authorsnote: we go in, fluff, angst? how about both?

do enjoy, do review

songrecs: wildflower - billie eillish

'And you run you run to catch up with the sun but its sinking, the time is gone, the song is over'

- Pink Floyd, Time

-x-

"I'd love to stay here forever" Affection made her honest.

As they now lay, side by side on a conjured blanket, the sunlight had fully dipped beneath the trees now, the moon had taken its place, a residence up in the sky, filtering through the treetops, a pretty white light that was just perfect for lighting the unicorn den.

Like something out of a fairytale, like something out of a dream.

A dream Hermione would have sworn off as a nightmare just a month earlier, lying in her bed in the modern day, alone but safe.

She wasn't alone anymore, and safe neither, though she didn't quite realise the latter.

To Hermione the focus was on the fact she was no longer alone, this … this was something she'd never had before.

When she'd woken alone back in this day in X she'd wept for being alone, long gone from any friends or family, and yet back in the modern day something had been missing, something real, something like this.

And so in that sense she wasn't alone anymore, and never would be again.

"If wishes were horses beggars would ride" He said, and she could have fainted there and then, perhaps this was the moment Tom realized she was as had as he, or if anyone were watching would realise it was the moment any of Hermione's concerns just seemed to melt – a man quoting proverb to her? And muggle too? She was gone.

She was utterly and truly lost.

"And if they were buttercakes, beggars might bite" She said back with a giggle, and Tom rolled his eyes, but she could see the affection there, see it as real as he pulled her closer again.

This was real.

His lips found hers again, a delicate kiss to the corner of her mouth, she'd never have thought Tom Riddle could be delicate, and yet with her he was, cupping her face, smoothing his thumbs over her cheekbones, gentle and sweet, like she was something so utterly precious, like glass he was terrified to break.

But he was a contradiction in that sense, because in the next second he was deepening the kiss, leaning in and taking her whole, his tongue swiping over her bottom lip before he bit it, a gasp leaving her lips, his hands bracing her waist, fingers digging in.

But Hermione had always given as good as she got.

Her thighs mooring her (how had she gotten in his lap?), gripping at his, her hands in that raven dark hair, twining and tugging, her lips meeting his, her head tipped as his was back, trying to take more of her in, to consume her …

And she'd let him.

When had it come to this? The unicorns had hidden now, dipped beneath the rocks and sheltered away, two innocent creatures never so willing to get close to Tom Riddle, Hermione should have followed the same rule, but she was too far gone now.

Even the guilt was gone; it would come back later, but for now it was tucked away neatly in the back of her head, as Tom brought a hand up to cup her face, his thumb pressing at her neck, a little shocked squeak followed by something akin to a whimper leaving her lips.

But she made no gains to move.

Foolish girl.

Until, she heard thudding, for a moment it was easy to ignore, they were two halves after all, utterly entwined in one another, no teachers nearby to stop them, Hermione's common sense locked away, Toms usual unrelenting guard even dropped in the face of Hermione wriggling in his lap, and so neither heard until it was too late.

Thudding they both ignored, thudding they both barely heard, until it came closer and closer.

The thudding of hooves.

It was only when they crashed through the trees Hermione shrieked as though shaking off a spell, and Tom looked quite like he'd emerged from underwater, and though they managed to jump to their feet, grab their wands and hurriedly get up, by then they were surrounded.

By centaurs.

An entire herd of them.

"Foals" One spat and Hermione flinched, Tom was by her side wand held aloft, and his expression was wiped, where a minute earlier desire, lust was present, now it was wiped clean, that aloof expression firmly back in place, a hint of arrogance, not a care in the world, not even 15 odd centaurs glaring at them, no, if anything he was acting as though they should be the ones worried.

Hermione though was having unpleasant flashbacks to her fifth year, to Umbridge being carried away, so traumatized by what these beasts, or a version of them had done to her she'd flinched at anything remotely close to a thud there after.

That had been Hermione's doing, could karma catch her here? (Though surely Umbridge being … whatever the centaurs had done, didn't warrant karma? The evil old cow had deserved it and then some).

Hermione hadn't quite realized just how alike Tom she was in that sense.

She tried to school her own expression, but Hermione had never been the best liar, still she managed to straighten her back, grip her wand, she hoped this didn't turn into a fight, both because she doubted their ability to win it, and because she had no quarrel with these beasts, but by the looks of it they certainly had quarrel with them.

"Let us go" Hermione said, her voice without tremble to her pride, she was … or had been a Gryffindor at least, that she held onto, and always would.

"You trespass" One said in a nasty tone, there was a reason centaurs shunned the Ministry and any attempts at closer relations, a reason only Dumbledore had ventured alone against them. They were vicious and strong, and Hermione held no allusions that they, like House Elves, would welcome a speech on championing their rights. She wouldn't dare, she quite thought they'd take more offence to that than being attacked.

"We didn't mean to" Hermione said, some nerves entering her tone now, Gryffindor bravery or not, who could blame her?

"Hermione" Tom spoke then, and she didn't dare glance at him, away from the circle of centaurs but she fell quiet, not out of deference, never, but out of the fact Tom might be able to talk them out of this.

"You're going to let us go"

Perhaps she'd thought wrong.

