((A.N. Chapter 14, at last. I won't bore you with the myriad of excuses that are probably applicable. All of the chapters are finished, however. That's a good thing. Once again I'll remind you to look at my new story Somewhere I Have Never Traveled (yes, it's named after that famous poem!), which I will start posting this summer. I'm very excited about it. Thanks to all of my reviewers, who include Arissta Kequet, sexy-jess, Lady Moofin, just merely simple me, haiga, Le Saut de l'Ange (you're right, it is about time for a Tom PoV), UNKNOWEN (you're right as usual), Daxi, Chi, Avanell, Lianis, Oliver's Quidditch Crazy (you have a very good grasp of Tom's character :D), EuphoniumGurl0, steffy-potter, silver gaze, Loriliant Angelisa Snape, bubble gum girl, coco-vanilla, Slytherin star gazing, Tatshing, Magic and Sparkle, Sakuya Kaleido, Spiritwell, Countess Mel (the stuggle is still coming), Black-rose23, foamythesquirrelmistress, Quill of the Lark, Pessimistic Eyes, fallen4voldie, p.c. andrews, Joy4eva, GwynnPotter, SaTiNk06, Floating Into Darkness, BabyGooGoo2, romantic fairy, Mikki, Black-ranger, readerofHP, Amygdala, lucky, Jesica Black, CareBearErin, Emma Lee, referxmadness, chamorrobaby, calicogirl, IceHeart161, re-ma-pa-sa-ra, dark88poet, and Linn-LovesPiperLeo. You guys are unbelievable! Thanks to my beta, DramaShethan, as well. Kind of a short chapter... I'm sorry... but the next two are very long. I swear 't! Enjoy...))

In your eyes, I see a darkness that torments you

And in your head where it dwells

I'd give you my hand if you'd reach out and grab it

Let's walk away from this hell.

– 'Into the Dark' by Juliana Theory

Chapter 14; Pieces of Agony

Tom led Hermione away, then, away from the circle and through the archway and onto the starlit grounds.

"Tom," she whispered, turning to face him. Her face was unusually vulnerable, her eyes wide and imploring."Why did–"

"You have to understand," he started suddenly, "that I don't feel fear like average people. I've never felt fear, not for myself, not for anyone else. It's not a . . . feeling . . . that I know."

His eyes were riveted on hers like a thousand chips of onyx. "But . . . when I saw you standing there and knew that you would have to die, I was scared to death."

He broke away from her, his mind whirling too fast for his own comfort. Why did you do it? A nasty voice in his head whispered. Why did you save her? She is worthless Mudblood girl, and your immortality is more important than her. So why couldn't you kill her?

The scariest thing was that he did not know. There was not one logical reason why he had spared her life. In fact, he had an inkling suspicion that he would be better off without her. She muddled his brain and befogged his perfect and ruthless train of logic like no one else had ever done. Suddenly he was angry. He was angry at himself for making the decision he had made, and he was angry at Helen for being the cause of it.

He paced back in forth in front of her.

For a moment he had convinced himself that he would have to kill her. He had faltered when he had realized that no matter how hard he tried, he could not imagine a world without her in it. Why not? he asked himself angrily. She is not special, she is nothing, she is a Mudblood, she is stubborn, she is unworthy of my acquaintance, she is gorgeous standing there in the starlight . . .

He made an exasperated sound, frustrated at her and himself. Tom clutched his head, trying to straighten out his thoughts. He had never lost control like this.

Helen watched him with some dismay, and Tom noted that she looked just as lost as he did.

"What is it with you?" he said at last, turning to face her sharply. She drew back. He was angrier than she had ever seen him.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know!" Tom yelled in her face. "That's the problem . . . I don't know anything when I'm around you! Everything I've been taught, every thread of logic, everything that I thought I knew vaporizes like morning mist when I'm near you and all that's left is your face!All I can see is your face! And I hate you for it!"

He drew in a ragged breath. He had expected her to cower away when he screamed at her, but she had stayed perfectly still. That was another thing about Helen. She stood up to him long past the point when anyone else would have backed down in fear.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?" he asked her in a deceptively soft voice. Their faces were only inches apart. "I just screamed in your face and you didn't move. Everyone else in the world is terrified of me and yet you are not. Don't think I won't hurt you, Helen, because I will."

Hermione stared into Tom's eyes. His face was so close that she could see the individual eyelashes fluttering, dark and sleek, above the blackness of his eyes. He had just threatened her. He had just told her he hated her.

She was not fooled for a moment, though. Hermione knew what this was. It was a last ditch defense mechanism on his part. He was trying desperately to push her away in order to hold on to his sanity. He did not know what was happening, but he knew only that she was the cause of it. Tom Riddle was falling in love with her and he did not like it at all.

"How could I be afraid of you," she asked quietly, "if you are afraid of yourself?"

He met her gaze, and his face was wide open. His eyes were glittering like black wounds.

"And if you are willing to hurt me, then why didn't you kill me back with all your Jr. Death Eaters watching? It would have made much more sense."

"What did you just call them?" Tom asked insidiously

Hermione drew in a breath. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have let something as important as that slip out of her mouth? Tom made her say things without thinking about them, and that was never a good thing.

"I don't know," she said coldly, deciding to act as if it was nothing. "But the Tom Riddle I know would not have saved me from death. For once the ruthless Tom Riddle looked like he was about to cry."

"I don't cry," Tom spat bitterly, "I have never cried in my life and I wouldn't cry over someone like you. The nurses at the orphanage said that even when I was a baby I didn't cry. I told you, Helen. I couldn't bring myself to kill you because all of my life I have seen people as chess pieces and when I look at you . . . I see your face."

She could tell that it killed him to admit that to her. It killed him to admit that she made him feel more vulnerable than he had ever been in his life.

Hermione suddenly felt suffocated. She could not bare any more of the uncertainty she felt when she looked at him. He was everything she did not want in a boy. He was ruthless and over controlling and hardheaded and mean. If this was true, then why could she not make herself move? Why did she see his face every time she closed her eyes at night?

Hermione whirled around, a tear coming down her face and then another. A cold iron hand clamped down on her wrist. She turned back to face him, and he caught both of her wrists in one hand, drawing her body closer to his.

"We're not done talking," he said in an icy, brutal voice.

"Oh yes we are!" she replied angrily. She tried to jerk out of his grasp, but he did not let go.

"We're not done talking until I say we're done talking," Tom said firmly, staring her down. He twisted her wrist and she gasped in pain. "Where did you ever get the idea that you could walk away from me?"

He seemed so like Voldemort in that moment that it scared her.

"You are unbelievable, do you know that? You have controlled everyone around you for so long that you forgot how it feels when people don't do what you want! Well, you may control all of those weaklings that follow you around and you may play games with Dumbledore and the rest, but that does not mean you can control me! That does not mean you can play games with me!" she cried, and enunciated the last part very clearly. "Now . . . let go of me."

Shocked, he let go of her wrists.

She watched the realization dawn in his eyes. He could not dominate her.He had, at last, met his match.

She watched him realize that maybe he did not even want to dominate her.

Before he could say another word, Hermione walked away

She did not see him put his head in his hands as his face shattered into a thousand pieces of agony.

((A.N. I'll give you a pretty philisophical review question this time,but itis extremely important to the story. Is it the choices that Tom makesthat will ultimately decide his fate, or is he destined to be Lord Voldemort? I know you all have an opinion, now! Tell me what you think in a review.Next chapter... Tom and Hermione meet again, but will Tom's Slytherin friends get in the way?))