Disclaimer - As always, I'm not JK Rowling and I make nothing from this

Eight

Hermione found herself sitting outside of the Headmaster's office. The new Headmaster. One Albus Dumbledore. It was, at the very least, fifteen years too early.

She'd heard whispers of it happening a few months ago, during a dinner party at Malfoy Manor, but she hadn't thought it would be so soon. It changed things, more than she'd expected it would.

Tom had spent more time at home, studying, asking for her opinions on things like teaching and whether it seemed like a fulfilling career path. It was hard to answer him truthfully. But, she encouraged him. Armando Dippet liked Tom with a blind and irrational fondness, and if he approached him without warning, she didn't doubt things would go his way. It was a few years after he'd supposedly done it in her old time, so it couldn't hurt. He was well known and liked and accomplished. And she liked the idea of him taking up teaching. It would take some extra work on her behalf, but it would keep him grounded.

But, Dumbledore took over the post three days before Tom's scheduled meeting, just a few days after the end of term. Fifteen years early. And although he honored the meeting, she could feel Tom's change once he'd received the correspondence. All of the work he'd put into making himself the ideal professor would be for nought under Dumbledore.

It set her on edge.

As she waited for the meeting to end, she considered whether it would be appropriate to inform the professor of the changes. She hadn't spoken to him in years, and hadn't trusted him for longer. But it wasn't as though she could go bouncing ideas off of Tom.

Septimus and Imogen were ideal, but they handled her too carefully, as though she would unravel at any moment, and must have voiced their concerns to Abraxas, because his hesitancy and nervousness when it came to her wanting to do absolutely anything "unorthodox" after her return felt like a smoking blanket sometimes. Even if it felt good to know that they cared about her- she couldn't think of anything better than having a family again, after so long, with everyone aware of who she was- although, she wasn't always so certain.

It wasn't as though Hermione didn't know what should be done. In fact, she knew very well what needed to be done. The question, rather, was if she could bring herself to do it, especially with how confused she felt sometimes. How lost.

"Miss Granger-"

She jumped at the sound of Dumbledore's voice. It was louder than she remembered.

"Or, rather, Mrs. Riddle." He smiled when she looked at him, his eyes staying on her as she looked at Tom, who had his jaw set and even, his eyes focused on the ground in thought.

But. They were fifteen years early. And Tom was a few years late.

What if I told you you'd already done it?

She got up from where she sat against the window and wondered, Done what? Because sometimes, she honestly couldn't remember.

"Headmaster," she smiled. "Yes. I am Mrs. Riddle now."

"Congratulations. You two always were something incredible."

She swallowed, looking back at Tom to see that he was still paying her no mind. "I suppose they're in order for you as well."

"Yes, yes. You look quite beautiful today. You're positively glowing."

She wasn't sure if she should be offended or not, because she felt quite horrible.

"Yes, well. I'm hoping for good news."

He smiled. Sort of. "Would you like to see my office?"

Hermione weighed her options. "Tom? Is that alright? Or do you want to get home?"

"Go. Look. I'll wait here, my love."

She followed the Headmaster up the steps to his office. "I didn't think we'd be having this conversation. Here. As alumna and newly appointed Headmaster."

"Alumna?" He questioned.

She laughed as they cleared the stairwell, breathing in the warm air of the office. It still looked like Dippet's. "Drop-out, I suppose."

"You could sit for your exams." He sat down at his desk, and after a moment, conjured a chair for her as well.

She laughed. "And how do we explain that? Hermione Granger sitting for exams twice."

"You're not Hermione."

She sat down. "More importantly, it won't be twice, because, she'll always end up here, and I won't be going anywhere."

He shrugged, deciding not to deny her statement. "I wouldn't be opposed to supporting your move to wherever in the world you'd like to live. If you prefer to not sit for your exams, I don't mind fixing those-"

Dumbledore continued to talk, but Hermione couldn't hear him. He wanted to hide her. He wanted her to live the rest of her life away from everything she'd come to know as real and true and her reality. He'd sent her here- for what?

She got up to walk around. He continued to offer her a way out.

There was no truth. No logical outcome. She was here because he needed her out of the way. What had happened? Where had he sent her? Why hadn't she contacted herself to tell her not to do this? Not to trust him? What was so important that she couldn't be there for it?

