Time Has No Boundaries

Hermione knew that the ceremony would be over soon if it wasn´t already. She needed to hurry back before the Slytherins returned to their common room for unpacking. She rushed out of the restroom, colliding with someone at the door.

"Oh, excuse me," she said, noticing the girl´s green emblem on her robes.

Ah, a fellow Slytherin.

She was slightly taller than Hermione, and had similar features. She had the same mahogany eyes as Hermione, except hers were framed with glasses. Like Hermione, she was a brunette, except she had much longer, straighter hair that came down to her elbows. Hermione was about to ask the girl if she could help her find the common room, but the girl spoke first.

"Hermione?" she asked slowly, as if making sure she had pronounced the name correctly.

"Yes?"

"I thought so. My name´s Renee Buntin. Tom sent me in here after you to see what was up. He´s a prefect, so he went ahead and led everyone else to the common room. You sure were in there for a while. He was worried that he had done something to upset you."

"Oh no, not at all. My stomach was just hurting me, that´s all," she fibbed. Renee, looking at Hermione´s red eyes, didn´t believe her at all, but she didn´t want to press the issue.

"Well, okay. We better go. I have an awful lot of unpacking to do."

After walking down several staircases and winding through several hallways that Hermione wasn´t familiar with, they stopped at a seemingly normal statue of two centaurs.

"This is it," Renee stated simply, even though it was rather obvious to Hermione.

Renee pulled out her wand from her pocket.

Pointing it at the statue, she yelled, "Anguis Sanguis Purus!" The statue retreated into the floor, revealing a door with an emblem of a green snake in an "S" shape. Hermione couldn´t help thinking its menacing red eyes were staring straight at her as she proceeded into the Slytherin common room. It mirrored the Gryffindor room, except the red and gold was replaced with green and silver.

The only unique thing in the room was a massive painting of Salazar Slytherin that hung above the fireplace and reached to the ceiling. It surprised her because it was the first piece of art she had seen of Slytherin that didn´t portray him with a cold, ugly stare or with a monstrous snake in the background. He was instead sitting at a desk with a rather prideful look on his handsome face, and there was only a bookshelf behind him.

For some unexplainable reason, Hermione was drawn to this image. It was as if the painting had a magical spell that it cast on the observer of its subtle, unconventional beauty. The lifelike, deep, emerald green stare stirred something deep inside Hermione, although she couldn´t pinpoint exactly what it was. The only thing she knew was that, for the first time, she didn´t quite see Slytherins in the same way.

"It is quite noble looking, isn´t it?" asked a voice that came from behind her left shoulder.

Hermione jumped slightly at the sound. Everyone was up in their dorms packing, or so she had thought. She quickly turned around, nearly running into the person who had been observing her every move since she had first entered.

"Oh, Tom. I didn´t realize anyone else was in here," she said, taking a sudden interest in her shoes rather than the painting.

"I´m sorry. I didn´t mean to sneak up on you like that." He gave a slight chuckle, revealing to her once again his perfect smile.

"There´s an book I checked out last year that featured lots of art pieces similar to this. Maybe I could show you where the library is, and we can have a look at it. That is, if you want to go with me." Despite having Renee assure him that he had done nothing wrong to Hermione at the ceremony, he couldn´t help but feeling like he had.

Hermione would normally have been thrilled by the invitation, but considering who it was who was asking her, she wanted to turn down the offer.

"Well, I still have to unpack..." she began.

"That´s okay," he said quickly, "we can go afterwards. No need to rush." Although he tried to be cheerful, Hermione could hear a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"I've got to go." She ran upstairs to the girls´ dorm, pausing at the door. A single tear ran down her cheek. Suddenly, Hermione´s intelligence overrode her emotions, and she once again began to think things out logically and methodically.

At that thought, a plan slowly began to form in her mind; a plan to seduce Tom Riddle.