"I think it's time you and I came to an understanding, Tom," She spoke slowly, pausing only a moment to correct herself, "Or should I be calling you Lord Voldemort?"
His lips curled down into a snarl. "Don't call me that," His voice was a little gruff as he forced his throat to action.
A thin eyebrow raised. "Okay then, Riddle –"
"No, it's Tom," His voice grew firmer. "Just Tom."
Her eyes narrowed and she blinked several times suspiciously.
"Why?" He asked, his eyes darted back and forth between her and the wand nearly pressed against the bridge of his nose. "You knew, but you still did it," He realized.
"I have my reasons," Hermione frowned at the unexpectedness of his reaction. He remained still on the couch, like a cornered animal. "I told you when I made up my mind. I'm a selfish person."
Several emotions flickered across his eyes, primarily confusion and disbelief.
Hermione mentally tried to shake it away. She better equipped to deal with indifference and rage. "Now, think very carefully about what you decide to do next," She warned him, pressing the tip of her wand against his skin. She wondered if he could feel her magic crackling in the air like she did.
"You know that if you try to harm me in any way, I can do much worse to you before you finish the thought," She started with the obvious.
The hardening of Tom's expression and settling of his glare was the only acknowledgment she got that he was listening.
"Even if you did escape, where would you go?" Her words were practically a taunt. "Back to your Death Eaters? Most of them have been rounded up and Kissed. I doubt the ones left would take too kind to a Muggle claiming to be their Dark Lord, but be my guest and let me know how that works out for you."
Tom's upper lip give a twitch, biting back a protest as the tip of her wand caused him to press his head further back against the cushions.
"So really you have two options from where I see it," Hermione went on. "You can fight against me and I'll decide you're not worth my time." She dragged the tip of her wand up to his forehead, "But maybe not before I try out a few new spells. Who knows, maybe I can give a Crucio just as well as I can take them," She mused darkly.
"And then," Her wand slid down to press against his temple. "I can rape your mind until I find out which one of your Death Eaters used the Live Disembowelment Curse on my parents."
"Once I'm bored of you, which could take quite some time, only then, I could turn you over to the Aurors," She promised, the wand moving down to his cheekbone. "Where you'll be put on a very public, very long and humiliating trial."
"Then they'll put you in Azkaban, for not nearly as long as you deserve," The wand went to the corner of his mouth. "And perhaps, if you're lucky, when you can't take it anymore they'll let you have the Kiss after you beg for it." Her wand stopped on his bottom lip.
She watched it tremble under the touch before her eyes shifted up to his.
"Or, you could work with me, under my orders," She suggested, her voice softening from the cold glee. Tom's eyes flashed at that and he bristled, but she could still tell she had him hanging on every word.
"You stay with me, you help me with my medical research. Be it my research assistant if anyone asks," She smirked. "And you teach me everything you know about souls and horcruxes, how you're alive, and well, anything else that strikes my fancy."
Tom swallowed thickly, trying to keep his mind on her words and not panicking at how quickly the situation as unraveling for him. "And the Ministry, the Order?" He clarified, "You would shelter me from them?"
"Naturally," Hermione agreed without batting an eye.
Tom stared at the young witch thoughtfully. He took in her presence, the way her lips were set in a thin line and her eyes burned with a determination to disregard her apparent loyalties for her own desires. He began to appreciate just as selfish she truly was at that moment.
His eyes shifted in something a little bit sinister. "You would risk raising the Dark Lord, just to blackmail him into gaining his power and secrets," A cold sneer pulled at his lips. "My, Miss Ganger, your heart is as black as they come."
Hermione snarled dangerously and jabbed the point of her wand harshly into the hollow of his cheek. "Make my day and say that again," She dared.
"No need!" Tom grimaced quickly, closing his eyes and turning his head from the pressure on his cheek. "Diary fragment speaking," He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. He muttered under his breath afterwards, "Presumptuous git doesn't know when to quit it."
Hermione blinked in stun at the rapidness of his changing demeanor. "Fragment?" She repeated her thoughts as they came. "From the horcrux? A soul fragment?"
Tom just squinted, opening his eyes carefully.
"You're more than one? How is that possible? How many are you?" She grew impatient and the tip of her wand started to glow red, "Answer me, Tom!"
"Three, just three!" He winced, gritting his teeth together. "The diary, the ring and the diadem."
Well, fuck.
She hadn't seen that one coming.
"The diadem," She repeated numbly, trying to keep herself talking instead of thinking just how grossly she miscalculated. The diary and ring, first two horcruxes. Okay, but wait, "Why the diadem? Why that one?" She asked.
"Fuck if I know!" Tom's voice rose.
Hermione's eyebrows shot up to her hairline at his bluntness.
"Would you get that out of my face?" He tried to shrink further away from the wand that was leaving a burn against his cheek.
"That depends," Hermione eased back on the heat, but didn't drop it from him. "Are you going to work with me or against me?"
He didn't waste any time. "With you," His voice was firm and confident.
She quirked an eyebrow, expecting more of an argument. "Alright then," She cleared her throat, easing the wand a bit.
"Well, I would make you swear it…" Tom gave her a sour look at that. "But I guess we'll do it the Muggle way," She held her other hand out to him with a faint smirk.
Their eyes remained locked while Tom slowly eased his hand into hers. Callous, rough palm met soft, petite. His touch was warmer than what she expected and he gave a firm squeeze. Slowly, she backed the wand off his face. She could see the visible exhale before she swiftly rose to her feet and gave him space.
