Little Hangleton Cemetery, 1995
Harry Potter
He had never given much thought to Voldemort other than simply the fact he had been the man who had caused the death of his mother, but no matter how the Prophet labeled him as the Boy- Who- Lived he never felt particularly special. He was just a boy whose mother had died protecting him from one of the most feared Dark Lords of their time, second only to Gridelwald who Dumbledore had defeated years and years ago before even James Potter was even born.
Now, as Harry lay before the man in question in the dirt of a dark cemetery lit only by a single glowing light that followed behind the man wherever he walked, he could not help but think he was simply a man. His terrifying circumstances only amped up by the fact that Lord Voldemort's face had taken on a pallor more similar to a skull with darkly shadowed eyes and sunken cheeks than that of the ordinary but powerful man that he was. In addition to this, he simply stared at the immobilized boy before him saying nothing for the time being. Until he did, opening his mouth to a voice that chilled Harry to the bone with it's coldness.
"Harry Potter," it rasped as if coming from a very sore throat and he could only raise it so high as to be heard, "I have waited quite a while to meet you again, outside of that damnable house of horrors were both your mother as well as I were to meet both of our ends. I apologize for the venue, this event taking place on my father's grave, but alas it must be done for several reasons I will not bore you with. I am sure you are eager to get back to Hogwarts and claim your prize of the Triwizard Cup, as champion."
Harry felt a glimmer of absolute anger well up within his chest that no doubt was reflected within his eyes as the murderer's lips rolled up at the corners slightly, the smaller boy looking away from him even as he tried to move his mouth to scream. Hermione had always said he had quite a temper at times, and yet that never seemed to stop him even when advised against it. He only had enough time to glance at the name written upon the gravestone, Tom Riddle, before Voldemort once again began his one sided conversation.
"I must also apologize for that night as well before we continue, as I see the anger within you. I am sure you have been told all a manner of things, by Dumbledore." His slight grin dropped right off as if it nor his amusement had ever be there plain as day, a genuine sadness tinged with something else altogether now written in his voice causing Harry no small a matter of confusion at the turn. It seemed even he now had taken Harry's anger and twisted it into his own heart as he abruptly stood and spun around so that the boy could no longer see his face, "It was never my intention to take either of your parents away from you, Harry. Despite what the Prophet, and others might say of my goals and the way I personally choose to go about them, death is not my end goal. It has simply been collateral damage in having the choice followers that I do." The handsome yet sickly looking man turned back to the boy whose chest now felt as if it would begin heaving if it could, "In the case of Lily Potter, she herself simply cast the wrong spell that rebounded when I had not the chance to defend myself. As a consequence, she had died while I succumbed to a sleep I only recently woke from and have since begun resuming searching for that which I seek." He paused glancing up to the stars that had begun twinkling above them as they now stood in the light of the full moon, and over his shoulder into the shadows as if listening to something Harry could not hear.
"Very good," Lord Voldemort murmured to himself at the words of his most loyal acolyte turned companion these few months he had awoken, he turned back to the now paler than snow boy before him, "Well, Potter, I believe it is time to get along with everything, we both have places to be. There is no need to worry about you returning to Hogwarts, just a little blood is needed."
Harry only caught a glimpse of a single robed figure emerging from the shadows behind the man who had stolen his blood before he felt that tug within his stomach signaling the activation of the portkey, a figure that wore his robes in a suspiciously familiar way to that of a dark professor no matter that these were of the typical uniform of a bone mask and Death Eater robes.
~.~
Hermione had been barred from seeing Harry for the majority of the summer, and even immediately after the events of the completion of the Triwizard Tournament by Dumbledore once the bleeding and exhausted boy had appeared with the glowing Tournament cup in hand before the maze. That is, she had been banned from seeing him once the Headmaster had found her sitting at the boy's bedside, both pale as a sheet for very different reasons all for Harry's own good.
"He must be allowed to rest from his ordeal without interruption, Miss. Granger," he had told her at the foot of his bed despite Harry's protests, simply speaking over her as she trembled while glancing over his shoulder at her Head of House that stood silently behind him. "I am sure you understand it is for the best."
Hermione did not understand why isolating Harry with none of his friends for company would be best for his mental well being, but ultimately it was James' decision although he would do anything Dumbledore asked of him even if he clearly disagreed with him. She could still hear his panicked yells from where he had stood next to several Aurors who had been assigned to ensure the smooth ending of the Tournament, his screams of Harry's name as his son had lay still before the large crowd of students and professors of all three participating schools.
Tom had been silent all the while as she stood along with those of her house who wished to know what had happened to The- Boy- Who- Lived, even if he had maintained ahold of her hand the whole time. Speaking nothing until Hermione had first entered the Hospital Wing, observing her paling face.
"There is nothing to worry about, Mina my love." He had stroked her face as all the blood rushed from her cheeks at the name Harry had just spoken in his sleep, not knowing any other reason why such a thing would cross his lips if he had not finally heard the secret she had been hiding from him all these years. If he had not heard her say the boy sitting at her feet's name as she spoke quietly to him, believing the injured boy to be asleep.
