Disclaimer: See Chapter 1, please.
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"Voldemort himself would mark him as his equal."
Professor Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
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AN: In this fanfic, I assumed that Harry Potter really is the boy that the Prophecy spoke of. Not Neville Longbottom. So, if Neville suddenly becomes Voldemort's 'equal' in Book 6 or 7, then I guess this fic is baseless.
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"Johnson?" asked Hermione shakily. Her bushy hair was unruly, and her eyes red-rimmed from deprived sleep, but she neither cared nor noticed. Right now, she needed to confirm her theory, a hypothesis that struck her painfully like a bolt of lightning when he mentioned 'Tom's Time Portkey'.
The wizard scratched his pointed chin, and wiggled his eyebrows humorously at her. "What?" he asked genially, but to Hermione, it had a tinge of slyness in it. Even his eyes seemed to shine with treachery now, she thought heatedly. "More questions?"
"Actually yes," she answered casually. It was crucial to act as normal as she could, and as unassuming as possible. If I get it right, he'll be spilling his guts out, she thought. But....I hope that I'm wrong. Or I might lose my only ally in this stupid year. "Johnson," she said, very carefully but offhandedly. "Don't you just hate Tom for spitting at her?" She held her breath, and as soon as he spoke, her ears picked every word up carefully.
Just as she thought, the skinny figure nodded vigorously. "Of course," he said. "But she shouldn't have touched him-he hates Hufflepuffs. He only needed Hortense for her clairvoyance, and for her finger of course", he chuckled. The silence that followed was not only profound, but dreadful. Then-
"I never said that the girl was Hortense," said Hermione, her voice rising shrilly. She threw Professor Dippet a glance-he was snoozing-and turned back to Johnson. She balled her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Her breathing seemed constricted, but she managed to blurt out, "Johnson? Have you been speaking with Tom? Discussing secrets, maybe?"
"Yes, you did," he faltered, twiddling his thumbs. "You told me that it was Hortense, yes you did," At that moment, Hermione realised how Tom must have felt when she accidentally let slip that the entrance to the secret chamber was in the girls' bathroom. Confused, suspicious, betrayed, and slightly incensed. But unlike Tom, she thought grimly, I'm not going to believe whatever story he's making up in his cunning little head right now. Closing her eyes in regret, Hermione cursed her misfortune. Her only believer was unveiled as a deceiver.
"I-did-not," she snapped sharply. Who was he kidding? She placed both hands on his frame and shook it roughly. "And you seem so eager for me to kill Tom too. Not to mention egging me on to enter the chamber. And how did you even know that the Time Portkey belonged to You-know-who? How did you know that it was a Time Portkey in the first place?"
Johnson only avoided her glittering, wrathful, hurt eyes. In Hermione's opinion, he looked very shifty all of a sudden. Like a slithering Slytherin, she noted. He was a Parselmouth after all.....I should've realised that it was a bad sign. The only 'decent' Parselmouth that I know is Harry Potter.
But Hermione did not need his answers. They were most likely to be blatant lies anyway, she gritted. Her theory was confirmed. He wasn't helping her. He was helping Tom Riddle. "You egged me on because you WANTED me to meet the basilisk. You knew that there was no escape, once I was in the chamber. You want me dead, don't you?" she shouted hotly. Johnson only remained silent. His passiveness half-verified her presumption. He was double-crossing her.
"Lately, I had this feeling that Tom seemed to want to get a little..closer. I wondered why. I'm not a vixen, and it was incredibly unbelievable of him to cast Hortense away for someone like-like me. Then, I realised that he might have found out that I have something he wants. By gaining my trust, he would be able to learn of his future, wouldn't he? Then he would meticulously lay down new plans, so as to avoid repeating his mistakes. In fact, he's acting really friendly for the same reason as I am. We're both doing undercover work! That explains why he ditched Hortense. After all, true facts are always better than premonitions, right?" she rambled, her breath coming out in short gasps.
Johnson stared stonily at her, but Hermione ignored him. His cover was blown, and if I'm right, she thought shrewdly, so is mine. Panic flooded her mind, but she sensibly told herself to remain level-headed. She had to choose her next words very carefully.
