They had lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon on the Monday of the forth week capturing and killing owls, large birds, lizards, rabbits, and animals like that. Those who were aware death was coming before it did and would do frantic things to escape it - their sentience towards death was quite strong. Hermione reasoned they had been killing them and eating them anyway, so what difference did it make that they use them for another purpose? It wasn't as if it was for fun, they were intending to do something that had never been done before.

Tom taught her how to kill them. Indeed the simple avada kedavra was all they used. "It's illegal only on humans," he explained, "but it's actually one of the better magical ways to slaughter animals. They don't feel any pain and it's more humane than some other ways. Some say there's no such thing as dark magic. There is only magic, and whether or it is used in dark ways."

"Yes, I imagine in some cases animals would be relieved they were going to be slaughtered by a witch or wizard that was proficient in the spell as opposed to something else. Like a severing spell to cause them to bleed out or a bone breaking spell or things like that," said Hermione, "or a manager is happy to hear the new batch of animals were slaughtered in this manner as opposed to any other manner. You are right about that."

"Excellent. Now remember the forthrightness of how you want to kill for the greater good. The purpose. How necessary it is. Easy execution. Like we're collecting bricks to build a house with," said Tom.

Hermione surprised herself by killing several animals effortlessly. Previously the slaughtering of them had all been up to Tom.

"Slow," he admitted, "I thought you'd be a bit faster than that. I've seen you cast laundry, washing, and other such spells faster."

It was true that Hermione could rattle of spells for household tasks a lot faster than she could cast the killing curse.

"I'll show you," she said, not wanting to be proved wrong. Putting her mind to it she quickly shot out a volley of killing curses, like when she ran through the laundry list of cleaning spells to cast, and watched as she was able to hit a greater number in a short amount of time. Never quite as carefree or fast as the other curses, but certainly a lot faster than before. The blinding green light echoed all over the clearing.

Luckily there were so few muggles that truly had an interest to coming to these sites, it was only the odd fanatic that was very peculiar about witchhunting that loved to visit, so they were in a relatively deserted place and didn't have to worry about being seen as much. Plus, given the large flat countryside all around them they could see someone coming about a mile away.

By the end of the evening they had a pile of at least a hundred. They levitated them to the edge of the forest, hiding them behind the trees. Not that there was anyone there but any people if they came near, were more likely to wander around the graveyard, the church, or visit the town than dead straight for the dark and deathlike yew forest.

They had dinner under the stars and then spent the evening digging holes in the ground for the animals. Tom then weighed down some yew branches with stones and made sure they were firmly over the covered up grave for the animals.

When the moon was quite high in the sky they retired to their makeshift camp at the edge of the yew forest, in some frees that weren't a part of it, and watched grasses flutter in the wind and tasted the sweet summer breeze across their flesh and skin. Not all the trees in the yew forest were yew, there were some others, but it had a lot more yew than the composition in many other forests.

"This is so peaceful," sighed Hermione before they went to bed.

"It is isn't it? You've only grown up in the city probably, muggle families live more in the city than wizarding ones do generally speaking. I grew up in the countryside. I'm used to the casual peacefulness," said Tom, "and I think city folk often don't see it."

"That's true, I did. But yet some of your ideas seem very forceful and determined. How can you like peace but have such ideas like this?" asked Hermione, "not that there's anything logically wrong with them, as far as I can see I think history should be taught correctly. I'm just curious about your style..."

"There will be more peace afterwards. The end justifies the means. I also see it as a necessary evil," said Tom, "so I don't see it as disrupting the peace. Not the way you do. We shall finish of the planting by tomorrow. I think we can probably do it. Then we shall gather the ingredients for the potion. The blood is actually one of the harder ingredients to get for this one so we shall probably be able to find the others all easily. Did you pack a cauldron?"

"Of course, a witch or wizard always brings at least one cauldron with them when they're on the run!" said Hermione, "potions are useful afterall!"

"Excellent. The potion takes 7 days to make, but we can leave it here. It's not like there are no hiding places," said Tom.

"This place is chock full of them if we truly wanted to hide something anywhere," said Hermione, "it'll have to be much more barren, sparser, flatter, to truly have no hiding places in sight."

"Agreed, then, I shall teach you how to appariate. You will need to do some," said Tom.

"It's one of those things where you have to wait until you're 17 to officially start to learn, but that's just an arbitrary rule isn't it? You can actually learn to appariate much earlier," said Hermione.