"Tom," Harry whispered once more, twisting his head about in a slightly restless sleep.
"Nothing to worry about at all," Tom echoed.
Harry's hand tightened on her's from where she had stood holding it all the while facing down the man who graced her nightmares, as if in question of why she wasn't true to her personality and questioning professors on subjects that was clearly wrong or saying everything would be fine would remain a mystery to her. She had only the chance to say goodbye into his ear as they squeezed one another before she was led away to her dorm by Severus.
"It is alright to be scared, my girl." Tom said, "I will always be here to protect you."
Hermione could not help but answer him out loud, even as her Professor's hand had tightened slightly on her shoulder as they grew closer to an exhausted looking James, "But you aren't."
Her thoughts all were too jumbled to answer him in her head as she normally did in company, but the night's events had been just as draining on her who could get none of her questions answered as it must have been for Harry's father. He had attempted a kind face, but she just knew without him even saying a word he would back Dumbledore's wishes as she thought he would.
The messy haired man nodded once to the man beside her, "Snape."
"Potter," he had drawled in response.
"I am sorry, Hermione." James grabbed her up in one of his signature bear hugs just as Remus and Sirius tended to do, as if they all had the capacity to soothe all your worries by imbuing you with their warmth and enveloping you in their scent. But this night, Severus' long fingered hand that had slipped away from her just as James grabbed her about the waist had more of an affect on her nerves than anything else would. "Harry does need to have some alone time with the three of us for a while," he said, meaning him and the two other men who were just as good as his blood brothers. Although, if the absolute last word Harry had whispered to her with their hug, the Order of the Phoenix would grace Harry's presence much more often than she would. "I hope you will understand that, and respect the Headmaster's wishes."
She had simply smiled at him as best she could without saying a word of acceptance due to her thoughts already churning on how she could get Harry on a telephone at the least, "Take care of him for me, James."
"Voldemort," his breath had unnoticeably stirred into her ear.
Her exile had been lifted however with the end of the summer, just a few days before classes would begin once more for their fifth year at Hogwarts. Now, as she stood facing James Potter and his sad eyes once more within the halls of Grimmauld Place, so different than what they had been when in the company of Lily according to Sirius, her thoughts wandered at everything Harry had revealed to her within the last few hours.
"Tom Riddle, the muggle father of the Dark Lord Voldemort," her Tom mused from beside her, "How curious."
Hermione, although all together more tolerant than she had been just a few years ago with Tom's cryptic musings, still felt a bit irritated at the moment with his latest one. But then again, the not- so- subtle glares of the whole of the red headed Weasley family including the mother and yet not the sweet patriarch might have contributed more towards her wiley emotions that her shadow was at the moment.
Early that morning she had shown up at the doorstep of Sirius' home packed with all her shrunken school belongings and had shoved her way into the home, citing that Harry had finally sent Hedwig out with his first letter of the summer. Claiming all words with a smile and hair flip at oblivious Harry's surprise as well as his godfather's and father who had begun staring at her with an odd expression upon his face even since she had appeared on their doorstep. What had started out as a triumphant day had turned marginally annoying when Harry informed her that the Order of the Phoenix, who she should in all respects know nothing about but Harry had told her of anyway, would be having a meeting that night after dinner. In addition to also revealing her Head of House was a spy for the all knowing Headmaster in question, as if she had not been able to figure that piece of particular information on her own at this point of time. That marginal unhappiness turning to muddled emotion when he then finally told her of the events of the final Triwizard cup task, of what had been told to him of how his mother truly died.
Tom suddenly flicked her earring as he sat in the empty seat beside her that Harry did not occupy speaking to Ron on his other side, not any of the Gryffindors in the room wishing to sit next to the muggleborn Slytherin. The pearl dangled back and forth causing her head to twitch slightly and glance up while adjusting it.
What an outcast she was within this room, even more so than in her own House which was an all together different level of being on the outs.
Just then, the Headmaster entered the room, slowing his long stride as he locked eyes with Hermione to which she quickly brought an end to and excused herself before he could get a word in over the Weasleys' loud speech and laughter. But alas, she was brought to a halt before she could completely make her escape, a halt that had her running straight into Severus' broad chest as she had maintained her own eye contact with the wooden floor.
The man before her caught her elbows in a slight grip to keep her from falling right on her backside as she was twisted up in her own feet, turning back to James who had spoken, drawing his side of the table's attention which consisted of his Marauders and son. As well as Tom who continued to look to her with a shark like smile lighting up his handsome face once the father began to speak, his eyes glancing back and forth from her to the man who had yet to release her as if she had asked to be let go in the first place. In fact, she was very comfortable where she was, this not having been the first time she was close enough to smell his unique cologne consisting of an ever changing combination of potions ingredients. Although a tea was also featured at that moment that Hermione just wished she could curl up with for the rest of the night in her bed she would not have to share with Ginny who had moved at once into Fred and George's room. A very tempting thing to do indeed as the girl had moved due to not trusting the elder one not to curse her in her sleep, as if she would be bothered to spend that time on someone she had no feelings towards either on the positive nor negative side of things.
