A/N: I am sorry about the super long hiatus. I don't know how often I am going to post this yet, but I thought I would update as soon as a chapter was ready. After all, you have all been patiently waiting. (Those that are still with me, anyway)
Chapter Ten
The most serious grievance I have encountered from my peers is this: if what I am saying is true and Mudbloods are nothing more than kidnapped pureblooded children, then what would happen if a house intermarried unintentionally. It was one thing to willfully interbreed, it is apparently quite another to do it on accident if the Nott family is to be believed. -Algernon Malfoy, The Short History of a Mudblood's Magic.
**HGHG**
Tom tugged on Hermione's hand, ignoring every question she flung at his back, towing her to the floo. He barely stopped long enough to give the house-elves directions on what and where to send the books and journals they had been perusing.
"Would you stop for a minute? Where are we going?" Hermione demanded, finally pulling out of Tom's grasp and stopping just before the gargantuan marble fireplace. He knew that she didn't like not knowing things and that trust for her was difficult, especially with him. Baby steps.
Tom smirked and leaned in as if he was about to divulge one of his closest held secrets. "We are going to an open forum. Do you want to see the Wizengamot in action?"
"Impossible. They don't convene while Hogwarts is in session. Not while Dumbledore has a post there."
"Well you are in luck, Dumbledore himself called for this quorum. It was his intention to pass through a set of laws that I think you would be very interested in."
"And that is why Malfoy ran out of here? He was summoned?"
Tom snorted. "He ran out of here because his contacts in the ministry tipped him off. He apparently is not pertinent enough to Dumbledore's agenda to be summoned." Or to anyone else's, which is the main reason why the vain man hightailed it to the Ministry.
"And you think you know what that agenda might be?"
"I don't think it, I know it. All of the information was right at the surface of Septimus's mind. It was almost as if he didn't even try to keep his thoughts to himself. A real error in judgment since I know that Abraxas told him of my abilities."
"So, what is he up to then?" Hermione asked impatiently, clearly ignoring his admission of the use of casual Legilimency.
Tom's smile grew wider as he teased. "You will have to wait and see,"
Groaning, Hermione let him pull her into the huge marble fireplace. When she was pressed flush to his side, he threw floo powder, calling out for the atrium of the ministry.
Hermione stepped out of the grate and brushed down her clothes but no matter her nonchalant behavior, she couldn't hide the pink flush on her cheeks. "Won't we get in trouble for being here while Hogwarts is in session?"
"We have a pass, remember?" Tom said, eyes sparkling. He was convinced that he could commit murder openly and horrendously and Dippet would still make excuses for him. And being Slytherin, he shamelessly took advantage of that favoritism.
"Isn't the pass just to go to Malfoy Manor?"
Tom fished the pass out of his pocket and handed it to Hermione. He took the opportunity to dust off his own robes, watching her from underneath lowered lashes. She was going to flip her shit, and he couldn't wait to watch. And boy, she didn't disappoint.
The note was carefully opened, and she stared at the page stupidly, as if unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
"Dippet gave you a blank signature?" she choked.
This time Tom smiled wide, cockily, "There are certain benefits of being his favorite,"
"Harry was undoubtedly favored by Dumbledore and he never got a blank pass…"
"I guess he just didn't have the same level of charm," He said before sweeping back his robes and sliding his hands in his trouser pockets. Striding the length of the room as if he had all the time in the world, Tom flashed his lady-killer smile to the desk-witch who stared dumbly, letting them pass, without so much as checking their wands as would become routine in the future.
"It really isn't fair," Hermione grumbled to his back grumpily. To be beautiful was to receive bonuses and perks and free passes. Male or female. He used his charm, grace, and good looks to his advantage, like any good Slytherin.
Tom laughed, throwing his head back, having heard her. Then he turned around and held his hand out for her, his eyes sparkling with mischief and affection. Her breath caught as she slid her fingers into the palm of his hand, continuing until her fingers were braided with his.
She didn't need to know how his heart stopped at the contact, nor that once his heart restarted, it began pumping in an unholy rhythm. He wagged his eyebrows and tugged her to the lifts, smiling at anyone and everything they passed. Mostly because he was happier than he could ever remember being but also because things seemed to be brighter, more vivid than usual.
"Do you even know where we are going?" Hermione asked nervously.
"Of course," He would let her make of that what she would. It would probably drive her to distraction, trying to figure out how Tom Riddle, an orphan boy and Hogwarts student, knew his way around the Ministry. But what she didn't know is that he often came in the summer, walking hours and taking city transportation just to spend his time in a constructive way. He was building his network, showing those who didn't have children in Hogwarts that he was exceptional and should be helped along in his endeavor to greatness. To be well known, well known and respected for his power and intelligence would be of great help to him after graduating.
He was not going to be a poor nobody forever.
