A/N: Me thankses me loverly reviewers rubs hands together Yes, big thankses to theseses: hanvu, MandaPandaAR, Silver Tears 11, ellamalfoy8, nehimasgift, PhanPhic-adict, keeper of the heart, x The Life of a Cheez It x, tofuubeaver, svelte, litprincess, san01, Joou Himeko Dah, Shadows08, The Dead Addict. . ., Lizzy Evans, and pottersgirl91. You terrific people, you! I love you... in a friendly sort of way, lol. I can hardly believe it. 244 reviews! does excited dance with a big grin Well, anyways, here's the first chapter of Friday's two chapter update! Enjoyses!

Chapter 16 – Of Experiments and Aggravation

'Now where's she gone to?' Tom wondered as he looked around the university grounds. He had just left the library and was on the search for Hermione. He feared that she had went back to the carriage and that he would have another long walk back to the castle, but then he spotted her. She was on her way over to the stables, and she was moving fast. Riddle jogged and finally caught up with her, seeing that her face was still a bit red with embarrassment. He grinned, but kept all comments to himself as he spoke.

"So, find anything new?" he asked casually.

"No!" Hermione answered quickly. "I mean... yes."

"Which is it, Granger?" he laughed.

She bit down on her lip and took a deep breath. Why was she suddenly so nervous? Maybe it was because she had just dared to kiss Tom Riddle, even if it was just on his cheek. 'Please don't let him throw in my face later, please!'

"Hello? Granger?" Tom stated firmly, bringing Hermione from her thoughts.

"Yes, I found a few new things. I'll tell you about them on the way there," she informed as they entered the stable and pulled out their wands.

They made quick work of saddling the horses and escaping out the back door of the stable. Once they were well away from the university, the only sounds around them being that of the horses chomping their bits and swishing grasses and breaking twigs under their hooves, Hermione began to explain things to Riddle.

"Remember the Squib Meg and I mentioned named Angelus Silesius?" she quizzed. He nodded. "Well, he had a theory..."

"Yes?" Tom urged.

"It was that the flow of time could be suspended by mental powers. See, there was a poem of sorts about it."

"And the poem was?" he prompted.

"Time is of your own making; its clock ticks in your head. The moment you stop thought, time too stops dead," Hermione recited.

"One problem, Granger," he sighed politely, "everyone is always thinking about something. Stopping thought would be like... well... stopping your brain. It's impossible; your brain is always working in some way or another, even while you sleep."

"True, but that's not all I have though," she assured him. "I thought about something else while I was reading last night. It's something I learned while attending Muggle school for children before going to Hogwarts."

"And that was?" he inquired as he ducked under a low hanging branch.

"See, there are Muggle theories as well that might help us. In fact, I believe I know what happened to send us back to this time."

"You do?" he asked quickly as he looked to her for the first time since they left the university.

"Yes. It's just a hypothesis though... yet this is what I think. There was a man named Albert Einstein, and he had a theory called relativity which suggested that the closer to the speed of light something comes, the slower times moves. Then, from there, once the object passes light speed, it would start to move backwards in time."

"And? Is this what time turners do or something?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but this has nothing to do with time turners... Yet there's a problem with this as well."

"What's that?" Riddle quizzed.

"It's said to be impossible to reach the speed of light, but that's only what Muggles think. I'm not utterly positive about wizards. See, when something reaches the speed of light, it becomes infinite; its mass is just continuing and larger than anything."

"So, what's all this got to do with us coming back here?"

"Well, even though the concept of it is far-fetched," Hermione shrugged, "I believe that the diary caused time to stop and go backwards because its mass became infinite when it was destroyed by the spells. Remember how everything stopped? Like the bird suspended in flight outside the window and everything? That's a symptom of Einstein's theory! The diary had to pass the speed of light, engulfing us in its mass, and went backwards; thus, sending us through time."

"Sounds about right," Tom agreed. "So what are we going to do now?"

"I figured if we could get something to do that once, we could speed something up to make it hit the speed of light again and open what is called a wormhole in Muggle science. Wormholes are said to be able to connect universes, or even two separate regions of the same universe."

"But you said yourself that light speed was near impossible to reach."

"We did it once already," she reminded.

"What if it sends us further back in time though?" he pointed out.

"It's a risk we'll have to take," she sighed.

They finally arrived at Meg's cave and found that she was already outside.

"How'd you get out?" Hermione quizzed.

"I can do magic, remember?" Megalise playfully answered. "So, anymore progress?"

"If by progress you mean things to try, then yes. A couple."

