Law watched Minerva walk away from him. This was it. This moment was all he had left now, concerning Minerva. Their relationship, however brief it was, was now over, but it had changed everything. Minerva was a Muggleborn. Tom said Muggleborns were all evil and bad, but it was only too clear that they weren't at all. Tom had been wrong, and so had Law to have followed him.
He looked around. He saw things so clearly now. All those girls he'd never even noticed before, all those that were not Purebloods…but who would look at him, a gangly red head? Who would ever…?
"Hi." It was Sally. He looked at her.Her background was pretty unknown, except that she was Pureblood, and all he knew about her was she was quiet but had a fiery temper. She liked to read books. She was not ugly, but plain, and yet he found something soft in her face, now that he really looked at her. Ash had often hinted that Sally had "a thing" for him, but Law had never really listened, his head full of Minerva.
"Hi. Sally, what do you think of Muggleborns? And Half-Bloods? Do you…do you ever think about things like that?" His voice was suddenly intense.
Sally smiled, and if she was confused he was asking such a sudden question, she didn't show it. Maybe she'd seen him dancing with Minerva. "Law," she said gently, "you know I've never really thought much of all that. That's why Tom and Ash are so sharp with me sometimes. We're only young and I frankly have more important things to be thinking about."
"Such as?"
"Such as…Clothes. Food. Music. Having fun." She smiled. "Friends."
"But you always…"
"Went along with Ash? Sure, we're friends, Law. Ash and I have a joke about it, about how terribly loyal I am."
Law had never really talked to her before, not properly, not one-to-one like this. Law smiled at her. And he could see the affect his smile had on her, the delight on her face that he was smiling at her. She obviously was quite keen on him, and this made Law feel tingly inside.
"There's something going to go down tonight. Something bad…shall we leave, before it happens?" Law asked her.
She considered him. In truth, she didn't really want to leave, but if Law wanted to…She nodded.
"We can play chess!" he said.
"Only if you're preparing to lose," Sally told him. "I'm a brilliant chess player."
"Me too!" He took hold of her hand and led her out. He knew that she wasn't always like this, so friendly and nice, that she had a somewhat wicked side in her as well. But then, so did he. He couldn't judge her. He didn't know her well enough to judge her. He didn't want to judge her, he didn't want to be critical of her. He wanted to like her.
Minerva watched them go, but was not sad or regretful. What they'd had, had been beautiful, but they were too young for something so intense. She turned back to Ian Smith, who was talking about Quidditch. A simple boy, not one she would ever dream of marrying or knowing after Hogwarts, but he was interesting to talk to, a good dancer, and a great kisser. Minerva felt happy and young and alive.
Sally and Law's chess game would last all night, and they would have more fun than could have been possible at that ball, more fun than they both would have ever expected. Nobody else was in the Slytherin Common Room, so they didn't have to act indifferent and cold. They could just be who they were, and like each other.
Nobody would know it yet, neither Hermione nor Draco were present, but these two people were to be Ron Weasley's grandparents.
Draco told Ash some quickly made up story about how Hermione had believed, after their kiss, that they were a couple of some sort and that he had played along because it went along with "our plan." He said he didn't understand some of what she'd said as well, but she had seemed very upset, and then he asked Ash politely if she minded if he went after her and calmed her down, although he didn't really care for her answer, he'd wasted enough time on her already.
Ash narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't lie to me, Draco. I know how you feel about Hermione. How you have always felt about her."
"All the more reason to run after her, don't you think?" he said casually but he was already moving away from her, and the minute he turned the corner that brought him out of her sight, he began to run. What had happened to her? Was she all right? Where had she run? Had Tom hurt her? The questions cursed through his head, and his heart pounded. Quidditch brought him great upper strength, but his body wasn't used to running so quickly, and his throat felt raw and his breath too rapid. He didn't decrease his speed at all, and the sensation of something awful having taken place didn't decrease either.
Her body seemed tiny in the wide hallway when he saw her. His feet screeched to a sudden halt, and his eyes widened. He was a couple of feet away from her but couldn't move any closer. A sudden image of a crumbled flower floated through his dazed mind, and his breathe cut off from being terrible rapid to not existing at all. His heart thudded quickly in his chest.
He could see the wide, empty eyes from his distance. She was lying on her side, one hand raised, the other under her. A stricken expression of horror and fear remained frozen on her face. Those eyes, although not focused on him, seemed to stare accusingly at him and taunt him with their lack of life. Her skin was like porcelain, completely pale, almost blue, as if she didn't have one drop of blood left in her fallen body.
He took one step, and broke out of his shocked paralysis. Falling to his knees painfully, he put a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently, so gently as if scared her neck would snap. He couldn't think. He was too dazed to think. But there was a humming mantra in his head that showed no sign of stopping, that wouldn't leave him alone.
