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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
- 60
- 61
- 62
A/N: Just in case some of you didn't catch the note at the end of the last chapter, Chapter 60 was a troll chapter, which means that nothing in that chapter happened for real.

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HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!

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This chapter is dedicated to Nerys, Lady Miya, Shan84, and Relent1ess. Thanks for all the help you've given me while I'd been stuck on this chapter. :)

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Chapter 60

It was pitch-black.

Unlike most children, she'd never been particularly afraid of the dark. For some strange reason, she had been attracted to it; it had always brought about a sense of calm to her.

Well, except during the days when she'd gone on those damned camping trips with Harry. But that was beside the point.

Though she found herself immersed in darkness, she hadn't been the least bit alarmed, merely curious. However, as time slipped by, she had come to accept it. Moving on hadn't been as particularly hard for her as she'd thought it would be.

Of course, at the beginning, she was worried, and she would be lying if she said she hadn't wondered how life would've continued if she were still alive. But she wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing, and she faced her death with courage and a mind set for new adventures.

Nonetheless, adventures were apparently not on the menu for her. Instead, it felt more like going to bed after a very long trip—she was at peace.

Therefore, when a blinding light encompassed her and forced her to open her eyes, she was shocked. It was more or less like being forcefully wakened before she could finish her nap. Uncontrollably, she felt her body float through the air, as if she were being Summoned, though she could not make out anything about the medium she was in, nor could she tell heads from tails.

Then, she was standing in a room, yet she didn't even have time to figure out where she was. She couldn't help but stare at the five people standing in the room in front of her. She didn't know who the person donned in black was, but it was rather telling by the way he was holding a scythe and how his skin was a deathly pale-white—it must be Death himself. The other four however …

Harry … Ginny … Draco …

Tom.

Her first reaction was to reach out to them, but upon trying to do so, she discovered that she couldn't move her limbs at all. Reflexively, she looked downwards, trying to find out what was hindering her, and she received her third shock—she didn't have any limbs; in fact, she didn't have a body at all. It was like she was some kind of mist.

Was this what it was like to be dead? Was this what it was like to be a spirit? She had no idea if it was just her or if this happened to everyone else. Or was this a result of whatever had caused her to wake up from her eternal peace?

She glanced towards the group of five—well, four, given that Draco was standing a good distance away from Tom and Death. She wanted to call out to them, but no matter what she did, no sounds came out. Somehow, she knew that the answer had something to do with the five beings in front of her.

Suddenly, Death lifted his hand and snapped his fingers, and Harry, Draco, Ginny, and Tom were all looking at her. She stared back at them before she realized they could see her now; whatever Death had done seemed to have given her back her corporeal form. So, she tried to open her mouth and call out to them but to no avail—she still couldn't move or speak.

"This is the girl you've requested," Hermione heard Death say.

"Yes," Harry replied, keeping his eyes on Hermione.

With horror, Hermione realized what this was about—what Harry, Draco, Tom, and Ginny were about to do. Again, she tried to open her mouth, but it wouldn't budge.

Please let me guess wrong. Please don't let this be what I think it is.

However, it didn't take a genius to figure out what those four morons were doing, especially when she saw her dead body not more than ten feet away from her.

"The coin?" Death asked, extending his hand.

If Hermione could've moved, she would've banged her head against the nearest pillar—better yet, she would've strangle each and every one of the four idiots who were trying to negotiate with Death.

"Her soul is still separated from her body," Harry pointed out.

Yes, exactly, which means I'm dead, so just send me back to where I was before, Hermione thought, wanting very much to throttle her best friend.

As the Master of Death, she would've thought that he would've known better than this. He was supposed to let her move on, not try ridiculous methods to bring her back to life.

However, before she could think any further, Death snapped his fingers again, and all went black.

~-0-~

With a gasp, she opened her eyes.

"Hermione!" different voices immediately called out upon hearing her gasp, and faces appeared in front of her in less than a second.

"You're back. You're really, really back," Ginny whispered, tears welling up in her brown eyes.

"You are Hermione, aren't you? Death didn't … well, trick us with someone else's soul, did he?" Draco asked with uncertainty.

She pushed herself up to sitting position. "You idiots."

"Okay, it's her," Draco confirmed, moving farther away from the bed she was sitting in.

"What—What in the world were you lot thinking?" Hermione seethed, glaring at each person in turn.

However, one of the culprits was suspiciously missing.

"Where is he?" she demanded stonily.

"Er … who?" asked Harry tentatively.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle," she answered.

"He's … er … he's outside defending the castle," Ginny replied.

It was then that Hermione had a chance to look at her surroundings. From the lighting, she had known that this room was different from the one where the four wizarding history's greatest idiots had been negotiating with Death. However, upon taking a closer look, her mouth dropped slightly open.

"We're in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory," she stated.

"Um … yes," Harry answered, glancing at her with uncertainty.

"That means we're at Hogwarts," she said.

She bit down on the inside of her cheek to prevent herself from asking why the boys could be in the girls' dormitory; there were other more important questions she needed answers to.

"… yes, we are," Harry replied.

"Why are we at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked quietly. "And why is Tom outside defending the castle? Don't tell me that Death, just for his entertainment, sent me to some random dimension where Tom sided with Dumbledore."

