Glory crowns the deeds of those who expose themselves to toils and dangers.

Alexander the Great

Sun Tzu • The Art of War

The sun had long since disappeared behind the clouds, along with any hope I had to survive through to the end of this wicked night. I could feel in my heart that this was the end. It had to be. All I could feel was the entrapping feeling of darkness and the undulating waves of pain and misery.

I thought of my family, and forced myself to remain standing. Surely this was the least I could do, endure whatever was to come with my head held high.

"Everyone must be mindful as they venture into the Forest." Tom stood at the front of the gathering, every eye trained on him. I stood to his left, binded there as if by invisible threads, forced against my will to endure each of his words. His voice wasn't deafening but it carried clearly in the silence.

"This part of the grounds is prohibited to students for many reasons, most of which you know. However, there is no need to fear. Most of you have a well practised hand in the Dark Arts, therefore tonight will be a fine opportunity to demonstrate all that I have taught you over the years. In saying this I am not your hero, and none of you should feel the need to be so pathetic as to play the damsel in distress. We are here to carry through with our plan. Keep in mind that you are all responsible for yourselves. It is your magical ability that you will need to depend on tonight. The only one under my watch is Hermione. No one else. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Which Beasts are in the Forbidden Forest at this time of year?" Professor Pickerell's voice was weak with fear, and her pale face was stricken. We made eye contact momentarily, and she suddenly looked away from me as though scalded.

Guilt?

"Are you a member of Staff at this School or are you not?" Tom Riddle's features were void of emotion but his remark was swift and cutting. It was obvious to everyone that was familiar with him that he despised her.

"Shouldn't you of all people know the answer?" He continued on remorselessly. "I cannot fathom why you would bother to ask for a teaching position at Hogwarts if you are not inclined to broaden your own intelligence..."

No one dared to intervene. There would have been no point, Tom's bipolar temperament was merciless and would tear apart anyone close at hand, it didn't matter who you were.

"I do not teach every subject at this School, you know that." Professor Pickerell retaliated. "Besides, as I've said before - being a teacher at Hogwarts is fast becoming a rather brutish career path for my taste."

She looked around at all of us pointedly as if it wasn't her personal choices that led her here in the first place.

"So you detest the School?" Tom said lowly. "What a pity." His tone held no warmth, and despite this he began to lead us into the Forbidden Forest all the while seeming to be mentally far away, as if he was thinking on an entirely different realm about many things at once.

"I, for one, like to have a vast understanding of all the subjects taught here." He said, walking a very fine line between passive aggressiveness and outright hostility. "Knowledge is and will always be the most powerful tool, and its weilder should utilise it to the fullness of its capabilities. It will provide you with an advantage over your so called "friends" as well as your enemies, should circumstances arise where you would need to enforce your place above them."

Tom's hand clenched around my wrist pointedly.

"As for what Beasts are out in the Forest tonight, I assure you that none of them would pose a greater threat than I would. You should all be very much aware by now that I am a highly accomplished wizard, in a great many ways..."

Xavier shot me a furtive look. Usually when Tom Riddle started talking about himself, he wouldn't stop for a while. Now would have been a good time to formulate some sort of plan, If I only had independent thought. Every time I tried to think some kind of opposing thought to Tom, my brain would sear with agony.

"In order to establish and maintain my rank," Tom explained, "I have ventured far into certain realms of understanding that no other wizard or witch has dared try. I have read many, many books on how to further myself and develop my magical abilities... It took a combination of both superior intellectual ability and skill to become the Wizard I am today."

Tom led the way with me beside him, the others and Professor Pickerell trailing nervously in our wake. We had entered into a particularly ordinary opening in the trees and about ten minutes later we were all in deep darkness. The sudden transition was noticed by Tom, who immediately illuminated his wand.

"Lumos." He said quietly, holding his wand out he observed the trees as though he was searching for something. He walked toward one and touched it, and when he withdrew his hand I noticed it was red.

"Is that blood?" Xavier said, unable to hide the fear in his voice.

"Yes." Tom answered, yet he didn't appear to want to elaborate. To be honest, I didn't want him to. It was bad enough that I couldn't escape, and I didn't want to be acutely aware of all of the horrors I was about to experience, if I could help it.

"Everyone stop. What was that?" Professor Pickerell halted in her tracks, and Tom sighed, coming to stand directly behind her.

"Who cares. Keep moving." He growled. "I do not have the patience for your cowardice, and as you know we are on a very limited schedule. It is overcast, and I need the light of the Moon for this to work the way I need it to."

"But something moved out there." She protested, and her voice shook. Xavier froze, and the other two people I didn't know came to a standstill as well.

"There is something other than us out there?" Tom said, feigning surprise. "I was under the impression that Wizards were the only ones to frequent the Forbidden Forest. How unusual..."

"I definitely heard something out there." Xavier pressed, staring fixedly into the darkness.

"It sounded like... hooves?"

"That would be the Centaurs." Tom said finally, barely concealing his impatience for those of us with him and his contempt for the half- breed forest dwellers.

