THE FIRST TIME HE SAW HER...
…He saw her in Potter's memories. A joyful, laughing Hermione. So different from the one he lerned to know and this broght jelousy in him. He was angry, because her past, or future, with him were nothing but passion and silence.
She didn't spoke much, and at the time, he was thankful. He only needed a discraction after all, not conversion.
They never touched important matters, for exemple what he was going to become or why on earth they kept meeting.
He never really questioned why she came back, but now the question was more important and difficult then ever.
Why, knowing the moster he was on his way to become in fifty years, she came back?
She surely never wanted to change him, because she never spoke of the future nor of his intentions and ideas.
So he kept thinking, reliving the memories of Tom Riddle in his mind.
THE SECOND TIME HE SAW HER...
...She was again in Potter's memories. He was mumbling something about not knowing anything about love.
He would've laughed at that but he realized that throught the love that Potter had for his friends he was resisting him.
So he left.
There was no point in continuing a battle that was already lost.
He understood that night something else: if he wanted to succed Dumbledore had to go.
THE THIRD TIME HE SAW HER...
...She looked at him in a way that told him she already used the Time Turner without Dumbledore's permission and she went back too much. Se went back fifty years.
To him.
He held her gaze but did not invate her mind. Bella came from behind him and shot a curse at her. He turned and sent the witch flying away until she hit the wall, losing consciousness and falling on the ground like a ragged doll.
He neared the curly girl and carefully lowered himself near her.
Blood was puring from her side and he neck. He whispered a few spells and the cuts closed themselves interrupting the flow of blood.
"I apologize, my dear. Bellatrix can be incredibly rude."
She sat up and looked at him in a way he found he detested.
"Look out!" she shouted pointing behind him.
A shot of red light was thrown from his wand to the Third Year that thought he could take te Dark Lord down. He didn't even bother to look, his red eyes fixed of Hermione.
"Is he dead?"
"No," he said faking costernation. "I'm not rude."
He could tell that she was going to smile if it weren't for his appearence. She would've laughed if he wasn't Lord Voldemort.
"I'm sorry for the hurt I'm going to cause you," he said.
She looked at him surprised but said nothing. He met her eyes and saw that he was allowed in. He thought her Legilimency and he knew that even from the beginning she could easily shield him.
But even if his skills were far better now compared to his school years, he decided to respect her mind.
The contact alone was a pleasant sensation and her eyer somehow lacked disgust and horror now.
"Are you going to kill me?" she asked.
"No, of course not. Why would I take you away from Tom Riddle?"
"How do you know I'm going back?"
"Are you planning on not going?"
"I don't know," she said softly not tearing her eyes away from him.
I'm sorry, my dear, but I didn't know better.
She looked at him surprised to hear his thougts in her mind, so she shielded it from him blocking every way in.
He indulged no further.
THE FOURTH TIME HE SAW HER...
...He met her eyes from the other side of the Great Hall. She opened her eyes and let memories fall.
She showed him the late nights in the Prefects Bathroom or the ushed moments in the Boat House. She remembered every detail and every soud. Every touch was confused with the next.
She showed him how she came to love that ambitious boy.
She showed and spoke and in a single istant they sared eternity. T
he one Tom riddle was not getting.
At last her mind freed every boundries and she showed him on important moment: of her, of Tom Riddle and on how she ended up loving him.
He never knew that. He always thought that what she felt for him was nothing but lust. A consuming, addicting, and excruciating lust.
He never knew she loved him.
He wished he did back then, because things would've gone so much differently.
He knew that the next time she was going to visit him, Tom Riddle would kill her and then bury her far away where nobody would care to watch. Where her body was safe from his enemies and most importantly her future.
Don't go to him. He will kill you.
Her eyes filled with tears but as hard as it was to see him, she kept her gaze locked with his.
I know.
If he had a heart, he would've heard it break at that moment. So he imagined peace and it had only one face.
Bury me with you, where I have buried you.
The Elder Wand flew out of his hand and everything ended with a decisive thud.
THE LAST TIME SHE SAW HIM
She had to fight to get hold of his body.
They were going to burn it, and let every proof of his existence dissappear with his ashes.
But she convinced Harry, in the end, to let her bury him in a far place, where no one would think to look so that nobody can come to ravage his body.
He had a portkey on him when he died so she activated it when nobody saw.
She hated goodbyes and was determined not to have any. No more losses were needed.
Too many were wept and missed, she surely did not deserve any of their mourning.
Her tombstone was in green marble and it said:
Hermione Granger
Time-Traveller
Always Beloved
She almost laughed. She buried him beside her and carved another incription in the stone:
Tom Riddle
Wizard
Always Remembered
Well, nothing else could be said.
She had no time to cry. But she would have.
"Let's fill the space beside you, shall we, Tom?"
She set the Time-Turner fifty years from then.