Harry seemed to struggle a bit with himself before he said, "No, Riddle hadn't sided with Dumbledore."

"Then how did we—" she stopped in midsentence, an unbelievable answer to her unfinished question floating to the front of her mind. "Oh no … no, no, no. Tell me that I'm just being overly creative and my mind is just making up stories."

Harry and Ginny shared an uneasy look with one another, and it certainly did not make Hermione feel any better.

Hermione closed her eyes and mentally counted to ten.

"Tell me you didn't do something extremely, extremely stupid," she pleaded as calmly as she could.

"It's a long story," Ginny said slowly.

"Well, apparently, now that I'm back to life, I have all the time in the world," Hermione said with a humorless smile.

Harry and Ginny looked at one another again, and perhaps they mutually came to the conclusion that no matter what they said, Hermione was going to make them tell her, so they proceeded to tell her what happened after her death.

However, after listening to less than two minutes of the story, Hermione wished that she hadn't asked. Her ire continued to rise with each word that came out of their mouths, and she had to fight hard against the urge to scream or kick something.

"—and then we took … er … we took the Unbreakable Vow—"

"You what?" Hermione screeched. "You took the Unbreakable Vow with Tom Marvolo Riddle!? You took an Unbreakable Vow with Lord Voldemort? Are you nuts!? What were you—Were you even thinking!?"

"Hermione—"

"The Unbreakable Vow with Lord Voldemort—I could already see at least twenty thousand things wrong with it—He's a Slytherin, for Merlin's sake! He's the Heir of Slytherin. I would've thought that you, out of all people, should've realized that negotiating with him is worse than negotiating with Death! And you still thought it was a good idea to make an Unbreakable Vow with Tom Marvolo Riddle!? Do I even dare to ask what the conditions of the Vow are?"

She sucked a deep breath in, and she wished that she couldn't—at least she would still be dead and she didn't have to face this.

"Well, er, you told us to protect the Elder Wand—"

"And you thought the best way to protect it was to just give it to him!?" Hermione shrieked.

She bit back the urge to ask Harry if he'd gotten one too many Killing Curses aimed at him, which caused him to lose his brains in the process. That might hurt him a bit too much emotionally. However, she strongly considered throttling him at this point.

Harry waved his wand, and Hermione recognized the wand movements as the ones for the Muffliato.

"I was the one he'd gotten the wand from. He still doesn't know who the true master of the wand is," Harry told her.

Hermione closed her eyes and inhaled deeply again before saying, "Harry James Potter, don't you remember that you were the master of the wand in the original timeline? That wand would still work better for him than it should—"

"Well, that's the point. If it made no difference for him, he might realize sooner or later that I wasn't the true master of the wand," Harry said.

"Him? Figure it out?" Hermione snorted. "He still wouldn't believe that you were the true master of the wand at the final battle after he killed Snape. Did you honestly think that Lord My-Ego-Is-So-Huge-It-Wouldn't-Fit-Through-The-Front-Door-Of-Hogwarts would realize it sooner or later? He'll probably come to the conclusion that the whole legend about the Elder Wand was just that—a legend."

"But he's gotten information from Ginny the other day in the forest that the only way to defeat my holly wand is by the Elder Wand. If the Elder Wand doesn't work slightly better for him, I was afraid that he'll figure out who the true master is," Harry countered.

Hermione remained quiet for a short while, still not completely convinced that the moronic master of all evil would actually figure it out. However, Harry did raise a good argument, and she knew that he was doing his best to protect Ginny, so she couldn't dispute that.

"And … well, Dumbledore and Grindelwald would've definitely tried to catch us. I couldn't just … I couldn't allow the wand to fall into their hands, not after … not after what Dumbledore did to you," Harry said.

She closed her eyes and nodded, not completely agreeing with his decision. However, now that things were already set in stone, there wasn't anything she could really do about it.

Harry and Ginny remained tense, watching her carefully, as if worried that she might either break down the next moment or that she might attack them. She had no idea which option she preferred, but she knew that neither of them would make a difference.

"So …" She cut herself short and took a deep breath again. She mentally wondered if she was ready for the answers to her next request was, but she knew that she had to get it over and done with sooner or later. "So tell me what the conditions of the Unbreakable Vow are."

"Well, we've gotten him to promise to not hurt us and to give us time to speak with his opponents, sway them before he hurts or kills them," Harry said slowly.

"You should know that I'm not worried about what conditions you've given him. I want to know what conditions he'd made you vow to," Hermione said, finding Harry's evasion to tell her what Tom's conditions were suspicious.

"Well … as you've might've guessed, he wanted to Elder Wand," Harry said.

"Yes," she answered, her impatience showing through her voice. "That couldn't have been his only condition."

"Yes …" said Harry.

"What else?" she pushed.

He mumbled something under his breath that Hermione couldn't hear quite properly.

"Come again?"

"He … he wanted unwavering loyalty and for us to not allow harm to be done to him when it is in our power to stop it," Harry said quickly.

Hermione stared at him. For a short moment, she couldn't even respond.

Dear Merlin, please tell me that this is a nightmare that I've made up while I was dead.

