Impossible Magic
Hermione Granger stood shivering in the cold deep inside of the Forbidden Forest, while she was critically eying her work carved on a stone 5 feet away from her.
No one – absolutely no one – should tell her that she was yet not advanced enough for this and that. Not only had the teachers seemed to think she could not do this, but her friends too. But she knew better; she knew that with enough practice, she would be good. After all, she did not get O's for nothing. She was perfectly capable of runic magic.
"Bloody hell, Hermione, you can't be perfect at everything"
Gritting her teeth and eyes fixed on the runes, she lifted her hand to activate the rune that – if done right – would shield the whole area that surrounded her. Nothing should get in or out for two hours after she was done. She could not fail. She clenched her jaw, looking determinate.
~oO0Oo~
Sitting on a stump wand in hand, Tom Marvolo Riddle released a frustrated sigh that only the trees could hear. He was frustrated that those morons calling themselves students were so incredibly daft. Of course said morons were quite easy to manipulate and they feared what he would do to them, if they ever displeased him, but he needed – no, he required – an intelligent mind, or else he would just go insane. Surrounded by idiots. Literally.
His hand itched to use the wand on one of them. Soon… soon he would never be forced to hold himself down. He would become the greatest wizard of all times.
Three months. Just three months left and he would never again be worried about expulsion. No one could snatch his wand, no one could touch him. He was above them all, after all. One day they all – Muggles as well as wizards – would acknowledge him as their Master. They would fear him much more than the current Dark Lord. Patience was all he needed.
He stood up and stretched himself, ready to walk back to the castle, when the area was surrounded by blinding light and he covered his eyes all the while clutching his wand in his left hand.
"Who are you?" An angry female voice called and he slowly took his hand down from his face and looked at the blurred figure of a girl. A student. A Gryffindor student. How did she get here? He furrowed his brow and kept staring silently at the girl while his vision became clear again.
He could see her well now, but she did not look like any of the students he knew, and it was obvious she did not know him either. He was sure he knew everyone at Hogwarts, if not by name, then at least by face.
His eyes raked over her face. The girl was not a classic beauty. Average he would say, and at the moment she was looking sternly at him. He narrowed his eyes. The girl was quite unfamiliar. He was sure he would have seen her before if she had been in Hogwarts. That dark, wild hair would have been too hard to miss. The corner of his mouth quirked.
"You find this funny? Who are you?" She demanded. He saw her hand slowly slip inside her pocket and he knew she was slowly taking out her wand, thinking she could surprise him.
"I could ask you the same," he said raising an eyebrow. If she did not know him, she could not possibly be a student or anyone in the castle. Everyone knew him.
"You are in no position to ask me that. You are not even allowed to be here."
He looked around at the trees as if he saw his destination for the first time, clearly only faking it, since he had widened his eyes and only looked more amused than confused, and then looked back at her.
"Oh?" he said, smirking now. "Then tell me, little saint, what you are doing in the forest, hmm?"
~oO0Oo~
Hermione's eyes widened, realizing that she would be in as much trouble as he would if this came out. She saw the boy's satisfied smile, when he saw her expression.
She was going to be in so much trouble! Oh, McGonagall was going to be so disappo- hold on! He had still not told her who he was. She was sure he was not a student at Hogwarts, despite the fact that he was wearing his uniform. Slytherin. She should have known... she mentally rolled her eyes.
Still… she had never seen him before, and a face like his, well… She felt the blush creep up her cheeks and was more than happy that it was so dark. She closed her eyes and shook her head as if she tried to shake the hundreds of inappropriate thoughts about him off her head. For goodness' sake, she did not even know his name!
She looked at him again and to her horror he looked even more amused now than before as if he had read her mind, but she thought better of it. How could someone his age possibly do that?
"I'm quite capable, thank you very much," he said in mock offense, and she blushed in fury, clenching her fists, "you, on the other hand, don't seem to be-"
She did not let him finish his sentence and tackled him on the ground, her patience wearing off.
"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" she growled and she saw genuine surprise on his handsome face.
"I was just going to sa-"
"NO!"
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"You know, if you wanted to be dominant, you could just have asked… not that I would ever let you." He smirked again.
She burrowed her eyebrows in confusion and looked down, blushing redder than she ever had before. "Oh…"
"Yes," He said, looking at her as if he was talking to a small child and decided to get up, pushing her off him.
"Ouch! You didn't need to do that! I was getting up!" she said angrily.