"Those are very pretty earrings, Hermione." The dark haired man said, drawing more than her own confused eyes as she began playing with the one Tom had disrupted once more.
"Thank you, James." She was tempted to say that they were heirlooms except for the tightening of Severus' hands even more upon her elbows, but he had taught his Slytherins well in saying less on a certain subject extracted more information than a whole sentence full.
"Harry's mother had a very similar pair when we were students at Hogwarts," he said, his adam's apple so obviously moving in his effort to talk of his deceased wife, "An identical pair I might say if I remember correctly."
Ones he had often played with as his son's friend did herself at the moment, twirling it about in her two fingers as if not noticing the man standing just behind her continuing to hold her arms within his grasp. Pearls his firey haired girl had thrown to the ground at said man's feet on the day they had ceased to be friends, James only remembering such a thing as the image of the teen scooping the dots of snow up from the grass as tenderly as if they were made of broken glass a thing wholy out of chracter of the dark teen turned man.
Hermione smiled hesitatingly, something clicking in her brain as Tom seemingly went once again right off into a random, "I love you."
"I am sure they did her much more justice than they do me, seeing as my hair covers them most of the time." She replied, noting how Sirius, Remus, and Harry continued with masks of confusion while James seemed to be pondering Gods know what in that auror brain of his while looking between her and Severus. Her ears burning and hoping beyond anything that her cheeks did not match, she bid goodnight to them once more and exited the kitchen with an additional dark shadow than the single one she normally bore.
She stopped at the door of her room, tilting her head back to the taller man who stood silently observing her from his post much closer than he ever would have ventured prior to their conversation at the top of the Astronomy Tower just mere months ago. Even as it seemed their new relationship with one another had lasted years and years, yet they still found some way to surprise one another.
"Is she the reason these earrings are special to you?" Hermione asked while tucking the darkening hunk of curls normally hiding her ears from sight away in order for him to get a good look at the single hoop and pearl laying innocently against her neck as she cocked her head to the side.
His long fingers rested just below it, Tom coming around his side with his ever present smile in once again another too familiar way to simulate both of their hands wrapping about her throat as if a pulsingly warm collar rested there. Their eyes rested on her wrongly colored eyes, "She is a part of them, although what I have told you of my mother was more a correct reason to having given them to you." He leaned down closer to her face as if in an attempt to intimidate her, "I vowed the next person to receive them, would be in possession of them forever as I would never make the same mistakes as I once did that ended in them being returned to me." He now asked a question of his own, "Would the reason you always seem to be looking over my shoulder be that a certain boy named Tom is always lurking there?"
Hermione smiled up at him in a way much like said boy, "Perhaps." She brought her own cold fingers up to rest on his own throat before placing a kiss upon his jaw and stepping away, "And perhaps I will find you later in the night, Professor Snape. Me and my immovable shadow, if we would not be a bother?"
"Never."
That night, she would wake from her nightmares and wander into the dark library that still had the fireplace roaring along with the bare chested profesor before it sipping firewhiskey. Without a word, his arm raised along the backside of the sofa in order for her to press her shivering body into his warmly feverish skin, her cold fingers causing said chest to shiver itself as she played with the coarse hair that lay there.
It had not been long after their late night conversation that day in the Astronomy Tower that they had become much closer than typical professor and student, her having taken up his time as Head of House many a time before dropping all previous pretenses. Any miniscule reservations they might have had towards their positions within Hogwarts had dropped the minute she had come to him inconsolable and incoherent with tears from a particularly horrible night. While much of that night had been a blur, the aftermath of staring at one another and Hermione with a certain peace within her heart while tracing Severus' jaw so different than Tom's, she almost could have fooled herself that everything within her small world was fine. But that sense of peace was shadowed in a way she just could not grasp, Tom silent all the while as she stayed awake even with Severus' eyes drooping before her had silently watched her over the older man's broad shoulders.
Nothing was noticeably improved much by the addition to their newly complicated relationship within her life even as she held a fondness for him which she had held for none other than her masculine shadow, but over time she felt less alone than she had before. Harry could only do so much, offer only so much support of her feelings and actions if he only knew a fraction of the truth, while Severus knew a vast amount more.
Though, for one reason or another, she held back just how much love she held for Tom, as well as how she preferred him over any other person who she could actually touch without her hands passing through his skin. The figment of her imagination, that long past child psychologist had told her parents, earned a significant more of her energy that only served to isolate her further from her classmates as well as the other Slytherins. But she also had a feeling he already knew, that glint that appeared in his eye when she told him of certain things the other boy said only served to tell her of this.
"I feel even more exhausted lately than when I had taken all those extra classes third year, and I simply can not comprehend as to why." Hermione rubbed her eyes even as she yawned, although she had lain beneath her covers speaking to Tom for an hour in a futile hope at returning to sleep for the night before deciding to roam about the house. Also trying in vain to keep from possibly interrupting Severus' sleep who had lately had just as much insomniac tendencies as she had developed, although he once told her he had not gotten a full night's sleep in more than ten years.