Harry glanced at her with uncertainty and when she didn't say anything, he started to say, "Er … well—"

"Unwavering loyalty and not allowing harm to be done to him … unwavering loyalty and not allowing harm to be done to him …" Hermione repeated quickly under her breath. "Are. You. Insane. Harry. James. Potter."

"Hermione—"

"He's Lord Voldemort! Don't you remember who he is!? Have you not learned anything from the original timeline!? And you went and just—just swore your 'unwavering loyalty' to him—do you have any bloody idea what that entails at all!?" Hermione shrieked.

"We didn't have another choice, Hermione—"

"Don't give me that kind of stupid excuse; you always have another choice, Harry James Potter! Making an Unbreakable Vow with Lord Voldemort and swearing your loyalty to him—what are you going to do if he tells you to kill your own parents and will consider it disloyalty if you don't do it? What if he tells you to kill Sirius? Or Lupin? Or Hagrid? Don't tell me you didn't have another choice—"

"But he also swore to give us a chance to sway them!" Harry protested. "And we've thought about it. If one of the three of us don't speak to the future prisoners, he can't kill them without breaking the vow."

Hermione rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Do you think that Tom's that stupid!? Oh, this is—this is—ARGH! On top of bringing me back to life, you've gone and done something this idiotic—"

"Er, she doesn't look too happy to be back to life," Draco muttered to Ginny.

"Happy? Why would I be happy? Why couldn't the lot of you just left the Coin to Immortality-Obsessed Riddle instead of yanking me back here? Have you ever tried getting woken up from a long needed sleep? Well, this is what it feels like, except it's a hundred—no, a thousand times worse!" Hermione snapped her head towards Harry. "Haven't you learned anything at all from the story of the three Hallows?"

"But … you're not a mist anymore! You're really back," Harry said, a look of guilt now appearing on his face.

"Oh, that makes me feel soooo much better. I would've thought that you, out of all people, should've known better, the one who would tell them it's a bad idea to bring someone back to life—"

"You didn't expect us to just—just let you die, did you?" Harry stuttered.

"YES, I DID!" Hermione screamed. "You, out of all people, should've known this. Dumbledore already told you that there's no magic to bring a person back to life—"

"But he obviously lied, didn't he?" Harry countered. "The Coin of Charon really did work."

"That's not the point! This is a complete violation to my rights—"

"Your rights?' Draco asked, staring at her in confusion.

"Yes, my rights," she snapped. "And you! Why haven't you stopped them?"

"Me?" asked Draco, pointing at himself. "Did you really think that they would've listened to me?"

"It's obvious that you haven't even tried to stop them from doing something this stupid," Hermione said, seething. "Have the lot of you even asked if I wanted to be brought back to life? Have you bothered to get my permission? Have you—"

"Hermione, you were dead. We couldn't have possibly gotten permission from you," Harry pointed out.

"Exactly! And you should've let it be!" Hermione yelled.

Harry shook his head. "I—I can't do that."

"What do you mean you can't do that? You haven't thought about bringing Sirius or your parents back to life," Hermione snapped.

The words left her mouth before it fully registered in her mind how cruel they were, and regret settled into her conscious as a hurt expression appeared on Harry's face.

"Hermione … I … I didn't have a choice with them. But with you … I had a choice. I couldn't—I can't—you're not even supposed to—this isn't the right time period. You're supposed to be born almost thirty years later. You can't just … die now."

Hermione didn't immediately answer. Her temper waned rapidly as the look on Harry's face imprinted itself into her mind, and she mentally berated herself.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She hadn't meant to hurt Harry like this. She loved him, and even after he'd done these stupid things, she still loved him. But the words just tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

"We're not in the original timeline already, Harry, and I've never said anything about it being impossible to die in the wrong time period," Hermione said, her voice less harsh now as guilt continued to grate on her nerves.

Ginny placed a hand on her shoulder. "We're … we're sorry, Hermione. I … I have to admit that we were being selfish when we brought you back, but like Harry said, we couldn't have gotten permission from you when you were … well, dead."

Hermione remained silent for a while, her mind in chaos. After a while, she sighed and said in a tired voice, "I know … I know. It's just … it's frustrating."

"Sorry," Ginny repeated.

Hermione shook her head, realizing that what they had done was precisely what anyone would've done. They were given a chance to bring a friend back to life, so she couldn't have possibly expected them to understand how miserable she was right now. If she were in their shoes, she probably would've done the same thing.

At the end, Hermione realized that moaning and griping about her "resurrection" would not help with matters. So, with a deep sigh, she looked at them again.

"It's during the school year. Wouldn't the students wonder why a strange, supposedly dead witch is sleeping on one of the beds?" she asked, deciding that this change in topic should help her take her mind off the misery she was going through.

"No, the seventh year girls were told to stay in the sixth year girls' dormitory for the time being," Ginny replied, relief apparent on her face.

"Well, that would definitely endear me to them," Hermione said dryly. "Wouldn't the parents want to bring their children home then? Now that the school no longer has its Headmaster and is apparently under the control of some random, pompous Dark Lord?"

