With the Cruciatus Curse, the strength of the curse is increased by reciting the incantation, even if the caster happens to be highly skilled in that curse, while with Legilimency, the incantation is the least important factor in determining the strength of the magic. What's important is the expertise of the caster—"

"Granger, I don't need The Strengths and Weaknesses of Legilimency recited to me," he snapped as he got off her.

A smirk appeared on Hermione's face as she sat up on the bed. "Oh, did I hit a nerve there?"

He narrowed his eyes, his irritation going up another notch. Hm … it was probably not a good idea to make him overly angry right now. If the time travelers were only dealing with Tom, though she was not necessarily saying that they would defeat him, they could at least attempt to get away unscathed. As it was, he had his Knights with him, and the time travelers were greatly outnumbered. So, nope, it was definitely not a good idea to annoy him too much right now. Additionally, they still had to worry about a certain German Dark Lord who was waiting to use them as something to turn Meinhardt against Dumbledore.

He remained silent for a while, and Hermione was grateful about that. She really did not need him interrogating her, though by now, she was pretty certain that his mind had moved on to how to get information out of the other three time travelers. She wasn't overly worried about Harry or Ginny because Tom would have a hard time trying to get answers out of Harry, and she doubted Harry would let Ginny face Tom by herself anytime soon. Draco, however, was a completely different case. She would have to take extra care to look after the Slytherin.

"So … Professor Riddle," Tom suddenly said, catching her attention.

Annoyance and embarrassment stirred inside of her, especially since he didn't even bother to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Yes," she answered stonily.

"And you didn't even bother to tell Ronald about our … rendezvouses," he said with a chuckle.

"That was not me," Hermione denied through gritted teeth.

"Oh yes. I'm sure that's not you at all. That's why you have those memories that were supposed to be Hermione Granger's memories," Tom said wryly.

"You tricked me, you prat," she hissed. "If I had known it was you—"

"You would've fallen for me anyway," he interrupted gleefully. Then, in a high, shrilly voice which strangely reminded Hermione of herself, he said, "Oh, I'm so happy that the Dark Lord is going to let me follow beside him after I leave Hogwarts. Can you believe that the Dark Lord knows so many things about magic? I wished I knew half of what the Dark Lord does!"

The urge to go back on her promise was strong. Very, very strong. Nonetheless, she clenched her teeth together and contented herself with glaring at him.

With his free hand, he slid a single finger down the length of her arm.

"What a surprise," he said dryly, "no answers from the Gryffindor know-it-all."

She nibbled on her lower lip, not jumping to his bait. He was just trying to get a rise out of her, and she was not going to give him that kind of satisfaction.

A single hand ran through her hair, playing with strands of it, as he monitored the expressions flashing through her face. A strange feeling of calmness washed through her, and she wondered for a moment if he had used magical ways to accomplish that. However, she soon realized that it was because of the peculiar sense of security she'd always felt when he was near her. It was mind-boggling, to say the least, since she doubted it was normal to feel safe near Lord Voldemort.

Pushing away thoughts about the absurdity of the situation she was in right now, she decidedly changed the subject.

"You didn't seem surprised to see the four of us today," Hermione said slowly, eying him with uncertainty.

"After you disappeared in front of me?" Tom asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

She relaxed upon hearing his answer; she had been worried that he might hold a grudge against her, since she didn't get a chance to explain to him before Slytherin sent her back to the future. Though the future Lord Voldemort didn't, it could have been because fifty years had passed.

However, the lazy tone of voice he had adopted right now showed that he did not place the blame on her. So, she nodded.

He didn't answer immediately, and Hermione could tell that he was thinking about something, but she wondered why.

"It can't be that hard to tell me the answer, could it?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

A corner of his lips tugged upwards. "That depends."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, I doubt letting me know why you aren't surprised could hardly give me any clues about what you have planned to take over the world."

He let out an exaggerated sigh. "I was just trying to think of way to convey how absolutely distraught I was after I lost you. Haven't you realized how devastating an experience it is to watch someone you love—"

Hermione snorted loudly, but that hardly hindered him in his dramatic act.

