Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Harry Potter. This story is to serve as entertainment for me and hopefully for those who read it. I am making no money off of this story.

Note: The abbreviations at the top of each chapter is the point of view. LV is Lord Voldemort. HG is Hermione Granger, etc. etc.

Summary: Voldemort is finally captured by someone he doesn't suspect… Hermione Granger. But she is convinced by a tale she read in the book Dumbledore gave her that she can change him. But can she keep him contained and secret long enough? Find out.

Chapter 4: The One That Binds

(LV)

I awoke from my long sleep feeling well rested. There were no clocks in my room, but from the lack of light I could tell it was nighttime, wherever it is that I was. I could see perfectly clear in the dark, so there was no need for me to turn on any lights. For a while I just lay there on the bed, pondering everything about my situation.

I suddenly became curious as to what was in the hallway outside my door, so I threw away my blankets and rushed over to it. I had expected there to be many charms on the door, but as I opened it, nothing happened. I waited for a moment with the door cracked, listening for perhaps a guardian creature in the hall meant to keep me in my room. I had exceptional hearing, but noticed nothing, so I pushed the door open until it banged on the wall.

I leaned out the entrance of the door and gazed to my left and right to find nothing but blank white walls that made up a small room, much smaller than mine. Even the floor seemed to be cement and blank with no finish. I became bored exploring something that didn't have anything to find, so with a sigh, I returned to my room.

I jumped, for the girl was back sitting on the bed that I do not use. She had her small beaded bag sitting next to her, probably filled with food and water for me. She looked a little more distressed than usual, and her hair was slightly off, no longer smooth and curly, but wiry and a little bit out of control.

She gave me a fake smile. "Find what you were looking for?" she asked.

I slammed the door behind me, loving the way it made her jump. "No." was all I said.

I stood in front of her, leaning on the dresser, folding my arms. "What is in the bag?"

She patted her small pouch lightly. "Some things for you." she opened the bag and began pulling out items from it that clearly couldn't fit in such a small sack without the aid of magic. "I got you some soap, towels, more robes, sham-" she paused and awkwardly looked at my bald head as she pulled out a bottle of shampoo. She blushed, not to be cute, but because she was embarrassed that how foolish this made her seem. "Well, you don't have to use-"

"What about something to eat?" I asked, beginning to be impatient. My stomach churned as if it knew what I was talking about, but when I saw the brief look of surprise on her face, my growling stomach turned hot with anger. "Do you plan to starve me slowly?"

"I'm sorry." she whispered. This girl couldn't even have the decency to look me in the eyes when she said it, which made me even more angry.

"If you are going to keep me hostage here, you might as well treat me with some decency." I puffed, my anger somehow settling down once I began to see her cry. Such a weak girl, I thought to myself, but I somehow didn't believe my own thoughts.

I shook my head. What was happening to me? Why was I having such sympathy for this stupid muggle girl? She can't be that stupid, she caught and trapped you. I rolled my eyes at my own thought. I was beginning to fight within myself again, some sort of side effect from having a part of my soul die.

"I don't even know what you eat." she said as she wiped away her tear, trying to conceal it from me.

"Sugar and centaur farts! What do you think I eat?" It was like night and day with this girl. With some things she was extremely intelligent, but with common sense, there was no contest.

Hermione stood up threateningly, wand in hand, eyes bright green. She glared at me as she said the words, "You could starve for all I care! I don't have it in me to do this anymore!"

I clapped my hands with a smile. "Great, so let me out and you won't have to worry about changing me."

She threw up her hands and rolled her eyes, completely exasperated. "You are such a…" but she stopped short.

I smirked and bumped off of the dresser, walking slowly towards her. She held her ground, staring back up at me, even when I pressed into her with my folded arms, she only braced herself. She was beginning to see me as less of a threat, which rubbed me the wrong way.

In a flash, I grabbed her shoulders and threw her backwards onto the bed. Before she could fight, before she could even yelp in surprise, I was on top of her, pinning her wrists down hard, my eyes a mere inch from hers. Fear, surprise, and curiosity poured out from her like a flood, almost taking me aback by it. I had to remind her that she was the weak one; I was the one in control.

I breathed in her sweet cinnamon scent, closing my eyes, making it seem like I enjoyed it. This didn't make her more afraid, but it made her put up a completely blank slate of emotion, completely blocking me once again from feeling what she felt. She apparently knew I enjoyed her fear of me, and has now grown too stubborn and proud to let me relish in it.

