Unfinished Ending
She idly fingers the tiny hourglass, her fingers slipping along the familiar paths of the runes etched into it. The ability to change time. The possibility to move through different times. Time travel. She stares down at it for a moment and then watches, from outside the front window of the shop as a much younger version of herself is slipped a diary.
A part of her is tempted to make that diary disappear. If she hadn't found it in her cauldron…her life would have been normal. No dusky voice in her thoughts, always tempting her with what she can no longer have. No betrayal from her best friend. He wouldn't be able to suck her in without the diary.
But the rest of her, the bigger part, stands and watches. Does nothing. Because without that diary she would have been just like everyone else. Never knowing that such a tempting voice could exist. That someone could make her feel so…singular. Not even Harry has ever quite accomplished that. And she can't make herself move. She wants the diary to be there. She wants the little girl that was her to open the diary and start something that can't be undone.
She smiles and starts to turn the hourglass. Not enough to send her back to her time, but just enough to…yes. Perfect. She watches as her younger self walks into the girl's bathroom. A very specific bathroom. Still too young to really understand. But older now. Her younger self has aged. Her love for Tom has matured her, but the betrayal hasn't happened yet. She's about to become much older. Much, much older. But also wiser, and perhaps just a bit darker.
She kisses the hourglass and tucks it under her shirt before following in her younger self's wake. She carefully enters the Basilisk's lair. Carefully. She has to time it right, she peeks out and is glad to see her younger self slowly sinking to the ground, begging Tom in a weak voice to answer the question 'why'. Why the betrayal. How could he do such a thing when she loves him so very much?
She waits until her younger self is down on the floor, eyes unseeing and then she moves forward, watching Tom's eyes. The wary flash of recognition, and then interest.
"Have you come to save yourself? No. Perhaps you've forgotten your past?"
She smirks at him. "Something about reliving my past to get over my demons."
He smiles at her. "Is it working?"
She shrugs. "In a way."
"So you've come back to watch?"
She laughs. "I was warned not to touch; that even the best intentions often go astray."
He's curious now, and one eyebrow rises. "Have you changed anything yet?"
She shrugs. "No. I haven't seen anything that I really want to change." A lie. She wants to change so much, but not if any of it will mean the chance of a different future. A worse future.
He smirks. "So you're a silent witness?"
She nods. "It doesn't work you know."
He glances significantly at her and then down at her younger form. "Obviously. So what are you here for then?"
She rushes forward and grabs him, bringing his face millimeters from her own; his breath mingling with hers. "I came back to finish something."
He smirks and then one of his hands is curled in her hair and he crosses the small distance between them, kissing her slowly at first and then with a dark passion that leaves her breathless.
They only break away when they hear the voices from far away. People. No. Harry and Ron. Then a loud crash and more shouting. Tom looks at her and smirks again, but his eyes are sad. "And have you found your finish?"
She leans her head on his chest and breaths him in. "No. But I suspect I never will."
There are loud footfalls coming and Tom pushes her away, pushing his lips against her's in an all too quick kiss. "It's time for you to go now my heart."
She steps away form him and pulls out the Time Turner with shaking fingers. His dark eyes look directly into her's as he moves back, out of sight from Harry who is slowly coming. "I'm glad you live."
She gives him a small smile and disappears, heading back to her own time. Back to Harry, who thought of using the Time Turner to help her get over Tom's continuous influence. She'll tell him that she knows now that she was used and there was no possible way she could have prevented it. That Tom's influence over her is finally over. She'll lie.
But she'll hold the memory of his kiss to her, because he's only kissed her once before, and that was just before he stole all of her energy. So she'll hold this kiss to herself, because it was better and because now she knows. Now she knows that he will always be a part of her life. She knows what she didn't when she was younger. She knows that he is the only one who could ever have truly completed her.
But he's gone now, lost to time and only by moving backwards in it can she hope to touch him again. It is a half existence that she is willing to live now, because she has this memory. And his words. She has his dark chocolate voice in her mind once again. She has a part of him, just as he's always had a part of her.