Hello fellow fanfictionatics!

I am back with the newest chapter of this wonderful little request given to me from Moon. It was hard to stop writing as the words just really seemed to want to be written today but I am trying to stick to my time line for this story so that I can have the beginning, middle, and end be where I want it to be. As it is, I do not see myself sticking fully to my outline but a girl can try.

Again any mistakes in the story from spelling to punctuation to time line are all my own. This story is being written for the amusement of my FF mentor and is not meant to be fully canon or perfect in any way to the era I am writing in or what may have happened that I don't know about. If you are looking for perfect accuracy, I will warn you this is not the story for that lol.

I was asked in a PM the other day if I had a play list while writing this one like I do 'Storm'. In a way I guess I do. I listen to the entire album by Breaking Benjamin entitled 'Ember' while I am writing it. The album is dark and heavy even for BB and it puts me in a Tom mood so that I can try to write him at least somewhat correctly for this story.

I am already working on the next chapter of "Storm'and 'Secret' so I should see you all again real soon. Until then...

Always

~Tempest

PS-you may notice the difference in normal versus italicized in this chapter. I plan to write any journal entries from HG in italicized and from Tom in normal script. This way when they start to talk back and forth later you can tell the difference without me putting their names. Just getting you used to it now lol.

Tom waited until the darkness had covered everything outside and the moon was high in the sky before he slid the journal out from the hiding place he had created for it and slid it under his pillow. Whether she was from the future or the present, she had not lied about the man that had come to see him today. He had been magical and he had read Tom's mind and even though he remembered her words, he did not follow her instructions. He could sense the man's power and his concern about the little collection of keepsakes Tom had and he wondered for the first time in his young life if he should have trusted what someone else told him to do.

Looking down at the letter in his hands, Tom could not help but let a grin form on his face, a gesture that felt very foreign to him. In the fall, he would not have to go to school with the idiots from this hell hole anymore. He would be going to a school for wizards and witches…a school filled with people like him. For the first time ever he found he was excited about something other than the revenge he would take on his enemies.

Lying down with the letter held in his hands across his chest, Tom closed his eyes and waited for the magic to take him to see HG. He wondered what information he could get out of her tonight if he played nice. Of course it really did not help to 'play' anything with her it seemed so maybe he would just be forthright and see where that got him. That was an interesting and intriguing concept in and of itself for Tom.

As the magic pulled him down into a state of relaxation and slumber, Tom wondered not for the first time why she had chosen him to save. Maybe he really was as important as he always believed himself to be.

Opening his eyes, Tom looked around him again. He was sitting in what was obviously a girl's bedroom. The walls were painted a pale lilac with white border trim. The sheets in the bed were the same color but were without any ruffles or frills like he had seen on the girl's dresses and furniture in the nicer homes he had spied on. There was a white dresser and desk situated in different corners of the room and the wall was covered with multiple book shelves filled to the brim with books. Getting up and walking over, Tom realized at once that he could not actually read the titles of the books at all. Taking one off the shelves and opening it, the pages were also blurred and unreadable.

"It won't do to try to read them. It is a fail-safe to keep future information from falling into the wrong hands. Anything written will be blurred to you unless I allow it to be seen."

Jumping at her voice, Tom drops the book as he jerks his body around to face the intruder. Growling at HG as he rights himself, Tom leans down to pick the book back up and slide it back into place.

"Do you make a habit of appearing out of nowhere and almost causing your guests to have heart attacks often?" Glaring at her and filling his voice with sarcasm to hide his pounding heart, Tom takes in her appearance again. Her clothing is slightly more modest this time as her pants are not as tight and her shirt actually covers her completely. Her face is still as smooth and free of makeup as before and her wild hair seems to have been wrestled into a messy ponytail at the back of her head.

Smiling at him and chuckling slightly at his question, HG walks over to the desk and takes a seat in the accompanying chair.

"Not usually no. I would not have thought I could catch you off guard as you must have intentionally come here to speak to me. If I had known you did not anticipate my arrival, I would have stomped louder coming up the stairs." Gesturing to the bed, HG waits on him to sit before leaning forward with her chin on her hands that are gripping the back of the chair, turning her body sideways in the seat and crossing one leg over the other.

"To what do I owe the magnificent honor of your presence tonight Tom?"

