"What are you doing, Tom?"

Hermione watched uneasily as Tom slowly rolled up the sleeve of her blouse. Just like the day before, she hadn't left her room, but had let Tom provide her with food and homework. When he came to see her shortly after getting up today, he seemed different than before.

More determined.

"I have an early Christmas present for you, my heart," he explained after he rolled her sleeve up so that her forearm with the Dark Mark was free.

"And that couldn't have waited until tomorrow?" she asked. "Tomorrow, when it's actually Christmas?"

Tom shook his head and put a hand on her cheek. "No, my heart. Tomorrow, we have to take care of the other no-goods in my entourage. That's why today is all ours."

A tremor ran through Hermione. She didn't know if she was ready to face the others again. In the meantime, Tom had told her that Black and Nott had also been in on the plan against her. Everyone in his circle of confidants except Abraxas had conspired against her. No matter what their reasons for joining in, none of them had been bothered by the fact that she would be raped.

She focussed on Tom again, who had now pulled out his wand. "What present have you got for me?"

He sat down cross-legged on the bed in front of her very slowly. She mirrored his position without taking her eyes off him. He seemed tense, but at the same time more relaxed than the last two days. If she didn't know better, she would have thought that Tom was actually upset about what had been done to her.

"I've been thinking for a long time," he began as his free left hand came to rest on her thigh. "You're a strong, intelligent witch. But an ambush can lurk anywhere. Even I am not exempt. I've taken precautions so that no enemy can kill me just like that." She shuddered under his touch. Even if Tom didn't know it, she realised what he was talking about. "You are defenceless compared to me. I cannot and will not let anyone ever do to you again what Lestrange did." Tom spat out the name like it was poisonous scum.

Again, Hermione felt that warmth as she briefly wondered if Tom genuinely cared about her. "I'm sorry to have let you down," she whispered.

Instantly, he placed two fingers under her chin and lifted her head. "No. Don't apologise. I made the mistake. I underestimated the stupidity of my closest confidants. You voiced your concern and I wiped it away because I thought you could take on anyone. I didn't reckon they would all conspire against you. Would conspire against me. That was my mistake." Grimly, Tom clenched his jaw and shook his head. "Enough of this. I'll never repeat that mistake. I'll never trust anyone again or think that anyone understands what my goals are unless I spell it out in no uncertain terms."

Acting on impulse, Hermione leant forward and breathed a kiss on his lips. "Abraxas didn't betray you, Tom."

He briefly ran his fingertips over his lips, as if he couldn't believe that she kissed him of her own accord and that there was no sexual passion behind it. Hermione almost laughed at his confusion, but the moment passed quickly. With a dismissive wave of his hand, he replied, "Because he's a naïve idiot. Morally righteous, so I'm not the only one wondering why he's a Slytherin."

"Aren't Slytherin students characterised by being loyal to those they really trust?" Hermione challenged him.

But Tom just rolled his eyes. His free hand cupped her exposed wrist and lifted her arm slightly. "I've spent the last two days thinking about how I can protect you in the future. How I can make sure you're safe even when I'm not around."

A shiver ran down Hermione's spine. Tom used his dark tone of voice, which he normally only used when he wanted to seduce her. She licked her lips tensely.

"In the end, I came up with a solution that should have occurred to me from the start," Tom continued. "You already have the Dark Mark. It's my means of communicating with you. When I touch it, whether it's mine or yours, you know I'm calling you. You know where I am."

"You haven't used it yet," Hermione interjected. She could see where this was going, but she couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe Tom Riddle would do something like that for her.

"There's not much function here at Hogwarts," he said with a shrug. "We're all gathered here and I can always verbally say that a meeting is coming up. But as soon as we leave Hogwarts, it will be useful. For you, however," his eyes travelled up and fixed on her urgently, "it will be different from now on."

He raised his wand and pressed it to her mark. Hermione sucked in a hissing breath. A hot tingling sensation travelled over her skin as Tom concentrated but silently channelled his magic into her arm. It wasn't uncomfortable or even painful like when she'd had the mark burnt into her. Instead, it felt as if someone was tickling her in a particularly pleasant place, making all her hair stand on end.

A pleasurable sigh escaped her lips when Tom took his wand from her again. She had enjoyed whatever exactly he had done. She looked at him with shining eyes.

"From now on, you will be able to use the mark as I do," Tom explained to her. "Touch it, whether with your wand or with one of your fingers, and think the names of those you want to call."

Although she had guessed that this was the purpose, Hermione's mouth dropped open. Tom just gave her the power to summon the Death Eaters. He raised her a little more to his level. She blinked. "This is ... an extraordinary Christmas present indeed. Thank you, Tom. I know what a big step this was for you. I'll make sure you don't regret it."

"I know," Tom replied simply.

Hermione kept running her fingertips over her Dark Mark. She could feel the bump underneath where Bellatrix had carved the letters Mudblood into her arm so long ago. The tattoo hid the scar almost completely. She had hated wearing the mark at first, just as she had hated the words on her arm. It was a permanent reminder that she now belonged to the Death Eaters. That she was less and less Hermione, Harry and Ron's best friend. That she was more and more Hermione, the partner at Voldemort's side.

