Extra 4: The Memory Box

A Grave Mistake

Tom flung open the portrait in an irritated mood. He and Hermione were just taking a break from studying and were hungrily devouring each other in a passionate kiss when they were rudely interrupted by someone banging on their door. 

"What?" He practically seethed, not caring who was on the other end.

Abraxas and Fleamont were standing on the other side with their mouths hanging open. "Maybe we should come back," Abraxas said to Fleamont.

Potter nodded and pulled on Abraxas' sleeve. "An excellent idea." The two of them started to slowly back away.

"Tom, who is it?" Hermione asked, coming to the entryway. "Oh, hello," her flushed face turned scarlet and she tried to smooth her hair out with unsteady fingers.

"We are truly sorry for interrupting. I believe we may have made a grave mistake." Before Tom could say anything to them, the two idiots ran away with their tails tucked between their legs. Maybe those two did have some sort of common sense.

'What did they want?" asked Hermione.

"Don't know but I hope they have a reasonable excuse when I hunt them down tomorrow," said Tom as he led her back to the couch.

Advice

Tom's sudden stop caused Hermione to come to a halt outside the library doors. "I will meet you back in the dorm. I forgot to grab a book for Herbology," Tom lied effortlessly. It hurt him to lie to his little witch but there was something he needed to take care of in secret.

"Kay," she smiled at him. Her lovely brown eyes were warm and inviting, making him already hate the words he had spoken. "Don't be long." She untwined her fingers from his before taking off down the corridor.

Tom stormed back into the library while keeping quiet, not letting his anger seep out in the form of magic or curse words. He marched all the way back to the back where he and Hermione had previously been sitting.

"Come out you two," Tom said to the bookcase in the last aisle. With hushed whisperings and guilty expressions emerged none other than Potter and Malfoy.

"I told you he would bust us," Abraxas jabbed at Fleamont.

Tom quirked an eyebrow at them and waited for their bickering to cease. "May I ask as to why you felt the need to follow me and Hermione?" He asked with his arms crossed over his chest and with most of his weight leaning to one side.

Abraxas and Fleamont shared a look. Fleamont looked away first with a sigh. "We thought you two were on a date, but it turns out that the bookworms were just studying."

"It was a date," replied Tom, not understanding why the boy sounded so exasperated.

Abraxas shot Tom an incredulous look. "I know you two like to study but that is not what a date consists of."

"Yeah," Fleamont agreed readily. "A date consists of going somewhere new, somewhere other than a library where the two of you can be alone. Maybe share a drink or something."

The incredulous look that Abrazas wore was now aimed at Fleamont. "A date is something a little more romantic. Like giving her some flowers and complementing her before taking her out to dinner. Sharing a nice conversation over food and drinks."

Tom and Fleamont looked at Abraxas. "You would be the expert," commented Fleamont.

"What?"

"So, you are telling me that I am doing this whole dating thing wrong?" Tom interjected before Fleamont could answer Abraxas.

"Yes!" The two shouted at him. 

Tom almost flinched, taken aback by their outburst. Was he really doing everything wrong? Hermione never said anything, but then again, she never had the chance to really go on a date either. Maybe he should try out Abraxas' suggestion.

Flowers were an easy enough thing to do. And for dinner, he could just take her to Hogsmeade and maybe go to the Three Broomsticks. But how would he ask her? If he was going to do this right then he wanted it to be a surprise.

A Promise Broken

Tom looked around the sea of students but could not spy the head of curly brown hair that he was looking for. It was almost time for them to head for the Great Hall for graduation, so where was Hermione?

"Lost, Tom, my boy?" came Professor Slughorn's overly annoying cheerful voice.

"Just Hermione," came his curt reply.

"She's outside in the courtyard."

Tom nodded his thanks before taking off. What was she doing out there? He found the answer to his question when he found her.

Hermione was sitting on the grass with her legs tucked underneath her. The black robes that she wore pooled around her. Her head was angled down as she looked at something in her hand.

"What are you doing out here?" Hermione looked up at him, her brown eyes sparkled when she smiled.

He made his way to her, unable to hide the smile that he wore, not that he cared. Hermione was the only person who could make him smile like this.

"We need to leave now before we're late to our own graduation." The chuckle evident in his voice. To be honest, he didn't mind missing his own graduation if that meant being able to spend more time with his little witch. Though Headmaster Dippet would probably be upset at not seeing his granddaughter participate in the graduation ceremony.

"Of course." Hermione said simply. She stood up and brushed off her robes.

The gold piece in her hand sparkled in the sunlight, piquing his interest. "What is that in your hand?"

She dangled the necklace down for him to see. "It's the Time-Turner. I never showed it to you, have I?"

He remembered that the Time-Turner was the device that allowed her to come to his time. He also remembered a brief explanation on it that she had given. "Uh, Hermione?" Something didn't look right with the necklace that she was holding.

"What is it Tom?" She laughed, not bothering to look at the necklace in her which now had sand rapidly pouring to one side.

"Didn't you say that one was forced back to the original time of use when all the grains of sand fall to one side?"

Hermione furled her brows with his question. "Yes," she said a bit slowly as if she were expecting him to say something else.

Horror filled him as the realization hit him. He reached out a hand to grab a hold of his little witch who was already starting to fade. "Hermione!" She was gone before he even finished yelling out her name.

She was gone and he was stuck back in time. The promise that she had made to him had been broken.

Pain burst through him. His hands reached for his head as if trying to stop it from splitting open. The pain left just as quickly as it had come.