"You just need to have a strong sense of your physical body before you appariate. Babies can't. Toddlers can't. But even children who have a strong sense of their body through time and space, and can visualise them being physically elsewhere can easily appariate to places. In the past before the ministry made it an arbitrary age there used to be huge variances in when people learned to appariate. Some wizarding children of families who appariated a lot were learning as young as 5 or 6! But it's very difficult to teach because children can not understand they don't understand something, they can assume they do when they don't, and it's also very easy to screw up with explaining, and the risks are worse to wear on a younger and weaker body with less mass. Because it is easier to teach people how to appariate when they're 17 the ministry of magic makes it the age. But you can learn to appariate before it. Especially you Hermione," said Tom.

"There's a limit with appariation though," he said, "too much and you run the risk of disappearing. There have been witches and wizards that disappeared or turned invisible because of it. Or were just...entirely lost. There's appariation sickness and appariation wasting, not splinching, that's only appariation done incorrectly, and the reason why so few people have it is because the ministry sets a guideline of no more than 3-4 appariations a week. We shall have to be appariating to a lot of places on our mission but we have to be careful not to overdo it. I think we can just about get by with where and when we need to be at places without overdoing it..."

"Sounds sensible," agreed Hermione.

They enjoyed the serenity of the evening a little while more before they both fell asleep, unable to remember who well first.

The next morning they had breakfast, replanted all the yew trees above the corpse by early afternoon. They had lunch and Tom began teaching Hermione how to summon common edible fruits and vegetables a little. Then they spent the afternoon and evening gathering ingredients for the potion. Tom was right - they didn't struggle to find most of them. They also made use of some vials Hermione had carried about with her on this trip. It was recommended to have a few spare vials on hand as well as a cauldron because some ingredients were rare or hard to get and may need to be handled in a separate vial before they were added to it. You never knew how much you needed but generally at least several spare vials were recommended to have on hand and Hermione was glad she had been so sensible about it. It was benefitting her now.

They'd finished the potion by late evening, and had a late dinner underneath the stars. Tom didn't hide the potion in the yew forest however, but in the tree near where they both were camping in, casting many charms and enchantments all over it to keep it secure from prying plants, animals, muggles, witches and wizards.

"I'll begin teaching you how to appariate after dinner. A busy Tuesday this was..." Tom murmured happily, "we shall then go to Hogwarts and around magical England next. We need to get the pensieve. Then we shall travel to Lake Lethe. We shall also get some of your classmates from Hogwarts. It will be easier with more hands on deck, and then we need to do the enchantments around the pensieve..."

"Classmates? I thought it was just the two of us. Did you plan to include more people from the start?" asked Hermione. She didn't know how to say it but she liked spending all this time with him, all the moments they could spend alone were most delicious, she liked their back and forth conversations, all the little things, and some part of her felt like she didn't quite want this to stop.

"Wasn't it Lethe Lake?" she asked.

"It's known by both names - Lake Lethe. Lethe Lake," said Tom, "some things require more people. Surely you sensed the scope of things before it all began?"

"I suppose," Hermione's face fell, "I suppose this first week was just a lucky bit of time I got to spend with just you."

"Hermione, you are an intelligent witch and one of the best and brightest of the century. Even though you have yet to show your best. I shall always seek advice, guidance and cooperation from you no matter how much time has passed. Yes, more people may be involved and dynamics may change slightly, but the fact that you occupy a special spot within all of this won't and it's just a matter of getting used to. I didn't need any other people yet in the first week of this so that was why it was just the two of us. But I would like extra hands on deck for transporting the water from Lake Lethe to East Lothian, and I am accounting on you to side appariate them along with me," he said.

"You trust me to learn how to side appariate someone within a few days, but yet don't want to teach the others how to appariate themselves? They'll be around the same age as me right..." Hermione said.

"As I said, you're special. A fool someone would have to be to miss that. Yes, they would be in you grade at Hogwarts," said Tom, "I thought it would work better. Some people can't come however. Harry Potter for one, he must remain at Hogwarts no matter what else. Ron Weasley as well. Harry needs him to be there as his side kick. The Slytherins in your grade maybe. They would want to come on this sort of adventure..."

"Of course. I wouldn't dream of making Harry or Ron risk their lives trepidaising about outside of Hogwarts for the school year. Does that mean you might take me out of Hogwarts for the school year to complete some of our adventures? I suppose the Slytherins would logically be the best fit...I've never really known what any of them were like beyond surface appearances. I can't say I won't like them if I got to know them," said Hermione, "except for Draco Malfoy. I hate him."