A corner of Ginny's lips twitched, and thoroughly amused, she answered, "I suppose they will soon, now that the Ministry is notified about this. It's bound to be on the headlines of the Daily Prophet tomorrow morning."

"The Ministry?" Hermione asked, surprised. "Since when did they actually care when there's a battle at Hogwarts?"

"Well … um … they … apparently, they got a bit concerned … or maybe it's because the recent Minister for Magic is more responsible than Cornelius Fudge, but … the Aurors got sent in," answered Harry.

"Well, that seems reasonable, since Tom and you lot seemed to have taken over Hogwarts while I was dead, especially if Dippet escaped to alert the Ministry while you lot were wreaking havoc," Hermione deducted. "But I find it strange that Dumbledore would actually—" She stopped in her words again as mentioning her former Headmaster and Transfiguration professor brought about another thought. "He … Tom killed Dumbledore, didn't he?"

The three time travelers didn't immediately answer.

"Not exactly …" Draco said, casting a cautious look towards Ginny, who'd turn pale.

Hermione's mouth dropped open when her mind connected the dots, and she couldn't help but stare at the redhead.

Ginny nibbled on her lower lip before blinking rapidly a couple of times. Then, she gritted her teeth together and said, "I couldn't let him kill someone else I care about. He had—he was in the position to harm Harry then, and—and I just—the only thing going through my mind at that time was all the vicious things he had done to the lot of you. He was irresponsible as an adult, as a professor, and as a Headmaster, letting children doing all those dangerous things … and … and … oh, Hermione … I couldn't get the image of him killing you out of my mind and when I thought about Harry dying … my temper just flared … and the … it just happened before I could stop myself."

Harry placed his arm around Ginny's shoulder and pulled her into his embrace. "I'm sorry, Ginny."

Ginny didn't answer and merely shook her head as she stared ahead, a faraway, haunted gaze in her eyes. Though she'd tried her best to hide it, it wasn't hard to see that the event had impacted Ginny hard.

Hermione closed her mouth and let the information sink into her mind before she shook her head. She wanted to comfort Ginny, but when she opened her mouth, she didn't know what to say.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group, but no one seemed to know how to break it.

Sighing deeply, Hermione could not help but wished that things would turn out alright. After all, what was done was done, and there was nothing she could do now to turn time back again.

~-0-~

According to Harry, Ginny, and Draco, Death had mentioned something about lots of rest after she came back from the dead. So, after chatting for a bit, the three of them forced her back into bed and left the room, supposedly to help in the battle that was going on outside.

However, once the door shut behind them, Hermione immediately sat up on her bed, her eyes narrowing into mere slits. She wasn't just annoyed because they'd forced her to come back to life. Hermione had asked for details about the events that had happened after her death. Naturally, they had been more than willing to tell her what they had encountered, but when they landed on certain specifics, Tom's lack of presence became more and more prominent.

It must have been obvious to Harry, Ginny, and Draco as well, since Ginny spent a good time during the latter half of their chat reassuring Hermione that Tom was devastated when she died.

Ha! As if she, Hermione Jean Granger, would be daft enough to believe that Lord Voldemort would be devastated because of her death. Nonetheless … no matter what she told herself, it still stung a bit that he wasn't there when she woke up.

Just a bit.

Oh, who was she trying to kid? Though she had seen him while she was in the state between life and death, it just wasn't the same that he wasn't there. She wasn't a needy person by nature, and she'd always believed that regardless of how much she loved her future companion, a certain amount of space was mandatory. However, she'd been gone for nearly a month. Surely her resurrection meant something to him. Didn't he want to see her and make sure that she was truly alive?

Perhaps he knew that you would've thrown a tantrum and wanted to stay out of the way while you ranted at Harry, Ginny, and Draco.

Okay, that was probably a logical explanation, but still, it didn't brush away the annoyance and doubt that kept mounting in her heart. What if he didn't really care about her as much as she'd thought he did? What if he was only using her to get Harry, Ginny, and Draco to become his followers? Or else why would Ginny feel the need to tell her Tom's reaction towards her death?

She scrubbed her face with her hand, her irritation slowly being redirected towards herself instead. She knew what she was getting into since day one. She'd know what kind of man he was and she'd still fallen in love with him. Did she really expect him to rush to her side and become some kind of fluffy bunny just because they'd kissed and had sex? That would've been completely uncharacteristic of him. Not to mention utterly revolting.

But it still would've been nice to see him when I first opened my eyes, a small voice said in the back of her mind.

Though on that note … she wondered what, exactly, were his plans now. After he'd become the master of the Elder Wand, she was pretty sure that her resurrection was sort of like a monkey wrench in his plans. He'd already gotten Harry and the others to give him that stupid Vow, but she was not included in that. Most likely, he would be worried about her stealing the wand from him.

Or rather, he would be worried that she would try to steal the wand from him. She was pretty sure that he was arrogant enough to believe that he would never lose that wand to her. Little did he know, though, that she had no urge to steal that wand from him. After all, she was pretty sure that Ginny had no plans to ever duel Tom, and she was pretty sure that Tom wouldn't just challenge Ginny to a duel for no reason. If Hermione were still the master of the wand, there were too many occasions where she would duel Tom, and that would make it too easy for the ownership of the wand to be transferred.

