Feeling bad about her grandfather's struggles with the sun in Hawaii, she chose Greenland as their next location. Going from a naturally hot climate to a cold climate might not have been the best idea either though, as Hermione came down with a fever soon after and couldn't do much exploring for the first week.

However, the circumstances did give her a chance to witness Kieran's more paternal side, as he took up the responsibility of caring for her, even drawing any and all curtains tightly closed in order so that he could care for her during the day as well. It almost felt like she was back home, having her own dad caring for her. It was nice.

Their next destination after that was Ireland, as it was the homeland of Kieran's mother's side of the family. They toured old historic sites, including the ruins of ancient castles, and even stumbled across a few magical creatures. It took Hermione by surprise when she came across a creature she had never seen before; a dark skeletal horse with wings.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"That is a Thestral," Kieran explained. "It is a creature that can only be seen by those who have witnessed death."

As beautiful as the horse was, the realization of the fact that she could see it hit her quite hard. She hadn't seen much death in her life. The only death she had truly witnessed was that of Grindelwald, and of Mr. Malfoy she supposed. They weren't exactly death's that she mourned or anything, but still…

They remained there until December when they returned home for Christmas.

The original plan had been to return a week before Christmas, but with being so close to begin with, they decided to return a week early. Hermione wrote ahead to Mrs. Riddle to let her know they were coming, as well as to ask her not to tell Tom ahead of time. Mary assured her that it wouldn't be a problem. Apparently Tom was busy at work most days, and basically headed straight up to bed when he got home.

That suited Hermione perfectly.

Baldwin dropped her off at Riddle Manor at half past six. She had offered to wait until evening so that Kieran could come as well, but he refused, giving the reason that he needed to replenish his blood supply. It was probably for the best that he didn't come in that case. The Riddles had only just recently gotten used to the existence of witches and wizards. She didn't think they were ready to meet a vampire yet.

Climbing out of the passenger seat of her grandfather's hearse, she was almost immediately greeted by Mary, who came rushing out to greet her.

"It's good to see you again, dearie," she said, pulling her in for a big hug. "I've missed you so much. It hasn't been the same without you."

Hermione hugged her back, soaking in the warmth and comfort that Mrs. Riddle's hugs always brought. "I've missed you too."

She hadn't realized it until she went off on her travels, but the Riddles had become like family to her as well.

Once Baldwin had her luggage unloaded, he bid his farewell to the ladies, and drove off. Mrs. Riddle wasted no time in calling one of her own servants to come and help with her luggage, before pulling Hermione inside.

She barely had time to take her coat and shoes off before Mary started leading her into the downstairs drawing room where both Thomas and Tom Sr. were seated. Hermione noted that they had already decorated the room for the holidays, complete with stockings hanging from the fireplace and a big fully-decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the room, with a fair sized stack of presents already gathered underneath.

Hermione made a mental note to add the presents she had bought for everyone a bit later.

"Ah, welcome back, Miss Granger," Thomas greeted her, folding the newspaper he had been reading and setting it off to the side.

"Tom should be happy now that you're back," remarked Tom Sr. "He's been working himself to the bone ever since you left."

Well, it wasn't good that he was working himself to the bone, as Tom Sr. put it, but at least he was keeping busy. Surely he couldn't have gotten up to too much mischief then.

"You must tell us about your travels," Mary insisted, pulling Hermione to sit down on the Sofa with her. "Where did you go? Did you have fun? From the looks of it, you were somewhere warm."

Hermione told them about all of the places she had gone and what she had done while she was there. The Riddles listened with intrigue as they waited. Of course, there were some magical aspects of her travels that she purposefully left out, not wanting to frighten them too much.

"Ah yes, Tom mentioned that you were in America," Mary claimed. "There was an article about your visit to some school in the wizard newspaper."

This took Hermione by surprise. The newspaper she was referring to was likely the Daily Prophet, as both her and Tom had subscriptions for it. However, she hadn't been aware that an article had been made about her visit to Ilvermorny. Had one of the reporters been tailing her or something? She certainly hoped it wasn't another Rita Skeeter case.

They talked for a good hour, hour or so, enjoying a cup of tea together while they waited, until the sound of the door opening and slamming shut, alerted them to Tom's presence.

"Welcome home, Tom!" Mary called out.

Hermione heard something, a sound of acknowledgement, she assumed it to be, before she heard him climbing the stairs. He sounded like he was in a great mood.