"I certainly don't mind being a pillow for you, girl." Severus smirked down to her, pressing a kiss to her temple.
"I simply don't know how I feel about this turn of events, Mina." Tom chimed in from where his head lay in her lap, her fingers aching to comb through the thick tresses spread about her thighs. "I think I would like to keep those blushes for myself, my girl."
"I can control my blushes no more than I can control my sleep, Tom." Hermione answered within her mind, knowing that no matter how much the man she lay on said he did not mind when she randomly spoke aloud before launching in a full one- sided conversation in his eyes, she knew it was at least exceedingly weird even to her after all these years.
She snuggled further into his side, now warm all around to the point of her thick nightdress sticking uncomfortably to her skin, "And I am very glad at that, Severus."
They had been able to keep their growing feelings from being aired to others whose business it did not concern, as well as the Headmaster whose business it most certainly did, yet it seemed this night it simply could not be contained. Along with another secret that was not content in being suppressed any longer.
A worried father who had grown to creeping down the hall towards his son's room in times of a restless mind, a habit that had been formed after the events of the boy's childhood, just so happened to be creeping down the wrong hall at the wrong time. All the while intending on extinguishing the fire that threw shadows about the large library on his way back to his own room, James Potter happened to glance into the mirror just visible through the first set of bookcases. A mirror reflecting that of a young dark headed girl whose wavy curls he had not once seen entering the home of his son's godfather, as well as that of his childhood rival whose lips were tangled with the underaged girl's as his hand pulled on the aforementioned curls.
He simply stood silently dumbfounded, with no coherent thoughts swirling about his blank mind as he finally found the source of the reflection that was significantly different than that of the picture within the mirror. The couch boasting one of his son's best friends arching into her professor's possessive hold around her hips. Not fully processing what he had walked into, he returned to his empty bed in a daze that would not fully lift until he once again caught a glimpse of those dark haired curls framing a delicate face not entirely different than that of Hermione Granger's.
That single last glimpse of the increasingly entwined couple would stay with him while the events of the girl's truth was revealed. That last look where the girl's eyes had glanced up to him in a very brief second always haunting him as he watched the aftermath, those eyes flashing a stormy grey all too different than her normal bright hazel ones.
~.~
Department of Mysteries
Tom Riddle and Hermione Granger
His heart beat wildly in his chest as if it were a wild animal desperately rattling in it's cage, the secrets to his sister's disappearance was close at hand. Hopefully. Severus, who had helped nurse him back to health even after all the years they had been gone from each other's lives allowing Tom to once again feel the closest of bonds second only to that of his Mina's, had come to him with news of a prophecy. Dumbledore, who he had long suspected of taking his beloved from him due to the simple fact he single handedly spearheaded the opposition against him, had rewarded Severus' years and years of loyalty of spy for that of the light. His news of a prophecy made many years ago by the mother of Hogwarts Divination professor Sybill Trelawney, the many times granddaughter of famed seer Cassandra, having been taken with a heavy heart that had lightened by the minute at the prospect of finally having answers after all this time. After decades of searching, long dark decades of no progress in his desired goals other than simply growing his group of followers, he would have answers this night. No matter if he had to storm the wards of the great School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with each one of his Death Eaters behind him, and Severus beside him, and take Dumbledore's mind for his own for he no longer was a child in need of instruction.
He was a man of vengeance and love directing his every spell, and that was much more powerful than any anger he might have held in his heart.
And so, here he stalked the halls of the Department of Mysteries in search for the hidden prophecy that had lead to the end of his life. Because his life did indeed end the day Hermina had been taken from him, all their goals and plans they had made together since even before they had ever heard of Hogwarts dashed all to dust until he could once again lay hands on her soft skin he could still recall the smell of. Until she could lay her own upon his skin.
At the same time as Tom silently made his way through the halls of the Ministry, Hermione made her way through them as well dressed in a cloak that was not at all her own but in another life very well could have been. As well as the bone mask that had been affixed to her face.
She and Severus had been together when his arm had grown warm beneath her fingers where she had been tracing the blackened picture that triggered something just on the tip of her tongue whenever she had seen it bared, along with the thought it was missing a crucial aspect and it would look much better in a silver shade. The immobile snake had begun writhing inside and out of the deep socks of the skull, signaling Voldemort's calling of his most trusted Death Eater. The man had silently arisen as he had many times before in her presence, somewhat hesitating as if he had something to tell her while looking down to the bone mask within his hands. He would not inform Dumbledore of this call as he had all others since he began his spy duties, all in an effort to remain afloat of whichever side won this war of theirs. Or, as it had all begun no matter the sting of guilt and betrayal he always seemed to feel no matter the thoughts and reassurances he told himself.
"Go along now, Mina." Tom had told Hermione with an odd smile written about his lips as she watched Severus, "Go now."
