Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter. It's sad but true.

Okay, I know it's taking me forever to update but I get serisouly bad writers block with this story. It's hard for me to start it but once I get into it, it gets really easy and I just start typing and BAM! chapter. Lol. I hope you like it!

'Cuz you have turned it to my worst enemy

You carry hate that I don't feel

"I'm sorry? You would like me to do what?" I asked. I was beyond stunned by Tom's question. There is no reasonable explanation as to why he would want to know all of what he did or will do during the rein of Voldemort. I looked down at the scar that resided on my hand and thought back to a time when the world was less civilized and more barbaric because of the man standing in front of me.

A hand soon covered my own and traced the length of the scar repeatedly. My gaze shot up and saw that Tom's eyes were filled with curiosity and fear. "Please?" He pleaded. As I stood there staring into his eyes I noticed that they were no longer cold, black, and angry. Tom Riddle's eyes were warm, scared, and a rich brown color. I sucked in a breath. The last couple of weeks Tom was able to regain his humanity. He became more real and less evil. If I subjected him to all of the horrible stories of his past then I could perhaps be responsible for making this man lose what soul he was able to find and in the end he would plummet back into the empty shell that was Lord Voldemort. I couldn't and wouldn't have that on my conscious.

"I can't." My voice was barely above a whisper but my words were able to carry far enough for them to be heard. Tom's thumb stopped it's caress as he stared at me with shining eyes.

"Why not?" He asked simply in a calm voice. I had known him long enough now to know that the calm attitude acted as a mask to hide his true feelings. I took another deep breath.

"Because..." I trailed off and looked down at my feet, not knowing what I should tell him and what I shouldn't. A warm hand slid under my chin and lifted it up gently so I met his deep, brown gaze.

"Because why, Hermione? You can tell me." He said quietly. His gaze never left mine for a second and I was enthralled in the very essence of this new Riddle. I didn't want to lie but I didn't want to tell him the truth that would for sure result in him finding out how completely entranced I was by him. I concluded that the second of these options was the only one I would be able to do. I was never a good liar, Harry and Ron had told me that everyday since we had met in our first year.

Tears welled up in my eyes and were threatening to break through to the surface. "Because..." I hesitated for a moment before continuing on. "Because I don't want the new you to go away and leave me alone again." The tears overflowed and began to fall down my cheeks in thick, wet droplets. Automatically, Tom's hand went up and cupped my cheek. His thumb soothingly wiped away the tear that began to roll down my cheeks. I tilted my head into his touch and more tears escaped my eyes.

With him so close to me, I became afraid. Afraid of losing him to what he is supposed to become, afraid of what he can do, afraid of the inevitable. The horrible things Tom did in the past still happened in the here and now. We cannot change them and I really didn't want him to dwell on his mistakes (like I was already doing for him) now that he had gained his humanity. The news of what he did would break the man he was turning into and that scared me half to death.

"Hermione?" He called to me through the mist of doubts that surrounded my head. I looked up to met his brown gaze. Tom took a deep breath and looked as if he was having an internal battle raging in the depths of his mind. He shook his head with determination before addressing me further. "I am not going anywhere. This," He motioned to himself. "is me now. And this," Tom now pointed to me and then to his own chest. "isn't just a small thing. Not for me at least. Nothing you say or do could keep me away from you now. You have my word."

I pursed my lips and wiped fiercely at my eyes before nodding my head. "Okay." I told him. A lopsided smile appeared on his face and he dropped his hand from my face. Cold air rushed to the spot where his touch had warmed my cheek and I instantly missed his fingertips against my skin.

"Let's sit." He said and pulled out a chair for me at the study table. I looked at the wooden chair and shook my head. He raised a brow at me.

"Not here. Let's go back to the common room." I suggested.

"Alright." Tom pushed the chair back in. "After you." I walked ahead of him until we made it out of the library and he caught up to fall into stride next to me. The walk to the Head Dorm was excruciatingly quiet. I was too busy thinking of what I was going to say about... this to even get a word in anyway. I'm sure Tom was just giving me the time I needed to put together a speech of sorts for him. We arrived at the common room too soon for my liking and Tom opened the portrait for me. I shuffled in slowly and took a seat on the small love seat that was positioned close to the roaring fire place.