A Promise Kept

"During that time, we pretended to be the long lost granddaughter of the current headmaster." Hermione's future self explained. "But the point is that right before graduation, Hermione was whipped away from that time and brought here. Now she needs to take the Time Turner and return back to Tom so that we-" Mrs. Norris, who her future self had been calling herself,  indicated her and Tom, "-can come into existence in this time line. She has to leave now because I have no recollection of anything after this point and so she has to leave."

"What if you're trying to send her into a trap?" Harry accused.

"Yeah," agreed Ron.

Hermione growled in frustration. She reached over to Mrs. Norris and grabbed the Time-Turner out of her hands. "It's not a trap."

"How can you be so sure?"

Hermione ignored Ron. "Is this already set?"

Mrs. Norris shook her head. "It isn't. Just spin it however you like."

"Because it's predestined," Hermione concluded. Before anyone could stop her, she spun the time piece.

The crumbling ruins disappeared to be replaced by a clean and whole infirmary. With her heart in her throat, she ran out the infirmary doors and into the crowded corridors. She used her hands and elbows to push people out of her way as she made her way to the courtyard.

Standing in the same spot she had last seen him was Tom. He was bent over with his head in between his hands. "Tom!" She yelled.

Tom jerked up and spun around with an astounding speed. His beautiful, tearstained eyes widened with hope and disbelief.

"Hermione?" His voice was broken and unsteady, as if he was unsure.

She ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm back. I'm back." She mumbled repeatedly to reassure not only Tom but herself.

"Hermione." He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his face in her hair. Oh, how she missed him though she did just see the future him. And what was up with her and Tom disguised as Mrs. Norris and Filch? She was pretty sure that wasn't something she was supposed to know.

A New Beginning

"This potion should help the two of you to return to the future," said Dumbledore, holding up a liquid blue potion. "Just pour it over the Time-Turner and spin it in the right direction."

Hermione took the potion from the professor, being careful not to spill any.

"I can't wait to see what the future is like," said Tom in anticipation.

Dippet looked at Hermione with tears in his eyes. "I am going to miss you, my dear granddaughter." He wrapped his arms around her in a loving hug.

"I'll miss you too."

When he pulled away, Tom grabbed a hold of her hand and gave it a tight squeeze. He then held up the Time-Turner with his free hand.

Hermione took a deep breath and brought the potion closer. "Thank you for everything," she told Dumbledore and her grandfather. The two of them had helped a lot with creating this potion.

"Of course," said Sippet with a smile. His wrinkles crinkled up even more around his eyes and mouth.

"We will be meeting again, Miss Norris. Mr. Riddle," said Dumbledore with a nod of his head.

Hermione was puzzled by his words since he was no longer with them in the future. But before she could ask, a few droplets of potion fell out of the bottles and landed on the Time-Turner with a sizzle.

Their surroundings blurred before coming back into focus. They were back in the Headmaster's office but instead of being decorated to Dippet's taste, it was decorated like Dumbledore had kept it.

"They're here," came Dumbledore's jolly voice, sounding a little more wizened than it had just seconds before.

Dippet peeked around from the chair with a smile on his overly wrinkled face. "Welcome to 1972, my dear granddaughter."

"Why did we land in 1972?" asked Tom.

"The two of you have unfinished parts to play or so I was told in my letter," answered Dumbledore.

"What parts?" Hermione asked skeptically.

Dippet pulled out two potion bottles filled with a thick green liquid. Trepidation suddenly filled Hermione as she looked at the bubbling potion.

"What is that?" asked Tom warily, still suspicious of Dumbledore.

"Think of it as something similar to Polyjuice Potion," explained Dumbledore.

"In truth, we could not send you to your time," Dippet explained in further detail, casting a saddened glance toward Hermione. "Dumbledore was aware of this thanks to the letter you had given him, which had contained a memory embedded in the paper. During the years in between your jump, we worked on creating a potion that will change your forms and stop you from aging."

"That way you can live your lives until the right time has come," finished Dumbledore.

"...So," Tom began slowly, "we are to live our lives as someone else for twenty-six years?"

"Correct." Hermione was getting a sense of foreboding from Dumbledore's twinkling eyes. He seemed way too amused for her liking.

"Who are we going to be living as?" Tom spoke once again.

Dippet clapped his hands excitedly. "Unlike a Polyjuice Potion, you do not need the hair of a person! You can morph into whatever image you see!"

"So, you can finally tame that hair," said Tom with a snicker.

"And you can become uglier," Hermione shot back.

"Never going to happen," said Tom confidently.

Hermione and Tom both looked at the potion. "Are you sure this is going to work?" Hermione asked, not wanting a repeat of second year.

"Yes," answered the two wizened wizards together.

Tom paused with the potion at his lips. "I just realized that this is the year that Filch comes to work here. I wonder if the reason he named his cat was because of you," Tom jokingly teased, before drinking his potion.

"Don't be daft. Why would he name his cat after me," argued Hermione, which turned out to be a big mistake. The potion bottle trembled, causing its contents to spill out into her mouth.

A weird tugging pull filled her stomach. Her bones crackled and popped with a burning sensation. The room and the people around her grew as she shrunk in on herself.

She stood crouched on the floor staring with rounded eyes as she realized that she was standing just above Tom's ankles. She looked down at her feet with dread. Her worst nightmare had happened. She turned into a cat.

"Well, this is new," came Filch's voice.

She looked over at Tom to find Filch in place. She looked over at Dumbledore, realizing what was meant by 'unfinished parts'. There was never a Filch and Mrs. Norris because they were Tom and her the entire time.

A hissed escaped from her as she glared at Tom in his new form. This was all his fault. She was definitely going to pay him back for this.

"Don't glare at me. I did not mean for this to happen," said Tom with his hands raised in a defensive gesture.