Wow! You wrote so many reviews, I still can't believe it! 134 reviews, that's nearly as much as I got for all my other stories together! Thank you all so very much! hugs all reviewers and treats them to self-baked chocolate muffins

I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update! The most shameful thing is that I've had chapter six done already for such a long time. But then HBP got out and I thought I would rewrite the whole series to make Tom canon. I decided against it in the end, since I don't think the story would work as well with canon-Tom. Besides, I always fret so much about whether I've got my characters just right, I probably would never get done with the revision, let alone get around to write new chapters. Then Microsoft Word broke and when I got Word back, my internet connection was gone for a whole month. It was fortunate, though, in a way, because I finally started on chapter eight on paper whilst my computer was in the repair shop. And I wrote a Merope/Tom sen. one-shot is still insanely happy about that

I hope that chapters won't take as long now anymore... but I always say that, don't I? resigned sigh

Since we're supposed to write only short author notes now on fanfiction . net and I want to reply personally to all my reviewers, I have toyed with the idea to add a special review response page for Sleepless to my own homepage. Once I get it up (with the review responses that should have been at the end of this chapter), I'll link to it from my Personale Profile page here on FFN. Until then... thank you very much!

I apologise in advance for the mean cliffhanger and now without further ado, chapter six...

Sleepless

Chapter 6: When wonders will never cease Part 3

"Provided that time progresses at the same speed in your time and mine, you have November 22st 1996 and that's a Friday", Tom pointed out reasonably. "Unless you have a Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow, you won't need to go anywhere."


Damn it. She hated smart men.

"I still need my sleep, Tom", Hermione argued. She hated herself for her pleading tone of voice.

Tom gazed quizzically at her. "I don't know if I'll be able to recreate the spell, so shouldn't we do these magical experiments that you suggested earlier? I managed to cast the spell, but that doesn't means that I understand it fully. I want to figure out what this time travelling tower was used for."

Hermione wondered herself what reason Salazar Slytherin would have had to cast Dark time travel magic on the Astronomy Tower. But she doubted greatly that it would be a good idea to help Tom Riddle to figure it out. Whatever obscure reason Slytherin might have had for this bewitching of the Astronomy Tower, Hermione was convinced that he'd been up to no good. She really didn't wanted another Chamber of Secrets debacle, least of all with her being the one manipulated into aiding Tom Riddle this time as Ginny Weasley had been in her second year.

"The last time you fooled around with one of your little Dark toys, I was petrified, so no, I don't think so, Tom", Hermione said sternly.

Tom crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively and glared right back. "I don't know what you're talking about, Hermione."

Hermione just shot him an incredulous look. "Yeah, sure, of course you don't know a thing about it", she scoffed. "Let me jump-start your memory. Chamber of Secrets, Muggle-born-hating Basilisk, Moaning Myrtle, framing Hagrid, soul-sucking diary that possesses the person who writes in it, does that ring a bell?"

"Scientific experiments gone wrong can happen to the best of us", Tom replied nonchalant.

This obvious underestimation of her intelligence annoyed Hermione greatly, but she chastised herself into calmness. She could not afford to anger the young Dark Lord again so shortly after she had just barely escaped an Avada Kedavra. "That attitude of yours is just another sound reason not to support your experiments."

Tom glared coolly at Hermione. "Then try to stop me", he sneered.

Sure enough, Hermione didn't doubted that he would do these experiments with her help or without it. With his extensive knowledge of the Dark Arts, he probably wouldn't even miss her assistance. If they co-operated, there was at least a small chance that she would be able to learn of dangerous breakthroughs in time to warn Professor Dumbledore, should it become necessary. "You're not going to curse me, hex me or otherwise use me as your guinea pig, if that's what you're looking forward to, Tom", Hermione ordered sternly.

Tom pouted playfully. "You're no fun. I'll just have to bring Tiberius Lestrange along as the guinea pig then." He gave a derisive snort. "Stupid as he is, he would even come."

