Tom Marvolo Riddle enters the apparently ‘powerful’ wood without being met with any resistance. While all of his Knights of Walpurgis warrily follow behind him as if expecting something to come out and attack them. Tom barely withholds his eye roll that follows his acute feeling of annoyance at his Knights’ fear.
He shoots them all a nasty look, a look that speaks of pain and violence, which has all of them speeding up to flank him. None of them dare to look at each other or around themselves in fear of receiving a nasty crucio and being left for dead. Abraxas Malfoy takes the slight chance and looks behind… There is no path behind them, just trees, moving shadows, and whispers in the dark.
They lose all sense of time, for there is no time in the wood guarded by wild magick made form. Especially for unwelcome and uninvited visitors. Hours blend into days and days blend into weeks.
They eventually come across a glade that is full of thestrals quietly and calmly moving about. Tom has his wand out as they carefully make their way a little further into the glade. They hear soft singing echoing around the glade and watch how the thestrals give excited neighy’s.
Eventually finding the source of the singing leaves the men in shock. A woman with caramel skin and large braids that reach her waist. While her dark green dress reaches the ground. She has a basket in one arm as she reaches into it to start hand feeding the thestrals. Even as her singing still wraps around the area.
Tom goes to get closer to the woman, but the snap of a branch he didn’t know was there… immediately gets the attention of not only the woman, but the thestrals as well. She locks her purple eyes with Tom and stares at him for a long time, then her eyes wander to the ones he brought with him.
“Unwelcome and unwanted visitors… you men are not allowed in these woods.” Even though her words have hidden threats in them, she doesn’t stop calmly feeding the thestrals.
Tom moves closer to her, ignoring her narrowed eyes. “We can go wherever we want. What is your name, woman?”
She pauses in her movements and once again locks eyes with Tom. “ I owe you nothing. I especially don’t owe you my name. I know who you are Tom Marvolo Riddle, in fact, I know who all of you are.” Tom’s eyes narrowed in anger and frustration and he flung a hex towards her.
The woman easily flowed with the energy of the hex; she called upon wilde magick and the ley lines using those energies to dissolve the hex. As quickly as those magicks game, they went.
“How dare you? I am the protector, the priestess of these woods. You, who is willing to rip apart your soul… you, who is fallen… my lost–” The woman cuts herself off and looks away, though that doesn’t stop all of the men from seeing the sadness in her eyes. “You know what? I’m not dealing with this right now.” With a wave of her hand, wilde magick and and the ley lines wrap tightly around all of the men. It starts to spin tightly and fast around them… the next that they know is darkness. Though, not before they catch a glimpse of electric violet eyes.
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Tom slowly awakens completely disoriented to a woman's singing. His eyes are finally able to focus and he finds himself staring at a ceiling with huge tree branches going through it. He slowly looks around as he feels pain ripple through his entire being, causing a violent hiss to escape him.
He slowly sits up and looks around the warm home, finding that the woman is nowhere to be found. He reaches out with his magic, searching for her. Instead, he finds himself; his magic, his soul, his mind all of it perfectly whole and incredibly powerful.
Tom’s eyes widen in shock and then narrows in pure fury. Somehow, some-way this… woman was able to reverse what he had done. Not only did she reverse it, but she healed his soul and brought it back to wholeness. Evidently making his magic even more powerful and strong. Tom searches his memories and finds no memory or feeling of ever being this whole this… alive.
The electric energy that is arcing through his body is enough to make Tom want to throw out complicated spells and run for miles. His attention gets pulled away to where the woman walks into the home and sets down her basket full of herbs. She crouches next to it and starts going through it.
Tom takes her time of distraction to really take her in. Everything about her seems otherworldly; her looks, but especially the magic that plays with her. He can see the leylines dancing and playing with her the wilde magick that is doing the same. Even as her magic lovingly touches the energies playing around her. He easily takes notice that at all times, she is connected to at least one piece of the leylines and wilde magick.
“Who-what are you?” Tom hadn’t even realized that the words slipped out of him until she looked at him. Neither of them move as they continue to stare, until the woman lets out a long sigh.
She stands up and sits on a chair across from him. “My name-” Her eyes flicker down to her hands as she licks her lips and then bites down on the bottom one. A big sigh escapes her, “I used to be called Hermione… Hermione Granger. I am… I’m this forest… this wood. I’m so connected to it that I speak for it, I am it’s priestess, it’s protector.” her eyes stay locked onto Tom’s as she finishes speaking.
“That would explain the leylines and the wild magick.” Tom leans toward her, “How did you get it to bow down to you? How did you gain this much power?” Hermione’s eyes widen in shock and horror. She leans away from him as she feels disgust boil up in her.
