A Little Trip Through a Diary / TOMIONE (COMPLETE)

Chapter One: Farewell to Future - Embrace the Past

There is nothing as dreadful as returning to a world of decay and wondering what was lost.

In the library, 1996...

It was dusk and the room was dimly lit. Hermione had always loved the musty smell of books and the soft light of the lamps. It was her feeling of home. Thus she placed a fascinating old volume back on the shelf and settled back in her armchair, breathing deeply in relief of finishing. Potions always made her feel stressed. A glint of something caught her eye. A single beam of moonlight alighted on an old black book. It had been abandoned, clearly, on the edge of the shelf, and huffing, annoyed (for why couldn't people keep the library tidy?), picked it up. 

She flicked through it disinterestedly. Nothing was written there. Why would an empty book be in a library? Hermione was struck with a thought. It could have been spelled to reveal nothing. Or else, there was a knack to it. Retrieving her inkpot from a nearby table, she dipped her quill in the ink, and rather cautiously, wrote:

Reveal your secrets

At once, in slanted Italic, a few words appeared in the corner:

Friday the 1st of January, 1943

53 years ago, Hermione considered. It seemed to be a diary. What could it be? Then red ink flowed from the diary, soaking it, and she was soon covered. Hermione dropped the diary but a great mist was fogging her mind; she could see Harry in Myrtle's bathroom, a tall handsome boy closing the eyes of a girl that she recognised, a dirty great snake... and then nothing.

In the library, 1943...

Tom was studying diligently, his dark eyes scanning the yellowing pages, when he heard a thud, quite close by. He was an inquisitive boy, and exceptionally smart for his age, and decided (as most boys would) to investigate. He turned the corner, to the next row of shelves and stopped dead.

"Great Merlin!"

A girl lay on the floor, a girl he didn't recognise, unusually, covered in a dark red substance. Blood. He remembered a strange affixation with the substance that he'd had since the incident with Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop in the cave. He leant down over her, noticing rather distantly that she wasn't breathing. He touched her hand cautiously. She was quite cold but not dead as he'd wildly assumed.

"Tom?" A boy with a distinctly cared-for appearance, famous trait of the Blacks, and glossy brown hair glanced round the corner. "Oh," he said, noticing the girl.

"Alphard," Tom replied briskly, siphoning off the red liquid with his wand. "Could you fetch the Matron?"

"You didn't do that, did you?" The idiot was a coward, yet again.

"Of course not, Alphard. I found her and I need to know if she's stable to move," Tom found his tone becoming more irritable as he spoke to his slow classmate.

"Right," Alphard still sounded unconvinced but quickly exited the room.

Tom felt one of the girl's frizzy curls between his fingers and it was that moment that she opened her eyes. For a second they stared at each other, her eyes noticing his spidery fingers clutching her hair and then her eyes rolled back in her head.