So, as she had always done, she listened without question. Only steadfastly arguing her case vaguely to Severus, citing she would stay out of sight of every Death Eater and Order member that were sure to show up before any auror as they seemed to always have done. In the end, he acquiesced to her wishes as if she were in the position of authority over him and not the other way around. He had duplicated his robes as well as his mask before affixing them to her much smaller frame and making alterations where needed, grabbing her hand before activating the floo. Hermione had only the time to glance back towards Tom who watched her go with a new glimmer of something within his eyes, and at the corners of his smile.
He would not follow her now, he would not follow her into her fate rewritten by the Gods many years ago.
Severus stalked slowly in front of her in order for her smaller legs to keep pace with him, but soon he would allow her to roam about on her own in order for her to explore for herself. His argument to himself being that her nondescript robes would mark her as a sister Death Eater and would simply be passed by if she were to encounter others with a Dark Mark branded into their skin. These thoughts would not soothe him for the duration of the several hours they spent separated while his Lord allowed said brand to remain cool and cold, as if it were not there. But the minute it did warm, transporting him immediately to the man's side in a cloud of black, what he found was not quite the shock it was to those who had somehow come up on the scene. Including the Minister of Magic himself.
Hermione had become bored while looking at the various shelf upon shelf of swirling orbs full of mist and echoing voices of which you never could quite hear no matter the spell cast upon your ears, and so, when a certain whispering began she felt obliged to follow it. Occasionally glancing at the various tags she passed so as to see who it had belonged to, she steadily grew closer to the now distinguishable voice of a woman who sounded as if she were repeating the same words over and over. Yet the words themselves remained a mystery, the woman's voice garbled out the same sounding words until Hermione abandoned the now uninteresting orbs both to the left and right of her before she came to a stop. Deep, deep down the seemingly endless halls of the dark storage area of the Department of Mysteries that held only prophecies dating even back to it seemed Merlin and Morganna's own age, she found one with a name she had lived with for the whole of her life. A name that she knew just as well as her own, and yet she felt a smidgen of confusion at the rest. The anger that would follow hours later to be something of monumental proportions that would seem as if had been building at this very minute, at the reading of these words which she would come to realize had been the beginning of everything she had ever felt in her short life.
Tom and Hermina Riddle, Prophecy of 1943 by Elenor Trewlaney to Albus Dumbledore
She allowed the tag to fall from her fingers, just a moment before she held the orb within her small hands listening to the damning prophecy that had been made to the Headmaster so many years ago. The prophecy that would also be heard by the single other concerned party that had stood in the shadows as the hooded girl had read the fragile and disintegrating tag, feeling a warmth rising within his chest he had not felt for such a long time.
Those words only they could hear would echo within both of their minds before the glass would follow it's tag's actions, disintegrating into mist and air as both of the concerned parties had finally heard it's words at last. Never to be heard by any other who it did not concern again, and never to be used as a means to an ends of preconceived predjudices.
"Borne of the Slytherin line comes two children bound together by the Gods by blood and by womb, and on the eve of the girl twin's seventeenth birthday the Dark Lord shall rise once more. The Dark Lord shall rise, and he will burn the world and all those who oppose him in the name of her who he has loved."
Hermione, so used to Tom being beside her mistakes the warmth that had begun in her own chest for the boy who had been attached to her since birth, who had sung her songs to soothe her back to sleep while clasping her little fingers. So, she absent mindedly removed the cowl she had explicitly told Severus she would allow to conceal her curls, all the while turning in his direction as she says his name before stopping short at the surprising sight, "Tom-" her eyes slowly widened as the man came out of the shadows that seemingly wrapped around him. Her Tom had never been as tall as the man before her, nor as handsomely aged even as he had always retained a slight boyish look about his face resting on his teenaged shoulders. But this man's eyes, oh, his eyes were exactly her Tom's. All the way down to the way a darker ring of black encompassed the edges of his iris.
He was even more beautiful than Severus, who she thought was the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes upon.
Tom, all the while, once the girl's Death Eater robes no longer concealed her identity, felt as if he stepped back into the time where his lovely sister was parted from his side no more than a few minutes at a time. The girl's dark curls that had at first seemed as if they were a light brown slowly changed to the color and wave his sat in, her face as she turned to him sharpening right before him into his Mina's jawbones. Those hazel eyes darkening in the surprise and curiosity that lit them up the long minute it took for her to trace his own face with her eyes.
Hermione did not believe this was her Tom who had watched her grown into the girl she was in this life, but as the man took one more step towards her as he were not aware of his actions within the daze he seemed to be immersed in, she heard a familiar voice. A voice that she had heard every morning she awoke, one that did not emit from the man's lips before her when all accounts it should have.
"Reunite with him once more, my darling girl. Touch him, reaffirm your soul bond, and you will never again be parted for as long as you shall live."