"I don't even want you in Hogwarts. It doesn't even teach that well. Defence Against the Dark Arts is a joke. Many of their teachers are cracks. Professor Dumbledore doesn't have the right vision for the school, the right sort of vision for what it's working towards. You can learn more on adventures with me. We'll be out there, actually doing things for real. You're an intelligent student, you'll learn and master it. I'm also a good teacher. If you truly care about knowledge you can probably stand to learn more with me than at Hogwarts. The name Malfoy doesn't usually ring a happy bell in many people's minds. Too much money and influence, arrogance and superiority they lord over others. Many have a heavy heart towards that otherwise glorified family. But they are wealthy, and Draco has a bigger access to the family fortune than you might think, even at this age. Unless you want to keep spending more of your money on these events, it will do well to court him and have him align his fortune with these goals," said Tom.

Hermione hesitated, "I'll think about it," she said, "I don't want to not go to Hogwarts next year. It's just too confronting to think about now. You're right, it is always useful to have a source of funding for any project...you're very logical."

"As are you," Tom raised an eyebrow at her.

"I suppose," Hermione laughed, "I'm not used to talking to someone equally as logical as I am. That's why I feel so odd about it all sometimes. So, are you going to teach me appariation in the few hours we have after dinner until we're truly going to go to sleep?"

"Of course," said Tom.

The next few hours, and then the entire morning, were spent on appariation. The trick was to be very aware of oneself and their surroundings. Since Hermione had always been the sort of person to pay attention to little details and keep good habits - she had the best teeth brushing routine that she kept to at the same time every day usually, she was aware of what constituted a healthy meal and always picked her foods at Hogwarts accordingly, she was well versed in the benefits of regular exercise and sometimes went for small jogs around her neighbourhood, and she was quite conscious of how she was physically feeling at any given moment, the range of motion to her joints and she generally walked around with a high degree of sense of self, so appariation was easier for her to pick up as Tom predicted.

She was able to get a strong sense of herself, all of herself, and bring all of it from one place to the other. She also took notice of the important parts of her surroundings usually, the street signs, the layout of the place, the exits and entrances, iconic landmarks, so she was able to visualise old places with the accuracy needed for appariation and although it took some time, heightened teaching from Tom, and a lot of sweating she was finally able to do it. Unlike Tom however she could only appariate to places she'd already been but even then that was a huge improvement over the old.

"You're a good teacher," she told Tom.

"I am aren't I," he said. He was a very cold, blunt, straightforward person at times that if one didn't know him they would say it almost bordered on arrogance.

"Now try appariating an animal. Side-along appariation is hard so start of with an animal first. A bird," said Tom.

He summoned one out of the trees and explained to Hermione how she must focus on it and herself as much as she could.

Within moments Hermione saw the real reason why he suggested an animal and not himself as her target. Side along apparition required a very intense sense of the person you were appariating, and in order to appariate a male Hermione had to visualise a body transporting along with her at it's very core, including the nether regions for that was also part of a male. She didn't think she could do so without feeling uncomfortable, acknowledging that genders were different and having a strong sense of the other gender's private parts in mind as you tried to appariate all of a person with you was not a train of thought most people got into every day, and Hermione had the sense appariation wouldn't work correctly if she couldn't visualise it at ease. It was unlikely she would splinch for splinching required appariation, it was more likely simply nothing would happen.

This was probably one of the reasons why some witches or wizards couldn't appariate others well despite being of age. Appariation, like some other branches of magic, required a certain mindset and way of thinking to properly channel, and it wasn't up everyone's alley.

"It's easier to side along appariate those of the same gender," said Tom, "so you might appariate some Slytherin girls. Tell me when you feel ready to appariate everyone. I don't want to push you before you are ready."

They then had lunch on the Wednesday, and afterwards Tom side appariated them to some woods that didn't look as dark as the woods they had been to. The faint smells of summer drifted out of these woods, Hermione could see the strip of sky in the distance, spy summer insects and bugs fluttering through the air and it felt much more like a normal wood than the ones of their recent adventures.

"And now we wait for Malfoy to show up. But I just have a hunch this is the right place right time," said Tom.

