A/N: *casually uploads this like it isn't two days late AGAIN* I'm going to say that the best solution to my untrustworthy claims is to follow this story so you get a notification once the next chapter is uploaded. Therefore, this week I'll make no promises as to when the next chapter will be uploaded (it is exam season let's not forget) Perhaps it will be a week...perhaps two once my exams are complete...hey! It's more exciting this way RIGHT?! As ever, I do hope you enjoy- there's a way lot more Tom in this one (exciting!)- and please give this story a follow to avoid further disappointment from me xx


A Timely Solution

By ACircleHasNoEnd


Within a week, Molly could almost pretend to herself that she had settled just nicely into 1944. That was until fourth period potions.

"What can anybody tell me about making an antidote?" Enquired Professor Slughorn.

Tom Riddle's hand rose slowly into the air, as if he really had something better to do than do all the work for these numpties, "we should bare in mind Golpalott's Third Law which states that…"

Molly didn't know why she said it, she had never really been one to interrupt a lesson before, but she found herself saying, "just shove a bezoar down their throat." This had become somewhat of a mantra of the Weasley family's, almost an inside joke, which had begun with Uncle Harry lecturing them on the importance of the bezoar stone as he reminisced about saving Uncle Ron's life in Sixth year.

"What did you say, Miss Mason?"

She flushed, clearing her throat, "erm, Golpalott's Third Law is highly unreliable as it only really works for a handful of potions, whereas a bezoar works for almost all potions."

"Very good, Miss Mason! That's excellent knowledge, 10 points to Ravenclaw for that."

She had interrupted Lord Voldemort.

And now he was staring at her with interest.


"You have some good knowledge about poisons."

She paused at the sound of Tom Riddle's voice by her shoulder. She looked up. He was staring down at her with that same amused look as he had given her when they had first met. "Oh," Molly cleared her throat. "Thank you." Thank you? Why was she saying thank you to Lord Voldemort?

"You must have had a good teacher before." He had a kind smile. She couldn't look at it.

"My uncle taught me about bezoars."

"Oh? Is he a healer?"

She shuffled, clinging on tightly to the strap of her bag, "No, no, um- he is- was-" she winced at her use of the past tense, "he was a very wise man." She looked up at him then with a shy smile to see him frowning at her. She wasn't surprised- she was acting like a frightened puppy. Get a hold of yourself, act more confident. She stared Lord Voldemort in the face then, almost challenging him to ask her another question.

He raised an eyebrow, "were you homeschooled?"

"Yes."

"Are you on the run from Grindelwald?"

She twitched, her facade slipping slightly- she couldn't believe how direct he was. "My family just got caught up in his campaign on the Continent."

"Ah, so you lived in Europe?"

"I've moved around a lot," she lied, surprisingly effortlessly.

He was assessing her face then for what felt like an age when finally, he said, "interesting," and walked off, followed by a posse of Slytherins.


"Have you been to Albania?"

Molly jumped, spinning around to see Tom Riddle looking down at her with that same amused expression on his face. It was starting to get on her nerves.

She huffed, "you don't bother with small talk, do you?"

He almost laughed, "I do apologise. Hello, Molly, how are you today?"

Her face burnt as she realised that the table of Ravenclaws was staring nosily at their interaction. It didn't seem to bother Tom.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking."

"So have you been to Albania?"

She frowned, "no, I haven't. I hear it's lovely though."

He was smirking at her now. What's so funny?

"I've been to Romania, though." This was true; she had been to visit her Uncle Charlie there. Although she wasn't sure why she offered this information to him now. She just wanted him to leave her alone. "Very similar landscape." She muttered when he continued to stare at her. "I've been to France too and, erm," where else had she been? "oh, Moldova, too." She had been a few years ago to the Quidditch World Cup when Ginny had been reporting.

"Interesting, Molly! I would love to travel more." Barbara piped up, "of course, it's not really a very good idea at the moment…"

"Why did you want to know about Albania, Tom?" Millicent asked with narrowed eyes.

