Chapter One

"Wake up, girl," said a decidedly masculine voice. Hermione cracked open her eyes and turned her head, wondering where she was. When he shook her again, she opened her eyes more fully and just plain stared.

"What the devil?" she gasped as she stared up at none other than a young Tom Riddle in Slytherin robes, looking just like he'd done from the memory Harry Potter had shown her. "Where am I?"

"Don't you know, you silly girl?" he asked her with an indulgent smile. "One would have thought you'd remember sneaking into the forbidden section of the Hogwarts library, no matter how long you've been in here. Which is how long, by the way? You don't look familiar to me, and I've been going here seven years, so it must have been quite some time. You must have been under a spell, I'd suppose."

"You went to Hogwarts long before I did, I'll have you know," Hermione informed him as she tried to sit up. "Goodness, I can't seem to move. I wonder if it's an effect of time travel."

"You've traveled through time?" Tom asked skeptically. "That's impossible."

"Well, I must have done, unless you've come to the future somehow," she pointed out. "Will you help me, please? I've got to speak to Albus Dumbledore right away."

"Well, I don't know," he said. "If you can't move, perhaps we should take you to the infirmary, and see if they mightn't be able to get you sorted out first. So, you're really from the future? And you know who I am?"

"Yes, I do," said Hermione, realizing she might be better off not to tell him what she knew. He was going to be an evil Dark Lord someday after all, no matter how handsome and polite he seemed at the moment.

"So, I must be famous then?"

"I suppose you could say that," she hedged. "It's more that we have similar interests, I believe. The library, you know. How else would it be you who found me in here?"

"Oh, yeah," he said. "I hadn't thought of that. If you know who I am, then you can tell me my name," he added shrewdly as he looked down at her. "What is my name, future girl?"

"You're Tom Riddle, of course," Hermione grumbled. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd kind of like to figure out what to do about my own future at the moment, and besides, it's probably not a good idea to tell anyone about their own anyway. You don't want me to accidentally wreck your future, right?"

Tom put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Well, that would depend on what it is—"

"Oh, stop it," she said, laughing at him. "I could use a little help here."

"Well, all right," he said. "But don't begin to think this conversation is over, miss—what did you say your name was?"

"Granger," she answered. "Hermione Granger."

000

"Well," said Armando Dippet, "I can see no reason to send you away, since you were already a student here, and by the sounds of it, quite a good one. However, my dear, you will forgive me if I believe there may be a need to inquire of the sorting hat as to whether or not Gryffindor is the House in which you truly belong. Your actions, you see, in defying the rules, they do not seem to fit those of a Gryffindor."

"Sometimes I have wondered if I belonged there," Hermione admitted with a blush. "Lately, my thoughts have not been as noble as they once were. I have been questioning my loyalties to those I once considered my friends."

"I do not expect you to tell me your life history, my dear," Dippet said. "The room in which you were discovered, it does what it does for a reason. I cannot return you to your former life, and so you will have to forge one here, I am afraid."

"I think that may be what I was wishing for all along," Hermione admitted, her cheeks warm.

"Do not tell me more," he said. "I am not interested in the future, mine or anyone else's, and you must keep it completely to yourself. In fact, we shall tell no one you were ever there. I'm sure we can convince young Tom to keep silent about it, as well. We shall say you've been home schooled up to this point, and you've come to finish out your schooling because your family has been lost to you. That story should do nicely—is that not right, Tom?"

"You caught me," said Tom as he stepped out into the room, holding up his hands and smiling. "I wanted to make sure Hermione was going to be okay, sir. You understand, surely?"

"Yes, Tom, and so I shall not take points from Slytherin House this time," he said. "However, let's not let it happen again. And, since you are here, perhaps you would be willing to bring the sorting hat here to me."

"Of course, sir," Tom agreed as he smiled at Hermione. She pulled a face at him, and he chuckled at her for it.

Armando took the hat in his hands and set it onto Hermione's head. She sat nervously as it contemplated her for a few moments, and then, inside her head, it said, "Your heart has been broken, but I sense you have already realized where it wants to be. You do know he may not be able to be changed, do you not? Are you sure you wish to take this path?" Hermione glanced at Tom, well aware which he it was she longed for. She had come here for Tom Riddle, and she knew it. No matter what logic wanted to say, her heart had made a wish, had brought her to this place. To the hat, she said, I searched my soul, and this is what it chose. I know it is foolish, but this is the only thing it would let me wish for.

"Slytherin!" the hat shouted. Hermione said nothing, her eyes locked with Tom's. His locked with hers. Armando Dippet stared at the two of them.

"It seems like there is much more going on here than I can understand," he commented. "Miss Granger, Tom here has been chosen as the Head Boy this year, and we have no Head Girl. I believe the best place for you, the safest place, would be in his dorm, as Head Girl. It would be far too easy for the other girls to wheedle your secrets from you if I threw you in with them, and it wouldn't matter if Tom did any wheedling, because he already knows your secret anyway. And, as it happens, the last Head Girl ran off three weeks ago to get married and she has not yet been replaced. Your timing could not be more perfect."

"Your Head Girl ran off to get married?" Hermione inquired blankly.

"Yes," said Tom, his nose wrinkling slightly. "To a Muggle."

"Headmaster, I will do whatever you think is best," Hermione agreed.

"Very well, then, Tom, you should show your new dorm mate to her room, and help her settle in," said Dippet. "And Hermione, I'll have a class schedule drawn up for you as soon as may be."

"All N.E.W.T.S, if you please," she mentioned, making both of her companions raise their brows.

"I'll have to test you for that first, of course."

"Very well," she agreed. "I'll be here bright and early tomorrow morning."

Dippet looked amazed by her forwardness, and Tom tried not to laugh yet again. The Headmaster said, "Very well, Miss Granger. Tomorrow morning it is."

As they walked down the hall toward their dorm, Tom caught at Hermione's elbow and said, "Dippet is not used to such a forward woman, Hermione. I believe you took him quite by surprise just now."

"Oh?" she answered. "I suppose I did. It's normal where I come from."

"Hmm," he answered non-commitally. They reached the portrait of a couple dancing, and he stopped before it. "Innuendo," he said suggestively, and the door opened. Hermione smirked as he let her precede him into their dorm.