so sorry for the wait, this chapter was hard, where exactly does one interrupt a fictional conversation?

I've recently read "The Debt of Time" And reviewed like 8 of the chapters because they stood out to me, I hope you do the same when you find something that moves you. It is what keeps us writers going after all. And like one of my reviewers (tneha) will notice if they kept going with this story after their review on a previous chapter, it pays off! I present to you, more of our dearest father!

Also if you enjoy my writing, there is a poll on my page where you can vote for what pairing I am going to do when I finish this one!

Thanks for the faves follows and to my lovely reviewers: Slytherin Princess34, purple breeze and tneha you rock!

Surprises

Hermione woke, feeling content for some reason. Or maybe safe was the better word, maybe it was being home at Hogwarts after the dreadful night she had that made her feel good. She felt a little bit like she was on a cloud. Maybe she still felt the effects of the Pain Relief potion, or maybe it was just sleeping without having any strange dreams.

"Wake up."

That killed the mood. Cloud no more, now it was a hard hospital bed in a drafty room with too much ambient noise. How did the hospital wing have noise, wasn't that only in muggle hospitals where they had something called Machines? She was told they made a lot of noise.

Her dad's voice had cut through her illusions, clear as day, but frosty like winter. It couldn't be a hallucination could it?

"I won't have you lazing about." he continued, and even with her eyes closed, she knew he was boring a hole in her skull, impatient as ever. No this was not a hallucination, it was her sad reality.

"Dad." she greeted as she sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eye. She stretched her legs, then winced in pain. One night was not enough to get healed fully.

He furrowed his brows by her greeting, then got really angry when he saw she was in pain.

"Where is that stupid nurse." he muttered, holding his wand up, and flicking his wrist so the sheets over her leg pulled up. He surveyed the damage, narrowing his eyes at her when she tried to cover up again.

"Really Voldemort, like your specialty is healing magic." she snorted, his only response to that was flicking his wrist again, covering her up.

They stayed in tense silence for a while, Hermione wishing she was anywhere else than there. No scratch that, she wanted him gone, she didn't really care about being in the hospital wing. Even with the cold draft and the uncomfortable bed, she would have stayed there forever to avoid the company she was in.

"Don't say my name like that." he finally growled, his body went stiff for a moment, anger radiating off him.

She rolled her eyes at him. "I can't call you dad, father or anything that would remind people we're related. I can't call you Tom." he winced at that name. "and not Voldemort either."

"People should fear that name, not say it mockingly." he protested, though he seemed doubtful and less tense.

"Why make up a name when you don't want anyone to use it?"

"We're not discussing this again." she rolled her eyes. "You can call me 'Lord' like my followers do."

"I'm not some idiot masochistic male with self esteem issues, so I'm gonna pass."

"My followers are not idiots!" he barked at her, rising from the chair he had been so casually seated in up until then. Completely ignoring the other part of her statement Hermione noted. Even if he didn't think his followers were idiots, he certainly didn't have high opinions of them. She wondered if they knew, but guessing by their average IQ she would venture they didn't.

She just gave him a leveled stare, daring him to come up with any evidence to the contrary. But he didn't budge, neither of them did. Inheriting her dad's stubbornness had paid off when it came to confrontations with him. As a child it had been the most frustrating thing for him about her. Well except for dirty diapers.

The tense silence was broken by the curtains around the bed being parted and the nurse coming through. She was staring down at a clipboard that Hermione saw no purpose in, but maybe the woman needed notes to treat patients. Even just to administer the potions clearly labeled by her bedside table, even specifying when and in what order they should be in. With all the info on them, what could she possibly need the clipboard for?

"Good morning Miss Riddle, how are you-" she looked up and caught sight of her dad and started. "Oh my! I didn't see you there sir. And who might you be?" she batted her eyelids at him, the tone in her voice going from cold, casual and all business, to become a sort of purr that made Hermione want to gag. Hermione looked over to see her dad's face again being morphed into his charming facade. Seemed like everyone in the world had gotten the memo of becoming someone completely different around her dad. She didn't mind too much because her dad would usually make sure to not include her in anything. Most of their conversations were one on one, maybe to not be seen as weak since he couldn't bully her like he did his followers.

"I'm Tom Riddle." he always clenched his jaw slightly when he said that. "Hermione's dad." another jaw clench and tightening in the corner of his mouth.