Therefore, Tom would always believe that he was the master of the Elder Wand. However, that also meant that she would have to pretend to steal it from him because it would be completely abnormal for her to sit around and smile while he wielded that wand. With his intelligence, it wouldn't take too long for him to notice that there was something wrong if she remained passive.

In addition to that, he would probably try to trick her into getting into some situation to swear her unwavering loyalty to him.

Ew, ew, ew!

She'd rather be fed to Blast-Ended Skrewts than do that.

Could that also be the reason why he hadn't showed when she woke up? Because he was thinking of some kind of nefarious plan to trick her into binding her loyalty to him?

"Oh, for Merlin's sake."

She ought to have strangled Harry, Ginny, and Draco while they were here. If it weren't for them, she wouldn't have been stuck in this kind of situation right now.

Nonetheless, she'd be damned if she just sat here and wait for his Lordship to make his appearance. It wasn't in her nature. Besides, she needed to gauge his reactions before she knew what moves she should make. Therefore, she pushed herself to the edge of the bed and stood up. She raised her eyebrows, more out of relief and surprise, when she realized that she wasn't as lacking in energy as she had been led to believe, and all her limbs seemed to be working rather well. So far. She crossed her fingers hoping that this would hold up; she needed to speak with Tom.

She then patted her hands over her clothes until she found her wand, securely held in one of her pockets. A small smile appeared on her face, glad that her friends had left it with her. After all, she might need it if she ran into one of Tom's Death Eaters.

A frown appeared on her face as a thought came to her mind, and with a gentle flick of her wrist, she pointed her wand at one of the windows. The window immediately opened, allowing a light, spring breeze into the room. Relief washed over her; it would've been a horrible surprise if she'd come back to life only to find out that she no longer had her magical abilities.

With that fear settled, she stalked towards the door, pulled it open, and walked down the stairs. The Gryffindor common room was empty, and momentarily, Hermione wondered if classes were still going on amidst the battles that were supposedly going on. She doubted Tom would allow the students to fight against the Ministry—not out of the "goodness" of his heart but because she didn't believe that he would trust them to not double-cross them.

Pushing her curiosity aside, she walked towards the portrait hole and climbed through it.

"Granger."

She looked up and found herself staring into the face of Antonin Dolohov.

"Dolohov," she replied, keeping her face neutral though she felt her muscles tense up, as if her body was getting ready to run or fight.

"You should be in bed," he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest and his expression bordering on belittling.

"That's none of your business," she answered, raising her eyebrows at him.

"On the contrary, the Dark Lord instructed me to keep watch, in case certain … suspicious-looking individuals decide to dawdle here and disrupt your rest," Dolohov said.

His lips curved into a mocking smirk as the condescension he felt towards her started to leak out through his words and demeanor.

"Well, good luck on your watch then," she said with false authenticity and turned on her heels to walk away.

Before she got to take more than two steps, he was in front of her again.

"Sorry, Granger, I can't let you leave."

"Oh really?" she asked slowly, her fingers curling around her wand. "Then I suppose—"

In a flash, her wand was out and she flung a curse towards Dolohov. She had no qualms about hexing the Death Eater; after all, she'd never forgotten what had happened back at the Department of Mysteries in fifth year.

However, Dolohov was not an inexperienced dueler. His wand was out and his shield was up right as the spell left her wand. She half expected him to attack her, so therefore, she was surprised when he stood there with a scowl, as if he had no idea what to do. Well, she wasn't going to let that chance slip by without doing something about it.

"Grang—"

His words were halted as she continued to throw different curses at him. Several times, he tried to speak but was forced to stop when she came very close to harming him. Finally, one coral-colored spell broke through his defenses and hit him in the gut.

"Oops," she said without an ounce of sincerity as he flew through the air and crashed into the floor some ten feet away.

Vengeance was hers.

Pocketing her wand, she walked ahead, quite pleased with herself, and could barely contain the glee surging through her body.

"The Dark Lord instructed that you're not supposed to leave the Gryffindor tower," Dolohov said between grunts of pain as she passed his side.

"Oh really?" she asked again nonchalantly. "Then I guess I'm supposed to docilely sit inside like a loyal Death Eater." She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes.

"It would be wise to do so," replied Dolohov.

And detrimental to his health if she didn't. Well, she sure as hell knew what she was going to do.

Crouching down, she smiled at him. "There's just one little problem with that, Antonin Dolohov. I'm neither mindlessly loyal to Riddle nor a Death Eater. Have a good day."

With that said, she stood up and walked away, leaving a staring Dolohov behind her.

~-0-~

She had thought that finding Tom wouldn't be easy, especially in a place as large as Hogwarts. So when the answer finally came to her, she wanted to bang her head against the nearest wall for not thinking of it earlier. Even from one hallway away, she could hear Tom's smooth voice speaking inside the Great Hall.

She wondered if he was talking to his Death Eaters. She quickly scratched that idea; if he were talking to his Death Eaters, he would've, most likely, chosen a place with more privacy. Perhaps he was talking to the professors who had surrendered then.

"—that nothing has changed. I recognize the importance of education and do not plan on taking that away. Classes will continue as usual, and changes of professors should be posted by tonight," she heard as she got closer and closer to the closed doors.

