Breaking Hermione

Transitioning

Hermione P.O.V

I woke up, my head pounding irregularly. My heart was sore inside my chest, like I had been stabbed with an invisible knife. The floor was cold under me. I rolled over on my side, gasping for air.

"It's ok." I knew that voice, but I didn't understand why I felt fear until I realised exactly whose cold voice it was that spoke. Not too far out of my range of vision I could see a tall black shadow somewhat blurred along the edges standing near me.
"You're safe now." Tom Riddle told me. "You're protected by my power. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Painfully I sat up, my vision slowly clearing. "What happened to me?" I asked slowly. My mouth was so dry.

"You killed Daniel Dolohov." Tom said. His voice was anything but displeased. In fact he sounded just shy off thrilled. "You have followed what I asked you. Which you have never seemed to have been able to do..."

I jerked upright, adrenaline spiking in my veins suddenly overtaking my senses. I leapt to my feet, almost falling back to the ground in my haste.

"Hermione-." Tom reached for me, but I stumbled backwards away from him.

"Don't touch me." I snapped, breathing heavily. I looked around the room, memories crashing down on me with brutal force. I had murdered someone. I had killed Daniel. In cold blood.

I walked around the room, detached from my own mind and comprehension. Tom didn't move, but his eyes followed my every tortured step.

"You need to calm yourself down." He told me. His voice was sharp, and if I was stupid enough to believe it almost understanding.

I looked at him, his pale face emotionless but his dark eyes holding voids of unsaid words.

"I can't-"

"Yes, you can." Tom approached me and grabbed my wrists before I could throw a punch at him. "Look at me. You don't need to feel anything about what you did here. All of this is for the greater good. You're going to get nowhere if you believe this action of yours is a set back in your life."

"I... don't think I can live with myself now." I said, finally voicing my deepest fear. Killing Daniel might have been easy enough but I wasn't ready for the torment that was going to follow after that. The sleepless nights. The gloating look on Tom's face knowing he had succeeded in turning me into a monster. And how would I go back to the future with that burden on my shoulders? How could I go back to Ron, or even dare to look my mother and father in the eye?

Tom released me after a moment, leaving me standing there feeling quite alone with nothing but the depths of my troubled mind to keep me company.

"You don't think you can live with yourself because you're not thinking correctly." Tom's words were weighted, full of hidden meaning.

"You need to understand that this present darkness isn't a joke. It isn't a condition, it isn't a curse... It's a reality. It's a world. Which means that there are principles for survival and success that you must adhere to, if you want to live."

"Whatever that darkness was that I felt... Was the complete opposite of life." I automatically put my hand against my chest, as if making sure I still had a heartbeat.

"If you want to get past this, you will have to listen to me." Tom's eyes were sharp, calculating. No doubt he was reading into my expression which I'm sure was as horrified as I felt.

"What was in that Potion?"

"That's for me to know, and you to never find out."

"I'm scared to think. How am I going to exist now?" I asked him as if he was actually going to say something to help me. But to my surprise he actually did.