Tom took a seat on the coffee table that stood before my sofa. He sat with a stiff, tense, straight back and watched me with questioning eyes. "Hermione, please. Just tell me and get it over with." He asked of me.

I smiled a little. "Rip off the band aid. Right?" I quoted what my mother used to always tell me when I was a little girl. The funny thing is that she always said that it hurt less if you rip it off fast instead of slowly peeling off the strip but in reality it always hurt like hell either way you did it.

"Right." Tom said with a nod. I looked up to his face and saw the desperation with which he wanted to know his story.

"Okay." I whispered. "What do you want to know first?"

Tom thought about it for a moment and said. "What happened to me? After Hogwarts?"

I shrugged. "No one knows. You disappeared after you graduated and were on hiatus. Then you came back, wanted a job at the school, and Dumbledore would not give it to you. You didn't take that very well."

He wrinkled his forehead at me. "How do you know all of this in such detail?"

I took in a sharp breath. What was I supposed to tell him? The truth would be ideal but I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to tell him. This man who sat in front of me was not Lord Voldemort, this was Tom Riddle and Tom Riddle was not a mass murder at least I hoped not anymore. I looked up into his brown eyes and the words began to tumble out of my mouth on their own. "Because I spent two years trying to find ways to kill you." I told him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The sentence was complete and it registered in my mind, I gasped.

I just told him that I had tried to kill him. My face put on a horror stricken expression as I looked at him. To my surprise, he only smiled back at me. "I supposed I deserved that considering I have tried to kill you on numerous occasions according to Professor McGonigal." He was trying to laugh off what I had just told him but I could tell the hurt ran deep. I leaned in and put a hand on his knee.

"I'd never do that now though Tom, you must know that but..." I trailed off and tried to find the right words to tell him. "But you cannot blame me for it then."

He sighed and placed his own hand rather hesitantly over mine. "Of course, I don't. I wouldn't blame you for it if you tried it now in all honesty." He whispered.

I furrowed my eye brow at his strangeness. "Why would you say that?"

"Hermione, you know everything about me, yes?" He asked. I just nodded, keeping the confused look on my face.

"Then you know that I am a monster. I know this myself."

I tilted my head and let my gaze burn into him. "Tom, but you aren't. You haven't done any of those things yet."

He scoffed and shook his head. "Hermione, I killed my father and his family. Not to mention what happened with the Chamber of Secrets. I mean, look at me. I'm evil, always have been. I could just as easily release the Basilisk again and reek havoc on the school for a second time as I could make a simple sleeping drought."

I frowned. "Third time, actually." I muttered. His head shot up to stare at me.

"What?"

I swore under my breath. I knew this whole 'tell him everything' thing wasn't going to work out well. I hadn't even told him anything horrible yet and already he was giving himself a hard time. "Um, in my second year the Chamber of Secrets opened again."

He put on a disbelieving expression and I watched as his eyes grew colder. "How?"

I paused. "Your diary. It possessed a little girl-" I cut off at the thought of Ginny Weasley but continued soon after. "and you forced her to open the chamber and release the Basilisk." I told him.

His hand snapped away from covering mine and went to run through his hair. "Did anyone die?" He sounded scared.

"No!' I almost shouted. "Some were petrified but all of us were-"

"All of us!?" He shouted. He stood up and towered over me. "You were one of the students who were attacked!?"

I opened my mouth to say something but could only manage to sputter a few incoherent words. Tom snarled and walked over to the fireplace. He placed his hands on the smooth wood of the mantle, let his head hang, and took a few deep breaths. I watched his as he tried to keep his wits about him. He took one final deep breath and everything went silent. "What else?"

I blinked a couple of times, a bid confused, before saying anything. "What-what else?"

He kept facing the fireplace with his posture tense and his fingers digging into the wood of the mantle. "What else has happened to you because of me?" He asked in an ice cold voice that sent a shiver down my spine. How do you answer a question like that when a person you care about asks? You shouldn't have to.

I looked up at him. He still had his head hanging low and was fighting to control his breathing and temper. With a long, deep sigh he finally looked up at me. His eyes widened at the look of horror that I am sure was stuck on my face. "Please tell me." He asked quietly.

