Word Prompt: Broken Umbrella

AN: This was a one shot word prompt challenge from the Tomione forum where I had to write an impromptu short Tomione story based on the word prompt given.

"NO! no, no, no…it was in here…I know it was in here…" Hermione said as she began removing everything from her beaded bag as she sat on the floor of the room of requirement.

"What are you looking for?" Harry asked furrowing his brows in confusion as he watched her.

"My umbrella. I am absolutely certain it was in here, and now it's missing." Hermione said with a hint of panic creeping into her voice.

Harry was still beyond confused.

"Hermione, it's not even raining outside…and besides, what do you even need it for? Can't you just use a water repelling charm like the rest of us do?" Harry asked perplexed.

Hermione glared at Harry, "I'm not thick, Harry, I know how to use a water repelling charm." She spat sarcastically, once again pawing through everything she had pulled from the beaded bag.

"Then why do you care about some stupid umbrella that was broken, anyway?" he asked exasperated.

"Because that was our only ticket home! Don't you pay any attention at all?" Hermione shrieked, as anger began to rise up within her, "He took it. I know he did…that no good, vile, soulless…" she ranted before Harry interrupted her barrage of insults.

"Hang on, what do you mean our only ticket home…what about the time turner?" Harry asked trying to understand the gravity of their situation.

"Harry, the broken umbrella was the time turner! I transfigured it, thinking it would draw less attention, but he still managed to get his grubby fingers on it!" Hermione finally explained.

"So what you're saying is…we're stuck here." Harry said slowly, staring in disbelief at Hermione.

"What part of no time turner do you not understand?" she said pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Well, who took it then?" Harry asked

"Who do you think?! Riddle, of course, that slimy, under-handed, despicable…" she said as she launched into a new string of insults.

"How did Riddle manage to get it out of your beaded bag, then?" Harry asked innocently, trying to fully understand what had happened.

Hermione met his eyes briefly, and looked way, flushing with embarrassment, and bit her lip nervously.

"Hermione…how did Riddle get ahold of your beaded bag?" Harry asked again slowly, knowing there was something important she wasn't telling him. Did she look guilty?

"Well, I…that is to say…" she said twisting her hands nervously in her lap.

"Spit it out, Hermione!" Harry said in annoyance.

"I may have been snogging him in the Potion's supply cupboard." She mumbled, looking down guiltily at her feet.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch that…" Harry said straining to hear her.

"I said I was snogging him, Harry! Quite thoroughly, I might add." She said as she stood up and began to pace the room, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. There, it was out in the open now.

"Wait, you were snogging him? Riddle? Lord Voldemort? How?"

Hermione glared at Harry, "How do you think? Do you want me to draw you a diagram then? Merlin, Harry." Hermione said rubbing her temples in frustration.

Harry snorted, "I meant, how did you end up snogging him, of all people, Hermione? And don't say it just happened, because something like that surely doesn't just happen. Did he curse you? The Imperius, maybe?" Harry clarified, hoping there would be a reasonable explanation to all of this.

"You know, I'd rather not talk about this." Hermione said suddenly, trying to effectively end the discussion.

"Oh, I don't think so, Hermione, one doesn't just go around snogging the future Dark Lord without an explanation." Harry spat acidly.

Hermione sighed. There was no way around it, she was going to have to tell Harry the truth.

"Do you remember that detention I had with Slughorn last week, you know, the one I received for taking the blame for your botched potion?" She said still standing with her arms crossed, and raising her eyebrow at him.

"I already apologized for that Hermione…" Harry said before she cut him off and kept talking

"Well, Riddle was also there in the potion's classroom that night, supposedly doing some extra credit for Slughorn by organizing his Potion's ingredients, not that he needed it…I mean, have you seen his grades?" She spat, rolling her eyes.

"Get to the point, Hermione…" Harry said as she huffed at him.

"Well, Slughorn asked me to assist him for the duration of my detention, and then proceeded to leave me alone with that pompous, smug, repulsive…"

"Hermione…" Harry interrupted yet another barrage of insults directed at Tom Riddle.

"So I go in the cupboard with him, and boom…the door slams and locks us in together. He claimed that he had nothing to do with it, the bloody liar…"

"Why didn't you call for help?" Harry asked, and Hermione just looked at him as if he sprouted a second head.

"Gee, why didn't I think of that?" she spat sarcastically, and Harry just glared in return.

"Of course, I tried everything I could think of; an unlocking charm, Diffindo, sending a patronus…I even screamed like a banshee hoping that Slughorn would hear me from his office, fat lot of good that did." Hermione explained.

"And what was Riddle doing during all of this?" Harry asked

"He was ramming his shoulder into the door, making a good show of pretending that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the two of us being locked in the potion's cupboard together." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

"So then what happened?" Harry asked.

"Well, we were stuck in there for quite some time, several hours in fact. I thought for sure, Professor Slughorn would come by to check on us, but he never did. After a while, it got quite hot in there, being such a small confined space. I was sweating, and I could feel my robes sticking to my back, and I noticed Riddle must've been warm too, since I could see sweat beginning to bead on his forehead. So I took my outer robes off, and unbuttoned a few of the buttons on my blouse, and set down my beaded bag on top of my robes. It really was very hot." Hermione said, her cheeks beginning to turn pink.

"Okay, so you were locked in a closet with Riddle, and you took off your outer robes and put your bag down because you were hot. How do you go from that to having your tongue down Riddle's throat?" Harry asked incredulously.

Hermione just gaped at Harry, "Well, it's not as if I did it on purpose, you prat!" Hermione huffed at him and sighed in annoyance.