Oh, gee, no wonder he only attacks Harry at the end of year: So that he wouldn't interrupt children getting their education. So mighty considerate of him, she mockingly thought to herself.

Putting her hands on the wooden doors, she pushed them open.

"In regards to—"

Tom abruptly stopped in his words when his eyes landed on her.

Chairs shifted as people turned around to see what had caused the Dark Lord to stop talking, and suddenly, Hermione found herself gazing at hundreds of staring faces.

Oh great, she winced to herself.

Discomfort quickly turned into embarrassment, triggering a red flush to taint her cheeks. Most, if not all, of the students at Hogwarts were there and so were the few professors who, Hermione guessed, had not joined the fight against the Death Eaters.

Slowly, the buzz of soft murmurs erupted across the Great Hall. Hermione shifted her weight from foot to foot, very uncomfortable with the situation she was in but not in any position to just turn around and leave right now. From the corner of her eyes, she saw a distinctive head of white-blond hair shaking from laughter. She didn't need to have an eagle's vision to guess that that must be Draco. Indeed, Harry, Ginny, and he were standing a few feet away from the staffs' table, presumably instructed to monitor the actions of the students while Tom was speaking. Well, before she barged in, that was.

Seconds ticked by, and finally, the moment of shock passed. Without saying a word, Tom swirled out of the chair he was sitting in, his expression murderous. Almost instinctively, the logical side of her wanted to turn around and run, recognizing that look; it was classified as "highly toxic" in her books. However, the rebellious side was much stronger today and firmly nailed both of her feet to the floor.

So, with a defiant look on her face, she watched him walk from the staffs' table all the way to where she was standing. By now, Draco had finally stopped laughing and was watching her with worry in his eyes. Both Harry and Ginny recovered from their shock when Tom was halfway down the aisle and quickly followed after him.

When Tom was close enough, Hermione opened her mouth.

"Riddle, we—"

Her words, however, were cut off when he reached her. Without warning, he picked her up, one arm firmly around her waist and the other under her knees, and continued to walk as if her weight had no effect on him.

"Wai—what are you doing?" she hissed, mortification making her flush red again. "Let me down!"

Falling on top of her head was not at the top of her list of priorities right now, so she resisted the urge to struggle out of his hold.

Tom clenched his jaw together, his anger rather obvious. However, he offered no answer as he continued walking quickly through the hallways of Hogwarts, heading straight to the Gryffindor tower.

"I'm talking to you. I doubt you've become deaf during the few weeks that I've been dead," she said, "and let me down already."

Nonetheless, he acted as if he hadn't heard her, though the expression on his face became even scarier, if possible. Her hand shot to her pocket, attempting to pull out her wand, only to find that it had disappeared.

Damn. That stupid Dark Lord stole her wand again.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle, give me back my wand!" she yelled.

"Riddle, Death never told us if magic can be used on her without repercussions—" said Ginny as Harry and she hurried along next to Tom.

"I told you Dolohov would be worthless in trying to keep her in the tower—" said Harry.

"What? Harry, tell him to give me back my wand and let me down," Hermione cut in, glaring at her friend.

"—and physical strain might cause harm to her, too—" Ginny continued to say.

"Will one of you tell him to let me down already? Since he's pretending that I don't exist? I don't even get why he let the three of you bring me back to life if he's so intent on pretending that I'm invisible," Hermione said loudly.

"Riddle—"

"You lot volunteered to chat with her and make her stay in bed. Had you been successful, Dolohov would've only been needed if someone decides to disrupt her rest. Seeing that you've failed, it's rather obvious that I've overestimated your ability to do things correctly," Tom said coldly.

"Hello, I'm right here, you know. Or have Death's spell suddenly rendered me invisible and incoherent to you lot?" asked Hermione sarcastically.

"I'd like to see you convince her to stay in bed," Harry said angrily.

"Hey!" Hermione protested, which cause Harry's annoyed look to melt into a sheepish one.

"And I obviously will not need your help, seeing how you utterly failed at it the first time around. Go back to the Great Hall, both of you," Tom ordered.

A look of defiant reluctance appeared on Harry's face, but soon, he sighed deeply and turned around to leave with Ginny.

"No—Harry!" Hermione screamed.

However, the only thing he did, much to Hermione's dismay, was turn around and shoot her an apologetic look before continuing back to the Great Hall with Ginny.

Enraged, she reverted her gaze back to Tom. "Just because you've trained them to become your monkeys, it doesn't apply to me. Don't think that I'm going to blindlessly follow your beck and call. Give me back my wand and let me down, Tom Marvolo Riddle, or—or I'll bite you!"

"I never doubted you would, and Merlin forbid the day when you finally listen to people for a change," Tom muttered.

Concussion or not, Hermione no longer cared, so she started to struggle out of his hold. An annoyed hiss left his mouth, and she had no idea how he'd done it, but the next second, she found herself slung over his shoulder, reminding her much of the day when he had taken her down to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Let me down, you stupid caveman!" she yelled as she kicked her legs and pummeled his back.

If it hurt him, he didn't say anything about it. He remained silent, and along the way, Dolohov ran up to him.

