vows // tomione [ON HOLD]

XIX

Hermione groaned when she woke up to find that she was in fact not in her bed, and instead in the room she'd been held hostage in. The dark sky made it awfully hard for the girl to properly make out the room in front of her, but other than her, it seemed to be empty. No Tom.

It was the mere thought of his name that made her head snap towards her arm. As she silently prayed this was all a joke, Hermione could make out the cursed mark on her arm thanks to the slight moonlight shining through the locked window. The brunette felt her insides churn at the sight of the brand permanently imprinted on her.

Permanent. Forever. It was never going to leave.

Hermione pried her glossy eyes away from the Dark Mark and instead at the window. Oh what she'd do to be outside and get some fresh air. She began to silently sob, her hot, fresh tears covering her previous dried ones. She hated herself for taking this stupid mission. If she just stopped being so damn brave for once in her life, she'd be with her friends and family instead of Tom fucking Riddle. Her heart felt heavy with a kind of sorrow she knew she'd never be able to fix.

And then she suddenly remembered the time-turner. That little device that got her in this mess. She felt a smile worm on her face when she remembered she threw it in her pocket before she woke up here. But her smile dropped when she couldn't move her arms because of the cuffs holding her back. She began to panic as she tried to look into her pocket to see if it were there. But thanks to the darkness she was surrounded by, nothing was visible.

As she wallowed in her misery for hours, she watched as the sky began to slowly lighten. Pink and purple colours clashed in the sky to create a beautiful, pastel colour. Had she not been restrained, she would have gone out to admire the breathtaking sight. But as she watched the sun gradually come up, she couldn't help but worry for what was to come.

After what felt like forever, the room door finally swung open and in came Tom. He looked even worse than the last time she'd seen him, with his usual slicked hair in a tangled, wild state. His tie was undone and his robe was lazily thrown on. He stormed in with his eyes narrowed at the girl and stood in front of her with an expression Hermione couldn't understand, probably because she couldn't bear to look at him for longer than a second. He was standing far, but not far enough to Hermione. She stiffened when she felt his hot breath against her skin once he spoke.

"We need to go." She didn't say anything and instead stared at the window. She should've been happy that she was leaving that hellhole, but she couldn't be happy when the person she was leaving with was Tom.

Hermione froze when he suddenly broke the cuff on her right arm. He pulled it hard enough that it came off with one fluid motion. Her arm fell from against the wall with the feeling of pins and needles jabbing her. She felt Tom remove the cuff on her other arm and let out a sigh of relief when she could properly move her arms. The girl massaged the raw, red flesh on her wrists that the cuffs cut left because of how tight they were.

When he got down on one knee to remove the cuffs on her ankles, she bit her lip as her head raced with ideas to try and escape. Her hand slowly slithered down to her pocket when she remembered the time-turner, but when she felt nothing but the cloth of her robe against her fingertips, she felt her blood drain from her face. He had taken the device from her pocket.

He stood up with a knowing smirk plastered on his face and watched the girl.

"Looking for this, Granger?" He taunted as he pulled out the time-turner from his pocket. She felt like her eyes were deceiving her. Him having the time-turner ruined everything.

"If you can prove you're a true follower, then perhaps you can have it back." She glared at him. "Now come. We have to find Salazar Slytherin's home."

Hermione hid her confusion well. She had no idea where Salazar Slytherin's home was, but she knew it was absurd to try and find it. It was kept private for years. She sneered at him before speaking. "I'm not going anywhere with you. Besides, don't you know it's hidden?" He tilted his head as if what she just said was preposterous.

"How do you expect to go back to your time?" He said in a mocking tone, ignoring the last part of her sentence. Hermione felt her blood boil at his words but as she thought about it, she felt a plan form. If she followed him and caught him at an off moment, she could steal the time-turner and return back home.

"Fine." She spat after a deep breath. Hermione watched him smirk triumphantly before spinning around and leading the way out. She followed hesitantly, making sure to note of everything around her. The boy lead her up a flight of stairs. So she was being held in a basement. Once she reached the top floor, she inspected her surroundings to find that it was a fairly normal home.

She followed him towards the front door and noticed the photographs on the wall. A family of 3 yet not one person in those pictures were familiar to the girl; they seemed like a normal, muggle family.

Muggle. She stifled a gasp when she realized he probably killed them. As she was about to ask him about the house and how he got into it, she stepped out the front door and felt herself instantly become full of energy. She scoffed when she realized what he did. He put a spell on the whole house to block the use of magic.

With no time to spare, she muttered a "Stupefy!" under her breath towards Tom who was walking in the grass ahead of her. She had to use wand-less magic because she conveniently left her wand in the Dorm back at school.

As if expecting her to try and throw a spell at him, he lifted his hand lazily to block the spell. All without even turning around. Hermione's nose flared at how good he was. She wanted to just kill him right then and there.

"Don't be so predictable, Granger." He remarked as he turned around to face her. She dug her teeth into her bottom lip to prevent an Unforgivable Curse from slipping out.

Instead, she looked around to find that they were quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Dead grass surrounded the muggle home yet no other house or building was in sight. As the cold, December air creeped into the warmth of her robes, she followed the boy hesitantly.

"Did you kill those muggles?" She asked through chattering teeth because of the cold. As much as she despised him with every fibre of her body, she had to pretend to play the part of a Death Eater. She would never get used to that.

"No. They're not worth using my magic to kill. That would be too kind." She blinked at his words. How could someone be so discriminative to people who've done absolutely nothing wrong to him? She wondered what he'd do if, Merlin forbid, he found out she was a muggleborn.

"I sent them far, far away." He continued to walk through the grass that seemed to be leading to nowhere.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked, her breath creating a fog in front of her. He ignored her and kept walking before finally stopping directly under the winter sun. The boy suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her beside him. Hermione held her breath at their close proximity, but forgot about it once Tom twisted his arm and apparated the two.