whoever is reading this rn i ♡ you and wow omg ive been SO fkn busy im sorry I couldn't update sooner :c all your support makes me so happy im so grateful so tnx SO MUCH guys for real .

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You know that feeling you get deep down in your stomach that tells you something bad is gonna happen?

Well it was the exact same feeling I got as I walked back down the corridor, twisting the new Time Turner around my neck anxiously.

Dumbledore was right, the old one had to have been cursed because I felt clear headed without it. Better. Less hopeless. But there was something else wrong. A new feeling. A sort of twisting in my gut, and it was with no surprise at all that I turned the corner and found Tom Riddle leaning against the stone in a predatorial stance, his features lighting up with a horrible maliciousness as his dark eyes met mine.

"Hermione." He said softly. "I suppose you thought you'd try to get that useless old hag Dumbledore to help you?" Did he ever feel the need to stop tormenting me? Apparently the answer was no because he pushed off the wall.

"Tom." I said coldly. "So I suppose you decided to ambush me."

Tom eyed me in consideration, the smallest smile on his face. "Maybe." His voice was low, playful. I shot him a look.

"How did you even get let out of class, anyway?"

"I have my ways." Was all he said.

We started walking. With no one else in the halls except the few watchful portraits, I was feeling creeped out. Walking with Tom made me suddenly wish I was walking with Draco Malfoy or Pansy Parkinson.

"What did you do to Shalini?" I asked suddenly.

"Nothing she didn't ask for," His tone darkened. It was harder to see his face now it was concealed in shadow from the stone walls. It was now lunch break, and as much as I didn't want to, spending this time with Tom might be the only way I could get more information on Shalini and him. We walked outside together, tall brooding Tom and tiny midget me. Students left and right gawped at us, I tried to ignore them.

"You can't just not tell me what happened to my friend, Tom." I demanded. "I know you're up to something and I'm going to-"

"Lower your voice." Tom snarled, turning to me in the courtyard. "Do you really want to know what I did to her?" He stepped closer menacingly, his tall figure towering over me. "I will tell you. But not here right out in the open. Literally any of these fucking dumbass kids could be eavesdropping right now." He gestured around him. No one was watching us, but that didn't mean they didn't have a way of listening in.

I froze, stepping closer hesitantly. Finally, we're actually getting somewhere. "Fine. Well, let's find a better place to talk. Where should we go?"

Tom stepped closer too, coming out of the sunlight and into the shadows where I stood. I bit my lip, thinking. I could feel his eyes on me.

"The library," We said at the same time.

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"Over there. By the window."

Tom motioned over to a small table at the back of the library, to my surprise the exact one I usually frequented during my schooling years helping out Harry and Ron when I was younger. I blinked, my eyes suddenly burning with tears. I needed to get a grip, but it was basically impossible when all I could think about was Ron and going home.

We walked over together sitting opposite each other. My heart was racing, not that Tom seemed to notice how uncomfortable I was, or perhaps it was more that he just didn't care.

"Well, then. What did I do to Shalini..." He faked a quizzical look, his long fingers drummed once against the table. He was really making it more dramatic than it needed to be, and to my disgust it seemed that he was enjoying how unsettled I was getting.

"What did I do.... Well. Let's just say I had fun." A smirk formed on his lips and I swallowed, realising that perhaps the situation was degrees worse than I thought. Fun... Just the way he said it made it instantly clear that he was the only one who enjoyed himself.

"I regret nothing." He pressed ruthlessly, dark eyes boring into mine.

"I knew since the day I met Shalini Black that she is a nothing more than a brainless little whore. It was more than easy to see. Before we even got together, I knew she was nothing more than that. I'd heard the rumours."

I licked my lips again, frozen as my mind pieced together those few pieces of a puzzle I didn't want to finish. Tom's eyes focused on my lips for a second.

"...since she was so completely enamoured by me, I found it easy to take what I needed from her, whenever I needed it." Tom laughed softly as Madam Pince walked past us. "What's wrong?" He asked sadistically, leaning back on his seat. "Did you finally catch on?" His dark eyes were shining brightly, just daring me to lose my patience.

I snapped.

With no warning I slammed my hand down on the table. Crash! "You really don't want to piss me off right now. This isn't a joke, you know."

Well. Tom didn't so much as blink. In fact, my little show of fearlessness and anger just made him look... bored.

"What was that noise?" Madam Pince's sharp face burst out from behind an aisle of books.

"Oh nothing, I just dropped something." I said quickly.

"Of course." She gave me one long, suspicious look before shuffling off. I tried to wait until I couldn't hear footsteps, but at the same time I was getting extremely angry.

"So what are you saying?" I exploded. "That you sexually assau-"

"Watch it." Tom slammed a hand across my mouth as Madam Pince shuffled back towards us.

"Tom!" She proclaimed, walking towards us not looking amused in the slightest. Tom dropped his hand from my mouth instantly.

"I'd have sworn the schools top pupil would care to show a little respect in this library..." She placed her hand on her heart as though personally offended.

"You would be correct, Professor. I apologise, we got momentarily distracted." Tom's dark eyes looked so sincere I almost fell for the apology myself, but before I knew it Tom had shaken her off.

"Do you ever lay off the charm?" I said dazedly. Tom looked up at me through his long lashes. It wasn't even fair for him to have those, he was evil as hell for gods sake.