"But then I asked myself. How could he have known my secret? I never told him. No one else knew. No one but Professor Dippet, who doesn't believe it anyway, while the other.....being you," she continued, narrowing her eyes. "You told him everything. You're both Parselmouths. Could it be possible that you have been passing messages to him through his big, dirty serpent in the pipes?"
Johnson shook his head so violently that for a while, his two- dimensional head was only a blur. Hermione snorted at his theatrics. "And you haven't told me one thing, Johnson. The part about the Prophecy? You- know-who chose Harry as his equal because I said so, didn't he? I told you that Harry was the Boy Who Lived. From my words, he concluded that Harry was more worthy as an opponent, didn't he? In fact, everything that I've told you revolves around Harry Potter! Is that why Harry's name is on the prophecy, not Neville's? It's confusing, I know, but you won't find it very hard to understand, I'm sure!" she almost shouted in frustration. Professor Dippet stirred, but continued to snore.
It's my fault that You-know-who chose Harry, she thought dismally. I practically told Tom his life story! Dumbledore said that Vol-You-know-who chose Harry because he thought that he was more likely to be a danger to him. I said that Harry had escaped him more than four times! I only got as far as the rebirth...I haven't said anything about our fifth year yet..but how much damage is already done? Had I ruined everything? Will Voldemort have the upper hand now? What's going on in the future? Will I be stuck here?
Seeing the look of misery on Hermione's face, Johnson smiled. But it wasn't a smile of amusement, or one of warmness, for the smile did not reach his eyes. It was a smile of triumph. Like a caterpillar that turned into a butterfly, Johnson shed his smokescreen, and transformed into a new wizard. Only he didn't become a butterfly. He became something a lot more ominous. Like a green mamba that turned black, thought Hermione. "You're a clever witch," he said, curling one stick-like finger around his moustache. It was amazing how he managed to morph from eccentric-but-good to cunning- and-triumphant in less than five minutes, she thought. The laughing, comforting look in his eyes was gone, replaced by the coldness of ice. Johnson let out a high, frosty laugh, in a voice that was quite unlike his old one. Hermione swallowed. She was right. She had lost her only ally.
"Come closer, my dear, you deserve an explanation," he laughed silkily, his beetle-black, slitted eyes full of amusement. "Come closer, and listen to the tale of your failure."
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AN: I hope this chapter is understandable, because the next one will probably be more complicated. Tell me if you can't figure anything out, don't understand what's going on, or that I'm writing in a foreign language. I've to admit that this is really erratic and stupid, I mean, one moment it's fluff and romance, and then, it's all gloomy and grey.
Dear Mrs.Shigwa.Cobain: I'm not sure if this one even qualifies for a "Dreadful"! But tell me, because I Love your reviews! *does a crazy dance*
Dear Woodelf193: Thank you! I feel better after reading what you said! *grins*
Dear silver-dragon60: You do?
Dear warriorangel15: Glad to know that I'm not alone. Woohoo!
Dear UNormalMonkey: Sorry! I hope you're not further confused by this one! *begs for forgiveness*
Dear Miss Mina Murray: Whoa! That's so....nice. *wipes a tear* This one's for you,
Dear Samantha-Carlyn: Don't be sorry! *looks bewildered* It's entirely my fault, that this fic is so forgettable! I know that my plot is a cliché, and everything's so stereotyped that anyone reading it would probably have the ending figured out in less than a minute! Heck, even Hortense was a Mary Sue! But thanks for reading, anyway! By the way, you'd be beet red if somebody did what?
Dear Sonya Katz: Not exactly Back To The Future. *strokes her chin thoughtfully* Johnson didn't actually intended for her to kill Tom-he just needed to assure her that if she did, she wouldn't be stuck there. And about timelines being one or separated? I'll elaborate further on that in the chapter, "Time of the Ghost". Yep! Time travel kind of frazzles the mind! But it's too late now to throw this fic away, right? I hope that I'll be able to wrap things up nicely. *bites her lower lip nervously* Oh, and if you have more mystifying questions about the huge, glaring gaps in this humble fic, shoot!
Dear Jo-jo: I made your day even suckier?? *widens eyes* Well, I'm super sorry, and that's why this chapter isn't a cliffy! And I really don't think that my story deserves to be defined as an insomnia-pill! It has gone over to the boring, predictable side.
Dear Dragonbrat:, what you said made me feel that..well, maybe I should stop trying to deny that I wrote this lousy thing (
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"Voldemort himself would mark him as his equal."
