Hermione crept quietly through the corridors to get to Tom's room unnoticed. After the spectacle they had put on in the common room that evening, she couldn't really have cared less if anyone knew she was sneaking into her boyfriend's room at night, but she didn't want to provoke any more gossip than necessary.

She had been beside herself all day. Memories of Ron and Harry, which she had been trying to suppress for the last few weeks, had come flooding back. Her life had been so much easier in 1998, even if her younger self probably wouldn't believe it. She was no longer the naïve girl who believed she could make the world a better place. She had changed too much for Tom. It wasn't even as if she had never noticed this change in herself before. She had simply chosen to ignore it so as not to be distracted.

Today she was definitely no longer able to do that. She had caught herself having a genuinely positive thought about Tom and that had broken something inside her. That's why she needed Tom now more than ever.

She knocked softly on his door. It only took a moment for Tom to open it a crack before he opened it fully for her. She entered without a word.

After Tom closed the door behind them and sealed it with a spell, Hermione sank down on his bed without being asked. She knew what she wanted, what she needed, she just didn't know how to articulate it.

With a serious expression on his face, he stepped in front of her and placed his hand under her chin. "You're not feeling well today, my heart, am I right?"

She nodded silently. She couldn't explain to him what was going on inside her, so she kept silent. He seemed to realise enough on his own.

"You have thoughts you shouldn't, right?"

Tom's voice sounded harsh when he asked that, but Hermione nodded again. He couldn't have guessed that he was at the centre of those thoughts, yet his guess was correct.

"Take your clothes off," he ordered.

Hermione took a deep breath before she began to unbutton the blouse of her school uniform with trembling fingers. Tom watched her for a moment, his face still motionless, then he turned away to grab his wand from the table. Hermione lowered her eyes to concentrate fully on herself. With every piece of clothing she took off, she dropped a piece of herself. When she finally stood completely naked in front of Tom, her breathing was heavy and her body felt like it was on fire.

"Kneel down," Tom urged her.

Without batting an eyelid, Hermione knelt down and sat on her heels, her eyes lowered to the floor in front of her. Tom stepped towards her, holding his wand in one hand and stroking her head with the other. "You know I have to punish you, right?"

She nodded silently.

"You belong to me, my heart," he said in a gentle voice, "you belong to me and you have to obey me. Why do your thoughts still revolve around things that displease me? Don't you understand that I would do anything for you? I have sworn to protect you. I don't want to punish you, but you leave me no other choice. You have to understand that you have to submit to me in order to live freely."

Hermione nodded again. Tom didn't know what her thoughts were, but he found exactly the right words.

"Stand up," he ordered now, "go to the desk and bend over. Show me your cute little bum."

Trembling, she stood up and lay down on the cool wood of the desk, chest first. She placed her sweaty hands on the table to the left and right of her head and waited for further orders from Tom.

"I want you to count, do you understand?"

"Yes," Hermione breathed.

His hand gripped her hair as he leant down to her and whispered icily in her ear, "That's yes, my lord for you."

A shiver ran down her spine. Distantly, she realised the implications of his words, but right now she didn't have time to think about it. "Yes, my lord."

"Good girl," he praised her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw a leather whip as Tom stepped past her and behind her. She closed her eyes in anticipation and pressed her feet even harder into the soft carpet.

A hissing sound, a loud crack, hot pain shot through her bottom. A whimper escaped Hermione, but she forced herself to obey the command. "One."

Again, the sound of the whip whizzing through the air, another crack, the pain intensified. "Two."

Again and again, Tom cracked the whip on her bum. All thoughts disappeared from her mind. There was only the pain and the command to count. Tears ran down her cheeks as her world seemed to consist only of her abused bottom. By now she was groaning loudly with every stroke. At first, she had stuck her bottom out at Tom, but now she involuntarily tried to get away from him. It hurt. It burned. There was only pain left.

"Almost there, my heart," Tom said reassuringly, "You're doing great. Can you hold out a little longer? Can you make me proud?"

She wasn't able to answer, but she didn't move away either. She deserved the pain. She had gotten involved with Tom Riddle and lost herself. She was no longer the girl who had gone out with Ron and Harry to save the world. She was just a stupid witch who had naively approached a dangerous wizard. She deserved the pain.

The crack of the whip sounded again, then the blow struck. Hermione cried in agony. "Nineteen." The tears were now running freely down her face, her breathing was intermittent, her legs were trembling because she was barely able to withstand the pain. But she deserved it.

The leather whip hit her one last time. "Twenty," Hermione gasped, then her knees gave way and she slid off the desk and onto the floor. The pain was still clouding her senses, but with every second that passed, she regained herself. Infinite relief flooded through her. A feeling of liberation spread through her.

Tom squatted down next to her. "You did very well, my heart. I'm so proud of you. You realised that you deserved the punishment and you endured it. You are such a good girl. My girl."

Hermione rolled onto her back so she could look up at Tom, but immediately regretted her decision. The carpet, which was usually so soft, rubbed uncomfortably against her sore bottom.

"Come on, love, let's take care of your maltreated bottom," Tom said lovingly as he slid his arms under her and lifted her up as if she weighed nothing. Exhausted, Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes.

No other man would be able to understand this part of her.

Tom carefully laid her down on the bed so that her bum wasn't touching the duvet. While Hermione lay comfortably on her stomach, Tom took out a small screw-top jar. "I always have a healing ointment with me because Slytherin students tend to have injuries they don't like to have treated in the hospital wing."

