Prologue
Once upon a time, there was the Boy-Who-Lived and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
The hero and the villain playing out a tale of magic and darkness, of hate and love. In the end, the great story ended with a victorious leader and a vanquished enemy.
Only, the story didn't stop there.
For the tale was also one of time travel and playing a god amongst mortals. For, if one can control time, they can also control death.
Voldemort would never die as long as he existed in the past.
One year after my best friend, Harry Potter, killed Voldemort and barely escaped with his life, he returned. Only he was younger, more ruthless, and ready to learn from all the mistakes of the other version of him.
Tom Riddle came from the past and quickly struck out with a vengeance, more powerful than ever. Our war-torn world had not yet properly healed, and quickly fell under his control.
That is how this story begins.
Only, this time, it is not Harry's tale to tell.
It is mine, for I am Hermione Granger, and I was taken prisoner by Voldemort six months after he came back. Only, this story does not have a clear villain or hero, for there was beauty in his heart, and I was at first too blind to see it. We all were.
This is the story not of Voldemort, but of Tom Riddle, a man haunted by the demons of his past and a never sated thirst for power. It defies time and all your preconceived notions of good and bad.
For he might have been a monster, and I might have been his victim, but somehow, someway; we fell in love. It challenged everything I knew; and everything he believed.
And that is how, without meaning too, I saved the soul of a man that the world had thought was long lost.
It started with a rose and ended with a promise that I will never forget.