"I met your Dumbledore today and received my letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Puffing out his chest in pride, Tom gives her one of his rare radiant smiles.

For a moment it looks like she isn't going to reply at all and then her smile blooms slow and sweet on her face and causes Tom to have to blink and shake his head slightly to clear it of the fog.

"That is wonderful Tom. I told you that he would come and bring you something. Did he ask you about the items in your dresser? Did you tell him what I told you to tell him?" Sitting up in attention, her eyes never seem to stray from his face and for once Tom finds that to be uncomfortable. No one has ever willing continued to look at him, let alone meet him eye to eye for this length of time. He doesn't know why but it makes something inside his feel off.

"I did not."

"What! Why? I told you that that was going to be the first step to getting your way with him in the future and you just let that opportunity go? Damn it Tom! Now you are going to end up stuck at that damn orphanage every single summer until you graduate!" A frown marring her normally calm and smooth complexion, HG stands as she slaps her hand on the desk in obvious anger and pacing away from him some.

"I didn't think you were telling me the truth. He could read my mind but he seemed so pure and good. He was trying to be all smiles and warmth and understanding and I could not fathom that he would accept what I told him and still let me in to the school. I was not going to jeopardize attending a magical school to listen to some chit that claims to be from the future!"

Spinning around to glare at him, HG pushes a deep breath out of her nose before closing her eyes to reign in her own temper.

"You're right of course. You have no reason to trust me and probably won't until much later if ever." Opening her eyes to meet his, she sighs in obvious aggravation.

"Does not mean I am going to stop trying just yet with you. Everyone in your life has either been afraid of you or avoids you. I am going to do neither and one way or another I will show you that I am on your side if you will let me stand there."

"You forgot dies…"

Furrowing her brow and giving him a confused look, HG walks over to him and places her hand on his shoulder.

"Tom…your mother did not leave you on purpose. I know that you don't believe that and that you think she didn't fight hard enough to stay with you but she would not have lived no matter if she had made it to a hospital or not. She was very sick and having a baby made it impossible to get better. She could have gotten rid of you in order to save herself but she didn't. Your mother loved you very much and wanting nothing more than to see you born and be here for you. She just wasn't able to get past the sickness. It was already killing her before you came along."

Sneering at her sentimentality, Tom shoved her hand off of his shoulder, stood, and walked across the room and away from her.

"I am done with this part of the discussion. Tell me about Hogwarts!"

Shaking her head in sadness, HG sits on the edge of the bed before seeming to make a decision and lays back completely, throwing her legs up on the bed shoes and all to relax. Sliding her hands under her head, she smiles a gentle smile staring up at the ceiling.

"It is wonderful and magical and for those of us in the muggle world…it is a breath taking site. The lights and the creatures and the castle all seem like they were pulled directly out of all the fairy tale books. The professors…at least in my time…all seemed larger than life and so full of light and personality. Well…all except for one. He was this great towering darkness of a man. I admit at 11 he terrified me and yet all I wanted to do was get his approval. He the most exacting professor there and ended up being the one I admired the most." Seeming to become almost melancholy, HG shook her head and turned it to look at Tom.

"The feasts are so ridiculously large that I wonder what they do with all the food not eaten. The classrooms are so normal and yet not. The classes were my favorite part of the day and there is so much to learn and take in that 7 years never seemed like enough to do it all." Grinning at him, she sits up in her excitement.

"Then there is the library. Shelves upon shelves of books to read and learn from and explore with no end in sight. Everything you could ever want to know about magic, its history, new spells, the creatures and places…it's all right there at your very finger tips. I spend so many hours in that library just absorbing any and everything I can as fast as I can."

Her very excitement seemed to be contagious and Tom could feel his energy start to rise to match hers and he tried to imagine what a library full of knowledge like that would look like. Letting one thing she said sink in, Tom leaned against the wall and just looked at her.

"You said you spend…as in present…are you at the school now then?" Raising an eyebrow as if he had caught her finally, his lips turned up in a smirk of triumph.

Rolling her eyes and giving him a smile, she leans back on her hands and cocks her head to the side to meet his stare.

"At the very present moment for me, I am at home on holiday break…Christmas to be exact." Gesturing around her room, she rests the hand back on the bed.

