To anyone who loves this book I have to apologise. I haven't been writing as often because I've been really down lately. Thank you so much for sticking with this story. I love all of you! I notice all of you. Thank you endlessly. I've tried to make this chapter a bit longer than usual! I hope you enjoy.

♡

The first thing I felt was relief. The spell Madam Rosmerta used to break down the damned bathroom stall door might have obliterated a lot of things in its path but not me. I had escaped. Again. I lowered the Time Turner, placing it beneath my top so no one would notice it. With two shaking hands I unlocked the door of the bathroom, stepping into the horror that was only an hour and a half ago. I crept towards the bar where I knew my past self would be just about to walk into the bar with Tom and Claudia.

I paused, hidden well out of sight. I had a clear view of the front door. It didn't take long before I saw Tom come striding ahead of the rest of the group of students making their way up to The Three Broomsticks. Tom came closer, and raised a hand to open the door. He looked around the vicinity seemingly waiting for someone and I stept back further in the shadows happy to be hidden from sight.

It was always eerie travelling through time, I had the most unusual feeling of deja vu. Madam Rosmerta approached, her wide red lipsticked smile dominating her face.

"Tom, my dear. Do come in, it's absolutely freezing outside!" She stepped back as Tom pushed the door open.

"Madam Rosmerta," Tom greeted quietly, inclining his head. "How have you been?"

"Not too bad, business isn't doing too good as of late but that's a discussion for another time. Now, give me your coat and find a seat." She gestured broadly to the room as everyone entered, talking and laughing amongst themselves.

I saw myself standing a short distance behind him looking rather despairing. I remembered just how terrible I felt to be stuck with Tom Riddle when everyone else was enjoying themselves.

"We shouldn't have come." Claudia said rudely. "Just look at the state of the place! It's not very well kept, is it? Who owns the Three Broomsticks anyway?"

I stepped back, rolling my eyes. What I would give to just backhand her across the face. Who raised her to be that rude, anyway? A damn troll?

I paused a few moments, listening to the sound of Tom leading us over to a table. I peeked my head around the corner of my hiding spot, now seeing myself clearly sitting with my back towards the bathroom. My hair was sticking out, I looked a right mess. I raised a hand to the back of my head, all of a sudden self conscious. My hair looked horrendous, I knew I didn't really care about how I looked today but damn. I shook my head, trying to focus. Really? Was I actually going to be worrying about my stupid hair in a time like this? I looked over at Claudia, who was twirling her wand in her hands beneath the table. I froze, watching her. After a few moments, she slipped her wand back into her cloak sleeve. Ok, that was weird.

I looked over at Tom- who I was horrified to find was staring right back at me. It wasn't a trick of the light. We were both staring at each other. Fear sparked within me. Paralysingly present and so tangible I could've felt it in the air. Fuck. Seconds passed. Tom held my gaze, his dark eyes narrowing after a moment.

I gasped, stepping back quickly. I had blown my cover. He had seen me. It was over.

"Ladies," Tom announced from the table. "Drinks?"

I heard Claudia and myself telling him what drinks we'd like. The sound of my own voice spurred me into action.

With shaking hands I reached in my small beaded bag for Harry's invisibility cloak, pulling it out and hastily throwing it over myself. I stepped back until I was wedged in the corner of the small hall right beside the entrance to the girls bathroom. I didn't have time to find a proper hiding place. I took a deep breath. I had to control myself. Tom had seen me. And I knew what was coming. He was going to the bar counter to place the order for our table, and I knew he would most likely be coming over here to confirm his sighting of me since it was on his way.

And sure enough, I was correct. Barely a few seconds past and then true horror set in as Tom Riddle stepped into the dimly lit hall, his black eyes unforgiving, piercing in the half light as they roved around the small space. He was trying to find me. My heart began pounding in fear as he advanced, his footsteps barely making a sound on the old wooden floorboards. He was like a hunter who had picked up the scent of blood. Perhaps if the other Hermione out in the pub wasn't sitting out there so oblivious with her back towards the bathroom she would've seen Tom make a detour instead of going to place the order for our drinks. Maybe I would've realised at that point that something was wrong. But I didn't.

"I know you're there, Hermione." Tom smiled. "I saw you." He drew his wand out of his cloak sleeve, holding it out in front of him. He was so tall he almost was touching the roof of the tiny hall. "I have to say, for a smart girl like yourself this was really a foolish mistake."

Now I was scared. There was nowhere to hide, and no where to run. Tom knew I was there. It wasn't like this Hall was wide enough for me to duck past him. He stepped closer, and the smile vanished off his face.