"—disappear in front of you? I've spent so many nights thinking about how forlorn I am, how absolutely cruel it was for you to leave me all alone in the past by myself," he said, the perfect look of grief on his face.

"Oh, grow up, Riddle," she huffed, though she couldn't keep out the amusement from her voice or face.

"Don't you believe me?" he asked, widening his eyes.

Hermione gazed at his stricken expression, and she came to a conclusion: This man could win the BAFTA if he were a Muggle actor.

"Nope," she answered cheerfully.

His free hand came to a rest on his chest. "I'm hurt. Aren't you afraid that I might go into the nearest Muggle town now and massacre the lot of them to relieve myself of this atrocious agony that you have caused with your mere words?"

"Like you haven't thought about it before," she jeered.

"Now that you've mentioned it, no, actually I haven't," he replied. "That isn't really why I've come here this time."

"Oh, I know," Hermione said, a smirk on her face. "You were so horribly devastated about the person you love—"

This time, it was Tom's turn to snort.

"—disappearing in front of you that you've decided to find solace in Grindelwald's embrace," she finished.

Tom raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting that I'm … attracted to him?"

"Well, I have to say that you have pretty good taste if you are," she said teasingly.

"Then unfortunately, the one with 'pretty good taste' is your favorite Transfiguration professor, not me," he said wryly.

Hermione grinned but did not answer as her mind drifted over to said professor. Was Dumbledore in Germany, too? The history books in the wacky timeline only touched upon the subject about Grindelwald and Tom's duel; nothing was mentioned about Dumbledore. She wondered if he were there—here. However, she doubted Tom would be willing to share this information; he would have one less object to hold over their heads.

Well, she would find out sooner or later. The date of the duel shouldn't be too far off; her main concern right now should be how to get the Elder Wand before Tom did. Fortunately, he was more interested in knowing about what happened in the original timeline and the wacky timeline. Somehow, the Elder Wand slipped through the crack. Or perhaps he'd thought that there were no ways for them to get it, now that they were in his "clutches." Nonetheless, he had not seen anything about her plans to get the Elder Wand before he did, and for that, she was glad.

"You still haven't told me why you weren't surprised to see us," she reminded him.

"I knew you were going to come back, though … you were merely two years later than what I had anticipated," he answered, annoyance seeping into his expression once again.

So that was why he appeared irritated when she informed him that they came back two weeks ago. He had thought that they would've arrived in 1948—

Wait a second.

"How did you know we were going to come back to the past? You killed Slytherin, and there's no one else—"

Hermione stopped in her words as the pieces clicked into place in her mind and a smirk replaced the look on his face.

"Found the answer?" he asked sweetly.

"You traveled into the future?" She narrowed her eyes.

"You didn't expect me to sit here and do nothing at all, did you?" he asked in return.

Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at him in disbelief. It took a moment before she recomposed herself, but she could hardly leave the incredulity out of her voice or off her face.

"You traveled into the future! What were you thinki—no, were you even thinking?" she screeched. She took a deep breath before she continued, "Do you have any idea what could have happened? The whole future—"

"Would've changed again," Tom finished her sentence for her and successfully stopping her rant. "You do realize that it's kind of hypocritical for you to tell me this when you and your little band of friends out there did the same thing. Twice, might I add."

"We didn't travel back in time on purpose!" she protested. "And we tried our best to prevent ourselves from making too many changes in history—"

This caused a snort to escape Tom. "Oh really? Mind enlightening me about the similarities between the future you've returned to and the one you originally came from?"

She opened her mouth and snapped it shut again, causing a smirk to appear on his face.

"My point exactly. You've already changed the future to one that no longer resembles the one you came from. My guess is that your presence in the past is causing more change to history than my presence in the future. After all, I have no idea what actions I'd taken to end up in my situation in the year 2000. You, however, are a completely different case," he said, sliding a single digit down her cheek.

"Might I remind you that you were the one who sent me back in time this time," she said through gritted teeth.

He looked at her, amused. "You didn't seem too unhappy to see me again."

"That's beside the point," she grumbled. "Do you know how ridiculously horrendous it is to be placed through that stupid spell? And we had to stay in the snow for nearly an hour."

