A/N: Y'all know the drill: Kitty0617, xxxCheezItxxx, nehimasgift, Lizzy Evans, MandaPandaAR, Silver Tears 11, pottersgirl91, svelte, ellamalfoy8, litprincess, Charming-Lynn, san01, Joou Himeko Dah, and PhanPhic-adict. Lovely, brilliant, fantastic people you all are!

Chapter 11 – The King's Return

Hermione spent the next five minutes trying to calm Meg down, finally getting her to stop lashing about at least.

"Listen," the younger of the two witches sighed, a little breathless herself. "Tom will not hurt you."

"That's Aramis... one of the General's inside men," Megalise cried. "He's one of the four I told you helped the General arrest me!"

"No," Hermione soothed. "He's from the future as well. He's here with me."

The older witch said nothing, but simply looked at the young girl before her. Meg's face was still filled with doubt as she concentrated on Hermione's eyes. 'He's truly not Aramis, I promise,' Hermione thought, hoping the Legilimens could read that. Meg then turned to Riddle, and Hermione jerked her head in a gesture for him to get closer. He sighed boredly and almost angrily as he stepped forward, crouching down so he sat on the toes of his boots.

"Look at her," the Gryffindor directed.

"So she can read my thoughts?" Tom scoffed incredulously. "I don't think so!"

"You're just afraid of what she might see," Hermione challenged. Her eyes bugged at little at what she had said. She hadn't even thought about that before she said it. The words just kind of jumped off her tongue.

The future Dark Lord gaped at her a second before cocking an eyebrow. Apparently, he was just as shocked as she was about what she had said. In the moment that he was staring at Hermione, Meg gazed at him in concentration. Riddle's head suddenly snapped toward her, and he screwed up in concentration.

"Fight all you like," the woman sighed. "I've already seen what's in there." He glowered at her, disliking her already. "He's an evil one, him," Meg advised Hermione. "You sure you should be friends with him?"

"I'm not afraid of him," the teen witch whispered to the older, though she knew Tom could hear it as she smirked at him for he rolled his eyes and snorted impatiently.

"Are we going to get this on with or what?" he rushed.

"Well, unless you plan on being my hands," Meg snapped back.

Riddle said nothing as he pulled out his wand and aimed it at the keyhole on the shackles. Hermione felt her stomach ball up a bit as she feared what he could do to her hands if he messed up. He narrowed his eyes on the shackles and soon they were falling to the floor. He pursed his lips somewhat and stepped back, tucking his wand back into his belt and under his military uniform jacket once more.

"So, what exactly is your plan here?" Hermione asked as Megalise began rummaging in the basket containing her things.

"Do you see this?" Meg asked as she held up a locket on a rather large gold chain.

"Yes," the teenaged girl replied.

"We're going to use the Time Turner concept of the necklace, but it won't work exactly like a Time Turner," Meg explained. "You can't go forward in time with those."

"Obviously," Tom grumbled. Meg shot him a rather scathing look as Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"If you know so much about it, then why aren't you down here helping?" the aged witch shot, coughing a bit after as her voice became hoarse.

"I'll tell you that I've done much more to send myself through time than you have," Riddle hissed. Just as Meg was about to protest, Hermione cut in as a sudden thought hit her.

"That's right!"

"What?" the eldest of the three gasped. "You're agreeing with him?"

"Not really," Hermione apologized to Megalise. "But he has sent himself through time in a way. Tom... could we use the same concept as the diary preservation that you used?" He shrugged and smirked knowingly.

"The diary concept would call for something I don't think you have the heart to do," he stated simply.

"What do you... it's a Horcrux," Hermione finally muttered in realization. "I'm not killing anyone so I can split my soul. No way... nothing doing!"

"Fine, Granger," the adolescent Voldemort shrugged. "Then we're going to have to meddle with the concept of time and make a Time Turner that will send us forward in time. Good luck with that." She glared at Tom before rolling her eyes and turning back to Meg.

"What do you think? Can we create some sort of ripple in time to get us back to the future?" Hermione questioned.

"It would take a lot of magic and quite a bit of research to be able to create that ripple. A lot of study on time and time travel... and a great deal of thinking and even more power to pinpoint the exact time," the woman informed. "I don't know if we have that much time to work on that."

