A/N: Thanks for the feedback everyone! I now have two requests to finish my other stories! I'm try to brainstorm about them, and I seriously wish I could get back into my other account. Maybe I'll try again, for the millionth time.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys the new chapter!

Chapter Four: How

How could you question God's existence
when you question God himself?
Why would you ask for God's assistance
if you wouldn't take the help?

If you're gone, then I need you
If you're gone, then how is any of this real?
When I'm on, I believe you
When I'm not, my knees don't even seem to feel

She stood hesitantly, her hand twitching towards her wand in her pocket. If he wasn't going to attack her, she wasn't about to attack him. She couldn't help Harry if she ended up all dead. Not that she didn't have faith in her dueling abilities. She was good—hell, she was more than good. But only a fool would underestimate Lord Voldemort. Did this mean she could leave? She was about to speak when he finally spoke.

"I'll find you again when I wish to speak with you." he said in a commanding voice, making Hermione's blood boil.

"I don't want to talk to you!" she spat before she could control herself. She instantly regretted her decision when the same blackness flashed across the whites of his eyes and Hermione raised her wand, jumping backwards with wide eyes. The fact that she had drawn her wand seemed to anger him further, the darkness returning to his eyes. She stared, was he aware that she could see that?

A spell shot powerfully from his wand, but she was expecting it. She met it instantly, swiping her wand to the side and causing the spell to crash into the wall.

Surprise shot across his face, before his face filled with rage unlike she'd seen before.

Her eyes widened in horror when the whites of his eyes turned black, the entire eyeball like pools of ink. His teeth gritted, and she watched in horror as black veins climbed up his neck, much like they had his wrist. There almost seemed to be a blackness glowing around him, and he looked like...like some sort of evil, dark prince. The veins climbed and receded, as though they were following the beat of his heart. It contrasted very dramatically with his pale skin. His lip curled, and she saw that his perfect teeth...his canines were elongated.

What...what the...! Was all she could think, shaking her head, attempting to clear it. She would have thought he was a vampire, but this was not anything like vampire stuff. This was almost...otherworldly. She had the instant, sinking feeling that he wasn't human. This wasn't human. In that moment, she felt so in over her head, it already felt like she was drowning. Her wand was shaking badly now. Normally, she would logically try to come up with the best solution, or answer...but what the hell was she supposed to make of this? She didn't even know where to begin, there was nothing to begin with! What—what kind of devilry was this? What—what was he?

He raised his hand, and she noticed with a start that it had the pulsing veins as well. Panicked, she sent a body binding spell at him on instinct, only to have her mouth drop open in shock when he didn't raise his wand, but the spell instantly rebounded on her, making her hit the floor in shock as it zoomed over her head. She didn't know what to do—how to react. She had not idea what she was up against. The only thing she knew to do was defend herself in the only way she knew how.

She shot several spells in quick succession, though she knew her precision was almost flawless, none of them hit their mark. They bounced off him as though she was throwing a bouncy ball at a wall.

He closed his fist on his outstretched hand, and her wand instantly was powerfully ripped out of her hand.

To say she was panicked would have been the understatement of the year. Despite everything, she had a serious urge to do something she hadn't done in years—get on her knees and start praying to GOD to protect her, because this struck her as some otherworldly type of evil...

He waved his hand, and she was flung to the ground with a screech. Her arms instantly shot over her head, pinned with an invisible force along with her feet. Never had she felt such fear as she struggled, hyperventilating as he seemed to glide towards her, his black eyes staring at her as the veins seemed to pulse up his neck.

She could feel death tickling her skin. Somehow, she just knew that she was about to die. He was going to kill her—It was going to kill her. Why—why was this happening? She felt tears threaten to escape her eyes at feeling so doomed and powerless, but she refused to cry in front of him as she hopelessly struggled against the bonds.

She wanted to live.

"I'M SORRY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as he leaned down next to her, observing her in an evil fashion.

"Are you?" he asked quietly, his voice deeper than it had been. "or do you simply want to avoid harm?"

His voice...it was almost like a drug, seeping into her skin and making her still as her eyes widened. What—what…

"Y-yes..." she choked out through gritted teeth, angry when a tear leaked from her eye. His black eyes followed it as he reached out a long fingered hand. He gently touched his cool fingers to her cheek, making her gasp out in shock. A pulse traveled from his finger tips into her cheek and down her body, relaxing her muscles. He swiped the tear away and fully cupped her cheek.

