CHAPTER TWO
Hermione groaned as the sun finally breached its sluggish climb over the Forbidden Forest and stabbed her eyes with its rays. She felt very sore and exhausted, like she had not slept at all. Hermione pushed herself up gingerly and found that every other girl in the dorm was still fast asleep. She sank down to the floor by her window and dragged her school trunk closer to her. It seemed relatively new but had some stickers on it from countries she must have visited in this world.
Hermione opened the trunk and fished around for some more comfortable clothes to wear. She pulled out a baggy maroon sweater and a dark corduroy skirt. As she was pulling her sweater up over her head, Hermione noticed out of the corner of her eye something strange on the outside windowsill. She crawled over to the window. How could that be possible?
Hermione reached her hand forward and touched the bottom of the glass closest to the peculiar dents in the snow, "Shoe prints ..."
She leaned back and buried her face in her hands, her elbows on her knees. The howling wind that had been swirling around the tower all night had not removed Tom Riddle's footprints. The Gryffindor common room was on the seventh floor, hundreds of feet above the ground.
Who would stand outside the window to look in here? Who would take such a deadly risk? Who would be so reckless and desperate? Hermione looked at the large dents in the snow again. The rising sun was beginning to melt them and the snow sparkles in the new light.
She closed her eyes and turned back to the clothes that she had set out to change into. She got to her feet as she pulled the maroon sweater over her head again. Hermione looked around the room once more before unbuttoning her school skirt to change into the other one. She decided to pull on some white stockings since it was so chilly in the castle and slipped back into her black school shoes. She simply brushed her hair and applied lip balm since her lips were so dry from the salt of her tears.
Hermione hated how loud her shoes echoed in the Great Hall. She didn't want to draw any more attention to herself. There were a few boys seated at the Slytherin table, no Ravenclaws tucking into their breakfasts, and two Hufflepuffs. Hermione clutched a book she had taken from her trunk to her chest as though it could be her only defense against the one boy she didn't want to see again. She walked to the middle of the Gryffindor table and sat down on the bench.
Almost immediately a jug of pumpkin juice, plates of buttered toast, both scrambled and hardboiled eggs, and bowls of fruit appeared before her. Hermione served herself a plate of toast and chopped up a hardboiled egg to put on top of it. She folded the bread up like a taco and opened her book as she took a bite. She was halfway through the first chapter of her Transfiguration text book when she was drowned in a long shadow.
"What are you reading?" it belonged to Tom Riddle.
Hermione felt her concentration evaporate. She could only pretend to still be reading. She pulled her hair over her shoulder nearest to him and reached to take a sip of her glass of pumpkin juice. Her throat had gone dry.
"I-I'm reading." She stuttered as she felt the bench weigh down as he took a seat beside her.
"I can see that." Tom squinted at the passage, "Transfiguration. Are you as good at charming small animals into goblets as you are at the Volubulous potion?"
She cleared her throat, "I can transfigure anything you place in front of me into a lion."
"I'll have to see that sometime."Tom smirked doubtfully before continuing softly. "Why are you so nervous? Midterms are done. It's almost Christmas. Haven't you got a family to go home to –?"
The thought of Tom knowing about her parents startled her so much that she couldn't pretend to be reading any longer.
She just fixed her eyes on the middle of the page, "What do you want, Tom?"
"Just trying to get to know you better."
Hermione flipped her hair over to her other shoulder to look up into his dark eyes, "I'm feeling sick again. I need to go."
His icy fingertips brushed the top of her hand laying on her text book. She jerked away her hand as if he had electrocuted her. Hermione hissed as the edge of a paper sliced her palm. Tom watched the blood rising in her tiny cut. She felt his dark eyes on her more than ever. She hoped her frozen exterior would disconcert him enough to leave. He reached for a napkin and handed it to her but she shook her head a little too quickly. Her eyes darted away from him.
She couldn't ignore his deep voice, "Have I done something wrong?"
"Not yet. I dunno. What am I saying?" Hermione hated the sound of her own voice quivering. "I don't feel well. I have to go."
"Need the hospital wing –?"
She stood up, collected her book, and walked away, saying as she passed him, "I can walk myself there just fine, thank you."
Hermione didn't stop walking till she realized that she was in the dungeons beneath the castle. She walked a little bit longer and found herself in front of Slughorn's classroom. The sign post hanging by the door caught her eye. It was titled Spring Partners. Hermione held her breath as she searched down the alphabetical list for her name. She couldn't find it. The students last names were partnered, making it a little more difficult. Hermione reread the list line by line and exhaled when she found her name. But beside hers was none other than Riddle Jr., Tom.
