Don't Repeat History

Don't Repeat History

By Clairvoyant Snake

Chapter 12~9^th of September, 1942

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....She left the room feeling rotten, knowing that she was playing around with another's mind, then again she was a Slytherin and that was to be expected of her.

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The third class of Hermione's new school year was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Instead of preparing in the war against Voldemort, these students were getting ready to face Grindewald.

Grindewald. One powerful hulk of a wizard, sometimes thought to be Hitler, and yet some thinking he was in alliance with the devil himself. He terrorized millions of muggles and killed countless wizards and witches that either interfered with his plans or just didn't look up to his standards, which were pretty high.

Everything this wizard did screamed a parallel to her own situation and it shocked here that the similarities she faced in this class were like those that she had during her years against Voldemort. The fight against Voldemort was far from being over in her time, and the so the two points in time for her were pretty similar in consequence. Similarities aside, the differences were far and wide greater.

There was no one person whose destiny depended on defeating the evil wizard, there wasn't just one person who believed that the evil wizard even existed; everyone in this time knew that danger lurked around every corner of the Wizarding and muggle world. No one in this time lived in their own little imaginative world. The exception being Tom Riddle. In this world, Hermione knew there was no Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived to save the day. Instead, the entire Wizarding population had to be on the look-out.

While Professor Bacchus taught the class important defensive spells against Impedimenta, and Jelly-Legs to name a few, Hermione felt like something wasn't right. She chanced a glance in Tom's direction.

For some reason, during the class, instead of paying attention he seemed to be daydreaming -the most unusual of all actions. Hermione tried hard not to care, not to notice, but she did much to her dismay. Gritting her teeth together, she nudged him. Just like he had her in their first class together.

"What's up with you?" she simply asked. He let his gaze fall from the wall he had been studying so intently to fall upon the slightly annoyed looking Hermione next to him. He debated with himself whether to trust her or not. After all, not that many people knew about his dreams, knew about his ambitions.

"Tell you tonight. Meet me in front of the one-eyed statue, know where that is?" she nodded. "Good. Now pay attention to Professor Bacchus." She narrowed her eyes at his twist in telling her what to do. Hermione let it go; she knew fighting too much would prevent him from telling her what seemed like a much guarded secret.

And any information was good information, maybe she could take it back to her time, seeing as how she now had a viable way of leaving this time whenever she chose.

Thanks a billion... Americans and their prototypes. It was quite reassuring.

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---------------------They stood silently in the hallway, nervous that they themselves knew of a secret passageway, and that secrets were about to be shared that they knew were very important. It was lucky for Hermione that Tom didn't carry a hand-held foe glass everywhere with him because she would've showed up in its shiny surface the moment he held it up to her.

Finally, after waiting a few minutes in silence for no passersby to approach them, Tom nodded slightly for Hermione to step back a few feet from the entrance. Even though he was going to trust her with some of his deepest thoughts and aspirations, it didn't mean he wanted her to know everything he knew.

That would be too dangerous were she to be questioned in the near future. He had plans, plans that would upturn everything Hogwarts itself stood on for a basis of safety and reliance in the times of hardship; which he himself made plans to bring about.

He muttered a quick password, not letting Hermione hear it and the statue moved aside, letting them access to its inner depths. She shivered slightly when the draft of cool air hit her. They were in the very same tunnel that Harry and Ron used to travel through to get to Hogsmeade. It hadn't changed much in fifty-odd years.

The damp walls seemed to take on a life of their own, desperately grabbing for her attention. She could feel the dampness through her robes, she cast a Lumos and Tom turned to see what she had done. His wand had been in his hand at the ready should she try to hex him.

He didn't exactly know why the feeling he got of her hexing him came from, but he put that thought aside as her being mad at him for dragging her into the dark, cavern-like and dirty tunnel. Tom figured, she being a typical female would hate this type of environment and not be comfortable enough in it to make her own quick decisions. He needed it to be that way if he was going to tell her what was going on in his mind.

Finally, after what seemed an hour's walk, they came to a stop and he took her hand.

"Shh, quiet. I can't always be sure that no one else is in here. Keep holding onto my hand." She fleetingly had a thought to run away from him, but squashed that thought down because it would seem suspicious. The way he held her hand was possessive, something she was not accustomed to, nor was she entirely comfortable with it either.

