Time Has No Boundaries

After Professor Dippet had said a few words welcoming the students and reminding them of the rules, the feast had begun. Hermione didn´t have much of an appetite, but she tried to eat anyway. Everyone around her was socializing, but she didn´t even bother. She concentrated only on her plate in front of her. She wasn´t there to make friends. She was there to get people´s lives back.

"Not much of a talker, I presume?"

Hermione looked up from cutting her meat. A tall, rather handsome boy had sat down beside her. Her parents being dentists, the first thing she noticed was the condition of the boy's teeth, and he had perfect ones. She also noticed his gleaming hazel eyes, and hair as dark as a raven´s feathers. She would be thrilled that such an attractive person wanted to talk to her, that is, if it wasn´t-

"Tom Riddle. Professor Dippet suggested that I show you around the castle after the ceremony is over. Do you like Hogwarts so far?"

Hermione turned pale at the sound of his name. She hadn´t fathomed he would be like this, so nice and polite. She had pictured him more like Malfoy, someone who would be rude and nasty to her.

He just looks so... normal. No one has a clue that he´s secretly planning to open the Chamber. No one realizes that one of their classmates is going to die this year because of him.

It was no use trying to tell anyone. Even if the Chamber was opened, no one would believe that he did it. Tom was an excellent student and classmate, and Hermione was just the strange, new girl. For a split second, Hermione wondered if she should take her knife and stab him with it. She would probably end up in Azkaban, but she didn´t care. How would you possibly explain to someone that you killed a person for all the horrible crimes they committed in the future? At least if he were dead, there would be no possible way that he could get away with anything. But if she tried changing him, she could easily fail. So many things could go wrong that she didn´t even want to think about it.

He gave her a peculiar look.

"What? You look like you just saw a ghost, not that that´s anything unusual at Hogwarts."

Hermione decided that she was being stupid. She needed to plan it carefully, not just stab him to death in front of the whole school. He technically was innocent for now, and she couldn´t stand to kill an innocent person.

"Oh, sorry. I´m not acting like myself. It´s just that I miss my old friends quite dearly," she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"It´s okay. I understand." He patted her on the back to comfort her. It was a simple gesture, but it made her feel very violated inside. She felt rage boil up, and she had to get away before she had a total breakdown.

"Excuse me," she muttered, not even waiting for a reply. She walked, head down, all the way to the restroom. She shut the stall door and cried. She let all the negative thoughts that had been haunting her come out.

I thought this would be easier, but it´s ten times harder. I can´t fake it. I just can´t. I´m going to fail. I know it. I´m going to fail, and Harry and Ron and everyone else will still be dead, and it will be my fault!

Hermione jumped when she heard a knock on the stall door. She hadn´t realized anyone else was there.

"Hey, I think you beat me in who could cry the longest," a girl said in a sarcastic, squeaky voice. Hermione recognized it instantly.

Moaning Myrtle.

"I thought that maybe Olive would forget to pick on me since it was the first day of school, but she didn´t. Now she´s also got all her friends to tease me as well. It´s not my fault I have a pimply face and have to wear these big, thick glasses!" She just kept rambling on and on to Hermione.

"I better go now, but maybe we can talk some other time. I know a curse I could teach you that makes the person teasing you get brown and black spots on their tongue."

Myrtle started to cry again, except these were tears of joy.

"Really? You´d do that for me? You´re the nicest person in this entire school, and I don´t even know your name!"

"Well, thank you. My name is Hermione Granger."

"I´m Myrtle Baites. What house are you in?"

"I´m a Slytherin."

Myrtle frowned.

"I don´t like Slytherins that much. You´re the first one that´s been nice to me; not that Ravenclaw is much better."

Hermione didn´t know what to say. She didn´t like Slytherins that much either, but now she was one.

If I was meant to be a Gryffindor, why did the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin? Shouldn´t I have ended up in the same house?