It had to be a paradox. Or there had to be a reason.

She couldn't work through it.

"-Abraxas is very fond of you. I have no doubt that he would accompany you. Mr. Burke as well."

"I will stay." She turned to face him.

She wasn't sure if he was surprised or not. He seemed more pensive than anything.

"I'm here," she shrugged.

"You don't have to be."

"With all due respect, you sent me here. You did this to me. And now you what? Want to isolate me even more? Want to punish me for your actions?"

"I didn't tell you to do any of this, Mimi."

"You didn't tell me not to!"

Hermione rushed his desk and pounded her fist on it, leaning closer to him. He watched her, his demeanor unfazed; but, his eyes followed every one of her movements. She pulled herself away, sitting back down. "You let me do all of this. You told me I couldn't change anything. Yet here we are."

"Have things changed, Hermione?"

"You're taking this post fifteen years early. Tom's asking for a position years late, very much here and present in the English Wizarding World. Grindelwald died without your help. I did those last two things, by the way. I made them happen."

"And I brought you here."

She remembered why she hated talking to him. "Did you want something from me? Or am I allowed to leave, Professor?"

"I wanted to turn the page in our relationship, my dear. I wanted to offer you a way out that I couldn't before. I can't send you back, but I can protect you from what happens."

"Or I can protect you from what happened. I can protect the world."

His eyes narrowed. "You can't change the past, Hermione."

"I can change the future," she countered. "As far as I'm concerned, the moment that blood transferred, my presence here was validated. And my being brought back to life, after dying at the hands of a Hogwarts Head Boy, here on the property- well, you're right, I suppose. There is no such thing as Hermione Granger anymore. There is only me. And every moment I have going forward.

"I will hold myself accountable. I will take control of this situation. And I will change the future."

He leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his face, his voice was soft when he said, "Whatever he has on you, I can help you. I can save you. If only you want it."

She shook her head, laughing. "I will do everything in my power to knock you from your high fucking horse if you so much as try to touch Tom or I."

"Pray tell, what should I do to stay in your good graces?"

He was insulting her, she knew that. But, it didn't stop her from saying, "Hire him."

Dumbledore smiled. It was cold and empty. "For the Defense Against the Dark Arts post? Absolutely not."

"You didn't do it in the past- he spent years traveling. Learning. He emerged as a being changed by the power he could weld- inhuman."

"Keep him from it."

Hermione laughed again, feeling slightly hysteric but mostly powerful. "Like hell. If you don't want to listen to me, you get what you deserve." It was only as she said it that she realized she meant it.

He sighed, his thumb between in teeth in thought. After a few minutes, he said, "Tom Riddle has no interest in teaching."

"He has interest in me, and my needs. This job keeps him in place."

His brows rose. "You all starting a family, Miss Granger?"

"I do want children one day, Professor. I'm stuck here. I'm going to make a life for myself."

"That is my only open post. He cannot have it."

"Well, if we're being honest, he's the best equipped person to teach it on the isle."

"It gives him an excuse to get deeper. A place to influence and recruit."

"Retire Slughorn. Give Tom the Potions post."

His brows rose. "That doesn't solve my current problem."

She groaned.

He wanted eyes on them both. She'd opened the door to this herself, unfortunately.

"I will apply for the Defense post, should he accept Potions."

"You have no qualifications."

"And you've no options, sir."

He smiled coldly. "I will consider it."

It was what he wanted. He was going to accept it.

She sat up in her chair and said, "I will leave here with a contract for him. If he signs, I will return it with my request for an interview. You'll have my NEWTs ready so that I may sit for them. Two a day until they're done. How many did Tom take?"

Dumbledore laughed. The first genuine sound he'd made since she'd met him. "Six, I believe. Divination was one of them."

"Well, I certainly won't be taking that. But, I will take seven."

"And if he doesn't agree? Will you still take your NEWTs?"

She bit her lip. "Yes."

"I applaud you then, Miss Granger."

She couldn't remember the last time he'd called her 'Granger,' before today. If he ever had. It prompted her to sharply say, "It's Riddle."

They stared at each other until he pulled a set of papers from his desk and drew up a contract. He drew up her's as well.

