DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING.
NOTE: Hermione's first set of classes are the same as Tom's and her second set of classes are with Draco. Tom and Draco are oblivious to this.
Hermione stepped out of the entrance, breathing in the familiar air of the grounds. Briskly, she made her way to where Hagrid's hut was situated, eager to see the familiar place where she had spent many afternoons with Harry and Ron.
Where the hut should have been, she found a small garden. Having had enough, she turned around, stomping her foot on the ground and facing the sky, trying to keep her frustrated tears contained.
"Of course it isn't here," she thought to herself, "I'm in the past," she found herself rationalizing. "It will be here in the future though," she comforted herself, but then a thought came to her. Would it be here? They had decided to go back in time, and Dumbledore had clearly explained to them that each of their actions, no matter how miniscule, would affect the future in ways it was impossible for them to portend.
"Hello there, I'm Firenze, the Care of magical Creatures professor," said a voice behind her. Hermione turned and fought the urge to say that, "yes, I am aware" when she saw the centaur, who looked the same as he did in the future since the creatures aged slowly. Instead, she greeted him with an automatic, "Hello, I'm Hermione." Only after she had finished introducing herself did she realize how odd the situation was.
During her time, she had not known that Firenze used to teach this particular subject. Maybe that was how he and Hagrid had met and become such close friends.
"You're the new head girl," he questioned bluntly.
"Yes, I am," she stated.
"Well, Miss Hermione, Welcome to my class. You will find that it will be dangerous at times, considering the creatures that you will have to work with, but I can assure you that I put the safety of my students first so don't be afraid if anything that you come upon during the rest of the year appears life-threatening," Firenze offered up.
"I appreciate the assurance professor," she thanked.
Firenze turned back to the students who were now coming towards the hut, some looking afraid at what they would have to face so early in the morning, others looking sleep deprived from the start of year parties that they had so obviously stayed up late to attend.
Hermione soon found herself surrounded by other seventh years. It appeared that during this time period, the classes were attended by a few students from all four houses at once. This was to her liking, of course; the more mixing between the houses, the better, especially when the future was to be so divided if Hermione and the others from the future didn't find out their task and accomplish it.
"Welcome, students," Firenze greeted, "to another year of exploring the other forms of life that inhabit this magical world along with us."
"Follow me into the forest," he instructed.
The students around Hermione began to step behind each other, no one wanting to be at the front. Finding herself leading the group along with another presence she didn't bother to identify, she held her head high and walked into the Forbidden Forest. She had been in the forest on several different occasions during her time, and she had come to not fear its secrets throughout her years and experiences.
She came to a clearing and Firenze turned, signaling the students to stop. They gathered in a half-circle around him as he gave a call. As the students tried to get a glimpse of where Firenze was standing so that they could see what would result from his call, Hermione found herself pushed into someone next to her, the presence she had felt near her as they walked into the forest.
She turned to face the person, offering up a quick apology, and found herself standing next to Riddle. She looked around in a flustered manner, wanting to move to a different location, far from him. Her attempts were in vain, for she found herself cramped with all the others students, with no where to move.
Riddle watched as she looked around, trying to be discreet about the fact that she was shocked to see him. Her surprise could be seen all over her face, though, and he stood there with a smug expression, feeling a sense of pride in knowing that he startled her so.
He bent his head so that he could whisper in her ear without the others noticing. "I hope you aren't planning on abandoning me. Though if you are, I can't say I blame you. I would be intimidated by me if I were you also."
"Intimidated?" she whispered back furiously, "and just what about you would be enough to intimidate me, Riddle?"
"Do you see the creatures in front of us?" he questioned, tactfully changing the subject so as not to cause a scene in front of his classmates. He spoke in his regular voice, no longer afraid that the others would be listening in: They were too busy talking about how Firenze must have gone nutters since they couldn't see the so-called threstrals that he claimed were there. Some of the students sighed in relief; If Firenze had taken to making creatures up, at least they would no longer have to worry about endangering their lives by attending his class.
"Why do you ask?" she asked back, taken aback at the change of topic.
"Can you see them?" he inquired again, choosing to ignore her question.
"No comment," she stated simply, trying to find Firenze in the clearing so that she could have a one on one discussion with him about the lesson.
"Not everyone has the privilege of seeing such wonderful creatures," he went on, knowing that she was trying to escape his company, but wanting to provoke her nonetheless.
