Chapter Text
Hermione Granger never imagined traveling from 2003 to 1953.
She also did not imagine meeting a 26-year-old Tom Riddle, working in Borgin and Burkes.
Much less falling in love with him. But it happened and there was nothing she could do to prevent it.
They were practically soulmates.
Even if he didn't have a complete one.
Equally connected, in the most varied ways.
Intelligence, comprehension, communication, sex.
She knew that this timeline was only a parallel to hers. That the line where she came from still existed, but she thought that maybe she could change this one.
She never imagined going back to the original timeline.
Or that Tom would follow her.
Or that she would get pregnant.
Still, Hermione knew that there were certain things that were simple facts.
Fact Number 1: She couldn't change Tom. She would never recognize that she didn't want to change him either. She loved him like that, with all his darkness, his power. His entire existence corrupting hers.
Fact Number 2: She couldn't change Harry and the Order's opinion of Tom either. Which was totally understandable. How could she ask that the culprit of all her ills not be judged even if he wasn't the one that performed such actions?
Fact Number 3: She was having a girl. At first the anxiety won her over, believing that Tom would be one of those men who wanted a boy as his heir or something like that. But then again, she was fascinated with the fact that he did not even appear to care about her baby's sex.
"She will be perfect."
Was the only thing he said to her, when she told him the news.
Fact Number 4: The Order did not want to see her again. Within the Wizarding World, very few people knew who Tom Riddle was. So when Tom got into politics, the tension between her and 'her friends' increased.
It was after 5 months of giving birth to Merope that all kinds of relationships broke down. Tom had run as a candidate for minister. Handsome, charismatic and totally unrelated to the war on either side -that the magical world had an idea at least- he was the ideal candidate that Magical Britain needed.
Someone to bring stability.
With the Golden girl as his wife and already a child.
He looked and tasted like The Future ironically.
And as much as Harry Potter himself objected and shouted that they were about to vote for Lord Voldemort, the magical society only believed that he went crazy.
Voldemort alive again? They had all seen his corpse.
The boy was raving.
"Traumas of war" Said the Magic Society.
From purebloods to muggleborns. And when Tom won the election with 83.4% of the votes, Harry Potter exploded. He would not have the murderer of his parents as the leader of the Wizarding World. Although this Tom never even knew of the existence of Lily Evans or James Potter.
Fact Number 5: The Order wanted her dead. She never told Tom about the little attack she suffered at the hands of Ginevra Weasley. She was alone, doing the shopping in Diagon Alley, when the woman appeared out of nowhere and attacked her.
Unluckily for Ginny, she never stood a chance against Hermione.
Maybe if she had told him things would have been different.
It happened two days before Merope's first birthday. Hermione Jean Granger never expected that upon opening the door to her home with Mero in her arms, Harry James Potter - her ex best friend - would attack her with a Sectumsempra.
Falling backwards, she could only react so that Merope did not hit with the fall. She never imagined what Harry would do.
It didn't even cross her mind. Raising his wand made of holly, contained with a single feather from the tail of a phoenix, the eleven inches long pointed towards her baby.
Fact Number 6: Harry Potter was going to kill her daughter. And her.
"Please, don't… Harry, please I beg you." Hermione cried, looking at the man that once she called her best friend, while the blood spilled out of her mouth. Choking her.
"It's just a baby."
"It's his baby."
"And mine. Harry, please don't."
The green light engulfed them both, drowning out Merope's crying and Hermione's pleading.
Wasn't the scene familiar to him?
Tom wasn't there.
It was of public knowledge that the minister wasn't in the country, when his family was assassinated. He was in an international conference in France, never imagining that Harry Potter would kill his best friend and her daughter.
Tom felt sympathy for Harry, for a second.
"So that's how it feels, to have a family and have it taken from you."
And although as fast as it arrived, that sympathy left. Tom was going to kill him and this time, he was not going to fail. Him and the entire Order.
He, too, needed to resume his studies in necromancy, immortality and resurrection.
Fact Number 7: Tom would not live in a world where his wife, his daughter, and the child that was on the way were all dead.