"I'll schedule you for them the first week of August. You'll have a little over a month to study for them. You'll want to take special care with Defense." He handed over both contracts. She shrank them, pressing them into her purse without a second thought.

"You could still leave, Hermione."

"If you don't respect me enough to call me by my married name, I'd appreciate you not speaking to me at all.

"And he doesn't have anything on me, Dumbledore. He's mine. They're...they're all mine. I'm staying."

.

.

.

"Tom?"

Hermione peered into his office to see him sitting with Konig. She pushed the door open and leaned against the frame, tucking the papers in her hand under her arm as she observed them curiously. They both looked back at her patiently, obviously uninterested in continuing their conversation.

"Am I interrupting?"

"Nothing is as important as you are, love."

She smiled. "I need to speak with you. Privately."

Konig stood up smoothly, bowing very slightly to Tom before turning to Hermione. "Please excuse if I'm overstepping- you're looking lovely. Pink is a beautiful color on you."

"I got some sun," she told him primly. "The weather has been beautiful lately."

"Certainly. Have a lovely afternoon, my Lady."

He stepped past her, and she turned to watch him leave, her throat feeling oddly hollow. When he disappeared around the corner, she stepped into Tom's office and closed the door. "He walks like Grindelwald."

Tom chuckled. "That's his father, Hermione. He raised him."

She sat down across from him, setting the papers on her legs and relaxing into the leather. He got up and rounded his desk, sitting at the other accent chair.

"What can I do for you, my love?"

"I love you," she told him surely. "I only want what's best for you, Tom. I want you safe, and sane. And alive. But the life you lead makes me believe you don't want the same things."

His eyes focused on the files in her lap.

"Which upsets me. It makes me feel as though you don't value me."

"You have been the most important person in my life for years, Hermione," he told her, his words perfectly guarded. "Of course I value you."

"Every time I see Konig, something I really don't care for happens. Someone I care about dies. You make another horcrux. Go missing for days. Come up with some stupid plan-" She sighed tiredly.

"I heard you don't want to teach anymore. Lestrange told me. Imagine my surprise, when a follower tells me something about my husband that completely blindsides me."

"I'm sorry that happened," he told her. But he didn't sound very sorry.

"This," she lifted one set of papers from her lap, "is a contract for the Defense post." She lifted the other as she said, "This is a contract for the Potions post, soon to be vacant, as well as the opportunity to be considered as Head of House. One Dumbledore will give you. The other is mine."

"He wants us where he can see us."

Hermione smiled. "I want you where I can see you. I don't want anymore horcruxes. I don't want Konig around anymore." She offered him the contract. "I want people to look me in the eye, to look our children and their's in the eye, and say that Tom Riddle was a good man. That he impacted this world in a way that changed magic forever.

"I want you to learn and grow and practice and I don't want to fear that the next spell you try will go wrong and change you into some sub-human being. I want to watch the world look at you in awe, forever, and understand that all magic is incredible and meant to be used, not shunned. But I can't do that if you continue like this."

He pushed the contract lightly back toward her, and she felt her heart break.

"I want to be that man, that wizard, for you, Hermione, I really do. But I can't. Not right now. I have to protect you."

"From what, Tom?"

He drew his hand through his hair. "You said for yourself: immortality does not equate invincibility."

Her eyes widened. "Tom. What?"

"I will protect you, Hermione."

She swallowed thickly. "You can't do that and agree with my requests?"

His gaze was oddly sobering when he said, "Not yet."

.
.

.

Hermione was sitting in Riddle Garden when Septimus stepped onto the terrace, lingering for a moment before joining her. She leaned her head on his arm, her eyes following closed. With everything that had happened over the last few days, she was grateful for him showing up.

"I still remember the first time Abraxas came home and told us you were here. Imogen had said it would be soon, but," he chuckled, "reality is never quite like what you make up in your mind."

"That's certainly true," she agreed, her voice just as quiet as his.

"And then meeting you, seeing that Tom had already gotten ahold of you, it changed our plan. Imogen wouldn't want me to tell you that, but, Abe had made it out as lighter than what it was. There was nothing we could do but offer you a true family at that point."

"I'm grateful."

"We messed that up, too."

She sighed. "I could never blame you all for anything. You've been nothing but good to me. I don't know where I would be without you all- actually, I do. Because I was in Dumbledore's care before, and I was nothing more than a pawn."