"Oh yes. Slytherin did mention somewhere in his time traveling book about certain … undesirable consequences of being placed through that spell. Fortunately, that doesn't apply to those who cast the spell," he said.

She glared at him. "Do you mean to say that you didn't have to suffer from those consequences when you traveled into the future?"

"Yes."

A frustrated growl escaped Hermione's lips followed by a string of curse words for a certain Hogwarts's Founder, causing Tom to chuckle.

"Quite a bit of pent-up anger there," he commented.

"You shouldn't have killed him so easily. You should've locked him up and tortured him for days before offing him," she hissed.

A surprised expression fleeted over Tom's face. "Are you sure, oh great supporter of house-elf welfare?"

"House-elves deserve better treatment," Hermione said stubbornly, strongly reminded of the conversation she had had with the wacky future's Voldemort. She glared at him, as if daring him to disagree with her. When he didn't say anything, she continued, "Salazar Slytherin, on the other hand, is a right, foul git that deserves all kinds of torture methods used on him. I could've forgiven him for the three, consecutive days of white bread and the animal-cage-like prison, but to put us through that time traveling spell when he could've made it more comfortable for us—"

"Actually, he couldn't have made it more comfortable. He was perfecting the spell to travel through time, not to help others travel through time," he explained, interrupting her rant.

Hermione frowned, remembering that Dumbledore had mentioned that "Konrad Feierabend" studied quite a bit about time traveling. "Some obsession he has there for time travel."

A derisive snort left Tom. "Of course. That was how he was cheating Death."

"What?"

"Haven't you worked it out yet?" he asked. "Meadowes wasn't spewing out nonsense or making up fairytales when she wrote about why Slytherin might be alive. There had been numerous accounts about Slytherin throughout the entire world. He'd travel far and wide to find a method to become immortal."

"Why didn't he just used Horcruxes?" Hermione asked somewhat mockingly as she looked at Tom.

He glanced at her briefly, annoyed that she was having fun at his expense. "Because he claimed there are still disadvantages to using Horcruxes."

"Mm-hm," she said, unable to stop herself.

"Granger," he said warningly.

"Just agreeing with his assessment," she answered with a grin. "So … how does he avoid Death with time travel?"

As far as she knew, Harry, Ginny, Draco, and she could still die, and other people who were known to have traveled through time had died, so simply traveling through time couldn't possibly prevent death.

After shooting her another look to let her know that he was still irritated by her "agreement," he said, "He cheated Death, more than once actually. He would only stay in a certain time period and area for a limited amount of time because if he stayed in an area for too long, Death would eventually find him. Therefore, he would travel through time and space to somewhere where he wouldn't run into a previous self or a future self."

"So that was why he insinuated that he wouldn't kill me: If he killed me, Death would've traced the death back to him," Hermione deduced.

"Or Death would've seen him when it came to claim your soul," Tom said.

"Ugh, how tiresome would that be, to travel throughout time every other day. Adjusting to a new area is hard enough, let alone a whole different time period," Hermione commented with a wrinkle of her nose.

"It's the price of immortality," he replied with a faint smile.

"Which, unfortunately, got ruined by his precious heir," Hermione said with a snort.

"Unfortunately," he echoed, the smile morphing into a smirk.

"Again, too bad you've killed him off already or else I would so taunt him about him being the reason why I came back yet again," she said, narrowing her eyes as if Slytherin were standing right in front of her. "So much for trying to keep the filthy, disgusting Mudblood away from his precious heir."

"Oh, I'm sure he died realizing that he'd died in vain. After all, he knew that I knew where his books were, or rather, he realized that once he was dead, there was no one to stop me from 'visiting' his personal library here."

"Well, you would've thought that after fifty years, you could've made the time traveling spell a little more comfortable," Hermione said, annoyed again.

Tom shrugged. "I wasn't the one time traveling."

Hermione growled, causing him to laugh.