"Go ahead, tell me what I am." I whispered in her ear. Her head twitched, but her eyes remained burning into mine. She bit her lip, as if trying to control her tongue. I dug my nails into the back of her wrist hard enough to make them bleed, but she wouldn't give me the satisfaction of seeing her in pain. Her stare remained blank. "You think you could call me anything I haven't been called before?" I asked.

Her face showed the slightest glimpse of sympathy. "Anybody ever call you Thomas?" she asked.

The irritation I had for this child grew into a fiery spiral of fury. I held back my anger as I addressed her question. "I am not Tom." I said simply.

"That's your name, though. Tom Riddle."

Something inside me like a snake writhed at the sound of my former muggle given name. I growled at her "That is not my name."

"Yes it is, Thomas."

I barked and fastened both of her wrists underneath my left hand. With the other, I grabbed her face, palming her chin, digging my fingers in her soft cheeks. "I am Lord Voldemort!" I yelled, pressing my face against hers. "Take a good look around, while your still alive! I'm an indestructible master of magic. I am Lord Voldemort!"

Her breathing stopped and for a moment we just stayed there, looking at each other. She wasn't letting me feel any of her emotions but her face read that she was ashamed.

Be-beep. Be-beep.

I was done reasoning with this child. I got up off of her and went into the bathroom and slammed the door. I did not look into the giant mirror mimicking my horrifying body, I just sat on the toilet, elbows on my knees, face in my hands. I ignored the protesting ache of my stomach.

Hermione didn't try to say goodbye, she didn't try to knock or say she was sorry. She simply just left.

(HG)

I apparated to find myself face to face with Harry outside the tent. This didn't surprise him, though, so he must have been waiting for my return. I had so many emotions rushing through me, but I couldn't let Harry see any of them.

"Uh, hi!" I said sheepishly.

The look on Harry's face was grim. "I have found another horecrux."

I was taken aback. "What? How-"

"You're not the only one who can apparate without anyone else knowing." he grumbled taking my wrist and leading me into the woods.

It was beginning to rain and the dead leaves and dirt of the ground began to form a thick mush. It was dawn, the sky glowed pink and orange between the black gnarled tree branches.

"Where is Ron?" I asked but Harry gave no response. I was starting to worry. What if something happened to him? "Harry please talk to me."

Harry whirled around, his grip on my wrist tightened, aching the cuts that Voldemort had already dug in me. I yelped in pain before Harry could yell at me. He relaxed his grip and turned my wrist around, looking at them to see the small fingernail marks the Dark Lord inflicted on me. "How did you get those?" he asked, looking at me with worry.

"Harry, I can't tell you." I gave him a pleading look with my eyes. I knew if he would find out about what I was doing, he would kill Voldemort the first chance he got.

Harry bit his tongue. I knew he was growing tired of my secrets, and I could understand why. I felt halfway insulted that they had gone without me and found another horecrux. I kept feeling more and more distant from my friends and closer to their enemy.

"So where's this horecrux?" I asked, breaking the silence.

Harry paused, looking like he wanted to say something. For a few seconds, he just looked in my eyes and I had a flashback of when I was looking into Voldemort's eyes. They both had the same emotion in them: apathy. My stomach felt sick and my heart leapt into my throat.

"What happened to Ron?"

I began to run, even though I was running in the wrong direction. We had wasted so much time just talking and walking. Harry began to run too, guiding me to where Ron and the horecrux were.

In a clearing, on the edge of where our protection spells were cast to hide us, was Ron. I screamed in horror at what I saw.

Nagini was wrapped tightly around Ron's sides, her head staring into his eyes, waiting for him to die. Ron's face was red, almost as red as his hair, and he had a contorted look of fear. It was as though they were extremely detailed statues, neither one moved, they were just frozen in time. A very smart move of Harry to do, but why hadn't he just killed the snake?

"So, Nagini is a horecrux?" I asked.

"No, it's a small jewelry box that Ron has in his pocket. It belonged to Voldemort's mother." he said. "But Ron has the sword too. I froze them so I could get the sword out, but I couldn't, she has him wrapped too tightly."

"You can't move them? Maybe unwind her?" I suggested, feeling pressed for time. I wondered how long they could stay like that before Ron would die from lack of oxygen.

