Breaking Hermione

Cruel To Be Kind

Intro

Tom Riddle

The wind howled, and the rain hammered down against the tall glass windows of the Hospital Wing. It was dark. Shining brightly above was the moon, silvery tendrils that reached through the window falling softly on Hermione's sleeping form. Not a single sound could be heard throughout the room. Yet Hermione was restless even in her dreams, and I knew the reason. I was here. By the Dark Magic I had utilised, she wasn't even permitted to sleep without my permission. Not that she was yet aware of that, and I knew better than to reveal unnecessary information at the wrong time.

"Tom." She said. I came to the understanding that she was talking in her sleep. I inclined my head, paying closer attention so that I may hear her over the storm.

"...Someone... help me."

No one is going to save you. I thought. I've made sure of it.

Over the past three nights I had been slipping away from my Slytherin duties to stand sentinel in the shadows, keeping guard. I would wait and watch her for hours on end. She only had to be barely alive to break herself down. I was acting as her handler, guiding and managing the situation only enabling her to do what would be in my favour. Yet even this provoked a familar, disquieting feeling. An elusive and uncomfortable sensation began to emerge as I stared at her restless form. I couldn't quite register exactly how I felt. Beneath the weak moonlight streaming down through the window behind her she looked pale and small. Frightened. Even in sleep. Helpless.

How did I feel? Did I want to protect her? From herself?

Yes.

From me?

Should I need to?

I felt an instinctive urge to... erase her memory. I needed her compliant, and even with a broken mind she was just as determined as ever before to oppose me. The networking that this odd thought was branching into vanished however as she suddenly woke, crying alone in the darkness. The faded light of the moon was momentarily subdued by a cloud yet I could clearly see the shadow of her small hand wiping tears from her eyes. I didn't think much of it, it was all dramatics. She was the one who was still choosing to fight me, after all. Within her will was the key to end it. My job was to show her exactly where it was.

As if sensing danger, she stared fearfully into the shadows as if to decipher me from the dark. I smiled in response. She was miles behind me. I knew damn well that all of my hard work had paid off. She was mine. And she had now understood it, and it scared her enough to now want to destroy herself.

For too long she remained willfully binded in her own ignorance, denying my power and her rightful place beside me. She had resisted me for so long that my dark ritualistic act had been turned into psychological overkill. She was the one begging me to bleed her dry. She didn't need to be making it this hard. From within me I could sense that the Dark Magic I had commanded over her was overpowering her mind with a more dominant thought, the shadow of a memory in the form of someone tall and fathomless.

Hermione

I woke suddenly, torn from my nightmare by the ferocity of the storm outside. The howling winds shook the windows, rain hammering down loudly against the School grounds.
Beside me someone had conjured a fire and a candle flickered disconcertedly beside me. Looking around, there was no one else in the Hospital Wing. It was the School holidays still, and no one wanted to remain behind while Tom exercised the full extent of his dominance. I stared into the flame, the dim light provided warmth and a brief moment of comfort. I was afraid. Where was Tom? As I scanned my surroundings, I froze. Was that a pair of dark eyes shining in the shadows over by the wall directly opposite me?