One scoffed, and Hermione flinched, it was dawning on her what situation they were in, and how foolish they'd been, lingering in the forest so late, so wrapped up in one another they'd ignored any danger, so lost and consumed in one another they'd ignored curfew (would the teachers be looking for them), and anything else. Hermione was a good girl (most of the time), she wasn't like this.

She did glance at Tom then, expression still aloof, still assured, but grip on his wand firm; he was a terrible influence, and as though he'd read her mind on that he flashed her a smirk before turning back to the centaurs.

A terrible influence and one she'd happily caved to with ease.

She could still taste his lips … apples and nutmeg and something strong and something so tantalizing she'd never known anything like it …

And that was what had landed them here (thinking about his lips, his kiss when she really should have been focusing on the centaurs glaring at them).

Perhaps the only reason she wasn't freaking out, or more terrified than a slight shake of her hand was she was very used to situations like this, just not so much through her own stupidity, few had ever been able to accuse her of that.

Few, not none.

"And why would we do that?" One threw back, and Hermione tried not to stare but she couldn't help but see the bow in his hand, arrows at his back, and how each carried a great longbow, ready to use it, could she throw up a shield charm fast enough? Could she defend against arrows coming from all sides?

"Let us go, we meant to cause no offence" Tom said then and Hermione was surprised, but then she shouldn't have been. There was no hostility now, but hadn't Harry said Tom had been known as a charmer to all in his youth? She'd certainly had some of that, but this was different, Tom had always seemed more honest with her, this was him putting a face, a persona on, with a false smile, and a shrug, "We can move on and apologize for the trespass"

"You think apology is enough?" One growled, and Hermione stepped closer to Tom then, and she did not drop her wand.

"You, wizards and witches so arrogant, so fool hardy and egotistic you think you can trespass on our land? Mock us in doing so and just apologize?" The leader demanded, angry, and Hermione started to think of the best way to project a shield charm over her and Tom, seeing as that was what this seemed to be coming to. How could she protect them both?

And yet …

"I think we shouldn't turn this into a fight" Tom offered with that fake smile that almost made Hermione shudder. She could see how it worked, the false charm, flattery, the tilt of his head that promised you'd prefer his charm over what came next.

She was thankful then, and somehow touched that he'd never been this way with her, only for a moment at the start, though it hadn't been long before they'd locked wands and then lips.

There had never been time or an inclination for falsehood, and that warmed her.

This was real.

"It won't be a fight" Another centaur sneered, and "You may last a minute more than your woman, but not one more"

Toms face hardened then, and Hermione almost stepped back, to see that easy affable expression drop in a second into a face, a face that she had never seen before, even when he'd pinned her to the wall, dared her to defy him (and she had), he'd never looked like this, he looked cold.

This was the first time since coming to this time Hermione could see how Tom Riddle could become Lord Voldemort, and she felt a shiver run up her spine at the thought, at something coming to her that she'd been ignoring before.

They were one in the same, even if he wasn't there yet, that expression, the flick of his wand and a spark flicking from it, he could become it, that expression proved it.

And yet, that expression was in defence of her. Her.

That made things different.

"You've chosen wrong" Tom said then, his tone clipped, his expression could chill ice, "Know that when you meet your end"

"My end? Boy –"

"Quiet"

A booming voice took over the courtyard, Hermione would have used it as an attempt to run, but she knew Tom wouldn't, he stood still as a statue, he would fight first, and for the first time since they'd been surrounded Hermione believed he would win.

They would win, thanks to him , just how powerful was the man beside her? She knew it of course, but considering it, that was a different thing.

What came next though, Hermione should have ran, ran and ran and kept running, not looked back, and as much as it would have killed her should have left Tom behind, and ran until she couldn't see Hogwarts anymore.

She should have.

She didn't.

She couldn't.

"There will be no fight" Another centaur stepped forward then, older, his mane greying, wrinkles around his eyes, and Hermione knew, as the other centaurs stepped aside for him, as something seemed to gravitate from his aura, she knew he was important, perhaps more so than all of them.

His eyes were the colour of the night sky, and he lanced them not on Tom, on her.

"There is much these two must do, much to see, we will let them be"

"Armandil" The leader hissed but Hermione could see the deference there, could see at this mans command they would not be harmed, not when the older centaur commanded they be left alone, that they were not to be harmed.

Though, as he spoke next, Hermione would have preferred the arrow the man who hissed so wanted to launch, a thousand times over. Let her bleed, let her be struck, better than this, better than what came next.

"The boy, whose path has been altered, but power will still come to, still threaten to consume, he will be important" The priest said, something winked in his gaze, like a star against the void of the sky, and Hermione knew she paled, even stepped forward, away from Tom towards the centaurs, he reached for her in concern, but before she could speak, before she could scream, open her mouth, before she could shriek, for she knew what was coming, she knew what he'd say, knew she had to stop it.

But there was no time, and this druid, this priest of the centaurs he would say his iece.

"And the girl, she will influence much, as she has, ever since she fell through time"

And there it was, that was what she had been hiding, and as she turned to him, eyes wide, he didn't need to look insider her head, to know it was true.

well well well

it was always going to be revealed, but the fallout? be prepared

I said there would be angst and wellllll...

speak soon