She stared up at him with confused and frightened eyes. He abruptly pulled his hand away, staring at it. She looked too, surprised to see his hand that he had touched her with was glowing with the purest white light she'd ever seen. It was beautiful, and she felt herself start to relax more as she stared at him, her eyelids growing heavy as a peaceful trance came over her body.

"I see..." he said deeply, and quietly to himself. His eyes locked on hers, the veins protruding from his jaw in a less aggressive fashion. He closed his eyes, as she lazily watched the light in his hand sink into his palm, lighting up more black veins that weren't visible to the naked eye. His eyes snapped open and he let out an almost feral hiss, alarming her hazy mind as she barely processed the hungry look in his black eyes.

In the next moment, both his cold hands were on each of her cheeks. Her skin somehow burned from his cool touch, as pulses traveled down her body, pulling at—at something. She didn't know what, but part of her didn't even care. It almost felt...good. Whatever it was that he was doing. Though she could feel it somehow draining her. She didn't know if it was only draining her energy or what, but it was pulling and pulsing, as though it was coming from the very...core of her body—wherever that core happened to be, not even being able to tell. She looked up at him with half-hooded eyes, seeing his eyes flutter close and his chiseled jaw go slack for moments before snapping closed and tensing, the black veins throbbing more aggressively. It felt intimate, way too intimate. But she couldn't bring herself to care in this moment and she looked at the tense, yet blissful look on his sculpted face.

A particularly sharp pulse traveled down her body, pulling at her and she couldn't stop herself when her eyes closed, her back slightly arched as a moan came from her trembling lips. If she'd been in her right mind, she would have been embarrassed. But, she couldn't help herself. She had no idea what was going on, but it felt good just as much as it felt...weird. It was a completely new sensation, one she was sure most people never felt in their lives and she had no idea how to even begin to stop it.

She heard an almost feral hiss come from him and in the next moment, it was gone. All the feelings, the sensation...it was gone. On instinct, she whimpered at the loss, because whatever he was doing, he wasn't done yet. At least, she didn't think so. But then again, she could always be wrong—she probably was.

He seemed as though he was far away, breathing heavily as she fought to remain conscious. She fought and fought, but in the end, she lost and slipped easily into unconsciousness.

((O))

Hermione moaned, her eyes fluttering rapidly as she woke up, blinking forcefully and looking around.

She was in her dorm, and she saw Beatrice snoring away across the room from her. Blinking rapidly, the events of the day came crashing down on her as she began to panic.

Harry...I need Harry! She thought in a panicked inner voice, stumbling out of bed to see that she was still in her gray sweater and pencil skirt from earlier that day. Unfortunately, she knew there was no way to get to get to Harry tonight, not while they were still in different houses. She began pacing back and forth, running her hands through her unruly hair and trying to desperately think. How could she even begin to make sense of what had happened between her and Riddle?

She had a moment of wondering if it actually had happened, or if it was just some kind of...weird dream. But she knew that she didn't have that much of an imagination, and even if she did, she'd pick something that didn't involve the young Dark Lord.

Never in her life had her mind been so blank. What was she even supposed to think? Nothing could have prepared her for something of this magnitude. Of course, she said multiple times that the Dark Lord was inhuman, and he was...but, this was something else entirely. She hadn't meant it quite this literally. She had always meant it that he was a distorted human being, but on the basic level, born and human being and was one.

But...he wasn't human, was he? At least, not completely. Then again, she wasn't exactly well versed in the Dark arts...were there actual Dark rituals that could do things like that? There was nothing she could do something...surely, if there were rituals or spells in existence that could make you that powerful, they would see many people that way, right? It didn't make sense...the only thing that came to mind was he was either born with it...or something just happened to him? This fit in oddly with his future self as well. Either she was insane—she probably was at this point—but he seemed...more powerful now than he was in the future, and that itself was a completely terrifying thought. What had happened?

She gripped her hair, nothing made sense.

She stumbled in the restroom, closing the door. She quickly shed her clothes, rubbing her arms tiredly as she looked in the mirror. Her eyes widened in fright and she slammed her hands over her mouth to muffle her shriek.

