Hermione sat alone in her bedroom, twirling the Gaunt ring around on its chain. She found herself constantly holding the strange golden ring, and caressing the oddly-shaped, perfect, black cube that resided on it. When she wasn't touching it, she relished it's weight against on her breast.
She wasn't entirely sure why she felt so comforted by it. She hated everything that it represented. Ever since their fateful party, Hermione had felt as if her world was coming crashing down around her. In the days that followed, she refused to leave her bedroom, not having the energy to talk to Evan about his decree that she should marry Tom Riddle. Everything was changing and it was all her fault.
She had devoured the biography of Eloise Mimbletumble as soon as the party had ended, staying up until the dawn was breaking over the horizon. She had been so positive that it would hold the answer to all of her problems, that it would give her the key to getting back to the future only to have all of her hopes dashed. They had attempted to bring Eloise back, yes, but upon performing the incantation to pull her back 500 years into the future, she had promptly died from rapid aging.
It seemed that there would be no way she would ever get back to the future that she'd come from.
Hermione was still not entirely ready to accept that she was stuck here, in someone else's life, being forced to marry Tom Riddle. However, she was quickly realizing that the future she came from even existed any longer. Tom's life was evidence enough of that - Myrtle was alive and he had at least one less horcrux this time around. And, perhaps more significantly, Tom Riddle had never been engaged to a witch before, or even seemed to care about a witch enough to demand her hand. As far as she knew.
Even though things seemed to be changing, she was devastated at the thought of having the marry someone who could become the future Dark Lord. If she was forced to remain here in 1945, would it be possible for her to ever look past his future? When she wasn't even sure now that her future was the future? It made her head spin, thinking of the possibilities.
The crack of a house elf popping into her room broke her from her thoughts. "Mistress Hermione, Mistress Druella and Master Cygnus are waiting for you in the conservatory for tea." Hermione stood up and checked her face for any lingering signs of the tears that she had shed earlier. Even though she wasn't going to speak to Evan, that didn't mean that she would shut all of her family out.
"Thank you, Tulip. You may serve them now. I will only be a moment," she said, her voice raspy after days of silence.
Hermione slowly made her way down from her room to the little sun room that was off the smaller parlor where the Rosiers entertained personal friends, keeping her eyes peeled for her brother. She was walking so slowly, feeling as if she were in a funerary processional, and she didn't want to face her sister yet. She knew Druella was pleased with the match.
When she finally saw her sister and brother-in-law, sitting and chatting happily with baby Bella, Hermione bit the inside of her cheek hard enough that it bled. It was all she could do not to cry. She gave them both a kiss on the cheek in greeting, and took the baby from her sister before finally sitting down.
"Oh, Hermione! You look absolutely peaked! What ever is the matter?" Druella asked, sounding truly concerned.
"Honestly, Druella," Hermione began a little bit miffed. She had expected Druella to be on her side, because of what she'd gone through with Cygnus. "I am positively furious with Evan. How could he do this to me? I was doing everything that he asked, and I was well on my way to choosing one of his "acceptable" friends to be my husband," she complained. Hermione felt tears in her eyes again, and tried to focus on the little girl in her arms. She was just starting to formulate her first words, and while Hermione was too difficult for her to say, she was sure that Bella would master it soon.
"Oh, Hermione, I know that Evan just sort of sprung this on you, but I think that this Tom Riddle will be an excellent match. While I didn't really ever speak to him when I was at school, he was always at the top of his class, and he is rather handsome," Druella said, trying to ease the blow. "Evan said the two of you study all the time together. I thought...I thought you would like that."
"I don't want to marry Tom Riddle, Druella. I wanted to make my own decision. Plus Evan is setting the date of the wedding so soon! In June...I will barely have graduated," Hermione whined, her breath catching in her throat when she thought of how little time she had to get out of the situation. "Why can't I have a long engagement? Six months isn't enough..." Hermione grumbled. If she had longer she might be able to find some deficiency in the Slytherin boy to get her out of this mess.
"What's the point of a long engagement really?" Cygnus asked. "Druella and I see how much you love spending time with Bellatrix. Wouldn't you like to start having children of your own? We thought you'd love an earlier wedding for that precise reason," he said, looking at his own daughter fondly.
Hermione choked on her tea. She wasn't comfortable with the idea of marrying Tom, let alone having sex to conceive a child. Did Tom even want children himself? Did she? It didn't seem like such a foreign idea to her any more, but she couldn't imagine Tom Riddle as a nurturing father figure.