"Well, how did it happen then?" Harry asked raking his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Riddle tried to stay as far away from me as possible, given my filthy blood, as if it were contagious or something." She scoffed, "Anyway, he couldn't ignore the heat any more than I could, and reluctantly, he removed his robes and his sweater. For a while, we sat there in silence, neither one of us speaking to the other, but periodically, I would catch him staring out of the corner of my eye. I assumed he had to be up to something, so I watched him, without him realizing what I was doing…at least that's what I thought. Next thing I know, he starts unbuttoning his shirt, and pulling it off! Out of shock, I turned and looked at him, and the bastard had the gall to smirk at me!" she said in a tone of disbelief.

Harry didn't say anything, but his eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Of course, I immediately asked him what the hell he was playing at, but then he looked at me and said, 'Granger, it's hotter than hell in here. Just because you are too much of a prude to make yourself comfortable, doesn't mean that I am. If you want to roast, be my guest.'"

"As if the notion of being comfortable locked in a Potion's cupboard with Riddle wasn't already laughable, that arrogant prat had to go and mock me, as if I was too modest to put safety first when my health was at risk!" She snorted.

"So what did you do?" Harry asked

"Naturally, I did the only thing that I could; I looked him square in the eye, and took my shirt off. You should have seen his face, it was priceless! I honestly don't think he expected me to actually do it." Hermione said biting back a smirk at the memory.

Harry's eyes widened as he looked at Hermione in shock.

"I wasn't about to let that sod get to me, so I gave him a smirk of my own, and flicked my wand without him noticing, spilling a bottle of bubotuber puss all over his lap for revenge. However, my plan backfired spectacularly, when he stood, without so much as a 'by your leave', and he dropped his pants. It took me several moments to remind myself to breathe, since he was standing in front of me now in only his boxers. I suppose I was too stunned to notice the bottle of Unicorn blood that suddenly splashed across my skirt." Hermione admitted sheepishly.

"Please tell me you left your skirt on." Harry said trying to scrub the image from his brain of Riddle in his boxer shorts.

"Well, I um…have you ever smelt unicorn blood, Harry? It's not particularly pleasant. I didn't have much of a choice. So, determined as I was to not seem like a coward in front of Riddle, I stood up, and met his eyes as I reached behind me and slowly unzipped my skirt, and let it fall to the floor. For a few moments, neither of us moved. I could see him staring, and tried my hardest not to fidget under his gaze. Then I noticed something that made me realize that I had the upper hand…"

"Merlin's balls, Hermione…I'm not so sure I want to hear this." Harry said rubbing his temples.

"You asked! So as I was saying, I knew I had the upper hand when I saw his Adam's apple bob a few times. Well, that, and the obvious tent in his boxers were a dead giveaway."

"For the love of…" Harry said dropping his head back in the armchair and pulling one of the throw pillows over his face.

"Next thing I know, I'm up against the door with my legs wrapped around his waist, and his tongue in my mouth. Believe it or not, it did just happen. I certainly hadn't gone to detention that night saying, 'Gee, wouldn't it be lovely to get snogged by Tom Riddle in the potion's cupboard tonight?'" Hermione said sarcastically.

"Okay, fine…but that still doesn't explain how Riddle ended up with the broken umbrella from your beaded bag." Harry said staring pointedly at Hermione.

"Well, before things could go any further, the door inexplicably opened, and we both toppled to the floor in a tangle of limbs. I scrambled off of him faster than Hippogriff chasing a ferret, and scrambled back into my clothes, unicorn blood and all. I grabbed my robes, and took off running back to Gryffindor tower, wanting to forget the entire ordeal ever happened. The next morning, in potion's class, he stopped by my desk and had the audacity to smirk at me, then handed me my beaded bag. In my haste to get as far away from there as I could, I had apparently left it behind in the potion's cupboard that night. Now I realize he had obviously orchestrated the entire thing in order to get his hands on it. Clearly, it was him who stole the umbrella." Hermione concluded.

Harry shook his head, and stood from the armchair and began pacing the room, and Hermione walked over to the couch and flopped down on it before she sat up quickly rubbing her behind, "Ow!" she yelled before she stuck her hand between the cushions to see what it was that poked her.

Harry turned around quickly to see what was wrong, when he caught sight of Hermione holding none other than the missing broken umbrella.

"Thank Merlin, you found it! It seems that Riddle didn't take it after all…hang on, Hermione, how did it end up in the couch cushions in the room of requirement? I thought you said it was in your beaded bag?" Harry asked.

Hermione's cheeks flushed red at the question, and she sucked in a breath through her nose and looked anywhere but at Harry.

"Hermione?" he prodded.

"It must've fallen out of my bag when I was…otherwise occupied." Hermione said being purposely vague.

"What is that supposed to mean? What were you doing?" Harry asked and Hermione bit her lip nervously, playing with handle of the broken umbrella.

"I uh…hmmmm." Hermione said in embarrassment while she began to put all of her belongings back into her small beaded bag, including the broken umbrella.

"Hermione, I'm not going to ask you again, how did it end up in the couch cushions?" Harry asked incredulously as Hermione wrenched open the door to the Room of Requirement, only to find Tom Riddle standing outside of the door.

"Took you long enough…" Tom said to Hermione as he glared at Harry over her shoulder.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Tom, I told you I would meet you later…much later…" she said through gritted teeth, shifting her eyes quickly to Harry

"Well, as it happens, it is later." Tom said smirking at Hermione.

"Is someone going to tell me what the in the bloody hell is going on here?" Harry spat incredulously.

Both Tom and Hermione turned to him simultaneously and said, "No!" before Tom pulled her back inside the Room of Requirement, slamming the door in Harry's face. Harry heard Hermione giggle and a then moan softly before he finally understood how something could have fallen out of Hermione's beaded bag and end up lost in the couch cushions…