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Chapter 22 – Revealing Secrets
The next morning Hermione awoke still feeling tired. She felt sick too, but she got up and got dressed nonetheless. She put on a knee-length dark brown skirt and a cream colored sweater before brushing her hair. She noticed a bruise on her cheek, probably from when Lestrange put his hand over her mouth. She had bruises on her ankles too. She wished that she had some of that pasty stuff that the twins had given her when she got a black eye.
She pulled up half her hair and did a make-up charm. 'At least that gets rid of that bruise' she thought as she grabbed some socks. She put them on and slipped on her shoes while wondering if she should put on her school robes to cover her ankles. 'No, they'll be fine. No one will be looking at them' she told herself.
She left the common room quietly. Sandie, Tiffany, and Brian were nowhere in sight and it was obvious that Arnold was still in bed because one of the sixth year boys was complaining about hearing him snore through the walls between the sixth and seventh year dorms.
Hermione thought about heading down to breakfast, but the thought of seeing Lestrange, Malfoy, Rosier, and the rest of them made her change her mind. She had no appetite anyways. Hermione walked down the hall slowly, her arms crossed tight across her stomach as she glanced out the windows every now and then at the lightly falling snow.
She saw her reflection in the frosted windows and frowned. She imagined Marsayus Rosier behind her and cringed. She looked down at her feet, and when she looked back up into the window, she got a shock. Behind her was Tom. He smiled at her and walked around to face her.
"Feel like practic-"
He stopped here as she frowned at him. He couldn't understand what was wrong. She had been fine when she left the night before. She was actually smiling then. Had something gone wrong when she got back to her dorm? Was she going to tell him that they couldn't be friends?
"What's wrong, Alice?" Tom asked as his face creased with frowning lines of worry.
Hermione opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off as someone behind her yelled.
"Alice! There you are!"
Leo came rushing up the hall. She turned to him only to have him grab her firmly by the elbows, holding her at arms' length, and looking her straight in the eye. He stood there for a moment not saying anything, but looking extremely concerned.
"Are you all right? Brian told me what happened and Tiff said I should check on you," Leo breathed heavily. "Are you okay?"
Hermione closed her eyes and nodded. She really wished that Leo would just say 'okay' and walk away, but he didn't.
"You're sure you're fine?"
"Yes, Leo, I'm all right," Hermione sighed.
"What's he talking about, Alice?" Tom asked lightly.
Though he tried to hide it, Hermione could hear a fraction of worry in his voice. She frowned and wished more now than she had moments ago that Leo would just walk away. She wanted Tom to go back to acting like he had before Leo arrived, she liked Tom best that way.
"You should know," Leo snarled.
It shocked Hermione that he did this. What happened to him being frightened of Tom?
"Leo, ple-"
"No, Alice, no please," Leo interrupted. "He's probably the sick little codger that sent those disgusting excuses for human beings after you like that!"
"I assure you, Witte," Tom growled, "that I know nothing of what you are talking about and I would like it very much if you would first tell me what it is that I'm being accused of before pointing your unmannered little finger at me."
"Oh, like you don't know!" Leo barked. "You sent your demented gang of Slytherin guys after Alice."
"I did no such thing!" Tom roared.
"You two, honest-"
"Why don't you just leave Alice alone," Leo demanded.
"Why don't you take your own advice, hmm? She doesn't like you, Witte. You're pathetic and certainly not what she's looking for in a guy," Tom hissed.
"Oh, and I suppose she wants some cult leader like you, Riddle?" Leo snapped.
"St-"
"Alice, why do you even bother talking to him?" Leo interrupted Hermione.
She heaved a great sigh and was about to try and speak for the third time when Tom butt in.
"Because maybe she likes having intelligent conversations, unlike the ones she has with you," Tom answered snidely.
"Intelligent conversations about what? How you send your friends off to rape her?" Leo grumbled with spite.
"Rape... her?" Tom repeated as he turned to Alice. "What's he talking about?"
"Leo, can you give Tom and I a moment, plea-"
"What? So he can do the same thing Marsayus Rosier did to you?" Leo griped to Hermione.
"No," Hermione managed before a lump closed off her throat in a painful constriction.
"Why don't you just listen to her, Witte? Give us a few moments," Tom hissed.
