Over the next few hours, the fear and torment enshrouding my mind peaked. I didn't get a chance to ask Claudia when Tom was planning to kill me. But I knew I was in danger just being alone here in the Hospital Wing. Despite the numerous protective enchantments over Hogwarts, there was nothing stopping Tom from bursting into my room and killing me instantly.

I wondered if this was how Harry had felt, constantly aware of the fact Voldemort was out there actively plotting to kill him.

He died in the end. My mind said ruthlessly. And so will you.

I frowned. Like hell I'm going to die. I corrected my thinking. God, if this was the way my thoughts were going I might as well be dead.

I waited anxiously in my bed for Tom to return, wondering if Claudia really did manage to get away in the end. I'd be damned if another person got harmed because of me.

I stretched out my injured leg before me. It was ridiculous. It was healing again, but the ache hadn't gone yet. I stood up, testing it out. If Tom really was making plans to kill me the least I wanted to be able to do was run away. If I couldn't even move I didnt stand a damn chance.

"Are you trying to run away from me again?" Without so much as a warning Tom Riddle was standing the doorway. Tall, cold, his black cloak adding to the fallen angel image spectacularly.

His dark eyes were looking directly at me causing a chill to trickle down my spine. So he was plotting to end my life, was he?

"On the bed. Now." Tom entered the room, walking towards me and forcing me backwards until I landed on the uncomfortable mattress. I reached down to haul my bruised leg up, gasping as the movement sent shockwaves of pain up my body.

"You really are hopeless." Tom chided, taking my foot in his ice cold grip and lifting it for me. His grip was so strong my entire body moved. "Madam Pomfrey told you that movement makes the poison travel further."

"And?"

"And you're too much of a rebel to ever listen to anyone regarding your wellbeing."

I clasped my hands tightly. It felt like shit hearing Tom talking about my wellbeing now I knew he was planning to end my life. It was almost like a betrayal, considering all we had been through. Maybe it wasn't so much that Tom betrayed me, but I had blindly assumed I'd survive him. I'd betrayed myself to a fate I never thought would be mine. I wasn't going to die, was I?

"I wasn't aware that anyone in the vicinity actually gave a damn about my wellbeing." I said coldly. "Well, except Madam Pomfrey."

"Perhaps you're right." Tom said pleasantly, but his tone was enough to make my skin crawl.

"Meaning?" I raised an eyebrow, watching his face. He never showed any sign of emotion, so I wasn't getting much of a good read.

I paused, deliberating for a fraction of a second.

"You know what I think is strange." I said, choosing my words very carefully. "How someone could be invested in bettering someone else, and then decide to kill the person they had claimed they were invested in."

Tom's eyes narrowed slightly. "What in particular has brought about this thought?"

"Well, I don't expect to survive you if your intent is to curse me and mess with my psyche." I said quickly. The last thing I wanted to do was to throw Claudia in harm's way, even though I didnt nurture any strong sense of affection for her.

"You have defied me enough times to earn your death at least sevenfold." Tom told me by way of explanation, his words vacant and empty. "I have abstained from killing you this far, however. I trouble you, but only as you trouble me. Consider this as a return for all that you have caused me, and perhaps you may come to see the situation through different eyes. Every human being on Earth, directly or indirectly, has influence over their own fate, Hermione."

"What would someone do for you to decide to end their life?" I looked up at him, my eyes wide. He looked down at me and it was only after a moment of careful consideration that he finally answered.

"They would have had to threaten my life." Tom said finally. "Anyone who has attempted harm against me will be fatally harmed in return. I do not take such... opposition.... lightly."

Opposition.

I thought of Claudia telling me about how Tom mentioned I had meddled with time. I was a fool. Of course Tom must have taken that as a direct offence against his life. Time travel could dent the fabric of time, and I was careless in my manner of defeating Voldemort and in doing so must have blown my chances of completing this mission. I felt doomed, but Tom on the other hand appeared unphased.

He paused, as if deciding whether or not he should continue the topic. I wasn't sure I wanted him to keep speaking. He had already more or less told me that death was something I had surpassed. So what was this now? The waiting game until Tom decided he'd had enough?

"I'm going to go and get a drink."

I began to sit up, but Tom instantly walked in front of me, blocking my path. "You aren't going anywhere." He snarled.

"Or what?" I said, the heat rushing to my face. "Are you going to kill me, Tom? What about that book you wanted me to read? Where is that?"

Tom looked at me for a moment as if weighing up whether or not to end me then and there. And then finally, he withdrew from his cloak that horrible black leather bound book I had come to loathe so much.

"As you requested, your Majesty." He mocked, handing it to me. "Careful. If this is damaged I won't be pleased."

I took it from him, feeling all the old feelings of despair and overwhelming horror crashing back over me again like the damned thing was a Horcrux. I knew it wasn't, but the feeling of knowing I was now binded to my own word of reading it had me feeling lost. Troubled.

"Are you thirsty?" Tom asked me. "I can call Madam Pomfrey to get you a goblet of water."

