No bushy hair. No walking library. No witty comebacks. No smile. No frown. No soft lips. No honey brown eyes. No dueling partner. No purpose. Nothing left.
The list went on and on in his mind as he stared out the classroom window. Never had he felt this empty. Never. It had been 13 days and 15 and a half hours to be exact since he had last seen Granger. And not even the stupidest person alive could deny that she had left. What was worse, was that it was his fault.
He, was the one that told her to leave. And he would forever hate himself for it.
No one else shared his pain. No one else seemed to care the slightest.
(If this next part is confusing, I'm sorry. Basically Tom drifts asleep while in the class, and it seems real. Everything in italicizes is in the dream.)
"Tom..."
He glanced up at the dwat professor Dumbledore that was looking at him expectantly behind his half moon glasses. "What?" He drawled.
"I asked you the incantation to turn a candle into a rabbit."
"I have no idea." He replied honestly. How was turning a candle into a rabbit useful?"
"Curious.."The professor stated in his delicately odd voice. He turned to the class. "Does anybody know how to turn a candle into a rabbit?"
The class stared at him blankly. "Curious....all of you say you don't know. But you do know. For instance I'm about to tell you how. Does anybody have a clue who knows in this room besides me?" Again he was met with blank stares.
He grabbed a clock of f his desk and moved the minute hand five notches to the right. "Now. I will ask you again. Does anyone know how to turn a candle into a rabbit?"
Tom furrowed his eyebrows. It was obvious. One would just point at the candle and mutter 'Candrebo'. Yet he hadn't known that before. Why? It's as though the answer just popped into his head.
The rest of the room looked as confused as he, and he heard a few "Candrebo"s being muttered.
"You see..." The professor held his two forefingers in front of him. "You all knew the answer, just not five minutes ago." He stared directly at Tom. "Sometimes patience, and waiting, is the only way to truly know." He paused for what felt like an eternity. "Remember that."
He reached for the clock once more, yet Tom's vision shifted, and he felt as though he was drifting into a sleep. He vaguely heard the professors voice, but it seemed distant as he drifted away. "Oops, too far..." Dumbledore muttered.
Tom opened his eyes again yet he was sitting in the back of a classroom, next to some blonde boy who appeared to be etching the word mudbood into a desk.
"Could I have your attention please?" A voice called from the front of the room. Tom glanced up, landing his eyes on an old lady ravished in Green robes. Her Grey hair was pulled tightly into a bun, and she stood with a very strict posture. "Right. Now today, we will be transforming animals into water goblets."
Where the bloody hell did Dumbledore go? Had he blanked out that long. Did another class come in here while he dozed off. Not to mention he didn't recognize anybody in the room, even the teacher.
"Like so." She held her wand up to some bird. "One...two...three...fereverto!"
The bird transformed into a cup, causing the room to gasp in awe. It was only a transfiguration! How was it that impressive?
"Now it's your turn. Who would like to go first? Ah....Mr. Weasley." She said approaching a red head in the front of the class. "One two three fereverto." She instructed.
The boy gulped and held his wand up to a rat. "Fereverto." He muttered and the rat half transfigured so the goblet was fury and had a tail. Again the entire room chorused in laughter.
"That wand needs replacing Mr. Weasley!" The witch scolded with disappointment.
Another hand shot up, and the professor called on the student. "Professor?" The voice asked.
"Yes miss Granger?"
Tom instantly flickered his attention away from the idiotic boy, and rather towards the girl. He heard the name. Granger. It couldn't be. The tiny person sitting in the front of the room had to be no over eleven.
"I was wondering if you could tell us about the chamber of secrets?" Her voice echoed again and this time there was no doubt it was her. He couldn't see her face, yet her untamed brown hair was an instant give away.
The room quieted at her question, but Tom could care less once he realized young Granger was less than twenty feet away. How was it possible? He was filled with a burning sensation just to know more....
But the room faded as a loud voice rung into his eardrums.
"Tom...Tom..."
........
"Tom!" He was jolted upwards from the noise. He rubbed his eyes, and again Dumbledore was standing in front of him.
"What?" He asked in confusion.
"I asked you the incantation of how to turn a candle into a rabbit."
Was he going mental? He swore the professor had already asked that. It was like he was having dejavú. His brain was foggy, and he concluded he must have drifted into a day dream. "Cadrebo?" He guessed, as that was what he had answered in his dream.
"Correct!" The professor cheered. "Ten points to Slytherin."
The bell rung, and students all started to shift out of the classroom. "Well we will pick up here tomorrow. In the meantime, well....enjoy."
However Tom did not follow suit, instead he approached the professor. "Ah Tom. Is there something you wish to tell me?"
"Well, I must have fell asleep and had this weird dream just now, but I don't remember falling asleep. But you asked me the incantation, and somehow the answer came to me in the dream. It was like I was predicting the future."
