She had to do it, it was their last hope. But when she did, she didn't expect it to have such dire, dire consequences.
Tom/Hermione. Warning: adult themes.
Excitatio - Awakening
Hermione ran like never before, stepping on broken tree branches, feeling the dirty, mangled roots snag at her jeans.
She had to do it; she had to do it now. Otherwise, it would all be too late.
She ran and ran and ran like never before.
He was in some sort of room. It was incredibly familiar; he just knew he'd been here before, though he really couldn't place it. It was different from when he'd last seen it, and surprisingly, Tom couldn't remember when he'd last seen it before. He knew he'd seen it somewhere, and it was rather startling because brilliant, intelligent Tom Riddle with his excellent memory most certainly did not forget such simple things. It irked him that he did not remember, and it annoyed him because he had never experienced such… inexperience before. He had never not known, not understood. Where had he seen this room before?
Then his eyes snapped open, and he looked around him, incredibly astonished to find himself face down on a table in the middle of the Hogwarts library. How odd. He certainly did not remember falling asleep here, most strangely, there were no books around him… it was as though he'd simply apparated to the library in the middle of his sleep. Though, Tom knew that was entirely ridiculous, apparition was impossible within Hogwarts ground, and as exceptionally talented as he was, he was rather sure that apparating whilst in the midst of sleep was beyond even his power. To his horror, though, he thought of something worse, could he have been... sleep walking?
No, no, he did not do such drastic acts, even while sleeping. It was simple, he convinced himself, he had probably stayed all night here, and had simply fallen asleep out of the pure human issue that was tiredness. Someone had probably seen him, placed the books he was reading back in their places and disappeared instantly in fear of waking the perfect, handsome Tom Riddle from his calm, and tranquil sleep . Then again, what kind of fool would simply remove Tom Riddle's reading material from him as he slept? He'd have to recall what it was that he was reading, which annoyed him, especially since it seemed like his memory had weakened entirely within the last 24 hours.
Tom Riddle stood up, feeling an odd pain on his left calf. Strange, when had that appeared? Walking towards the front of the library, Tom noticed two things.
Firstly, there was some sort of creature lying face down on the carpeted floor dressed in what looked like black and grey filthy rags, with extremely bushy, brunette colored hair that reminded him too much of Hagrid.
He bent down on one knee and eyed the person warily; it was a girl. What was she doing just lying on the floor? Why was she dressed in rags? Who was she? He was sure he'd never seen such disastrous hair wandering about the Hogwarts grounds before.
He leaned a hand forward, ready to shake her awake when suddenly, there was a tremendously loud gasp and the girl awakened dramatically, arching her body upwards. Tom was surprised to find that she was holding her wand, as if she'd been fighting with it before collapsing asleep in the middle of the library.
To Tom's complete annoyance, she rather courageously pointed her wand at his throat, and spoke in a hurried frenzy, as if time was running out, "We've won, we've won. That's it, you can't hurt anyone anymore, not after all of that you've-"
The girl paused, then, looked at Tom's face as her eyes widened. Tom, perfectly calm and composed, did not react, merely raised an eyebrow and said, "Pardon me?"
"Oh, Godric," whispered the girl, standing up almost immediately, "No, no," she hissed, looking around her in pure and utter panic, muttered something about a 'room' and a 'potion,' then hurriedly glanced at Riddle before storming out of the library as though the devil was on her tail.
The second thing Tom noticed was that the date on the calendar had read September 20th, 1944.
Suddenly, he felt oddly uncomfortable. He was sure he'd already gone through this day before..
No, no, no! Hermione shrieked out loud and ran outside the library, and almost halted her steps to find that no one was outside. What on Earth? Where was everyone? Where was the war?
This was so, so unbelievably wrong. It should have worked! This should not have happened. He should have been younger! Not-not her age.
Hermione nearly jumped when she felt a hand poke her shoulder; she whipped around so quickly she nearly lost her footing.
A tall, black haired boy with pointed features looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and a small smirk plastered on his face.
"Are you..." he began to say, but haltered momentarily upon looking at her ragged clothing. Hermione's breathing hitched at his intense stare. "Are you lost?" He asked, as if he hasn't just eyed her up and down a moment ago.
"I- no, no I'm not lost," she spoke confidently, "I'm just curious as to who you are-"
"You don't know me?" Chuckled the boy, "You must be new," he deduced.
New? What was he talking about? "I'm sorry, but I don't think I..." Hermione trailed off, not sure what to say. The boy noticed her hesitation and stuck out his hand, trying to ease her obvious discomfort.
"I should've introduced myself earlier, then," he added with a cocky smile, "My name's Emperius. Emperius Lestrange."
Riddle stormed out of the library in a clearly terrible mood. How could he possibly fall asleep in the library! And who was that filthy girl that bloody dared put a wand to his throat? How dare she!
There was one thing he knew and that was that the rest of Hogwarts would be arriving tomorrow, save for the few that returned a few days earlier, including Emperius and Abraxas. Thankfully those fools would at least have the decency not to annoy him like everything else seemed to do at the moment. He was walking towards the dungeons when he heard a familiar voice.
Riddle stopped dead in his tracks and hid unnoticed within an alcove, peering to see the all too familiar sight of Emperius and - unexpectedly - the crazy haired girl he'd encountered earlier. Naturally curious, he listened to their conversation.
"My name's Emperius. Emperius Lestrange."
Riddle did not raise an eyebrow at his follower's clearly pompous tone of voice; how completely obvious, though entirely un-amusing.