"Why are you being nice to me?" I didn't mean it but the words were suddenly out of mouth. I needed to know. Had to know.

"I'm not always a heartless monster, Hermione." Tom's words were heartfelt but his tone was as empty as the bottle of medicinal ointment on my bedside table. He didnt mean it. He never did.

"I'm not too sure what you-" I paused, panic clouding my mind for a second. A terrible, burning pain was creeping up my leg.

"Hermione?" Tom was above me, standing tall and eclipsing the light from above my head. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. Fear sparked as wave after wave of searing pain coursed through me.

"My- leg." I screamed.

Tom tore my entire bed covers off the bed, sitting beside me and pulling my leg toward him. I screamed in protest but he appeared to not be listening, I couldn't see what my leg looked like but the pain was enough to make it convulse, Tom's icy grip locking it down on the bed.

"Fuck." I heard him, caught onto his low tone.

"What in Merlins name-" I saw the blurry outline of Tom standing, making way for Madam Pomfrey.

"The poison must have spread. Has she moved at all?" Madam Pomfrey asked Tom. I tried to keep listening but I wasn't thinking clearly and couldn't make sense of anything.

"Hermione." Tom's cold voice reached me, the ice cold tone burning sense into my mind for a single fleeting moment. "Can you hear me?"

I nodded once, too panicked to speak.

"I'm going to have to use this." Madam Pomfrey was holding something in her hand, I saw the shadowed silhouette of Tom stepping aside as she moved closer.

"Hold her down, Tom." I felt pressure on my thigh as Tom held it down.

A sharp pain burst through my skin. I fought through the pain, drowning momentarily in the agony and emerged in a scream.

"What is that." Tom was asking Madam Pomfrey.

"I have to sedate her. This is significantly worse than I feared. What Dippet is doing permitted those loathsome creatures residency in our School lake is beyond me..."

I froze, fear coming back full throttle.

She was sedating me. I couldn't lose consciousness, not with Tom here. He could kill me. I wasn't ready to die.

"I..." I struggled to speak. "Going... to.... sleep."

"Yes," Tom let go of my leg and stepped back. I couldn't see him clearly, but I could see his shadow looming over me.

"Go to sleep, Hermione." He said gently. "I'm here."

I froze, panic causing me to breathe very quickly.

"You're ok, Hermione." Madam Pomfrey said, but she sounded like she didn't believe her own words. Whatever was happening to my leg wasn't expected at all.

I struggled to keep my eyes open, determined to look at Tom, to see what he was doing. But he was simply standing beside me, watching me trying to hold onto my own consciousness. It was clearly a losing battle.

"Don't fight it." Tom said to me, his voice fading. I was going under.

"It will be over soon." Tom told me. "Any second now." The cold hand was suddenly holding my own. I fought against my own mind once again, but to no avail, Tom's words echoing in my mind.

Then suddenly, surely enough, it was all over.

--------------------------

I woke up, feeling some sort of pressure on my leg. I woke up to see Madam Pomfrey was dressing my leg in gauze bandages by hand. I closed my eyes, trying not to think. But the memories rushed back to me, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them.

"She's awake." Tom said from beside me. "I think we will need a stronger dose. She's resisting it."

"Well, the syringe is there, Tom." Madam Pomfrey said, her voice sounded uncharacteristically unlike herself. Cheery, even. "I leave it to you to administer the dose, Tom."

Tom must have used a Memory Charm on her.

"No... More." I heaved. I was feeling sick, and it wasn't just the fear this time. I felt a creeping nausea, paired with the adrenaline from having my apparent killer standing right beside me after possibly making Madam Pomfrey give him the medicine wasn't helping.

"It needs to happen." Tom said. "We can't have you in pain now, can we?" He laughed at his own sick joke.

"Do you know what I've done?" I started to hyperventilate, not that anyone could hear anything of course. It was just Tom and I.

"I've forced Pomfrey to allow me access to her entire medical supply." Tom told me. "I now have control over the drugs in the Hospital. So let's put it this way, you won't be leaving anytime soon. You'll be too sedated to even move. And perhaps you can then tell me where you got this idea in your head that I'm going to kill you."

I blinked, staring up at him in utmost horror. Just when I thought Tom had crossed all the boundaries of evil, he went and did something worse.

"You... will....get... caught." I gasped.

"No." Tom said, quelling me instantly. "There is no possible way I could get caught. Madam Pomfrey has willingly allowed me to stay in the Hospital Wing with you. I even have my own room so I can check up on you regularly. I'll be like your own personal doctor. And if you resist me, I'll harm you. How does that sound?"

"I'm... still... going to... resist." I heaved. I felt so weak, like I hadnt slept in years. As for my leg, I couldn't feel a single thing.

"Oh?" Tom looked down at me skeptically. I was pinned down by blankets which seemed to be tucked right in. "How exactly are you going to do that?" He asked me sadistically. "I have your stupid little bag and your wand. You've got nothing."

I looked around, hope draining away from me as quickly as my energy.

I didnt know how, but I was going to resist. This wasn't going to change anything. Or was it?