Chapter 24

Hermione stared wide eyed at Lucius Malfoy as he stood there in his long, black cloak, looking as regal as ever. He was twirling his wand skillfully around his fingers.

"No," Hermione breathed out, horrified. Her grip tightened painfully on Tom's hand.

How could this happen? She was finally happy, in a place she could really live! What had happened in her own time to cause this?

What had happened to Voldemort?

They didn't honestly think they could come and retrieve her, did they? There was no way she could let that happen! Had Voldemort's memories changed? Was this him sending his followers to get her and bring her back?

How many other's were here?

Lucius' eyebrow quirked at her. "My, my, we have changed, haven't we?"

Hermione immediately took on a defensive stance. Looking up at Tom, she saw he'd already done the same. He pulled her ever so slightly closer.

Tom didn't know what was happening. All he knew was that this man knew Hermione, and she saw him as a serious threat. Also that he looked unnervingly like Malfoy. Maybe he would ask him about his relatives later.

"Who are you?" Tom asked in a strong, demanding tone. One he saved for when he was with his knights.

"Come with us now, and willing, and there won't be any bother." Lucius stated, ignoring Tom all together, which just irked the boy.

Hermione snorted. She sneered at him, shocking Tom ever so slightly. It was the first time he'd seen her sneer outside of a joke. "How stupid of you to even offer. There is no way I will be going anywhere with you, of all people, willingly."

Lucius himself was quite surprised with the changes in her. She'd matured, and now seemed to hold her own a lot better without her two friends. This wasn't the same little bookworm he'd seen and had fought against during the war.

Lucius sneered back at her. "Funnily enough, that was what your old werewolf said when we found him lying near dead in the dungeons."

Tom saw from the corner of his eye how Hermione paled at the very mention of her friend.

"Remus," she whispered. Next thing anyone knew, her eyes were suddenly fueled with rage. "What did you do to him?"

Lucius simply smirked at her. "We've done nothing to him... yet."

That was it.

Before Lucius could taunt her any more about Remus, he was blown backwards by a powerful amount of suppressed rage.

"To the castle!" Hermione started running as fast as she could in the direction of the castle, with Tom quickly over taking her and dragging her along to keep up.

"Who was that?" Tom asked her as they ran.

"He's one of the men who killed my parents," was all Hermione could answer.

She felt something whizzing past her ear. Lucius was up and running for them, casting spells as he went.

But, judging by the spells, Hermione happily realised that the elder Malfoy must have been told not to harm her. Because none of the spells sent their way were anything dangerous compared to what he normally sent her way during an actual fight.

When they got closer to the front doors, both teenagers stopped dead in their tracks when they saw another cloaked figure at the door.

This would not have been a problem for the advanced students, for they could have easily knocked him away. However, the tall imposing figure held a chain. This chain travelled down until it ended at the back of a silver collar.

Hermione's hand went straight to her mouth in shock and sadness.

"Oh god," she choked out. "Remus."

Remus looked fairly beaten up, which was probably a lot to do with the fact he had just fought a war, and had had a fight with none other than Fenrir Greyback. Scratches took form all over his hardly dressed body. His sandy hair fell limply about his head, his ocean blue eyes looked at her with several emotions all at once.

Just as a reasurrance, the death eater had his wand dug into Remus' neck.

A growl escaped Hermione's lips when she heard Lucius' dark chuckle come from behind them.

"Now," Lucius started, and Hermione turned to face him. Tom kept his gaze on the death eater at the door, not wanting both their backs to be turned to one of them. "About that 'yet'."

In a way to show he was with her here, and wasn't about to high tail it and run, Tom let go of her hand, and snaked his arm around her middle, pulling her closer to him.

Seeing this, Lucius got an evil (well, extra evil) glint in his eyes.

Hermione knew what he was about to say before he did. Hermione's arms gripped Tom's, frightened about what was going to occur in the next few seconds.

"Tell me, Granger. Does your little boyfriend here know that you're only a filthy. Little. Mudblood?" He said it such an innocent tone, Hermione just wanted to jump him and scratch his eyeballs out.

Hermione felt Tom go rigid at this new piece of information.

Hermione prayed that he wouldn't pull away. Not when she needed him the most. She would hate to admit it, but if he left now, then she'd be helpless against them.

She was scared. For about a semi-second, Hermione caught his eyes, before their gazes went to each of the death eater's.

