Disclaimer: all names you've seen before do not belong to me.

Author's notes: hello, yes it's a new chapter. this one hasn't been betad yet. I'm sry for the long wait. this is a long chapter b/c of that reason. It was hard to write this one chapter b/c as a writer i feel i have a duty to separate this fic from others and having honestly not read many tr/hg fics, i have to say i had no idea what i was getting into. anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter. i will try my best to update asap, and again, sry for the delay.

Drawing Borders

"What are you doing here?"

The words echoed off the walls, reverberating down the empty hall, fading into whispers of the shadows and darkness.

How could this have happened? How could she have been so careless? All it took was a few more turns of a dial and she could have prevented everything! Saved everyone! But now…

Now, everything was so complicated…

Exactly how complicated, Hermione wasn't given time to ponder, as she was thrown head-first against a wall, hitting it with such a resounding smack that made her head swim and her knees buckle.

She sank helplessly to the floor, strength escaping as prolonged hunger and stress took its toll. Tiny shards of glass and sand trailed her movements.

Nevertheless, she turned to glare defiantly at the boy standing before her, wand in hand. Defenceless or not, baby or not, she would kill him. It could even be better this way, since now she would feel less remorse in killing a teenage Riddle.

He's a monster or at least he will become one if I don't stop him.

A red beam of light suddenly shot towards her, with Hermione scrambling out of its way, as it bounced off the wall, missing her right ear by a mere inch. She glanced back again to see Riddle with his own wand out, pointed at her heart.

He opened his mouth to say something but Hermione didn't give him a chance. With reflexes honed from the dozens of battles, she quickly dodged behind a statue of Helga Hufflepuff and shot her own Stunning spell at him, forcing her opponent to find cover behind one of the marble pillars.

"You are trespassing on Hogwarts property!"

The words were barely out of his mouth when Hermione managed to hit him with the Chokehold Curse. Riddle immediately began gasping for breath, but not before he rasped out a well- aimed curse back in her direction, effectively hitting her with his own spell.

It was a complicated hex which she threw off with some difficulty.

She looked across the hall to see that Riddle had also successfully fought off her spell, though he was now looking at her with a very peculiar glint in his eyes. The murderous glare from before had disappeared, replaced by an expression, if it was at all possible, even more dangerous and fearsome.

It was an expression that reminded her of Lucius Malfoy's face before she had escaped, one of pure hunger. But in Riddle's eyes, there was also the calculating shrewdness of Snape, an unseen potency.

His duelling skills surprised her. He was clearly a strong adversary, despite his inexperience compared to her own, and Hermione grudgingly admitted that she had underestimated him, even with her knowledge that she was fighting the future Dark Lord.

For all her battle experience, it seemed this duel would end in a stalemate, though it was hardly a fair fight, as she was running on exhaustion, starvation and, not to mention, threat of psychosis. But, no doubt Riddle was hiding his true talents and would have other powerful spells and Dark Arts knowledge in his reserve.

That would not stop her from trying. Gryffindors were known to be reckless, after all.

She was just about to aim another curse at him when—

"Tom! What in Merlin's name…what do you think you are doing?"

Both occupants of the room turned to see the entrance of a short, balding elderly wizard Hermione recognized from the Headmaster's Portraits as Armando Dippet.

Old Dippet looked from Hermione to Tom, and then back again, clearly stupefied and confused. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small curl of the lips from the boy beside her and knew.

She was in big trouble.

Darkness reigned throughout the manor, dim flickers of candlelight providing the only source of light in the small, ice-cold room.

Softly, the door creaked open, its intruder stepping fearfully into the room, shivering from head to toe, though not from the cold. His tremulous voice spoke out, though he himself remained in the shadows of the room, choosing to remain obscure rather than suffer the wrath of the room's inhabitant.

"M-M-My Lord."

There was no response, but the man continued on, unable to stop the rush of words as they poured out in one slur.

"The g-girl, she ran from us, my lord, and-"

"You failed."

The figure in the shadow quivered, knowing what was to come.

"Yes."

"Does she know?"

"M-my lord?"

Red- slits for eyes fixed themselves towards the corner of the room with the man, narrowing dangerously.

"Does she know?"

"N-no, my lord. I do not believe so."

"You are free to go, Nott. It is not you who has displeased me...send Lucius to me."

"Yes, my lord."

A quick nodd, and Nott was rushing out the door, relief written in every crease of his aged visage. He didn't know what the Dark Lord could possibly want with Potter's whore but whatever it was he was not about to risk life and limb to ever pose the question to his master.

Nott walked down the hall of Riddle Manor. Now, if only he could find Malfoy...

Hermione sat in the armchair of the Headmaster's Office, glaring angrily across the table at the black-haired, green- eyed boy who reminded her too much of another certain someone with similar attributes.

"How could the same coloured eyes appear so warm in one person and so cold in another", she thought vehemently.