A few minutes later the arrogant, haughty, face of the blonde boy appeared through the woods. He was dressed in wizard clothes for the holiday, which were actually styled rather like a muggle's, though a touch more elegant and old-fashioned, and appeared quite comfortable and modern despite belonging to an old family. He screamed when he saw them.

"What are you doing here?" he said once he'd caught his breath. It was possibly the fact that he recognised Hermione from school that stopped him from hexing all of them right there and then, though he definitely had his hands across his wand and was looking rather twitchy and close to calling it at any moment.

"This section of the woods are outside of the perimeters of your land," said Tom, "we have every right to be here as much as you are."

"What are you doing at the edge of my land?" said Draco. It looked like he had gone for a jog. Which was hardly surprising for Hermione didn't think he lived close enough to anyone else to be able to play team sports, flying on his broom and jogging were probably the only activities he could do just by himself that counted as some form of exercise, and it appeared he took to jogging about the same degree that he took to flying, which was quite well if Hermione had to be honest to herself. She had never particularly liked flying and was always a bit envious of those who could maneuver a broom as if by the touch of their fingers, and Draco unfortunately, fit into one of the people she envied for his flying prowess, and now it seemed his jogging was not too far behind his flying abilities, for it seemed he took to it well. He had been rather speedy when he first broke through the trees.

"We came to recruit you. You're bored, you're talented, you're young with an eager thirst to prove yourself in the wizarding world. Surely you don't want to spend another year at Hogwarts only to be fed the same lies in Defence Against the Dark Arts, history lessons lacking in information, electives that don't interest you, and whatever nonsense Hogwarts has got cooked up this year. You'll learn far more about the magical world with me," said Tom.

"Who are you?" Draco asked.

"Tom Riddle, I love adventure, magic, and talented young people to come along my journey with me. You shall all be rewarded once I'm done," he said.

"So that's why Hermione's here? Because her talent puts her on the radar for people like you. I can't imagine it's because of her great love for adventure or magic all that much, no offense," said Draco.

"Dear dear, petty schoolyard rivalries are playing out are they? Well you can still have your personal tiff-taff between the two of you, I won't wave a wand and magically fix them," said Tom with a raise of his eyebrows, "but you will have to learn how to get along to a degree for all that we will accomplish. Malfoy, I shall tell you now before you get angry at me later on, you will be the one that foots the bill for anything requiring funding. We may need some money and you are the person best suited for it, you can give the most whilst suffering the least amount of consequences for it."

"I'm used to it," admitted Draco, "even at my age I do get proposals and opportunities coming my way because of my wealth or what people want from me. I've no choice but to learn how to judge them and pick them in order to survive."

He cocked his head a little, "I gain experiences in exchange for wealth. This one...does not sound like an experience so uninteresting it's not worth it. I shall be in for the moment."

"Excellent, spend the rest of the summer with us," said Tom.

"I'll find a way to make my parents agree," said Draco, leaving Hermione the impression he was going to do all he could to convince his parents to somehow let him be absent for the entire summer.

"Here's a mark. So we can all communicate with each other. If it burns and you touch it, you will be transported to where I am," said Tom as he took out his wand and did a series of wordless spells on Draco's arm, and Hermione's as well. Something that looked like a tattoo out of a muggle tattoo parlour emerged. A shower of blood dripped from both of their arms as the tattoo burned deeply into their skin, but soon it was over and the skin healed itself once more.

"I can make better ones but this will do," said Tom.

"Like a muggle tattoo," said Hermione.

"Sweet, I've always wanted one of those," said Draco, turning his arm over several times.

"It doesn't wash of but it can be hid with makeup," said Tom.

"I don't have any," admitted Hermione quickly. She didn't think to pack a basic make up kit in her moleskin pouch.

"It's either that or long sleeves then," said Tom.

"You'll be wearing long sleeves. My mother has extras that is probably thick enough to cover it up she doesn't care about going missing," said Draco to her before leaving.

A soft silence fell as the blonde boy left.

Even in the serene woodland of the countryside, Hermione already felt like things were changing, the world was going to change, and that Draco felt it too. Surely he would've otherwise not said yes so easily? It was just one of those things...how people felt change long before it happened...

Author's Note: I got no reviews last chapter and I couldn't tell if it was because of the theme or not. I think it might've been, though at the time I wrote it I didn't know it would be that unpopular of a theme. I don't think I'll write it again but I'm not bothered to delete and rewrite so that's up.

Please review if you enjoyed this chapter and want to read more.