DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER!!
Memoirs
Chapter 8
A few tears slipped from Tom's eyes for the first time in 53 years and he quickly brushed them away. Hermione awoke at the sound of choked sobs and turned over to see Tom hovering over her. "I bet you're loving this, aren't you?" he snapped, looking away. "Seeing the great Lord Voldemort cry."
"No. No, I'm not 'loving this'." She sat up, pushing him back gently. "What I was doing was thinking; what could have happened to make this strong man cry?" She said, silently urging him to tell her. Tom sighed and flopped down against the pillows. Hermione's hope fell and she started to look around the room for clothes.
"Her name was Alaana." She looked back at him, scooched a little closer and leant against the cushioned headboard. "She was my girlfriend in our 7th year at Hogwarts."
"Ahhh, teen love. Sorry, please continue."
"At first, we were so happy. We spent every moment we could with each other. We ate together, studied together, walked around the grounds etc. And then after a month or so, I began to get jealous."
"Why?"
"I'm getting to that. She was the most beautiful girl in the entire school, and was lusted after by every boy above 3rd year. And other boys began to look at her, and she began to look back. So, I became the one thing I didn't want to become-"
"The nasty boyfriend."
"Unfortunately so. I began to tell her that she hideous, fat, lazy, you name it. I told her that she was lucky to be with me, because no one else would want her. That was a complete lie, of course. I treated her horribly, made her become bulimic and eventually anorexic. But she stood by me. Whether she foolish enough to think I would change or she began to believe me, I don't know. But I...I loved her. After a few weeks of dating, she began to tell me those disgusting 3 words, and I realised I couldn't and wouldn't say those words. And...she ended up in St Mungos with the worst case of bulimia and anorexia they had seen in 50 years. And she died. Only a few days after being taken there. She had refused to eat the food and drink the potions they gave her, telling the nurses and doctors that 'he doesn't want me to gain weight'."
"What happened then?" she asked.
"Dumbledore had already begun to suspect that it was I who had done it to her. For he had often called Alaana to his office and noticed the bruises and cuts on her arms."
"You hit her?" Hermione asked, horrified.
"No! No, no, no, no, no, no. She did it to herself. Self-harm. I caught her at it once." She looked disbelieving. "Come, I'll show you." He got out of bed, unashamed by his nakedness, striding over to his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of black leather trousers and donned them whilst Hermione kept a blanket wrapped around her and went over to her own dresser. She pulled out an ivory coloured dress. It was simple but beautiful on her. When they were both dressed, he led her over to a door in the side of their room. Tom hissed something in Parseltongue and the door swung open.
He let her go in first and closed the door behind them. It was a small stone room and in the middle, stood a Penseive. The glow was a lot brighter than Dumbledore's and stood a foot or so higher. Hermione was hesitant to walk over to it but Tom's hand on the small of her back actually helped her to go over to it.
Tom stopped her when they got to it and stood behind her. He put his hands next to her on the stone, pinning her between the stone and himself. And they disappeared into it.
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Landing roughly in the middle of the disused girl's bathroom, Tom and Hermione groaned as they got up.
"Are you alright?" he croaked to her, helping her up.
"That's gonna smart in the morning." She grunted and he checked her over for injuries.
"Shhh, here she comes." He whispered, and the door opened. A girl, a little younger than Hermione's age, entered the room shakily. She had honey blonde straight hair, leaf coloured eyes and slightly tanned skin.
"She's very beautiful." Hermione said to Tom as the girl stood in front of the sink next to them and put her bag on the sink on her left. Tom and Hermione stood chest to chest, him leaning against the sink, his arms around her body. Alaana turned on the taps, sniffing and crying and she fished through her bag.
"What are you doing?" Moaning Myrtle screeched, her head popping out of the sink in front of the blonde girl.
"Get lost, Myrtle!" she screamed, her voice sounding angelic even in rage and despair. The ghost sniffed and wailed as she dived back into her toilet.
"What is she doing?" Hermione murmured to Tom as the girl rolled up her sleeves.
"Can't you tell?" he asked her. They looked back to the crying girl, and she removed a razor from her bag. As she placed the cool metal onto her flesh, her tears doubled as she pressed down and crimson fluid oozed from the mark. "Look over there." Tom said, pointing to the door that was ajar a little.
And she saw a pair of red eyes. And that was when Lord Voldemort had begun to show properly. "Can we go? I wanna go. Please." Hermione begged, squeezing Tom's arm.
"Of course. One more thing first."
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This time, they arrived in the middle of a field. It was late at night and a few yards away was a giant oak tree. And underneath it, was Hermione's grave.
"'Hermione Jane Granger, Beautiful, Intelligent, Caring. A wonderful friend, A better Wife.'" Tom repeated, more tears actually forming in his eyes. "I hand-carved that. The day you died. Dug the grave myself, carved the stone, built the coffin. Everything myself." He looked at her as he said it, but she continued to look at the gravestone, and the hole in the soil and grass.
"I crawled out of that, didn't I?"
"Yes, you did. Very brave as well."
"Didn't have a choice. It was crawl out or lay there and die again."
"I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"For asking you back. I took you out of where you were happy. You were most likely in Heaven. And I ruined it for you."