A/N: Welp, first off, the winners for the preview were: Maeve18 and hippychick21. The translation was: Adesso sono via scrivere il capitolo quattordici, dunque piace e non dimentica di riesaminare! Now I'm off to write chapter fourteen, hope you enjoy this one and don't forget to review. It's Italian and that's what it roughly translates to... if I were to give it word-for-word, it would sound rather funny. Many others were very brilliant and able to guess that it was Italian, I commend you all for that.

And now the usual thank you's for reviewing: hippychick21, ellamalfoy8, nehimasgift, Silver Tears 11, xxxCheezItxxx, pottersgirl91, BlackRoseOrchid, PhanPhic-adict, Maeve18, litprincess, intoxicating.jellybeans, svelte, Addicted2Love, Lizzy Evans, Joou Himeko Dah, san01, The Dead Addict. . ., and cokerpoker. I can hardly believe I'm at 213 reviews! I didn't expect 200 even!

Chapter 14 – Pretend, Pretend

Hermione and Tom were now racing across the grounds of the university, the Gryffindor girl in the lead as the future Dark Lord looked all around for anyone who might have spotted them. 'To say this is a university, it sure is an empty place,' he thought as she stopped outside the stable while adjusting the shrunken books in her hand.

"I hate to take these away from the university," she frowned as he pulled her into the shadows of the stable while the monk emerged.

"You can't be serious, Granger," he grumbled as he peeked around the corner and watched the monk get farther away. "There are far more important things to worry about. Now, c'mon." He led her into the stables and down the aisle that was in the middle of the wooden building. They soon found the two horses, saddles removed, and stamping their feet as they shook their heads.

Hermione walked up to one of the creatures and began petting its white, brown-spotted fur, laughing as it snorted and rubbed its nose in her hand. The short hairs on the soft skin of its muzzle tickled her palm, and she smiled, her eyes meeting the steed's large, glittering brown ones.

"Look," Riddle directed in a little more than a whisper. She turned to him, and he nodded to a gate at the far end of the stable.

"But it's chained and locked," she pointed out with a frown.

Tom stared at her for a moment before sighing heavily and closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Are you sure you're the smartest witch of your year at Hogwarts, because if you are, then there are some really thick headed people out there," Voldemort's youthful counterpart insulted.

Hermione said nothing as she was embarrassed by her own stupidity as he walked over and pulled out his wand. She kept watch as he unlocked the padlock and removed the chain, laying it aside as while cracking the door and looking out.

"Granger! Come look at this," Riddle ordered somewhat excitedly.

"What is it?" the curious Gryffindor asked as she walked over to where Tom was peeking out the door.

When she got close enough, he threw the door completely open, and she saw before her a field of tall, bright green grass that bent over under its own weight and from a light breeze that was sending it moving in waves. She stared in awe for a moment, her eyes roaming the view as they took in the field and a forest a short way off behind the university. She turned to Riddle and grinned like a child at Christmas.

They turned to head back to the horses, but spotted trouble. The monk was on his way back in, two buckets of water sloshing on either side of him.

"He's bound to see us," Hermione gasped quietly as Tom pulled the doors shut and moved her over in front of them to hide the missing chain and lock. He looked back quickly over his shoulder and saw that the monk was now in the stable and sitting the buckets down. Without really thinking, Tom turned to Hermione and bent slightly, pressing his lips to hers.

She stood rooted to the spot, her eyes wide in shock. This all seemed rather familiar to her, yet something was missing. There was not a stench of alcohol, no burning, putrid aroma to ruin it. 'Ruin it?' she pondered. Was she even enjoying it?

Who the hell was she trying to kid? Of course she did. She closed her eyes and pushed back a bit, but just as she did, he pulled away and looked back over his shoulder. The monk seemed a little bewildered as to what to do at first, but then he smiled, gave a curt nod, and left quickly.

"C'mon," Riddle instructed as he turned and headed for a black horse, levitating a saddle and buckling it into place. "Granger?" Hermione didn't respond. "Granger!"