…she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead…
"NO!" he roared. "Hermione! No…please!" He looked upward, as if searching desperately for some sign of a God to restore her. "No! Hermione…please…" Denial stumbled over fear, and then there was just desperation…
Then the penny dropped. Hermione Granger was dead. He was here in the past all alone, and…
…she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead…
Why? Why had she had to die? Why not him, Draco Malfoy, tarnished by all his sins and dark ways? Why not have one less Malfoy in the world, and one more good person to fight for it? Why did she have to die, when she didn't deserve it, and leave scum like Tom Riddle and Draco Malfoy live? Why did the world have to be so cruel, when he hadn't even gotten to know her well enough? Why did death have to take her, when all she'd done was cherish life, and try to save others' lives? Why Hermione Granger? When he'd just gotten to realise how strong his feelings for her was…?
…she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead…He wanted to refuse to accept it. He wanted to close his eyes and make it all go away. He wanted to lie down next to her, take her in his arms, and die with her. He realised he was being a little selfish but all he could think of was that he had no way of getting back to the future without her, and would have to live here on his own, in the wrong time…what was the point in any of this, if she was just gone?
"What's the fucking point?" he yelled, and his voice was hoarse. He realised that he was crying.
"Is that a rhetorical question, or would you like me to answer it?" Tom was leaning over Draco's shoulder, staring down at Hermione's body, with a mocking mournful expression. Draco hadn't heard him approach. Tom's eyes moved from her to Draco's, and he smiled. "What's the fucking point to life, you asked, Draco. My answer is that the point to life," Tom smiled again, a slow wicked smile, "is death. Death really is the only thing we can be sure of. The one common thing in all of us."
Draco stared. He should have been feeling something but the sight of Tom only brought a terrible numbness. His face was still wet but he wasn't crying anymore, and didn't wipe such tears away. He felt such tears were justified.
"Unless there is a way to be immortal," Tom continued, with the same smile playing over his lips.
Draco knew of Voldemort's search to be immortal, back in his real time. Draco had once thought this was the result of brilliance, but now Draco saw that what it was really was a result of fear of the unknown and a completely misplaced sense of pride.
"You're just a human, like the rest of us," Draco told him spitefully, "and you are able to die." And with that in mind, Draco launched himself into Tom, toppling them both over to the floor. Draco's mission now was to kill Tom Riddle. Hermione's mission had been to help Tom to turn good, but Draco knew such a mission was impossible now. Hermione was dead, and there was no difference between Tom Riddle and Voldemort. There never had been. Draco believed Tom had only been playing with them all this time, and now he had to die. There probably would be consequences in the future, but he had to do this now. Think of all the lives he would save, all the happiness that people in their time deserved. Think of all the students of Hogwarts being able to act like kids again, being able to have Prank Wars and dance at Yule Balls and pass their Newts…think of Hermione Granger, who deserved to be alive, but wasn't…
…she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead…
Draco had his hands around Tom's throat, choking him and banging his head off of the stone tiles. Blood gushed from the back of his head and there was no way he could breathe, but there was no pain or fear in Tom's blank eyes…It made Draco scared, seeing those indifferent eyes staring up into his. No anger, no fear, no anything…nothing. Nothing left.
And then, with an almost inhuman strength, Tom reached up and simply took Draco's arms off his neck, and threw Draco off him, a few feet away. Draco's head cracked against the ground, and then Tom was on top of him, in almost the exact same position Draco had been. He was stronger, faster, in control…those blank eyes continued to pour down into Draco's, and there was genuine fear in Draco's heart. Not just of death, but of Tom Riddle and what he was capable of.
"You don't even care, do you?" Draco gasped. "That she's dead. You didn't care for Hermione at all…"
Tom continued to take the breath from Draco, and just before Draco's body slacked against the ground, Tom spoke. "You're wrong." And then the darkness took over all of Draco's senses, and Tom let go of his throat and stood up straight, brushing himself off.
"Ash," Tom said after a moment of standing there and the girl withdrew from the shadows, clearly after seeing everything with her almost orange coloured eyes. "Take him, and bring him to the Chamber," Tom commanded.
Ash didn't reply, and began the awkward business of trying to lift Draco, having to convert to magic because of her damn wheelchair. Tom lifted Hermione gently into his arms, and peered down at her, lifting one hand and brushing a loss strand of hair almost tenderly from her eyes, which he also closed.
"Is she dead?" Ash asked quietly, quietly as if hoping he wouldn't hear her. She was obviously scared of one of his punishments.
With Hermione against his chest, he didn't feel capable of anger. "Of course not," he said. "She's just petrified."
"And Draco?" Ash prompted, careful to keep her annoyance at his reply considering Hermione out of her voice.
