Dark, Twisted and Time Turned

Chapter 11: The Lord's Control

(*Warning: Violence, allusions to war, mild language, brief discussion of murder.)

On Sunday morning, she woke with a start in the common room, surprised to see she had fallen asleep in the chair. A pile of ashes and coals sits on the hearth, the cheery fire having long burned. The blanket draped across her was remarkably soft, and its soft red colour painfull reminded her of nights falling asleep in the Gryffindor common room. She looked across to the coffee table, where her quill, inks, and wand still rested just out of reach. There was something different about the room.

Her eyes widen in realization and she shoots to a sitting position, a hand instantly landing on her throat and a wand to her temple. She swallows hard. Tom's eyes burned with a red intensity she had never seen before in any place but her nightmares, set into the face of a man far removed from humanity.

"Where did you get the book, Hermione?" He hisses the question, and she nearly cries at how deadly and terrifying he sounds.

"I bought it."

"Bullshit!" She flinches. "This is one of two copies left; I have one, you had the other, which curiously enough was supposed to have been in Professor Slughorn's desk. Did you steal it? Are you a little thief?" He presses his wand harder against her.

"Looking to split your soul, Tom? Now would be an excellent time, yes? Kill me now."

Your wand, get your wand, you stupid girl.

"You know nothing about my desires." His voice was not his own. It growled with anger, deep and scratchy. It was no longer the silky smoothness of Tom. It was the terror- inspiring voice of Lord Voldemort.

Oh for fucks sake, I'll just do it myself. Her wand flies off the table, slipping into her pocket before Voldemort could notice.

"And you know nothing about me." She spits in reply, and Tom- no, Voldemort glances around the common room as if just now noticing how public they were. She had no doubt students would begin coming down soon for breakfast.

"Come." His hand tangles in her hair as he pulls her by it, out of the chair and down the hall. She stumbles after him. He throws her into his room, and she falls to her knees. "Abraxas, out, now. Mary too. Wipe her memory, or I'm taking yours." Abraxas hurriedly ushers a terrified girl out, and she hears the muffled obliviate before the door closes and clicks shut. Voldemort sneers down at her. "Legimens." She hardly has time to cram memories into locked corners before he shoves his way in.

She can't get him out fast enough, watching in horror as he watches her kill her parents in brutal fashion, watching the episode of tears and terror afterwards. He watches her cast the imperious curse on Ms. Cole, the imperious on Carolyn Parkinson, the fiend fire in her house, going back and forth from future to present before landing on the terrifying experience in the train as runes burn themselves into her, and ink fills her body. He yanks out of her mind with enough force to send him stumbling. Red fade from his eyes, and he looks down at her, horrified.

"Oh Gods." He whispers, dropping to his knees. He reaches for her, sprawled out on the floor, and she flinches away. He looks on the verge of tears. "Hermione, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, I- I couldn't control it. Please. Let me heal you." He hesitantly extends his hand until he can touch her, and then wipes blood off her face to heal a nosebleed. "I'm so sorry," he whispers, for each part of her he has to heal. He gives her calming draught to stop the shaking of her hands, her arms, the entirety of her body. He places his head in his hands before he leaves the room, and Abraxas returns in his place.

"Come on, Hermione. Can you walk? I'll get you to your dorm. You'll be alright." He soothes her, rubbing circles on her palm. "Come on. Up you get, good. I'll make sure no one is in there when you go in." He casts a quick patronus, following it at a far slower pace with her before helping her through her doorway. The wards admit him, and he forces a small smile. "Try to clean yourself up, I'll be right back." She doesn't miss the flash in his eyes as he leaves.