She jumped slightly. She still hadn't moved from where she had been standing when he kissed her. He sighed and walked over, throwing the doors open behind her and letting the breeze blow in on her and awaken her.

"We best get going," he informed as he led his horse out of the stall and watched Hermione struggle with getting the buckle done while keeping the saddle in place. "Here."

He came over quickly and helped her, checking the entrance before he led both horses from the stable and out the back door into the field.

"Um... Tom," Hermione muttered.

"What is it now, Granger?" he asked as he put his foot in the stirrup and grabbed the saddle to hoist himself upward.

"I need your help."

"With wh-," he began as he removed his foot and turned to look at her.

She was standing beside her horse, holding the hem of her dress up to her shins and looking nervously from the stirrup to Riddle as frown lines creased her forehead. He groaned, rolled his eyes, and sighed before walking over and pulling out his wand.

"What are yo-"

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he drawled boredly as he gave a swish and flick of his wrist.

"Tom!" Hermione shrieked as she began floating up in the air and over to her horse. "This isn't the kind of help-"

"It got you up there, didn't it?" he interrupted as he handed her the reins once she was sitting securely in the saddle.

"I feel stupid," she complained.

"You look it," he taunted as he looked up at her, shielding his eyes from the sun with a hand hovering over his eyes.

Her skirt was pulled up to her knees now so she could sit comfortably, and the puffy, white linen of the pants on her undergarments were showing. Tom heaved another sigh, putting his wand safely in his belt before putting his foot back in the stirrup and grabbing the saddle once more. He pulled himself upward while pushing down with the foot in the stirrup, but soon found himself sliding backward.

"What th- ough!" Riddle groaned as he landed, his saddle laying on top of his stomach.

Hermione giggled, but he glowered at her as he pushed the saddle off and fixed it once more. Double checking it, he mounted his horse perfectly that time, and took the reins in his hand as he set off after Hermione who was ten feet ahead of him and heading toward the woods.

"Where are you going?" he asked as he caught up, slowing his horse from its quick paced trot.

"We can follow the woods so that we aren't seen," Hermione replied as she gave him an exultant look.

Tom merely rolled his eyes, and they continued on their way toward the woods. They paralleled with it once they reached the first line of trees and went on riding. Ten minutes into the ride, and Hermione was becoming restless with the silence as something nagged at her mind. Why had he kissed her? The words slipped from her mouth before she knew it.

"Tom... back there in the stable, why did you... why did you kiss me?" she inquired. His eyes widened, and he quickly looked over at her.

"I-I was... I was just trying to get that monk to go away. I figured if he saw us kissing, then he would leave," Riddle replied with a hint of uncertainty. "Which – I'd like to add – he did."

"Yes, but we could have just as easily hid down behind the stall and waited for him to leave," she pointed out.

"Well... waited? We didn't have the time," he countered quickly.

"I'm sure five to ten minutes more wouldn't have hurt," she quipped.

He stared at her as she gazed at him with an expectant eye. He shook his head and then looked straight ahead of himself.

"It was the only option I saw at the time, and it worked well enough, so drop it. It's done and over, in the past. Now leave it there. Because believe me I enjoyed it about as much as you did," Tom hissed before snapping the reins in his hand. His horse picked up the pace, moving out head of Hermione's by four or five steps.

She sighed and bowed her head, her heart feeling as though it were breaking.

"But I did enjoy it... a lot," she mumbled to herself as she continued to let him lead the way.

"Meg?" Hermione called softly as she entered the cave, stooping as she walked until she reached the center and straightened up. Hermione could see a faint light moving slowly in a back and forth motion. She strained her eyes too see, but soon became distracted by something.

A stirring from the corner and then a loud rumbling issued by Tom as he levitated the large rock back in front of the cave opening. A fire burst to life, and she squinted around the new orange brightness to see him tucking his wand back up his sleeve.

"Nice to see you again," Megalise smiled to the younger witch as she stood from a corner where she had been sitting with a book. "Nox!" She put out her wand and slid it into a tattered pocket on her robe-like garment.