Molly's face fell. Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem.

"I'm just interested- what with all this Grindelwald business. I heard he was in Albania at the moment."

"Well, clearly not." Millicent said in a clipped tone, trying to purvey to him that it was not a good idea to talk about Grindelwald at the moment given Molly's presence.

"Yes, clearly not." Tom walked over to the Slytherin table leaving Molly staring down at her breakfast, her appetite suddenly completely gone.


Molly had to get out of 1944.

She didn't know how long she could keep this charade up, she had to get out before she made even more blatant lies and Tom trapped her into anymore corners.

She went to the library in the middle of the night, searching for any and all books that she could find on Time Travel. There was little available, much to Molly's annoyance.

The one section she did find in A History of Magic recorded the incident of a witch who had travelled back to the 15th century for five days and upon her return had aged 400 years. Molly snapped the book shut. That was most definitely not the reassurance she was looking for.

She settled that the Restricted Section would be more useful. She ducked under the rope that sectioned this area of the library off and illuminated the shelves with wandlight. Technically, Molly wasn't breaking any rules seeing as in her time she was an advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts student and so had been granted access to the Restricted Section. She didn't think she could really use that as an excuse if anyone caught her though.

Molly settled herself into a corner of the library, up against the shelves surrounded by dubious book upon dubious book supposedly associated with time. She read endless accounts about ageing, slowing down time, potentially freezing time and even the Philosopher's Stone but still found nothing on time travel. That's because it's supposed to be impossible, she thought as she rested her head against a shelf. She wanted to cry then or perhaps she wanted to scream, she certainly wouldn't mind throwing a tantrum. She was fucked and she honestly did not know what in Merlin's name to do. Her chest felt tight. She was completely alone, seventy years in the past, with no proper identity, studying for her NEWTs with Lord Voldemort as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She could be stuck here forever, that was honestly looking like the most realistic outcome at this moment in time, she was completely alone. She couldn't breath properly. What the fuck was she going to do?! What was she going to do after she finished seventh year? Get a job? Start a fresh? How on earth do you do that when-

"Molly,"

"Fucking hell!" She started, her heart pounding in her chest as Tom emerged from the darkness into her wandlight.

"Do you always swear like a Goblin?" That same bloody frustratingly amused look was on his face.

"What the hell are you doing keeping on jumping up at me like that for?" Her hands were shaking.

"Well what the hell are you doing in the library at two o'clock in the morning?" He countered, an almost annoyed look on his face. He did have a valid point.

She bit her lip, "studying."

"My my, I knew Ravenclaws were dedicated to their studies, but I didn't think they were this dedicated," he gestured to the piles of books around her, trying to peer at the title of one at the top. She swished her wand and the books flew back to their places on the shelf before Tom could read anything else.

"I just feel like I have a lot of catching up to do, what with arriving late and everything." It was true, she had missed two months of lessons.

He raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "And all the books were in the restricted section, of course- do you even have access to here?"

Her jaw clenched, she was tired of all his smart-arse questions and superior looks. She rose to her feet, "you're very nosy aren't you?"

He looked even more amused now, "excuse me?"

"Why do you need to know everything about me? Can't you just leave me alone?"

He grinned though it didn't reach his eyes. "You're the one that's in the library after hours and breaking school rules. I'm Head Boy and I'm on duty so technically you are my business," his teeth were almost gritted now and Molly was regretting speaking up to him. "But, of course, I'll let you off, you are new here." He accentuated the words and it made her twitch- did he know something? "Although, for someone that's only been her for a little over a week you do seem to be very familiar with the library."

She smiled sweetly, "it must just be the Ravenclaw in me."

He grunted and reached for her arm.

"Ow! What are you doing?! Let go!" He was dragging her out of the library and down the corridor. Molly panicked, she kept forgetting that this was Lord Voldemort and sassing him- why did she keep forgetting?! "Let go! Where are you taking me? Please, Tom." Her voice was pathetically desperate.