There, on her hip, stretching around her stomach were the black veins. Except they were different than his...they were lighter? On closer inspection, she could see they weren't veins at all. It was almost as if someone had drawn lines across her stomach with ink. She stuck her finger in her mouth and rubbed the area, just for good measure. The marks remained.

What had he done to her? Had he infected her with something – something evil? Her stomach turned and she ran to the toilet, throwing up in the bowl as she breathed heavily, her nerves shattered. Was something slowly poisoning her? She grabbed her wand off the counter, shakily standing and pointing her wand to the black vine-like lines.

"Arespagio" she said quietly and hopefully, using the basic healing spell that's meant to rid you of minor dark magic. Though she knew this was far from minor, she hoped it would at least lighten them, getting rid of a little bit of it at least. She frowned when she saw nothing had changed.

She started casting various healing diagnosis spells on her. Time past on as she continued casting diagnosis spells and by the time she was done, she found out she was essentially perfectly healthy. Well, she had a small cyst on her left ovary, but she highly doubted that was related to Tom Riddle. Whatever he had done, it hadn't affected her health, at least not in a way that diagnosis spells could identify.

She didn't trust it. She had half a mind to run to Dumbledore, waving her arms and crying hysterically about it...or maybe even the hospital wing. But Riddle was...too much. What if Dumbledore confronted him? Which he likely would...Riddle had inhuman power. She didn't know if it was temporary or what, but she didn't want anyone going against that...not even Dumbledore.

How seriously screwed were they? And if he had this kind of power, how come no one had seen this shit? It was kind of obvious as fuck, or had he learned to control it with age? But even so, if he had little control, how come no one at Hogwarts never saw this?

She remembered that he was always alone. Was...was this why? His temper was so delicate, that he would reveal himself as a...a whatever the hell he was? He certainly never associated with people for very long. But, he had implied that he'd tortured people before, perhaps those poor souls—whoever they were—also knew about this weird, darkness thing?

"Black!" Hermione hissed, thinking is was highly probable. She now knew that when his plan hadn't worked, he'd sent Black into the library to distract Harry. He had shown that he was afraid of Riddle…

"Those that know me, fear me..."

Yes, Black knew something. What all he knew, Hermione didn't know. But, she intended to do everything in her power to find out. It wouldn't be easy to get him to talk about Riddle, but perhaps he would if he really did have a crush on her...but, perhaps that was fake. She wouldn't be surprised if it was.

She looked in the mirror, observing her lighter, wild hair. She tried not to think about how she got back in the Ravenclaw dorm. The thought of Tom Riddle carrying her or something similar—made her want to throw up all over again. Feeling disgusted, she jumped in the shower, heavily washing herself with the strongest smelling products that was there—which happened to be strawberry.

As she lathered her hair, she allowed the feelings she'd been repressing. How she'd felt when he...did whatever it was he did. She felt guilty that she had liked it, but reminded herself that he had probably forced her to like it. It wasn't any fault of her own – at least, that's what she told herself.

As she finished up, she touched her magically dried hair, seeing it was decently more smooth than normal. She would have to start using that shampoo more often if it made it easier to brush.

She got dressed, seeing the sun was out.

All she could think about was getting to Harry, but it was Sunday...wouldn't he sleep in? No, he wouldn't...he was probably worried to death. Actually he may already be outside the Ravenclaw dorm, or in the common room…

She pelt down the stairs, seeing an empty common room.

"Harry?" she called out, seeing no one with a frown as she walked out of the dorm, not seeing him wait for her either. She walked down the stairs, debating going to the stand near the Slytherin common room, and she would have, but she was too afraid that she'd see...him.

She was NOT about to put herself in a position to be alone with him again. Now that she knew if he did...whatever it was that he did, she couldn't even duel him. She felt like a muggle against a wizard, and that thought deeply unsettled her.

She lingered in the hallways, biting her lip as she headed towards the great hall. Even if he was there, at least there would be other students. If Harry wasn't in the great hall, he would be eventually and she'd just wait.

Hesitantly, she walked around the corner into the great hall, not wanting to look at the Slytherin table.

Her eyes reluctantly trailed over there as she walked to the Ravenclaw table, seeing a few students here and there, none of them being Harry.