"We don't have time for niceties," Riddle stated as he sat down on a rock near the fire and gazed into the snapping embers.

Hermione said nothing to this, but Meg threw him a quick glare. 'Prat,' she thought. 'I'd like to see him be locked up as I am and not try and have small talk with the only person who will listen.' Nonetheless, she pulled out a broken, tarnished pocket watch and two spell books.

"That reminds me," Hermione spoke up as she pulled her wand from her sleeve and pulled at the opposite sleeve.

Some books came tumbling down into her hand, and she took a seat on a rock across the fire from Tom. She began enlarging them and handing them to the older witch who looked curiously at each cover and spine.

"Angelus Silesius?" Meg read from the side of a dark green book.

"He's a philosopher and poet... he was actually a Squib, but he still studied magic, hoping to cure his inability to do magic," Hermione answered. "He had a theory about suspension of time by mental powers."

"Sort of like a Divination thing?" Meg inquired as she laid that book aside and picked up another.

"Divinations is a weak subject," the young Dark Lord muttered as he picked at the cuff of his sleeve.

"Then why would you care about a simple prophecy made by someone about your future self and Harry?" Hermione fired back. "I don't believe in Divinations either, but there is power in mental things such as nonverbal spells."

He stared at her, unimpressed by her. He watched the heat rising from the fire blur her image a bit, and he began to ponder over the short time they had been stuck in their current situation. How did he get from inside her room, inspiring fear in her as he threatened to kill her, to sitting in a cave with her and some stranger from 1797 while she gave him cheek?

'You know how you got here... or at least have a vague idea,' he told himself. 'But something isn't quite right. Being in this time is breaking you down... No! I, Lord Voldemort, am not breaking down among the weakness of Muggles and Mudbloods. I'm just... what is happening here?' he continued to wonder as he stared at Hermione who had a book open, showing Meg something.

'You're still the same person, you've just found something that's been missing along,' a voice that sickened Tom whispered in his ear.

'Nothing was missing from me... I am Voldemort. Complete and whole... The best.'

'She was missing,' the voice whispered again. 'Love was missing.'

"I don't love her," Riddle grumbled to himself.

"What?" Meg asked as she and Hermione looked up at him as he shifted and shook his head in a 'nothing' gesture.

'Then why did you kiss her? She was right!' the voice mocked him.

Tom huffed angrily and picked up the book for Angelus Silesius, flipping through it mindlessly, his eyes barely even skimming the pages.

"We could do what Merlin did here," Hermione said as she looked up from the book she was holding.

She pointed to a sentence on the page, and Meg studied it. The older woman nodded, and Tom tossed aside the book he had been looking at as he leaned forward, trying to see past the heat waves and flames of the fire.

"What?" he questioned.

Hermione handed him the book which had a rather elaborate picture of a woman sleeping on a stone table as a wizened wizard stood over her, his staff raised high in the air as he preformed a spell. Riddle studied the picture as Hermione continued to talk.

"The passage on that page says that Merlin cast a spell over King Arthur's granddaughter to make her sleep for five hundred years," she lectured. "Why couldn't we cast a spell of similar effect and just sleep out our time here until 1997? It's almost like the Muggle equivalent of cryogenic freezing."

"Cryo-what?" Meg quizzed.

"Cryoge-"

"There's two problems with that," Tom spoke up as he snapped the book shut, cutting the Gryffindor girl off. "One: this doesn't mention anything about how we would age. We could be two hundred eighteen years old by the time we wake, and I don't know about you, but that's stretching it for even a wizard whose average age is 150, if that. We're not Flamel here. We don't have the Sorcerer's Stone." Hermione and Meg just stared at him in obvious annoyance as he sighed and continued. "And two: We have no real way of controlling when we wake. Who's to say we would sleep for just two hundred years and not something like three hundred years, or like that Muggle's granddaughter with five hundred years. We'd be in quite a bit of trouble, then... maybe even more so than now."

