After almost an hour of being sucked through a Vortex, Hermione landed with a loud thud into an empty head office, she quickly scrambled her brain to remember who the Headmaster was almost sixty four years ago. "Dumbledore became headmaster in '56,", she recalled "before that was Dippet, he was headmaster for almost a century,"
"Who is it?", called a voice out "Who is there?".
Hermione quickly to her feet and rushed out of the office, running through the dimly lit halls of Hogwarts. It was around 8 am, and many students had assembled in the Viaduct Courtyard to head to Hogsmeade. Hermione bumped her way through them, catching a glimpse of Horace Slughorn on her way out of the castle.
Once she was completely sure that she had indeed crossed Hogwarts boundaries, Hermione opened her beaded bag and accioed the map she needed. Concentrating on the co-ordinates, she slowly lifted her wand and spun on the spot. Landing softly, Hermione immediately recognized her surroundings. "Crystal Cave", she whispered. This was the same place where Professor Dumbledore and Harry had gone to retrieve the locket of Salazar Slytherin. The ocean was calm and the cave shone brightly in the sunlight. It looked like a perfect day for a picnic for the children at Wool's Orphanage.
Entering the cave, Hermione realized that it was just a general cave, with no magical powers. yet, she added mentally. Hermione waited by the entrance for a few hours, resting due to tiredness from the continuous fighting she had been doing. She had just managed to doze off when she heard children's voices. Rubbing her eyes, she saw three young children, two boys and a girl entering the cave.
"But Tom, are you sure it's safe?", asked a boy chubby little boy with curly golden brown hair.
"Absolutely Dennis", the calm and composed voice of Tom Riddle spoke. Even at the young age of eight, Tom Riddle was quite good looking, from the perfectly combed black hair, deep dark eyes and a smile so sharp, it could cut through rock.
"I think I'm going to slip", said the girl in the group, as she supported herself by holding onto the wall of the cave,
"Let me help you, m'lady", said Dennis, taking her hand.
Tom however, just wandered in "I found this cave during our trip last year. It has a collection of lovely seashells I thought you would like to see Amy. "
"Seashells?", she asked inquiringly.
"Yes, follow me", he said
Hermione knew that this was the moment she had to attack. Taking her wand out of her sleeve, she charmed the two muggle children into a deep sleep.
The light thuds of their bodies alerted Tom. "Who is there? Come out or I will hurt you"
Hermione lifted her disillusionment charm and stood in front of the young boy.
Slowly raising her wand, Hermione recalled everything that had happened to her and her friends because of who, or rather what little boy in front of her would grow up to be. The boy in turn was staring disbelievingly to the wooden stick in her hand. Gathering up her anger, she quietly whispered "Avada Kedavra", shooting a green light straight into the young boys chest. Tom Riddle fell to the ground with a light thump, his eyes popping out like a deer stuck in headlights.
Hermione didn't know whether to jump around with joy or to feel terrible about killing a child. She had killed just once before, in fact in the past few hours. Rudulphos Lestrange had been her victim, but at that time Hermione was so engrossed in the war that she didn't think twice about it. But this, this was different. This was a child, an orphan who hadn't been loved enough. A young boy who would could have been shown the right path, if only…, She thought
She walked over to the other children and oblivated both their memories so that they wouldn't remember coming to the cave with Tom. Levitating them, she walked outside the cave towards the picnic spot. Hermione placed the children on the soft grass and whispered a soft 'ennervate'. As soon as the children started waking up, Hermione apparated away to the outskirts of Hogsmeade.
Hermione pointed her wand to the time-turner around her neck and read the spell that Professor Snape had given her, "volver ao lugar de orixe." The area around her started spinning and she felt like she was being pulled into a vortex. The travel back to 1998 was much longer than her initial travel to 1934. It was much slower as if the universe was still deciding where to drop her. Hermione desperately wished for Professor Snape's spell to work. After almost eight hours on her muggle watch, Hermione's fall became slower and eventually it stopped. She was exhausted and didn't seem to have enough energy to walk back to the castle. Hermione dragged herself through the streets of Hogsmeade, hoping that she didn't accidentally bump into a death eater, because she knew she had no energy left in her to run from them, let alone fight.
The streets of Hogsmeade were quite empty for a night in the middle of a battle. Hermione finally saw a tall, thin man, with a long grey beard walk out of an old dingy pub. "Professor", she called out. The man turned around, looked at her and then turned back on his way. "Professor Dumbledore", she called out louder, mustering all her strength. The man turned again, and looked at her suspiciously. "Prof-" Hermione felt the world around her spinning around and was slowly pulled into darkness, but not before seeing a bright shiny goat shoot out of the man's wand and sprint towards the castle.
A/N: Short chapter I know, but I didn't feel upto it. You know what might help, an encouraging review or two. If you were expecting a full on duel, I'm sorry. Tom is just an 8yr old who knows he's special, he's never met anyone like himself before so he doesn't know what to do in that situation.x