Hermione could scarcely believe that three whole years had already passed since her arrival. It seemed like just yesterday that she had found herself standing in front of Wool's Orphanage, and yet she hadn't been back there in a while. With the start of World War II, as well as the start of the Global Wizarding War, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy had thought it best that they stay with them for most of the summers rather than going back to the orphanage. Neither of them were too sad to leave the place behind, though Hermione couldn't help but be an extra bit on edge in the manor. Now that she knew their true loyalties, she wasn't nearly as trusting of them.

Not a lot had happened in their second year, or at least nothing much worth mentioning. Abraxas tried out for the Slytherin Quidditch Team and made Seeker. Tom decided that he'd rather not try out. While he was good at flying, he wasn't too keen to be playing on the same pitch as Abraxas, fearing that he might lose focus and crash into him again. Abraxas insisted that he wasn't that easily distracted, but Tom wasn't about to take that chance and Hermione was secretly glad to hear it.

However, third year was proving to be an interesting year, for two new students had made an appearance, reminding Hermione of her task. Myrtle Warren and Rubeus Hagrid had joined Hogwarts, with Myrtle being sorted into Ravenclaw and Hagrid being sorted into Gryffindor.

People couldn't help but gawk at the oversized boy wherever he went, and as expected, Myrtle was teased by the other girls because of her rather large glasses. Needless to say, neither of them seemed to have many friends.

Seated in the library with Tom, working on their essay for Care of Magical Creatures, she couldn't help but glance over at the half giant boy who was visibly struggling to squish himself onto a chair that looked tiny in comparison. It pained her to see him so miserable looking. Not one member of his own house had bothered to even try and befriend him. In fact, many of the other Gryffindors were snickering at his obvious struggle.

With a huff, she decided that she had had enough of it and began to gather up her books. "Come on, Tom, let's go sit with Rubeus."

Glancing up from the scroll he was writing on, Tom gave her an odd look. "Why should we? He's a Gryffindor."

"I don't care if he's a Gryffindor or even a Hufflepuff. He's sitting over there all by himself, clearly in need of friends, and his own house is just laughing at him," she told him. "Don't you remember what it was like being all alone at the orphanage, hated because you were different? This boy is really no different."

Tom hated it whenever someone brought up what he considered to be his shameful past, and Hermione knew this well, but sometimes she felt it was necessary to remind him as a means of humbling him. Besides, she figured that if she could get the two of them on friendly terms, then perhaps history wouldn't repeat itself. She felt she owed it to Hagrid to give him a chance at receiving a full magical education this time.

After a few minutes, Tom let out a sigh and began to gather his own books as well. "Fine, If it'll make you happy," he mumbled.

Feeling very pleased with herself, she made her way over to Hagrid's table with Tom in tow, taking a seat across from him.

Distracted from his chair for the moment, he looked over at them with apprehension, as if he expected them to jinx him or something.

She noticed that all the eyes in the room were on them. She had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes back at them. Honestly, was the idea of actually being kind and showing a bit of friendship to the boy that big of a deal?

"Hello there. You're Rubeus, right?" she greeted, extending a hand to him across the table. "I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Tom Riddle."

After a moment of two, he reached out and took her hand, all but smothering her own in his own much larger hand. "Call me Hagrid," he said.

He extended a hand to Tom as well, who seemed just as reluctant as him, before returning his focus to the essay he was writing.

"It's nice to meet you, Hagrid," she said. "You seem to be struggling a bit there. I can enlarge that chair for you, if you'd like."

His face lit up, "Yeh would do that fer me?"

She couldn't help but smile at him. It was so good to see him again, though it was admittedly a bit weird to see him so young and without the big scraggly beard.

"Of course."

Pulling out her wand, she pointed it at his chair, or rather what little she could actually see of it behind him, and cast a quick Engorgio. The chair immediately stretched a couples of sizes larger so that it fit Hagrid almost perfectly.

A big grin spread across his face from ear to ear. He looked happier than the time he found out that her and Harry had saved Buckbeak from execution.

"That feels much better, doesn't it?"

He nodded his head, his mess of hair, which was shockingly even more bushy than her own, bouncing as he did so. "Blimey, I need ter learn tha' spell meself," he remarked. "I dunno how ter thank ya enough."

She waved it off, "Don't worry about it. I'm happy to help."

The three of them fell into an easy silence after that as they worked on their essays together. She had chosen to do her essay on Phoenixes, as they were one of her favorite magical creatures, and Tom had chosen to do his own on Basilisks, much to her horror. When she asked him why he had chosen to do his essay on them, he said that it was because they were considered the 'king of the snakes'. She tried to reassure herself that he was simply interested in the creature because it was a snake. There was no way that he could know about the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets yet.

Being a couple years below them, Hagrid clearly didn't have Care of Magical Creatures yet, but that didn't stop him from taking an interest in it.