"Fine," Hermione hissed quickly as she snatched the book back from him and laid it aside before picking up another. She sat flipping through the pages until she was over half way through and then she stopped. She began skimming a paragraph before shaking her head and laying that book aside as well. She picked up a third and was about to open the cover when an idea came to her. "What if we found a way to sort of postpone our aging process and just lived out the years."

"Like a Fountain of Youth thing?" Meg suggested.

"Yes!" the more youthful of the two nodded fervently.

"And where, pray tell, do you suggest we find this Fountain of Youth? Or how might we create one?" Riddle asked cockily.

Hermione stood suddenly, slamming the book to the floor as she yanked her wand from her sleeve and stormed toward the cave entrance.

"Hermione!" Megalise called as she too stood up.

There was a loud rumbling and a shedding of bright sunlight that told them that Hermione had moved the door-like boulder. Tom jumped up at this point and went out to see what she was doing. He exited the cave just in time to see Hermione standing on a rock to get a boost at mounting her horse.

"Where are you going?" he called as she settled herself into her saddle and took the reins in her hands.

"Away from you and your know-it-all attitude... That cave isn't big enough for me and your big head to be in at the same time, you self-assured megalomaniac!" Hermione roared before snapping the reins and taking off at a quick paced trot.

"Granger!" Riddle yelled at her back as she headed back toward the university.

"Very nice, Mr. Ego," Meg said stonily. "Why must you always insult her so?"

"Just shut your face and get back in the cave," he snarled as he rounded on her.

"You're certainly not my boss. If I were you, I'd be less worried about giving orders and be more worried about going after her and apologizing. She did nothing to you to deserve your attitude towards her."

"What would you know?" Tom sneered.

"A lot more than you think," she answered coolly as she stared him directly in the eye.

Riddle narrowed his eyes and stared straight back. He had no idea of what was really going on until he heard a soft, almost maniacal chuckle in the back of his mind. He quickly diverted his eyes to the ground as he saw a smirk spread on her face from the corner of his eye.

"So, that's why you give her attitude?" Meg taunted. "Well, let me tell you, being a pompous ass is not the way into a girl's heart."

His head shot upward, and he gaped at her as she cocked her brow and headed back into the cave.

"Prying into other's thoughts is wrong!" he bellowed at her.

"Well, well," she said in mock surprise as she poked her head back out of the cave. "Apparently she's teaching you quite a bit... not only how to love, but how to have a conscience as well."

"I don't love her!" Tom shouted.

"Lie all you like," Megalise shrugged with a slight laugh. "I know what I read in that tiny little mind of yours."

He clenched his fists as she disappeared into the cave again with a loud snicker. He felt his blood boiling and the heat rising fast in his face, but there was also heat somewhere else. He looked down at his wrist and saw bright, fire red sparks shooting from up his sleeve. He quickly broke open the cuff, the buttons flying off as he shook his arm. His wand fell to his feet, and he began surveying the burn, which looked rather like a cigarette burn and was just above his wrist. He shook his head and grunted in frustration before stooping to pick up his wand.

He reentered the cave and gathered their things before leaving, replacing the boulder and mounting his horse. Riddle rode back to the university, sneaking into the back stable door. He spied Hermione's horse and half expected to find her in the university library researching some more things about time travel while brooding in the silence. But the only occupants in the library were three monks who stared at him strangely when he came into the library calling for Hermione by her last name. He said nothing and left quickly, hoping to catch her getting into the carriage at the front gate, but she wasn't there either. The only sign that she had been there was the tracks of the carriage where it had made a large U-turn to head back to the castle.

Tom sighed heavily, partly for annoyance and frustration, but mostly for a feeling he usually didn't regard. Loneliness had been no stranger to him, but it had never plagued him as it did now while he started his walk back to the castle. He bowed his head and kicked at the dirt road, dust rising at his feet. Maybe Meg was right. In fact, he knew she was. Why else would he feel like this? This feeling of loneliness like never before. One that ate at his chest and flared to life a hopeless feeling of even more frustration. But this frustration wasn't with just anyone. Not Hermione. Not Meg. But himself. 'Maybe I do feel for her... Maybe? Maybe.'