"Not in this lifetime, Riddle," Leo growled before grabbing Hermione's hand a little harder than he intended and pulling her away down the hall.
Hermione looked back over her shoulder at Tom standing there looking bewildered. She felt hot tears start to pour out over her cheeks as Leo gave a jerk on her arm to make her turn away from Tom and come with him.
Tom glared down the hall after the two. This meant war. Not only on Witte, but on those he had previously called friends as well. He turned and stalked off to his dorm. He needed to go plan his revenge, an evil and horrid revenge that would leave them regretting the day that they crossed him and touched Alice.
"Leo... let go!" Hermione said through a clenched jaw as she wrenched her hand from his.
"Alice, why do you talk to that slime ball?" Leo questioned with a desperate tone as he turned to face her. His expression was strained and he looked as though he could cry.
"Because he's not a slime ball and I happen to know for a fact that it wasn't him who sent those guys after me," Hermione sobbed.
"How do you know?" Leo challenged.
"Because they came after me because I was around Tom. They warned me to stay away from him because they don't want him to become friends with me," Hermione replied.
"You should have listened to them!" Leo said.
"Why is it you don't want me to be friends with him?" Hermione inquired with rising anger.
"Because he's not worthy of your friendship."
"And how would you know?"
"Look at what he had them do to you, Alice!" Leo practically whined.
"I told you, he didn't put them up to it," Hermione snapped.
"They could have been acting like he didn't... you don't know for sure whether or not he did," Leo pointed out.
"Well, you don't either, so you can't blame him," Hermione retaliated.
"Alice, I know how twisted and cruel he can be," Leo sighed. "I've seen some of the things he and his friends do... some of the dark spells the weave on things."
"Oh, like what Leo?" Hermione barked, losing her temper. Why was she getting so worked up over this?
"There was a time when Dumbledore put me up to watching him," Leo began. "I accepted because my family has great respect for Dumbledore and I felt honor in taking on his request."
Hermione crossed her arms and looked at him with partially pursed lips as he sighed and continued.
"Well, I trailed him and his friends into the woods one night. As students, it was forbidden that we enter that forest," Leo informed as he gestured over his shoulder to the dark trees that made up the Forbidden Forest. "They entered a clearing and put on these masks... white masks like skulls."
Hermione's mind flashed to the Quidditch World Cup from her fourth year. The group of Death Eaters that had been levitating those those innocent Muggles. They wore masks of white that reminded Hermione of a skeleton's skull.
"I hung back and watched from behind a rather large tree as three of them walked a little further into the darkness and came back with a unicorn."
Hermione's mind flashed on the beauty of such a creature. She fought back the frown that came with the thought of those filthy, dark Slytherins touching such a pure and magnificent wonder of the magical world.
"They forced it down to the ground using a curse that made my stomach turn. I remember the poor thing writhing and squirming on the forest floor as though it felt every pain in the world at that exact moment," Leo said in a hushed way.
His eyes were glassed over and his face held an underlying look of horror. He was no longer looking at Hermione, but at the floor. Though it seemed, by the distant look in his eyes, that he didn't really see the floor at all.
"And then they stopped. The unicorn just laid there... like it was-," Leo mumbled. "And... Tom commanded Malfoy to stab it. He did."
Leo looked to Hermione now. His mouth agape and his breathing barely audible.
"The noise it made haunted my sleep for weeks on end," Leo sighed. "But the worst of it was that they drained the blood into a cup... and they poured the shining liquid onto a black book. It was a book I had seen Tom carrying around a lot before."
'Tom's diary, no doubt' Hermione deduced.
"And then they left. I hung back once more and once I thought they had left completely, I went over to the poor thing," Leo muttered. "I sat down next to it and stroked its mane as it looked at me with eyes so pure and bright. I watched the brightness leave its eyes and listened to it take its last breath."
Hermione felt tears welling in her eyes again as she swallowed hard and looked to her feet.
"I stood to leave and found Tom standing over my shoulder. He told me – or rather threatened me – that if I told anyone what I had saw that night, that he would do the same to me," Leo breathed.
Hermione fully understood now why Leo was so afraid of Tom. He feared for his life because Tom had threatened to kill him. But how did she know that Tom would make good on that threat. It might have been idle. 'Wait! What am I saying? Tom killed Myrtle' Hermione reminded herself.