Hermione let out a small gasp when Tom's grip softened, and remained where it was. Although it then tightened slightly and pulled her even closer to his side, showing he wasn't going anywhere. If Hermione wasn't in such a peril, she would have danced. He'd chosen her! Despite the fact she was Muggleborn, and what he went against, he still chose to stand by her.

Lucius seemed slightly miffed at not getting the expected reaction from them. His Lord told him that the only way to accomplish anything would be to seperate them.

"Come now, mudblood, or your little werewolf friend dies!"

Hermione flinched at that. She had so much on the balance right then. She couldn't reach for her wand due to the fact it was tucked securely into a certain area of her dress. They would disarm her easily.

"Come now, and," Lucius suddenly got a victorious glint in his eye. "I wont spill all of your precious secrets here and now."

Hermione growled at him. "And what good would that do anyone?"

"Obviously I'm not being clear enough for you." With a a flick of his wand he hissed, "crucio."

Hermione spun round to see Remus crumbled on the floor in a ball, writhing in agony at Malfoy's curse. All the while being held tightly by the make shift leash.

"Stop it!" Hermione screamed at the ruthless man. Lucius lifted the spell, but kept his wand trained on the Remus' shaking form. Hermione couldn't help the tears that ran down her face as she looked over at Remus. A small gush of wind flew around them, and the next thing she knew, she was being held back by Tom, much to the boy's actual difficulty. "YOU!"

The hood had fallen from the other man's head, and revealed none other than Severus Snape.

He stared at her with no emotion written on his face what so ever. Hermione was outraged. Of all the people to suspect! He'd actually been one of the last on her list. She'd trusted him, along with everyone else. How could he do this to them? She'd prayed it wasn't over some petty thing that had happened between him and Harry's dad so many years ago, because if it was, she wouldn't be held responsible for what she did to him.

Lucius laughed from behind her. This time, both of them turned to face the blond, who'd walked up closer to them during their small struggle.

"Now will you come?" He asked, honestly amused. It irked Hermione how he was enjoying their torture.

Poor Tom was completely lost. Well, to a certain extent he was lost. What had been a lovely night so far, had been undoubtedly ruined by these two men. Hermione had said they were the one's who'd played a part in her parent's deaths, so understandably, she hated them. The second man must have been a traitor of sorts judging by her sudden reaction at seeing him. The man on the ground was someone she thought dearly of, and was a werewolf.

Oh, and she'd lied to him.

And on top of that, she apparantly had more secrets to tell. She was muggleborn, something that should have made him flinch away from her in disgust as he would have done only a matter of weeks ago.

But then, after he'd heard the fact given to him by a complete stranger who was hoping he'd do exactly that, he found himself not caring. Don't misunderstand him, he would be having a very long discussion about this with Hermione afterwards, once they were back in the castle. And at the same time, it wasn't as if he had been totally and completely open about his 'extracoricular' activities.

Right now he just wanted to stand with her and make sure she remained safe. Tom stepped in front of Hermione, glaring down at the threatening man. Tom was taller than him by at least an inch. Tom was slightly confused by the flicker of fear he saw in the man's steely eyes, but was also quite satisfied by it.

"No, she wont."

And with that said, Lucius was knocked backwards for the second time that night. This time, falling unconscious.

Hermione's hope was lifted quite a bit now that it was two against one. Sure, it wasn't fair that way, but it meant that they had a better chance of getting inside.

"Please, Professor. Just let us go," Hermione asked with as much plea in her voice as she could, without sounding desperate. Part of her didn't want to hurt this man, as something just didn't settled with her about it. But at the same time, she could kill him for what he'd done.

Snape never let anything show on his face. "You know I can't allow that to happen, Miss Granger."

With that said, Hermione sent the same charm she'd used on Tom's wand during their class duel towards the leed Snape held. Due to the fact Remus was now a dead weight, Snape couldn't maneuver the chain from the curses direction. It burnt up till Snape had to let go of it, and that was when Tom sent the same thing to Snape as he sent at Malfoy.

With a lazy flick of his wand, Snape directed it in another direction. His focus now on the future Dark Lord

During which, Hermione had quickly levitated Remus over to the side, where she could look him over without being in the firing line. She knew Tom could keep up his own.

Hermione did her best to ignore the flashes of colour as she uncovered her wand and used it to heal any deep wounds on Remus' body.

When she was sure he would be okay, she brought him back to conscious.

"Remus? Are you all right?" Hermione whispered softly.