Tom didn't flinch under her constant stare while he took advantage of the silence to ease himself sitting upright. His bare feet touched the floor chill. He glanced over himself, realizing the hospital scrubs had been replaced with plain cotton pants and shirt.
"So," His hand touched his face, feeling the tender spot while he tried to ignore the wand still held at her side. "I'll be staying here?" He glanced around dubiously.
Hermione nodded firmly, "The couch will do. We can't stay here for long though. I'll have to contact some friends to see if I can get you some Muggle papers for us to travel anywhere. It won't be cheap to get a decent identification, but –" She stopped mid-speech when a noise that came from neither of their mouths gargled through the room. She blinked, "Was that your stomach?"
Tom's hand went to his mid-section. He half shrugged with a touch of color on his cheeks, "I last ate three weeks ago."
"Oh," She mumbled. Quite frankly, she couldn't wrap her mind around the situation to do something as simple as domestic cooking. With all the adrenaline going, she knew her hands would shake violent just holding a tea pot. "Are you good enough to get up and about?" She wondered.
Tom hesitated thoughtfully before nodding.
"Would anyone recognize if I brought you down to the Three Broomsticks?"
"Depends," He replied, "Who's the barkeep?"
"Rosmerta."
The name drew a blank. He shook his head, "Then no."
"There's a duffle bag of some clothes," She gestured to the end of the couch. "I guessed your sizes while you were out. You know where the bathroom is," She ordered before she could second guess her decision.
To the other residents, they looked like a doting couple, bundled up against the chill breeze and walking arm in arm. Truthfully, it made it easier for Hermione to hide the wand pointed into his side. Only then she began to truly appreciate his tall stature compared to her slender frame.
She nearly stumbled when his long strides stopped abruptly halfway there. With a questioning scowl, she looked at him and followed his gaze.
"You can see still Hogwarts?" Hermione frowned.
Tom just nodded once before being dragged along by Hermione.
Her head was titled to the side and her brow furrowed deeply. She didn't disguise the way her upper lip curled up, exposing a few teeth. They sat across from each other in a booth at the Three Broomsticks, at the table furthest from the front door she could find. Her eyes darted back and forth between his fingers and the neglected utensils on the table. Her own plate untouched and Butterbeer barely sipped.
"Must you look at me like that?" Tom mumbled, hunched over his plate without glancing up at her.
"I'm sorry," She muttered sarcastically. "What's the appropriate look for watching Voldemort stuff his cheeks like a hamster?"
Tom closed his eyes with a deep sigh. "Don't call me that. It's Tom –"
"Just Tom," She repeated his words disbelievingly. "Right." She didn't understand the difference. "But honestly," She wondered how he didn't choke. "The fish and chips aren't that good here."
He finally reached for a napkin then. "Survive off of eating rats for five years and see if your opinion changes," He wiped the crumbs from his fingers.
Hermione kept her arms folded over her chest while watching his actions, still trying to process even the smallest expressive actions. She would've been less weirded out if he had just tried to kill her upon waking up.
"Speaking of," He wiped his mouth, his eyes dripped with light intrigue. "What took you so long to get live ones?"
Hermione felt uncomfortable trying to equate the striking man in front of her with her pet snake. She shrugged stiffly and mumbled, "They remind me of Peter Pettigrew."
Tom blinked, his hand pausing on his stein, before letting out a full laugh.
The abrupt noise startled Hermione so much she jumped in her seat.
"That is off putting to consider," He agreed after taking a deep gulp, ignoring her discomfort.
She watched him pick up his fork for the first time since they sat down. "So, three fragments," Her curiosity itched at her.
"Mhmm," He hummed before a bite.
"How does that work?" She wondered.
"Not very well," He admitted bluntly. "It's bloody confusing."
"Am I…" She tried to understand, letting herself believe just for arguments' sake that he was telling the truth. "talking to all of them or just one?"
"Both?" He didn't inspire a lot of confidence with his first answer. "But it started with me, the ring."
"And that's who I've been talking to all this time?" She hoped.
"Most days," He agreed.
She tried to push away the headache this was giving her. "The others," She didn't really know what to call them. "What are they like?"
He paused in his eating and his gaze wandered absently while he spoke. The Inn was pretty empty for a Tuesday afternoon. "I'm getting better about keeping them in check," He confessed. "You met the diary fragment, he's –"
"A presumptuous git?" She tossed his words back at him.
The corner of his mouth quirked up and her eyes darted down to the dimple that formed, "Yes."
"And the diadem?" She urged.
His shoulders actually slumped thinking about it. "Exhausting, constant drivel," His eyes fluttered closed momentarily. "Unless you want to meet him, I suggest you keep that covered." Long, dexterous fingers gestured towards her forearm.
"I'll keep that mind," She muttered, self-consciously pulling the fabric down at her wrist. "But, how exactly does –"
"Eat, Hermione," Tom interrupted, nodding to the plate growing cold. "Let me enjoy my first meal as a man in sixty years."
Author's Note: I hope you guys love this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Throughout the story, I've been dropping hints about the motivation for Hermione's actions. Grief over her losing parents has driven her to desperate measures and making questionable decisions. This chapter hints at some of what happened, (I made up the curse, but hey that's fiction and you can use your imagination) and it'll be touched on later in the story. Let me know what your thoughts are on Tom! If you don't completely understand it, that's fine, it's kind of the point at this stage in the story. Any feedback is appreciated, please leave a review or follow. For disclaimer purposes, JKR owns the wonderful world of Harry Potter, I just have the privilege of playing in it.