Hermione cleared her throat, once again she reminded herself of Umbridge. "I think we need some rules if we are going to work on this together. We can't tell anyone or include anyone in our project without agreeing both to it. I'll be in big trouble if the people in my time find out that I've been consorting with you. There is no saying how our meetings already mess up the timeline, it would not be wise to include anyone else. We must be completely honest to another, none of us will keep back research results. I must warn you that I won't react nicely if you two-time me and try to cause some kind of damage to anyone in my time, any other time or my reality itself. I realise that you don't think very much of Muggle-borns, but you'll find out that I'm a capable witch if you must!"

Tom stared incredulously at Hermione, mouth agape. After long moments, he broke out into roaring laughter.

Hermione glared.

"It's just…", another snort of laughter, "…so funny…", chuckles, "…that you would dare to threaten me with a straight face knowing what I'm capable of!", Tom exclaimed.

"I know very well what you're capable of and that's what worries me", Hermione ground out between clenched teeth. Why did Riddle have to be back to annoying already? She hated it when he laughed at her, though she refused to think about the reasons why his opinions mattered to her.

Tom smiled proudly as if Hermione had just paid him a great compliment.

Again, Hermione experienced the urge to smack him. If she wouldn't have been so annoyed with him, she probably would have been amazed that she had managed to befriend a boy who infuriated her even more than Ron. Hermione walked a few steps around the platform to get the stiffness out of her chilled limbs, as she did so, she weighed her wand absent-mindedly in her hand. "Let's get on with it before there's only a Hermione-shaped icicle left of me. I suppose you don't know any better warming charms, do you?", she asked hopefully.

"What would I get out of teaching them to you?", Tom replied without hesitation.

Hermione heaved a long-suffering sigh and chose not to deign Tom's ridiculous demand with a reply. Instead, she went into study-mode. "I suggest we start by leaving some small marks on the stone, both magical and non-magical. We can check if we both see the notches and then come back later today… tomorrow and see if they're still there. If we manage to meet again, we can swap notes. We should also find out if we can cast spells on another or our clothes and see if they remain once we're both back in our own, separate times. We should also arrange a date for the next meeting, I don't fancy spending most evenings in the Astronomy Tower with just a small hope that I might meet you again by chance as I did for these last couple of weeks." As immersed as Hermione was in the creation of her to-do list, she didn't noticed what she had admitted to.

Tom's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but Hermione didn't paid much attention to his antics anymore. Then a smirk spread on his lips. "Ah, so you admit that you were so keen to see me again that you came here all the time? I feel so loved!", he snorted, in a mixture of friendly teasing and mockery.

Hermione turned her head to fully face Tom with an annoyed frown on her face. "It wasn't you, it's the mystery of the time travel phenomenon that didn't left me alone." With a triumphant expression, Hermione added, "besides, you're affected just as much or you would not have spent all the time researching and even casting the spell once again."

Tom replied with a careless, unaffected shrug.

Oh well, if he wanted to act cool, Hermione would just get on with the experiments without his disturbances, she decided. She pointed her wand at Tom. "Do you mind?", she asked innocently.

Faint alarm flickered over Tom's face before he forcefully wiped his face expressionless again. "Do your worst, but remember that I'll get my turn, too."

Now that she had actually got permission to cast whatever spell she liked on the young Lord Voldemort, Hermione found that she didn't had a clue which one she wanted to use. Or more like, which one she dared to cast. "Mobilocorpus", Hermione spoke, voice laced with uncertainty.

Despite that he had heard the spell spoken, Tom looked vaguely surprised when he was lifted off the ground and deposited back again on the platform about a feet away from the spot he had stood before. He wasted no time to cover up his moment of weakness with a haughty sneer. "If that's the worst you can think of, you should have continued to live as a Muggle", he scoffed.

Hermione wanted so badly to curse him, only the impending retribution made her restrain herself. She wouldn't put it past Tom Riddle to entice her into a nasty curse right now only so he would have an excuse to curse her twice as badly. A smirk of her own played on her lips as she got the perfect idea. "Reducio." With grim satisfaction, Hermione watched Tom Riddle shrink to Professor Flitwick's size.