He stopped and looked at her, his look of anger morphing into confusion. "Why are you crying?"

She touched her eyes- she was indeed crying and she turned away from him to wipe her eyes. "I'm not crying."

"You're not from here are you?"

She continued wiping her eyes as if his question hadn't just made her heart stutter. "No, I told you, I've been living in Europe."

"That's such a terribly elaborate lie, I don't know why anyone believes you." He tugged her arm, forcing her to look at him. "You're from the future, aren't you?"

Molly wasn't quite sure what the look on her face portrayed at that very moment but in her head her emotions ranged from shock, fear, anger, until eventually false laughter came out of her mouth. "What? What on earth are you talking about?"

"Oh, please, don't insult my intelligence, Molly." He rolled his eyes, "You were reading books about time theory in the library." He gave her a mischievous smile, "don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Her chest felt tight again. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Was she supposed to keep denying it? Was she supposed to admit it? What the hell was she supposed to do?! She could not take feeling like a lost innocent little girl any longer. "I can't fucking stand this anymore," she whispered. "I'm really fucking tired, I just want to go to bed. I just want to go home."

"When is home?" His eyes glinted with curiosity.

"A long time away."

"How long?"

She looked at him in disbelief, "oh, I'll just tell you everything that happens in the next fifty years, shall I? I know enough about time travel to know that that breaks about fifty-four different laws, Tom."

He looked wild with excitement. "So you're from fifty years-"

"No, Tom."

"You're no fun."

"Yeah, well," she grumbled, "I don't want to end up like Eloise Mintumble."

He genuinely laughed then and Molly was surprised how unlike an evil mastermind laugh it sounded, it was actually rather glorious. She was about to sulk that he shouldn't laugh when there were voices from the other end of the corner and suddenly, Tom Marvolo Riddle was pushing her into a broom closet.

He pressed her into the wall as if that would stop her from making anymore noise. Although, to be fair, her face was squashed into his chest. She wriggled, trying to free herself.

"Stop moving for a second." He submerged the room in darkness with a Nox and her other senses went into overdrive; Molly noted how Lord Voldemort smelt like soap, old books and something oddly sweet, she noted the steady rhythm of his heart as he listened out for any noise and then, the hushed giggling from the other side of the door which seemed to be getting closer and closer.

"Tom, you're crushing me," she whispered, her voice slightly strained from lack of air.

He arched his back slightly, placing a hand against the wall beside her head so that she had space to breathe. She could almost feel him smirking at her. She felt his breath warm against her cheek. The giggling got closer. They waited.

All of a sudden, the broom closet was swamped with blue wand light and Molly struggled to see as her eyes adjusted.

"Oh- alright, Tom?!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Abraxas. Get out of here."

Molly saw the boy with white blond hair's face crack into a knowing grin as his eyes fell on her, "it's seems you've found our favourite broom closet." The smug-looking girl he was with let out an awful giggle. "Come on, Dolores, let's go find somewhere else."

The door closed and they were once again in darkness. Tom was still too close to her. Yet Molly felt oddly comforted. You stupid, naïve, little girl.

"Please tell me he's not going to spread any vicious rumours about this."

"Well," his lips brushed against her ear, "we could always add a little truth to the rumours…" Just as Molly thought she was going to vomit, he laughed, finally moving and lighting his wand. "Don't worry, if Abraxas knows what's best for him he won't say a word."

He looked at her flushed cheeks and she smiled slightly, "Good, I don't think I could cope with anymore people gossiping about me."


They walked down the corridor together in silence until they reached the door for the Ravenclaw common room. "You know," Tom began as he idly examined his nails, "if you wanted help with going home, I could always help you…"

She scowled. "Why would you do that?"

He shrugged in return. "You have a rather interesting dilemma. And I like a challenge." He began to walk away when Molly called out to him, "Tom…promise me you won't tell anyone?"

He sneered, "it can be our little secret."

Molly Weasley did not like the sound of having secrets with Lord Voldemort.