"Let's get started then," Meg said as she slid down off the rock she was sitting on and dusted her hands before pulling her wand from a patched up pocket.

"Okay," Hermione huffed as she pushed her hair from her face and pulled out her wand as well. "We'll need a large rock – probably the one used as the cave door – and... um... hmm... Tom! Can you bring me a branch off that dead tree over there?"

Riddle gave her a curious look, but complied. He levitated the branch over and watched as she transfigured it into a metal rod about five feet in length. She then had him hold it upright with one end on the ground as she turned to the rock.

"Wingardium leviosa!" she cast, lifting the rock into the air.

She began levitating it over toward the pole, and Tom's eyes became round. He dropped the pole and backed away.

"Tom!" Hermione said as her concentration broke and caused the rock to hit the ground with tremendous force.

"I wasn't going to stand there while you levitated a rock that size over my head!" he retaliated.

Hermione sighed. She had no real argument there.

"Very well... use magic to hold it up then," she instructed as she struggled to lift the rock again.

It took her a moment or two, but she finally got it. With the pole now upright once more, Hermione used the rock to hammer it into the ground, almost pushing it too far.

"And what's the purpose of this?" Riddle asked as she sat the rock down gently as she could, though it still shook the ground.

"We need to make a merry-go-round of sorts," she answered vaguely, which only served to further puzzle him.

"A merry-go-round?"

"Yep," she said as she transfigured the rock into a large metal base to sit on top of the pole.

She levitated this onto the pole, and Meg cast a Sticking Charm so that the base would stay balanced on the pole from the center.

"Wonderful," Hermione beamed as she pushed back her dress sleeves. "Now, Meg, I'll need you to help me accelerate this in a clockwise motion. We need to get it going as fast as possible." Megalise nodded, and Hermione turned to Riddle and continued to instruct. "You'll be monitoring the speed with this," she said as she grabbed a patch of grass and transfigured it into a strange looking laser gun.

"How?" Tom asked as he looked the weird tool over.

"By pulling that trigger. The speed will flash on the screen. When it lits up green, we've hit close to the speed of light," Hermione stated simply, though in the back of her mind, she felt that this was going to flop. Yet it was worth a try. "Ready?"

Meg nodded, and she and Hermione pointed their wands at the makeshift merry-go-round. It began to spin, slowly at first as though there were a child pushing it. Soon it was spinning faster and causing the tall grass around it billow in its wake.

"Nowhere near it," Riddle sighed as he watched a yellow number seventy flash on the screen of the monitor. "Here," he added as he pulled out his own wand and added to the speed.

The monitor's numbers climbed. Past seventy to one-hundred and then to one-hundred and sixty-three. The grass around the craft looked as though a helicopter was landing, but suddenly Tom smelt a burning sort of scent. He looked to Hermione out of the corner of his eye and saw her narrowing her eyes on the thing in concentration.

She shrieked as the grass around the merry-go-round burst to flames. Riddle quickly put it out with the help of Meg and looked to Hermione.

"The friction is causing sparks and that ignited the grass. We'll just clear the grass away," she said simply as she pointed her wand at the grass around and under the merry-go-round. "Ready?"

"Wait!" he called. "I've got a quick question. What are we going to do if we get this thing to work anyways?"

"Jump into the center of its mass of course," she replied.

"Uh-huh..." Tom's voice sounded incredulous.

"Just trust me," Hermione grumbled as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked to Megalise who smiled and pointed her wand at the merry-go-round.

Once more they tried to accelerate it, but that only kicked up dust and caused Meg and Hermione to sneeze.

"Bubble-Head Charm... that'll stop the dust," the younger witch suggested.

Reluctantly, Riddle and Meg did as Hermione instructed and cast a Bubble-Head Charm on themselves.

"This is unbelievably ridiculous," he mumbled as they started to accelerate the craft once more.

As they did, he laid the gun down on the ground and picked up a stone. He stood up straight once more and waited until the dust was flying through the air again before tossing the stone toward the spinning merry-go-round. It hit the base and slid back off, the gravitational pull far too great for it to stay there long. He ducked quickly as it came flying back in his direction, the merry-go-round slowing down as he and Hermione stopped.

"What was that for?" she asked haughtily as Riddle stood up.

"We were going to jump on that, I just wanted to see what would happen if we did," he replied somewhat angrily. "I'd rather like to stay in one piece and not go flying off through the air and land some ten meters away only to be broken in half!"

"Being a bit dramatic, aren't you?" Hermione shot.

"Whatever," Tom grumbled.

