I woke up struggling against something. Or someone.

"Hermione." A voice said clearly. "Stop."

I didn't stop at first, but relented after my wrist started burning with pain. There was something cold over my arms pinning me down. I opened my eyes to the sight of Tom Riddle leaning over me, his hands forcing mine by my side. I froze meeting his gaze, his own eyes flashing a dangerous obsidian. "Calm down." He said softly. "You could hurt yourself." He let go of me and stepped back, watching me with a sharp look.

"What..." I blinked, looking around. I felt extremely tired. I could've slept for years, my eyelids were extremely heavy. I closed my eyes.

"You've been asleep for three days." Tom said conversationally. "You are certainly a different kind of person when you're sleeping. You were becoming quite restless and kept muttering to yourself. It was getting rather annoying."

Even as he spoke I felt an overwhelming wave of fatigue come over me, Tom's voice becoming progressively further away until it was blurring amidst the line dividing reality from a dream. Light splintered into soft shades of ebony, a colour just as dark as Tom's eyes.

And then suddenly, like someone had just thrown a bucket of ice water over me I snapped back into my conscious mind. I blinked repeatedly to see Tom slip his wand back into the sleeve of his cloak.

"You won't be going back to sleep." He reminded me so much of a fallen angel, tall with a terribly startlingly beauty about him. He sat beside me, making sure to not sit close enough to pain my ankle. "I have.... an assignment for you."

I was too tired to reply. It appeared Tom seemed to understand because he continued talking to me without bothering to wait for a response. I had a bad feeling about this. Either way this was going to go on one of two paths. Good or bad.

"I have waited for an an opportunity to teach you things." He explained. I couldn't help but notice the half of his face that wasn't concealed in shadow was watching me very closely. I kept my expression blank but my mind was racing ahead of me at top speed. I connected the dots without wanting to comprehend my newfound understanding.

He wants to train me in the Dark Arts.

Tom paused, a gesture I could only imagine was deliberate after seeing the look on my face.

"I want you to let yourself be led by me." He said lowly. "I have many things to show you." He said the words slowly as if that was going to somehow lessen the weight of his words. Fear trickled down my spine.

"I'm going to need you to elaborate." I choose my words carefully. Whatever Tom was suggesting to me it sounded like a disaster waiting to happen and I knew I wouldn't forgive myself if I let him lead me by the hand into another mess.

"You are an exceptionally bright witch, Hermione." Ah, so was going to flatter me into this, was he?

"I am only as bright as the knowledge I am given." I told him. Tom watched me as I spoke, the edges of his mouth curling into a half smirk.

"Yes. And that's why you would be the perfect choice for what I am needing you to do." He replied smoothly. His tone was light, friendly, we could've been having a discussion about the damned weather.

"What is it you are needing me to do?" I asked somewhat hesitantly. "Murder someone? Destroy something?"

Tom clenched his jaw, my words obviously affecting him. "I want you to challenge the way you think."

"What?"

It was my turn to become taken off guard. "You want me to change the way I think." I repeated. Tom nodded.

"Haven't we already spoken about this before?"

"Yes, but you didn't bother paying attention then, did you?" Tom's remark left me frozen.

"And if I did decide to agree with this... assignment you are giving me... how would I begin it?" I tried to not let myself sound as scared as I felt.

Tom stood, impossibly tall he was like a shadow conjured out of my own darkest fears. The look on his face was impossibly fathomless, those dark eyes shining bright like embers.

"I will get you to do a few different tasks for me. I want to see if you can challenge yourself, and in particular the way you think. Perception is the one thing that stunts your growth and keeps you from being like me."

I sat up suddenly. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Tom sat up, turning so his back was toward me and walked over to his bookshelf.

"I have something to show you." I could not see his face from where I was, I could only him standing beside where I knew the entrance to that secret room was. He was looking down, his dark hair falling over his eyes.

I pushed the blankets off myself slowly. It was cold in this room. I slipped out of his bed, flexing my ankle slowly. I gasped, a sharp intake of breath that made Tom turn back to me quickly, frowning in concern.

"Your ankle." He said, as if only just remembering it was broken. "I'm not going to heal it just yet. I don't want you to run away."

He walked back towards me, his face emotionless the entire time. Whatever he was feeling, he was doing an amazing job at not letting it show. He reached for me, and I grudgingly let him take me by the arms helping me to my feet.

"I'm not going to hurt you. You don't need to tense."

I tried to relax against him as he put one of my arms around his neck, helping me walk back to the bookshelf but obviously I wasn't going to forget how much he'd hurt me lately. I felt my entire body stiffen as Tom reached up and touched a random book to open the hidden door.

"This isn't what you think it's going to be." He said quietly. But regardless I couldn't stop my heart from racing. Last time I was in this damn room I was strapped down to a bed. The door materialised in front of us, large and entirely concealed in what looked like a wall of impenetrable darkness. Tom let me to my feet gently. "Lean against me." He instructed. He needed both arms to open the entrance. With one arm held out before him and his wand aloft in the other he muttered something under his breath.

