Hello after a while ! I thank you all for all your lovely reviews, favs and follows you don't imagine how much they mean ! I hope you like it !

CHAPTER IV

The witch, The lake and The Sun

In all of her short life, Hermione Granger lived through many strange and frightening nights.

Dark the night was, dark her dreams were, and dreaded was the coming morning.

The creature had wanted to keep her, keep her in the obscurity of the caves. It had taken her in the depths of Salazar Chambers, in places where time had stopped and where the light could only exist in memory.

There, the only light came from piles of golds and jewels scattered in golden pyramids. She had asked the creature how it came in possession of such a tresor. And it admitted his taste for collecting, and its love for shining things, things just like the stone on her arm, but never as pretty, never as entrancing as this dark gem anchored in her flesh.

Like many nights, Hermione had been afraid. But for the first time, she had been alone.

Being alone in the dark was the only thing she felt her heart couldn't bear. So she compelled the basilisk to stay with her voice, asking it questions and accepted to be taught by the old beast.

And in this horrid dreams, between cruel tales and stories of the old, rolling on its fork tongue, she found the most terrifying of the truth.

§§§

Tom Riddle had lived through many frightening nights.

His entire life would appear to some as a succession of nightmares. And not to be swallowed by them, he became their master, weaving their scenario and molding the dark dreams to his liking.

Darkness was not unknown to him, neither was loneliness, and as a consequence, the dreadful atmosphere of Salazar Slytherin's was a comforting familiarity to him.

As he penetrated in its den, the deepest part of the Chambers, he saw it, the Creature, surrounding a pile of gold and above it, her, the stone. She was asleep or unconscious above it, hers wirsts adorned with gold engraved bands, and in her wild curls pins made of jewels rested, never seeming more in their place than here. With her golden skin and brown curls, she seemed to be the only light in the room.

The chamber's beast was no beast, for he had already met monsters, and none of them had poisonous eyes, a forked tongue and immense teeths. True monsters knew how to smile, and sported the most human face, they blended into commonness and hided their wickedness behind blunt nails and teeths.

"Issssn't it fitting ?" The creature spoke, its eyes never leaving the feminine figure above her tresor. "You left me alone more than a year since you last called me. Since you last closed the chambers. You grew up master. You became more handsome. But I couldn't see it, here in the dark."

As he held her, walking in the corridor, he felt his mind put itself at rest.

He could always levitate her, but he didn't want to. Often she stirred in her sleep, turning her head, and beating the air with her legs. Fighting something, trying to escape it. As if even in her sleep she tried to run, to escape him. And even through her dreams he would search for her, run after her and grasp her.

"Be careful, Master. Many men became mad for the Stone. I understand it now. There was so much light in her gaze...So much light, that for a moment, this place didn't seem so dark."

It was the first time he heard it in the voice of such a mighty creature. Desperation.

"I enjoy speaking to her" continued the creature. "She wasn't afraid to look into my eyes. As if she had already met my gaze before. If you let her come back to me sometimes, I would protect her. I could teach her again, she listens so well. When I told her how lonely I was, she looked at me like she understood me. She then sat and listened to me, and even fell asleep, with me. I'll give her back, but let her come back to me sometimes master.

He tightened his hold, and she stopped moving, her head dangling from neck. Her skin seemed to shine like gold, and and her hair like copper, wetting his arm and tickling his hand. And just like that, the obscure corridor and the night gloom just didn't seem so dark anymore.

§§§

When Hermione woke up from her obscure dreams, the night was gone but she was yet again in an unknown place. The ceiling was of a sophisticated and cream color, and around her the covers were softer than anything she had ever been into. Green and silver surrounded her, and in a discret and elegant way the Slytherin crest was drawn on various places of the walls. The room was wide and open, the furnitures made of an almost black wood, and on the ebony floor rested expensive carpets made on the model of persian ones and whoses intricates drawings moved, floating on it. A snake moved from its place and stopped in front of her, his deep red tongue coming out of his mouth.

She looked at it for a moment before the events of the night came to her mind again. The basilisk, the darkness, the tunnel...She had fallen asleep there, listening to it and to its tales of a magical world who had already passed. And still his hissing words followed her and rang like truths in her mind.