She winced as the cool ointment touched her buttock, but Tom's fingers were so gentle that she relaxed instantly. She closed her eyes, snuggled a little more into his bed, and simply savoured the caress of his fingers. He took more time than he had to. He stroked her again and again, massaging her, blowing his cool breath over her maltreated skin.

Everything was fine. Her black thoughts receded into the distance again. She had lost herself and had been punished for it. She accepted the pain and was rewarded for it. Tom punished her without realising that he was punishing her for thinking positive thoughts about him. A smile came to her lips. His self-confidence, his arrogance, his dominant manner, simply everything about him ensured that she could be subjugated by him. But these qualities also blinded him to what was really going on inside her.

"Are you feeling better, love?"

Hermione opened her eyes again and looked over her shoulder at Tom. "Yes. Thank you."

He stroked her cheek tenderly. "Do you realise now how much freedom there is in submitting to me?"

She grinned wryly. "It's a burden when you carry guilt around with you that you can't atone for."

He smiled broadly at her. "You understood what it was all about."

"Of course I did."

"Of course."

She returned his smile, holding his gaze. As broken as Tom was inside, he seemed to instinctively understand the darker side of people. The fact that he could be vicious and arrogant without doubt or conscience made him a bad person, but Hermione also recognised the strength that lay within. He was not ashamed of his moral shortcomings, on the contrary. She should accept that and imitate him, without ever losing sight of the fact that it made him a bad person. If she could manage this balancing act, she would be able to get even closer to him.

She allowed him to lie down next to her and pull her into an intimate embrace. As he stroked her hair, Hermione wondered whether Tom actually enjoyed this physical closeness, which had nothing to do with sex, or whether it was just a calculated move to keep her close to him. She would be lying if she said that she felt uncomfortable in his arms.

But she would also be lying if she pretended that she didn't find that very fact uncomfortable. At times like this, she wished more than usual that Tom was just a misguided boy who could still grow up to be a sensible, empathetic man with the right people around him. But she knew she couldn't stop this historic development. She had to let him grow into a monster.

"You're still restless, my heart," Tom whispered in her ear.

Sighing, she rolled over so that she could look him in the eye while lying on her side. "I can't deny that I'm confused."

In addition to all the thoughts she was having about her own relationship with Tom, she noticed something again today that had been bothering her for some time. She explained carefully, "I hardly know him, but Orion Black seems to have changed from a confident, fun-loving boy into a shy, insecure one."

A gleam appeared in Tom's eyes, accompanied by a diabolical smile. Hermione sat up, eyeing him suspiciously. "It was your doing?"

Grinning, he propped his head up on one hand and looked up at her. "Your accusations are harsh. It's not my fault that young Black is a little confused at the moment."

She narrowed her eyes. "What have you done?"

Laughing, Tom turned onto his back, his arms folded under his head: "I didn't have to do anything. Orion dug this grave for himself. It seems it's not just the girls who are succumbing to my looks and charm."

Shocked, Hermione slapped her hand over her mouth. Was Tom really implying that Orion was homosexual? She couldn't imagine what the wizarding world of the forties had to say about this sexual orientation. The fact that Tom could laugh so maliciously about it also meant that he wouldn't let this realisation go to waste.

"You can't let it go, can you?" she said sternly, "Orion adores you. As little as I have to do with him, his admiration for you is written all over his face. Can't that be enough for you? Do you have to keep a dirty secret against him?"

Tom's face became serious. "Maybe I would actually trust Orion to be loyal to me, even if I had no leverage. But Orion is young. I don't need him, I need his family. And I doubt whether a boy like him can get his family to stand behind me."

Groaning, Hermione buried her face in her hands. "You're always thinking three steps ahead."

"At least," Tom agreed.

She leaned against him, closing her eyes and trying not to give in to an annoyed rant. She wasn't here to change him and correct his behaviour. She was here to get close to him and find his weakness.

"Come on, get some sleep, my heart," Tom murmured, pulling her into a lying position with him, "I'll watch over you tonight so you can sleep worry-free."

She looked up at him in disbelief. "That's breaking at least one school rule."

Laughing, he pulled the blanket over her. "My dear Hermione, we break the rules almost every day. Are you really worried about something like that? No one will report me, and there's no problem with that."

Hermione pulled the blanket tighter around her. Did she really want to spend a whole night in the presence of Tom Riddle? Defencelessly at his mercy? She looked at him intently.

"I'm not going to come on to you, love." Tom sounded amused, as if he read her doubts in her eyes. "I prefer to have you conscious when I'm having fun with you."

She snorted contemptuously, but she actually believed him. Tom needed spectators for his shameful deeds, otherwise he was not satisfied. If he wanted to test her to see if she dared to sleep in his bed, she would prove to him that she wasn't afraid of him. Not anymore.

"Well, good night then," she murmured before rolling over, pulling the blanket up under her chin and completely shutting out her surroundings.

Tom carefully got up from the bed and looked down at Hermione. Almost every day she showed him that she was so much more than he ever thought he would find in another human being. He still didn't know how far he could trust her, but the fact that she was willing to sleep next to him in bed showed him how far he had already pulled her over to his side. She was his and she was resisting less and less.

"Good night," he replied almost inaudibly.