TWENTY-FIVE
Tuesday, 30 September 1944
The Astronomy Tower was close to the Room of Requirement, so Hermione took a small detour to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. Pressed against the cold stone wall in front of a window, she bit down on her bottom lip, surprised at the smile that refused to leave. She hadn't intended for any of that to happen while they waited for the door to make an appearance.
Since she had wrapped her head around something like this happening with Malfoy, she had wondered what she would feel after the first encounter. She had imagined that she might feel awkward and insecure.
Never in her wildest dreams did she expect to feel so powerful.
Especially considering the nature of their encounter. She had only sought self-pleasure a handful of times before. The majority of them were in her bed in the Gryffindor Tower where she had been able to cast all sorts of charms to keep others from knowing about it. Even afterwards, she had always kept her eyes down the next day, feeling as though people would know simply by looking at her.
Not only had someone seen her, but that someone was Malfoy of all people. And instead of feeling shame, she felt powerful. Instead of thinking it was something she shouldn't be doing, she was wondering what it would be like to have him be the one to touch her. Wondered what it would be like to have his fingers buried in her core or hers around his-
She shook the thought away as she felt herself flush and shudder. She had to meet Riddle in a few minutes and she did not want to meet him with this fresh in her mind. This wasn't something she wanted to share with him. Even as she made that resolution, she was already placing the memory into a book and shelving it; something that only she would get to look back on.
Before she pushed herself away from the wall, her hand stole up her jumper to touch at the scars on her chest. For the first time since receiving them, she smiled.
"You're fucking beautiful, Hermione."
Malfoy had given her a new memory; one that she would cling to no matter what happened in the future. The ghost of his lips and fingers over them brought tears to her eyes. She wondered if Ron would have made her feel this way about herself.
With a heavy sigh, she sought the Astronomy Tower.
Since they had just met on Tuesday and they only needed to note the New Moon tonight, Hermione expected their time on the tower to be brief tonight. She was right on time when she stepped off the last stair to the observation deck and set about getting her notes from her bag as fast as she could. She didn't even wait for Riddle as she approached the telescope and began making her notes and adding to her charts.
It was that familiar prickle at the back of her mind that made her stand up straight and cause her magic to falter on her materials, sending them to the ground softly. She whirled around to find Riddle directly behind her, her arm brushing his chest as she turned. She slammed the door Malfoy had helped her create and crossed her arms over her chest.
"A simple hello would have sufficed," she snapped.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice filled with curiosity as he peered down his nose at her. His eyes were dark; nearly black.
She felt the fear creep up her back, but she forced it away. Even as he stepped forward, forcing the eye piece of the telescope into her back.
"Do not make me ask again," he threatened.
She swallowed hard and held his gaze. "I'm Hermione Granger."
"Why are you here? Did Dumbledore send you?" Something flashed in his eyes and his chin lifted ever so slightly.
She shook her head. "No one sent me," she assured him. "My coming here was an accident."
His lips pressed together tightly; his eyes shimmering with disbelief. He stepped up to her again and she whimpered in pain as the telescope jabbed at her tailbone. His hand rose and caught her jaw in a vice-like grip while his body pressed against hers, keeping her trapped uncomfortably.
"You have been afraid of me since the moment I told you my name. You know of my Horcruxes. You even had one of them in your possession; one that I have not even thought to make yet." His eyes narrowed. "You will forgive me if I do not believe you."
She trembled as her mind flashed back to Bellatrix torturing her for information. Her throat went dry as the phantom pain of the Cruciatus Curse wracked through her body. Her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to block everything out. "It's the truth," she whispered, her tone begging for him to believe her.
She conjured up the memory of the Fiendfyre and projected it towards him. When the door closed on her and Malfoy, he released his hold on her and stepped back. She stumbled away from the telescope and sagged against the railing of the balcony. When she was able to lock her knees to keep herself standing, she wished that he would lash out with his magic instead of staring at her with that unreadable expression as he approached her.
The weight of his gaze was heavy and it made her tremble with anticipation. "You are a terrible liar," he said, his voice cold as ice.
"You are Tom Marvolo Riddle. Tom Riddle was your father and Merope Gaunt was your mother. Marvolo was your grandfather. It was his family ring you turned into your second Horcrux when you killed your father. This happened a few months ago, shortly after you released the Basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets and created the Diary with the death of Myrtle Warren."
His eyes darkened even further and he stood impossibly still. She could feel the cold anger radiating out of him, seeping into her skin from their proximity. She wasn't surprised when his hand grasped her throat and pulled her close. It happened so fast that she didn't have time to react. Instead, she trembled even more as his breath warmed her ear.
"How could you possibly know any of that?" he snarled. "Who am I to you?"
She gasped for air as his fingers tightened around her throat. Her hand rose with intent to claw at him to get him to let her go, but instead, her hand just simply rested on top of his. "Lord Voldemort," she rasped.
His fingers loosened enough so she could gulp air back into her deprived lungs. He moved back slightly, staying so close she could almost feel his nose brush against hers. "Something tells me you were not a devout follower of mine." He relaxed his hold on her even further and let his fingers stroke the column of her throat, making her shiver. "Tell me, Miss Granger, did you share these tidbits of information with Dumbledore?"