Tell me little hallow, why do the Sun dwell in the darkness of the Sky ?

She raised a tired hand to her forehead. How did she came here ? She only remembered her dreams. Dreams of a shadow running after her, searching for her, grasping her...Had the shadow found her yet ?

Because he is pleased with being the sole light of the world. He does not like the darkness, he does not like the cold. He merely uses them as a canvas to paint his glory through flames. Some find him vain and cruel and imagine a peaceful and cool sky without his ruthless light. But they forget that without his cruel fire our sky would not have a purpose or a sense, and we would see no sun or stars. The Sun is the master of the Sky.

Hermione gripped the door's handle, getting out of the room. She then went down the stairs, her eyes tiredly taking the dark green colored tapestry and the argent colored ornaments on the wall. The stairs gave on what looked like...A common room. Slytherin's Common Room ? Even in the daylight, some kind of darkness inhabited it, and the Common room's fireplace was roaring with strangely cold looking flames.

She found her heart clenching at this sight. The day was finaly here but everything was still cold and dark and even the fire gave no warmth. She was so sick of darkness. In front of it were luxurious sits of dark green color and several students scattered into little groups, but all stopped their discussion and turned to her as soon as her footsteps were heard on the marble stairs.

What a sight she had to be before them she thought with a bitter smile. Her hair were still drenched, about as much as her hospital gown, and they fell on her back and before her eyes heavily. In comparison, the members of the young group before her were just as perfect as young nobles should be. With their perfectly ironed clothes and and combed hair, her eyes traveled to the group of girls and to their artistically styled vintage curls framing doll-like face. But just like the fire, theses powdered face gave no warmth, no light, and something dark was roaring in their youthful gaze.

She slowly pursued her descent, determined to leave this awful place and return to the hospital Wing. As she passed, her wet and bare feet almost curling at the contact of the carpet, a feminine voice rose.

"It seems that the stray has left its Master's room..."

Hermione stopped immediately and slowly turned to the girl who had just talked. She had the most intricate updo, her blond hair framing her pale face in a lovely way. Blond...Her face was just like the female sneering one of an all too familiar Slytherin. Weren't they the same ? Spoiled. Ignorant. Contemptuous.

She saw another female student trying to shush the one who had just talk as she continued "What else would you want me to call her ? She was found wandering in the Forbidden Forest like a savage beast and she doesn't even have a wand...How can we even be sure that she is a civilized witch ?"

Hermione felt her fists tighten as she looked at the girl. Of course, this noble pureblooded witch didn't respect her. People like her never did. In the place of weariness, a sudden wave of anger started seeping through her blood like boiling water, humming inside her and filling her from the tip of her hair to her toes. Often she had felt this anger, this righteous anger in front of the living embodiements of her life's injustice. Not a witch enough. Not a muggle. A freak. Not even worth a look. Disgusting to touch. All of the insults thrown to her since she was eleven years old seemed to flood her mind and the golden bracelets felt like shackles above the burning stone on her wirst. The stone was oozing and dreeping its dark energy in and out of her, whispering obscure and unintelligible things.

The stone is vain.

Of course, such a vain, vain thing would hate to be despised. But at this moment, the witch hated it too. She didn't want to breath and suppress it, she didn't want to count to ten and control it. She had always repressed this anger through her life and she didn't want to anymore. After all what was there to lose ? She didn't have anything anymore. Her pride was the only thing she had left, and the day where she would let be stomped on by this girl's rotten feet hadn't come yet.

The blond witch before her rose a perfectly plucked eyebrow as she asked "My, my...What's with this look ?"

Hermione straightened and kept her eyes on the witch. And just like that, her fist flew into the powdered face harder than it ever had. The satisfaction coursed her when she felt the bones break. From this point everything happened really quickly, Hermione felt a young man behind her trying to restreign her as the young lady female companions where rushing to help her.