Hermione gulped, "No ..."
How was she going to survive this nightmare if she kept being thrown together with Tom Riddle Jr.? Hermione pushed open the classroom door, not having the thought that Slughorn would likely not be in there. But, she was glad she was for once wrong. There sat the much younger professor than whom she had been used to seeing.
"Why, good morning!" he said merrily after looking up from the essays he was grading. "How can I help you?"
Hermione took another deep breath and closed the distance between herself and him, "I need a new partner."
"I'm sorry, I've got so many students. Can you remind me what your name is?" Professor Slughorn asked.
"Hermione Jean Granger," she said in quick succession. "I'm in your Seventh Year class. Please, you've partnered me with Vold-Tom -"
"Ah, now I remember you." said Professor Slughorn as he walked around his desk and leaned against the edge beside her. "He carried you to the Hospital Wing yesterday. I assumed you two were friends."
Hermione shook her head fervently, "Far from it, sir. I think it would be best if we're not partnered together."
"I disagree, miss Granger." he said, shaking a finger. "As I recall, you beat him in our last potions class before winter break. I think having our two best potion makers partnered together could benefit you both immensely. Who doesn't like a little competition, eh?"
Hermione shook her head, "But, think about it! If I'm partnered with someone who is struggling, I can help them improve -"
"I'm sorry, miss Granger." said Professor Slughorn as he sank back down in his chair behind his desk. "But, my list is final. It shouldn't be too hard to be partners with him. I take it from the ladies that he's quite the 'catch'."
Hermione was so desperate, she couldn't stop herself,"I know that he has asked you about Horcruxes."
Slughorn looked up at her slowly, his mouth gaped, "Who told you that lie?"
"And that you instructed him on how to create one," Hermione's voice cracked when she thought of Harry. "He asked you about making seven, right? I'm scared, too, Professor Slughorn. Just, please, give me another partner. Don't make me tell the Headmaster that you've been teaching Restricted subjects ... to a ticking time-bomb."
Slughorn gaped up at her again.
She nodded at him, leaning closer to him across his large desk, "I know you can hear the bomb ticking, too, professor. We're on the same side."
She was surprised to find him smiling, "Keep this up, miss Granger, and you'll be one step closer to earning a spot on the Shelf."
Hermione closed Slughorn's door behind her and dragged her feet over to the staircase that would lead up to the building above. Her heart had not slowed down since the professor reassigned her to a future Deatheater, Avery. Hermione placed one hand over her heart and the other on the stone threshold just a few feet from the winding staircase, trying to steady her jagged breathing.
"Why am I here?" she asked tearfully, not worrying enough about being overhead. "What's happening to me?"
She yelped when she heard a door slam shut down the dark hallway only lit by floating candlelight. Hermione turned on the spot and wiped her wand out of the waistband of her corduroy skirt. She couldn't see anyone.
"Lumos!" she breathed and almost the entire hallway was drowning in her wand's powerful light.
"Hello?" Her voice echoed down the cavernous hall; her eyes searched all she could see hungrily. "Is anybody down there?" She took one step backwards, "Ahh!"
Hermione leapt around as the boy's long, slender hands grabbed her shoulders, and saw that she had walked into a tall boy's chest. Feeling like her heart will never come back down from being in her throat, she looked up to see the disturbingly-beautiful boy's face.
"Are you following me?" she gasped, because her voice seemed to have deserted her.
Hermione curled her lip up at Tom and wriggled her shoulders out of his grip.
Tom cocked his eyebrows, pretending to be offended, "It's a big castle, miss Granger. What are the chances that I'd bump into you here?"
"Slim," said Hermione, still clutching her wand at her side.
Tom tucked one curtain of black hair behind his ear and hunched his shoulders up to lower his face closer to hers, glancing at her wand, "There's nothing to fear, Hermione."
Hermione gulped and slowly stowed her wand back in the waistband of her skirt, ignoring Tom's eyes catching a glimpse of her underwear. Hermione made to squeeze between him and the stone threshold but he blocked her way with his arm. She noticed a peculiar ring on his finger then glared up into his eyes.
"There's something 'off' about you -" he began but she interrupted him.
Hermione gaped up at him indignantly, "Move or I'll curse your arm off."
Tom considered her eyes for a moment longer and grinned, "All you had to do was say 'please'. "
He let his arm fall and she pushed past him, taking two steps at a time till she vanished above him. Tom could still smell her apple-scented shampoo. He couldn't shake that feeling that she knew more than she should about him. He could have any girl in the castle. Why did he repulse her so?