"The skies are too overcast for their type of Astronomy, they will be practising archery up in the clearing on the left. Now, if anyone else feels compelled to ask ridiculous questions I will personally ensure that they will remain here in the Forest with them for the rest of the week."

We continued walking. Tom ordered me to stay with the others while he checked that the pathway was clear ahead of us, and as I stepped backward someone grabbed a hold of my arm.

"Hermione." Xavier said, a little louder than a whisper. "I'm so sorry." He said quietly. "You have no idea what he was going to do to me if I-"

BANG

Suddenly he fell backward with a yell, appearing to have been hit squarely with a stinging jinx. Tom Riddle was standing there in the darkness facing the pair of us, and the look of anger on his face was horrifying.

"Are you really stupid enough to finish that sentence?" His voice was not forgiving in the slightest.

"No... Master." Xavier fell back, and the sudden ounce of hope I dared to have died, I released the breath I didn't know I was holding.

Just endure it. This suffering can't continue forever.

Tom, hearing my thoughts, decided to respond.

"Yes. Not long now and everything will all be over soon. Everything good that is." He said. "And once your new life of darkness begins, I will teach you what I have taught the others about this ceremonial process, a lot of the instruction can be found in "Disciples of The Darkest Arts: An Endarkened Guide to Transfigurative Magic by Sebastian Gaunt."

"Hang on." Xavier said suddenly, looking momentarily bemused, "The name Gaunt rings a bell. Did you know them?"

"I am not familiar with the oldest members of the Gaunt family," Tom said, and for once he may not have been lying.

"Wizards of noble blood and high rank do not have kin with Muggle names. If so, they are walking abominations that should be pruned from amongst the rest of us, and I would prefer to not know about them."

I paused, trying very hard to not think anything at all. But even doing this required a very specific thought.

Don't think about it...

I looked up at Tom, and couldn't help but notice his frown in the dark.

"Hermione," He addressed me, and suddenly I was staring deep into his dark eyes. "You are well read, almost as well as I. Have you ever encountered that book before?"

He asked the question a little too directly for me to think it didn't matter to him.

I concentrated. It took a lot of effort to, particularly with Tom Riddle staring down at me so intensely.

It took ridiculous strength of mind to not just open the floodgates of my mind and remember everything Harry had told me about the Gaunt family.

"I have no idea." I said, making my face look as blank and as unknowing as humanely possible. "I don't read books on the Dark Arts."

It must have worked, because Tom seemed satisfied.

"Pity you have not read it. You would have enjoyed it... It was one of the only decent books Sebastian ever wrote." He continued. I knew he was only rattling on to try and placate me for what he was intending to do, whatever the hell it was. Either way, I couldn't stop the sudden, sarcastic voice in my head.

How reassuring.

"You should be reassured." Tom caught me off guard.

"According to several highly notable practitioners of the Dark Arts across the ages, it would be a more traditional rite of passage to have this ceremony lasting for days. However, because I am merciful I had to make a choice... I didn't want you to have to suffer excessively, which is why I have placed certain barriers in your mind to stop you from coming to a certain... awareness. But in saying that, I have allowed a small portion of your mind to be unbinded, because for now it makes it all the more enjoyable when you are aware that I am going to make a spectacle of you before everyone. Once this ceremony is over, I fear you are going to become just as unemotional as the rest of us who are aware of... certain truths."

What did he mean?

However no sooner had the thought popped into my head, it was vanquished as if it were mere vapour.

Tom, who had witnessed the entire thing, looked as though he had won a thousand galleons.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" He asked sadistically. "Can't you think clearly anymore?"

I heard the cruel, mocking laugh ahead of us all, a chilling sound that made me feel colder than I already was. It didn't take long for me to feel worse.

"Not far to go now." Tom continued to walk deeper into the Forest. Every now and then, the Centaurs would exclaim in celebratory glee as they hit their targets not overly far from us, and I found myself wishing they would just find me and put me out of my misery.

How could they not hear us?

The more I thought about it, the more hazy and undirectable my mind became. I was defenceless, I was doomed. The mental barricade obscuring me was built from very powerful dark magic and every small attempt of mental defiance was corrected into submission by Tom with unerring ease.

"Stop doing that." He told me after about my hundredth attempt of mental emancipation. "I can feel what you are trying to do, but there is no point. You'll be able to feel it - you are becoming weaker just by disobeying me."

I relented as he spoke, but composed myself to appear more submissive than I was. I needed just the smallest window of opportunity to gather some semblance of defiance.

"You won't be like this for too long." Tom was telling me. "It is only for the start of the initiation. You won't be conscious for all of it."

A chill ran down my spine that had nothing to do with the weather.

What was going to happen to me?

We all kept walking. Perhaps someone had cleared our path beforehand because we did not come across any of the Forest's inhabitants.

At one point, we came across one particularly aggressive Acromantula which Tom blasted out of the way with such force that it felled a tree.

Asides that, nothing else happened at all except our surroundings changed, the Forest became more still the further in we became.