The professor studied him. "Yes...very peculiar." That was all he said, so Tom turned to leave.
"And Tom.." He held eye contact. "Perhaps it would do you well to....do some rounds tonight. Especially on the seventh floor."
What was that supposed to mean? He shook it from his head realizing Dumbledore had always been daft, and hurried from the classroom to get to his next lesson.
Night rolled around, and he entered the lake common room just after eating dinner.
The Room was filled with people casually snogging, and he wondered when the people of his house no longer feared him. No longer cared about his authority.
"Alright get a room. There are first years present. And come to think of it, firstyears it's past your curfews, dormitories now!"
A couple students groaned and complained, but he was proud that the room cleared out, well except for Malfoy. "It's only five minutes past eight Tom." He spoke from the black sofa.
"I don't care." He said removing his tie from around his neck and flopping down in an armchair.
"Why are you acting like someone pissed in your pumpkin juice?"
"Why should I not?" He asked with a scowl.
"It's Granger isn't it?" Malfoy asked, yet Tom simply stared into the flickering flames, not bothering to answer. It was Granger. He clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white. "She is gone. I don't want to hear her name again."
"Well, I'm going to get some shut eye." He heard Malfoy call, and didn't even bother to notice the figure leave from the couch and disappear.
He wasn't tired. Not in the slightest. He probably sat there for half an hour before he became restless. He needed to do something. That's when his eyes landed on his tie dangling off the edge of the armrest, and attached to that, his prefect badge.
'Perhaps it would do you well to do some rounds tonight....especially on the seventh floor.' The professor's voice played in his head, until he felt a sensation and need to do exactly that.
And so he made his way out of the common room and swiftly to the seventh floor.
He stopped in front of the bare stretch of wall. Something was different. And so he paced, back and forth concentrating so the door would appear. And although he didn't particularly need to go into a room piled from floor to ceiling with junk....he wanted to.
But nothing happened. No door appeared, and he wondered if he was in the wrong location.
He would have tried again. perhaps he wasn't focused enough, yet he suddenly felt very dizzy. Before he knew it his eyelids closed and he felt the collision of his skull with the stone floor, that sent a sharp piercing pain through his head.
It all went Black.
He was standing in a room. He had never seen it before, yet it was lined with mirrors and had a bluish tint. At one end was a fireplace, and right next to him was a bookshelf. It was then he noticed the students. Not a single one recognizable, all lined up. They seemed around his age.
"Don't worry...I'll go easy on you." He heard someone mumble.
"Thanks Ronald."
He recognized the voice, and instantly snapped his eyes in the direction. It was her. She was standing holding her wand in both hands. She only looked slightly younger, if at all. "Granger." He called out, but no one seemed to hear his voice. He tried walking, yet he couldn't move.
The boy whom she was talking to, made his way to the other side of the room, and the rest of the students fell silent to watch.
"Come on Ron." A few chanted, and the boy nodded smugly.
They both raised their wands, aiming at the other. He could see it in her eyes, that there was no way the boy would win. Granger was deceiving like that. Nobody expected what would come out of her wand.
The boy parted his lips and flicked his wand, yet in an instant she yelled "Stupefy!" Sending him flying across the room.
There was a chorus of laughter, and he studied Granger's grin of satisfaction. but it faded too quickly. And he was engulfed in blackness again.
-----------
She gasped holding her hand over her mouth. There he was, lying on the floor. She noticed the trail of blood first, leaking from his head. It wasn't the worst she had seen, yet the image cause a nauseating feeling in her stomach.
She fell to her knees beside him, placing both hands on the side of his face. "Riddle!" She whispered. She felt like screaming, but it was all she could choke out. "Riddle, wake up!"
She could smell the metallic stench from the blood that diffused into the dry air. He needed to get to the hospital wing.
She tried to lift him, but as she moved his head more blood started to pour out from his skull. Thinking quickly, she frantically tore a piece of fabric from her jumper and wrapped it around his head to cover the wound, ignoring the blood that stained her fingers.
"Help! Somebody please! Help!" She called out into the corridor realizing she couldn't lift him.
Her eyes darted to a portrait with a sleeping man in his study. She stood up, and banged on it shaking the guy awake. "excuse me!" She called "Can you alert one of the staff that I have an emergency!"
"I'm trying to sleep! Merlin girl!" And then the man fell back into a snoring slumber.
"No...no no no!" She yelled desperately, but it was useless. She fell to his side once more, feeling his forehead.
"I'll be back, I promise." She said, then ran towards the nearest staircase. She went as fast as her feet would take her, and felt a cramp form in her side. As she ran through the corridors she searched for anyone, yet the castle seemed empty.
She had reached the fourth floor, and that is when she noticed a pair snogging. "Hey!" She yelled with too much excitement.
They both looked at her skeptically, and most likely she was a site to see in her frantic state. "Are you strong?" She asked to the boy.