He wanted to establish early on in their relationship as heads that he was the better one. Proving to her that he was the more knowledgeable since he could see the threstrals would at least convince her to stay out of his path when it came to academics.
Tom was convinced that she would accept his words and her lower status, but instead, she turned to him and began jabbing her finger into his chest, hard.
"Wonderful creatures?" she questioned, her voice dipping with venom. "Do you think me so stupid that I would fall for this act of yours…that I would accept that since you claim that you can see them that you are the more intelligent of the two of us? News Flash Riddle: Anyone can claim that they can see threstrals, and speaking of the creatures, I am not ignorant of them. I know just as much, if not more, about them as you do. I am aware that you can see them only if you've seen death. So tell me, Riddle, whose death did you witness?" she questioned.
She jabbed his chest again. "Huh, Riddle? Whose death? Tell me?"
He grabbed her hand and twisted it behind her back, not enough to hurt, but enough to establish that he was the stronger. He stepped closer to her, until he was breathing down into her face as she looked up at him defiantly.
"You can see them," he concluded. She looked as if she was about to interrupt him, but he beat her to it with, "Who did you see die?"
Tom didn't really care whose death she had witnessed. He merely wanted to shift the attention away from the death that had allowed him to see the creatures pulling the carriages at the start of term. Little did he know that Hermione already knew about how he had ruthlessly murdered his father.
"It's no business of yours, Riddle," she spoke, her voice adamant on keeping quiet on the matter.
Something about the way that she so clearly defied him by refusing to answer bothered Tom to no end. "Tell me," he demanded of her.
"I do not care to discuss the subject further. Now, if you would be so kind as to let me go, I have another class to attend," she replied tersely.
Tom looked around and saw that the others had already left the clearing. Firenze had not noticed that he had left two students behind since sometime during the course of the class, they had become isolated from everybody else.
Tom had been taught by Firenze ever since he arrived at Hogwarts during his first year, and he was well aware that the centaur let his students leave class early so that they would have ample time to walk back to the castle and to their next class.
Deciding to take advantage of the situation, he pressed on, "I will let you go as soon as you enlighten me as whose death you were fortunate enough to see."
"Fortunate?" She laughed a bit hysterically, "Fortunate, Riddle? Why would seeing another's death be fortunate?"
"Fortunate, because the experience gained from such a thing will open your eyes to the realities of the world," he informed her.
She stared back at him as if she was unable to digest what he was saying, as if he was stating something impossible to comprehend.
"And besides," he continued, wanting to come up with something logical so that she would stop staring at him like she was now, "you would be unable to see threstrals."
"Not everything has to be tangible in order to be understood, Riddle. You don't have to be able to see threstrals to understand them.
"Stop with the incessant side comments and answer the question at hand," he said, lowering his voice for the sake of intimidation.
Incessant. The word brought back memories of someone from her own time: Professor Snape, who had tried to stop Harry from falling from the sky during their first year, who had refused to give Umbridge veritaserum to question the DA, who had tried to teach Harry Occulemency before Harry had acted without thinking and invaded his memories, who had informed the Order that Sirius was in trouble when Harry had implied it despite their remaining feud from childhood. Professor Snape, who had saved them more times than he would ever admit in situations where they were in danger.
In the Forbidden Forest with Tom Riddle, Voldemort's teenage self who had forced her arm behind her back effortlessly, she felt more in danger than she had done in a long while.
"Professor…," she spoke the word as if lost and looking for something to hold onto.
"Professor Firenze is long gone. It seems as though he really can't be trusted with human students, centaur that he is. His kind have no feelings for witches and wizards," Tom spoke, loathing dripping from his voice.
Hermione came back to the situation at his words and bristled at his tone. "If he had no feelings, he would not be teaching, Riddle."
He disregarded her words once again, moving even closer to her to make his presence known. "I am giving you one last opportunity to answer the question I have asked you, and if I am not provided with an honest answer, I will take your arm," he increased his pressure on it for emphasis, "and break it."
"I do not want to answer you, Riddle" Hermione spoke honestly, her voice quivering a bit.
"Have it your way," he said, and after using his wand to cast a spell on her wrist, he promptly began twisting her wrist slowly, "Forgive me if you are late to your next class, though you may as well not attend since you won't be able to handle any hands-on activity or note-taking," he finished, smiling a cold smile as he continued twisted.
Hermione felt him pressing two fingers into the veins in her wrist, stopping the blood flow. She tried to pull away from him, but her efforts were futile.