"Why should I? I always get what I want when I'm using it."

He raised an eyebrow, staring directly at me.

Oh hell no.

"That's ridiculous." I bristled. "You can't expect to fool everyone. You don't fool me."

Tom smiled slightly. Sure I don't.

I looked at him closely. The sunlight streaming through the window brought out the tiny flecks of red in his eyes. My heart skipped a beat. If his eyes were already turning red, I really didn't have much time before worse things were going to start happening around here.

Tom pulled out a couple of pieces of parchment from his bag. "What are you doing?" I frowned.

"Maybe you are as stupid as Shalini," Tom said coldly, "Props. Since we're in the library, don't you think we ought to pretend that we're working?"

"Oh, right..." Wow, I felt like a dumbass. I wasn't normally like this. What the hell was wrong with me? I pulled a piece of parchment toward me, and instantly wrote out a few of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, not realising how far Tom's eyebrows were travelling up his head.

"What in the name of Merlin are you doing?"

He tore my paper towards him, very nearly ripping it cleanly down the middle.

"You know about Gamp's Law?" He said with an offensive level of incredulousness, quickly scanning the paper, his cold calm exterior only revealing a touch of that feverish hunger i associated pre examination.

"And got them all correct too..." He finished with a disgusting amount of surprise.

"You didn't think a girl could be smart?" I snapped. Tom looked up at me as if seeing me for the first time, his dark eyes glittering with apparent skepticism and something else. Admiration?

"Well, no. Not a pretty girl, at least." He said matter-of-factly. He was gazing at me and I felt the familiar feeling of my face turning red. Wait, what the hell am I doing? I mentally kicked myself in absolute disgust. He just INSULTED YOU.

But he also said I'm pretty...

I mentally slapped myself again.

Concentrate, Hermione. You're just going to let him distract you? After everything he's done ?! After how far you travelled?

I clenched my fist under the table.

"Stop distracting me you bastard and tell me what you did to Shalini."

Tom, who was smirking, suddenly looked his usual menacing self again. "Isn't it obvious what we did?"

He tore the two sheets of parchment back towards him and placed them in his bag. "We fucked."

I gasped, and as I did he stood, intimidatingly taller than me, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I guess that concludes our little meeting." He suddenly took off, walking at a steady pace but still I had to jog slightly to catch up.

"Hey! That doesn't actually answer my question! " I spluttered. "She's covered in bruises. I know what you did. Even if you two did "do it" you injured her, I know it, and to me it sounds more like ra-"

Tom turned toward me, with absolutely no warning and with lightening speed he shoved me against a wall by my neck. Smash!

"Get-off-me." I gasped. We were in a deserted corridor. There weren't even any portraits or teachers or ... anything.

Where was everyone when Tom was being a complete psycopath? Nowhere at all my mind answered me bitterly.

"Get-off!"

I couldn't even grab my wand since my hands were pinned behind my back. Are you kidding me? "Let-me-go." I said through clenched teeth, he was gripping my throat extremely tightly and I was seeing tiny stars.

"You won't be saying anything to anyone. I already know you've told that lunatic Dumbledore a twisted lie. You're full of surprises, aren't you?" His head dipped so it was near my ear, he released his grip a little. "Even so, with that fiesty attitude and sharp mind you'd be something of an asset." He added as an afterthought.

"Let me know when you want to start referring to me as a human and less of an object." I said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, but when I'm done breaking you, that's all you'll be," He touched my cheek with the hand that wasn't around my neck. "Such soft skin..." He ran his hand down my neck, his long fingers light and cold against me.

I ignored him, what he felt he could do towards me was not my concern: it was all just talk. I pushed with all my strength to get away, but he still wasn't budging. "You can't just go around assaulting girls, Tom-"

"Hang on a second - who exactly is it saying I raped that stupid slut?" He cut me off. "Oh, that's right- it was just you." Tom's lips curled in obvious displeasure sending a thrill of fear through me. "Who are you, exactly?" He purred, sliding his long fingered hand a little lower from my neck.

"I'll tell you who you are," His breath was cold against my ear, I was almost hyperventilating I could hardly breathe. "You're Hermione, also known to most of Slytherin as Dumbledore's little lying bitch. And as for me?" His eyes flashed crimson, his intimidating height towering over me. "Well, theres not a soul in this pathetic mudblood loving excuse of a school that doesn't know of me and my achievements. Don't you get it? No one is going to believe you."

"You're wrong. Shalini is going to tell-"

"Shalini won't be saying a single fucking word to anyone." Tom said dangerously. "And neither will you."

"You don't control us." I snapped, Tom's eyes narrowed, "You don't get to choose what we can and can't do, you arrogant-"

"What on earth are you two doing, standing outside the library yelling and carrying on like a couple of trolls?" Madam Pince shot her head out of the library entrance. "Rather dreadful behaviour if you ask me, especially from you, Riddle. Don't make me call Headmaster Dippet!"

Tom ignored her, casting me a darkened glance.

This isn't over yet.

Stalking off he left without a word, his tall figure casting a shadow on the walls of the castle and leaving me walking away in the opposite direction alone with nothing but the angry voice of Madam Pince and my own disturbing thoughts to keep me company.