The darkness in the door frame vanished revealing those familiar narrow steps into the small room. The mattress was gone. There was something lying on the ground before us. I couldn't see what it was, it looked like a giant black sack.

Tom reached for me, one arm around my waist and the other putting one of my own arms around his shoulders. Carrying most of my weight he directed us both down the tiny flight of stairs. Whatever was in the weird sack thing wasn't moving. "What is that?" I asked.

"It's nothing." Tom said dismissively but I didn't believe him. The closer we got to it the more the sack had taken on a shape quite alike a dead body. Tom set me down on a random chair and turned to the door. With one of wave of his wand he had sealed us into the room. I swallowed uncomfortably. For some reason I was more comfortable being in Tom's bed than in a tiny room with him alone. The fact there could be a corpse in the room with us didn't help calm me at all.

"Today I am going to be training your mind." Tom turned to face me, his look was intense and his dark eyes held mine an easy captive.

"In this room, I want you to let go of your former beliefs of what is wrong and what is right. I want to show you what true mental liberation is." He walked around the mysterious sack on the ground, reaching toward a small shelf built into the wall.

"This," He said, holding out a tiny vial toward me, "Is the beginning of it."

I took the tiny vial with a fearful interest, examining it closely. "What is it?" Tiny and clear, I could see a tangerine coloured potion inside, splashing against the glass containing it. It was bright, burningly so. It was strangely hypnotising to look at. It was hard to look away.

"That potion is a powerful one I made myself. It will help you understand me. I figured since you seem to have so much to say about me the least you could do is see the world through my eyes."

That doesn't sound dangerous at all my mind intoned sarcastically. If only I could just barge out of there screaming. Sadly if I tried to pull a stunt like that I would probably be leaving it in a sack identical to the one in the centre of the room.

"You can't keep your eyes off it, can you?" Tom observed, almost as if hearing my thoughts. I froze for a moment, momentarily caught off guard: who was to say he wasn't already reading my mind? He was a Legilimens after all, and apparently a damn good one at that.

"Why don't you open it?"

If Tom was intruding in on my thoughts there was no way in Hell he was going to let me know.

"Huh? Open it?" I said stupidly.

I didn't want to touch it let alone walk over to it and tear it open.

"It's not going to hurt you. I won't let it."

"Oh, that's really reassuring." I snapped. "So whatever's inside that thing could hurt me, but you won't let it. Coming from someone who's hurt me so many times before that really puts my mind at ease."

Tom's eyes flashed, a very clear warning. You don't want to provoke me.

I sighed. I had already suffered so much, as if this was going to make a damn difference.

I started to walk toward the sack, and then Tom spoke.

"No. Drink the potion first and then go over."

"Why?" I asked.

"You're either going to do as I say, or you're going to stay here alone in this room for a few days. What would you rather?"

I frowned, fear coiling in the pit of my stomach.

"You're overthinking it again." Tom said impatiently. "And you haven't even completed the first task."

I popped open the tiny vial, trying not to really think about what I was doing. If I was going to complete the mission I had to understand Tom. It was crucial. What did I have to lose anyway? My sanity was already long gone, I'd been watching it disappear for weeks now.

I downed the potion before I had a proper chance to think about what I was doing. Immediately a weight lifted off my mind. I looked around the room, caught breathless at every tiny detail. It was like I was reborn into a world of technicolor. I looked down at my hands, holding them out in front of me. The very edges of them seemed to have blurred, as if I was nothing but a transparent ghost, perhaps even a memory. I looked over at Tom, who was standing over in the corner of the room watching me wordlessly.

"How does it feel?" He asked me. His cold voice was enchanting, but with a definite tone of danger.

"I don't know. I feel quite different to how I usually feel." I told him. I swallowed, staring at the black sack.

"Don't be shy. It won't bite." Tom told me.

I walked up to the sack, crouching until I was level with it. I could hear something coming from inside. Someone breathing?

I immediately ripped open the black sack open, the curled up figure of Daniel Dolohov binded and gagged inside. I yanked the cloth out of his mouth. He looked awful. His skin was hot, he was probably suffocating in that sack.

"Daniel!" I cried. "Are you ok?"

Daniels eyes were terrified and pleading. He seemed to see something behind him that made him cast his eyes downward- Tom had approached us.

"Who cares about that." Tom said walking closer. "What does Daniel mean to you? I noticed that he was rather fast to come to your defence when I was trying to punish you the other day. The fool actually thought he could try to curse me.... So is he your friend or not?"

"He's... well, yes he is my friend." I finished. I wasn't going to betray another friend because of Tom. I already lost Shalini and Jade. My mind felt entirely disconnected from myself, it was hard to fully feel any of my emotions. Maybe I shouldn't have told Tom he was my friend. I couldn't think clearly.

"I see." But Tom sounded like he'd seen something he wished he never did see.

"I want you to kill him." Tom told me. "And this time, you won't be leaving until there is nothing but a dead body in that sack."