I held one more internal debate with myself before deciding to just tell him what he wanted to know. "I-I don't know. I mean, everything bad that has happened over the last couple of years has been because of you, Tom." I paused. "... You killed everyone I have ever loved or cared about." It was blunt, but it was true. Lord Voldemort took every single person I had ever loved or even hated away from me, leaving me alone with only McGonigal and Lupin as my company but lately it has even been hard to look them in the eye. Tears welled up in my eyes again. I missed my family, I missed my friends, and I even missed my enemies. At least they were something familiar to me but even they were dead and gone.

Tom's eyes narrowed, more at himself than at me, before walking slowly over to the couch I was sitting on and sat down slowly next to me as if he wasn't sure if it was a good idea. His hand slowly made his way to my knee and covered my hand. "I am sorry." I managed a small smile and a nod. We lapsed into silence with only the crackling of the fireplace making the deafening quiet bearable. "I-" Tom started but cut off quickly as he began to think over the words he was about to speak again. "I wish I could take it all back for you, Hermione. All of it."

I didn't look at him, I just put my other hand atop his and gave it a light squeeze. "Well you can't." I whispered. With those words I strode away from him and up the stairs. It was too hard to explain these things to him, I could not take it any longer. Demons of my past were coming back to me with full force and my heart did not have enough time to mend it's self yet. Maybe in a few weeks or months I could answer all of his questions without it tugging on my heartstrings but right now I just needed time to heal.

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A knock sounded on my door an hour later. I called for the person to come in and as I expected Tom came in timidly and closed the door behind him. He stood close to the door, ready to leave if I was ready to ask him to but I didn't. Instead I motioned for him to come and join me on the bay window. He sat down across from me, leaning against the opposite sill and looked out over the grounds of Hogwarts along with me. He cleared his throat and it wasn't until that moment I realized he had a plate full of food in his hands. He pushed the white china into my hands. "I thought you might be hungry." He stated simply.

"Thank you." I said back. I really wasn't up to eating but if he went to the trouble then I would at least manage to push the food around a bit.

We remained silent as I 'ate'. I had three bites of the sandwich he brought me before putting the plate on the floor. I pulled my legs up to my chest and rested my chin on them. I felt my eyes drift to Tom whose face was practically glued to the window and away from me. As if he felt my gaze upon him, he turned to face me with a grim expression on his features. More silence came about as we locked eyes and stayed that way. I gazed deeply into his darkening brown eyes and saw all of the regret, sorrow, and fear he felt. Someone once said that our eyes were the windows to our soul. I never quite believed that saying until I looked at Tom that day.

I was sucked out from his eyes when he spoke. "You hate me. Don't you?" Tom asked with a defeated tone to his voice.

I didn't say anything, just stared at him without the ability to formulate a sentence. He breathed out forcefully through his nose and nodded. Tom stood up abruptly and made his way to the door. I watched him go and it hurt my heart to watch.

"Tom!" I called to him right before he walked through my now open door. I ran up and stood facing him, he opted to keep his back to me. I paused to try to figure out the right way to say what I was feeling once again. "I don't hate you." I stated. He spun around to face me. His body was inches from mine and made me fell a little more than nervous. Whether it was in a good or bad way I wasn't able to tell however. "I wish I did." I whispered honestly before looking up into his eyes. "You don't know how much I wish I could hate you..." I trailed off and looked at my feet again. This was hard for me to admit to him and myself. "I wish I wanted to kill you but somehow I know that if I did that then... then I would die right along with you." One more pause. "But I'm cursed." I finished in a whisper.

His fingertips were once again under my chin, bringing it up, and made my eyes meet his. His expression changed to hold a look of understanding along with regret. "How are you cursed?" He said quietly.

I sighed. "I am cursed to love the person who came from who I hate most in this world."

He blinked at me as if he was shocked. "You... love... me?" He asked.

I pursed my lips. "Unfortunately."

His hand went from my chin to my cheek and began to stroke it gently. I was getting used to the feeling of his touch and I loved it. A small, sad smile appeared on Tom's face as he slowly began to dip his head closer to mine. Before I knew it, he had leaned his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. I did the same. "Then I am cursed as well." I opened my eyes and met his. In a second, he closed the gap between our lips and kissed me slowly and gently. From that moment on, I knew I had changed. I promised myself to never love anyone else on this Earth ever again, but with Tom's lips on mine I knew that promise was broken for good. I had somehow fallen in love with Tom Marvolo Riddle and it scared me to death.

It's kinda short, I know. But oh well. Lol. Thank you for reading!