"Excuse me who are you?!" The girl asked glaring at Hermione.
"I'm Hermione Granger. And you see, I found this student unconscious. I need someone who can carry him to the hospital wing!"
"Well why don't you just levitate him?"
She stared blankly at the boy. Why didn't she just levitate him? She felt entirely stupid, and without further hesitation sprinted back up to the seventh floor.
The trek seemed longer going up the staircases, and her lungs felt as though they were on fire. Yet as she reached him again, she wasn't concerned the slightest of her condition.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" She annunciated. And he lifted upwards but than just floated.
"You are lucky I came to that last dueling lesson of ours Tom Riddle!" She whispered under her breathe, as she remembered how to move him.
"Alarte Ascendare!" And he flung through the corridor, her keeping all her focus and strength on keeping him in the air.
She didn't know how long it took, but as she reached the hospital wing she lowered him to the ground in complete exhaustion.
"oh my! What happened?" The nurse called, making her way across the wing to the two.
"He....He must of passed out and hit his head. I found him on the seventh floor.....I think his skull is cracked."
"Don't worry dear!" The lady quickly levitated him onto one of the cots. "He will be alright. I just need to get to work."
Hermione just watched as the nurse fussed over him, going back and forth from her office, with a series of bandages and muttering spells.
About fifteen minutes later, the witch ceased her efforts. "He will be fine for now. I suggest you yourself get some sleep."
Hermione looked at the lady, agreeing herself that sleep sounded great. But she also realized she would not get any. "I'd rather stay here."
The lady looked at her with empathetic eyes. "Well alright. But he wont even be awake till morning. If you get tired, you can just lay down on one of the extra beds."
"Thank you." Hermione said with a small smile, and the witch disappeared from the wing.
She than looked back to him, and cautiously took a seat next to him on the bed. She grabbed a hold of his hand, rubbing it absently with her thumb. "What are you thinking?" She whispered, studying his face. He seemed peaceful, and she couldn't help but wonder if he was dreaming.
----------
He was in a hospital wing, again it was blurry, and it was like he was watching the scene. It felt real, yet he knew it wasn't.
There were three others in the room. one was propped up on a bed, his leg in a cast. And at this point he recognized the red hair, assuming it was the same boy Granger had just beat in the duel.
Directly opposite him were two others. A raven haired boy, and a girl standing over him. He couldn't see her face, yet the Brown bushy hair gave him a hint it was her. She was younger than last time, and wore a pink jumper.
"Harry!" She spoke as the boy began to wake.
"I saw my dad!"
"what?" She asked.
"He sent the dementors away. I saw him across the lake."
"Listen Harry. They've captured Sirius. Any minute the dementors will perform the kiss." She informed him.
"You mean they are going to kill him!?" The boy shouted sitting up and grabbing his glasses.
"No. It's worse. Much worse. They are going to suck out his soul."
Suddenly the hospital door's flung open, and A man with a long beard cloaked in violet robes burst through. Tom studied the man curiously, as he recognized him to be Dumbledore, only he was much older.
"Headmaster, you've got to stop them! They've got the wrong man!" She cried making her way towards Dumbledore, the boy following behind her.
"It's true sir. Sirius is innocent!"
"It's scabbers who did it." The red head called from the bed, causing all three to look at him.
"Scabbers?" Dumbledore questioned.
"He's my rat Sir. Well...he isn't really a rat. Well he was a rat, he was my brother Percy's rat....but then they gave him an owl-" The redhead rambled.
"The point is we know the truth." Granger hesitated. "Please believe us!"
"I do Ms. Granger. But it's hard to say the word of three thirteen year old wizards will do anything to convince others." The old man stated.
He than made his way over to the red haired boy. "A child's voice, however honest true, is meaningless to those who have forgot how to listen." He said while simotanisly smacking the boys cast. Right. He was an old crack pot even in this dream.
The clock tower began to chime, echoing through the wing, causing Dumbledore to stare towards the sound. "Mysterious thing time. Powerful, but when meddled with dangerous." He paused. "Sirius Black is in the topmost tower. You know the laws Ms. Granger. You must not be seen. And you will do well I feel to return before this last chime. If not, the consequences are to ghastly to discuss. If you succeed tonight, more than one innocent life will be spared."
He turned around sharply, and began to head to the door. However he stopped. "Three turns should do it." He winked and than made his way across the room exiting. But than he reappeared once more, sticking his head through the entrance. "By the way...when in doubt, I find retracing my steps a wise place to begin. Good luck." And then he was gone.
"What the bloody hell was that all about?" The red head called from the bed.
"Sorry Ron, but seeing as you can't walk..." Granger said sympathetically. She then pulled the familiar necklace out from under her jumper, and laced it around her and the other boy's neck's. She swatted his hand away as the boy reached for it, turned it three times, and than the two disappeared.
And the scene faded once more.