Disclaimer: I do not own characters. Except Clarissa. Yeah. She's mine.

Chapter 1

Of course Dumbledore would send me after the stupid little Mudblood. Just to torture me, to punish me. I hated it, but being raised to find out what a person would dread most, I respected it. So as I got ready to meet Potter and Dumbledore in the Great Hall, I tried to figure out a way around the Unbreakable Vow I had taken. I had vowed to bring Granger back alive and in one piece and to bring Potter back at all, as long as he was alive. True, I didn't want either dead, per se, but I did want to punish them. They both deserved it, but each for different reasons. Potter deserved it because of who he was and who my father was. Hatred for the enemy is genetic, especially if one is raised to hate. Granger, on the other hand, was a stupid Mudblood who went through my things and got us all into this situation in the first place.

Dumbledore had said that Granger had experience with timeturners and that she knew how they operated, so it was a mystery to all of us how she ended up 50 years in the past. Oddly enough, that was the time that my father was a teenager. So it was under the pretense that because it was my timeturner and that the time she had traveled to was related to me that Dumbledore decided that it should be me that goes after her. Potter was only coming along to make sure that I did my job right and that nothing happened to his precious Mudblood.

When I had everything I thought I might need – wand, a few gallons, and my Remembrall – I headed down to the Great Hall. On my way I saw many Slytherins who gave me half-fearful, half-sympathetic smirks. They thought this was ultimately the worst thing in the world that could happen to someone. That getting sent on a rescue mission with Potter for some stupid Mudblood girl was torture. I smirked secretly to myself. They were wrong.

Upon reaching the Hall, I stopped in front of the grand mahogany doors to tuck my wand into its holster on my black-clad right hip. I was wearing my mission clothes from when I used to go on missions for my father's cause. The clothes were all black and they fit my curves just right. They were tight, but they still breathed. I was able to move fluently in them. Just now I wore them, not because I thought this "rescue" was going to be at all dangerous – this was Hogwarts we were talking about – but because this whole situation gave me an excuse to wear them. I had missed the feeling of danger. I loved the euphoria that the thrill of danger gave me.

As I adjusted my shirt, the door opened in front of me. They must have known I was out here because it was a spell that opened the door. I walked in casually and found Dumbledore and Potter waiting for me. My black eyes met Potter's emerald ones briefly before I shifted my gaze over to Dumbledore's twinkling blue eyes. Of course it would be Dumbledore to catch me stalling on the other side of the door.

"Ah, Ms. Riddle. We were just wondering where you were." I bet you were, I thought while he continued, "Come on in so that we may discuss the plan."

I nodded and stepped inside. Internally I was growling at the old man. We had been over the flipping plan at least twenty times before. Ever since we found out exactly what had happened to Granger. Then we had revised it when Potter decided he was going to pull a "hero move" and help "save" Granger. I was just glad that Weasley had been shot down when he had wanted to come, too. Snape had told him it was dangerous enough having three people in the past. Sending four would be downright stupid. Weasel had sat back grumbling and pouting like a child, but one look at Snape's face told Weasel not to ask again. I had sighed in relief and discreetly sent Snape a grateful look.

"Now," Dumbledore began, bringing me out of my reverie, "as you know by now, you will use a timeturner to go back into the past. You will do that from the Forbidden Forest, so that you will not be seen by other children or teachers when you appear in the past. You will then go find and retrieve Ms. Granger. You will probably have to interact with people because Ms. Granger has already been there for one week and I'm sure she has had contact with people, possibly under an alias. But then again she might have kept her name because she is Muggle Born and her name won't be recognized. So you'll just have to wait and see. Now, once you have found Ms. Granger, you are to make an excuse for her to leave Hogwarts. I can help you with that." He reached into his pocket and brought out a folded piece of parchment.

