4: DREAMING

Hermione had somehow imagined the Slytherin common room to be up in one of the towers and not down some flights of stairs in a dungeon-like area. The room was large, comfortable, regal, furnished with dark sofas and armchairs decorated in ornate green cushions. A roaring fireplace sat at the opposite side of the room, the windows tinted by the murky green lake that surrounded one side of Hogwarts. The stone tiled floors brought a chilling effect to the room, making Hermione wrap her arms around herself and causing her parcel to crinkle slightly. It was an impressive atmosphere and she couldn't believe that this was hers to live in.

As Hermione stood at the entrance quietly, looking around at the place, her ears picked up the sound of the lake on the other side of the windows, her eyes adjusting to the dimness of the room to catch a glimpse of fish passing by one of the windows. Stone pillars separated the entrance area from the common room.

Tom allowed her a moment to soak it all up before he began walking ahead of her, letting out a simple sigh.

"Boy's dormitory," Tom started as he pointed to the stairs on Hermione's left. "And then girl's," he said, pointing to the set to the right.

For a moment, Hermione felt out of her element here, like she didn't belong here, specifically. Somehow, she was thinking of red cushioned sofas and a tower for a common room. Not this.

"Hermione!" came a female voice from over near the fire.

She looked over to catch a glimpse of Avery and Marcilla working on their homework.

"I have some business to attend to, if you two wouldn't mind giving Hermione a tour of the common room," said Tom as he leaned against one of the stone pillars, looking over at Hermione. "I'll meet you in the Great Hall for lunch," he said before pushing off of the pillar and heading up the steps that led out of the common room and out to the hallway.

"Well, come on then," said Avery as her and Marcilla got to their feet, hurrying over to Hermione as they grabbed her arms gently and urged her towards the stairs leading down into the girl's dormitories.

The room that the two girls had led Hermione into was a room filled with four beds looking far too decorative to Hermione to be something to sleep in. Her eyes stopped on a silver and dark ebony chest at the foot at one of the beds, spelling out her name in fancy silver lettering. That must have been her bed.

The room was surrounded in windows looking out into the same lake, only slightly darker with how much deeper they were under the water now.

"What do you think?" asked Marcilla as she plopped down onto her own bed, Avery walking over to lean against one of Marcilla's bed posts.

Hermione walked over to the side of her bed quietly, gingerly setting her parcel down as she began unwrapping it to reveal the same of what Avery and Marcilla were wearing – a long gray pleated skirt, a grey sleeveless jumper with the Slytherin crest at the top left hand corner, knee-high socks, brand new simple black shoes, a white oxford for beneath the jumper, a silver and green scarf, and a selection of a buttoned gray jumper for the winter or a set of simple black robes. The entire outfit felt a lot to take in, and Hermione felt a pang of guilt with just imagining what it must have cost Dippet to buy all of the items.

Why was he being so kind to her?

"Well, we'll leave you to change. We'll wait for you out in the common room whenever you're ready to head up for lunch," said Avery as Marcilla smiled and hopped up to her feet, following Avery out the wooden door.

When the door shut behind the two girls, Hermione let out a breath. She was finally alone. She sat down on her bed, testing the comfort before she reached a hand out and ran her hand over the expensive-looking green bedspread. Looking down at her worn clothing, she managed to begin with undressing herself before she pulled on the Hogwarts uniform. She was looking around her part of the room, somehow searching for something when her eyes caught sight of a wand sitting on a small bedside table. For some reason, she knew it was hers.

She eventually walked over to floor-length mirror that sat in the corner of the room closest to the door, looking at herself in the mirror. Before she realized what she was doing, she moved her wand in a small circular, zigzag motion towards her head and her mangled brown hair was untangled and tamed. She froze when she realized what she had just done. How had she known to do that?

She looked over at the wand in her hand, her eyebrows pushed together before she looked back at herself in the mirror. A pair of frightened, brown, sunken-in eyes stared back at her.

Avery and Marcilla were giggling over something by one of the sofas closest to the exit when Hermione cleared her throat after reaching the top of the stone stairs. The girls looked over and both grinned excitedly.

"You look better," said Avery with her eyebrows risen, impressed.

Hermione rose a hand and clamped it around her opposite elbow, feeling awkward and shy, uncomfortable still.

"I'm actually quite tired."

The girls exchanged a glance.

"Are you okay?" Avery asked with sudden worry.