Something struck her in that moment. Disappointment. She didn't want to know that Tom had been Myrtle's killer. 'Well, he didn't kill her intentionally... and it wasn't him directly, either' Hermione reasoned. She stood there battling in her mind for a few moments before she realized what was happening. 'I'm defending him when I know what he's like... even if I change him, he's still killed an innocent girl. No, the Basilisk killed Myrtle... not Tom. Oh... this is- why did he have to?'
She had hit the ultimate pentacle of confusion. She liked him. A lot. Not exactly love, but she still liked him. And yet there was a part of her that wanted nothing to do with him. 'No, not to do with him... it's his past.' But you couldn't change a person's past. 'Then what am I doing?'
"Lord Voldemort?" Wormtail spoke softly as he entered the room.
"Wormtail," Voldemort greeted. "C'mere."
"W-what is it, sir?" Wormtail asked fearfully. The last time Voldemort did this, he had been feigning happiness and was really angry with Wormtail. Peter cringed at the thought of the pain he had endured after that.
"Well, c'mere, Wormtail, my faithful servant," Voldemort chimed with his snake-like voice. "Do you know why I'm so happy?" Voldemort quizzed as Pettigrew walked up to him and knelt down in front of the chair, his head bowed.
"N-no, sir," Peter answered quickly and simply.
"Because I've located the Granger girl, Wormtail," Voldemort chortled.
The sound of his gleeful voice sent chills rushed up and down Peter's body. He was anticipating something bad. But it never came.
"Tell Lucius that he may free the giants and the Death Eaters upon the village up north from here. I feel like rewarding them," Voldemort said carelessly. "In the meantime... I want you to prepare a quick meal for me. I've got a hunt to go on soon."
"Y-yes, my Lord. Right away, my Lord," Wormtail obliged as he got up and ran from the room. He was happy he had escaped punishment for something that wasn't his fault, but he ran nonetheless so as not to tempt Voldemort.
Voldemort smiled as he watched Peter run from the room. Soon he would be going to find himself a time travel piece so that he could venture back to 1944. He was going to find Miss Hermione Granger. The thought of getting to her excited him, but not because he was going to kill her. Rather, he was going to offer her something that no one could refuse. A throne beside him as a dark princess, or rather, a dark queen.
"So you see, Alice," Leo sighed, "that's why I don't like you being around him."
"Thank you for your concern, Leo," Hermione muttered, "but I'm very capable of taking care of myself, and I still don't believe that Tom put them up to it."
"You're unbelievable," Leo grumbled. "He's evil, Alice... face it."
"You haven't really given him a chance," Hermione fought.
"Given him a chance! To what? Kill me?" Leo barked in disbelief.
"Well, I know a side of him that no one else does... a side that's sweet and caring," Hermione said finally as though refusing to continue the fight. "And I'm not asking you to care, but do me a favor and stay out of it... and don't judge him either."
With that, Hermione turned and stalked off down the corridor. She couldn't believe she had just done that. She had just defended Tom Riddle and tried to make it sound as though he was a good, kind, and caring person. But surely that was in him somewhere. Right?
"Hey, Ron... what are you doing?" Harry asked as he entered their room at Grimmauld Place.
"I'm leaving this room," Ron grumbled.
"Why?" Harry questioned in confusion.
"Because of-"
"Me," Dumbledore sighed from his frame.
"He refuses to tell me where Hermione is because he obvious knows," Ron growled before heaving his trunk to the doorway. "So, I refuse to be in a room anywhere where he can get to me unless he'll tell me... In the meantime, I'll be in Ginny's room."
"Oh no you won't," Ginny hissed from the doorway. "Maybe if you spoke to Dumbledore in a civil manner, he would tell you."
"I tried pleading him, that didn't even work," Ron snapped.
"I just can't tell you because I can't risk you going back in time to get her and stop her from completing her mission," Dumbledore reasoned.
"Her mission?" Harry repeated. "It was planned that she would go back?"
"Not quiet," Dumbledore sighed. "You'll understand at a later time, Harry."
"Well, I don't want to understand at a later time," Ron cut in. "I want to know where she is and what she's doing."
"I will tell you this much, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said softly. "Miss Granger is at Hogwarts in the past and under my care."
The three children looked from one another to Dumbledore and back again. All looking unsure and curious.