"My Lord—"

"I'll deal with you later," Tom said coldly. "Find Abraxas and prepare for tonight."

"Yes, my Lord," said Dolohov.

Despite being angry, Hermione couldn't help but grin at the prospect of Dolohov being punished by Tom later on. Revenge was certainly best served cold. As Tom continued striding, however, she was reminded that her moment of victory was tainted by the fact that Dolohov had seen her being slung over Tom's shoulder. Well, she supposed it could be seen as kind of embarrassing for Tom, given that she had been physically beating him up along the way.

When they finally reached the girls' dormitory, Tom placed her on the bed, surprisingly gently. She had half expected him to simply throw her on the bed, judging from the fury that was radiating off him.

Towering over her, he said, "Until you have my permission, you are to stay in here. I will not have you sauntering around Hogwarts—"

"Who died and made you the one in control of my life?" Hermione interrupted.

His eyes hardened, and a single hand shot out, grabbing a hold of her chin.

"Granger," he seethed.

"Riddle," she chanted, almost tauntingly.

"I will not have you throwing your childish tantrums because you were brought back to life against your will."

"Like I've said, who died and made you the one in control of my life?" she snapped.

"You belong to me, Granger. Your body and soul belongs to me as well. I am the only one who can dictate what goes on in your life, and you'll do well to remember that," said Tom.

Getting on her feet, she tilted her head up and glared at him. "You wish. I am my own person, and what I do with my body is none of your business. Just because you had a hand in bringing me back to life, it doesn't mean that I'm required to listen to you. I'm not your Death Eater, and I didn't make that stupid Vow to you, so don't you dare act as if you're my master, Tom Marvolo Riddle."

For the millionth time, she was thankful that she wasn't included in that stupid Vow. Besides the Elder Wand, she wasn't about to let Tom know that she wasn't too enthusiastic about him controlling the wizarding world. Anyone with a half a brain would know that his strive for power wouldn't end there. Well, if anything, she could sabotage Tom's plans from the inside if they included anything along the lines of genocide and enslavement. And she certainly didn't plan to let him know what she was thinking about in that aspect.

However, it was obvious that he wasn't paying full attention to what she was saying.

"Merlin be damned if I will allow Death to gain an upper hand on me again. Don't think for one second that you're off the hook for running off and sacrificing yourself for someone like Potter, and I'll deal with you later after you've gotten enough rest. For the time being, just get this into your head: I will not have you dying on me again, Granger," he said through gritted teeth. "If you die again, I swear that I will kill every single person precious to you."

"Don't you dare threaten me with the people I care about," she hissed. "And I'm soooo touched by your display of care there. I can see that you care so much that you didn't even bother to be there when I woke up!"

He stared at her, momentarily silent. Then, a corner of his lips tugged upwards into a faint smile. Unexpectedly, that caused a furious blush to blossom on her cheeks.

"What are you—"

"Is that what this was all about?" he asked.

The smugness that had suddenly entered his expression made Hermione so uncomfortable that she wanted to find the nearest closet and hide inside. However, the stubbornly proud side of her refused to let her do so. She doubted Tom would allow her to move away anyway.

"What are you going on about?"

"Is that why you rampaged through Hogwarts looking for me? Because you're upset that I wasn't there when you woke up?"

"I didn't rampage through Hogwarts," she argued. "All I did was curse Dolohov. And he was asking for it anyway."

"I don't doubt that," mused Tom. "But that still doesn't explain your less than rational behavior. Hurrying through the hallways of Hogwarts even though you just came back to life—"

"I just came back to life, it doesn't mean that I'm crippled," she said loudly.

"—barging into the Great Hall and causing a scene—"

"I didn't even know you had the whole school there," she pointed out, though she felt her cheeks burning up.

"—screaming in the middle of the hallway—"

"You lugged me through the hallways over your shoulders. That's more than enough to embarrass me for life."

"—all this time, you were just distraught because you thought I didn't want you anymore," Tom continued as if he hadn't heard a thing she'd said.

"I wasn't distraught!" she disputed. "I was just—I wanted to talk to you about the things that had happened while I was gone."

He patted her on the head condescendingly. "I'm sure, dearest, and we'll all immediately jump on the next time machine and change what happened in the last couple of weeks because you didn't like how things turned out."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said. "And why should I care if you wanted to be with me any longer anyway?"

"Because you've used up that Coin of Charon, which possibly could be useful to me in the future?" he answered, his voice a tad bit too sweet.

"Oh please, as if you dare to imagine yourself die," she sneered.

Of course, Harry also mentioned to her that he was the only one who could open the box, which was why Tom never had the chance to get his hands on the Coin of Charon in the first place. She could imagine the frustration Tom had felt when he knew he couldn't open the box and had to hand it over to Harry. Nonetheless, she couldn't let the chance to mock his obsession with immortality and fear of death slip by like that.

"And that wasn't even an answer to my question," she added.

"Granger, let's skip the silly song of denial you have going on there, since I really don't care for that. Everyone knows that you're desperately in love with me," said Tom with a sense of mockery in his voice that was obviously directed to the notion of love.