"Charmed." the nurse said when he took her hand and kissed the back of it. She giggled, and Hermione rolled her eyes. Most kids were embarrassed for their parents when they flirted, Hermione was embarrassed for everyone that fell prey to his charm. It was like watching birds flying into the mouth of a crocodile to clean its teeth.

"You must be the talented nurse who has been taking care of my dear Hermione." his voice was sickeningly sweet, Hermione gagged slightly for real this time. Then she muttered under her breath how a minute earlier he had been all about how incompetent she was. Honesty had never been his strong suit.

The nurse didn't catch on, too enamoured by her pap to notice Hermione was even in the room any more. She was glad he had given up sex after the 'disastrous event that ended up sticking him with her' as he so lovingly called it. It meant that even though women flung themselves at him, and he also couldn't be bothered acknowledging her presence, she didn't have to watch anything gross.

He sent her a glare to warn her though, but she just made a gesture as if to say "really?!" and he just smirked at her.

Not bothering to pay attention to the bad flirting and being somewhat used to it, Hermione did as she always would in situations like these. She reached for her book.

For a while she got to enjoy her peace and quiet again. She was used to blocking out noises, her father wasn't fond of silencing charms, and his followers always seemed to scream a lot. Incessant flirting in front of her was a mild disturbance when it came to noise.

When the nurse finally and reluctantly left to check on her other patients, forgetting that she hadn't checked her, Voldemort seemed mad. She was too caught up in her book to notice until he grabbed it and flung it on the floor.

"I was reading that." she crossed her arms, angry that it always was on his terms. The curtain was drawn shut again, the potions she was supposed to take sitting untouched next to her on the dresser.

"You will explain what you were doing out in the woods." he was in her face, glaring at her again. Towering over her as she was confined to a bed, he was always taller, but Hermione usually stood proud and tall with her tiny body. From a hospital bed it was hard to give off the same level of indifference and return his glare with equal force.

But she wasn't about to back down or take any of his shit. "Taking a walk."

"Don't use that tone with me missy!" his volume raised, and she wondered if he ever put up silencing charms in situations like these. So public, so easily walked in on, showing her dad in something other than a favourable light.

"Tone? Missy?! Why don't you cut to the chase, why are you really here dad?" She had other things to do than cater to his flimsy moods.

"When one's daughter takes casual strolls through dangerous woods on Halloween, her dad starts to worry." daughter and dad now? He was clearly trying to either get a rise out of her, or appeal to her empathy. Neither of which would work.

"The things in that forest is less dangerous than the creatures you bring home. Dementors and Werewolfs? I remember having tea parties with snakes when I was a kid!" and then there was the Death Eaters, Giants, Acrumantulas, Inferi and other creatures she couldn't be bothering to bring up. Seeing as the two she mentioned was the ones generally feared by the wizarding world, she felt she didn't need to include the entire list.

"You command snakes. They would never hurt you." his tone showed how ridiculous he thought she was being by even suggesting it was dangerous.

"Maybe I don't have a great sense of what is dangerous anymore because my dad lets me spend time with dangerous creatures, but thinks making friends might ruin me forever."

"Friends? Slytherins don't have friends, only allies or servants."

"I'm not a Slytherin!"

"A tattered old hat was manipulated into putting you in another house." he scoffed, and sent her a look that spoke volumes. "You were born a Slytherin!"

"I am NOT a Slytherin!"

"Then why do you act like one?"

"I thought my actions were the ones in question here? Or did you want me to act more like a Slytherin? Really Dad, make up your mind. Should I disregard the rules, and your rules more like a true Slytherin? Or should I be a law abiding little goody two shoes like those Gryffindors you loathe so much?"

"You should do as I say!"

"Then make up your mind about what you want me to do!"

"I have! You need to follow my orders and do as your protectors say!"

"The ones that want me to spend all my time playing Quidditch, a sport you hate, or do nothing at all?"

"They know better than that."

"They don't. They are children!"

"Like you."

"Yes like me, they make up their own mind about what they want to do."

"They follow orders."

"Like good little Slytherins?"

"Yes!"

"Most of your followers are Slytherins. Are they all so good at following orders?"

That stopped him for a bit, she had a point there. He wasn't stopping though, whatever point he had come to make was about to be yelled at her by a red faced dark Lord.