"I'm sorry about him," Mary apologized. "He's often quite tired and grumpy when he gets back from work. Whatever he does at his workplace, it can't be terribly pleasant."

Hermione nodded her head in understanding. Unlike her, she had a solid grasp on what it was like working in the Ministry. It was the main reason she had foregone such a career herself. It sounded like a real pain.

Rising from her seat, Hermione thanked the Riddles for tea, and left to go see just how grumpy Tom really was, following his path up the stairs and down the hall, coming to a halt in front of his bedroom door. She stopped to listen for a moment, and heard the creaking of a bed. Mary wasn't kidding. He really did head straight to bed.

She bit down on her lip, her hand hovering only inches from the door. Was now a good time? Should she really disturb him when he is so tired? Perhaps she should just go find her own bedroom and wait to surprise him in the morning when he would be more alert?

Despite her hesitation, her hand started to move, as if of it's own will, and knocked on the door.

"Go away," she heard Tom's muffled voice call out from the other side.

Hermione couldn't help but giggle as a wave of nostalgia overcame her. The situation was oddly reminiscent of the first time she came knocking on Tom's door all those years ago at Wool's Orphanage. Oh, how far they had come since then.

"I suppose I can just apparate back to my grandfather's house, if that's the way you want to be," she said. "And here I thought I would try and surprise my boyfriend."

The bed creaked again, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. It didn't even take a minute for the door to swing open, revealing a rather disheveled looking and wide-eyed Tom Riddle.

"Hi there," she said, unable to keep the smile off her face as she took in his appearance. He usually took impeccably good care of himself, so it was almost funny to see him like this. "Miss me?"

He didn't respond at first, as he just stood there staring at her as if she was a ghost. Then, after a few minutes, he seemed to come to, shaking himself from whatever trance he had been under. Before she could even fully grasp what was happening, he had pulled her into his arms, burying his face into her hair.

"You would never believe just how much I missed you," Tom said at last.

Hermione was all too happy to wrap her arms around him in return, having longed to do so for the past months. He felt slightly cold to the initial touch, no doubt a lingering effect from having just come home, but he warmed quickly enough in her embrace. She let out a sigh, a sense of comfort and contentment washing over her. As much as she had enjoyed the time she had spent with her grandfather, she had missed Tom as well. More than she had initially realized.

"When did you arrive?" he asked.

"An hour ago," she replied. "I'm sorry if I came at a bad time for you."

He shook his head, pulling away from her a bit. "You could have woken me up in the middle of the night and I would have been just as happy to see you."

Then, before she could say anything else, he reached out and claimed her lips, kissing her as if he was half-starved for affection, his tongue snaking its way into her mouth, eager to explore. Hermione melted into the kiss, adding her own pent up passion to his. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her chest, finally being able to let it out.

Without breaking the kiss, Tom started to pull the two of them back into his bedroom, closing the door behind them with his foot. Backed up against the side of the bed, Tom allowed himself to fall back onto the mattress, bringing her with him.

At first, they did nothing but roll around playfully, smiling and giggling like a pair of idiots. Their hands were all over, roaming up and down each other's bodies. Of course, as can be expected, this heated them up fairly quickly, forcing them to stop and lay back for a moment to calm their pounding hearts and wait for their stomach muscles, sore from laughing, to heal.

"I thought you were tired," Hermione teased.

He smirked. "I was tired, exhausted even," reaching out, he gently brushed a loose curl away from her face. "You must have cast some sort of rejuvenation spell on me."

She rolled her eyes, knowing that she had done no such thing.

They just laid there and talked for a while, cuddled against one another. Tom told her about his job at the ministry. He worked as an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries, and while he wasn't allowed to talk about what went on inside the department, he was able to tell her that the work was interesting, save for some co-workers who aggravated him to no end.

It didn't really come as a surprise to her that he had chosen that particular department. It practically screamed 'Tom Riddle' with all of it's powerful forbidden magic. Of course, she already knew all about the Department of Mysteries, having broken into it in her original fifth year.

In regards to his plan to rise up and take the ministry for his own, things seemed to be progressing nicely. He had managed to make a good impression of the Minister, earning his trust and respect. Apparently, it had been Leonard Spencer-Moon himself who had shown him around on his first day, and invited Tom to have lunch with him regularly. With any luck, his name would be high up on the list of candidates for the next election in a few years.

