A/N: Here it is, the story behind the woman in the tower, and a little understanding between Tom and Hermione, though more from Tom's side. But, I won't say anymore on the chapter; I'll give my many thanks to the following people and let you go: PapayaCrazy, MandaPandaAR, tofuubeaver, xxxCheezItxxx, pottersgirl91, svelte, nehimasgift, litprincess, san01, Joou Himeko Dah, Silver Tears 11, hanvu, Kitty0617, Lizzy Evans, and Charming-Lynn. I'm simply thrilled; 149 reviews and that's only from 9 chapters. Fantastic, thanks again all! Now, on with the show...

Chapter 10 – Megalise Christian

"Now, what is your name?" Hermione asked as she sat the empty cup of tea on the tray. The prisoner had finished her meal, and Hermione found that the food seemed to make her talking a bit easier.

"Megalise Christian," the woman answered. "But you, Princess, may call me Meg."

"Well, Meg," Hermione sighed as she shifted her weight from her kneeling position and moved to sit on the stone with her legs beside her, "why are you here?"

"General Mardon and three of his young troops arrested me one day in my home for the use of witchcraft."

"Witchcraft?" Hermione asked a little excitedly.

"Yes. They said it was unnatural and that I had been the cause of the bewitching of several animals which belonged to my neighbors," Meg replied quietly.

"But you didn't really-"

"Hurt the animals? No," Meg sighed as she twisted her right arm in the uncomfortable shackle. "I'd never hurt a soul. On the contrary. I was making a potion for my other neighbor's son. The poor child has small pox and Scarlett fever."

"And they thought you were making something to harm animals with," Hermione finished for her in a sad, muttering tone.

"They said that those animals came to the castle for food and if some were to reach you or the King-," Meg informed, cutting her sentence short as Hermione frowned in realization.

"I'm sorry," Hermione sighed. "I'll be sure to speak to the King – I mean – my father about this at once."

"Don't fret yourself over it, dear Princess," Megalise croaked, her voice becoming hoarse once more. With a cough, she continued, "I'm set for death in two more weeks. I'm to be taken out into the country and burned at the stake."

"But you didn't do anything wrong!" Hermione protested urgently. "It's not fair!"

"Nothing's fair," Megalise mumbled as she gazed unblinkingly into Hermione's eyes, "Miss Hermione Granger."

Hermione gasped as she heard her own name. Her real name.

"How-how do you-"

"How do I know?" Meg chuckled froggily. "I might look weak, but a witch is never completely without power... but you would know that, wouldn't you?"

"Please, don't tell anyone!" Hermione gushed in a little more than a whisper. There was a moment's pause as Meg nodded, and Hermione looked around in discomfort.

"Not to worry... I'll take your secret to my grave," Meg promised.

"So, you're a Legilimens?" Hermione inquired.

"Is that what you call it? I always just thought that it was mind reading," Meg laughed in a growling sort of way.

"Yes, mind reading," the Gryffindor girl answered. Then something occurred to her. This woman knew magic. Maybe she could help them get back to the future, to 1997. "Do you know anything about time travel?" she asked quickly, almost too fast for Meg to hear in the joyfulness that filled her and overflowed into her speech.

"A little, yes," Meg replied. "I once before transported myself five minutes prior to the time that I had been in."

"That's all?" the younger of the two frowned.

"Enthusiasm dies fast for you, doesn't it?" the older observed.

"It's hard not to let it die so easily," the teen explained. "I have no hope of getting back to my time, and I'm beginning to feel homesick."

"Don't give up just yet," Meg encouraged. "There's time."

"I don't know if I can trust time anymore," Hermione muttered. "Someone meddling with time and its properties is what got me here in the first place."

"I'll tell you what," Meg whispered. "I'll help you. Now, here's what you need to do."

Hermione leaned in a little, listening carefully as Meg gave her instructions. Hermione wished that Tom was there at that moment to share in the secret discovery and adventurous feeling with her. But then she wondered why she would wish such a thing. 'What's wrong with me? I've been wishing for his company all morning,' Hermione thought. She shook the ponderings from her head and continued to listen to Meg, her anticipation for adventure getting to a high.

"There you are!" Tom sibilated as he saw Hermione in her room putting on a maid's outfit.

"Ugh! Get out!" she shrieked as she rushed to cover herself as she was only in the corseted undergarment she wore beneath her dress. She had yet to get the skirt on.

"Hold your knickers on," he chuckled teasingly.

Hermione scowled and rolled her eyes at him as she waited for him to turn around. He walked over to her wardrobe and played with the handle of the door, pulling it open and watching her in the mirror. He turned around when she was done, looking her up and down as she rubbed dirt off her shoe bottoms.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she began rubbing the dirt on her cheeks and forehead.