"That is… I'll get you back for that!", Riddle yelled indignantly. "Enlarge me this very instant!"

"Of course, Tom, I wouldn't dream of it", Hermione said sweetly. "Engorgio." All that Hermione enlarged were his clothes and that by far farther than they had been before.

Tom came to look like a child in a giant's clothes. His cloak and robe pooled around him in a heavy heap of black cloth whilst he had to hold his pants by the waistband with one hand to keep them from falling off. "You're a riot, mudblood!", the bad-tempered Dark wizard snapped. Tom found his own wand in the huge pockets of his cloak and pointed it at Hermione. "Serpensortia!"

Hermione's eyes widened in alarm as a large green snake shot out of Tom's wand.

Tom hissed something to the snake, who hissed in response and advanced slowly, yet meticulously on Hermione. Whilst Hermione was occupied with the snake, he returned himself to his normal size. The clothes, Tom decided to leave this way, they were as good for this test as any and he'd rather have a spell used on them than on him.

Several times, Hermione tried to use Stupefy on the snake, but apparently, it had been warned of that and so it managed to evade her every attempt. Hermione glared at Tom and noticed with some surprise that he wasn't Flitwick-sized anymore. It's then that she realised with a startling burst of affection that he hadn't actually tried to harm her, or the snake would have already attacked her, it had been given ample time. He must have warned it not to hurt her when he talked to it, she guessed. But still, she couldn't just rely on his good will not to continue with the duel. And what better opportunity than to disarm Tom whilst he was still distracted… "Expelliarmus!", Hermione shouted.

The wizard was caught completely off-guard when Hermione's spell hit him, made his wand fly out of his hand and directly into Hermione's outstretched one. He swore under his breath and glared all the more maliciously at Hermione.

Hermione just smiled sweetly. "Sorry, Tom, but I can't have you go around and curse me just like that", she told him mildly. Hermione held up the phoenix core-wand triumphantly. The thought to break it never crossed her mind at this time. With a small, conciliatory smile, she offered the wand to him.

Tom accepted the wand only very reluctantly and with a pained grimace.

"Get rid of that snake and then let's try the marking of the stone", Hermione suggested. Impatiently, she turned already around and conjured with a little charm a blob of blue paint, which was dropped onto the floor of the platform. Then, she conjured up a sharp knife to scrape a "H" into the stone.

By the time that Hermione was done, Tom mimicked her motions. "I can see yours all right, but I'm curious whether these will still be here when the effect of the spell has faded", he muttered.

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Me, too." She flashed Tom a smile as she inspected her handiwork critically. "This is really exciting, you know?"

Tom snorted. "Of course I know. I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't be just as curious about this as you are", he muttered moodily under his breath.

The Gryffindor rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. "I was just trying to make conversation. Really, Tom, your sulking is petty and childish. You did tell me to "do my worst", after all", Hermione chastised.

"Of course, and you just decided to walk on my pride", he sneered.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin Head Boy. "Really, now you're sounding like just Malfoy. That's downright creepy."

Tom scrunched up his nose in disgust. "I don't know what Malfoy you are talking about, but I resent the notion that I resemble any of them!", he exclaimed indignantly. "Even Tiberius Lestrange isn't as bad as these good-for-nothing Malfoy brats."

Hermione smirked mischievously. "Good-for-nothing, you say?", she asked innocently. "I'm sure Lucius Malfoy would be crushed if he would ever learn what his lord and master thinks of his glorious heritage. He became your older alter ego's right-hand man, though he claimed to have been under the Imperius Curse once you were killed."

Tom flashed Hermione an incredulous look. "I voluntarily spent my time with a Malfoy? And I trusted that Malfoy enough to make him my right-hand man?" He snorted. "I must have been bonkers!"

"Never said you weren't", Hermione teased good-naturedly.