"No, she is just as powerful being still as she is in real life.""Alright, well, unfreeze them." I said urgently.

Harry raised his wand and gave me a quick look before he uttered the words to release them from his spell. It was as though they were statues that came to life. Nagini hissed and twirled in a violent blur while Ron was being suffocated, barely able to even scream. He struggled, throwing his hair about, but Nagini was so enormous, she could have wrapped him up in her entire body with more snake to spare.

"Stupefy!" I yelled with passion.

The spell bounced off of Nagini and blasted into a tree on the outside of the clearing, rocketing it to the ground with a loud crack. I was bewildered. My spell clearly had hit right into her thick side, how could it have just simply bounced off like that?

"Reducio!" I tried.

The spell had the same effect. It just simply ricocheted off of the giant snake and into another tree, making it become into a much tinier tree, almost like a stick in the ground.

"Obscuro!" Harry tried

Still nothing.

"Incendio!"

"Furnunculus! Expulso! Evanesco! Crucio!" Harry muttered any and every spell he could possibly think of to harm Nagini, with all of them bouncing off, and some of them flying so close to me that I had to dodge them.

This simply wasn't working. Every effort we made to harm, make disappear, or do anything to Nagini wasn't working. She must have been protected by the aid of Voldemort's magic. There was no way to touch her. We were going to have to try a different approach.

"Reducio!" I yelled again. This time I wasn't aiming for the snake. The spell hit Ron right in the head, causing him to instantly shrink to about the size of a toddler, giving him a chance to break free from the snake. I knew this wouldn't be enough though, so I ran up to her while she was distracted and jumped onto where her neck would be as best as I could, trying to wrap my arms around her jaw.

She thrashed and bucked and protested with loud hisses. I felt like a rag doll being thrown about. With every throw I had to right myself and cling onto her to distract her long enough to let Ron run away. Nagini threw herself into a tree in an attempt to knock me off. It twirled me around her body so that I was facing her bottom jaw. Spells whizzed by me as she thrashed to get me off of her. She rose her head up and slammed down with full force, smashing me into the ground. I was dazed, everything around me turned into white specked dots and I couldn't breathe. I tried clinging onto her but she was just too strong. Her smooth scales slunk out from my grasp and I could hear Ron and Harry screaming at me to run. The world was beginning to take its shape around me. I saw the sky, now yellow and blue above. I felt the breeze on my skin, chilling me as it flowed like water. It was like the calm before the storm.

Enormous pressure struck my left shoulder and as I screamed, I was twirling around, tightly being bound with the thick body of Nagini. I tried inhaling all that I could, but she squeezed me so hard that my lungs would surely pop. I breathed out all of my air with a loud painful moan. The pressure soon turned into pain as my body realized that Nagini had indeed bit me on my shoulder and refused to let go. One of my feet stuck out between the lengths of her body and I began to feel it being pulled in an odd direction as she coiled herself around me. I couldn't scream, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move. I could just feel the dull crack of my ankle as she broke it sending throbbing pain searing up my body. My mouth felt as though all wetness from it suddenly evaporated and it became dry. My eyes began to feel pressure behind them, which made me begin to panic. I had seen enough of Animal Planet to remember that before you die, your eyes pop out and every bone in your body breaks.

As if on cue, Nagini bit down harder onto my shoulder and I felt it crack underneath her strong jaw. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. I tried wildly to breathe, but had no room.

I saw Ron (now back to his normal size) and Harry give up the use of their wands and jumped onto the snake to attack it. As they jumped, I could feel the added pressure on me, my left hand cracked and folded into itself more than it could naturally, creating even more pain. My face was hot and wet with tears.

I felt a pull behind my naval that didn't seem in place. The beautiful blue and white sky ran like ink on a page and suddenly I saw pink and yellow wallpaper. I had apparated back into the hotel room! Nagini must have been squeezing me so hard that she hit the button on my watch to make me apparate! But there was a problem…

Nagini, Ron, Harry, and I had all apparated into the hotel room together…

Next Chapter: Will Voldemort call off his precious Nagini to save Hermione, or will he use this chance to escape from the hotel room with Harry, Ron, or Hermione's wand? Find out!

A.N. Sorry, it took me so long to update this chapter, but the one I had been writing and finished just didn't fit into the story very well so I started over and made this one. Hope you like it, and thanks to everyone who reviewed so far. J