I stormed out of The Three Broomsticks, the wind whistling around me. The day was absolutely freezing, but I didn't care. My hair was wild, flying out behind me, adrenaline burning enough heat through me to make the cold seem entirely irrelevant.

I kept walking. The streets of Hogsmeade were vacant, quite odd for a little village. Then again, no one in their right mind would want to be outside on a day like this. I was alone once again. I focused my breathing, paying attention to my shadow cast over the pavement beneath my feet. I didn't look up until I ran into someone.

"So you thought you'd make a spectacle of me, did you?"

I took two steps back, looking up. Tom Riddle stood directly in front of me, tall and dressed in his long black uniform robe. He must have apparated, there was no human explanation for how fast he moved.

"Did you really expect anything less?" I snarled. "Why are you out here, Tom? Whatever the hell it is get it over and done with. Because you're not doing anything right now except wasting my precious time."

"Your precious time." Tom repeated. "Because you're not on your own time, are you?"

A chill trickled down my spine. I didn't like what he was implying. Could he be aware of my mission? How the hell could he know?

I quickly began walking ahead, keen to put some real distance between the pair of us but Tom was tall, and kept pace with infuriating ease.

"Don't walk away from me." Tom snatched my right arm in a vice like grip, pulling me towards him and then suddenly my spare hand moved of it's own accord.

SMACK.

Before I could even think, I smacked Tom in the face hard enough for him to stumble back.

"KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF ME." I yelled. Nearby, birds in a tree took off in fright. My hand burned, the impact enough to leave a blotchy mark on my skin.

To my sheer astonishment Tom started to laugh, his pale face splitting into a wide smile.

"I find it highly amusing that me touching you is considered an offence, but who is it that consumes your mind, lives in it as though it were merely an extension of my own? Me. If I were you, I'd be more angry about that. Because if you take over the mind of a person, you have effectively taken over them."

"Wow." I said sarcastically, slamming a hand to my forehead. "You've got me! Someone save me! The mindless lunatic Tom Riddle is taking me over." I threw myself down on the ground and beat the earth with a fist.

When I stood back up, Tom, who was looking as far from impressed as you could possibly get, raised an eyebrow. "Did you get dropped on your head as an infant?" He demanded, staring down at me with those emotionless eyes. "Did mummy and daddy not hug you enough?"

"My parents," I said, with a steel edge to my voice, "You don't get to talk about."

How dare Tom Riddle even mention them at all. My parents from my time were in Australia, and it was all his fault that I even had to modify their minds to begin with, the inhuman bastard.

"Your reference to time," I began, careful of what words I chose, "What exactly did you mean?"

Tom flashed a wicked smile. "I think you already know the answer to that. After all," He said, staring me down like a animal that had cornered its prey, "You're wearing the wretched thing around your neck right now, aren't you?"

My hand reflexively reached for the chain of the Time Turner.

"It's not anything important." I said with a brave stab at carelessness, "It's simply a mundane object now."

"A mundane object," Tom repeated, staring me dead in the eyes, "That you never seem to part with."

The sound of the wind whistling as it whipped past now became deafening in the silence.

"Why should it matter to you why I have it?"

Tom ignored this completely.

"You might not realise this," Tom said, stepping closer and closer to me, "But I'm aware of what you're up to. I'm going to cause you trouble in ways you've never dreamt of."

"More empty threats." I said blandly. "Give me your worst."

A flicker of something dark stirred behind Tom's eyes. Within the space of a heartbeat, he raised his wand hand and pointed it at me. Or so I thought he did.

Two things happened instantly. My wand left my hand before I could so much as blink. Barely a split second later the tree where all the birds were gathered over on our right cracked down the middle with an ear splitting sound like a gunshot.

CRACK.

Tom raised my wand in the air, pointed it with a steady hand directly at the bleeding tree hissing out an incantation incredibly fast which sounded like a spoken translation of dark runes.

Spatters of red hit the earth, falling like rain. And then I saw the feathers, and finally the bodies of birds falling from the branches, and the white hot tongues of fire licking up the tree, searing - this was no beginner's magic.

"What the HELL?" I screamed. The entire tree was aflame, the sound of dying birds on the ground beside me echoing like negative thoughts in my mind on a late night alone.

"What's wrong? Am I playing too rough for you?" Tom laughed, kicking aside the dying birds as he stepped closer to me. He looked like a creature from Hell. Evil. Cruel and covered in droplets of scarlet blood.

"Embrace the madness, Hermione." He handed me back my wand, as I touched it our hands collided for a fraction of a second, he smiled broadly-

And then he disappeared into thin air.

"What the fuck?" I spun around, horror driving me damn near out of my senses.

"What on earth have you done?"

Someone bellowed. I spun on my heel to see Madam Rosmerta charging out of the Three Broomsticks, her face livid and her hair flying out behind her. I looked around wildly. Tom apparently had vanished off the face of the earth. How convenient for him. Nearly all of the students inside the pub had come out to see what the commotion was about. I couldn't see their faces but I could hear raised voices. Threats. I stood alone in the bloody mess, blood and the bodies of birds scattered around me like the debris of a house fire.

I couldn't move. I was too shocked.

"Are you out of your damned mind?" Madam Rosmerta reached me, grabbing my arm in a hard grip.

Tom had framed me. Again.