"Do you want us to get Pomfrey?"

Hermione shook her head immediately. "No. I think I just need a small nap."

"Oh."

"We'll wake you for supper?" asked Marcilla.

Hermione forced a small, encouraging smile. "Yes, please."

The girls turned around after wishing Hermione hopes of feeling better, leaving her in the empty Slytherin dungeon as they headed off to join the rest of the school for lunch.

She eventually headed back down the stairs to her room where she neatly folded her extra and old clothing and placed them over on top of the trunk sitting at the foot of her bed. She pulled back the covers of the bed, revealing crisp-clean light grey sheets. She crawled beneath them, covering herself up with the blankets almost like a cocoon. She listened to the sound of the lake outside the windows as her eyes began to droop and she had found sleep.

A golden Time Turner was spinning. Round and round it went, the sand inside of it struggling to keep up. The background was a faded motion of blur, confusing Hermione. She was floating, a sick feeling in her stomach, as she tried to reach out and grab onto the necklace and stop it. Suddenly, a white light came upon both her and the necklace, growing until it blinded her and all she could sense was the terrible pain she was in until it was so unbearable she had lost consciousness.

Hermione sat up in her bed, sweaty and her breath ragged. She blinked, looking around to get a grasp of her surroundings. She was safe and sound in her new Slytherin dormitory. No pain, no spinning hourglass necklace.

Just then, the door to the room opened, Marcilla poking her head through.

"Bloody hell, Hermione. Have you been asleep this entire time?" She sighed and opened the door more to reveal her lanky body resting against the door frame.

"We're headed down for supper and Tom is asking about you."

Hermione let out a breath. "Sorry, I'm coming," she said as she kicked the covers off of herself, grabbing her wand to bury in her sweater pocket. A chill came over her from the sweaty nap and somehow she knew how to charm herself to be clean again in the time it took her to get her feet to the stone cold floor.

Hermione followed Marcilla up the stairs to see more people than earlier in the common room. Some were gathering their books together from one of the round tables, talking about not wanting to miss salad. And then there was a small cluster of students over by the fireplace, which had been where Tom and Avery stood.

Tom was staring at the fireplace, his forearm holding his weight against the mantle. His other hand was clenched into a tight fist at his waist, looking displeased.

"...Slughorn wouldn't allow it, I'm sure," said Avery as Hermione and Marcilla walked over to them.

A few other students were sitting on the sofa facing the fireplace, watching Tom carefully as if waiting for him before they headed for the Great Hall.

"It doesn't matter if he'd allow it or not. What matters is-" he cut his words off when he turned his head and looked at Hermione.

His jaw clenched as his eyes scanned over her from head to toe, taking in her new Slytherin look. He soon look back at the fireplace and sighed as Hermione wondered what they had been talking about.

"Let's go to supper. I'm hungry," Tom sneered as he pushed off of the mantle and headed for the stairs leading up to the exit out of the Slytherin common room.

Hermione, Avery, Marcilla, and the others followed after Tom without a word.

They were headed down a few hallways when Tom somehow made it to Hermione's side, coming up along side of her as they all walked at a simple pace.

"I trust you slept well?" Tom asked her.

Hermione looked at him for a moment and then away towards the stairs that led directly up to the Great Hall. She could already catch a whiff of the chicken and various other foods she was trying to put her finger on. It made her stomach grumble, cursing at her for skipping lunch.

"Quite well, thank you."

"Since you're rested up, I trust you wouldn't mind a small tour of the castle before bed?"

"I suppose," Hermione responded.

They exchanged a quick glance before they entered in through the Great Hall.

Hermione ended up sitting in between Avery and Marcilla across the way from Tom and his other friends. The entire Great Hall was filled with students ready for dinner at each House table. The appetizers had started before the main course, their way of waiting for everyone to be present so that they didn't miss out on any main supper, most likely. Hermione still felt uneasy. Everyone was chatting over rolls and salad while Tom across from her was sipping generously from a goblet. They locked eyes and she felt herself flush, looking away from him and down at her plate of salad from which she had yet to eat.

"Tom tells me you're a quick learner. Does that mean we'll get to see you in class with us soon?" Avery said with excitement, giving Hermione a friendly smile.

Hermione watched Marcilla roll her eyes at her friend. "Bloody hell, you're so nosy, Avery," she murmured under her breath. "I have to admit," she then said, speaking up, "It's still a little weird what circumstances we're all under now thanks to you."

