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Tom walked the slightly tipsy girl backwards across her darkened room, as she giggled and clung to him.
She had been giving him looks she thought were seductive all night and he had been looking for an excuse to escape the Yule party before he had to dance with Bellatrix.
Sixteen years old, not even out of school yet, and already looking at him longingly while pestering him to make her one of his Knights.
He smiled at the girl in his arms, Jemina, and slowly started undoing the buttons down the back of her dress while trailing his lips across her neck to her collarbone. “Oh Tom, I’ve been waiting for you to notice me.” She whispered while trying to catch his lips.
Tom smirked and put two fingers over her mouth and said, “I told you already that I don’t kiss on the mouth. Don’t make me say it again.” He saw wariness enter her eyes, ‘good’. He was already having a trying time with the giggling but he didn’t want to let this opportunity go to waste.
Bellatrix was breathing down his neck and he had promised Cygnus that he wouldn’t kill her as long as the money was flowing. He needed some outlet before he lost his patience and his temper got the best of him.
He finally got those infernal buttons undone, made all the harder by her swaying, and was starting to slide the dress down her torso when a loud CRACK! shook the place. He had his wand in his hand and pointed at the intruder before the thought had entered his mind.
“Stupefy!” He shouted but was instantly enraged when the attacker deflected it. “Defodio!”
The intruder cast “Protego” and then started rapid firing spells without pause, “Oscausi. Mimblewimble. Nebulous, fumos maxima. Flipendo tria.”
Tom steadied himself against the small swirling storm and shouted, “Meteolojinx recanto!” while deflecting or returning the other spells, some of which he'd never heard.
Jemina screamed and scrambled for the door, calling for her father and brothers. Foolish woman didn’t even pull out her wand. He would deal with her after this unknown witch was immobilized. “Bombarda!”
Hermione was having a rough day. First, no one could find Harry, and she needed his help stopping a black market sale of Demiguises, that she was eighty percent sure was run by Rowle. She had been told the last time that she couldn’t undergo an operation of this magnitude without the Head Auror’s permission. And didn’t that sting.
Then she walked through a seemingly innocent looking door on the fifth level of the Ministry and somehow ended up in a bedroom with other people. Other aggressive people.
She flattened onto the ground and the dresser behind her exploded into millions of tiny pieces, “Protego.” She huffed, “That was quite rude, don’t you think?”
Tom couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped, “Says the girl who threw a tornado and tongue knotting jinx at me.”
He heard her growl but still couldn’t see her through the smoke she’d conjured. “Girl?” she muttered. “I’ll show you girl.”
Tom smirked and readied himself. If he couldn’t fuck the annoying bint behind him than a duel sounded nice.
“Virga perforabunt sagittis” she whispered and arrows shot out of her wand across the room where she thought he was standing. She heard the thud as the projectiles struck the walls and doors and then a whimper.
“Tom. Tom! There’s an arrow in my leg!” a woman cried.
“Are you a witch or aren’t you?” she heard him snap.
“I don’t have my wand on me. I didn’t think I’d need it with you!”
Hermione grinned and then wordlessly cast levicorpus and obscuro and felt satisfaction as she heard the witch shriek. One person down, one to go.
She cast salvio hexia even though she didn’t think he’d only send hexes her way and silently moved to another spot in the room by a window.
She looked through the glass pane and saw the shimmer of wards that signaled the boundary line, she needed to get out and stop messing around. She took a second in the silence to think of a plan. She needed to be on the other side of them to apparate away.
A swish of air past her ear was the second of warning she got as he cast, “Carpe retractum" the conjured rope flew across the room to where she had been standing. Her opponent obviously hadn’t heard her move but she didn’t have all that much time as the room was small.
“Come out, come out, where ever you are.” She heard him whisper coming closer to where she was.
“Depulso. Muffliato. Protego diabolicia.” As the ring of fire surrounded her, she cast, “Deprimo.” and the ground below her opened up.
As she fell the two meters, she rolled on impact and pointed her wand at the ground above her and said, “Reverte terram".
The hole disappeared and she opened her hand, palm up, as a small blue flame lit up the darkness. In her other hand she held her wand and whispered, “Point me.”
She started tunneling dirt out of the way and replacing it behind her. She slowly made the trek to the boundary line, hoping she had enough time to escape.
Tom saw the cursed fire spring up but the girl had already disappeared. He turned to the witch hanging upside down and said through gritted teeth, “I thought there were anti-disapparition wards up.”
“There are, Tom. Papa made sure to boost them when you wrote you were attending. Can you please let me down?” She asked pathetically.
Tom turned his back on her and walked to the doors and blew them apart. He stalked down the hallways and into the large ballroom. He located Dolohov in a gaggle of women and sauntered towards him.
Dolohov, feeling someone glare at him, looked up with a furrowed brow then smoothed his face to be expressionless. He excused himself and walked towards his leader.
“Is everything alright, my lord?” He asked quietly.
“I need you to go get Nott and follow me. I have a mission for you.” Dolohov nodded and then retreated to the drink table to grab his colleague.