"I don't know. I don't care. Check for yourself." Tom's eyes never left Hermione. He lifted her easily, even though she was hardly as light as a feather, considering her curves and her height.
Ash checked, but she didn't really care anymore either and, when she realised he was alive, didn't extend any bother to be any more gentle with him, having to keep in pace with Tom when following, or else Tom would leave her behind.
Hermione opened her eyes only to see darkness. She wished she had her wand, but Tom still had it.
She shuffled and the sound echoed around her.
"Lumos," she heard and then she could see Tom, kneeling in front of her, a glass pressed up against her lips. She had a horrible taste in her mouth, and felt faint and shaky.
"What happened?" she asked him feebly.
"The Basilisk petrified you," He told her. "Do you feel all right?" Hermione could see real concern in his eyes, along with some sort of remorse. Was she the only one able to see such emotions in his eyes? Was she the only one who made him feel such emotions? Her head was spinning.
She nodded, but she didn't feel all right at all.
"Where's Draco?" she asked, and his face changed. There was no longer any emotion in his eyes.
"Do you love him?" he hissed, such an instant change just by the mention of his name, and Tom looked like the Basilisk had when it had been reflected in the mirror. "Does he kiss you the why I do? Do you think of him when you're kissing me?"
"Tom…"
"What do you feel for him, Hermione? What do you feel for me?" he demanded.
"I don't know," she cried, but she wasn't even sure which question she was answering. She was scared.
His features seemed different in the yellow wand light. They seemed to glow, and there was yellow fire in his coal-coloured eyes. Fear and confusion were racing through her, along with other emotions she couldn't distinguish between. Self-hatred was one when she saw the hurt in his eyes. She knew she had hurt so many people, including herself.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. She had never wanted to hurt him, or make him feel like he did for her.
He looked at her sharply and seemed unable to form a reply. He looked down at her lips, then her eyes, and slowly drew in for the inevitable kiss. She wasn't crying now, and the kiss soothed her aching bones. She was kissing him back without hesitation and this kiss wasn't as painful as their other kisses, but just as passionate and emotional. She felt like she was kissing death a final goodbye, she felt like she was dieing, and that he was teasing her life out of her with tenderness.
"I'm sorry," he whispered then, and the kiss ended. They both stared at each other.
The silence seemed to speak more than words.
"Who are you, Hermione Granger? Why have you come here? Why did you lie?"
She didn't know what to say or how to explain to him. She heard herself telling him in a hushed, bemused sort of voice, "I'm from the future and-"
Understanding flared in the endless pits of his pupils. "I'm a monster there, aren't I? In the future?
The tension and silence was then heavy in the air.
"I'm only a monster to you there, aren't I?"
She had turned away because she couldn't look him in the eye. She suddenly felt very cold. Her silence was answer enough from him, and he turned away also, as if it was agony to even look at her.
"How do you know?" she asked and her voice was trembling. "How do you know you turn out to be a monster?"
"Because I know what I am," he answered simply, still not looking at her although she was now facing him. "I know how I feel. I know the only thing good about me, in me – is you. And you're not even from this time. You'll never be mine. You don't belong with me. I don't even know who you are."
"You know me," she argued. "I think you know me better than any of my friends back home know me, Tom. You see me the way I see you. Without any disguises." What she meant, of course, was that he could see the darkness in her that none of her friends had ever seen, and she could see the light in him that none of his friends had ever seen. She believed this with all her heart but when he looked back at her, all she could see in his face was doubt.
"There's always disguises, Hermione," he told her dully. "I didn't even know your real name. You know more about who I will be, rather than who I am. This – is this your real hair? This," he gestured to his chest with a fist," this is who I am now, but there's obviously more darkness to me than even I know."
She was confused, but continued to look at him. "How can you even look at me," he asked her now, obviously troubled, and there was something heart breakingly sad in his voice,a new side to him she hadn't seen before, "without hatred? Without feeling sick?" He looked oddly defeated.
"I came here to change all that, Tom," she said and she was crying now, quiet tears. "I came here because I knew there was more to you than just Voldemort. I knew there was more to you, because I knew that you, Tom Riddle, were human, and no human being can be totally evil."
"What's the point trying to change something that is destined to happen?" There was such depression in his eyes that it shocked her, such defeat. "One can't change who one is, and who one turns out to be. You shouldn't have come back here…you should know about time by now. What happens now is what has already happened in your time. I turn out to be Lord Voldemort after you've already been here. Going back in the past changes nothing because it has already happened, don't you see?"
It was the same realisation she had come to with Draco, but hearing it from Tom's mouth made it all the more horrifying.
Her head felt like it was twirling and dancing on her neck. "In the future," she told him, "Voldemort encouraged Draco and I to come back here. We didn't realise it at the time but…do you think its b-because of me that you turn into Lord Voldemort? Do you think I-I turn you evil?"