"None of your business!" she hissed as she grabbed a basket and tucked her wand inside it, covering the wooden stick with a cloth.

"I believe it is my business," Riddle said forcefully as he advanced on her, grabbing her by her elbow when he reached her. She glared up at him with eyes full of malice as she stood completely still and quiet.

"Well?" he prompted.

"I'm going into town if you must know," Hermione answered shortly.

"Why though?" Tom inquired as he loosened his grip.

"Instead of having me explain," Hermione sighed impatiently, "why not follow?"

"Because it's a stupid idea to follow someone who can't prove that they know what they're doing," Riddle replied in a stuck-up manner. "And besides, I follow no one."

"Fine!" she snapped before jerking her arm from his hand and storming out of the room.

'I'm not going to follow her because she wants me to... I'm just going to go after her and make sure she doesn't get into trouble,' Tom assured himself as he started out of the room after her. 'Why do I care though?' He paused for a moment and thought about this, but deciding that he would pick over it later, he continued to rush to catch up with Hermione.

He finally caught her outside at the gates where two castle guards had stopped her. Riddle wondered if they had found out she was really the Princess, or rather Hermione who was pretending to be the Princess who was trying to act like a servant. 'This girl acts like far too many people,' Tom mused as he stopped with the group.

"I'm merely going into town to pick up some things for dinner. The chef's request," Hermione muttered, trying not to sound like herself.

The guards exchanged weary glances and then shook their heads.

"We'll have to check with the chef to be certain," the guard stated importantly.

Tom gritted his teeth in aggravation. This was far too stupid in his opinion. The guards seemed to be in need of a little persuasion. Riddle bent his wrist, trying to tuck his long fingers up into his sleeve. His wand came sliding down into his palm, and he aimed it at the one guard while mumbling a spell.

"Imperio," Tom whispered.

'Let her go. It'll be all right. Why bother yourself with the trouble of going into the castle in search of the chef just to ask what you already know?' Tom thought as he tried to persuade the guard. Riddle could see the guards eyes sort of glass over as he nodded.

"You're free to go," he said stiffly.

"But-"

"Let her go," the first guard commanded the second who was confusedly protesting.

"Besides," Tom chimed up, making Hermione jumped and whip around to face him. "I'll escort her."

"Very well," the second guard agreed uncertainly. Riddle smirked, lifting his curse once they were down the drive of the castle and heading into town.

"I suppose I should thank you," Hermione grumbled as though it pained her to admit it. She usually wasn't a proud sort of person who couldn't admit when she was wrong or owed something to someone, but when it came to Tom, that was a different story.

"I suppose you do. So, to thank me," he gloated, "you can tell me where you're going."

"I'm going to a house just on the edge of town," she replied vaguely.

"Who's house? I know for certain you don't know anyone around here besides myself, and even that's only a limited acquaintance."

"Well, Riddle," she hissed, "I took the liberty of getting some help."

"Help?" Tom barked. "From who? Who did you tell?"

"I didn't tell anyone," Hermione retaliated. She sighed and rolled her eyes before continuing as he shook his head at her in frustration. "Remember the person up in the tower?"

"You didn't!" Riddle groaned, knowing all too well that she did.

"Well, she happens to be a witch," Hermione informed.

"Granger, you ignorant wench," he growled. Hermione rounded on him quickly, face full of rage and shock.

"Wench? I'm sorry, Tom, but a wench I'm not!" she roared.

"Be quiet!" he ordered while looking at passing people who were staring at the two of them.

Hermione huffed and shook her head, turning and stalking off down the street. They came to the end of town, and she looked at the three lone houses. 'Not the one with a stable,' she eliminated in her mind. 'Now was it on the right or left?'

"Lost, are you?" Riddle interjected.

"No," she spat. "Just you never mind. I don't need your help."

"Oh, now you don't need my help. Well, I've got news for you, Granger, you're not getting any further ahead of me in this getting back business, understand? Everything you know, I'll know," he stated arrogantly.

"Fine! Whatever," she relented with an angry sigh before walking up to a house and peering into the window. "This is it." She walked over to the door, pulling her wand from the basket and unlocking the door. "Alohomora!"

The door clicked and creaked open slightly as Hermione looked to the two neighboring houses to make sure no one was watching as she and Tom slipped in. Once inside, Hermione shut the door and began looking around its dust and dirt covered book shelves for the books and things she was instructed to get.

"So, if you didn't tell her," Riddle spoke up, his voice hollow in the abandoned house. "Then how did she know?"

"She's a Legilimens," Hermione answered distractedly as she pulled a book from the shelf and put it in the basket under the cloth.