"Here," he said, giving the paper to Potter. His eyes were on me as he said, "Give this to my younger self. He will help you. Once you have Ms. Granger, return to the Forbidden Forest and come back to this time period. If anything happens and you cannot return to this time, go to my younger self. He'll tell you what to do." The clock chimed telling us it was 11:30 in the morning and that students would soon start to trickle in for lunch. That meant that Potter and I had to get a move on. Dumbledore gave us a wistful look as if he wished he could be coming with us, but instead of running for his traveling cloak he simply handed us the timeturner and said, "Good luck," with a fare-well smile on his face.

Then he turned to leave. When he was gone, I put the timeturner around my neck and saw that Potter was staring at the door Dumbledore had just exited from. He put the note the old man had given him deep into his pocket and patted it a couple of times as if it were a treasure. I took on an annoyed tone of voice and said, "Come on, Potter! We're not getting any younger and I'd rather not be forty before we this over with."

Potter turned to me with a scowl on his face and I returned it with one of my own. But my whole heart wasn't in it, so I sighed and gave up. I was too excited about finally getting into some action again. Even if it was rescuing the Know-It-All Mudblood and there probably wouldn't be any action, I was ready. And it had been a long time coming. My skills had been getting rusty, my senses had dulled, and I'd been pacing around like some wild animal taken from its natural habitat and caged – on display as I tried to make the most of the little space I'd been given. Finally my talents were being put to some use again and I was pumped.

Potter was still glaring at me, but I just rolled my eyes and walked out. I could hear Potter following me at a distance until we got to the forest. Now that I actually thought about the monologue the old man had given, I wondered what he meant when he said the timeturner might not bring us back. Why wouldn't it bring us back? As I pondered this I heard scar-head stop suddenly.

"Were you planning on walking to the other side of the forest or something, Riddle?" he asked snidely.

"The farther we go, the less likely people will hear you scream." Of course, I was being sarcastic, but I guess Potter didn't take it as a joke because when I turned to him, instead of coming face to face with him, I came face to tip with his wand. The-Boy-Who-Lived-To-Die-Just-Because-He-Pissed-Off-The-Wrong-Person had his wand aimed straight at my face. I gave him a blank look although I was barely containing a deadly anger. I didn't take too well to wands being shoved in my face.

"Problem, Potter?" I asked in an emotionless voice. My father had taught me to never show my emotions, especially anger.

"As a matter of fact, I do have a problem. I have a problem with you. This is just my way of warning you of that problem." I stepped closer to him so that his wand was right in between my eyes.

"Let me let you in a little secret, Potter. There are things you need to know about me before you threaten me. The first of which is that you should not point a wand in my direction unless you plan to use it with everything you have." I let shards of ice break over my sugar voice. I stepped closer so that his wand was now touching me. A clear challenge. Apparently Potter didn't want to accept. Not yet. He put his wand in pocket and stepped back.

I smirked as he looked away. "Let's just get this over with Potter. And let's try to be civil. I'd rather be eaten alive by a werewolf than work with you, but it won't the job any easier or faster if we argue. Deal?" I held out my hand. He looked at it apprehensively for a moment and then finally took my hand in a firm hold, shaking it resolutely and staring me in the eye.

It was at that precise moment that I realized my father was no longer after a boy, but a man. True Potter was a man because he was forced to grow up due to all the circumstances, but I supposed that still counted. Yes, I thought staring right back into his defined face, Potter is a man.

"Deal," he agreed, his icy tone cutting into my musings.

"Good," I said, taking my hand back. "Now let's get going."

I wrapped the timeturner's chain around his neck and in result he had to step closer to avoid choking us both. I could tell this made him uncomfortable and I chuckled lightly as I made quick work of twisting the timeturner back the appropriate amount of turns to go back 50 years ago. Then, suddenly, everything was a rush as we witnessed time reversing itself at turbo speed. We saw strange creatures coming through and passing us but we were too far in the forest for there to be any people coming through. As we went back, I could feel the glorious history seeping into my pores, even though all we were watching were animals. And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.