"And there's a danger you didn't mention," Tom spoke up smartly. "There's the threat of time having a glitch, and the two of us getting thrown into another, totally different time where we could end up worse off than we are here." Hermione frowned, and her shoulders slumped. This was looking hopeless.

"Don't give up hope," Meg whispered. "There might be a way for us to get you back where you belong."

"It's going to be a sli-"

"Shh!" Riddle ordered urgently as he walked over to the tower window. "The King's back! Quick... we've got to get out of here."

"What about the books and stuff? Meg's shackles?" Hermione pointed out in a panicked way. He wasted no time in whipping out his wand and creating a cubby hole in the wall for the basket and its contents. "Hurry!" she gasped as she watched the King walking up to the castle front doors.

"Don't move," Tom ordered Meg as he waved the wand at her shackles. The iron bracelets few back up around her wrists and ankles, the largest of the five moving back up around her neck as she moved her hood back into place. "Those will come off because that's merely a charm to help them stick there, but don't jerk around too much while those idiots are up here or else you'll be found out," he informed as he and Hermione headed for the stairs.

"We'll be back later," the young girl called as her companion drug her down the stairs.

"C'mon... we haven't time for goodbyes," Riddle snapped.

They made it to the bottom and locked the door behind them, both now rushing along the corridor to the upstairs study. Hermione dropped down into a seat, opening a book in front of her as Tom stood at the door as though on guard. Footsteps could be heard on the stairs up to the second floor, booming voices accompanying them.

"Ah, there's my beautiful daughter!" the King bellowed happily as he entered the room.

The youthful Dark Lord snorted at this and rolled his eyes, earning a glare from Johnalin who had came into the room with the King.

"Father!" Hermione beamed as she stood from her chair and hugged the man. "I'm so happy that you're home."

"As am I, my dear. Come... let us go sit in the sun room, and you can tell me of all that I missed," the King said sweetly as he put an arm around Hermione's shoulder and guided her from the room.

Tom wandered around the castle while waiting for Hermione to finish her little pretend father-daughter moment. He rolled his eyes in boredom and sighed heavily. The castle was a complete bore to him. He started up the stairs and stopped on the first flight when he head two voices.

"Well, make her!" a gruff, angered voice growled. It was General Mardon.

"How am I supposed to when that idiot Aramis keeps getting in my way?" snapped another male voice.

"Listen to me, Porthos," Mardon sibilated. "No son of mine will be put out of his rightful place on the throne by some pompous little snot like Aramis. I'll fix him... you take care of luring that stupid Princess in. The sooner you two marry, the sooner we can have the King kick the bucket and move you in."

Tom's eyes grew wide. Porthos was General Mardon's son? And they were going to kill the King? This was bad. Riddle strained his ears to listen some more as he heard them continue talking.

"Then we poison the little soon-to-be Queen," Porthos laughed, "and I have free reign of the country."

'It just got a whole lot bloody worse,' Tom thought in shock. They were going to kill not only the King, but Hermione too. And what was General Mardon going to do to him, Tom, to 'fix him'? Riddle heard footsteps and panicked, he had to do something. He Apparated, probably not his best idea, but the quickest. He reappeared inside Hermione's room just as the door opened. Hermione gasped and stared at him for a moment before shutting the door quickly and scolding him.

"Are you out of your Merlin forsaken, bloody mind?" she hissed. "That could have been one of the maids! Then what would you have done? Hmm? What would you have done if they had saw you popping up into my room out of thin air?"

"Well, it wasn't them. It was you," Tom shrugged. "Besides, I had to get away from where I was quickly or else I was going to be in some very big trouble."

"Eavesdropping? Or were you watching the maids change?" Hermione questioned. Tom's expression became wild with scandalized furrows and disbelief.

"Oh, please," he scoffed.

"Don't think I haven't seen those other boys peeking into the maids' quarters," she stated matter-of-factly. "It's rather disgusting really... Boys."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "So what did you tell the King?"

"N-Nothing," Hermione replied a little uncertainly.

"Granger... you didn't tell him about that girl up in the tower, did you?" Tom snapped incredulously.