When he looked back at her, there was a contemplative look in his eyes, throwing her off. Then, he spoke, almost as if to himself rather than to her. "How easy it is for you to prevent the birth of someone you despise … how easy it is for you to gain power, using the knowledge you know about the future …"

The implications behind his words shocked her. For a moment, she couldn't even bring herself to say anything as she gawked at him.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," he said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling, before she could speak. "You're acting as if I might jump at the next opportunity to travel back into the past."

"I wouldn't put it past you," she blurted out.

"As enticing as the idea of killing an infant Dumbledore is …" he trailed off and a smirk appeared on his face.

A wave of relief washed over Hermione when she realized that this probably meant that he wouldn't try to change things in time. However, her curiosity was also piqued because of this.

"Afraid that you'd get defeated by a one-year-old?" she taunted, the irony of her words causing an amused glint to pass through her eyes.

He narrowed his eyes at her, displeasure apparent on his features. "Granger …"

She knew she was treading on a thin line here. After all, she had no idea why he hadn't tried to change things around throughout history. Nonetheless, she was betting that there must be something stopping him, since he didn't try.

"Why else wouldn't you want to travel back in time to kill him off? After all, we all know that he's the only one you're afraid of," Hermione said.

She allowed a small smirk to linger at the corner of her lips, hoping that it was enough to provoke him to speak.

"Afraid of him?" he asked, his eyes narrowing noticeably. "As if Lord Voldemort would ever be afraid of a miserable, old fool like him. He is nothing in my eyes, especially with his less than desirable morals. His need to follow the unnecessary rules would prohibit him to excel in areas that he could've if he'd allowed himself to let go. His inability to do that proves that he would never surpass me—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard that rant a million times already, greatest sorcerer in the world," Hermione cut in, adding a tint of mockery at the end of the sentence. "You still haven't managed to kill him in the future."

It annoyed her thoroughly that he was busy ranting instead of giving her the answer. However, she could only beat around the bush, since asking him outright would most likely not give her any answers.

He raised his eyebrow at her comment and smirked. "Granger, I'm pretty sure that I had killed Dumbledore in the future."

"After more than fifty years later," she sniggered. "Not to mention that Professor Snape was the one who killed Dumbledore in the original timeline, not you."

He fell silent as he eyed her quietly. The way he was looking at her struck her as strange, and unconsciously, she avoided his eyesight, even though she knew it was a bad idea to do so.

"Nice try, Granger," he said silkily as he played with a lock of her hair. "You could've just asked me why I'm not willing to change things throughout the timeline, you know?"

Her cheeks burned, yet she tilted her head a bit higher. "Who'd ever said that I would be interested in knowing why? I never considered your logic to be a normal one. For all I knew, you could've been afraid of changing the past because it might've prevented you from becoming Snakeface." A snort and a roll of her eyes ended her sentence.

"Now that's a devastating thought," he said, though Hermione could not tell if he were joking or being truthful.

"I happen to like this face," she said.

He raised an eyebrow. "You never had a problem kissing, I quote, 'Snakeface.'"

Discomfort caused her to shift in her position, when suddenly, it hit her, and a grin appeared on her face.

His eyes slightly narrowed when he noticed the look on her face. "Granger …"

"I know why you're unwilling to change Dumbledore's past," she said in a sing-song voice.

"Granger, you're just speculating—"

"Nope, I'm pretty sure that I'm correct in thinking what I'm thinking," she said with a shake of her head. "You're afraid that if you changed anything in the past, your whole future would've changed, exactly like what happened to the four of us. Killing Dumbledore would've caused an immense change in your future. He was the one who visited you in the orphanage. If it had been someone else, you weren't sure if they would've reacted the same way Dumbledore had. From what I've heard, he suspected you after he went to the orphanage to talk to you about magic, but he was also discreet about his suspicions. If it were someone else, you weren't sure if you could've gotten the same treatment. They might've spread your weirdness like some kind of headline news from the Daily Prophet. Not to mention that you've also realized that after changing the past, it's quite possible that you might travel a couple of years forward or a couple of years backward in time. So you didn't want to take that risk."

Though he was sporting that indecipherable look on his face again, Hermione was pretty sure that she was correct in her assumptions. It made sense—well, even if it weren't the correct answer, it could also serve as a warning to Tom against making changes in the past. After all, he did travel into the future, so he knew how different things could be with a single change in the past. That was also perhaps why he had chosen to travel into the future instead of the past—because the past could not be affected by the future.

