Anamoran

Chapter 10: The Second Attempt

A/N: Thanks to the following folks for their assistance in helping this story along: brownlark42, ladyofsilverdawn, SassenachStarbuck, and MrsBennettFrazier.

Sandra-Sempra made amazing cover art for this story. See it on my Tumblr crochetawayhpff. And let me know what you think of this chapter!

October 30, 1944

Tears streamed down Hermione's face and her lungs burned as she sprinted up every flight of stairs until she was on the seventh floor. She paced in front of the tapestry of trolls dancing ballet and finally caught her breath when the Room of Requirement appeared. She wrenched the door open and found herself in a simulacrum of the Gryffindor common room. Tears dried on her face as she curled up on the couch in front of the fireplace. What was she going to do? Tom had found a Horcrux his future self had made. She felt like throwing up when she'd seen it in his hand.

Most of the time she forgot who Tom was, but seeing him hold that diadem had been the shock she needed. She had to stay away from Tom Riddle. He was dangerous and not good for her health. She'd had two near-death experiences just in a few short months. The fire crab was probably an accident. But that didn't stop Hermione from thinking that maybe, just maybe it wasn't? Maybe it was someone else like Calanthe Burke who wanted her out of the way.

Hermione didn't want all the attention Tom insisted on showing her. If only someone, anyone else would speak with her. But Tom had gotten there first. He'd claimed her. Hermione shuddered at the thought. She wasn't property to be owned, she was a human, a person who had their own agency.

Hermione sat up. She had agency. She didn't have to go along with what Tom wanted. She could fight back. She would fight back. She couldn't allow Tom to subsume her as he did all his followers. That way led to madness.

Feeling better than she had in a long time, Hermione settled in to read. Let Tom cool off before she went back to the Slytherin common room. Maybe she'd even spend the night in the Room of Requirement and start over fresh tomorrow. That decided, she called for a house elf and ordered herself some dinner.

October 31, 1944

Hermione woke and peered around her blearily. She didn't recognize where she was. It wasn't the hospital wing or her dorm in the dungeons. She sat up slowly, what had woken her?

"Avens?" Tom whispered and Hermione whipped around to find him standing at the door to the Room of Requirement. It still looked like the Gryffindor common room. "You were a Gryffindor in the future? Figures," Tom snorted.

He crossed the room and moved her legs to sit on the couch next to her. Then he scooped her legs up to lay across his. Hermione wanted to deny him the intimacy, but she was so tired. She would fight with Tom in the morning. She laid her head back down on the arm of the comfortable couch and fell asleep with Tom running his hands up and down her bare legs in long, soothing strokes. The skin there had been burnt the worst, and while it looked perfectly normal, it was new skin and so it itched desperately. Tom running his hands over it felt heavenly. Hermione slipped back into sleep.

When she woke again, she knew it was daytime. There weren't any windows in the Room of Requirement, but she had that fuzzy feeling of having slept too long. An arm was wrapped around her middle, it's fingers interlaced with her own. She was going to get up when the arm around her tightened and the hips that were pressed into her bum flexed. Whoever was behind her was hard as steel and he began rocking into her bum. Hermione couldn't help it when she pressed her bum back into the length behind her.

"Fuck," Tom muttered in her ear, ruffling Hermione's short hair.

Hermione wanted to leap out of his arms, and she wanted to strip off her shirt and straddle the boy behind her at the same time. The hand holding her own, disentangled and he slid it down to cup her mons, holding her in place as he rocked into the cleft of her bum. Hermione's nether lips tingled. She wriggled, trying to get him to move his fingers.