Before he could, he was cut off by a calm voice "Miss Riddle how are you feeling?" the enraged father daughter duo whipped their heads around to look at the intruder.

To Hermione's surprise, her father blanched. He almost seemed to shrink a little bit, something most would not have noticed. He actually stood up straighter, raising his head and puffing out his chest slightly. Something in him seemed to want to run though.

Hermione was still cursing with adrenalin from the fight, her thoughts racing to process what was happening. Was she really seeing her father afraid?

The only way she recognized the signs was by the subtle way they reminded her of his followers. But her father had never seemed afraid a day in his life, but Dumbledore had an effect on him.

"I'm fine." Hermione remembered that he had asked her a question, only ten percent of her mind focused on it though. Everything else was focusing on her dad, and her headmaster. She kept looking at her dad, trying to figure out if she was really seeing this. Then she would glance at Dumbledore to figure out what the wizard with the ridiculous robes could possible have done to be imposing to a man that made the most powerful wizards in Britain bow and kiss his robes.

"Tom. How nice to see you." nothing about his tone seemed to relay what he was saying. The usual merry look on the old man's face was absent. Instead was this poker face, that was trying to mask something else… disappointment? Who could be disappointed in her father though.

She might not like the man that had fathered her, but the rest of the world looked at him like a God. It was strange seeing someone who wasn't bending over and presenting themselves to him in offering.

"Dumbledore." he spat out, his teeth grinding against each other and shooting shivers down her spine. These two were not friends. All pointed to them being the worst of enemies. He was darkness and fear, exuding from his pores was pure evil, everything in you screaming when you looked at him that he must be dangerous. Dumbledore emanated light and stood as a beacon with his half moon spectacles and brightly colored robes that drew everyone's gaze. Dumbledore was inviting in a way that made you relax, while her dad was charming in a way that put you on edge trying to appease him. Even Hermione tried on occasion to get praise from the Dark Lord, hoping for approval from her very own father.

The tense passing between the two men seemed to last a lifetime. Hermione was almost afraid to breathe and garner the attention of either of the powerful wizards.

In the end it was Voldemort that ended the uncomfortable moment. He looked at her and said "you are here to learn, not to make friends." he spat and then turned and left.

She was silently fuming, not bothering to look at the man that would only glance at her with sadness and disappointment. It was the same as the man that had just walked out of the room, except where Voldemorts held anger and resentment, this man showed pity. Hermione hated the way they both looked at her, miserable old men that would never understand the troubles of a teenage girl.

"Miss Riddle?" she looked up at him, and saw that look again. "I hope you know that there are better men in this world then the likes of your father and your friends."

"I don't have friends contrary to my dad's beliefs. Sir" she crossed her arms over her chest, annoyed at the headmaster. "He made sure of that."

"Then perhaps it is reasonable to seek a way to get out from his thumb Miss Riddle?" his eyes held more emotion than earlier, but he was gauging her response, waiting for some sort of sign.

She felt the intrusion in her head but didn't need to put up any barriers, her dad had tried that trick too many times so her walls were always up. Not acknowledging the surprise in his eyes, maybe because she didn't see it as such, she pushed on against him "To be put under yours headmaster?" she scoffed "I think I'll stick to the devil I know, thank you."

"The Devil? Is that how you see your dad?" he inquired, maybe hoping for some proof to hang onto her old man so he would go to Azkaban. A futile attempt from a pretty clueless man.

"I'm a teenage girl, that's how we all see our dad." she responded without pause, making sure the headmaster knew she wouldn't be so easily goaded.

He chuckled, her eyes narrowing and glinting dangerously at him. Maybe her situation amused him, or maybe he saw her as a pawn, either way she was done with him for today.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I need my rest."

With a merry twinkle and a "Get well soon." he was out of the curtains and Hermione could drink her potions and rest. She hoped the rest of the day didn't bring any more unwelcome surprises.

The day went on to be quite boring. Besides rest and reading a few books nothing happened besides taking more potions. It was all in all a rather boring predictable way.

When she finally left the infirmary, and one of the Slytherins followed her, she didn't feel the need to hex him. It wasn't until she was safely in the Ravenclaw common room that she realised she hadn't cared that much about the boy following her. She hadn't even bothered to figure out which one of them It was.

That was perhaps an even bigger surprise than the mysterious headmaster who didn't trust her dad.