Her hand lifted as if someone had ahold of it by her fingers, and placed them delicately on his warm cheek. Once his skin touched her's, it was is if she had walked beside him all those years long they had spent separated by one man's attempt at preventing a war he inadvertently began. She saw each day, each second, he had lived without her, just as he saw her days in this life. She saw each murder he had committed with her name written across his brain, and he saw each lonely day she spent within the house named of their lineage.
"My Tom," she whispered, tears falling to the floor beneath them, mingling along with his own he had not shed for many years.
"Mina."
All that would be left within the Ministry of Magic at the time of the last member of the Unspeakables of the Department of Mysteries leaving the destroyed Room of Prophecies would be that of the large clocktower, the focal point of the Atrium, chiming the midnight bell to Hermina's seventeenth birthday. As well as the fulfillment of the prophecy long since written in the stars, and carried out by one blue eyed man.
~.~
Tom and Hermina Riddle
Mina and Tom lived through their memories once more, their bond forged once again through tears and shared pain as their protector stood vigil over the bed they had lain themselves in so that their magic could reacquaint itself with one another. That protector, the man who had allowed himself to become so completely immersed within the lives of the two siblings wrapped around each other, watched them staring but not seeing into each other's identically colored eyes. All the while wrapped snugly together by the embrace of their large silver scaled familiar who had longed just as long as her father to be reunited with her mother.
For years he had struggled to become the most important hand to both of them all in his search of power, and yet somehow when he was not looking too closely at his own actions, he allowed himself to fall into them himself. He fell into the love they bore him completely and irrevocably without conscious warning, yet he should have seen the warnings his own heart had given to his mind. Each in their respective times he had loved them, and now at the point they were once again reunited, he felt that love multiplied by Gods knew how much as he watched their memories of their first childhood together within his head.
And at that moment, he was cemented within their lives as if he had always been there, connected to their cores by a golden thread of time, love, and magic. Their protector, their confidant, their lover. Always.
.
"Make sure you are quiet, Mina." Her brother told her while pulling her along by the hand once again into Gods knew where, "Quiet as a field mouse."
Hermina tried very hard not to giggle her childish giggles as they crept through the darkness around Hogwarts' black lake, knowing very well that even only just weeks into their First Year that if they were caught by a Professor they would get no leeway even being new students. Especially if the Deputy Headmaster was the one to discover them outside of the castle after curfew, Albus Dumbledore who had brought them into this world by no other personal obligations it seemed than the simple fact they held magic within their blood. As if they had not found a way to utilize it at a very young age, asking the snakes in the woods surrounding the orphanage to be their friends and protect them from the muggle bullies when they could not protect each other. Which was rare enough, mostly those little garden snakes acting simply as little companions. "We are not mice, Tom. We are the snakes who eat the mice, snakes all the way to our blood and bones as it is."
His white teeth shone even through the even blacker darkness that surrounded the Forbidden Forest they had been told at their first Opening Feast never to venture into, although that never stopped Tom from doing anything he pleased. Not once in his life had it stopped him, nor had anything stopped her from following right behind him least he get himself into something even he could not talk himself out of with his hissing tongue of silver.
"We are going to be very tried tomorrow, Tom. Even more so with neither of us getting sleep." She told him, but made no move to pull back on the hand that guided her through the darkly shaped trees that looks as if they were simply shadows in the lightless night, although she did see the occasional glowing plant or bug. As well as a tall person shaped shadow her eyes seemed to simply accept as part of the forest, even as it detached from the shadows and laid a hand upon her shoulder. A magical fairie kingdom she would have called it years ago when magic was only a figment of the imagination, but now she knew the names of those plants and what potions they were used for.
"Our bond would just have us laying in bed for hours anyway, Mina. Such is the curse of us being apart." He said in response, hearing the background chatter of magical winged beings being thought in her head and the listing of potions ingredients. "This way we at least tire ourselves out even if only a little, besides, we're already heads of our class."
Hermione grinned at the back of his head as they came to a stop, knowing he could hear her mind as well as she could hear his own no matter how hard he would sometimes try and think of something else. He never succeeded in keeping many things from her for long regardless, let alone the fact that he had been excitedly waiting the past couple days for the full moon that was blocked by the thick trees above them. Waiting to show her the absolutely gorgeous glowing of the flowers before them.
"Oh, they're so pretty, Tom!" Hermione dropped to her knees silently before the cluster of rare flowering plants she never would have suspected grew within the forest surrounding Hogwarts, not even as far as they had come.
Tom watched his sister's face as she danced her fingers along the rare shuddering petals of the golden flowers he had found during his last walk under the full moon that now shone a single ray of light down onto the petals before them. In his eyes, the happiness she emitted from her smile shone even brighter upon him than that of the now lightly singing plant.
His Mina turned back to him once the petals were once again at full bloom from the attention it had received and threw her arms around his shoulders, causing them to fall just beside the precious plant. She rained kisses upon his face as she had done since they were children, complete with the lingering kiss right upon his lips at the end before pulling back to look into his eyes.
He smiled up at her as his own arms squeezed around her waist and it seemed as if everything else fell away around her and he was the center of her universe once more, as he had always been and always would be no matter what.