"I know you were hoping to wait until marriage, but do you think you could be persuaded to change your mind?" he asked, reaching up to stroke her cheek. "These past months have been torture without you, and now that I have you back, I don't know if I can wait as you wanted."

She knew exactly what he was talking about, and if she was completely honest, she wasn't entirely sure if she could wait either. It hadn't been so much that she was waiting until marriage, but just waiting for the right time in general. Having been gone for months at a time, with many more months yet to come, she felt that now might be just as good a time as any.

Besides, how could she deny him this, when he laid there at her side with his shirt open, revealing his toned chest, and with those dreamy eyes of his staring at her.

"Alright, I'll make an exception, but only if we are careful."

Tom grinned with satisfaction, not wasting any time in shedding his shirt and climbing on top of her. "As you wish."


Hermione spent the two weeks leading up to Christmas with Tom and his family. The Riddle's were kind enough to change their plans a bit for her, exchanging their presents with her on Christmas Eve, leaving her free to go and spend Christmas Day with her Grandfather.

From Mr. and Mrs. Riddle, she received a Royal Portable Typewriter, which she absolutely loved! She had always wanted a typewriter, even in the 1990's. Most kids of her time begged their parents for a computer, but she begged hers for a vintage typewriter. She always had been different.

Ironically enough, she even got a gift from Tom Sr. At first glance, it looked like any ordinary book, but when she opened, rather than finding pages upon pages of stories, she found twelve rolls of Lifesavers candy. The humor of the gift was lost to all four of the Riddle's, but to receive a box of Lifesavers from a family whose lives she had quite literally saved… It gave her a good laugh. Regardless, she thanked him for the gift.

Tom's gift, however, truly surprised her. When she first opened the box, she found a black leather cover diary, identical to the one Tom had, save for the fact that this one had her name engraved into it instead of his.

"I've bewitched it so that anything you write in it will also appear in mind, allowing us to communicate back and forth, even when we're oceans apart," he told her.

She thought it was sweet of him, despite the reminder of his own infamous diary. To thank him, she gave him a kiss right then and there, which his grandfather then started complaining about.

That evening, Hermione packed her bags and apparated back to Renshaw House. It was hard for her to leave again. She hadn't gotten any sleep the night before, as Tom had insisted on making full use of their last night together.

Christmas with her grandfather wasn't quite what she was used to. Unlike Riddle Manor, Renshaw House was not decorated in the slightest for the holiday, on account of the fact that her grandfather didn't have any decorations. Well, he did, somewhere in the attic, but they were over a hundred years old and had fallen into major disrepair.

Instead of having a big Christmas feast at home, they headed into London to eat at Sweetings, a seafood restaurant her parents used to take her to on special occasions. It wasn't exactly the same as she remembered, but the food was still good. She even managed to talk Kieran into trying some of her shrimp.

Afterwards, they went for a walk through the city, spending some time at the park before eventually ending up in front of her childhood home. She had suspected that it still existed, but she wasn't counting on it being for sale.

"I contacted the realtor yesterday and arranged for us to have a tour of the house," Kieran told her. "The realtor should be waiting inside as we speak."

Hermione didn't know what to say to that. How had he known which house she grew up in? Had he seen it in her head one of the times she had him read her memories? Either way, she wasn't about to pass up the opportunity and followed him to the door.

Just as he had said, the realtor was waiting for them. He seemed a bit tired, seeing as the hour was fairly late, but otherwise he was more than happy to let them look around. It was strange, seeing the house empty. She did her best to describe how it had looked like in her time to Kieran, pointing to where the couch and television set would have been.

If she closed her eyes and concentrated hard enough, she could envision her father seated in the living room watching the news. She could practically hear her mother's humming from the kitchen as she cooked a healthy, sugar free supper for them. It brought tears to her eyes just thinking about it.

Making their way upstairs, she showed him which bedroom had been hers, and how she had shelves and shelves crammed full with books lining the far wall. She remembered how Crookshanks would always curl up on this comfy chair she had in front of her window to sleep.

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to get too lost in her memories, as she was reminded of the fact that the realtor probably wanted to head home and get some sleep before Christmas. Wrapping up the tour, they thanked the realtor for his time and headed home themselves.

They exchanged presents shortly after midnight. Though he insisted that she didn't have to get him anything, she insisted and purchased him a couple of new records for his gramophone, as well as an ugly green Christmas jumper with a couple of reindeers on it. He rolled his eyes at that.