"What er ya learnin about in yer year?" Hagrid asked.

"Mostly Hippogriffs and Flobberworms at the moment," Tom replied. "Rather boring if you ask me."

"I dunno how anyone could be bored by a Hippogriff. I've read about em. Amazing beasts, they are."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Tom. "Pay no attention to him, he's just a bit salty because the hippogriff in class the other day didn't like him."

As she thought about it, she was reminded of her first encounter with Buckbeak and how he hadn't liked Draco Malfoy. Although, to be fair, that was Draco's fault, as he hadn't exactly treated the Hippogriff as he had been instructed to. When comparing the two, she had to say that Tom was certainly better than Draco. At least he hadn't been foolish enough to insult one.

"Ye'll get there," Hagrid assured him. "Proud beasts, Hippogriffs are. Yeh gotta show em respect."

Tom nodded but made no reply.


After they had finished up with their essays in the library, Hermione and Tom returned to the quiet solace of their common room and settled down in front of the fire with a book in hand. Hermione, however, had trouble focusing on her book as she was lost in thought, creating a mental list of all the people whose lives she wanted to improve.

Of course, her top priority was Tom, but she still wanted to help others as well. There was obviously Hagrid, and perhaps Moaning Myr- er, Myrtle… She kept having to remind herself not to call her by that ghastly nickname. And then there was obviously her new group of friends. She wasn't exactly sure how their futures played out, but she certainly didn't want anything bad to happen to them either.

She had to admit that she felt a bit overwhelmed by it all. The fate of the wizarding world was basically relying on her. Every year that passed brought her closer to the dark events in which she sought to prevent. It was a lot of pressure for one person to bear. She knew the way that things were supposed to go, but she realized that didn't necessarily mean that things would happen exactly the way they had before.

Having changed the past as she knew it, she had created an alternate timeline in which anything could happen at any time. There was no way for her to know when Tom might start showing signs of falling into darkness, and she hated that. She hated not being able to control what was happening around her, but she accepted that there was nothing she could do about it. She was only human, after all.

"Hermione, do you remember what Grindelwald asked me? About Parselmouths and whether I was related to Salazar Slytherin?" Tom asked her quietly.

A shiver ran down her spine. How could she possibly forget that encounter? Grindelwald's face had haunted her dreams ever since. However, she didn't want him to know that, so she shook her head instead.

Getting up from his seat, he went over and sat down on the armrest of her chair, holding out the book he had been reading.

She hadn't noticed what it was that he was reading beforehand, not seeing the need to, but perhaps she ought to have, for the book was titled 'Sacred Pureblood Bloodlines', and the page he had opened to showed the family tree of none other than Salazar Slytherin. Her eyes trailed down the tree until they landed on three names that she knew all too well; Marvolo Gaunt and his two children, Morfin and Merope.

"He asked me if I was related to the Gaunts, and at the time I didn't think I was, but it caught my interest and I've been doing some research," he explained. "My mother's name was Merope, and my middle name is Marvolo, named after my grandfather."

"Where did you learn all that?"

Tom looked away for a moment, "I might have snuck back to the orphanage and gotten the information out of Mrs. Cole."

Her eyes widened. When had this happened? When had he started to search for his family? Had he been doing this all behind her back? This whole time she thought for sure that he was doing fine… that there was nothing to worry about yet… apparently she had been wrong. He had already begun on the path to becoming Voldemort.

"I can't believe you did that," she whispered furiously. "You could have been caught. We're not supposed to use magic outside of school, and especially not outside of Malfoy Manor."

"Don't worry, I covered my tracks so that no one would trace it back to me."

Somehow that wasn't even the least bit reassuring...

"Surely this can't be just a coincidence. It makes too much sense for it to be a mistake. Grindelwald said that the only Parselmouths he's ever met were related to Salazar Slytherin. That means that I too must be related to him."

She had to admit that the evidence was pretty convincing. There wasn't much she could say to disprove it. Though she had a feeling that he wouldn't listen if she tried to argue the facts. It was plain to see that he was excited by this, and in a way, she couldn't blame him. He had thought that he was an orphan his whole life, and now there was a possibility that he had a family out there, just waiting for him to find.

"Aren't you happy for me?" he asked, noticing her less than thrilled expression. "Wouldn't you be happy too if you found some long lost relative you never knew?"

"Of course I would, and I am happy for you. It just... I know Salazar Slytherin didn't approve of muggleborns like me and… I guess I'm just afraid that you'll adapt the same view as him…"

Closing the book, he set it down on the end table and did something that surprised her. He reached out and took her by the arms, pulling her up and into his embrace. She had hugged him many times over the last few years, but he had never initiated a hug towards her before.

"I promise you, I would never let something like that come in between us," he whispered in her ear. "I may hate muggles for the way they've treated me… the way they've treated us… but I could never hate you. You will always be above them in my mind. No matter what happens."


