Tom was not stupid and sat with Ron at the Gryffindor during the Halloween feast. If Ron got cold feet—which was inevitable, in Tom's opinion—he'd have to look Tom Riddle directly in the eyes and say he wasn't going back to the past to save Harry. But Ron would never have the guts to do that, so if he watched over him enough Ron would follow through. So Tom sat between Longbottom and Ron with Dean Thomas in front of him
"You're barely eating," noted Longbottom in a voice of concern. Ron, who put anything edible (and occasionally the inedible, in Tom's opinion) in his mouth, was drawing attention to himself by just staring at his food miserably.
"You know how he gets before a Slytherin and Gryffindor match," said Tom, making Longbottom and Thomas nod in understanding. It was true that there was a Gryffindor and Slytherin game tomorrow, and it was equally true that Ron would not be participating. It only seemed to make Ron's lack of hunger even worse.
Tom didn't understand. He'd left a letter for each of his parents wishing them farewell to be found amongst his Hogwarts items but had not left any knowledge of where or when he and Ron had gone. Tom's only concern was if they would be dropping them into the correct timeline, and not one in which something even worse is happening, like Grindelwald winning the war or there is no spell backlash against Voldemort that Halloween. He didn't feel any grief at leaving everyone he knew behind—modern technology and medications, sure, but not people. Ron clearly was feeling the loss acutely.
Tom coached Ron through eating, even if only a little. He'd need his strength for when the went back to the past.
"You're going to be fine," whispered Tom to Ron when an opportunity arose in which Seamus Finnegan was telling a loud and crude story. "We're doing this for Harry, who would have done it for us."
Ron merely nodded, but ate a bit at the feast after that.
After he figured Ron had eaten as much as he could, Tom said, as if it were another day. "Come to the library with me? You don't have to do your homework."
"Fine," Ron grumbled, putting on an unexpected useful show of not wanting to but also wanting to go with Tom.
"Have a good Halloween, everyone," said Tom, the closest thing to a goodbye he'd get to give to anyone as he got up from Gryffindor table and left. They all said it back carelessly, unaware of this being the last time they would ever see Tom Riddle in this timeline.
Tom and Ron went into the hall, and Tom immediately removed his socializing mask for his serious one.
"The bags are in the Come and Go Room. Come on, Joseph," said Tom, referring to the identity he had created for Ron of Joseph Prewett.
"I'm right here, Eric," said Ron, looking slightly amused at using that name. Tom ignored it with only a loud sigh. Ron getting used to it, even jokingly, would only make the identity more legitimate. Not trusting Ron, though, he had made Eric Warrington's middle name Thomas in order to make sure if Ron did accidentally call him Tom that there would be an excuse.
They got their bags and snuck out of the castle. Harry's invisibility cloak had gone to Sirius Black along with all his things, so Tom had become very good at disillusionment charms. He did so for both of them and they went unnoticed as they headed into the Forbidden Forest. Tom, who had been working out the ritual in a clearing for months, had to slow down to let Ron catch up to him in the dark.
"Sorry, I'm so used to the way," said Tom. Harry had taught him how to apologize, and even if it usually wasn't sincere, the gesture often was appreciated by people. Ron nodded, so pale his freckles stood out sharply against his face. Tom briefly put a hand on Ron's shoulder and gave a small squeeze, mirroring his what father did when he wanted to comfort (usually uselessly) Tom.
Tom had no comfort for Ronald Weasley beyond that. That used to be Harry's job. They were reminded every day of Harry's absence of in the awkwardness between the two of them. Ron had always been Harry's closest friend, which Tom had resented deeply then, but now he'd take it just to have Harry back.
They reached the clearing and Ron stopped short, stunned. It wasn't just a rune circle, but five interconnecting magical circles with everything from runes to alchemical symbology to various religious iconography. "Bloody hell, Tom, this is impressive."
"Thanks," said Tom absently, already in preparation mode. "You need to step right here and not move," said Tom, pointing. "Some of this was written in charcoal and some of it in blood—"
"What?! This is blood magic?"
Tom sighed again. "Blood magic is taboo because it often forcefully uses the blood of others. However, here I merely used mine. It probably would be more accurate with some of yours too but I know you would draw the line at it so I didn't ask. But I accounted for it with advanced runes and alchemy." He could admit he was proud of his work. He had drawn the entire thing, carefully drawn over the course of a week and a half after months of prepping the site. It had been done by hand, either with a paintbrush or his own fingers. He'd also made sure that it would disappear after it was invoked so that no one would follow them or potentially summon them back.
"You remember what I taught you? The incantation?" asked Tom.
"Tom," said Ron, exasperated. "I can say it backwards and in my sleep. You're worse than Snape." It seems that with something to focus on, Ron had perked up a bit. Tom was relieved and figured better now than never.
"Then let's begin," said Tom, stepping into the circle and taking Ron's hands. They had both kept their bags over their shoulder so their items would be in the ritual.
It was in Ancient Greek, the most famous of time travellers and the first to create time turner sand, an incantation he had made up after making a slightly hallucinogenic potion and writing frantically for several hours. There had been the incantation with, in-between, furious stream of thought of how much he hated Voldemort and Harry's death. He'd thrown that away, too embarrassed to let that exist and potentially be seen.
We sing the song of time, the dance, of space, the beginning, the ending, the doing, the undoing, the breaking, the mending. We sing the song of time to turn the sands back to our time of most great peril….
It went on for a while, Ron following Tom as he led. But it didn't take even five minutes before they felt the hum and pressure of magic gathering. Tom grinned in triumph even as he continued chanting.
The pressure grew and grew and Tom was worried some Hogwarts staff member, like Dumbledore, would notice. As it rose, Tom squeezed Ron's hand who was clearly very nervous again, hoping to comfort him.
Ron's fear would change everything. Finally, the pressure snapped and a magic wind howled about them. The intense sound started Ron, and he just barely scraped the edge of the circle. Tom felt it immediately-the controlled wind outside of the circle suddenly buffeted them like they were in the middle of a hurricane. Tom tried not to panic, but it was difficult to even breathe in the storm.
Just as he thought they would suffocate, they were lifted from the ground and disappeared just as Rubeus Hagrid and Albus Dumbledore entered the clearing.
They blinked once, and time righted itself to accommodate the new people adrift in time and they remembered.
Dumbledore immediately turned and went to the castle, not even saying anything to Hagrid. At any other point, he would have stopped the erasure of that circle but Dumbledore remembered some terrible information: watching early in his teaching career as Hermione Granger, after his failure in protecting her, became vocal hateful of Muggles and anything relating to them while assembling a group of like-minded students surrounding her. There had been students who infiltrated her group: the people he knew to truly be Mr. Riddle, Mr. Weasley…and Harry Potter.
And the terrible fate that came with them joining the Knights of Walpurgis...
In Ridlde Manor, Hermione Granger, who had done magic to herself beyond measure, remembered the past she had lived even as the new one came into her mind and changed her memories. She watched her skeletal, monstrous body turn back into that of a woman in her thirties, the red eyes alone remaining. She felt hale and whole for the first time she could remember and wandered around the manor, looking at its pristine condition and transformation into a true wizarding home from the mess it had been.
She laughed in shock and relief and at the sheer hilarity of just how much worse things had just gotten for Albus Dumbledore.
"What is it?" asked a tall man with black hair who she now remembered had lived here with her for the past several decades.
"Nothing, just remembered something terribly funny," she said, grinning. She went over and pulled him down by the collar of his wizarding robes for a kiss, not the first nor the last between them, a dance so familiar he'd leaned down for her lips before her fingers had even properly pulled on the cloth.