A/N: I'm feeling rather lazy right now, so I'm going to thank everyone here and let it go at that: svelte, litprincess, pottersgirl91, tofuubeaver, Lizzy Evans, hanvu, san01, nehimasgift, Silver Tears 11, PapayaCrazy, MandaPandaAR, and bigmamatree.

Chapter 7 – Homesick

Quite a bit of time had passed since that night, a month to be exact. Hermione had her daily lessons with Johnalin and many more lunches and dinners with rich, important royals.

They had bored her to be truthful, and she was starting feel that boredom grow to a homesick feeling. She and Tom had started meeting in the garden and the castle's library every day after lunch and before Hermione's evening lessons. They had worked harder than ever to find a way of getting home, but without the diary, things seemed hopeless.

"There's got to be a way," Hermione whined as she closed one of the books in the library and turned to Riddle who was staring out the window in a thoughtful way. "And I'll never find that way if you just sit there," she scolded, breaking him from his concentrated state.

"Panicking and searching every God forsaken book in this castle isn't going to get you anywhere either," he said smoothly. "No book around here is going to have anything you need," he continued as he picked up a thick tome, leafed through it, and then tossed it over his shoulder onto the floor.

"At least I'm trying," Hermione snapped. "In fact, you don't seem worried about this at all. You probably have the diary, and you're just waiting for a time to use it without me."

"Oh, hardly," Tom hissed. "If I had the diary, I wouldn't wait, and I certainly wouldn't be sitting here with you now."

"Well, if you are so bothered by my presence, why don't you just leave!"

"After you, Princess," Tom said snidely as he jumped up from his chair and pointed to the library door. Hermione rose from her seat and stood there with her fists clenched as she glared at him.

"We're not going to get anywhere with you acting like a bloody jerk," Hermione retorted.

"I'm not a jerk. It's you that's the unpleasant one," Riddle fought as he slammed his palms onto the table, leaning across it as he glowered at her.

"And how, pray tell, am I being unpleasant?" Hermione exclaimed as she mirrored Tom's actions and slammed her palms onto the table while leaning over it, still scowling at him. They were now only inches apart, both breathing heavily out of anger which was most definitely roused by the hopelessness and frustration of the situation they were in.

"You're being unpleasant because you've let that whole princess thing go to your head. You're not really a princess, so quit trying to boss people around. I am smart enough to get us out of here and figure things out on my own. I don't need your help at all," the youthful Voldemort growled.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," the Gryffindor girl said in a low threatening tone. She could feel it coming, faster than she could stop it, her tongue ran away with her, and her mind was completely left behind. "I know things about you that could make your short dark hair curl, Voldemort."

"Watch it, Granger!"

"I am watching, Riddle, and I'm not afraid of what I see unlike any other that would face you. Think of me as a Harry Potter replacement for the time being," Hermione whispered dangerously.

"Harry Potter is nothing more than a foolish boy who won't ever amount to anything but a limp, lifeless body on the floor after I finish with him," Tom threatened back. Hermione didn't know what to say to this, but he wasn't going to silence her. She snorted angrily, and he narrowed his eyes on her as she glared harder at him.

She could feel his breath tickling her chin as it came in angry huffs from his flared nostrils. Tension in that room was so think that it could have been cut with a knife, but things soon came to a halt when someone coughed from the doorway.

"Anastasia... dear?" Hermione turned quickly as Tom straightened up to see the King in the doorway. He was being followed by Johnalin and another man which Hermione had never seen in the castle before. "I just wanted to let you know that I would be gone tonight and tomorrow night so if you would need anything, you must send word with one of the guards to the Scottish country side."

"Yes, Father," Hermione replied as she walked across the room to his outstretched arms. Hermione had become somewhat accustomed to this hugging ritual, though she was still a bit uncomfortable with it.

The King released Hermione and nodded to Riddle before turning and leaving, Johnalin staying behind a moment as he glared over at the juvenile Dark Lord. Hermione turned to Tom as he stood there, jaw clenched, watching Johnalin's back retreat from the room.