Placing his gifts aside, he then got up and pulled a small wore out box from his pocket, handing it to her. To her surprise, she found a gold locket bearing a crest she did not recognize.

"It is an heirloom of the Bluebell family that once belonged to Evelyn," he explained. "It works something like a Pensieve. You can extract a particular memory from your mind and store it inside. Then, whenever you open it, the memory will play before your very eyes."

"I can't possibly take something like this from you," she protested, attempting to hand it back to him.

He waved her off. "It is your birthright as the heir of the Bluebell Flame. She would want you to have it."

She nodded her head, her eyes starting to mist, as she immediately went to put it on. It was her first ever family heirloom. She determined that she would wear it with honor.

The very next day, she headed out on her own to make one last stop before leaving the country again. With a present in hand, she apparated straight to the doorstep of Black Manor, climbing the steps to knock on the door.

A few minutes later, a house elf answered the door. "My master has been expecting you."

Stepping inside, the house elf led her over into the drawing room, where she found the little family in a scene that she never thought she'd see in a pureblood family like the Blacks. Cygnus was lying on the floor, playing with one-year old Bellatrix, while Druella sat on the sofa nearby, watching them as she worked on a sample of embroidery.

It didn't take them long, however, before they noticed her presence.

"Hermione! You made it!" dropping her embroidery, Druella rushed over to her friend, greeting her with a big hug.

"Merry Christmas, Druella," she said hugging her back.

It was then that she felt it. With her friend's body literally squished against hers, she could feel a small yet firm bulge in her mid-section. Pulling back, she glanced down at her stomach.

"Are you pregnant again?"

Druella nodded, hugging her hands to her belly, revealing that beneath the loose fitting dress was indeed the start of a bump. "I'm three months along."

She raised a brow, turning to face Cygnus, who had since gotten up off the floor "You didn't waste much time, did you?"

Cygnus's face flushed crimson. "No, I suppose not."

She shook her head, a grin tugging at her lips. "Well, I'm happy for the two of you."

However, Druella's pregnancy was soon forgotten about when she saw her little Goddaughter. It was hard to tell if the one-year old actually recognized her, but she didn't shy away as she approached, kneeling down beside her.

"This is for you, little Bella, all the way from New York City."

Bella's dark eyes, which she had inherited from her father in addition to her dark hair, lit up with delight as she began moving her chubby little arms to grab for it. Hermione giggled as she put it down in front of her, watching as she attempted to open it. She seemed surprisingly good at ripping things. She must have had lots of practice on Christmas Day.

When she finally got the wrapping paper off and the box open, she reached in and lifted out a pretty doll with curly blonde hair, bright red lipstick and a fashionable matching winter outfit.

"Dowlly!" Bella exclaimed as she threw her arms around its neck, hugging it tightly.

"You didn't have to do that," Druella insisted.

"What kind of godmother would I be if I didn't spoil my godchild even the slightest?" she asked. "Oh, and don't worry about the doll, I've charmed it so that it's both fireproof and unbreakable."

"Thank Merlin! She goes through toys faster than we can buy them. At least this one won't explode," Cygnus complained.

They all had a good laugh at that remark.

Hermione stayed and chatted with them for a while, catching up on what she had missed. Abraxas and Hera had gotten engaged, which she already knew, as she had gone with Tom to visit them one day. The wedding was set to take place in the springtime, causing a bit of a feud between Hera and Rosaline, who had initially wanted to have her wedding in the spring as well, but now had to push it closer to summer. Apparently Rosaline was even considering removing Hera from her wedding party as a result.

She rolled her eyes. Rosaline could be so dramatic it wasn't funny.

After a while, Bella warmed up to her and even came to sit on her lap for a while as she pulled on her new dolly's hair. It was surprisingly fun to just sit and watch her. Bella was still so innocent at this stage of her life, despite having a bit of a temper to her and a knack for destroying things with bits of accidental magic. She couldn't resist the urge to press a kiss to the top of her head.

Eventually, her time with them came to an end, and she had to leave, due to meet up with her grandfather to prepare for their departure. They still needed to decide where they were going next.

Bella caught her by surprise as she was leaving, when she waddled over to her and hugged her legs tightly. "Mwionee," she babbled.

Her heart melted. Not only was her name one of the first few words Bella had learned to say, but she called her by the nickname that Harry and Ron used to call her. It made her feel a bit emotional. No one had called her that since she came to this time.

"Yes, Bella, I'm your Aunt Mione."

Then, with one last hug from the little girl, she left.