There was a risk of ending up in the wrong year when he traveled back to the past from the future, of course, but she was guessing that there was a way to set up some kind of anchor in the past so that he would end up in the right year. However, the same thing couldn't happen for when he traveled into the past because if the past changed, so would the future.

She wondered, however, why it seemed like he was hesitant in sharing this information. Perhaps he was afraid that she might use that as something over his head when he didn't do something her way in the future? Nonetheless, there was one thing she was sure about: The book by Slytherin that contained the time traveling spell would most likely be burned before she could see it.

"No book burning," she blurted out before she could stop herself.

Tom blinked as he furrowed his eyebrows. "Pardon?"

"No. Book. Burning," she repeated herself with emphasis on each word.

"Who'd ever said anything about burning books?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you, unlike I, don't seem like the kind of person who would hesitate in burning books just to contain secrets," Hermione replied.

"Well, I, unlike you, don't find it necessary to take unnecessary precautions," he replied, his tone mocking.

"Unnecessary?" she asked, raising her eyebrows and ignoring his jab.

"Only the direct descendants of Slytherin can access the information held within the books," he answered.

"That didn't happen with the books in the Chamber of Secrets," she pointed out.

"Granger, those books were guarded by a basilisk, which wouldn't have been killed by Potter out there or Longbottom if they hadn't had a piece of my soul within them," he said, an annoyed expression flashing over his face again.

"Not by their choice," she said with a smirk.

Frustration caused his eyes to narrow only slightly, and the next moment, he sealed her lips with his. She was hardly going to argue against that because despite the lighthearted way with which she had answered him, the last part of their conversation reminded of something important that she had to attend to the moment she could:

She had to find a way to screw up that stupid prophecy.

~-0-~

"What happened to you lot?" was the first thing that came out of Hermione's mouth the moment she saw her fellow time traveling companions.

Each of them had enormous bags under their eyes, and it seemed as if they were ready to fall off their seats into deep slumber any second.

"In case you haven't noticed, Granger, you weren't exactly quiet as mice last night," Draco said, and he promptly snapped his mouth shut the moment Tom swept into the kitchen.

Oh shit. They could not possibly have heard …

Guilt and embarrassment caused heat to travel up to her cheeks, and she bowed her head apologetically. She was so going to kill Tom for not putting up the Silencing Charm on the walls.

"Sorry."

After a quick breakfast—during which Hermione glared at Tom, who replied with an annoying smirk—Tom left, presumably to speak with his Knights, and the four time travelers were left to speak in private once again. As a precaution, Hermione and Harry immediately started placing up different spells to prevent others from listening into their conversation and to alert them when someone was getting close.

"Tom might try to get information out of the three of you, so you lot better be careful about that," Hermione told them immediately after they sat down. "He … tried to use it on me last night, but he didn't manage to get all the information he wanted."

"He used Legilimency on you?" Harry asked, alarmed.

"Potter, you're saying it as if he used the Cruciatus on her," Draco said.

"With him, that's the next possibility," Harry pointed out.

"Then, there'll be only one outcome," Draco said solemnly.

Hermione, Harry, and Ginny stared at him.

"Oh, come on. The answer's obvious," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "She'll just knee him there again."

Harry snorted while Hermione narrowed her eyes at the blond.

"You're joking? In the situation we're in right now?" she demanded.

"Well, what else are we supposed to do? Riddle would sooner use the Cruciatus Curse on the three of us than use it on you, so I don't see what Potter is worried about," Draco replied.

"I'm not going to let him use the Cruciatus on the three of you," Hermione vowed.

"I'd like to see you try, Granger. It's not like he really needs your permission, is it? And besides, I doubt he's going to Cruciate Potter and Weaselette here, since he knows that the two of them would fight back. Me, however …" Draco trailed off.