In another instant, her eyes met his intense stare. Her eyes widened and she stumbled slightly, seeing his eyes glued to her form. She instantly looked away, taking a deep intake of breath as her hands trembled. Biting her lip, she went as far down the Ravenclaw table as it would allow, needing to put as much distance between them as possible.

Shakily sitting down, she poured herself some pumpkin juice, drinking quickly and sitting it down before she dropped it from her nerves. She looked down, letting her hair fall as a curtain, hiding her face from his intense stare she could still feel. Of course, she could feel his stare before, but now, she seemed to be hyper aware of it. She frowned, but rationalized that it made sense. Of course she would be after what happened. She unconsciously scratched her abdomen and hip, shifting in her seat, aware that his eyes were watching her every action.

Her pulse was up and she could feel her heart pounding against her rib cage. She took a deep breath, trying to quell the anxiety in her stomach. She shakily tried to scoop some eggs and bacon in her plate normally, but she was sure there was nothing normal about her trembling hand as she spilled eggs on the table repeatedly.

Setting down her spoon, she put her head in her hands, rubbing her temples and willing herself to calm down. He couldn't bother her in here, she just needed to talk to Harry. She didn't know what they could possibly do, and even though it was likely he couldn't protect her, she'd still feel better. Her mind wandered to Ron and she frowned. How could she tell the red head what had happened? He was so protective of her and Harry, what if he openly attacked Riddle? She recalled how he cursed Malfoy and cringed. This was much worse, and she didn't trust the temperamental redhead not to act. She hated keeping things from him, and she honestly never thought she would...but this was serious and it was for the best. She was sure Harry would agree.

She sighed, lifting her face to see Harry walking down the Slytherin table. Her heart lurched and she made a move to get up and run to him, before remembering that...he was watching. She stilled in her seat, biting her lip as she stared at Harry. He felt her stare, looking over at her and giving her a warm smile.

"…"

What? Didn't he – why wasn't he coming up to her? Why was he smiling? After yesterday? She had just disappeared! Wasn't he worried about what happened to her?

She gave him a shocked and slightly hurt expression, and Harry's eyebrows raised, his smile falling and his face forming a worried and confused expression.

Her eyes darted over to Riddle, who was looking at her over his goblet. His raised one eyebrow in an amused way, sitting his goblet down as he actually smirked at her. Her eyes darted back and forth between Harry and him. Her expression clicked in realization and anger.

He'd done something to Harry.

He knew that he was a problem, she'd vanished and he had knew Harry was suspicious of him. But what did he do? Memory charm—no doubt and placing a false memory in Harry's head. It was complex magic, but she knew before she even came here that he was capable of such a thing.

Hate and anger filled her as she clenched her fists and looked over at him with repulsion. He looked at her blankly, her hate-filled glare clearly having no effect on him. God's she hated him. How dare he do anything to Harry. If he had an issue, he needed to take it up with her and leave him the hell out of it. She wanted to scream in frustration when it implied that he didn't want him to know what had happened. If she told Harry, he'd believe her, she was sure of it...BUT, Riddle may do something again and this time, it may be worse...and she couldn't stop him.

She couldn't. She knew she couldn't. He'd successfully alienated her – making her unable to talk to her friends about what was happening...and there was nothing she could do about it.

For now.

She drank the last of her pumpkin juice and slammed the goblet on the table before standing up sharply and storming out of the great hall angrily. A few 1st year Ravenclaws gave her a frightened look and she felt slightly guilty, taking a deep breath and willing herself to calm down slightly.

She entered the library with determination, making a mental note to sneak back in later and enter the restricted section.

Cursing under her breath, she stalked the isles, picking up books here and there. She had to figure out what was going on – and fast. Putting about eight books on a table, she sat down, grabbing a book titled, "Creatures of the Dark." and began reading determinedly.

She sat there for a while, his eyebrows furrowed as she read useless information about some dark creature that made everyone around it think their family was dead.

Yes, that was horrible, but seriously? That was so utterly tame compared to what she was looking for.

She had a strong urge to chunk the book across the library.

"Hermione?"

Her eyes widened, turning to see Harry approaching her and sitting down with a worried expression.

"You looked hurt at breakfast...so I followed you," he said quietly, "are you ok?"

No.