“They don’t bow down to me. I am their willing servant! You want to know what happened? What caused this?” Hermione's lips move into a sneer of disgust even as the leylines and wilde magick react to her agitation. “You, Tom Marvolo Riddle, you caused this. You, a man bent on killing a baby then a child and then a young adult. Of course you did worse than that! YOU are a man who started a war against CHILDREN!!” Hermione doesn’t care that she is shrieking, this man may be meant to be her other half. Though, that doesn’t stop her from being completely disgusted in him.
She rips up her sleeve on her left arm. “Look at this. This is what one of your death eaters did to me. She tortured me for hours under the cruciatus curse and then carved into me with a cursed knife! This will never go away! I got sent here by the leylines, by wilde magick because you fucked up the wizarding world so much… that magick itself had to throw me back in time because you are a megalomaniac bastard that should have been killed as a baby!”
The moment that last sentence escaped Hermione a horrified gasp escapes her and she slaps her hands over her mouth. Tom watches in mute shock as tears well up in her eyes, while the magick instantly calms. She whips around and disappears around the corner of a doorway. Leaving Tom to sit there in dumbfounded disbelief.
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It takes months for Tom to get Hermione to even look at him, let alone speak to him. By that time, he figured out that she had sent all of his Knights back to England and wiped their memories of the forest. It takes him that entire time to finally get many things straight. For instance; he himself is not inherently evil - yes he has evil tendencies but he’s not evil - Dumbledor had been setting him up since he first met him to be the number one enemy. Since Dumbledor himself is wanting to be the master of death and is actually evil.
This time in complete isolation has forced Tom to actually look at himself. To say that he didn’t like what he saw… would be a colossal understatement. Of course, he raged, screamed, yelled and took it out on anything and one Hermione Granger whenever he could. Hermione just stood there and let him rage, she never said anything, never gave any reaction. She just let him get it out and then moved on.
The day that she finally looks and speaks to him is bright and slightly breezy. Tom finds Hermione healing an unicorn with a nasty back leg injury. Tom quietly walks up behind her to stand to the left side and watch her work. He’s found throughout this time that he enjoys watching Hermione work. Whether it be picking herbs, vegetables, fruits, healing animals, taking care of plants, cooking, baking, cleaning… he’s enjoyed observing her, how her body moves, how her magic moves, how the magick all around reacts to her and moves with her.
As he watches the magick wrap around her body and flow off her fingers like water into the wound, he cannot stop himself from speaking. “You’re beautiful Hermione Granger. Everything about you is beautiful. I know that I don’t deserve the chance you have given me. I know that you weren’t completely willing to give me this chance, but… I want to thank you for it anyway.” He watches as she startles when he starts talking, but refocuses back on the task. It isn’t until she’s finished healing him and the unicorn has disappeared back into the woods that Hermione faces him.
Tom stays still and quiet as she studies him with her purple eyes; a tired sigh escapes Hermione as she glances around the wood. “You’re welcome Tom. I may have not wanted to do it… but I don’t regret it. What happened in my past or rather the potential future… is just that, a potentiality that won’t be happening now. The nice thing is about this experience? About constantly being around the leylines and wilde magick? It gives perspective, it shows whoever is truly open to seeing the truth… what is really going on. It took me longer than I want to admit to accept it.” Hermione’s eyes lock with Tom’s again. “I owe you an apology for the horrible things that I said to you that day. I’m sorry Tom, you are not Voldemort and you will never be him. I had no right to put his actions or the actions of his followers on your shoulde–”
Tom has no idea what has gotten into him, but he can’t stop himself from his very gryffindor action. He cuts Hermione off by pulling her into a kiss that sears through her entire being and wraps around her soul and her magic. A shocked gasp escapes Hermione even as she wraps her arms around his neck and pulls Tom closer.
The leylines and wilde magick wrap tightly around them, pulling both of their magics to the forefront. Which leaves them both gasping as their magics intimately touch.
A low groan escapes Tom, “Hermione…” a whimper escapes Hermione upon hearing Tom breathlessly say her name.
“I know.” Hermione barely gets her words out before they both give into what the magick surrounding them wants. They’ll deal with the consequences later, but for now… for now they’ll let themselves give into what magick itself wants of them.
Much, much later, they find themselves with their minds clearing while they are wrapped around each other completely naked. Tom glances down at Hermione with her head resting on his chest and notices how she has her eyes closed. He runs his hands up her back allowing himself to pull her tighter into his embrace.
Tom doesn’t bother to try and stop the smirk from coming to his face as his eyes slowly close. Hermione may not know it yet, but she is his now and he takes very good care of what is his.