Finally, the lift dinged, and Tom nodded to the wizards getting on as he towed Hermione behind him in the deep stone corridors of the Ministry's Wizengamot courtrooms. Rooms that were recessed, allowing the ones with power to sit above their peers.
"Wow," Hermione breathed against his side. "Harry said it was intimidating, but this…"
"Harry was here?"
Hermione's smile was filled with bitterness. "There was always someone trying to kill him and manipulate him. In this case, a ministry official sent two Dementors on him during Summer vacation. You have to understand, he lived with his muggle relatives who lived in a muggle neighborhood, with no magical help in the case of an emergency."
"That sounds like a terrible idea to leave him there, especially if he was known to be targeted,"
Hermione nodded. She had always thought Harry had been under-protected. "It was,"
Tom hid them behind the unending stream of wizards flowing into the chamber. Dumbledore stood at the dais pontificating as he talked and the noise of the influx of those there to watch didn't disrupt the flow of Dumbledore's reasoning. He had no care for what the general populace thought. He was just trying to influence the 'right' people.
"And with just one," Dumbledore continued holding up his finger. "one change, a time traveler could implode all of a given timeline. How could we be men in charge of our own destinies if one knowledge-armed traveler came to change things? We would be powerless against such a tide, possibly even destroying any chances of innocent lives being born in the way they were meant to. What if you were meant to have a son but because of someone manipulating time, you never have that son? This is a serious issue with unbelievably dire consequences."
"What the… Fucking… Dumbledore," Hermione sputtered, outraged next to Tom, who had seated them both in the center of the general seating. "He is trying to pass laws, to protect himself from me?"
"It seems like it,"
Dumbledore continued. "We cannot allow having such open laws about time to stand when Time turners are finally a reality. Could you imagine the madness if one saw themselves in the course of their adventures? Ruinous!"
Hermione's jaw dropped then she threw back her head and laughed. Despite the loud guffaws, the sound was drowned out by the milling of hundreds of wizards.
"What's so funny?" Tom asked, smiling at the wild way she laughed as if she knew something no one else did.
"This law was passed in my time," she started, a humorous smile pulling her lips. "I was thoroughly lectured the year I received the time turner the first time."
"The first time?" Tom asked in amazement.
"Yup," she popped the 'p' with her cherry lips, edges curling back up. "I wanted to take all the subjects that Hogwarts offered and Dumbledore himself approved the application and sanctioned a single time turner be given me for a trial period of three years. After one year, I handed it in. To be fair, I did break seven wizarding laws in the course of using it,"
"Indeed," Tom smirked and focused his attention back on Dumbledore who had paused in his oration to take a sip of the water that the secretary had brought him.
"But what are we to do if a witch or wizard comes back in time illegally, completely disregarding all known laws to do it? And what if that same person goes back expressly to change things? There should be dire consequences! Just by traveling time, they have unwittingly murdered someone. Time travel further back than twenty-four hours should be unavailable! Time turners should be made with that functionality already governed. Anything else would be an inexcusable lapse in morality!" Dumbledore roared the last, as if personally offended.
"In my time," Hermione said leaning in close to Tom, her breath ghosting across his neck. "all the books and all the laws and all the warnings made it seem as if the magic and paradoxes caused madness if broken. These very issues, meeting one-self and going back farther than twenty-four hours, were triggers for the madness. If what I am hearing is true, this was all contrived by Dumbledore and the Wizengamot just to curtail someone who might go too far into the past,"
"You are clearly not suffering from time madness," Tom muttered.
"How would you know? You have no idea how I was before I arrived back in this time,"
"Your memories say otherwise,"
"Merlin, I forgot you did that," Hermione muttered furiously, and her hair began to spark most beguilingly. He couldn't' help but watch the electricity bounce erratically from curl to curl the more enraged she became. And luckily for Tom, her ire wasn't directly pointed at him. For now. It was Dumbledore, who currently held that honor.
Dumbledore was still trying to drum up support in favor of his legislature and many seemed to agree with him, wincing at the thought of lost heirs.
"Time traveling itself to the past for longer than twenty-four hours should be considered a capital offense. We must defend our lives and children and the very fabric of an organic timeline with swift and immediate retribution. For any changes or the unborn would rest upon the shoulders of the wizards who knew and did nothing."
"Vigilante justice," Tom muttered. "He is trying to murder you but within the acceptable limits of the law."
Hermione snorted and muttered back sarcastically. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone tried to kill me and my friends, why stop the trend now,"
Tom chuckled, pleased she was now truly seeing Dumbledore as he always had, as a manipulative man who couldn't stand the thought of someone else with influence and power.
"All who agree to pass the motion say aye," The current minister said. He was a balding man with tufts of white hair just above his ears on either side who clearly ate from the Dumbledore-is-the-best-wizard-ever pie.