What really was amusing, however, was the look on the girl's face, eyes wide, mouth agape as if she'd just been slapped across the face upon hearing Lestrange introduce himself. He knew many a girl that found Lestrange undeniably attractive, though surely, not one girl had stared at Lestrange like this before.
Then, with all confidence, she said. "What's the date?"
Lestrange stared at her, baffled by her odd question. How could she not know the date when the first day of Hogwarts was tomorrow?
Riddle heard him mutter, "September 20th."
The girl continued to stare, "...and the year?"
Now, Riddle was entirely intrigued, who could not know what year it was?
"1944," Lestrange said.
The girl seemed so stricken she didn't move a single muscle, then, as though nothing was wrong, she smiled and said, "Oh! Silly me… I better get going, then, Lestrange, was it? Nice meeting you," and ever so quickly the girl whipped around and walked hurriedly away in the other direction.
Riddle licked his lips in thought. This day could not get any stranger.
He took a few steps forward and said, "Lestrange."
The boy whipped around, eyes wide, and stammered something unintelligible. "R-Riddle!" he announced, seeming to collect himself, "Why are you-" Lestrange paused at Riddle's stare. One does not ask Riddle questions.
"Did you want to say something to me, Lestrange?"
"I-I… no…"
"No? Is that it?"
"No, sir." Lestrange lowered his gaze.
"Emperius, that girl you were just speaking to, who was she?"
Lestrange seemed taken aback by Tom's sudden question, though answered him almost instantly, "I don't know, sir, she didn't tell me her name."
"Well then Lestrange, I guess you'll have to make up for your lack of knowledge now, won't you? I want you to find out everything you can about her, as quickly as possible."
"I- yes, sir."
"Very well." And without another word, Riddle turned the other way and walked ahead, leaving a baffled Emperius behind.
Hermione walked so quickly she bumped into someone and quite hastily, steadied herself and looked upwards to see the last person she'd expected to see, though with utter relief, she found herself whispering, "Professor Dumbledore!"
He smiled, and whispered, "And you must be Miss Granger, am I right?"
Hermioned doubled back. How on Earth did he know her name? Oh, Godric, this was worse than she thought! He knew her name. The timeline must surely be altered now! Oh Lord, what was she to do?
"Please," Dumbledore, "don't look so alarmed, Miss Granger… I was expecting you."
"H-how…? How did you-" Hermione began to say, but she just didn't know what she could say. How could he have expected her? Who could have possibly told her about her arrival here, especially since it was an entire accident? How much did he know? How could she ask him what he knew without telling him just as much?
"Miss Granger, I beg you worry not. I just want you to know that I know of your circumstances – please, do not fear. Do not worry, for I do not know a lot. Or much, at all. I'm afraid I cannot tell you how I know what I know, I just want you to be able to welcome Hogwarts as your new temporary home, yes, yes, don't look shocked, it's hard to believe, especially for me… but I know you're not from here, Miss Granger, and I am currently trying my best to help you, but until then, remaining at Hogwarts is your safest option."
Hermione tried to take this all in, she was so tired and this was all so bizarre, she found it difficult to speak, the only think she could say was "Yes, Professor, I understand… would it be alright for me to have the Gryffindor tower password? I'd like to rest until tomorrow, please, sir."
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "Not Slytherin?"
"Excuse me?"
"I was told that putting you in Slytherin would be… best, for now."
"Told by whom?" if the shock wasn't evident on Hermione's face, it was clear by her voice.
"I'm sorry, Miss Granger, but I cannot say. I'm afraid, this will have to do."
Hermione, still looking shocked, could do nothing more but sigh. At least she'd have a bed to sleep in tonight.
"Alright, Professor," she murmured, "May I have the password?"
"Gladius cruentus."
Hermione nodded, breathed heavily, and walked off.
Tom leaned on the wall, feeling the icy chill of the dungeon walls tease his spine. He hated waiting, especially for those that were beneath him. He did not know why Abraxas and Emperius were taking so long when all they had to do was evacuate their rooms and walk up the bloody common room stairs to stand before him. Slyly, he considered breaking their legs and have them climb up the stairs then, showing them that they had no excuses to be 11 minutes late to meeting him, especially when he'd been calmly lying down in his Head Boy dormitory, clearly enjoying his privacy as the Head Girl was yet to arrive, when Abraxas himself had knocked rather dramatically at his door, asking him to come to the hallway to the left of the dungeons in 10 minutes. Now, Riddle hated being ordered around as much as he hated waiting, but something in Abraxas' tone of voice actually made him feel that this may be slightly worth the bother. And so he had come here in no less than 3 minutes and waited 11 more to find that, in fact, neither Malfoy nor Lestrange had appeared.
He was about ready to curse the nearest thing – ghost, human or animal– to appear before him when suddenly; he heard footsteps coming his way.
The footsteps turned around the corner and he saw that same bushy, haired girl halt her steps upon sighting him.
She stared at him like she'd just seen a ghost.
Riddle did not falter, merely looked at her with a stare that made many girls weak at the knees. It slightly annoyed him that she did not react.
Then suddenly, a deathly scream sounded from the dungeon walls.
Hello, guys! I hope you liked my first ever Tom-Hermione fanfic! Im so excited to write this :D Please read and review and tell me what you think of this so far! I know so much is left unanswered but that's why this story's genre is part Mystery ;)
The title of the story and of the chapters are in Latin and it was all through google translate so most would not be accurate, probably. Also, the Slytherin common room password is also in Latin, meaning "bloodied sword" and it actually has a meaning behind it so it will all be revealed soon :D!