"We've got to work fast," Hermione whispered urgently as she rushed across the room to Tom. "Now's our chance since he is leaving. I won't have lessons, and the King won't be here so I will hardly be missed."

"Then we had better get back to that alley and check for the diary," Riddle instructed, still not taking his eyes off the door that Johnalin had disappeared through.

"Granger... get your lazy rear up," Tom hissed as he crept into her room in the dark. He had sneaked in once more and was walking blindly around her room. Suddenly, he tripped over a cushioned bench and fell on his face. He groaned as Hermione sat bolt upright in her bed and began looking around wildly.

"Tom?" Her voice was soft, almost scared.

"Who do you think?" His voice dripped with sarcasm and hatred as she slowly slid out of her high king-sized bed and slid on some slippers.

"What are you on about?"

"Well, I was trying to get in here to wake you up and let you know that I've come up with a plan, but someone left this Merlin forsaken bench in my bloody way," Riddle snarled viciously.

"What a temper! You're worse than anything I've ever seen," Hermione snapped. "Get up off the... floor," she demanded as she grabbed his arm and helped pull him up. "So, what's this plan?"

"My plan," Tom began snootily as he brushed himself off, "is to sneak out while the King is away with that cocksure Johnalin and the General... The guard around here is lax while they are away, I noticed that," Tom continued as he nodded toward the balcony.

Hermione could faintly hear him babbling about something, but for some reason she was too busy staring at his face. He had a certain handsome aura about him when he was in the dark. His eyes glittered and glinted, his hair gave him a dark, forbidding essence that made her feel drawn to him.

"Don't you agree?"

"What?"

"Are you even listening?"

Hermione just stared up at him and bit down on her bottom lip as he grunted with frustration and rolled his eyes while tossing his arms up in the air.

"Just like a girl... never listening. I should have known better than to work with her."

"Excuse me!" Hermione's anger jumped to life, and she began thrusting a finger into his chest as she ranted angrily at him. "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you! You... you and your stupid older counterpart, Voldemort! It's your ignorance that's got us here! You and your moronic diary!"

By now, Hermione had backed Tom up so far across the room that he was teetering near the bed as she gave one last painful poke at his chest and watched him fall back onto the matress. She shook her head, her slightly bushy curls bouncing in a gorgeous fashion at the sides of her head. This didn't phase Riddle though as he became angry with her for placing the blame on him for this situation.

"My fault! I think not! Who was it that threw the diary at me?"

"What was I supposed to do? Let you curse me?"

"It would be a hell of a lot better than being stuck here," teenaged Voldemort yelled in her face as he threw his arms up once more to gesture to their surroundings.

"Oh, yeah, sure it would," Hermione said sarcastically. "For you maybe."

"You shouldn't be so selfish!"

"Selfish? Selfish! Oh, you're one to talk Mr. I'm-One-Of-The-Biggest-Dark-Wizards-Of-The-Age-Who's-Trying-To-Take-Over-All-Of-The-Wizarding-World!" Hermione was in his face once more, but he just stared down at her, unmoved by her threat. Her eyes held a fire, and her lips were going white from being pursed so tightly. Tom had to admit that she was fiery, and it was, in a way, sexy.

'What! Where did that come from? Sexy? Get a hold on yourself,' he thought in disgust. Hermione noticed the sudden scrunch of his nose and the knitting of his eyebrows. She wondered what could give him such a look of disgust.

"What?"

"You just really need a breath mint," Riddle covered slyly as he waved his hand in front of his nose.

"You are such a prat!"

"And you have bad breath," Tom taunted as though what she said hadn't reached his ears. Hermione grunted furiously and turned on her heel before stomping out to the balcony. Once out there, she stared up at the stars before huffing out her breath onto her palm and sniffing it to check.

'My breath doesn't stink. I actually brushed my teeth before I went to bed,' Hermione thought sulkily. 'Git,' she added as an afterthought with even more anger.