Remus' eyes blinked open to look at her. "Oh, thank god." No sooner was she pulled down for a desperate hug. She hugged him back with just as much emotion.

"What happened to Malfoy?" Remus asked after not seeing him.

"Tom knocked him unconscious and is now trying to do the same to Snape so we can get inside the castle and to safety." Hermione looked up to see the duel was now at a much more dangerous level. "Will you be okay? I think things would go quicker if I helped him."

Remus nodded, and as Hermione stood up, he asked, "Where's Malfoy's body?"

"He's right over..." Hermione stood up to her full height, her hand pointed over in the direction where she'd seen him land.

Except he wasn't there.

Suddenly and large hand wrapped round her neck from behind. A surprised shriek left her lips as Malfoy's pull brought her feet off the ground.

The last thing she saw was Tom fall down to a stubify after being momentarily distracted by her scream.

Lucius and Snape levitated both the teenager's bodies to follow them to the back of the castle. Once they reached the designated area, they lay them both down on the soft grass.

A quick charm on their bodies made sure they would remain immobile in case they woke up.

The two death eaters got set to work quickly. There was a large circular design printed on the stone wall of the castle. It was a time portal yet to be designed, and had only been used twice. The first time being when the creators tested it, the second being now.

Snape started muttering the incantation that would trigger the sand - taken from a time turner - scattered below it and create the portal.

Unknownst to them, both Hermione and Tom's eyes had began to flicker open.

Hermione's eyes found Tom's and vice versa. They tried to move, but found it impossible. Seeing as neither of them knew what charm the death eaters had used, they therefor didn't the counter charm.

Tears welt up Hermione's eyes. She knew what was about to happen.

"I'm so sorry, Tom," she whispered quietly, thankful that she could still speak. "I'm sorry for keeping things from you, at least know that I did plan on telling you one day, and in my own way. I just didn't think this would ever happen."

Tom looked at her. He didn't know what was about to happen, but he wagered it wouldn't be good. For either of them. "It's okay, Hermione."

Hermione tried to smile at his comforting words. "You say that now," she joked a little.

From the corner of her eye she could see a bright blue light. Lucius was walking up to her. She felt his hands on her waist, meaning to pick her up and sling her over his shoulder.

"I love you," was the last thing she managed to whisper before she was hoisted up.

Snape watched in disdain as Lucius walked through the portal with Miss Granger over his shoulder. It was much to the older man's protests, but Snape made it clear that if they wanted to get her through unharmed like they were ordered, then they would have to carry her through. Lucius demanded that Snape do it instead, but he quickly reminded the proud git that he wasn't magically capable to do the complex charm he was supposed to do afterwards.

Snape walked over to where his would be Lord lay. "I know you're awake," he murmered, mostly to himself. But with a wave of his wand, Snape made him lose conscious again.

Snape set about, making it look like something had attacked the young Dark Lord.

Stepping back, he raised his wand above his head, and began muttering yet another powerful incantation. On the tip of his wand was a small smudge of blood. It belonged to Miss Granger, and was required for the entire spell to work. He'd taken a few drops from a cut he made on her finger whilst she was still unconscious.

Slowly, a white light began glowing from the tip of his wand. It progressively got larger, till it shown bright like a lighthouse's would.

When the last words of the incantation were said, the light burst out, and drifted out like a large tidal wave, going through everything.

This spell work would be what erased all memory of Hermione Granger from this time.

"Such a shame," Snape muttered to himself, casting a small glance at Tom Riddle. He would never remember the impact she'd had on his life, and the lives of others. Not at least for another fifty odd years.

And with that thought, Snape turned and walked through the portal to his own time.

That night when it rained, all evidence that there had been some sort of design on the wall was washed away into the grass.

A.N.

Aw, I bet you's all hate me right now, lol :S I'm very sorry about where this chapter leaves you, but at least know, there's still more of this story to come. So don't start worrying about how Hermione and Tom will never be together and all that, okay dokay? :)

Thank you so much for you're reviews, I love them all!

I understand there's loads f questions waiting to be answered, but if you keep with the story, most of those questions will be answered through the next couple of chapters :) If there's anything people are still confused about come the end of the story, then please message me and I will do my best to explain everything! :) Cause it would suck of you read all this and didn't understand any of it, lol ;P

I think that this has been my quickest update as of lately! I now have my very own little nagging system that is at me to update most the time, so you can thank it for the quick update, lol.

Hope you all enjoy!

Madame Dee! xxx