"Time isn't to be messed with, Hermione." He said seriously. His voice was quiet, only intended so I would hear it. "Are you not aware of the grave repercussions those like yourself face? Those mindless fools who felt as you do, as though they had a right to meddle with time? This situation is an prime exemplar of why time turners are not permitted to students in the first place... Although what type of fucking idiot let you have that is a question I'm dying to know."

He stepped closer. Fuck. One more step and my cover would be blown.

"I suggest you do this." He said coldly. "Go back in time. And do not dare come back to this moment. I was prepared for this. I knew that you might try and find a loophole in the situation that is to come, that you would try to evade the disaster I'm about to frame you for. I knew it from the moment you walked in the School with that damned Time Turner around your neck that you'd resort to bending time to win over me. But theres no escaping me, and I never lose. Claudia knows that at my word she is to curse you. And do not for a second think that she won't. Step out here and see for yourself. She has her wand on her. She's already prepared herself. Once again, it is you who has not."

His handsome face morphed into that manic, slightly deranged look I had come to know and eventually hate, and as he stepped back I felt twice as cold as I was before.

Tom was amazing at making me feel extremely disturbed. Much to my surprise, he actually turned around and walked away leaving me shaking like a leaf. I paused, not knowing what the hell to do. One moment, Tom was about to sabotage my hiding spot, and the next he was talking to me while I was under Harry's invisibility cloak as if talking to me face to face. What the hell was going on here?

I stepped forward slowly. He had be hiding around the corner. Right? But I peeked around the wall as I slowly crept out of the hall and found no one.

Good.

I stept out into the pub, walking quietly over to a spot very close to the front door. It was the perfect spot to eavesdrop on Claudia and myself, and also well out the way of Tom who was now ordering the drinks.

What was going to happen now?

I frowned beneath the invisibility cloak weighing my options. Well, I might as well do something to stop Tom from cursing the old tree out the front and murdering all of those birds. I didn't know what the hell Claudia was going to do to me, but it wasn't like I could just fuck around right now. Tom knew I had traveled through time. He'd seen me.

You're doomed. My mind observed. This is the end.

With a merry chime the front door opened to allow an older witch and wizard inside, and with barely a split second to comprehend the opportunity to get the hell out I managed to just squeeze myself past them before the door closed.

It was freezing outside. Hogsmeade was a lovely place, I concluded, but only when I was in my time and not with Tom or any of his sadistic friends. It was draining. I stepped forward numbly, deciding to stand beside the great old tree ready for the moment Tom decided to strike. He might have been clever enough to predict I'd come back from the past to fuck things up for him, but not even he could know where I planned to ambush him. I cleared my throat, adrenaline coursing through my veins. My heart began to pound. I was going to curse Tom. And if Claudia was going to try her hand, then I'd curse the fuck out of her too. I was so tired, so emotionally cut into pieces. Now, I wanted my sweet revenge. And nothing was going to stop me.

I didn't have to wait long. I was leaving the place in my mind already, desperately trying to escape the situation while standing there solitary near the great old tree. And then I saw myself from a distance exiting the Three Broomsticks a little distance ahead. I almost didn't recognise her. The other Hermione looked deathly, all hellfire and fury, and as if on que the numb feeling disappeared within me and in its place came anger. Searing, like fire. I could feel its raw energy seeping into my skin, so many emotions it was almost like I was bleeding out right there. I felt set aside from myself. I felt tears falling from my eyes before I could stop them, and realised with a stabbing ache that I was remembering Harry. The last time I saw him he walked out to the Forbidden Forest to give himself up to Voldemort.

Maybe you're already fucking dead. My mind said nastily.

Oh really? I thought back in response, feeling about ready to have a full on argument with myself in my head.

I was the one who had died. Because I didn't fucking feel alive any more, did I?

"Protego." I whispered. At least I got a clear shot at myself from this distance. Now I would be protected. I turned, and cast the same protective charm over the tree. And the birds, with some additional effort. At least they weren't moving around too much. And now the moment I was waiting for. Tom Riddle. Hopefully about to be caught in the act of disappearing before he snuck up on me, too.

I watched the door of the Three Broomsticks very closely. And then finally Tom Riddle emerged. He was so pale he contrasted with the gloomy shadow cast over the village, his black cloak the only thing fading into the surrounding scenery.

Now's the time I thought.

I drew my wand, and aimed it very carefully at his face. He closed the door behind him, looking up to see the other Hermione walking with her back turned very slowly up the path leading out of the village.

I saw his smile from where I stood, and that same hideously raw feeling of overwhelming pain reared its head again becoming progressively worse the closer he came.

'Incarcerous." I hissed.

