In Broken Time

Chapter 13

A dark and perfectly groomed eyebrow perked up at the sight of her. "Fancy seeing you here Black." His face was smirking and his eyes were looking her up and down. Hermione shivered and took a rather large step back from him. "I could say the same thing to you Riddle." Hermione kept her head up high and gave him with an upraised as he continued to look down on her.

"I have left my terrible previous living arrangements and I'm merely looking for a job and a place to stay. And you?" Tom's explained, jerking his chin at her while running his hand through his annoyingly perfect, dark and wavy hair. "I..." Hermione stuttered, not wanting to reveal her true plans in case he wanted to tag along. "I'm here to shop for a few things." She finished, although she didn't sound very convincing. "I see. Well I must be off now. I've already got a job interview at a place you know very well." He gave her another smirk before continuing; "Remember what you need to do Black. Even if I do acquire a new job today, I expect you to finish your task if you wish to join my ranks." His voice turned cold at his reminder for her. After a few seconds of staring her down, he brushed off the invisible specks of dust on his black slacks and strode off towards the stairs leading down to Diagon Alley.

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After a long and unsuccessful day of job hunting, Hermione came to the one place that always soothed her and made her feel excited. Flourish & Blotts. Nothing had really changed. Not even the books. Hermione wondered if there was a job available. It was one of the only places she hadn't checked yet.

Sure enough, there was. The old shopkeeper, Emmeline nearly hired her immediately after Hermione mentioned she was a Dux from Hogwarts. And Hermione was more than happy to accept. Altogether including her job at Borgin & Burkes, she was working five days a week. Three days at Borgin & Burkes and two at Flourish and Blotts. It was a challenging workload, having them all in a row, but it was doable.

Hemrione walked through the shady alleyways of Knockturn Alley to get to her evening shift at Borgin & Burkes. It was just how she remembered it. Dark, dirty and terrifying. She had to constantly look behind herself to see if anyone was trailing her. But it was nothing she couldn't handle. She'd been through enough to know what real fear was like. To know what death looked like.

Hermione entered the dusty shop and sighed in relief when she saw no sign of a pale boy with dark hair. Her weak Imperius curses that she had cast months ago had pulled through.

Borgin and Burke were annoying and demanding as usual. Hermione gritted her teeth at their gossiping. They were talking about the current Wizarding War and unsurprisingly, they wanted Grindelwald to win the war.

Of course Hermione wasn't actually going to assist Tom to find the Hogwarts founders heirlooms. She was merely going to lead him astray and act like she thought they were there. Maybe she'd lead him right into Grindelwald's forces. Perhaps it was a good thing her employers were gossipers. But then again, they had similar views. Who knows if Tom would join Grindelwald, though Tom doesn't seem like the type to be ordered around by someone else. As far as Hermione knew, it's unlikely if he'd ever get the Hufflepuff cup or Slytherin's locket from Hepzibah Smith. And Gryffindor's sword has long been lost. That just left Ravenclaw's diadem. The one he had coaxed Helena Ravenclaw into telling him about on the night he went to Hogwarts for the DADA position. The one that was located in a tree in Albania. The one Riddle found and defiled. She couldn't let him taint such a precious part of history. She had to lead him astray. Romania or Bulgaria seemed like good options. She had six days to make up a particularly good lie.

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Hermione returned to Borgin & Burkes the day after and started to think up her lie. She decided on Bulgaria. It was large enough that it would take one months to look for a small object. He was most likely going alone or with his follower who are stupid enough not to notice anything anyway. The lie was easy. She'd say there was an anonymous source saying the diadem was in Bulgaria after someone found it in its original place in Albania. She'd forge a note if he needed proof.

Hermione was dusting and examining the shop items when the door opened and in strode the person she desired to see the least. "Nice to see you here again, Black." Hermione glared at Tom before answering,"I work here."

"Funny you should say that. Because I work here too." He gave her a smug look as he sized her up. "I thought Borgin and Burke said they only needed one employee. That's what they said when I applied." Hermione exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to his underlying implications. Tom gave her a fake chuckle while shaking his head. "Nice imperius you cast there by the way. Took me a while to get through it."

"What imperius? Why would I need to imperius anyone?" Hermione continued to play dumb as Tom continued to interrogate her. "You know which one. But I can't seem to figure out why you would have to either. I guess I'll have to find out." He gave her a leveled gaze as he dove into her mind.

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Thank you for all the votes and reads! Also, thank you for your patience. 

I have finally figured out some sort of plot line, so the story will be moving a little faster now. Just be aware that I will be getting rid of a canon event. In this story, Tom does not know about the diadem's real whereabouts. Now I'm currently working on the next chapter. And after next week I will be on hiatus.

Thank you for reading and constructive criticism is always welcome.