"I love you, Mina."
"I love you, Tom."
At once, their eyes both lifted into the same direction the shade had stopped in just on the other side of the magical flower, both of their familiar lips tilting up at just the same angles.
"We love you, Severus."
.
"There is nothing to worry about, Mina my love." He stroked her face as all the blood rushed from her cheeks, "Nothing to worry about at all," Tom echoed, his warm hand trailing down her hip and around her stomach, resting just below her navel. He turned her around so that she faced the other man in their life who watched them from several feet away, her heart beating as fast as it could it seemed at the thought of what they were about to do. What Tom had sprung on her out of the nowhere.
"Don't worry, Mina." He told her, chuckling as if he didn't feel her burrowing back into his chest as inconspicuously as she could at the black mist beginning to surround them. "I've got you."
"I know you have ahold of me, Tom." Hermina said blandly, all the while digging her nails into the hands wrapped around her as if wanting to draw blood. "You know bloody well I prefer my feet to stay on the ground, and I never in a million years would have thought for you to ever want to test gravity either. How you managed to keep this new skill of yours to yourself for this long is beyond my capabilities."
He squeezed her tighter in retaliation, not once wincing at the sting of her nails indeed drawing blood that she would later on find encrusted beneath her fingernails. "It's nothing like a broom, love. You have much more control of your body, you simply have to let yourself go and connect to your magic. It will protect you from falling." He paused as the dark cloud rises slowly around their shoulder, pressing his lips to her cheek quickly. "But for now, I will protect you. Until you are able to do it on your own."
"It is perfectly safe, girl." That shadow from the forest spoke, it's features distorted and it's voice echoing all around them. "You should know to trust your, brother. After all, he has your best interests at heart."
Tom's hand moved alongside her neck to gently yank a curl just as a cold breeze blew them into his face as his warm breath kissed her cheek in a chuckle as his eyes focuses on where those of the shade should have been, "Right you are, love."
Mina sighed in resignation, relaxing completely as the cloud enveloped them wholly and completely despite the deep fear that still sat deep within her stomach, "I don't know exactly how well I like you both boxing me in in this way."
The shadow's face came into focus just as Tom lifted them into the sky, it's sharp teeth following her all the way as well as it's fading words, "I believe, love, you will begin to like it just fine."
"It is alright to be scared, my girl." The shade turned pale man said into their minds, as softly as a whisper upon the wind, "I will always be here to protect you."
.
Hermina twirled her new necklace in her fingers, smiling widely as she made her way through the cold walls of Hogwarts that had brought her and her brother nothing but comfort compared to the orphanage. The slight weight of the goblin silver was newly welcome around her neck that spoke of Tom's devotion, the protection charms he had cast onto it causing a hint of his magic to twine with her fingers as she gently allowed her fingers to run across the bumps of the stones. A prickling on the skin of her exposed neck accompanied by a sudden rush of cold along every inch of her body signaled her to drop the piece of jewelry back onto her chest, her wand sliding into her hand as she slowed her feet.
"Hello, Hermina," a deep voice closer than she would have thought said from just behind her, causing her to stumble slightly before whirling around into a tall chest. The figure caught each of her arms before letting her go, although it was her who stepped back.
Raising her gaze from the short red beard shot with silver, her pale eyes found those of the man who smelled of the lemon candies Tom so despised due to his sweet tooth, and all they served for was to satiate one's sour tongue. Hermina had always loved them before this man came bearing double edged news of their magical community. He had ruined the taste for her since then, them being his choice of candy handouts in addition to his magical scent.
Her eyes turned wary at his unchracteristic greeting and unusual closeness, as well as his presence in this deserted area of the dungeons.
"Hello, Professor Dumbledore."
He tilted his head to the side as she once more took a small but noticeable step away from him, closing the distance between them until he was looming above her short form just as before. "How is your brother doing, Hermina? I have been hearing whispers of the Dark Lord all throughout this year, I simply just have to ask as to where that name has come from. Can you enlighten me on this matter?" His eyes twinkled at her, "How could a charming young man such as your brother come to be known by this from his classmates?"
The Dark Lord… Hermina said through the bond towards her brother, all that seemed to cross her mind as panic mounted within her heart when Dumbledore's white knobbed wand appeared in his hand.
The Dark Lord... Tom chuckled in her ear, although his voice seemed oddly faded… I like it, I think I'll keep it.
She simply stared at the man in internalized shock, panic shooting through her mind and heart even faster as she reatreated from the man who now dropped his smile. A dark man enveloped her from behind, soothing her heart and yet not her mind as she tried her very best to raise her magic from within her core. Yet found herself blocked from doing so.
Her emotions must have shown within her eyes as the man stood before her twitching his lips as if amused with her, "I am truly sorry my dear, but I have blocked you off from your magic. You might have felt a rush of cold with it just a few minutes ago."
Tom! She screamed through the bond, but it along with her magic it seemed must have blocked her from him
The dark man's voice brushed cooly across the tears beginning to drift down her cheeks, "Calm, my love. Everything will be just fine."