"I didn't do this! It was Tom Riddle!"

Her grip was surprisingly strong. Maybe it was because I was so shocked, but I seemed to have lost the ability to think. To move.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" She snatched my wand out of my hand, letting me go for a split second while she drew hers from her cloak. Pointing the two together she performed silent magic while I watched her, still frozen to my core at the events that had just transpired.

"You obviously did this." She said ruthlessly. "Your wand carries traces of destructive Dark magic."

"Tom took my wand from me - he did this!" I gestured broadly at the mess behind us all the while not looking at the dead birds.

"How could Tom have done it when he is not even here?" She demanded. "What, did he suddenly do this and disappear?"

"Yes!" I spluttered. "That's exactly what he did!"

Madam Rosmerta laughed in my face.

"Save your lies for the Headmaster. I don't want to hear them."

"I'm not lying, I'm telling the damn truth! What more do you want from me?" I snarled.

Madam Rosmerta paused, my sudden angry reaction catching her off guard.

"I want you to go back to Hogwarts. I'm going to contact the Headmaster to let him know what has happened. And I'm going to have one of the Prefects escort you." She turned around and called out to one of the students. "Claudia! Take Miss Granger to Headmaster Dippets office. Make sure she doesn't try to get away."

I watched in horror as Claudia came skipping over to us from the Three Broomsticks, apparently delighted at the hellish situation I was being forced to endure.

"Certainly, Madam Rosmerta." She said sweetly.

"You're a Prefect?" I said incredulously.

"Don't pretend that you didn't know." Claudia snapped.

"Well it wasn't exactly obvious." I was losing patience, becoming exasperated fast. Claudia was about as dim witted as a troll. There was no way in hell I could've guessed her to be a Prefect. The sooner we could get back to the Castle, the sooner I could clear my name and not have to deal with her.

That was, if Tom wasn't already in Headmaster Dippets office spinning an elaborate web of lies right this second.

"Ok, whatever." I snapped. "Can we just get back to the Castle and talk about this later?"

"Let's get going then." Claudia's eyes flickered over to the scene beyond me, to all the bloody piles of birds laying dejectedly on the ground. "I don't want to stand out here staring at that god forsaken mess any longer."

"And you think I do?" I snapped.

Claudia stared at me. "You were stupid enough to provoke Tom. Surely you knew where that would get you."

She started walking towards the carnage, and I followed behind her making sure to keep my eyes off the bloody mess before me.

I was in trouble now. Tom would no doubt be at the School attempting to cover his tracks and pinpointing the blame on me to anyone who would listen. I felt suddenly very lightheaded, the sheer scale of the situation really getting to me. The tree was still burning for fuck sake. Before I knew what I was doing reached up to grab the Time Turner around my neck.

"Are you coming or what?" Claudia snapped, turning around to face me.

"I-I left something in the Three Broomsticks." I improvised. Claudia frowned, putting her hands on her hips.

"Sure you did."

"No, I'm serious. I left my cloak."

It wasn't a lie, funnily enough. I really did leave my cloak.

"Someone will bring it up to the School for you. Now let's go."

"You don't understand. It's got something important in it." I explained. "I have to go back."

"Then I'll go with you."

"No."

Claudia raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"I'll be just a minute." I turned on my heel and started lightly walking toward the pub. I pushed open the door, happy to finally be rid of Claudia at least for now. The only problem was she was still watching me, so I couldn't pull out my invisibility cloak to conceal myself. I had to just walk in the place like all Hell wasn't going to break lose.

Here goes.

In the corner of the Three Broomsticks was Madam Rosmerta and the group of Hogwarts students gathered together as if conducting a small meeting.

They all looked up at me in horror as I darted past.

"Hermione! That was Hermione, I'm sure of it! Did you see her?" Someone shouted. The silence of the group splintered, and for one horrifying moment I locked eyes with Madam Rosmerta.

"You." She breathed. "Get OUT of my pub! NOW!"

I dashed to the back of the Three Broomsticks, my heart racing as I threw myself into the tiny backroom bathroom.

I closed the door behind me, dragging the lock across the catch and trying in vain to quieten my ragged breathing. Fuck being framed by Tom. I had to stop this from happening. I had to go back in time.

I withdrew the Time Turner from around my neck.

"I know you're there." Madam Rosmerta declared.

My hands were shaking, I twisted the miniature hands of the Time Turner, closing my eyes.

"I'm going to give you to the count of 3, and if you haven't come out I'm going to blast the door down." She sounded so close to the door, like she was standing right outside. Soon the small bathroom was rent with voices, the rest of the Hogwarts students must've followed her.

"One."

The corners of my vision began to blur, reality itself breaking apart around me. I was getting out of this damned place.

"Two." I knocked one of the miniature dials on the Time Turner with my shaking hands and swore under my breath.

"THREE."

With a blast that ricocheted throughout the entire building, I braced myself-

But nothing happened.

I frowned, hardly daring to open my eyes. And then I felt the spinning sensation. All around me reality was morphing, scenes of the past flickering before my eyes like a tape on rewind. I had avoided the explosion by mere seconds.

How damn extra of Madam Rosmerta to blast the damn door down. Surely there was a million other ways to get to me before resorting to destroying her own pub, right?

I laughed to myself. It didn't even matter now. I was going to get to Tom, and he wouldn't even be aware I was coming.