It was extremely dark here, asides from the occasional direction from Tom the only other sound was my hammering heart. I was focusing on my thinking and him so much that I didn't realise we were coming to the end of our walk.

Tom stopped walking, and I was very close to running into him had it not been for Xavier who yanked me back.

"Stand in the center of that Circle." Tom commanded me.

I felt my head starting to pound, something that I was quickly learning only happened when I wasn't doing what Tom wanted me to do.

"What Circle?" I asked.

A force threw me forward and I fell into the dirt a feet feet ahead.

"That Circle." Tom said. Everyone laughed as if were the funniest thing in the world. I crawled into a sitting position, noticing something in the corner of my vision.

Painted on the ground encircling me something caught my eye. Shining crimson on the cold earth was something I had seen many times before... blood. Scrawled in the dirt were Ancient Runes, all very neatly placed on the outskirts of the bloodied circle. There were even an array of old looking crystals.

I turned and looked at Tom, who had just brandished a shining silver dagger from within his cloak. Raising it in the air, he held out his left hand and cut into his hand in one fluid movement.

"Tom..." Xavier said. "You could've warned me before you just did that, I hate the sight of blood-"

"Silence." Tom ordered. He clenched his hand tightly, and droplets of blood fell in quick succession, hitting the stone cold earth.

I blinked, looking away.

"Are you scared?"

Tom stared at me, his eyes piercing and dark even from where he stood mere feet away. "You shouldn't be. Not yet, at least."

He held out his hand and stepped closer. I stared at his hand. His blood looked black in the darkness, it flowed down his pale skin and onto the Runes on the outer edge of the Circle.

This was a very traditional Initiation. I knew many Ancient Runes, and yet I couldn't recognize a single one of those that Tom had used.

"What happens now?" Xavier asked, genuinely concerned.

"As I have already told you." Tom said irritably. "You do nothing but stay out of my way."

"But the non verbal chants-"

"When I give you the cue." Tom looked up at Xavier, I didn't hear the rest of what he told him but when he walked back to stand with the rest of the gathering he looked shaken and avoided my eye contact.

I wrapped my arms around myself. I was very much alone now. I wondered for about the thousandth time that night when I was going to die. A part of me wished it would be over soon. I had no strength left, and I was bloody freezing. All of these trees around us and the wind still howled through each and every one of them, piercing me right to the bone. Tom shrugged off his cloak and dropped it outside the circle.

"Take it." He told me. "I cannot enter the Circle at this point."

I reached out for his cloak hesitantly, as my hand passed over the runes it felt scorching hot. I yanked the cloak into the circle, my hand searing in pain.

"Put it on." Tom ordered.

As soon as it touched my skin, I become dry. My hair wasn't wet. My clothes were dry. I didn't notice my teeth had been chattering until they stopped. I had no idea what level of Magic that was, but I felt marginally better despite everything. I looked at Tom in confusion.

Why was he being nice to me?

"I am being kind to you, because I love you. All of this will be for the greater good, for you and me. No one else."

"What, do you think none of the rest of us matter?" Professor Pickerell snapped.

"Yes, I do."

Tom flashed a gleaming smile and before any of us could do anything he slashed his wand down through the air and Professor Pickerell collasped to the ground, blood blossoming from a rather profuse chest wound.

Before I knew what I was doing, I jumped, falling backward out of the Circle in fear.

Everyone gasped.

"Get back in the damned Circle." Tom snarled. He raised his wand, pointing it directly at me and...

My mind suddenly sparked with agony and I fell to my knees. I really couldn't handle this. I felt seconds away from death, my body was so cold it was numb. There was blood on my hands from where my nails had dug in. I raised myself up only to be kicked in the ribs. Hard. I fell down to the ground, gasping in pain.

"Hermione. Get back in the Circle." Tom repeated, looming over me like an Angel of Death.

"I don't know how you are managing to still defy me..." He was saying. "Perhaps you are mentally stronger than I gave you credit for..."

My head throbbed in pain - Tom was strengthening the Magic he was using to control me, yet the pain was already intolerable as it was.

I rolled onto my side, I couldn't breathe properly. The panic was worsening because I couldn't even reassure myself that I was going to even be alive by the end of this night.

I clutched at the earth, and Tom stomped down on my hand causing me to shriek in pain.

"When will you ever learn?" He yelled. "I am your superior, and you are to respect me!"

"Hang on. She's not even herself at the moment." Xavier rose to my defence. "What would injuring her achieve? She isn't fully aware of what she's doing."

He stepped closer, reaching out a hand for me, and then just as suddenly he fell back. A sharp hiss rent the air with the sudden curl of a whiplash, burning and electric - Tom had dealt him a hex with the most subtle sleight of hand.

"I see... Yet another one who wants to test my patience this evening."

Tom clasped his pale hands together, "I assure you that now is not the time to defend your pathetic little friend, Xavier." He smiled broadly, his tone tilting in a dangerous manner, perched precariously on the cusp of both hilarity and rage. He was truly unhinged, and at this rate the most terrifying creature in the damn Forest.