I love you, Tom… my brother… Severus… help me…
Hermina closed her eyes as his impossible voice echoed within her mind, "A murderous wizard they would call the Dark Lord," Tom purred into her ear, "Tell me, Mina, what would you call a man who puts on an Angel of the Light facade but is really the cause of everything that will happen in the years of the future? Until we are reunited once more."
The dark man wrapped around her whispered once again into her ear, and she suddenly knew all that was to come, "Tell him, my love. Tell him who we really are, who you are to us. Our Mina, mine. Ours alone, no matter the years to come."
Her eyes opened slowly to see that cursed wand pointed to her temple, triumpent eyes glimmering down at her that would shine with uncertainty after the next words came from her mouth as if another were speaking through her.
"You, Albus Dumbledore would condemn these children, these blessed children for a prophecy that is yet to come. These children were born destined for great things together forever, heralded by the Gods to bring the world into a new age of enlightenment."
Given back her voice, Hermina continued her own words with clear eyes, mind, and heart, "You will die Professor Dumbledore, by mine own hand or my love's, in this life or the next. Begging for a mercy you shall not receive as your simple death at the end of your own wand could never compare to the pain of the years we will have spent apart from one another."
~.~
"He did this to us so that he could play a God, let's show him that we are the Gods in this life."
~.~
In the weeks following Tom and Hermina Riddle's reunion, as they lay together within a dark room overseen by their protectors, hundreds of black robed bone masked figures stood silent vigil around the glittering wards encasing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was not until the appearance of a familiar face at the forefront of the hoard, uncovered, that wands were slid into hands in such a uniform way only an army could possess. This face of the now former Potions Master who had been absent all those weeks since the mysterious disappearance of Hermione Granger, resident know-it-all, held all the contempt that it could looking straight through the hazy barrier in the direction of the Headmaster.
The Headmaster who had stood just as still and silent as those he kept both pale, wary eyes glued upon, all the while with a defeated slump to his shoulders surrounded by his Order of the Phoenix. A posture that did not change the slightest bit as his former spy who he had been so sure of his loyalty raised his hand to the barrier, and melted it with this single touch as if he were made of fire and the barrier of ice.
A prophecy that was not a prophecy echoed in his mind alongside the true words of a seer.
The children's cries and screams from within the castle echoed down the tunnels around them, and Albus Dumbledore knew what must be done as Severus Snape came mere feet before him. Silence stretching onwards, the earth and air seemingly vibrating in anticipation of what was to come, as if waiting for something that had yet to arrive.
"You made this world, Albus." Severus' deep voice finally cut through the tense atmosphere, "I would have you know that."
Blue eyes simply looked into black, continuing their silence along with his unvoiced agreement.
"The Dark Lord is of your making. Such a man never would have been born had you left well enough alone, left the two halves of a whole together instead of playing in the role of the Gods and put more faith in the prophecies of humans over them." A ghost of a sneer shadowed his face as the crowd behind him parted without even the slightest of sound of a brushing of robes against one another.
"I now see my mistake, Severus." Solemness coated every inch of the older man's words, "I am responsible."
Two figures coated in a green darkness and bound together by snake silver holding one another's pale hands emerged, coming to a stop to the side of Severus who looked into the smaller figure's cowl with a tender look upon his face. One of which James distinctly remembered being directed towards a petite redhead long ago, and then a girl who was not merely a girl with a double face. Feeling his son tense beside him, who stood with the other children despite the Order parent's protests, he glanced down to his pale face.
"Hermione," he breathed, feeling that familiar wave of magic drift over him, and yet the face that turned towards him with the dainty hand uncowling herself smiled unfamiliarly at him.
"Hello, Harry." Her eyes still glittered in the same way towards him though, although they were the wrong color surrounded by the wrong cheekbones. Her genuine care towards the boy shone oddly through the atmosphere surrounding them.
"Enough," Dumbledore intoned, suddenly raising up in all his imposing height that seemed all the less intimidating as the handsome young man at the girl's side bared his own face for all to see.
"I think we have had quite enough," his voice sent cold shivers along Harry's spine, and before his eyes, the girl he had spent many a days with, who had comforted him like no other, donned a mask just as cold. Her warm eyes turned to wind chipped stone as they cut to the Headmaster.
"Yes," her still sweet voice dancing along the breeze building up around them, "Enough." Suddenly, the stolen bone white wand twisted through her fingers, being gently given to the man who shared her face beside her with a look of reverence, but not before she forcibly and silently brought the tall man before her down to his knees. The man whose eyes begged her for the mercy she had warned so long ago he would never have, neither from her nor the gods who shone their power through these two twins who were never meant to live past their mother's womb. If they had been so unlucky as to not share an identical soul mark.
"I think it is time for the Gods to have their blood price."
Each person bore witness, immobilized by some unseen and unknown power, to the death of Albus Dumbledore, the man who had bared witness himself to prophecy and found himself wanting.