#

Once their experiments were finished, Hermione and Tom spent the wee hours of morning curled up in transfigured blankets and talked once more about everything that crossed their minds from the antics of their professors to the finer points of theoretic DADA and the weird habits of their friends. Hermione sat on the floor where she was protected from the worst of the wind, whilst Tom occupied his favourite seat again, he was perched delicately on top of the broad stone banister, with a blanket thrown over him by Hermione and kept in place by a sticking charm after a gust of wind had nearly swept it away twice.

But even more than the conversation, they enjoyed once again the comfortable silence that stretched between idle chit-chat. When they talked, they always had to be careful not to broach a topic that would lead to another quarrel, but when they stayed silent, they could fully savour the pleasant atmosphere.

"Sunrise has already begun, you have to leave or some early risers will catch you", Tom said out of the blue.

Hermione started, she had nearly nodded off. She craned her head to peek at Tom. "It's so late already?", she asked, surprised. It was hard to pick herself up from the floor and that not only because her legs were stiff from the cold. Hermione leant against the banister next to Tom to check for herself that he'd told her the truth. She sighed in disappointment when she found that indeed, the first tendrils of light crawled over the horizon. "I guess that is it then…", she said awkwardly and brushed the wrinkles out of her robes to keep her hands busy.

Tom turned his head to face Hermione, a lazy, peaceful smiled played on his lips. "Same day, same time next week?"

Hermione couldn't hide her surprise. Sure, they had seemed to agree that they would meet again. But… there was a nervous fluttering in her stomach as she realised that Tom was just as eager to see her again as she was. "I'll be looking forward to it all week", Hermione said honestly. To hide the fierce blush that was sure to spread on her cheeks, she leant forward to stuff the scattered contents of her book bag back into the leather satchel. Hermione's head shot upwards again as she suddenly realised that she hadn't even once considered what toll the spell-casting might have on Tom. "Are you sure that it isn't too early? I wouldn't want you to weaken yourself with the spell or suffer any other ill side effects. I have waited for three weeks, I can wait some more."

Tom flashed the bushy-haired girl a superior smirk. "Don't worry your pretty head about it, I'm not the Heir of Slytherin for nothing. The Dark magic of this spell is very powerful, it's true ancient magic of the Founders age, but I'm positive that I can handle it", the Slytherin replied, his trademark arrogance back in place.

Hermione chuckled softly at the returned cockiness. "Good, good, if you think you can do it, I won't hold you back." In her thoughts, she added that whilst Tom was busy with the preparations for the time travel spell, he already wouldn't have any time to plan his evil reign or commit other acts of evil. That made her feel at least a tiny bit less guilty for that she looked forward to their next meeting.

"So it's a date then", Hermione concluded nervously, whilst trying to sound light-hearted. She wrung her hands awkwardly and had to work hard to hide the disappointment she felt at the impending parting. And here she had just come to enjoy Tom's company again… The night seemed to have passed far too early, but there was no delaying her departure anymore. Dawn approached mercilessly.

"Yes, in a week", Tom echoed just as awkwardly.

Hermione hesitated. She really wanted to show Tom how much she cherished the time they had spent together, but it's still so hard to forget that he would become the Dark Lord…

Tom suddenly leapt into motion with a determined gleam in his eyes and serpentine movements. He swung his legs over the edge of the banister, jumped to his feet and reached Hermione in one long stride. He pressed his lips against hers for just a blink of an eye. "Thank you for staying, Hermione", he whispered huskily.

By the time that Hermione had unfrozen, Tom had already fled back to his safe perch. Eyes huge, Hermione was left to stare in flabbergasted awe at the Heir of Slytherin. Mind still numbed, Hermione raised her fingers to her lips. She still felt the tingle of the short kiss on her lips. "What…?", she whispered.

But Hermione had no chance to fathom Tom's intentions, his face was a pleasant, yet blank mask, his eyes were focused once more on something or other in the distance, or maybe something only he could see in his mind. The only sign that anything had happened at all was the tenseness of his whole body in general and the tightly clenched hands in particular. "Leave", he commanded harshly.