"Oh yes! And just think Hermione, you would have the most beautiful babies. Evan tells me that Tom is even able to trace his lineage back to Salazar Slytherin himself," Druella gushed on about Hermione's future husband. "Mother would have been so proud of you. Such a prestigious honor for the House of Rosier."
Hermione only felt sickened. The idea of having the heir of Slytherin...someone who might someday hear the seductive whispers of the Basilisk. Someone with the power to open the Chamber of Secrets and kill muggleborns like herself. Just like Tom had.
Tom had made sure to send her an owl that told her that after she had left the study on New Year's Eve, he had been sure to obliviate Evan of the little slip up she had about his blood status. Her brother no longer remember that Tom was only a half-blood, but he was sure to leave in the fact that Tom had revealed himself as the Heir of Slytherin. He did also mention that they would be discussing how exactly she learned that piece of information when they returned to Hogwarts.
"I still can't get over the fact that Evan did this to me without even consulting me first. What if I had been in love with Abraxas Malfoy? Surely he would be a better match. I was perfectly capable of picking out someone worthy of our family. Why didn't he trust me?" Hermione was utterly defeated. She had been playing by the rules all along, but she should have known that Slytherins don't play by the same rule book.
"You know, I really thought that he was going to let you choose Hermione. I am sorry he got your hopes up," her sister said sadly.
"I just wanted what you two have. To be able to fall in love with the person I marry. I used to think that was possible, but now I am not so certain," Hermione sighed, wondering just what her future would hold for love. She wasn't certain that she could ever love Tom Riddle.
"But perhaps you still can, Hermione. Just give Tom a chance," Druella said hopefully. "You have six months, after all, to see where this will lead you."
Hermione did not share her sister's optimism. She made eye contact with Cygnus. "You see how miserable this is
making me, how miserable it is making Orion. Promise me that you won't force Bellatrix into a marriage contract. I can promise you she won't disappoint you," Hermione pleaded for Bellatrix's future. She wasn't sure if Rodolphus Lestrange had been Bellatrix's love match, but she wanted to give the girl a fighting chance at least.
Cygnus's face softened for the girl. It was true. He knew how difficult the arranged marriages were, and how few ended in love. To be truthful, he wanted nothing to do with Druella at first. He was very lucky she had turned out okay. But he did see how miserable both Hermione and Orion were being forced into marriage. "Hermione, I give you my word, on my magic, that I will let Bellatrix choose her own husband."
Magic swirled between the two and Hermione smiled down at the little girl in her arms. Maybe now her future could be different as well.
Tom was getting a little more than annoyed. Classes had been resumed for the last two weeks and he had yet to get Hermione to himself. He only saw her during classes and she made sure to always sit next to Orion or someone from Ravenclaw. All of the boys in Slytherin seemed reluctant to speak to her now that she was engaged to him. It had certainly come as a shock to them when Evan had told his friends that Tom was the one who got to marry Hermione.
He sometimes saw her at mealtimes, but she always ate quickly and then disappeared. He never found her in the library, and he had even asked Belby if she was in the Ravenclaw tower, but she wasn't. He wasn't sure which intrigued him more. The fact that she was hiding from him, or the fact that he had no idea where she was going. He knew that her running away from the situation was only prolonging the inevitable.
So it was on a blustery cold morning Saturday that he resolved to get to the bottom of it. He was already done with him breakfast by the time that she sat down to begin hers. When she got up and left, he got up as well, making sure to disillusion himself as soon as he left the Great Hall. He cast a silencing spell on his feet and slowly slinked behind the saucy minx he would soon call his wife.
He was a little surprised when she immediately started climbing the stairs, higher and higher, past the library. Luckily for him, the castle seemed to approve of his endeavor and allowed him always to catch the staircases that she was walking up before they began to move. Hermione was definitely paranoid, checking over her shoulder constantly. He knew that she was avoiding Evan as well, so maybe her brother had already tried tracking her down before.
He thought that she might only be going to Ravenclaw tower, but when she waltzed right past the fifth floor he was intrigued. He followed her past the sixth floor and up onto the seventh. She seemed to have a specific place in mind as she walked through the halls with confidence. He certainly didn't know what all was up here on the seventh floor, opting to spend time exploring the dungeons or the library. He watched her pace before an empty wall three times, before a door appeared in the stone of the wall, and she slipped inside it, sending one last look over her shoulder to verify that she hadn't been followed.
By the time that Tom rushed to the door, he was disappointed to find that it was no longer there. Removing the spells on his person, Tom decided to mimic the girl, walking in front of the door three times, thinking about how annoying it was to have to try and find Hermione to begin with. Finally, a door appeared and he cautiously entered it.