She knew that Death Eaters were capable of summoning Voldemort. That was exactly what Bellatrix had done when they had fallen into the hands of the Snatchers. But Tom had never said that the others could use it. She was the first one he had changed the mark for, and she was sure that the Death Eaters in her time could only summon Voldemort himself, not each other. She had more power than any future Death Eater.

"My heart," Tom caught her attention again. "What has happened is unforgivable. I will see to it that Lestrange and everyone else is punished. But if there's anything else I can do to make you feel better, please tell me."

Overwhelmed, Hermione slumped forwards and wrapped her arms around Tom. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. He sounded sincere. He was saying the things a normal boyfriend would say to his girlfriend. He seemed so much like a normal, seventeen-year-old boy that she couldn't tell if any of this was really happening.

Tom returned her hug. His arms wrapped around her slender shoulders and pulled her close to his chest until she came to sit on his lap. His left hand was on her back while his right kept stroking her cheeks, neck, and head. As if he wanted to soothe her. As if he knew that physical closeness was good for her.

"He just took what he wanted," Hermione blurted out. She had not really told him what happened that day. What she felt. "He said he wanted to free me. He thought I wanted that."

Tom's hand ran soothingly over her cheek. "He has no idea what witches want. And certainly not what a witch like you wants."

Hermione felt the chill of fear spread through her again. "He said it wasn't rape because I want it."

He grabbed her by both shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "Rufus Lestrange is a deluded wizard who thinks he's intelligent. You're far superior to him, Hermione. Nothing he says is right. Never listen to anything he says to you."

Hermione returned his gaze, but she shook her head. "That's not the point, Tom. I don't know if you can understand this, but ... I've just realised again now that I can't do anything when a man wants my body. I just feel so defenceless. Like I have no control." She sobbed involuntarily. The feeling of absolute powerlessness had become deeply ingrained in her. "I can't defend myself, Tom. It's as if I wasn't human at that moment. As if my will were irrelevant. I can't even put into words how it feels."

Tom pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I know exactly what you mean, my heart. It feels like you don't count. Like you spend every conscious moment of your life skating on thin ice. You know you can't control whether it will crack. Maybe it will crack, maybe it won't. There's nothing you can do about it. You try to skate carefully, but you collapse. You fight your way back to the surface and decide to shed the fear and move forward with determined, quick steps, but you break in again. You can't control the ice. You will only ever lose."

As he was speaking, Hermione realised how bitter he sounded. As if he actually knew what it felt like. She placed a hand on his cheek. "So, what are we supposed to do?"

A cold grin appeared on his lips. "Destroy the ice, learn to swim, and make sure that the fire that burns inside you never goes out."

Hermione's breath caught in her throat. It made so much sense. How often had she thought about Tom's terrible childhood and realised that it had all started there. But now, having experienced the feeling of absolute powerlessness herself, she finally really understood. Tom never learnt what it felt like to be in control of his own life, so he sought control in ways that were wrong. Ways that destroyed others and were more than unhealthy for himself.

But she understood him. Understood him so well.

"When you say learn to swim," she picked up the thread, "what do you mean?"

"The fool fears the thin ice because he's afraid of drowning," Tom continued the image. "The fool doesn't know that it's possible to swim."

"And if all people are fools, too blind to see their possibilities..." Hermione continued the thought.

"Then it means I'm doing something that everyone else thinks is impossible."

Hermione knew what Tom meant. He had created Horcruxes to become immortal, something that seemed impossible even for witches and wizards. But of course, Tom couldn't know how much she knew about his Horcruxes. So she continued to play along with his game. "Something everyone thinks is impossible?"

The corners of his mouth twitched. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Hermione. I'll tell you about it. At the right time."

Annoyed, she expelled the air. "And now isn't the right time?"

He smiled at her indulgently: "No. Because today is about you, not me."

Hermione shrugged her shoulders somewhat helplessly. "I don't know either. I've believed my whole life that other people have respect for others. Of course I know that bullying and discrimination happens. I've experienced it first-hand," she explained as she intertwined her fingers. "But I thought that most people wouldn't go so far as to physically harm others. Last year ... even before I came here, I realised that was a misconception. Lestrange put the final nail in that coffin that buried my faith in humanity."

Tom cupped her face with both hands. "And yet you have it in you to find poetic metaphors in this situation. You are strong, Hermione. You will learn from this incident and come out even stronger."

He gave her a kiss on the forehead and stroked her cheeks with both thumbs. Hermione felt the fear-induced coldness melt inside her. She knew that Tom was right. So far, she had always managed to pull herself back up through her own determination. When Dolohov had nearly killed her in fifth year. When Dumbledore had been murdered in sixth year. When Bellatrix had tortured her. When Ron had abandoned her and Harry. She had never let herself be dissuaded from continuing on her path.

And she would not allow a slimy Rufus Lestrange to succeed.