"However, I return to Hogwarts in three days to resume classes for the spring semester. I am a 5th year student at the school in my present time."

His smirk slipping and his frustration growing, he glares at her and crosses his arms.

"You are really going to keep up this charade that you are from the future and not in the here and now somewhere?"

Watching her expression turn contemplative, Tom waits to see what rubbish she will say next.

"Okay Tom…it seems I will have to be more precise in how I prove that part then."

Sitting up and placing her hands in her lap, HG gives him a smile.

"This is going to look odd and I am not ignoring you. I will be right back."

Before he has a chance to say anything else, he watches her eyes go blank and her body almost freeze in place. Keeping a close eye on her, he counts several minutes of time passing as her chest neither rises nor falls in breath and her eyes never blink. Just as his patience starts to wear thin and his skin starts to crawl from the creepy lack of life in her face, HG takes a deep breath and seems to come back into herself.

"Okay Tom…I have found what I needed. When you wake, there will be several dates and events written in your journal. These are things that will happen in the near future for you. That is the best I can do at this moment to try to at least prove that part of my story to you. If that is not enough, I am not sure anything will be and I will just have to leave you thinking I am lying. I will not go in circles with you trying to prove my every word. Either you will learn to accept what I say as truth on my part or I will continue on my path to trying to enlighten you and you will continue to ignore me because you refuse to see the truth. I cannot do more than that."

Her frustration bleeding into her words, HG waves her hand and Tom is suddenly back in his bed in his little room with the letter clutched to his chest. Sitting up he reaches under his pillow and pulls the journal out. Flipping it open to the second page, he reads the next entry and scrunches his forehead as he considers what she has provided. He would need to find an adult on these particular dates to confirm. If what she wrote proves to be true…he really would have to reconsider his position that she may not be lying to him after all.

Tom,

Your speculation and lack of trust is going to make this so much harder on the both of us. All this back and forth about lies and your mistrust is going to slow any progress down for a friendship or even just being able to talk without you aggravating me or me aggravating you. Hopefully the events listed below will help clear up one disbelief and help move us towards at least some understanding with each other.

These dates are events that have yet to happen for you but will happen between now (your now not mine) and the day you leave for school. I trust you will be able to find a way to confirm these days and events yourself. Until you get to school, the journal will no longer allow for a face to face visitation. I will not reward you with a person to talk with if you will not at least afford me the courtesy of trying to believe. I will speak to you once you have gotten settled into Hogwarts. Until then, if you need to talk, feel free to write to me in here. I will respond as I can.

Yours,

HG

July 10-Howard Hughes will fly around the world in 91 hours

July 18-Vladimir M Kirshon, Russian playwright, will be executed at 35

July 20-Finland will be awarded the 1940 Olympic Games after Japan withdraws

July 31-Gino Bartali of Italy with win the 32nd Tour de France

August 7-Nazis close theologic department of Innsbruck University

August 24-England beats Australia by an inning and 579 runs at The Oval

September 1-Benito Mussolini cancels civil rights of Italian Jews

PS-I think this covers enough different topics to make it an adventure to find sources to answer them all. Safe travels in September and I hope your first train ride to Hogwarts is eventful. I look forward to hearing about it.

July 22

HG,

I am shocked to admit that you were right and telling the truth all along. I ended up using the library and getting random muggles to buy me a newspaper or tell me if the certain events happened…and they all did. At first I thought maybe you just had the right people to tell you when these events were supposed to be reported but then I realized that unless you are a very powerful seer (which I am still holding as a reserve opinion) you really are from some point in the future.

I want to know how far into the future. What all do you know? Who wins this ridiculous war the muggles are fighting? Will Germany end up owning all of Europe? When do we meet in the flesh instead of through this journal?

I have a feeling you will not answer a single one of those questions and it is already driving me spare! You did warn me you would not tell me everything and that it would anger me. I think I will go ahead and be angry now so that when I see you again I will have gotten past it and can try to charm the answers from you instead.

You said that you know me and that you know the darkness that lives in the walls of my skin. Did you also know that I can be quite the charmer when I chose to be? I do charm snakes and they are known to be one of the coldest blooded creatures in the world. Shouldn't be too hard to charm such an emotionally driven witch as yourself to come to care for me and tell me all your secrets.

