Hermione visited Snape once a week as he requested. She did not think of him as the best person, but it was wonderful to talk to a "past friend" in a sense. Professor Snape would tell her bits about what happened to Tom and little Riddle. She wondered why she agreed to let Riddle be adopted by someone else. She had so many options for the baby! Hermione cried at night as she reflected on different things told to her. Ginny was always there for her. She was thankful for that. She could not talk to Harry or Ron, because they were both mad at her for what she had done in the past. She did not care much anymore. She really came to love Tom, and she loved Riddle. It had to have been fate. If she had not gone back in time, so many things would not have happened, good and bad alike. It was overwhelming some days for her to think about what affect she had on Tom and others in that time.
Classes were always rather long. Things in Hermione's life were slowly shifting before her. She was beginning to hang out with students from the other houses, including a few Slytherins. Draco Malfoy did not quite like that, but he was beginning to loosen up about her after hearing a few of the rumours about her going to the past. Draco wondered if the rumours were true, though. Surely his father would have told him if they were true. He and Voldemort were supposedly good friends with Hermione, and Voldemort might have been even more. He was thinking about owling his father to verify things.
One afternoon, Potions was the last class of the day, so Hermione just stayed there to talk. Professor Snape had told her more than she could handle. She felt like an awful person after hearing what had happened to Riddle. Ginny had come to retrieve her from Snape to find her crying on the floor. Professor Snape was trying to calm her down, but he was failing. Ginny glared at him.
"What did you do to her?!" Ginny asked and yelled at the same time. "Look at her, as if she hasn't been through enough lately. You have to make things worse."
"I simply told her what she wanted to know," he said. His face was emotionless, as usual. What could one expect from him? Although, people wondered what had made him like that. Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her out of the room, never breaking eye contact with Snape. One they were out, Ginny made Hermione walk with her back to the common room. They could talk alone in their bedroom.
Hermione sobbed, "Why did I have to have the baby, Ginny? I'm sure they had abortions. I could have done that. But, that would have changed history." Hermione's sobs grew louder.
"Calm down, Hermione," Ginny said softly. "What did you talk about to make you so upset?"
"What. . ." she sniffed. "happened to. . ." she sniffed again. "Riddle." She cried again. Ginny walked over to her nightstand and brought a box of tissues over to Hermione, who smiled slightly and took some tissues. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
"What happened to him?" Ginny asked.
"He was TORTURED," Hermione let out a wail. "I'm such an awful mother!"
"There are worse," Ginny said teasingly but quickly became serious again. "Some kids who go up for adoption are harassed in multiple ways. Especially muggles. At least Riddle doesn't know he's adopted. No mental problems, in a sense, you know?"
"Yeah," Hermione sniffled. "Thanks Gin."
"No problem," Ginny said and was about to get up but Hermione began crying again. "Wha-" Ginny was cut off.
"I - feel - awful!"
"Get up," Ginny said and dragged her off a bed. She performed a charm to make Hermione stop crying. It worked rather well. Hermione and Ginny sat in the common room. Ginny watched Harry and Ron play wizard's chess while Hermione sat in a corner and mentally fought with herself.
'I should have known what would happen.'
'You did not really have an option at the time, you know.'
'I could have opposed!'
'He seems to be doing well, though. He probably has good grades -'
'He'll end up evil like Tom!'
'How do you know?'
'He just will, okay?'
'No, he won't. He will be a very influential wizard, though.'
"SHUT UP!" Hermione screamed. Everyone looked at her. She blinked and stared at everyone. "Did I say that aloud?" she whispered. Ginny nodded. Hermione turned a dark shade of red before everyone went back to their previous activities.