"And what makes you think she can help us?" he inquired as he opened a drawer and found a small bag of coins.

"She said she's transported herself through time to five minutes prior," Hermione sighed as she moved to the next bookcase.

"We want to go to the future, Granger, not five minutes ago," Tom reminded needlessly as he slipped the coin pouch onto his belt.

"I know that, genius," Hermione sibilated. "And put those back!"

Tom looked over his shoulder at her. Did this girl have eyes in the back of her head? He rolled his own eyes and shut the drawer, not listening to her.

"So, if you know that, then how do you suppose she'll help us?" Riddle quizzed as he fingered a crystal ball under a moth eaten cloth.

"I don't know!" Hermione snapped. "Having three heads is better than two, don't you think?"

"Not really, because I'm afraid you won't have a head long after this," he said cockily as though he could care less.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she snarled as she turned and glared at him with her hands on her hips.

"It means, stupid," Tom crabbed, "that as soon as she gets the chance, she's going to expose you to save her own neck."

"Oh... ridiculous," Hermione spoke hatefully. "She wouldn't do that!"

"And how do you know?" he demanded.

"I-," she began, but she really didn't have anything to say about it.

"You what?" he urged in an annoyingly cocky manner for he knew he had won.

"She just wouldn't," the Gryffindor sighed uncertainly so that she at least had the last word.

She turned back to the book shelf and continued her search for the objects on her mental list. She tucked the last thing in the basket and headed toward the door. Tom was already there, leaning against the wall beside the door as he waited. She opened it and stepped out into the afternoon light, not daring to look at him as she went. He sensed her dashed hopes and shattered confidence and suddenly felt to blame. What was this remorsefulness that he felt? He had never before felt something like this, and to be completely truthful, it bothered him. He didn't like it one bit.

Swallowing his pride, he walked up behind her and grabbed the basket, but she didn't release. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but she still didn't return his look. Releasing his hold on the handle of the basket, she quickened her walking, putting herself four feet ahead of him all the way back up to the castle.

Once they were inside, Hermione went straight up to her room and shut the door behind her. Tom stood outside waiting for her to change back into her clothes from earlier that day. When she emerged, he looked over at her and felt his gaze stuck upon her features.

The afternoon sun was shining out into the corridor from her room, and as it did, it made a halo of light around her. Her hair lightened to a light blondish brown, and her eyes grew darker as her face was cast into a bit of shadow. He stared at her in an unblinking way that made her turn slowly to look behind her.

"What are you looking at?" she asked as she turned back to him when she saw no one behind herself.

"Noth-nothing," Riddle replied while shaking his head. "Let's get on," he added while nodding down the corridor.

Hermione turned, basket in her hand, and headed for the tower where Megalise was kept. Tom locked the tower door behind them, and they started up the stairs. When he reached the top, he stood back, not moving from the top stair. Hermione, on the other hand, walked over and knelt down next to Meg, uncovering the contents of the basket. Meg sighed and looked up at the younger witch, but as she did, she caught sight from the corner of her eye the figure standing on the landing of the stairs. She turned her head and looked at Riddle, her eyes growing wide with horror once she saw him.

"Get away!" she shouted, her voice faltering and becoming hoarse as she began kicking her legs. Meg pulled at the shackles around her hands, digging them into the skin on her wrists as she tired fruitlessly to free herself. She let out panicked sounds as her breathing picked up, Hermione looking wildly back and forth between Meg and Tom.

"Meg. Meg!" Hermione pleaded as she tried to calm her.

"No!" Megalise bellowed.

Riddle stood dumbfounded. He had never seen this woman before in his life and here she was freaking out at the sight of him. He wanted his image to inspire fear, but this was just plain strange.

Meg continued to lash about as Hermione stood up and backed away. The Gryffindor girl was unsure of just what to do. She turned to Tom, her eyes now wide with shock and panic as well.

"What did you do?" she quizzed fearfully.

"It's one of them!" Meg gasped, still trying to free herself and get as far away from the young Dark Lord as possible.

"One of who, Meg?" Hermione inquired as she stepped closer once again.

"Those devils!" the older witch replied breathlessly.

"No, no," the pretend Princess tried to reason. "Tom's with me... he's not really a soldier. He's a friend."

At those words, Tom turned his gaze to Hermione, yet she didn't notice. 'A friend?' he thought. 'Me? A friend to her? But she's a-' he almost thought Mudblood, but realized that would be the pot calling the cauldron black. His blood wasn't the purest either. 'She's just trying to get back like me,' Tom finally concluded, so that supposedly made them some sort of odd companions. At this realization, his eyes flashed with a sparkle of sympathy and understanding for the first time in his life, even if only for a second.