You told me you were with me to either save me or destroy me. Well now I will confess something equally as important as that. I am now going to decide to trust you so that you will come see me. Why you ask? So that I may own you! I originally intended to find all I needed to know so that I could kill you and make sure you were not a threat. Now I have decided I wish to collect you as mine and so I shall.

Beware witch for we both have now been warned. The game is a foot and I plan to be the winner of this war. Prepare my lady for you will…be…mine!

Forever,

TMRJ

Tom,

I admit that at this very moment, as I have just read your journal entry, I am laughing hysterically. Before you get your knickers in a twist…I am not laughing at you but at the absurdity of your claim. If only you knew how I know you and what you have done in my life time you would know that owning me or making me yours in any way is not possible. I am HG the uncharm-able witch but I invite you to try anyway. I do so enjoy a charming wizard and if he is also intelligent then that is so much better for me.

As for all of those answers, you are right I will not be answering them…yet. I can say that when the time is okay to do so, I will answer some of them before they happen so that you have more proof as we go in the future. I wouldn't want you to suddenly think I am a seer and not genuine in my intentions. If you knew me…again…you would understand the grimace/sneer I am wearing at just the idea of a seer. I think divination to be absolute rubbish and truly cannot stand the class. But to each their own I suppose.

My housemate says that it is because I have no true creative imagination and I am too logical and stuck in the mud to be able to fully comprehend or appreciate the subtle art of divination. Now let me point out that those words she stole from one of our Professors and he does NOT teach divination and I think abhors the subject just as much as I do. He was referring to another field of magical study when describing it as a subtle art but as my housemate is a complete vapid bimbo…who can truly count on her to come up with her own descriptions.

Yes I am sure by now you can tell that like you I see myself as smarter and better than other people. The truth is in most areas that matter to me…I am. Of course to the general populace of dunderheads…I am too brainy and too swotty and my know-it-all attitude drives them batty. I cannot help that I enjoy learning and that I get extremely bored when I am sitting idle. I heard you were the same way in school…a book in hand learning anything there was to learn.

It is the biggest reason I agreed to be the one to come to you. I am tired of being so alone in my search to be smarter, greater, better than I already am. One can never stop improving oneself and I find that anyone who thinks they do not need to learn anything but the basic information to get by is wasting their lives and the greatest gift granted to us…our ability to learn and then adapt. How are we to be great 'anythings' if we refuse to first see where we are lacking and change it?

I really should be going. My friends are all bothering me to go outside for the Quidditch match and I fear I have no option but to go with the plebeians and make nice. I will admit I am looking forward to and will be waiting on your next entry.

Yours,

HG

PS-No Germany does not end up owning all of Europe.

Tom sat on his new bed in the Slytherin common room and listened to his dorm-mates chat about everything from the train ride to the school, the boat ride across the lake, the professors they would have this year, their time table, the food, and even the other students. Not a single one of them bothered to talk about the classes themselves or the magic they would be learning. He could already see what HG meant and he had not even bothered to really speak to any of them at present.

Some of his housemates had already introduced themselves and he did as well. It seemed his last name was cause for jeers and the peasants had the audacity to look down their pampered rich noses at him. He was already making plans to teach them who was really the most powerful one in this room but would have to let some time pass before he did. Until then, he was silently hoping that HG would be willing to give him a hint at what to do to be more accepted by his peers. The last thing he needed was to hurt one of them with his magic because they did not come to heel fast enough and be thrown out of Hogwarts.

Finishing the chapter he was on in his Transfiguration book, a book he had already read completely the week he was able to buy it in Diagon Alley, Tom marked his spot and placed the book on his night stand. Pulling the journal from his satchel and placing it under his pillow, Tom found an odd feeling come over him. He hoped she would be true to her word. He was here in the castle as she required and after many small entries back and forth where he learned nothing and yearned to know more, he hoped she would show tonight and he could look at her instead of her lettering. He didn't know why but he needed to see her face and make sure she was really…real.

Getting comfortable, Tom lay his head down and closed his eyes. Taking deep, even breaths he waited. Eventually he fell asleep with a frustrated feeling in his chest that she would abandon him yet again.

His eyes snapping open at the brush of a page turning in a book, Tom sat up in bed to meet the eyes and warm smile of his HG.

"Hello Tom. How was your first day at Hogwarts?"