When the wizards joined Tom by the entrance he turned on his heel and started speaking over his shoulder. “Thirty minutes ago I was in a bedroom with the Mulciber’s daughter,” at this the two others made brief eye contact and then turned back to their lord, “An unknown woman apparated into the bedroom and started a small duel with me-”
“My Lord!” Nott interrupted, “How can someone apparate in?”
As Tom stopped and slowly turned to him, Nott blanched, “What the fuck do you think I want you to do, Thoros?”
“I am sorry, my lord.” Nott bowed his head. Tom stared at him for a second more then resumed walking. After an awkward minute of silence he stopped by an open doorway and gestured inside.
“Antonin, see if you can dissipate this smoke.”
The two men stepped forward and then immediately stopped in their tracks. Nott stood gaping at the woman slowly revolving in front of him and bleeding down her body onto the floor. “Should I cut her down, my lord? Or remove the arrow?” he asked.
Tom simply waved his hand and she fell to the ground, Nott winced in sympathy. Dolohov stepped over her and started waving his wand. After minutes of nothing happening, with Tom growing increasingly impatient, Dolohov flicked his wand in a repetitive circular motion and the room started clearing. The ring of fire became the only sign of magic left.
Dolohov turned to Tom and asked, “Did you already take care of the intruder?”
“No.” Tom replied curtly, “She disappeared. Can you find her? I have questions.”
Dolohov cast appare vestigium and gold dust flowed out of his wand and stuck to the ground, showing small footprints and handprints. The footprints moved across the room and into the ring of black fire. He held out his arm in front of the others and said, “This is interesting. Don’t touch the fire.”
He stalked around the ring, looking for weaknesses but already knowing he wouldn’t find any outside. “Partis temporus" and a small gap opened up in the flames. He cautiously walked through them and stared at the ground.
He then looked up and noticed the window. “How far from this side of the house to the wards, Thoros?”
“About fifteen meters would be my estimate.”
“Hmm. My lord, I am going to go scout outside.” Tom nodded and then replied, “Take Nott with you. I’m going back to the manor, come to me when you find her.” Tom pasted a smile on his face as he left the room, intending to thank his host and depart for the evening.
Meanwhile, Hermione was struggling to breathe underground when she heard voices above the dirt.
She whimpered and clasped her hand over her mouth when she recognized the deep rumble from her nightmares. But it couldn’t be because he was dead. She had to be dreaming, except the stitch in her side was letting her know this was reality.
What kind of door had she walked through to bring her to her worst fears?
She stopped moving and tried to regulate her harsh breathing.
“Homenum revelio" Thoros cast and saw a red dot up ahead. He tapped Dolohov’s shoulder and pointed.
He got a nasty smirk in return and they quietly crept forward.
When they stood above the spot the dot marked, Dolohov vanished the dirt and dropped down behind their little intruder. She whipped around and looked at him with big, brown eyes filled with terror as he cast petrificus totalus.
He caught her as she fell backwards and yelled at the sky, “I’ve got her, Nott. Bring us up.”
Thoros muttered “Mobilicorpus".
Once they were upside Dolohov reached into his pocket and grabbed the small watch he always kept on him. “Our lord will be very happy we found you. Portus.”
Tom stared down at the witch who’s skin looked like toffee and smelled of jasmine with hints of ylang-ylang.
He was debating waking her up in front of his full court or in private. At last, after some of his followers were starting to get antsy, he touched the end of his wand to her head and whispered, “Rennervate.”
She came awake with a gasp and frantically tried to get out of her bindings. The look of her struggling and straining had Tom hardening instantly. ‘Something to look forward to'.
“My dear" he purred into her ear and watched her shiver, “Maybe you could tell us how you came to be in a manor that’s been warded for hundreds of years against uninvited guests.”
Hermione was going to kill Harry. If he had just stayed where he was supposed to be, or at least told someone where he was going, she wouldn’t be in this mess. She tried calming her frantic breathing because she could not afford a panic attack right now.
She marshaled her thoughts into order and checked her occlumency shields for any cracks or gaps. She released a sigh when she found none but knew she couldn’t relax.
Somehow she had traveled back to a time when Tom Riddle was human, just by stepping through a door. This had Department of Mysteries all over it.
“I apologize for intruding, it was not my intention. I work at the Ministry and a door lead me here.”
Tom came to stand in front of her with his arms crossed and wand dangling from his fingertips. Both eyebrows were raised high on his forehead as he contemplated what she had said.
“Do any of you recognize this woman?” No one said anything or stepped forward. Tom smirked cruelly and said, “Try again but you won’t like what happens if you're caught in another lie.”
Hermione repressed the urge to moan or scream. Why is it always so difficult to talk to Death Eaters?
She decided in a split second to tell him the truth and see if she could change the future. Maybe all those people didn’t have to die if she helped him navigate around unnecessary death, torture, and all the mistakes he made the first time.
“I have travelled back in time.” There was total silence before Riddle threw his head back and let out a boisterous laugh. His minions joined in after a couple seconds. He stopped abruptly when he noticed the complete seriousness on her face. He gripped her chin tightly in his hand and spoke quietly, so only she would hear.
“You are truly delightful.” He slowly trailed his finger tips suggestively down her throat and into the collar of her shirt. “If that’s true, you shall be the key to my success. Happy Yule to me indeed.”