Author Warning: This story will be compromised of bite-sized chapters. Some will be longer than others, but none of them will be horribly long. The chapters will not flow seamlessly from one moment to the next - I will jump from one significant moment to another. This method of story-telling can be annoying, I know; however, I hope you find my characterization and fluff of an unusual relationship to be worth it.
For Hermione Granger, the moment that begun her association with Tom Riddle was one where he wasn't even there...
It was an accident.
One moment she was in 1998, as safe and as happy as someone struggling to defeat a Dark Lord could be, and the next she was gone. There was nothingness, terrifying, like death, and then she was back again in an empty classroom.
It was a complete accident.
Someone tripped while carrying a potion while she'd been walking back to her desk in the opposite direction. She'd been covered in blue, sticky liquid and their cauldron had knocked up against her chest... shattering two of Hermiones most prized possessions: a single vial of Felix Felicis and her Timeturner.
It was a fluke, really.
An unfortunate mixing of magic and a dash of luck had found Hermione Granger back in time, transported back before her own birth. She was lost, because there was no way to go forward in time – many wizards smarter than she had tried to move forward with no success.
Hermione enrolled herself back into Hogwarts, learned about the era she was now a reluctant part of, and resolved to find a way back to her own time.
There was no war here. There were no friends or family here. There was no copy of herself to avoid. She was free to live peacefully while she tried to get home; except, of course, for the fact that a young Tom Riddle was still puttering around... that wouldn't matter, she wouldn't call attention to herself... the whole thing was surreal enough that she somehow convinced herself that she'd probably never cross paths with him, anyway.