Hermione pulled her eyebrows together, looking to Avery. "What does she mean?"

Tom was carefully putting together his bowl of salad when he spoke, catching Hermione's attention. "You weren't here. During Lunch, Headmaster Dippet announced that we're all under strict curfew and that no one is allowed outside of castle grounds without an escort until they figured out why you were found injured." He then looked up and met eyes with Hermione.

There was a strange sound, and then the salad plates disappeared, replaced with dinner food on platters in the middle of the table. Mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, turkey, chicken…

Hermione began filling her plate with small portions of almost any food in reach to start off with.

"Tom also says that you two will be studying more after. Do you think you'll get first year courses out of the way?" Avery asked next.

She sure does ask a lot of questions. "Do you talk to Tom often?" There was something in Hermione's voice that implied that she was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable under all the questioning.

Avery's face flushed as she swallowed a bite of mashed potatoes she had just tested. She covered her mouth and looked down at her plate. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

"Avery's just intrusive," Marcilla said in a bored voice. "Tom talks to us a lot because we all grew up together."

Hermione tilted her head to the side as she poured gravy into the mashed potatoes on her plate, a question on her face.

"We all go to the same orphanage," Avery then said before pausing.

Tom's an orphan? How sad, Hermione thought as she looked up to see Tom giving Avery a furious warning look. His eyes had darkened and his jaw was set tight, his hand paused on his fork.

Internally, Hermione smiled for some odd reason, but soon that smile faded. Maybe that explained Tom's bitterness and short-temper. Maybe that was why he was so unfriendly and cold. Everything about him screamed to Hermione that he was filled with hate. Maybe it was backed up by pain?

She looked down at her plate, letting out a soft breath as she reached out and grabbed her goblet. Suddenly, she realized how thirsty she was as she brought it to her lips. It smelled like some type of juice. Sweet and strange. She tilted it slightly to try a sip of it, finding a sweet, cold pumpkin flavor wash over her tongue and to the back of her throat.

Pumpkin juice.

It tasted familiar. Its sweet contents suddenly sparked a strange picture in her mind.

Hermione must have been eleven or twelve, in the colors red and gold instead of silver and green. She was laughing with a boy who had red hair, freckles, and a mouth stuffed with food and a boy with jet black hair, glasses, and a strange-looking lightning scar on his forehead. She was happy as she put her goblet to her lips, saying something about how she loved "Pumpkin Juice".

Gryffindor?

Hermione blinked when she heard someone calling her name.

"Hermione, you alright?" asked Avery with concern and a mouth full of food.

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed and she focused on Avery. "I'm fine, thanks," she said softly.

Avery paused her chewing for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows together. "Still not feeling well?" she inquired.

"Quite fine, actually," Hermione said as she looked down at her food and began to eat. In fact, she felt better.

Hopefully it was a memory, which meant she had a chance at regaining knowledge of who she really was. There was simply no other explanation for it.

However, she fell oblivious to Tom's curious gaze as he watched her.

Hermione managed to find her way back to the library after dinner, skipping any interaction with Tom after escaping into the horde of students that all left the Great Hall practically at once. She wouldn't be surprised if he found her there as that was where she knew she'd be doing her classwork from now on. She no longer wanted a tour that night.

Passing through the large wooden doors and into the large room that smelled of old books, Hermione felt a weight get lifted from her shoulders. She greeted the librarian, who was struggling with a young Hufflepuff at one small section of books near the doors.

Here, she felt at home. And then, the crippling urge to read something empowered her body.

Her hands trailed along the ribbed and rough spines of the books in the Muggle section, seeing various novels by writers such as Hemingway, Austen, Brontë, Fitzgerald… She pulled out Pride and Prejudice and found an empty table in a corner where she was less likely to be bothered. She found an old leather armchair and curled up in it, which sat near a tall window and a small round table with a few chairs around it. She rested her head against the pane as she read, feeling its cold surface almost comforting to her forehead.

No matter how much she tried to focus on reading the worn book in her hand, she couldn't. Her brain wouldn't shut off. She thought about how she came to be here at Hogwarts. Did she have a family? Was she an orphan like Tom and the others? Had something happened to her, magically?

The unanswered questions were a plague.