"What if you sat on the thing and accelerated it like that. I mean, you could strap yourself down, couldn't you?" Meg suggested.

"No," he replied before Hermione could get any words out of her open mouth.

"We couldn't do that because it would be too high of a gravitational force on our bodies," the more youthful of the two women further explained as she gave Riddle a quick glare.

"It would crush our bodies," he added. "Our weight would more than triple."

"And with a fat head like yours, your neck would be the first thing to break," Hermione grumbled so that he couldn't hear.

"If you can't say it out loud, don't say it at all," he scolded with an air of superiority.

"I said," she half yelled, "that with a-"

"Um... hello! Still here," Meg bellowed. "So what if this way doesn't work. It's not totally hopeless, right? You still have other things to try, don't you?"

"Well yeah. A couple," Hermione muttered.

"Then let's hop to it, shall we?" the older witch suggested.

Hermione sighed and transfigured the merry-go-round back into the branch and boulder.

"Let's hop to it," the Gryffindor repeated with mock enthusiasm as they set off to try another experiment.

Hours later, Hermione was feeling mass frustration as yet another experiment, which was the sixth since their merry-go-round one, failed. She dropped down onto a rock inside the cave and felt her temples throb. Today was getting more and more frustrating.

To start, she had awoke with a guilty feeling toward Tom and then had Porthos try to force himself on her. Now she was in debt to Riddle because he technically saved her, and everything she was trying was failing. 'Damn this day!' she thought in aggravation.

"You know," Tom sighed as he sat next to her on the ground, playing with a blade of grass, "I don't think making another diary would be a bad idea."

"Haven't we gone over this once?" she snapped. "I'm not splitting my soul for it all to blow up in my face and possibly send me even further back in time!"

Meg looked up from the stump she was sitting on and watched the tension grow as Riddle jumped to his feet to tower above Hermione.

"Oh, but it was all right for us to try that stupid Muggle thing with that merry-go-round, huh? You, yourself, said that if it screwed up, and we went back in time, it was a risk we would have to take!" he fired back. "No wonder the stupid stuff isn't working... it's got everything to do with MUGGLES! Idiocy! Complete and utter IDIOCY!"

"Oh, shut your face for once you cocky prick!" Hermione screamed as she too jumped to her feet and tried to burn a hole through his face with her eyes. Needless to say, her efforts were fruitless as he continued to rant at her.

"I'm the prick! You're the one not letting anyone else give any ideas," he hissed.

"Then offer one up, genius!" she snarled.

"I just did!"

"And I said no!" she bellowed.

"See!" Riddle roared.

"Um... s'cuse me," Meg called. "Hello? Hey!"

"WHAT?!" Tom and Hermione yelled in unison as they both rounded on Meg.

"Whoa! Hey now... don't go yelling at me, I'm just trying to help," she growled. "Go sort out your sexual tension some other time and place, not around me while we should be figuring this thing out." With that, Meg stood up and stormed off into the cave.

"Sexual tension?" Hermione repeated as she turned back to Riddle with a puzzled look.

"She's right," he whispered just loud enough for the Gryffindor girl to hear.

"What?" she gasped, sounding shocked.

"Not about the tension thing, Granger," he said. "About us working."

"Yeah, I guess so," she exhaled as she dropped back down onto the rock and pushed her hair back; it was starting to frizz and that didn't help her mood any. "Maybe we should just clean up for today and come back early tomorrow."

"We only have two days left though," Tom pointed out.

"I know," Hermione answered in a watery voice as tears welled in her eyes.

She rose, turned, and started for the cave entrance when something stopped her dead.

"Hermione," he called. "It'll... be um... all right. We'll help her."

"Oh Tom!" Hermione cried as she threw herself at him, and hugged him around the neck.

He stood there wide-eyed and gaping, and before he knew it, she had his face in her hands, and her lips pressed to his. Riddle didn't know what to do. So he did what came to him naturally and went on with his instincts. He pulled her to him, holding her tight by her waist with his arms as he pressed down. She smiled against his lips, the tears that had been streaming down her cheeks drying against his. 'I knew there was something good about him!' she thought as he deepened the kiss, his tongue barely touching her own as he traced her bottom lip.

'Ah, clarity for the first time in days!' his mind sighed as he felt her hands move from his cheeks to his back when she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I think I- oh!" Megalise said as she came out of the cave with the little pocket watch that they were going to use as a time turner. "Never mind. I'll tell you later," she mumbled more to herself than to them as they stood uninterrupted and still kissing. A smile slid onto Meg's face as she shook her head and entered the cave once more to research a little further on her idea.