She should have stopped there. She wanted to stop there. But the anger flowing through her was burning even harder. She hadn't proven to them. She hadn't showed them how wrong it was to look at her like that. She fiercely elbowed the student restraining her, stepping on his foot and headbutting him violently before running toward the girl again. Her friends turned towards her with high-pitched screams, drawing their wands at her. Before they had the time to pronounce a word she kicked one in the stomach and gripped the other by the hair throwing her on the ground with rage.

The Common Room was dead silent, and the eyes of its students fixing her with a burning gaze. No one uttered even a whisper as they were waiting for her next move.

Hermione slowly looked at the three wands on the ground and bent over to pick them. She approached the girls. "You can insult me...But here I am. And here you are. I, the wandering savage, sent you, the civilized witch on the ground without even using a wand. The best thing about it, is that the fact that I am a wandering savage with no wand doesn't have any importance anymore. The only thing important is that you are on the ground and that I am still standing up."

She looked at the wands for a long moment before taking them in her two hands, and breaking them over her knee. She tossed the remaining at the girls and raised her brows in a mocking way.

"And the saddest thing is that without theses little sticks you, dear perfectly civilized witches, aren't worth anything anymore. But that even without it, I. Am. Still. Standing. Up."

The witch turned her heels and stopped before the others Slytherins, who had silently massed themselves behind her to see. She furrowed her brow and said drily "Move."

Ever so slowly, they made way for her, and in their eyes was exactly what she had desired. Respect. As she left the common room, the stone was burning on her in a content and warming way, as if for the first time, they understood each other.

§§§

"Where. is. She ?"

"I am sorry my Lord, things happened so quickly and she just escaped me..."

"How can a young woman with no wand present so much difficulty to guard tell me ?" Tom Riddle all but hissed, his handsome features darkening quickly as his grip on his wand was tightening.

Eugene Travers was almost flustered as he said in a low tone "She was hitting other girls in the room and I tried to stop her but she...hit me. In the muggle way. She was gone before I could collect myself. "

"Legimens."

The scene appeared bright and clear in the mind of Tom. He saw her living the Prefect's Room, and going down the stairs. And then he saw Eleonora Tripe, the grandniece of Magenta Black née Tripe as she liked to recall it, questionning her degree of civilisation in a less than polite way.

And then, her, The stone, whoses eyes burning with anger seemed to burn right through his mind. How magnificient was her anger, how rich was her violence. She hit the witches as if she was in a war, as if it was a battle to survive. There was so much passion in each of her movement that he asked himself how she was not exploding in it.

He knew what she just did. And as he heard her, claiming her victory, an almost giddy feeling coursed in him. She understood it too. That was the only thing they could comprehend. This was the only way to survive, the world attacked and hit, and you could either take it and become its footboard or making it submit to become yours.

Tom Riddle had understood it at an early age, but she had understood it too.

"Master..."

The dark-haired wizard simply rose his wand, the young Slytherin in front of him falling on the ground with a broken scream of pain. He passed a hand in his silky hair, and looked at the body in front of him contorted itself under the pain, his polished cufflink shining just as much as the awfully charming smile raising his lips.

A breathless laugh escaped him and he let himself take support on the cold wall behind him. Of course, she had understood it too.

Yes. I do recognize you.

Her clear and feminine voice rang in his head as he continued to laugh. She understood. She saw him. He wasn't this greedy shadow following trying to grasp her in the realm of dreams anymore. And now...Her rage-filled eyes burned in his mind, this proud, proud gaze which refused to accept contempt. This satisfied gaze buzzing contentedly at the sight of the bodies on the ground.

Now, he saw her too.

§§§

She had to escape this place.

How...

Her wet feet stuck on the cold floor of the corridor at each of her quick steps and her long hair were like whips against her back.

The corridors were almost empty in this early hour and she had to act fast before they filled themselves with students. Before he found her.

Even in the darkness of the night and guarded by a beast, he had found her. As her thoughts were colliding in her mind, she started to run. Even in her dreams, he had found her. All of it was because of this cursed stone.

Even the Sky needs a master...Why wouldn't you little hallow ?

The great doors were still open and she passed through them running, not daring to look behind her and search for a shadow following her. Still the voice of the basilisk rang in her mind, the hissing tone vibrating with amusement as it unveiled tales which felt like truths.