She somehow forced a smile on her face. "Yes, I'm just not feeling well."

"I see..." Harry trailed off. "are you sure?"

"Yeah, you know..." she cleared her throat. "after yesterday and all."

"Yeah, I was convinced Riddle was up to something," he said quietly, looking around. "I think I'm overly paranoid when it comes to him."

Hermione had the horrifying thought that Riddle had possibly looked into his mind while removing and adding, but seeing as they were still alive, it seemed not to be the case. It seemed Tom Riddle didn't do things without reason, and apparently, didn't deem it important to rip through Harry's "useless" mind. She was right yesterday not to correct Riddle. If she had, he might have had an inkling to do so while he was at it.

"No, I don't think so..." Hermione trailed off bitterly. He had no idea.

"Yeah, you're right," he scratched his head, looking worried. "can't ever be too careful. I'm just glad I was wrong yesterday."

"Indeed..." Hermione answered almost bitterly. She longed to ask what he thought happened yesterday, but she wasn't sure how to do so without sounding suspicious. Harry seemed perfectly fine, she could tell that from the great hall, but she was still angry. Just because he was fine now, it didn't mean he hadn't done anything else to Harry. Though, he hadn't tortured her and she had mouthed off to him. He said Harry was respectful, so it was probably unlikely that he had done anything to him in that sense. She wanted to question Riddle, but that would involve being alone with him. She did not want a repeat performance of what had happened.

Even if you did enjoy it? She cringed at her own voice in her head. He had done something to her, it wasn't her fault. If she had a choice, or was asked to do it again, it would be a resounding no.

she unconsciously began to rub her stomach and hip.

"Do you have a stomach ache?"

"Hunh?" Hermione asked at Harry's voice pulling her out of her thoughts.

"You stomach," he nodded downwards to her hand. "you keep rubbing your stomach and side – does it hurt?"

She made a face, pulling her hand away from her stomach and shook her head.

"I'm just...itchy," she muttered. "its the wool or something..." she trailed off uncomfortably clearing her throat.

"Oh..." Harry gave her a funny look, a suspicious look passing through his eyes.

He was way too observant for his own good. She sighed, setting her book down and did a double take at the corner of the table and raising her eyebrows. Was that there before? She hesitated and reached for it, slowly opening it as her eyes landed on elegant script.

It will not harm you.

That was it – that was all it said. Her eyes narrowed. It was from him...surely, it had to be? And he had to be referring to the black lines on her body...it was the only thing that made sense.

She crumbled the note in her fist, gritting her teeth. Yeah, right...like she'd ever believe anything that came out of his evil mouth. A small, small part of her wished he'd just obliviate her, that way she wouldn't have to remember that she liked something the Dark Lord did—something she didn't even know. Something that could be hurting her right this instance, and she wondered why he hadn't.

She knew she hadn't seen the last of him and she desperately needed to find some answers before she had another little 'meeting' with him. She'd never felt more alone, but she was brave enough to do what she needed to.

"Are you looking for something?" Harry asked, looking around all the books.

She paused for a moment. "Yes, remember the vein, dark thing?" she asked quietly, watching Harry nod. "I thought maybe I'd try to find something on it..."

"Good idea..." he nodded, picking up a book and opening it, side glancing worriedly at Hermione, who cleared her throat and pulled on the neck of her blue turtleneck.

They sat in silence for a while, Hermione getting more and more frustrated at the lack of information. She couldn't find anything that talked about the type of things he did – not even close. She didn't want to revert to plan B, but perhaps she could mingle it into plan A.

"Er – Harry..." she said hesitantly. "have – have you seen Black around?"

He looked sharply at her, confused expression on his face.

"Why?" he asked bluntly, not answering her question.

"He...amuses me." she said simply, making him raise an eyebrow.

"He amuses you?" he asked disbelievingly. "what so amusing about Black?"

"Well...he's funny," she answered in a high pitched voice. "just thought he'd be fun to have around..."

"He'll probably pop in here eventually..." Harry said, still sounding suspicious and displeased. "for someone who acts so stupid, he's actually really smart and studies."

She bit her lip, nodding as she prepared to attempt to use the woman wiles she knew she didn't even posses. It would probably be a complete disaster, but she was desperate and she knew he knew something.

All she had to do was wait for him to show.