In her strange state of mind, that seemed like a perfectly reasonable suggestion, which she decided to heed after one last, lingering look at Tom.

Before the Gryffindor girl's inner eye, the few decisive seconds were replayed time and again.

She descended step after step. With every foot of distance added between her and Tom, the fog left Hemione's head. Not that clarity was much better, the confusion just seemed all the sharper now.

Hermione shook her head in amazement as the thought crossed her mind that her Slytherin yearmates would die from the shock if they would ever learn that she had been kissed by their Heir. The horrified expressions on their faces almost would make it worth it to let them find out about their secretive meetings. What had he been thinking? He hated Muggle-borns, Hermione was absolutely certain of that. Did he toy with her? But Draco Malfoy hated Muggle-borns as well and he was so disgusted with the "Mudbloods" that he would not get anywhere near them, Hermione couldn't believe that he would ever even consider to kiss one, no game would be worth that. So why had Tom?

Yet it was certainly a game. She couldn't permit herself to doubt it. Hermione was a logical person with an analytical mind, she would not allow herself to indulge in some silly schoolgirl fancy, certainly not when the other party was a psychopathic and utterly evil mass murderer-to-be. When you looked at all the possibilities and disregarded the impossible, then whatever remained had to be the truth. It was beyond doubt a strange strategy that Tom Riddle employed to toy with her, but as long as she remained aware of the nature of his ploy, she would fall prey to it.

It still didn't make any sense, though. Her theory had many weak points and downright gaping holes, like what he hoped to attain in the first place by charming her. Only one thing was for certain. Hermione's life was becoming stranger and stranger.

"Wonders will never cease", an amazed Hermione muttered under her breath as she left the Astronomy Tower.

The walk to the Common Room had been a blur. She had just barely avoided Mrs Norris twice, but over the course of the weeks, Hermione had become even better at sneaking around the castle than Ron and Harry. She had embraced the task of stealth just like she embraced her studies, she'd studied all the alcoves, secret passages and niches one had to know to avoid discovery.

But now Filch was after her, she heard his footsteps. "Firefly crackers", she whispered urgently to the Fat Lady.

"My dear, what do we have here, a student out of bed?", Filch muttered.

Hermione heaved a sigh of relief when the portrait swung open, she hurried inside as quickly as she had done few times before and smashed the portrait shut behind her. "Sorry", she whispered to the Fat Lady. Hermione closed her eyes and heaved a sigh of relief.

That had been a narrow escape. She really should demand an Invisibility Cloak of her own from Mr High-and-Mighty. After all, it's his fault and his alone that the rule-abiding Hermione Granger risked detention every night and it's even more so that he had cited her to yet another meeting in the wee hours of morning Saturday night. Just why couldn't he a bit less villainously dramatic and meet her on a nice Sunday afternoon?

Hermione grumbled, but she dared to do so only quietly. Even though she knew that Filch couldn't get inside and wouldn't hear her from the outside unless she screamed at the top of her lungs, it gave her the creeps to be so close to him, just separated by a flimsy portrait from a year of detention.

She held her lit wand outstretched as she walked deeper into the Common Room.

Someone mumbled unintelligibly from the direction of the couches and Hermione's heart skipped a beat.

"'Mione, is that you?" This time, the whisper was louder, though just barely understandable for Hermione. And the one who spoke it possessed a voice that sounded very much like Harry's…

"Harry, Ron?", she whispered back.

Two more wands were lit with twin "Lumos" charms and Hermione could make out the sleepy faces of her friends.

Immediately, the guilt was back in full force. She chuckled nervously. "Ah… what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Harry gave Hermione a pointed look. "Shouldn't you be, too?"

Ron, on the other hand, asked, "why are we sitting here in the dark as if we're doing something forbidden when it's morning already?" He didn't waited for a reply, rather right away left his comfortable armchair to light the candles.