Her feet met the grass as her feverish and searching gaze met the dark lake. She would bury it. If she could not destroy it, she would bury it. Just like the snake hidden and burried in the dark with his perfid words. She too would bury the stone in water and drown to the pit of the wizarding world with its power and secrets.

She walked into the water, advancing toward her tomb, shivering from the touch of the cold liquid. When the water arrived to her shoulders, she took a deep breath and submerged herself opening her eyes to the darkness of its depths. The water looked to be of a dark green color, murky and sinister, to the point that even the light of the newborn day couldn't bring light to it. Under her feet she saw only darkness, opening themselves, desiring to swallow her whole. The stone started to burn her but even its light couldn't brighten enought her surrounding. Even so, her right wirst started to raise itself, as if attracted by the surface.

Before she could close her eyes she felt something grasp her wirst, raising her in a strong hold out of the water. And before she could even comprehend it, she was coughing water on the tender grass surrounding hogwarts. Her breath was short as she rose her eyes to the figure of tall figure of Tom Riddle. He was as wet as her, but very unfairly, he seemed even more handsome like this. His carefully combed hair fell, wet and drenched on his face, ringlets of water caressing his perfect features and surrounding his blazing eyes. Burning eyes. Anger dwelled in them, like a lake of fire.

The Sun is the Master of the Sky.

A broken laugh started to escape from her mouth. The shadow had found her. And the shadow never was a shadow. Looking at his statuesque form from the ground, everything made so much more sense. It was the sun, the light of the day following her, opening and desiring to swallow her whole, to destroy her in his flames. Her laugh transformed into sobs as merciless hands rose her to her feets, keeping her in an heavy grasp.

"What did you try to do ?" and his anger was colder than the lake water. It was lurking and boiling, waiting to explode and swallow her. She was going mad.

"It doesn't have any importance what I tried to do ! I couldn't because of you ! It's always you ! Why ?! Why would the sky need a Sun ?! I will not give you the power to become the Sun of this World ! I'll bury it even if I have to bury myself with it ! There will be no Sun, no purpose, no...no, no..."

The claw like hands became feather light as Hermione let herself fall to her knees in the tender grass. The angry voice became enticing and caressing as he followed her lead and let himself get on the grass to her level.

"What Sun ? What do you mean, dear hallow, have you seen me become a Sun to this world ?"

She fought against his grasp before raising an accusing finger, needing to let the world fall from her mind before it exploded.

"I have seen you burning this world and destroying everything you touch ! I have seen you acting in the dark and killing everything pure and good and..."

Tom looked at the womanly form before him, shivering through her anger, seeming caught in a fit of madness, her curls falling flat and drenched on her body, flushed against her skin and her eyes seeming like a pit of gold. Slowly, he took a deep breath and let his own furious mindset to leave him as her words turned inside his head. It seemed that her mind wasn't completely one with the stone. Could it be that the stone had...morals ? Was it because it became a woman ? So carefully he had to thread there. Seductively he had to surround her, for she knew how to make him the Sun of this world.

"Didn't you want to destroy something good once to protect something else ? Didn't you hit thoses girls to protect your pride ?"

"I didn't do it for the cruelty of the act...I wanted justice. Justice." she defended herself.

"What if you are the only fair one in a world of madness and cruelty ?" he insisted, slowly approaching her.

"Loneliness is a small price to pay."

A part of him wanted to put his hands arround her neck and shake her, but another, much more powerful compelled him to bend his face toward her, letting his breath caress her face. How strange, how curious she made him...What did life smell like ? What did life tasted like ?

"And for such a powerful artefact...You used the muggle way to assert your power."

"Why does it matter if I won ?

The wizard looked at her for a long moment in silence, taking in her defiant chin and blazing eyes, the way her mouth was contorted. Her hands already formed tight fists, as if she was ready to fight again. His own smile came to pull a corner of his lips upwards and he raised her stubborn chin with his long and delicate fingers, forcing her eyes to meet his.

"Why does it matter, yes...I now recognize you too, dear hallow. I see you too... And You please me."

To be continued...

What do you think ?