"I—I am not desperately in love with you," sputtered Hermione. "I'm cross because of that totally barbaric, immoral, idiotic Vow that you've made with Harry."

Nonetheless, a part of her was thankful that he hadn't thought of the other reason why she'd gone through the whole school looking for him. Maybe he was still suspicious, but she was happy to let him continue believing that she'd only done it because she was upset about him not showing.

"Granger, are you really placing the blame on me? Especially when Potter was the one who'd approached me?"

"As if you hadn't gotten everything you could've out of that Vow," she retorted.

"Slytherin, dearest," he said. "Besides, it wasn't as if they hadn't gotten anything out of the Vow. They'd gotten protection from Grindelwald and Dumbledore after they've joined me, and Miss Weasley had gotten the opportunity to get vengeance on Dumbledore—"

"As if you would've dared to attack both Grindelwald and Dumbledore on your own," Hermione snorted derisively.

"I admit that I wasn't planning on attacking Dumbledore immediately after he'd … saved Grindelwald from my hands, but that didn't mean that I will necessarily lose to him in a proper duel—"

"I'm sure Grindelwald would kindly sit by the sidelines while you're dueling Dumbledore," she interrupted him in a sweet voice.

"You're assuming that they would rekindle their relationship," said Tom, "which isn't necessarily true—"

"Oh, quit deluding yourself, Riddle. With the Elder Wand in your hands, I'd bet my hat that they would join forces to defeat you," Hermione said.

"That," he said, "is if they still believe that the Elder Wand is in my hands. How long do you think it'll take before they realize that I do not possess the Elder Wand? Dumbledore isn't nearly that unintelligent."

What he was saying was so wrong on so many levels, but before she could say something in retort, he'd start speaking again.

"So, as you can see, your friends had everything to gain and nothing to lose by taking the Vow. In retrospect, I believe that I was the one who'd suffered a loss in the whole deal. After all, once I've taken over the world, they will know nothing but prosperity and power."

"Oh please. You've gotten the Elder Wand and both Grindelwald and Dumbledore are dead. There's practically no one left to stop you now. What else do you want?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"It is nothing compared to what they will get in the future. No matter how you look at it, dear, your friends got the better end of the deal," Tom said. "Before you started accusing me of taking advantage of them, perhaps you should've looked at things from both sides—"

She uncontrollably snorted again and mockingly said, "Oh, poor, little Tom Riddle, who got cheated of his benefits. What should he do now?"

He raised his eyebrows at her words, amused, before his hand shot out and grabbed a hold of her waist. With a light tug, she was in his arms. Placing both hands on his chest, she pushed herself slightly away from him.

"I'm not finished talking with you yet," she said.

"Mm …" he said offhandedly.

His eyes traveled over her face meticulously, taking in every detail, almost as if he were making sure that everything was alright with her. When he was finally satisfied, he placed another hand on the back of her neck, pulling her closer. However, she resisted, a stubborn look on her face, though that didn't stop her cheeks from turning red again.

"I said, I'm not finished talking with you yet."

"If you're so worried, then there's only one thing you can do," he said softly, his dark eyes glinting as he stared into her brown ones.

She remained silent, waiting for him to continue. Slowly, he lowered his head until his lips was mere millimeters away from hers.

"Become immortal and make sure I won't do anything to harm the ones you love," he whispered before capturing her lips with his.

She responded in kind to his kiss, though it didn't escape her notice that he was insinuating that he would make her find a way to become immortal. Well, Horcruxes were out of the question and so was time travel. Nonetheless, she was pretty sure that he would find a way to achieve that in the future. The only things she would have to worry about now were if whatever immortality-achieving method he found included clauses about remaining forever loyal to him and if it would include immoral deeds of some kind.

But she could worry about that later.

When they finally broke apart, she was left slightly panting, and his eyes were darker than usual as he gazed at her.

"Don't think that I've forgiven you with just a kiss," she said, her eyelids feeling heavier than they ought to be.

"I still need to attend to some things. You, on the other hand, need your rest," he said, his face serious. He paused for a second before continuing, "We'll continue tonight."

For a short moment, she wondered if he was talking about their conversation or their kiss. A sly smile appeared on his face as he twirled a strand of her hair around his finger.

"As much as I would like to comply with your wish, you aren't in any condition for that right now," he said.

She wanted to refute his words, but the drowsiness seemed to be spreading to the rest of her body now. With an agile move, he picked her up and placed her in the bed again. He flicked his wrist, and with a soft click, the window she'd opened before closed.

Casting one last look at her, he walked out of room. She watched until the door closed, and she was too tired to try, but she was pretty sure that the door would be warded to prevent her from leaving now. However, she didn't feel the urge to leave anymore, having received answers to more than one question already. He'd said that they would continue to talk tonight anyway.

And somehow, she knew he hadn't lied to her.

~-0-~

A/N: Many thanks to those of you who've read and rated! Huge, huge thanks to the following:

Betas: Marauder's Wolf and Nerys

Reviewers: LadyMiya, Alassea Riddle, Santinistar, ZombieReine, and Monica!

Review replies can be found here: http://tomioneconvention.forumotion.com/t124p15-somewhere-in-time-affnet-version-review-replies#36726
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Somewhere in Time