Professor Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
AN: In this fanfic, I assumed that Harry Potter really is the boy that the Prophecy spoke of. Not Neville Longbottom. So, if Neville suddenly becomes Voldemort's 'equal' in Book 6 or 7, then I guess this fic is baseless.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Johnson?" asked Hermione shakily. Her bushy hair was unruly, and her eyes red-rimmed from deprived sleep, but she neither cared nor noticed. Right now, she needed to confirm her theory, a hypothesis that struck her painfully like a bolt of lightning when he mentioned 'Tom's Time Portkey'.
The wizard scratched his pointed chin, and wiggled his eyebrows humorously at her. "What?" he asked genially, but to Hermione, it had a tinge of slyness in it. Even his eyes seemed to shine with treachery now, she thought heatedly. "More questions?"
"Actually yes," she answered casually. It was crucial to act as normal as she could, and as unassuming as possible. If I get it right, he'll be spilling his guts out, she thought. But....I hope that I'm wrong. Or I might lose my only ally in this stupid year. "Johnson," she said, very carefully but offhandedly. "Don't you just hate Tom for spitting at her?" She held her breath, and as soon as he spoke, her ears picked every word up carefully.
Just as she thought, the skinny figure nodded vigorously. "Of course," he said. "But she shouldn't have touched him-he hates Hufflepuffs. He only needed Hortense for her clairvoyance, and for her finger of course", he chuckled. The silence that followed was not only profound, but dreadful. Then-
"I never said that the girl was Hortense," said Hermione, her voice rising shrilly. She threw Professor Dippet a glance-he was snoozing-and turned back to Johnson. She balled her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Her breathing seemed constricted, but she managed to blurt out, "Johnson? Have you been speaking with Tom? Discussing secrets, maybe?"
"Yes, you did," he faltered, twiddling his thumbs. "You told me that it was Hortense, yes you did," At that moment, Hermione realised how Tom must have felt when she accidentally let slip that the entrance to the secret chamber was in the girls' bathroom. Confused, suspicious, betrayed, and slightly incensed. But unlike Tom, she thought grimly, I'm not going to believe whatever story he's making up in his cunning little head right now. Closing her eyes in regret, Hermione cursed her misfortune. Her only believer was unveiled as a deceiver.
"I-did-not," she snapped sharply. Who was he kidding? She placed both hands on his frame and shook it roughly. "And you seem so eager for me to kill Tom too. Not to mention egging me on to enter the chamber. And how did you even know that the Time Portkey belonged to You-know-who? How did you know that it was a Time Portkey in the first place?"
Johnson only avoided her glittering, wrathful, hurt eyes. In Hermione's opinion, he looked very shifty all of a sudden. Like a slithering Slytherin, she noted. He was a Parselmouth after all.....I should've realised that it was a bad sign. The only 'decent' Parselmouth that I know is Harry Potter.
But Hermione did not need his answers. They were most likely to be blatant lies anyway, she gritted. Her theory was confirmed. He wasn't helping her. He was helping Tom Riddle. "You egged me on because you WANTED me to meet the basilisk. You knew that there was no escape, once I was in the chamber. You want me dead, don't you?" she shouted hotly. Johnson only remained silent. His passiveness half-verified her presumption. He was double-crossing her.
"Lately, I had this feeling that Tom seemed to want to get a little..closer. I wondered why. I'm not a vixen, and it was incredibly unbelievable of him to cast Hortense away for someone like-like me. Then, I realised that he might have found out that I have something he wants. By gaining my trust, he would be able to learn of his future, wouldn't he? Then he would meticulously lay down new plans, so as to avoid repeating his mistakes. In fact, he's acting really friendly for the same reason as I am. We're both doing undercover work! That explains why he ditched Hortense. After all, true facts are always better than premonitions, right?" she rambled, her breath coming out in short gasps.
Johnson stared stonily at her, but Hermione ignored him. His cover was blown, and if I'm right, she thought shrewdly, so is mine. Panic flooded her mind, but she sensibly told herself to remain level-headed. She had to choose her next words very carefully.
"But then I asked myself. How could he have known my secret? I never told him. No one else knew. No one but Professor Dippet, who doesn't believe it anyway, while the other.....being you," she continued, narrowing her eyes. "You told him everything. You're both Parselmouths. Could it be possible that you have been passing messages to him through his big, dirty serpent in the pipes?"