Hermione sighed. "That's why I needed to remind the three of you about the possibility of him using Legilimency on the three of you. I know that Harry could keep an eye on himself and Ginny. You, on the other hand … I'll have to keep an extra eye on you, and you'll have to remember to keep your Occlumen—"

"Wait," Draco cut in. "You mean, you're going to keep an extra eye on me? As in, keeping your attention on me? No. Way. That'll get me a Cruciatus session sooner than you can say 'stop.' No, you'd better stay away from me Granger, especially when Riddle's around. I'll stick closer to Potter."

Harry looked as if he wanted to protest but stopped himself. After thinking about it for a moment, Hermione felt that Draco did have a point. Hopefully, however, the two of them could keep things civil enough so that Tom wouldn't use that as a way to lure Draco away from Harry.

"How are we ever going to get the Elder Wand now? I doubt he's going to let us out of his sight," Harry asked.

"The problem isn't how we're going to get the Elder Wand; it's how we're going to get the Elder Wand without him knowing. I don't fancy having him hunt us down for the rest of our lives, thank you very much," Draco said with a shiver.

"Oh, please—" Ginny started to say with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm dead serious here, Weaselette. I'm really starting to wonder if we're going down the right path. Did you see how he dueled with Grindelwald yesterday? I don't want to be the one standing at the end of his wand; I've been there far too many times as it is," he said. "Courage is a Gryffindor trait and I prefer to let it stay like that."

"Do you really think our future wouldn't be grim if he gets the Elder Wand? You do recall what he did to your parents, in both the original and the wacky timeline," Ginny pointed out.

"Do you think I'll get to even see my parents again if he suspects that I'm breaking down what he's trying to build?" Draco asked incredulously.

"But—" Ginny started to say.

"Draco's right," Hermione spoke up, surprising both of them. "Not the part about staying back and doing nothing. But like we've said before, we can't let him know what we're planning if we can help it. So far, I can't foresee any chances of escaping his scrutiny without raising his suspicions. We'd have to plan as we go along. However, we do have one advantage in this whole thing."

"Advantage? I don't see any at all," Draco grumbled, running his hands through his hair.

"In the worst scenario, we will have to let him know that we are the ones who mastered the Elder Wand. However, immediately after that, we will have to transfer the ownership. In secret."

It took a moment for her idea to sink into Harry, Ginny, and Draco's mind. However, the moment it did, a bright smile appeared on Harry's face.

"Brilliant, Hermione," he said.

Draco, on the other hand, gawked at her. "You're insane."

"No, she's bloody brilliant," Harry refuted. "You know, you were once the owner of the Elder Wand—"

"What?" Draco screeched, his face turning paler than usual. "No, I was not."

"Yes, you were," Harry answered with a grin. "You've gotten the ownership of the wand from Dumbledore."

"No, I didn't," Draco said.

"Yes, you were. That's how I became the owner of the wand. Haven't we told you how that happened? Because I took your wand away from you in Malfoy Manor. That was when the ownership was transferred over to me. That was something Riddle never counted on," Harry explained.

"No way. You're hallucinating, Potter. I have nothing to do with that wand, nothing at all," Draco said. "And if Riddle asks me, I'm telling him the same. I have nothing to do with that wand at all."

"Anyway, I think your plan might just work out, Hermione," Harry said, looking back at her and ignoring the now babbling blond.

"Am I the only one seeing about twenty thousand things wrong about that plan? Did you forget what he did to people who stood in his way to the wand?" Draco pointed out.

Hermione sighed and gazed at him. "No, I haven't. How could I forget? But it's also a risk that must be taken."

~-0-~

A/N: Sorry for the slightly longer wait. The muse was kidnapped (quite successfully) by the plotline of the birthday gift that I was writing for Nerys and Miya, "A Tangle of Webs," which is why the update for this fic got pushed back a bit. Good thing that fic is almost finished, so I would be spending more of my free time on this fic soon. XD

Many thanks to those of you who've read and rated. Special thanks to the following:

Betas: MaraudersWolf and Nerys

Reviewers: Alassea Riddle, jaspersluv1863, m0nt, Lady Miya, Nerys, Fleur K., somebody french, Dark_of_Night, unknownkyitty, BeccaS, Courtney, Kiikii, and AsMadAsOneCanGet.

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Somewhere in Time