Hermione heaved a little relieved sigh when she didn't needed to squint anymore. The natural light of the early morning wasn't anywhere near enough yet to illuminate Gryffindor Tower through these narrow windows. But it also made it harder to lie her friends whilst she looked into their faces, she realised. As honestly distressed as both of them looked, she just couldn't be mad with them for their snooping. Actually, she realised, she could consider herself lucky that they hadn't followed her underneath Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Not that it would take them much longer to realise that they could and then she would have to deal with a full-blown catastrophe.

"Please don't be mad with us, Hermione", Ron said plaintively as he snuggled back into the nest of blankets that he had heaped upon the armchair. "We were worried about you all month already. So Harry and me figured that we would wait for you when you sneaked out, but…", here he blushed fiercely, "we kind of fell asleep for real and by the time we woke up, the Common Room was already empty. We weren't sure that you were gone, but we decided to wait here for you, just in case. We waited for a while, then we fell asleep again."

Harry blinked innocently at Hermione. He took off his glasses to rub his sleepy eyes. "Were you really gone all night, 'Mione?", he asked, worried.

Hermione closed her eyes in defeat for a moment. There was so no way that she would get out of explaining herself now. At least, explaining herself somewhat, she corrected herself right away, for she certainly couldn't tell her friends with whom she had spent the night. She made a mental note to be more careful next Friday and work on her acting skills as well. She dropped her book bag next to another armchair and flopped down onto it. "Yes, I was out all night", she admitted hesitantly. Her face was nearly split by a huge yawn which she fought bravely.

Ron's jaw dropped, because for once he was the one to figure something out first. Only, he wished that he could have stayed oblivious a little while longer. "You have a boyfriend, 'Mione?", he gasped.

Harry gaped as well at these words, first at Ron, then at Hermione.

Hermione laughed nervously and opened her mouth to deny it fervently, but she knew already that it was a lost cause. She could feel her face burn, after all. They would never believe a beet-red Hermione that she'd spent the night solely in the company of her Ancient Runes textbook. "I don't have a boyfriend, I only talked to someone", she replied cautiously. It was a miserable lie and downright shameful for someone who prided herself on her intelligence, but in her current state of tiredness and embarrassment, as well as with the countless pitfalls her partner-in-crime presented, she couldn't think of anything better than that.

Ron snorted and grinned conspiratorially at her. "Oh come on, 'Mione, you can tell us!", he goaded. "Who is the lucky boy?"

Oh no! Please, couldn't the earth open up and swallow her? Or how about some Death Eater attack on Hogwarts to rescue her? Tom really did owe that much to her. She would kill that infernal Slytherin the next time she saw him for all the trouble he put her through and all that just because he insisted to mess with Dark magic even more than he did already!

Harry perked up at as he noticed that Hermione squirmed underneath their twin inquiring gazes. "Ron is right, you can tell us, Hermione, we won't tell anyone else, not even Ginny", Harry promised. Eagerly, he leant forward in his armchair.

"I don't have a boyfriend!", Hermione snapped. After she had spent a night dealing with Tom Riddle's moods, she just didn't had the patience left for Harry and Ron. She huffed indignantly and stood up again. "I don't see why you are so obsessed with forcing some kind of ridiculous illicit affair on me and I'm sorry if I have to disappoint you, but I'm single and I don't intend to change that, either!" That said, Hermione slung her book bag over her shoulder again and stalked to the staircase which led to the girls dormitories.

If she was really, really lucky and avoided her best friends for the rest of the year, maybe they would dismiss the memories of this morning as a weird dream? Hermione snorted derisively at herself. As if she would be so lucky…

Hermione sneaked into the dormitory and was relieved to learn that her dorm mates apparently weren't half as interested in her love life as her best friends were, for she was the only one awake. She dropped her bag on top of her trunk and her cloak on top of it, her shoes were discarded next to the trunk. Then, still fully clothed, Hermione slipped under the inviting covers of her four-poster bed. She was just too tired to care anymore.

Maybe in the morning, well, more like evening for her, the world would be a brighter place again. Hermione sighed, already half-asleep. Yeah, sure, and maybe pigs would fly.

To be continued…