She shook her head rapidly. "N-no," she swallowed hard. "We just want to go home."
The smile that curved his lips made her heart sink like a stone to the pit of her stomach. Slowly, his hand slid back until it fisted her hair, pulling tight as his eyes bore into hers. "You know far too much for me to allow that to happen."
Something snapped inside of her. Anger rose to the surface, overriding her fear. Her eyes narrowed at him as she spoke. "It's too late, Riddle. Most of them have already been destroyed. Right now, you're probably dead too."
In the split second it took for his rage to come unhinged, shocked gasps from behind them made him release his hold and step back. Two younger students in Hufflepuff robes looked between them for a moment before dropping their gaze.
"I believe it is after curfew, is it not?" Riddle asked them, straightening his clothes as he turned towards them.
Hermione gathered her things and bolted for the exit, not sticking around to see what happened next. Too afraid to let Malfoy see her in this state, she continued on until she reached the dungeons. She ignored the stares from those in the common room and the ones from her roommates as she slipped behind the safety of her wards and let her emotions spiral out of control.
It was well after ten when Draco left the Room of Requirement. At first, he went to the Astronomy Tower, but found that he couldn't cross the threshold. He could only stand outside the entrance and glare up at it. After a sigh of disgust with himself, he made his way back to the dungeons. It was while he was waiting on the second floor landing for the stairs to realign that he heard a noise from the corridor.
It sounded like crying and instinctually, he moved towards it. The closer he got, the more relieved he became. At least it wasn't Granger's cries, but they were still familiar all the same. He paused as recognition hit him. It was Myrtle. The last time he had been in that bathroom or seen the moaning ghost had been the day Potter nearly killed him.
In Sixth Year he had tolerated Myrtle simply because her bathroom was the only place he could go to be by himself. Other than the Room of Requirement; a place he only went to when working on the cabinet. He would visit Myrtle some other time; he had to find out where Granger hand run off to and make sure something hadn't happened on the Astronomy Tower.
Avery and Lestrange were one of the few still awake in the common room. They were at the tail end of a chess game, but they acknowledged him when Draco entered the room. "Either of you see Granger or Riddle come back?"
"Granger's in her room," Avery replied as he directed his next piece. "Ah, checkmate."
Lestrange sagged back in his chair and sighed.
"When did she come back?" he asked them.
"Not that long ago," Lestrange answered. "No Riddle though."
"Thanks," he said, walking to the split in the corridor for the dorms. With his mind already made up, he began casting the necessary spells to get past the opposite-sex charms meant to keep him out of the girls' dorms. He got to the Prefect's door and knocked. Nothing happened right away, so he knocked again, this time louder.
Gertrude opened the door and her sleepy daze transformed into surprise in the blink of an eye. "D-Draco?"
"Is Her- Harmony in there?" he asked.
"I think so," she said, glancing over to Granger's bed. "Hard to tell with all those privacy wards."
"May I come in?"
She eyed him wearily and he watched her fingers drum against the door frame.
"Please?" he asked, letting concern show in his voice.
She sighed and stepped back, gesturing him in with a wave of her hand. "Don't stay long. We all have class in the morning."
He nodded and stepped up to the wards. It was harder to get through them, but he kept pushing until they let him pass. She was lying on the bed, curled up in a ball, her back facing him. He studied her for a moment and then approached slowly. As he stopped at the side of her bed, he was undecided if she was still awake or not, but either way, he knew he couldn't leave.
Slowly, he removed his shoes and his belt before slipping onto the bed over the covers with her. He curled his body around hers and slung an arm around her middle, hugging her closer to him. She had been trembling, but it lessened considerably from his touch. "Sorry I didn't come back," she whispered, her voice tight.
He frowned at the fact that she had been crying. "Is this about what we did?" he asked.
She shook her head and placed her hand over his.
He tried his best not to scare her with his anger. "Did something happen with Riddle?"
She nodded, but instead of saying anything right away, she turned in his arms so that she could bury her head on his chest. His chin rested on top of her head and he wrapped both arms tightly around her. As tempted as he was to head back to his room and give Riddle a healthy dose of Unforgiveables, he wasn't about to leave Granger in this state.
"He just got in my head again and he got angry at what he saw," she said.
"What did he see?"
She sighed and he was at least relieved that she was no longer crying. "I'm not sure, exactly," she said.
"Did he hurt you?"
"No."
Her voice was barely audible and he had to force himself not to react in a way that told her he suspected her of lying. Instead, he frowned heavily at the single pulled curtain around the bed. "What were you thinking about?"
"The war. Time on the run. Us. How we ended up here."
His arms tightened around her.
"Will you stay here tonight?"
He snorted and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Of course," he answered. He had never had any intentions of leaving and he would like to see her roommates try and get past Granger's wards to kick him out. She hummed approval at his promise to stay and she slipped into slumber a few heartbeats later. It wasn't long before he followed, enjoying the way she felt wrapped around him.