Breaking Hermione

My Beloved

Hermione

I was trapped in deep darkness. I couldn't see anything at all, as if the air itself was densest night. I didn't know where I was, but I knew I wasn't alone. I could hear voices near me.

Tom. I could hear his voice beside me, speaking to me in a quiet yet intimate tone and that's when I could feel again.
Horror. Agony. It was an engulfing sensation consuming me, and I could feel everything suddenly as if a light had been turned on.

"I know you can hear me." Tom said softly. "Yet you won't be able to speak yet, you're still under the effects of sedation. I'm going to need you to listen very carefully to every word I say, if you have any desire at all to live. I've succeeded in all preliminary counter curses and protective enchantments over you. I have used medicine to counter the bruising the ancient runes were causing you. We are far into the reach of my power and now I'm going to show you once and for all, the complete union of us through a very ancient and rare branch of Dark Magic."

I froze inside myself. There it was again, that sinking and hopeless feeling as if I had awoken in someone else's life, where the horror was endless and ever present. I felt physically ill having to contemplate the many layers of it all again.

"Soon, all you will know is me." Said Tom. "It will be as if I've become your entire world. It will be just the two of us, and our dominion and glory will be exalted above all the rest. I will show you the true heights of all things, beauty beyond the limits of what you've ever known. All of this I gift to you, my beloved."

My beloved.

It was those words that made me feel fear uncoil within me. Who could Tom truly love? I remained frozen as Tom leant down to kiss me. As his mouth made contact with mine I forced myself to remain very still, as though I were just a statue yet the fire that was now burning within me lashed inside me, threatening to destroy everything.

"When you are awake, I will be waiting for you in the Slytherin Common Room. I've modified the password to enlightenment."

How could he have the power to do that? Surely that was power exclusive to the School's authority.

I sensed the very moment he left the room, waiting fearfully until I felt that heavy darkness had vanished before I dared my eyes again.

I was in the Hospital Wing. Of course. I sat up very slowly, grateful that I wasn't wired up into any I.V bleeding foreign medicines into me. I didn't need to be treated. I wasn't the one who was attempting to possess someone using extreme methods of coercion and dark magic. It was Tom. It was always Tom. I saw my tiny beaded bag was on the bedside table, as well as my wand which surprised me. Forgetting all my aches and pains I tore it open, rifling through it manually. My Time Turner. I pulled it out, opening it up. The clock face was untouched, if anything it almost looked distinctly polished. I knew that it was too good to be true. He had tampered with it before, I wasn't going to be fooled again. Everything I had in here remained, which shocked me. Why would Tom decide to supply me with the very things I could use against him? I considered just leaving everything behind in this very room and going forward in time, but that would be an act of cowardice. I wasn't going to run this time. If Tom wanted me, here I would be.

I dressed carefully, pulling on my Slytherin robes and putting my hair up into a bun. I didn't know how long it would be until Tom's impatience got the better of him and he would come back to drag me down to the Slytherin Common Room himself, so I decided it would be for the best if I indulged his request. It wasn't as if I could really find out anything he was doing if I was hiding somewhere in the School far away from him. I walked back down through the Hospital Wing, no sign of those Healers from Saint Mungos, or even Madam Pomfrey who was usually stationed in her office. In fact, there was no one at all in the entire Hospital Wing.