"He was in over his head."

"Don't make excuses for him. It's offensive. He knew what he was doing when he sent me here. He knew I could never return, and he lead me to believe- It doesn't matter. It's done.

"But I wouldn't be here without you all. Especially Abraxas."

Septimus hummed. "He'd give you his skin if you asked for it."

"Yeah," she replied more quietly. "I learned that a long time ago."

"That is good for you, you know? He will protect you in ways we can't. You can ask him for more than you could ask Imogen and I for."

She wasn't sure what he was trying to tell her, or why he was even there. She couldn't think of a time he'd ever been to Riddle House, and told him as much.

"Slughorn saw you and Tom at Hogwarts yesterday."

"He wants to be the Defense professor."

"I see."

"Would it be weird if I asked to hold your hand?"

He lifted his hand from his knee after just a moment's hesitancy. She tucked her arm under his and wrapped her hand around his. For a moment, she was able to forget that he wasn't really his father and that she wasn't just a normal girl from London anymore.

"Dumbledore won't give it to him. He advised Dippet to not to, in my time."

"Things have changed."

She laughed. "That is true. He told me he wouldn't give it to him, though. After the meeting he invited me up to see his office-"

"Hermione," he cut in, his hand tightening around hers. "Is everything alright?"

"Sometimes I don't know, but, yes. Things are fine. He wanted to proposition me. Offered me a chance to start over someplace else, away from Tom."

"Should that be something you desire, I hope you wouldn't go to him for it."

She looked up at him, but he continued to look out at the garden. "Abraxas has a wife. Soon, a child, Sep."

"She lost the baby. Two days ago."

"Oh, god. He didn't tell me. I saw him for breakfast and he said nothing."

"He wouldn't have. They're getting an annulment."

Her brows rose. "An annulment? I didn't know they did that."

"When a witch fails to provide an heir in a certain amount of time, the couple can decide to annul the marriage. She'll likely marry an older wizard for companionship or leave the country."

"And what happens to Abraxas?"

"Nothing. He still needs an heir, but he has time to court someone of his choosing now. Or to disappear, if need be."

"He loved her."

"She was a means to an end, Hermione."

She laid her head back on his shoulder. "He offered me the position."

"Oh my."

"Yeah," she laughed emptily. "There are conditions, of course."

"You and Tom must live on the property?"

"Oh, that's in the contract, yes. But that's because Tom will have to be Head of House upon acceptance of his post."

"His post?"

"Slughorn will retire. Tom will take the Potions post."

"That's certainly something. Did you agree?"

"I told him I would if Tom did."

Septimus sighed.

She took a deep breath in before saying, "I might be pregnant."

He let go of her hand, arm wrapping around her shoulders.

"I haven't gone to get tested but, I'm late and I feel...I don't feel like myself anymore."

"Imogen can't see you anymore," he commented. "She thought, perhaps, you were playing with time again. Though, this does make more sense."

"Fuck," Hermione breathed. She tried to inhale, but the air caught in her throat as she began to cry, folding into Septimus. As her head fell to his lap, he rubbed her back soothingly. "I don't want a child. Not right now. Not when I don't know."

He let her cry for a few minutes before saying, "I know the spell for confirmation, if you'd like to know for sure."

"No. He may not be able to hear us, but he could certainly be watching. I don't need him knowing just yet."

"You could come home, Hermione. The family healer could examine you."

She took a deep breath, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Home," she repeated.

He touched her hair, brushing it behind her ear as a soft smile formed on his lips. "I know that Imogen and I can't compare to your true parents, Hermione, but we do love you the same way we love Abraxas."

"Why?"

"My descendent, he gave you that house necklace. Even if it was for something else, he trusted you enough to give you that one. Only born Malfoy's should be permitted to wear it."

She reached for her necklace, pulling it out from under her robes and rubbing her thumb across the M. "Oh, Draco," she murmured, using her free hand to wipe away stray tears.

"Draco?" Septimus frowned. "Yikes."

She laughed, and he smiled.

"Malfoy Manor will always be home to you and any child you have, Hermione. Even if you're a Riddle. Even if you're a Granger. It doesn't matter. You'll always be able to come home."

A/N - ...did anyone notice...the thing that happened...we're so close to the end omg

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