A chorus of 'aye's' filled the air and Hermione canted her head in amusement. Though many were in favor of Dumbledore, not all of those he expected had agreed. And at this moment in time, the legislature failed, needing only three more votes to make it law. Dumbledore was unhappy but trying to hide his thoughts behind a merry twinkling. The same twinkling, he always tossed around to those he was trying to manipulate the most. Tom was most gratified to know that Hermione saw and processed the threat that Dumbledore was.
Tom wanted to jump with glee and the smile couldn't leave his face. In fact, his smile deepened as Dumbledore furiously caught his eye from all the way across the room.
"Alright Tom, say I believe you, that I truly believe you to not be what I thought you were in the future. Knowing what we know now, what are we going to do about it?"
"I wouldn't mind avoiding that stint in Nurmengard you mentioned," he muttered and grunted when her elbow met his diaphragm.
Hermione continued with her thoughts as if he hadn't spoken, "It doesn't really matter who sent me at this point, but one thing is certain, I am not going to die at the hand of Albus Dumbledore because he feels threatened!"
"Here, here!" he said in agreement, laughing at the way her nose scrunched up and the killer glare aimed at their professor.
"Tom! Great to see you," said a husky voice from the side, a tall black-haired man who wore a kind, if calculating smile.
"Lord Black," Tom said rising to meet the newcomer and shaking his hand. "Quite mad isn't he?"
"And he gets worse and worse. To think he should be the one hunting Grindelwald instead of calling emergency Wizengamot meetings about time travel that may or may not even come to fruition!" Lord Black said with quite a bit of exasperation in his voice.
"I agree, one hundred percent," Tom said. And as the conversation lulled, he turned to Hermione holding out his hand for her to take, pulling her close to him. Showing her off. "May I present Miss Hermione Dumbledore,"
"Dumbledore, you say?" Lord Black searched her face. "And what do you think of Albus' speech?"
"My Uncle, who has never advocated for the censorship of time magic, has come out against the freedom of their use, citing many things that people have already feared, stirring the pot, pushing respectable families into a decision based on fear and not the facts," Hermione said, and Tom could see the cogs in her brain turning as she spoke. It was all he could do to stop himself from crowing in victory. She was undoubtedly on his side now. Albus insured it.
Lord Black's eyebrows flew up, hidden in his hairline, surprised by Hermione's quick and disparaging view of Dumbledore's new pet project. "I'm surprised you would be so quick to speak against your uncle,"
She shrugged. "We must all forge our own paths and sometimes that means we don't support our family in their every whim. We must be a thinking and rational people who put our efforts into creating a better world for our children who will, in turn, do the same for theirs."
"Family is of the utmost importance, Miss Dumbledore. Without it, we are inevitably at our own selfish whims. Many a storm has been weathered only because of the strength of family."
Hermione looked at him with an affectionate look, as if he said something that brought her back to the best of times. "You remind me of someone and yet, his view on family wasn't as cozy. But the loyalty he showed his chosen family was in the same spirit."
Jealousy roared in Tom's chest. Was there another man in the future he needed to be wary of? It didn't matter, he reminded himself. She was here with him and no one had a way back to the future. As far as he knew, she would live out the rest of her life in this time at his side. Or at least he hoped.
"It was wonderful to meet you, Miss Dumbledore and I hope to have the pleasure again someday," Lord Black smiled and took her hand, kissing the air above her knuckles, sharing a conspiratorial smirk with Tom as if he knew how attracted Tom was to Hermione. Not that it was difficult to recognize, the way she wrapped her hand around Tom's arm and leaned into him as if he alone had the right to touch her.
"Pleasure," Hermione said as he left them. Tom strolled up the aisles, easing their way through the crush as wizards milled around, shouting at Wizengamot members about various other things that were on the day's emergency docket.
"So? What did you think?" Tom said, pulling Hermione close and talking into her ear in an effort to be heard above the noise.
Hermione's face took on a stubborn look and her lips thinned. Turning away from him, she said, "You were right,"
Tom stopped in his tracks another wide smile on his lips. "What was that, Love? I didn't hear you,"
"You heard me," she muttered through clenched teeth. He turned away and rubbed at his lips, trying to not seem as if he was as pleased as he was. He couldn't help it, he loved hearing those words tumble from her mouth.
"Where to now, Mr. Riddle?" Hermione asked.
Letting the subject drop, he turned back to her. "Where would you like to go?"
"You are letting me choose?"
Once the lift doors opened, they waited for the new group of wizards to disembark before alighting. He shrugged his shoulders. "Sure,"
"Let's go to Godric's Hollow," She said as the lift carried them to the atrium.
"Alright," He agreed but with his brow covered in complete confusion, said, "but why would you want to?"
Hermione smiled in the enigmatic way that drove him wild and once again he couldn't contain just how smitten he was. She was perfect.