Johnson shook his head so violently that for a while, his two- dimensional head was only a blur. Hermione snorted at his theatrics. "And you haven't told me one thing, Johnson. The part about the Prophecy? You- know-who chose Harry as his equal because I said so, didn't he? I told you that Harry was the Boy Who Lived. From my words, he concluded that Harry was more worthy as an opponent, didn't he? In fact, everything that I've told you revolves around Harry Potter! Is that why Harry's name is on the prophecy, not Neville's? It's confusing, I know, but you won't find it very hard to understand, I'm sure!" she almost shouted in frustration. Professor Dippet stirred, but continued to snore.
It's my fault that You-know-who chose Harry, she thought dismally. I practically told Tom his life story! Dumbledore said that Vol-You-know-who chose Harry because he thought that he was more likely to be a danger to him. I said that Harry had escaped him more than four times! I only got as far as the rebirth...I haven't said anything about our fifth year yet..but how much damage is already done? Had I ruined everything? Will Voldemort have the upper hand now? What's going on in the future? Will I be stuck here?
Seeing the look of misery on Hermione's face, Johnson smiled. But it wasn't a smile of amusement, or one of warmness, for the smile did not reach his eyes. It was a smile of triumph. Like a caterpillar that turned into a butterfly, Johnson shed his smokescreen, and transformed into a new wizard. Only he didn't become a butterfly. He became something a lot more ominous. Like a green mamba that turned black, thought Hermione. "You're a clever witch," he said, curling one stick-like finger around his moustache. It was amazing how he managed to morph from eccentric-but-good to cunning- and-triumphant in less than five minutes, she thought. The laughing, comforting look in his eyes was gone, replaced by the coldness of ice. Johnson let out a high, frosty laugh, in a voice that was quite unlike his old one. Hermione swallowed. She was right. She had lost her only ally.
"Come closer, my dear, you deserve an explanation," he laughed silkily, his beetle-black, slitted eyes full of amusement. "Come closer, and listen to the tale of your failure."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
AN: I hope this chapter is understandable, because the next one will probably be more complicated. Tell me if you can't figure anything out, don't understand what's going on, or that I'm writing in a foreign language. I've to admit that this is really erratic and stupid, I mean, one moment it's fluff and romance, and then, it's all gloomy and grey.
Dear Mrs.Shigwa.Cobain: I'm not sure if this one even qualifies for a "Dreadful"! But tell me, because I Love your reviews! *does a crazy dance*
Dear Woodelf193: Thank you! I feel better after reading what you said! *grins*
Dear silver-dragon60: You do?
Dear warriorangel15: Glad to know that I'm not alone. Woohoo!
Dear UNormalMonkey: Sorry! I hope you're not further confused by this one! *begs for forgiveness*
Dear Miss Mina Murray: Whoa! That's so....nice. *wipes a tear* This one's for you,
Dear Samantha-Carlyn: Don't be sorry! *looks bewildered* It's entirely my fault, that this fic is so forgettable! I know that my plot is a cliché, and everything's so stereotyped that anyone reading it would probably have the ending figured out in less than a minute! Heck, even Hortense was a Mary Sue! But thanks for reading, anyway! By the way, you'd be beet red if somebody did what?
Dear Sonya Katz: Not exactly Back To The Future. *strokes her chin thoughtfully* Johnson didn't actually intended for her to kill Tom-he just needed to assure her that if she did, she wouldn't be stuck there. And about timelines being one or separated? I'll elaborate further on that in the chapter, "Time of the Ghost". Yep! Time travel kind of frazzles the mind! But it's too late now to throw this fic away, right? I hope that I'll be able to wrap things up nicely. *bites her lower lip nervously* Oh, and if you have more mystifying questions about the huge, glaring gaps in this humble fic, shoot!
Dear Jo-jo: I made your day even suckier?? *widens eyes* Well, I'm super sorry, and that's why this chapter isn't a cliffy! And I really don't think that my story deserves to be defined as an insomnia-pill! It has gone over to the boring, predictable side.
Dear Dragonbrat:, what you said made me feel that..well, maybe I should stop trying to deny that I wrote this lousy thing (