"Hardly." He said and shrugged. "But don't worry, I'm quite used to this."
She saw him look down at his wand which was still in his left hand and he looked confused for a moment before he looked back up at her with a contemplative look on his face.
She remembered that her own wand was behind and she gulped. She did not dare to turn her back on him. Oh, she could not believe it. If he had just come after she had let the shields come up, she would have been safely inside the shield and would not have to worry about her wand. What did she even do that for, losing her wand?
Wait a minute. He was not even around when she was putting up the shield! What if she had… summoned him somehow? Maybe he was there already, but not at that moment.
"What is your name?" she asked as politely as possible. His frowned for a moment and she knew now that he might somehow have heard her thoughts, but she tried not to dwell too much on that. She was not thinking of anything important at all like Harry or Dumbledore or Death Eaters or – stop right there! She mentally scolded herself.
"Tom Riddle" he said, a look of disgust appearing on his face in less than a second, before it was gone again.
She froze. No. He could not be… and she had been thinking things and he had… he had… She clamped her hand on her mouth and took several steps backwards until she quickly took her wand from the ground and pointed it at him.
"Stay where you are." She said, trying to sound calm.
He just threw her a mocking glance, when he realized that she knew of him. Then the look was gone and he looked thoughtful and tilted his head to one side, his eyes never leaving her.
She felt her heart skip a beat and mentally slapped herself for that reaction. Sure he was handsome, and sure he still had some incredible power that he had yet to use in front of her (most likely on her, she thought grimly), but he was Lord Voldemort. That sort of reaction was completely out of question.
"You have somehow sent me to this… time. How?" The last word came out coldly, and he did not seem to be playing any games now. Fine by her.
"I was trying out some runic magic," she said and looked pointedly at the stone between them, "when I activated it, it seemed to have worked, but… then you came."
He took a step forward and she took one back, but scolded herself for that. He was holding his wand loosely in his left hand and if she could just –
"Don't." He said looking at her icily, his voice warning her, while he crouched down to look at the stone with the runes.
She pursed her lips, but did as he said. For now. Her grip on her own wand tightened.
"That shouldn't be there…" He murmured, furrowing his brow, and looked up at her, as he pointed on it. She went slowly to crouch down beside him, but in case he would try to hex her she had her wand hand free from her body, so she could react quickly, if he tried anything.
She looked at the carvings and true enough, there was a line that should not be there. She too furrowed her brow. She did not make that. It even looked different to the lines she had made. That was why he did not say anything about her doing it. But… how could that even be possible? She glanced sideways at Riddle to see what he made of it, and he looked like he was deep in thought. She looked back at the stone. She could try to do something now that he was distracted, and take him to the castle where Dumbledore would deal with him!
She felt his grip on her arm and looked back at him, furious eyes meeting hers, anger radiating off him.
"All right!" She said angrily. "Let's not curse each other, then."
He nodded solemnly and looked back at the stone, trying to figure it out.
She gaped at him. He was not even trying to hex her. She had expected him to start shooting off all types of curses at her, but he seemed more engrossed in the carvings. He was actually curious. He wanted to know what has caused his presence in her time.
"Wait… how do we even know this is my time?" She asked, feared that maybe she had been wrong in assuming that he had come, not the other way around.
"There should be a stump on the place you so nicely molested me." He said, rolling his eyes, as if he thought she was stupid enough to even question it, when he had not commented it.
"Molested? I did not! You are just…" she trailed off when he sent her an amused glance, before turning to look at the stone again. He raised his hand and touched some of the lines with his index finger, her hand mesmerized by the movement. He had beautiful hands. Long fingers… Smooth skin... that was not even fair. Even his hair looked soft. Why was someone so evil allowed to have such good looks, when he would ruin it eventually any way? She found herself feeling bad for his looks for some reason. She was not shallow, really, but this was just cruel.
A slight quirk of his lips told her that he had once again caught her thoughts, but he showed no other signs that he was going to stop his "inspection" or comment on her thoughts.
His hand had now reached the mysterious line and it started glowing. Becoming brighter and brighter, until it engulfed him.
When the light was gone, he was too. Looking down she realized, that the line was not there anymore.
She felt a bit disappointed. She did not know why, since she knew, she should feel happy.
~oO0Oo~
He was still on the ground when the light was gone and he looked around realizing that he was back. He smirked. The witch was smart. As soon as he had gained power he would try any means to find her. She would be useful.