"Stop squirming and take it," he commanded harshly, "I gave you a choice and this is what you decided on. Deal with the consequences."
"My mother and father," she spoke in a soft voice, trying to contain her tears. She would not let him see her weak and vulnerable. He didn't deserve it, and she owed it to herself to walk away from this situation with dignity. So what if she had given in and told him what he wanted to know? At least she wasn't crying in front of him and letting him know that he had really gotten to her.
She spoke so softly that a normal person wouldn't have been able to hear her. But Tom Riddle wasn't normal. He had the acute senses of a snake. He let go of her arm and stepped back.
Hermione closed her eyes and breathed in and out, trying to calm herself, not wanting to make a scene as she showed up to Herbology. As soon as she shut her eyelids, the tears that she had tried to hold back came pouring forth. Tom stepped forward once more, and tilting her face up to him with one hand, he wiped her tears away with the other. He took her hand and led her out of the clearing.
"I'll heal your wrist tonight. I could do it now, but I want you to learn from this," He stated as they neared the edge of the forest, "Remember: You had a choice." He squeezed her damaged wrist for emphasis, and walked away from her.
Hermione stood unmoving, rooted to the spot where he had left her. Why had she allowed him to hold her hand as he walked her out of the forest? She could have snatched it back. Pushing aside these thoughts, she focused on the task at hand, repairing her hand. She pulled out her wand and aimed it at her wrist, muttering a healing spell. To her dismay, the spell merely rebounded off her wrist, leaving it in the same mangled conditioned. She tried a second time and got the same result.
After a few more attempts, it finally hit her. Riddle had used a spell that ensured that only he could heal the damage he had caused. "Of course," she thought bitterly to herself.
Hermione walked to Herbology and found the area around the greenhouse deserted. Classes had just been dismissed and no one had made their way towards where she was standing yet. She used her time turner and found herself in the same spot.
Hands covered her eyes. "Guess who?" a voice questioned playfully.
She recognized it as Draco's and leaned back onto him. Draco knew about her schedule and always came to each class as early as possible to catch a few minutes with her.
For a moment, Hermione considered telling Draco what had happened with Riddle, but upon second thought, she decided against it. His display of jealousy this morning confirmed that Riddle was a sore topic with him, especially when Hermione was involved.
"Draco," she breathed normally again. His presence made her forget the fiasco with Tom.
He lifted his hands from her eyes and she turned, burying her head in his chest. He rested a hand around her waist and lifted another to run through her hair leisurely.
"Something wrong?" he asked, using a caring tone known only to Hermione.
Hermione pulled herself together and moved apart from him. "No, I'm fine," she smiled. "I wonder what we're going to be dealing with today," she said, referring to Herbology.
"Mandrakes," a cheerful voice said to her side, "nothing like mandrakes to wake students up in the morning." Hermione and Draco turned to their side to see a tall, slender woman with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She stood before them dressed in all different shades of green, carrying a soundproof box of mandrakes. She put the box down and extended her hand, "Professor Ivy," she introduced, "You must be two of the exchange students."
"Draco," Draco spoke as he shook her hand, and Hermione went next, wincing slightly at Professor Ivy's firm handshake. Luckily, Draco had not noticed because he was looking at the approaching students to see if anyone they knew would be in the same class.
"Well, I better head inside and set everything up," Professor Ivy said, picking up the box and turning towards the greenhouse, "see you two during class."
"She seems nice," Hermione stated, "I'm sure she would be willing to teach me more in-depth outside of class…"
She was interrupted by Draco, who had only one word to say, "Longbottom."
"Neville?" Hermione asked, as Draco pointed to where he was walking towards them, waving enthusiastically. Hermione waved back just as earnestly, while Draco breathed out a sigh of exasperation.
Hermione slapped Draco playfully on the arm, "Oh, Draco, He's actually good at Herbology. Be nice."
"I do not take orders from you," Draco spoke, though without anger. He headed inside, leaving Hermione to converse with Neville.
"Hermione! It's so good to see you," he laughed, pulling her into a friendly hug.
"It's only been one night," she laughed, hugging him back.
"How are you doing with everything," Neville asked, his tone shifting from cordial to serious.
"Fine, Neville," she answered with a smile, trying to convince herself that despite everything she was fine.
"As always," he smiled back, and they headed to class.
A/N- Please leave your thoughts and ideas in a review, and as always, to my reviewers from the previous chapter, thank you!