It really wasn't fair how the gods mocked her by replacing the image of her best friend with the image of the enemy. An enemy she would have to soon kill, nevertheless.

"No," Hermione huffed inwardly, "it most definitely wasn't fair," as Tom Riddle smiled at her charmingly and something in Hermione's chest gave an involuntary flutter that definitely wasn't nervousness for getting into trouble.

With dark wavy locks that fell effortlessly into beautiful, forest green eyes, Hermione reluctantly admitted that Tom Riddle was very handsome. He looked like a dark angel, commanding awe and admiration for his beauty, yet respect, reverence and fear for the darkness brooding within.

She now understood what Harry had meant when he had told her that Tom Riddle was found very attractive by all the girls of his time, whereas she had previously scoffed, convinced that no male could be that good-looking.

There was a shroud of mystery encompassing Riddle that enticed and beckoned. The intensity of his eyes as he gazed upon them could make any girl blush; as if he could see your inner-most thoughts and feelings with one glance.

Mentally wincing at the train of her thoughts, Hermione forced herself to think about anyone else, anything else but the boy sitting across from her, who was currently gazing at her with obvious interest and amusement, the corners of his mouth forming a smirk Hermione was quickly growing to hate.

The door opened to admit Armando Dippet as he strode back into the office with Professor Dumbledore in tow. For the first half hour after Dippet had found them, Hermione had tried to explain to the old Headmaster that she was not an evil spy sent by Grindewald with motives of springing a surprise attack upon Hogwarts.

When caught, Riddle's explanation of Hermione's presence within the school as a spy had initially made her laugh aloud for the implausibility of such an event. Until she had turned to Dippet, that is, and seen his stony and severe expression.

She had then blubbered and protested until Professor Dumbledore had come across them. Thinking quickly, she' d used Legilimency to tell this younger Dumbledore of her plight, knowing that he was her only chance, and he had charitably decided to help her by forming an alibi about her being an immediate transfer student whose parents had recently moved here from some remote part of the world for reasons they'd prefer to keep quiet.

Dumbledore had then attributed Hermione's sudden arrival with an excuse about old age and having forgotten their appointment, asked Dippet for forgiveness and to allow Hermione a placement within the school.

After being assured she was indeed not a notorious Dark wizard's spy, Dippet happily welcomed Hermione to Hogwarts with open arms. During the entire event, Tom Riddle had been present, sitting quietly in the office but listening to every word exchanged with a bemused smile.

It was obvious Headmaster Dippet trusted Riddle far more than he ought to. Even when Dumbledore had suggested Riddle go off to bed, Dippet had waved off the suggestion impatiently and allowed him stay. He even asked him to give her a tour of the school and to help her out in her classes.

Hermione almost snarled at the reminder.

The last thing she needed was to spend more time with Tom Riddle. She wanted to kill him, she needed to kill him, and spending more time with him might weaken her resolve.

"Well, Ms. Cacher, that will be all for now. Tom will show you to the Hospital Wing. I am afraid you'll have to spend the night there until you are Sorted tomorrow. I wish you luck, goodnight!"

Dismissed, Hermione turned on her heels and left the room with a bow to both elders, leaving Riddle in her wake.

"Hey! Wait!"

Not bothering to listen, she turned the corner and headed towards the Hospital Wing, until it suddenly struck her that she was not supposed to know her directions. Defeated, she turned back to find Riddle galloping down the office steps towards her.

"Jane!"

"I don't know where the Hospital Wing is."

He smiled charmingly again and Hermione swore her heart missed a beat before berating herself mentally. What was he doing to her?!

"I'll show you the way."

They walked together, Tom slightly in front, as he was leading. Turning back, he tried to begin a conversation.

"Look, Jane, about earlier, I really did think you were some spy here and well, being a Prefect and all, I have a duty to protect the students from outsiders."

"And that includes attacking anyone inside the castle you don't recognize?"

Unable to get rid of her, it seemed he was now determined to make a good impression so as not to lose his perfect Prefect image in the eyes of everyone else.

He was trying to befriend her so it would shut her up about his earlier actions.

Well, she'd be damned if she'd let that happen. Hermione Granger was going to make sure everyone would see just how foul he really was.

Tom turned to look at her. It was clear he was forcing composure from the way his jaw was clenched. Hermione had seen the same action done too many times by Snape, or even Harry not to notice. Riddle was obviously not used to having people refute or defy him in any manner.

They had reached the Hospital Wing and Hermione turned to look at him directly in the eyes.

"Look, I really don't care what you have to say. We both know you did that on purpose, so there's no point in covering it up. Just stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours."

With that, Hermione turned the brass knob and opened the door to the Hospital Wing. She stepped inside and turned to close the door, only to see him looking at her with an expression of candid earnest. Oh, he was good.

"But I'd like it if we could be friends."

Hermione scoffed.

"Right, and why would the great Tom Riddle want to be friends with a common Mudblood? Goodnight Tom."

Without giving him the time to reply, Hermione Granger closed the door in his face.