"No!" he shouted with full certainty. "No, Hermione," he said in a gentler voice and his hand cupped her cheek, "I think why Voldemort left you come back is because Voldemort knew it was the only time in his miserable life when he was really happy. When he ever knew and felt love. Maybe he doesn't know that yet but…"
She didn't let Tom finish, but caught him in a kiss this time, because it was the only apt way she could express how she was feeling. He kissed her back, and this was the longest kiss they'd ever shared.
He fiddled with her neck and she leaned back from the kiss to look down at the time turner tied around her neck, now in his hand. "I want you to leave now," he said. "I want you to leave me alone now. There's no point in this…I'd be selfish and ignorant to think that you could stay here with me. I don't want you to watch me turn into that – that thing that I know you so despise."
"And Draco…?" she asked and there was tears rolling down her face, but she knew there was no point arguing with him because he was right.
"He is alive. I would never have killed him. I know…I know how you feel about him, Hermione."
He stood up, and helped her stand too. Leading her through the darkness by the crook in her elbow, they went through a door into a room as equally dark as the one before. "Where are we?" she asked him.
"The Chamber of Secrets," he replied. "Don't worry though, I closed it before you awoke, and it will remain closed forever more." He didn't mention the diary, so neither did she. He made it before he knew her, and would not have possession of it now.
Tom moved in front of her and, by his wand light, she saw Ash guarding a sitting Draco. Both were unable to see her in Tom's shadow. Tom raised his wand and the light flickered as he stunned Ash, one problem out of the way at least. Draco looked up sullenly, arms folded, but, when Tom spoke, it was addressed to her, not him.
"Put the time turner around both of your necks, and I will send you home," he ordered.
"Tom…"
"Do it, Hermione," and he closed his eyes against the evident pain.
She stepped forward into the light to Draco. She could only see Tom's outline because the light was not enveloping him. It seemed almost like a metaphor, her and Draco standing there glowing in the light, and Tom, close, but behind the light, clouded in darkness. The thought passed, and she put the time turner around their necks like Tom had commanded. She looked into Draco's face and saw wonderment and awe there.
"I thought you were dead," he whispered to her, and then he smiled slowly as he realised this was not so and she was very much alive. "Hermione…" his voice broke with emotion, and he seemed unable to say anything else.
"Tom," she cried out, because she knew she could talk to Draco about this later, and this was her last time she could reach out to Tom. "It doesn't have to be this way, Tom. Please…you have to fight this…you have to fight yourself…"
"I can't, Hermione," he said softly. "You know as well as I do that there's just no point…"
She couldn't see his face and that seemed all he had to say. He put out the light, to cast the spell on the time turner, thus showing both Draco and Hermione just how powerful he was, that he thought himself able to do the impossible and send people into the future. Hermione heard his wand tap against the time turner and suddenly realised that this was going to work, and she only had a few seconds left.
But she didn't know what to say.
"I'm sorry…" she heard him say before she was thrown fifty years away from him, but she wasn't sure whether it had been her imagination or not.
I know I would get more reviews if I waited, but I'm quite happy with the reviewers now – proud, one might say. Anyway, I'm fed up, trying to figure out what degree I'm going to do for the future and sort of panicking, feeling worthless, so thought I'd update. Makes one feel better…if it's making someone out there's day a little better.
Always remember to keep on smiling.
Thanks to those who reviewed:
Arabella Minerva, sarklover26, poogiepie, mew mew, poke-the-sleeping-dragon, CareBearErin, fantasticarla, natyslacks, Sailor Moon Rose, Unspeakable Mae, sakuya-kaleido (who knows?), sugarnspice522, SasukeBlade, Lisi, 404, MagicalFlame, renyun, Black Ranger (she was just sick of the lies…) and Illyria-light (I finished that story. Apart from the pregnant R rated scenes, which I thought were a little off putting, I thought the story officially rocked).
Special Thanks to: Ali – Lou andAmishgirl281 because I love long reviews, and to Seghen because the end of When's It Over (her story) kicked ass, in a good sense!
Next chapter (or maybe a short one after the next chappie) will be the end! I need help…what do you think should happen? Any thing you want me to add in? There'll be a lot of explanation in the next chapter, and a lot of action and sadness/happiness. Anything you felt didn't really make sense? I have a couple of things I know I need to explain, and that will be done, maybe in the epilogue. Detailed analysis would be appreciated at this point. Should Tom appear in the future?
To anyone wondering…I have a little bit of a…whatcha call 'em…plot bunny…anyway, I have a little bit of a plot yoke boiling for another Tom/Hermione, this time without Draco butting in. But that one wouldn't be up for a while.
What do you think of this chapter? Good? Bad? Disappointing? Confusing? Action-packed? Boring? Cheesy? I wanna hear it!