Once inside, he found that he was outside. It seemed as though he was in a little back alley somewhere, presumably in Paris, judging by the architecture. He could see Hermione a little further away, sitting beneath a pergola, sitting at a table which a comfortable looking chair. She had her books spread out in front of her while she studied. Tom looked around and quickly surmised that although they appeared to be outside, Tom got the distinct feeling that something wasn't entirely right about this. There was no way some portal existed inside Hogwarts to the outside world. The wards would never survive the vast stretching that kind of magic would take.
He walked up to her purposefully and he was surprised to see a chair, equally as comfy looking as her own, popped up next to the table. "So, you finally found me," Hermione said with a frown, not even looking up from her book.
Tom sat down and waited for her to finish the page she was reading, looking around trying to figure it out. It seemed that this room was the perfect temperature, with a slight breeze when it got too warm, but none of Hermione's papers ruffled in it. It was as if the breeze wasn't real. And although they were in a back alley, there were no other people or any noises at all except the occasional bird chirping in the distance. "Where are we?" Tom asked inquisitively, truly curious about his surroundings.
Hermione felt her breath catch. Seeing Tom like this, so truly in awe and curious about the magic of the room reminded her so much of herself and made it so easy to not think of him as his future self where he was less than human. "It is called the Room of Requirement. It turns the room into anything the user requires, but this is actually a real life place that I felt most at home when I visited Paris," Hermione explained, trying to remain calm.
"The Room of Requirement is meant to be rumor only," Tom answered, sounding skeptical.
Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes. "Just like the Chamber of Secrets is?" she answered back, surprised that he would question the magic of the room.
Tom narrowed his eyes at Hermione in suspicion. "How on Earth did you find it, then?" he asked, his voice silky and dangerous. He was annoyed that she should find the room so easily after not even being at the school for a full school year yet.
She swallowed, her eyes darting back down to the table. "I read about it in Hogwarts, A History once Evan told me that I would be attending school here. I made it my mission to figure out where it was," she responded coolly. "The Sorting Hat didn't put me in Ravenclaw for nothing."
Tom sensed that she was lying to him, or at least not telling him the whole story. Part of him wanted to invade her mind, using legilimency, to tear the lies apart and look for what secrets she was hiding now. Still, he knew that she would eventually open up to him, as she grew to trust him more. "Why were you running away from me, Hermione?" Tom asked her. Why couldn't he be like the other girls who giggled and would love to be engaged to him? He knew that he was a good looking fellow, he was almost certain Hermione thought so as well. So what was wrong?
"Why are you doing this to me, Tom?" she answered his question with a question. "Why do you even want to marry me?"
Tom felt himself lose his smile. He would spill to her, even if it made him vulnerable, because he thought that it would make her more agreeable to the situation. "Hermione, when you were nearly killed in the girls' lavatory by my Basilisk, I found myself consumed with feelings that I have not once felt before. I have never cared, worried for another person, the way that I care about you," he told her honestly. Tom saw her staring at him with confusion, but she also seemed to be eager to hear what he had to say. "Basically, I feel for you like I have felt for no other. Previously, I was concerned with only myself, but now, for reasons I do not comprehend myself, I find that you are also a concern."
He reached across the table and tucked some of her hair behind her ear, letting his finger tips graze her cheeks and she didn't turn away from the affectionate gesture. Hermione found herself desperately wanting to believe the words that he said. It made him seem so human, so normal, so unlike Lord Voldemort. "I know you have some
feelings for my person, as well, Hermione. Can't you just admit that to yourself?"
Hermione looked back down at her book and didn't respond to the handsome boy, but instead just thought to herself 'Yes, and that is what frightens me.'
When she didn't answer, Tom sighed. "If you can't admit it yet, could you at least give me a chance? We have a few months left at school before we have to face the real world together. Let me prove myself to you," he asked, feeling that this kind of begging was rather beneath him, but he would do it for Hermione alone.
Hermione looked over Tom's face, trying to see if he was being sincere, her thoughts tumultuous and wild. Things had already changed so much that there was no point in trying to maintain some future she'd never live in again. Besides, if there was no way for her to go back, didn't she owe it to her friends to try and change things for the better? Tom's life was already so different to the one that was previously written, and he'd truly opened up to her through the months. She could never imagine the Dark Lord asking her for a chance the way that he was. Maybe the best thing for her to do was to try to change Tom for the better.
Her eyes darted back up to his. "I-yes, I will give you a chance, Tom," she whispered, barely believing the words that were coming from her own mouth.