He turned left in the tunnel into a pathway Hermione had never known about. She discreetly wondered if Harry and Ron knew about it. She ended up rationalizing that it had caved under at some point in time between the coming future for Tom, and the Marauders. If the Marauders had known of this tunnel, it would have been marked on the map, even if it had been caved under.

Tom tightened his grip on her hand. She unknowingly tightened hers as well. It was dark and quite frankly she was a little scared of the unknown, which this tunnel was leading to.

At long last, Tom ended up facing what seemed like a wall of solid dirt and rock debris, collected over the centuries. He pressed his wand to one of the stones, not letting his guest see over his shoulder.

He whispered a spell to light up every lamp in the room. Once it was completely submerged in light, which Hermione was grateful for, she deigned it to be a fairly unremarkable room. It reminded her more of a cellar to store food for a rainy day.

"Sit down, I think this may take awhile." As he said it, he transfigured two pebbles into two plush armchairs, each with their own footrest. She had to grin at that and then she frowned to herself.

Hermione knew, because she had read up on the subject so many times before, that a person who could transfigure two things at once was pretty powerful, this transfiguration of two armchairs had served to remind her just how powerful and ruthlessly magical-obsessed Tom Riddle was and was going to become in the not so distant future.

Only select few wizards and witches were powerful enough to do this kind of magic, a two way, selective magic that allowed many things to be done at the same time.

Hermione, herself wasn't an expert at transfiguring two things at once, although for an entire week she had researched on what was the easiest way to do it. There were none, and for a time, against her prior history when it came to a challenge, she had forgotten about it and deemed it a secondary issue against the impending war and challenges that faced her and her friends.

The seat was very comfortable, just as how it looked, and she felt the soft velvet surround her, enveloping her with a magic of its own. Evidently, anything Tom touched brought a certain flow of energy into it, the armchair not an exception. She felt herself becoming deeply relaxed, which was probably the magic that Tom had spelled into it, and let him start his explanation.

His hands were layered together, as if in deep thought, his lip brought into his mouth, for one last time he debated with himself whether or not to tell her, and in the end he decided it was for the best.

Not that he needed accomplices, but any help was better than sitting in the dark, twiddling your thumbs because in the waiting periods between ideas and taken action were quite nerve-inducing.

A female, he knew was the best source of relaxation and suspension from the world around him, creating an almost-atmosphere of a home he once longed to have, and now knew he could create for himself with the right people. Hermione being one of those people, for all he could tell.

Hermione had to him, seemed an enigma at first but he quickly realized at some point last week that she was as lonely as him, and that when loneliness overtook you, you often showed signs of being sarcastic to others, and warm to just one other person.

When she had kissed him, a sense of power and near-happiness had overtaken his senses, leaving him with only one thought and that was that his Tori was a lot like him, whether or not she refused to acknowledge the truth.

"Who is the wizard responsible for the recent muggle deaths in Poland?" She raised an eyebrow at this question, somehow knowing he was going to ask her trivia before telling her everything.

"Grindewald."

"Why do you think he's responsible for those crimes?" Again, she raised an eyebrow. This time because she questioned what he said about said crimes. If her sense of logic had betrayed her she would have forgotten just how much those crimes seemed an act of holiness to people like Tom. She decided to play into what he wanted of her.

"Crimes? I don't think those are crimes, Tom. What Grindewald does is a great thing, something that most wizards need to embrace with open arms." This time, it was Tom's turn to raise an eyebrow in acceptance. He knew that his Tori had slightly evil-tendencies, but he never would have thought that her line of thought would fit perfectly with his.

Especially because he knew from his own spies in Slytherin house that she cared enough about the two bitches in her dorm. Cared enough to make them stop killing themselves, which seemed a stark contrast to what she had just said because somehow although she seemed evil, at times a spark of kindness remained in her.

He wondered if that spark of kindness was what had led her to kiss him so passionately. Tom decided he liked that little bit of kindness, especially since he benefited so much from it.

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A/N: Come next chapter, Tom continues to ask questions and answers some of Hermione's. He goes into more depth about how he feels on the Grindewald issue, because trust me; he's not anywhere near finished telling Hermione some of his secrets.

Thank you for all of your reviews, the good, the bad and the ugly. Please R/R this chapter and tell me what you HOPE he asks her, and what you hope she finds out! Can't promise that she will find out everything, but she could always be given hints...