"Well... maybe," she muttered.

"Ah, Granger! You imbecile!" Riddle burst.

"Excuse me?" the Gryffindor snapped.

"You heard me. Now the King is going to have her head," Tom pointed out.

"No, he's not," Hermione stated coolly.

"What d'you mean 'he's not'?" Riddle inquired as he mocked Hermione.

"Just that, he's not. He's going to order that she be set free. I told him that they were keeping her up there and not feeding her and that it was a complete crime to treat her so. I told him I found her and that I went to her neighbors and asked about her, to which the replied to me by saying that she was a good neighbor who wouldn't do any such thing," Hermione responded happily as though she thought the world of her deed.

"Yeah, and if Mardon's word goes up against yours?" Tom reminded.

"Now, who is the King going to believe?" she quizzed. "His darling, precious daughter, me? Or Mardon?"

"Whatever, Granger," Riddle mumbled. "So, what are we going to do now? I mean, if they move her back to her home, how are we going to get to her without you being seen?"

"Apparate, of course," Hermione replied as if it were the simplest answer.

"You can't Apparate back into the castle! You just yelled at me about that," he roared in outrage.

"My goodness, do you have mood swings or what?" Hermione intoned snappishly. "We'll Apparate there and walk back up here."

"Don't you think it would look just a little bit odd when you come walking up to the gate to be let in when you didn't go walking down to the gate to be let out?" Tom informed.

"And don't you realize that they change guards every three hours? I'll just simply tell them that the guards before them let me go," she shrugged off.

"Yeah, like that will work," he muttered haughtily.

"It will, you just watch... Now," she sighed contentedly, "if you'll excuse me, I've got to get ready for dinner with the King, and you should get out of here before anyone sees you."

"Yeah, yeah," Riddle grumbled, "go stuff your face, Princess."

"I will," Hermione laughed, deciding not to let his comment get to her.

With that, she pushed him out of the room and began to wash and ready herself for dinner. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, noticing that her face was a bit peaky. She frowned. This time period was really bringing about its toll on her. She prepared to fix that as she grabbed the powder, at least that was one good thing this time had. It had the basic make-up that she needed to cover up the horrid bags under her eyes and the pale look of her face.

She finished and left the room, going straight down to the dining hall where the King was already sat down to dinner with Johnalin. Hermione took her seat and looked at the large glazed pork in front of her. She went to reach for the large fork to put some on her plate when a butler of sorts stepped up and served her. 'No privacy and no way to do things on my own. I don't like this whole being waited on hand and foot thing,' she thought sullenly. She began eating all the same though. The faster she got done, the faster she could go back up to her room and talk to Tom. 'Talk to Tom? Since when have I been so keen on being in his company?' she pondered a little angrily as she stabbed her pork with her eating utensil.

"Something the matter, dear?" the King asked as he turned from his conversation with Johnalin to Hermione.

"No, nothing. I'm just not real hungry right now," Hermione admitted as she looked past the King and out the window where Riddle now stood, leaning against the wall and staring about with his arms crossed.

"If you don't eat, then you'll be ill," the King frowned. "Please try and eat?"

"For you," she mumbled as she took a nibble of the pork. It was rather salty, but she ate it nonetheless, wishing Tom was in there to talk to her as the King and Johnalin began conversing again.

Meanwhile, young Voldemort stood outside leaning against the wall while listening to two soldiers just around the corner.

"Yeah, Mardon said we're to move her tomorrow night."

"But why?" asked the second soldier.

"Said someone was nosing around and found her... so she needs moved," the first solider replied. "I guess the King confronted him about it."

"Bet Mardon was furious about that," the second soldier chuckled.

"Oh, believe me, he's even moved up the witch's death penalty. She's to be gone in another four nights," the first soldier informed.

Tom's ears pricked, and his stomach felt like someone had iced it over. Megalise was going to be moved and executed executed much sooner than planned. This really put a damper on their work. He had to warn Hermione. He looked inside and saw that she was leaving the dining hall while Johnalin and the King were still in conversation. Johnalin, however, noticed Riddle peering in at the supposed Princess. The tutor frowned as the King continued to talk oblivious to what was going on, Tom began heading toward Hermione's balcony.