Tom stood inside her room as he recalled his previous thoughts. He had thought her sexy. What was he thinking? This was the Mudblood, Granger. His arch-enemy's, Harry Potter's girlfriend, or at least The-Boy-Who-Lived's friend.

'No,' he thought suddenly 'She's not Potter's girlfriend. She's that red-haired Weasel's girl... No, not even that. He had left her for some other girl. I remember her blubbering about it to the diary... I really wish I could find that and get us- Wait! Get me out of here!' He turned to the balcony, but stopped as he heard something. There were soft sniffles coming from outside, and when he looked to Hermione's shadow upon the stone balcony floor, he watched her figure put a hand up to her face and make a gesture like wiping away a tear. 'Now what's she whining about?'

"Granger?" Riddle walked out onto the balcony, his firm voice startling Hermione as she wiped her cheeks furiously and inhaled deeply.

"Wh-," she began, but her voice was shaky. "What?" This time her voice was a big stronger, but it couldn't hide the fact she had been crying.

"Are you crying?"

"No," Hermione spat.

"You are too," Tom shot back quickly. "Why?"

"I'm... oh, you wouldn't understand," Hermione sighed.

"Try me. I understand everything about people. That's why I'm superior," Tom administered snidely.

"Superior?" Hermione mumbled in disbelief as she rolled her eyes. "For the love of magic."

"So, what's bothering the Mudblood?" This seemed to strike a nerve with Hermione because she rounded on him angrily and started to stalk toward him like she had done in the bedroom, ranting once more.

"Have you ever thought that it's the fact I'm stuck in some estranged time with you of all people and that I-," Hermione paused here as her voice caught in her throat. She lowered her voice and swallowed back hard. "That I miss being home with my friends."

Tears spilled out over her cheeks and rushed forward to drip from her jawline and die upon her nightgown. Within seconds, her tears were flowing quickly and freely and so rapidly that they had soaked her garment. She shivered as a breeze caught her and made the hair one her arms and neck prickle and stand on end. She closed her eyes and crossed her arms, huddling up against the wind while praying for the tears to stop and for her to wake up in her bed at Hogwarts.

"I-," Tom didn't know what to say. No one had ever done this type of thing to him. "I, uh-"

"You don't need to say anything because I already know what you think," Hermione said softly. "Stupid little Mudblood has useless feelings because all they do is make you weak," Hermione mimicked Riddle's snide hiss the best she could before glowering at him.

He was kind of shocked. No one had ever done that to him either. And in fact, that's exactly what he would have said could he have spoke. This surprised him further that someone knew him so well as to read his very thoughts and moves.

"So, let's just save each other a lot of grief, and you get out of my room, and I'll go back to bed. Both parting without another word." These words were so final that Tom had no choice but to obey as Hermione stepped past him into the room and climbed back into bed.

She scowled out at him and waited for him to leave. He did so, giving her one last glance from the corner of his eye as he left.

Hermione awoke the next morning to the sound of trays clattering and people whispering.

"Tom is that's yo-," Hermione began annoyedly as she rolled over and sat up, but she soon saw that it was her maids.

"Sorry to disturb you, milady," Mary began as she sat a tray on Hermione's lap. "It's just that you slept in late, and we had to get breakfast to you before it got cold."

"So we brought it up, that way you don't have to get out of bed if you don't like," Janessa added.

"Th-Thank you," Hermione said uncertainly.

She was about to take a drink of orange juice when someone came into the room with a jingling walk. It was Tom, and he was looking as though he were rather in a hurry.

"OH!"

"Get out!" Mary screamed as she rushed toward him.

"What?" Riddle hissed as the maids began pushing him out of the room.

"You can't be in the Princess's room!" Janessa scolded as they finally got him out into the hall and shut the door.

Hermione smiled slightly as she watched the two girls go back to setting up her wash bowl and picking out her clothes. They could really come in handy for when she got tired of the future Dark Lord. She shrugged and grabbed her toast, gratefully biting down into it as she felt today would be rather wonderful.