A month has passed and Hermione had given up that she'll ever awaken from this horrifying nightmare. She was starting to make friends with the girls in her dorm, learning from them how she had apparently behaved before she was ... aware she was in the end of the year 1944. For the first week, Tom Riddle was everywhere she happened to be unless it was socially inappropriate like the ladies toilet or her dorm. Slughorn was now on her side, asking her almost every day if she could tell him more about why Tom needed to know about Horcruxes. He promised her a place on his shelf of 'rising stars'.
It was now New Years Eve and he had invited all his favorites for a celebratory party. Unfortunately for Hermione, his group included Tom Riddle. When she could no longer handle being in the same room with him when she could stop it, Hermione left the party around fifty minutes into it. She had worn a lacy black dress she had borrowed from her roommate, Ruby Dakins. She was wearing red earrings, a black purse hung on her shoulder, and strappy black heels.
It wasn't long before the clacks of her heels were joined by heavy footfalls of a young man.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Tom demanded, breathing heavily, "You haven't glanced my way the whole night."
Hermione's frown deepened at his words,"Why would you expect me to?"
Tom's breathing slowed down and he kept up with her tiny strides easily, "There's something going on between the two of us and you know it. Admit it. I can't be the only one -"
She rolled her eyes up at the lantern they passed underneath,"Maybe it would stop if you would just stay the hell away from me like I've told asked you hundreds of times."
Hermione felt his hand grip around her bicep and he spun her around to face him easily with surprising strength.
She curled her lip over her teeth, "You're pathetic, you know that? But, I shouldn't be so surprised. It's sad how you keep showing up wherever I am. Why is that?"
"You're forgetting that I was invited as well."
Hermione scoffed up at him,"Nice deflection. Keep avoiding my question and you'll never get an answer out of me."
But, the further she continued to insult him the more he seemed magnetized to her. Hermione jerked her arm out of his grip and resumed clacking her heels down the hall, aching to rest on her bed. She rolled her eyes when she heard his heavy footfalls follow her at a run. She hitched her tiny purse higher onto her shoulder and sighed as she turned around to face him one last time.
"Tom, what do you want from me?"
"Let's flip a coin."
"Let's what?"
"Yeah, let's flip a coin. If I catch it, you have to tell me what your problem is with me 'cause I can't figure it out -"
"You are so full of yourse-"
"-if you catch it, I'll leave you alone. Forever."
Hermione felt her breath hitch in her throat. She was never good at catching anything. She envied Harry's Seeker skills more than ever in this moment. But, in spite of how silly this resolution felt to her, she had to take the risk. With her eyes never breaking from his, she fished a bronze coin out of her purse and held it up for him.
"I need it back after," she said, feeling her cheeks flush at the questioning look in his dark eyes. "It's not mine."
He gave her a curt nod and lifted it up, pinching it between his middle finger and thumb, and Hermione felt her skin go cold when his fingertips brushed her palm.
Hermione suddenly realized they were standing by the wall where Tom Riddle had forced Ginny Weasley to write in blood The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware. She knew Tom had seen that flicker of emotion glint in her brown eyes while the rest of her face remained stoic and still. She watched him hunch his shoulders and stand contrapposto so that he would be closer to her height. He was still so tall that Hermione felt like he could never stop looming over her. He was taller than Harry and Ron. No one had ever made her feel so small.
Tom winked his at her before tossing the coin into the air. Hermione noticed that the coin was arching closer to her than it was to him. She rocketed her hand into the air, an act she had perfected after many years of answering questions in classes, and closed her fingers around the bronze coin. She hadn't expected to win this deal ... least of all for Tom's hand to close around hers gripping the coin. She frowned up at him as he turned her so that her back was facing the wall.
He leaned down greatly so that his forehead was against hers. He started walking forward and Hermione tried to keep calm as she felt her back press against the cold stone wall. Hermione kept her eyes on his. She could feel his warm breath on her lips. She knew what was coming and hated herself for being too stunned to stop him. Tom was like a car, a two-ton weapon, and Hermione for some reason was the driver.
As his chin tilted up to hers and his lips were just centimeters away, it dawned on Hermione why she was here. She had the perfect opportunity to change the course of history. She could save countless lives ... if only she could stop the monster Tom Riddle would descend to be. Hermione gave a shuddering breath as his toasty lips pressed against hers. She glared at his closed eyes one last time then closed her own eyes, feeling his other hand take hers hanging at her side.
He pinned her hands gently against the stone wall as he snaked his hot tongue in, out, and around in her mouth.