And what about the odd feeling she had when she had her first lesson with Tom, about feeling as if she had already known that chapter of Transfigurations he had her go over?

Hermione closed the book, finding it to be a waste since she had clearly begun to struggle with the attention needed to read. It was her second, maybe even her third day here at Hogwarts and already, it felt as if she had been here all her life.

"I'd been looking for you," came a familiar cold voice. "Don't you want a tour?"

Hermione froze and looked up to find Tom Riddle leaning against the end of the book case at the start of the aisle she had settled in, his arms crossed and looking at her with a rather annoyed and bored expression. He wasn't wearing his robes anymore, but had his sleeveless jumper and the rest of his uniform on. His white oxford was rolled up at the sleeves, allowing Hermione view of his dominant forearm muscles. She felt her breath catch in her throat when she realized she had been staring.

"Not tonight, I'm tired."

Tom nodded his head. "We can pick up where we left off and get Charms out of the way before bed then," Tom said as he began walking towards her, burying his hands in his pockets. "With how late it is, I'd prefer we do it in the common room."

Hermione's eyes found his, now glaring at him softly. "I'm tired. Can't we pick it up tomorrow?" she asked as she got to her feet and went to put the book back where she had found it.

"Really now?" Tom grabbed the book from her hands to study the cover and spine. "Never expected you to be a reader."

Hermione pulled the book out of his hands with a slight roll of her eyes and shoved it back in its place among the other Muggle author books.

"I think I like reading," she said as she turned back around to face Tom only to find him close to her.

It felt as if he were too close for comfort.

In a low voice and a dangerously angered expression, "What did I tell you about rolling your eyes at me? Are you too thick to understand that I'm to be respected?" he asked slowly.

Hermione felt the color drain from her face, backing up with every step he took towards her until she felt the edge of a table dig into her backside. She found herself rising her chin defiantly, feeling defensive now that she was being cornered.

"You are to learn your place, regardless of the fact that you're in the same house as I," he grumbled, low enough as to not attract any attention nearby.

She felt as if the bookcases were closing in on her and she found herself beginning to struggle with her breath until she put her hands on his chest and with all of her strength, pushed him away from her. Tom immediately staggered backwards without expecting her to even do that.

Her face heated up and she furrowed her eyebrows harshly together. "How dare you corner me with your threats," she hissed at him. She was feeling so much at once, and it was beginning to make her head spin.

Threatened, terrified, offended, cornered, confused, lost…

"For someone who's Head Boy, you sure know how to make a new student feel right at home," she said as she glared up at him as bitterly as she could.

Tom was silent, but he looked infuriated with darkened eyes and such a sneer he looked almost like a spoiled little child who had just lost at getting his way. And then his face slowly turned into a small smirk.

A shiver ran down Hermione's spine. She found him unpredictable and intimidating that she wondered if she would forever feel this terrified of him. "For someone who comes off as a quiet girl, you sure seem as if you have a lot to say," he said in a low, dangerously calm voice.

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "That's it, I'm going to the Headmaster. I need someone else to tutor me," Hermione said angrily as she moved past him only to find him reaching out to grab onto her wrist, stopping her. If his hold on her wasn't as gentle as it was, she would have screamed at him and drawn her wand right there on the spot.

"Don't," said Tom.

Hermione turned her fiery eyes to Tom.

"Forgive me...Miss Granger..." Tom looked away, seemingly awkward and out of element to say 'forgive me'.

Hermione took in a sharp breath and held it.

"Look, the sooner we get this tutoring thing done with, the less you'll have to see me, understand? I'm the best in this school. Only I know how to tutor you at best and the quickest. With any other student, you'd be stuck in tutoring for months," Tom explained to her quickly.

Hermione hesitated before she let out an annoyed breath and pulled her wrist from his grip. "Fine," she said stiffly.

Somehow she found herself unable to doubt his boasting at being the best. After all, the people she trusted most here were Pomfrey, Dippet, and Dumbledore. If they were eager to have Tom tutor her, then she could only assume he really was the best.

Tom straightened up. "Very well then. As for tonight I'll let you rest up. Tomorrow I'd like to get some tutoring out of the way during my free period and after my last class. We can get through Charms and Potions tomorrow and if you're feeling up to it after supper, we can do a grounds tour."

"Fine," Hermione said again, pushing past him as she headed for the exit.

She now felt so exhausted that she knew she'd be able to sleep once she'd curl up in bed.