With an unerring reflex Tom slashed his wand through the air deflecting the spell before it hit him. He paused, the smile long gone from his face as he looked around for the culprit.

"How the fuck..." I breathed, now confused and angry.

How could he deflect a spell if he didn't know where I was?

Tom was silent as he came closer. And then, without any warning at all, he turned on his heel and disappeared into thin air. There was no sound. It wasn't apparition. This was advanced magic, possibly a very powerful disillusionment charm.

I froze. I couldn't see him. I started to get scared. What if he knew where I was right now, standing here under the old tree?

And then suddenly, I saw him reappear behind my other self. But he didn't talk. He simply slashed his wand through the air from where he stood behind me. I saw the other Hermione crumple to the ground, and suddenly I had drawn my wand and pointed it once again at my damned target.

"Crucio!"

Tom, who appeared to have been caught off guard for what may have been one of the only times since I knew him, fell to the ground with an inhuman roar of rage. I had used an Unforgivable Curse against him. There was no going back now. The tables had turned.

I ran closer, still fully concealed by the invisibility cloak. Standing over him I concentrated all the months of rage, pain and abuse and allowing the Unforgivable Curse to gain further strength. Tom fought, but my raw emotions were so highly strung, I was charged and ready to destroy and not even he could stop me this time.

Tom must have told Claudia to distract everyone to keep the students and Madam Rosmerta busy in the pub because no one came rushing to his aid.

But the sight of Tom Riddle finally helpless and at my mercy was addictive.

"Incarcerous."

I commanded rope to bind Tom, the same spell that utter menace of a woman Umbridge used all those years ago, and Lupin used against the traitor Pettigrew. I was powerful, and I relished that power.

Tom couldn't see me. But I had to stay concealed from sight just in case any of the students or Madam Rosmerta saw two Hermione Grangers' at the same time. I didn't want to fuck up time any more than I already had. I was already in more than enough shit as it was.

"You fucking stupid bitch." Tom snarled. "You've really done it this time. I'm too powerful for your pathetic Unforgivable Curse. And guess what?I'm going to make you regret this. You just wait..."

"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP, TOM!" I bellowed. "CAN YOU NOT JUST FUCKING BE QUIET FOR GODDAMN ONCE?" I slashed my wand through the air at him. He was now fully immobilised. He couldn't talk now, the damned monster.

I bent over my limp form. What did Tom do to me? I turned myself over to find a large bloody gash bleeding scarlet through my uniform.

Fuck.

I yanked my beaded bag open and thrust my entire arm within, desperate to get to the Essence of Dittany. Whatever Tom did to me wouldn't have been any type of simple physical wound, that much was obvious. I had to at least stall whatever he had done.

It didnt take long to find it, which was surprising considering how much junk I had with me. I still had the bloody portrait of Phineas Nigellus from Sirius' house for fuck sake.

Yanking the stopper off the top, I poured well over three drops into my slightly opened mouth. It was the weirdest feeling, administering Dittany to the Hermione from the past. I threw the invisibility cloak back over my arm in the nick of time.

"Tom?" Claudia screamed. I whipped around to see Claudia standing solitary at the door of the Three Broomsticks, staring at Tom binded in rope and my unconscious form a few metres away.

Oh fuck no.

Without thinking clearly, I took ahold of the both of them and turned on my heel and disapparated.

The horrible sensation began, the twisting, the turning, a horrible sensation of pain cracking up my arm-

I heard screaming. I looked around, confused. We were a little way out from the Hogwarts School gates. To my luck no one else was out here. Tom was binded and immobilized laying on the ground on my left, and the Hermione too. We were near a cluster of bushes, so no where that anyone could easily see.

I realised I was the one screaming.

A horrific pain was searing my arm. It felt like a hundred knife wounds. I looked down and had to stop myself retching. My entire left arm was covered in blood. I had a massive gash that cut from my upper arm down to my wrist. I had done it now. I had splinched myself by being stupid enough to attempt disapparating with two immobilized people, one of them my own damn self.

Tears blinded me as I focused all my attention on finding the bottle of Dittany again in my handbag. A sudden wave of dizziness hit me, and I fell to the ground, suddenly too weak to move.

From a short distance away I saw a tall figure in a long emerald cloak and a long silver beard walking toward me, wand raised and pointed straight at me. I tried to move my other arm to throw the invisibility cloak back over myself, but my hand was going numb. I was losing a lot of blood.

"Dumbledore." I gasped.

The darkness clouded my vision, my sight finally giving out, and as I slid out of consciousness trembling on the hard earth the bright sunlight of the day bent itself into nothingness.