Hermione was not her usual self in the days to come. Her grades didn't exactly suffer, but her hand wasn't the first to be raised in class anymore, nor was she the first to finish her assignments. She tried to maintain appearances around her friends, lest they worry about her, but it was especially difficult when Tom was around, not that he had noticed at all.

The Tom she knew was slowly changing before her eyes. He spent much of his time hidden away in the far corners of the library or in the boys dormitory, obsessed with learning all he could about Salazar Slytherin and the rest of his newly discovered family. He didn't exactly ignore her, per say, but he certainly wasn't as willing to spend time with her anymore. Any and all free time he had was devoted to research.

A part of her wondered if Harry and Ron had ever felt this way about her. She had to admit that there had been times when she had just run off to do research on something, but it usually involved something that would help them on one of their many adventures. She had never let herself become so obsessed by it that it caused her to neglect her friends. At least… she didn't think she had...

She wasn't sure who was to blame for Tom discovering his family so early on. It had been Grindelwald who told him about the Gaunts and their connection to Salazar Slytherin. As much as she wanted to just push all the blame onto him, she couldn't help but blame herself as well. If only she had been able to foresee that the Malfoys would be connected to Grindelwald. If only she had not been so blind to think that Tom would forget about him and what he had said. She could have prevented all of this if only she had known.

And yet, she reminded herself once again that while she may be a witch, she was still only human. She wasn't God. There would always be things that she couldn't control, no matter how hard she tried. All she could do was try her best.

Still, it didn't fully reassure her.

The fact remained that it was her duty to stop Tom from becoming Voldemort, and at the moment it seemed as though she had failed. How could she possibly fix this when he barely even had time to talk to her. She briefly considered the idea of staging some sort of major intervention; stealing all of his books while he slept or casting a spell so that he couldn't enter the library, but she didn't think that either of those ideas would work. He would just get mad at her for interfering. Besides, he would probably be able to counter any spell she cast to keep him out.

There were, of course, more brutal methods she could take to stop him. She could do the same thing that she had done to those Gryffindors in first year and cast a couple memory charms on him, or she could catch him unaware and stun him long enough to have a decent talk, but she didn't want to resort to such measures, vowing only to do so when she was sure that she had no other choice. She didn't want to have to force Tom to do anything, but rather she wanted him to do the right thing of his own free will.

"Hermione, wait up!" Abraxas called out as he ran to catch up with her, fighting his way against the stream through the crowded corridor.

Coming to a halt, she waited until he had reached her side before continuing on her way.

"Hey, don't you have Quidditch practice soon?" she asked. "If so, I should inform you that you're going in the wrong direction."

He shook his head. "There was a mix up with the schedule. The Ravenclaws are practicing now, and then the Slytherins are practicing after."

"Oh, I see."

They walked in silence for a while and every so often she would catch him staring at her. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination playing tricks on her but he seemed a bit nervous about something as he kept pulling on his tie. It was almost as if there was something he wanted to say, but he was torn whether or not to say it.

They had just reached the entrance hall and started down the stairs to the dungeons when Abraxas finally decided to say what was on his mind.

"I couldn't help but notice that you've seemed a bit off lately, as well as Tom, and I was just wondering if the two of you had a fight or something."

She let out a sigh. She had wondered if it wouldn't be something about that. "No, it's not that we had a fight. It just… I don't know… It feels like we're starting to drift apart. He never seems to have time for me anymore and I fear that I'm losing him."

"If it makes you feel any better, he hasn't exactly been paying much attention to the rest of us either. I doubt he'll even have time to go to Hogsmeade this weekend," he said. "Speaking of which, I was wondering if you would want to go with me. I've heard that it's a lot of fun."

Hermione faltered in her steps. Had she not grabbed hold of the railing at the last minute, she would have probably fallen flat on her face down the stairs. Had Abraxas just asked her what she thought he asked her? She knew he liked her, but she never thought he would go so far as to actually ask her out on a date. She wasn't exactly the kind of girl that a pureblood like him should want to date. Then again, she supposed that him and his parents weren't as uptight about it as some were. They all thought that she was a halfblood and it never seemed to bother them in the slightest.

As she always did when making a decision, she weighed all the pros and cons. Did she want to go on a date with Abraxas Malfoy? He was admittedly quite good looking and was a nice enough boy with a decent amount of respect towards women. She liked to think that her parents, had they been present to do so, would have approved of him.

Besides, she couldn't remember the last time she had let herself forget about everything else and just have fun. If ever she needed a bit of a distraction, it was now. She could figure out how to deal with Tom after a fun day out.

"Sure, I'd like that."

Abraxas looked as though he was about to burst with joy, but he managed to keep his cool as he reached out and took her hand, pressing a kiss on top of it just like he had the day they first met in Twilfitt and Tattings

"It's a date."