Somewhere in Time - Chapter 26
Review reply to Deea101:
Glad you liked the smut!
Mmm, I changed it now. Thanks for pointing it out to me, since this scene was more of a sudden idea thing. The problem with AFF is that they only have a limited amount of characters, and they won’t let you add more codes if your original summary plus codes exceeds 240 characters.
Mm, don’t worry about it. I don’t mind constructive criticisms and/or debates, as long as they’re not flames.
In regards to the questions you have mentioned in your reviews, I actually do have my reasons for writing them the way I did, and I would like to point them out. Please be assured that I do not mean to push my opinions on you, and even if you do not agree with me completely, I will not take offense. I just wanted to state my reasons here. I figure it might be easier if I just bold your questions and answer them, so be prepared for quite a slightly longer review:
“I find Hermione's actions in this chapter absolutely laughable. Alright, so Draco tells her that he's being tortured for hours and what does she do? Tells a teacher? No.” - This might have seem like a feasible plan, but when it comes to the Potterverse, this is actually something they never did after the first book. During the first book, if I remember correctly, they have gone to look for McGonagall to tell her about the Sorcerer’s Stone, but she did not believe them and ordered them to run along. Now, I do believe that this incident must have caused quite an “impression” in their eleven-year-old minds, since after this, you hardly see them running off to teachers when something happens. Yes, Hermione did suggest for Harry to go see Dumbledore when he was being tortured by Umbridge, but did he? No. But the important part of this was that Hermione had not bothered to seek out a teacher, too. In the following year, Hermione had not bothered to report it to a teacher when she was suspicious about the Half-blood Prince’s book either. Therefore, it will be illogical for her to find professors, here in the forties, when the teachers are so obviously under Riddle’s thumb. Hermione knows that. And Dippet was known to be incredibly fond of Riddle. Even Gareth and Joseph told them that the first day they arrived in school. So, finding a teacher will not be an option.
“Tells Harry and Ginny and asks for advice? No.” - This might have seemed like an option in other situations, but not for Hermione during this time. She had just gotten into a sort of argument with Harry and Ginny because they were trying to control her from going to the library. If she had gotten them alert about Draco’s torture, they would have even more reason to restrict her. Not to mention the fact that she could not reason with them why Draco would be tortured. She does not want to tell them that she had snogged Tom. Another thing that might worry her is Harry and Ginny’s reactions. Would they really care about what was going on with Draco? Harry had wanted Hermione to ignore Draco since the first day they had arrived in the forties. There were no reasons for Harry to change his stance. In fact, he might just laugh it off as something that would happen to Draco everyday anyway for being in Slytherin House.
Makes a plan to shove Veritaserum down Riddle's throat while Dippet is in the same room? No. - If I remember correctly, there is actually an antidote to Veritaserum. There is nothing stopping Tom from taking the antidote before the Veritaserum was slipped into his drink. Especially considering the fact that he would be awfully suspicious if Hermione tried to pull him to the Headmaster’s Office. There is nothing stopping him from lying, and as I have mentioned, Dippet is awfully fond of Tom. The use of Veritaserum is strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic, and so Dippet will most likely be unwilling to use it on his favorite student just because of some random accusations of newcomers. And according to harrypotter.wikia.com:
“Despite being the most powerful truth serum there is, it can still be resisted through different methods, including the taking of the antidote and Occlumency, and it is no more reliable for wizards than a polygraph machine is for Muggles, and for the exact reasons. Because some wizards and witches can resist its effects and others cannot, Veritaserum is “unfair and unreliable to use at a trial”, and thus cannot be used as definite proof of guilt or innocence.
Another weakness is that the victim only states what they believe to be true, so the victim’s sanity and perception of reality also factor in during interrogations. This is the main reason why Barty Crouch Jr.’s testimony was not credible, as he was clearly insane.”
Another thing that is troublesome is that Tom can always claim afterwards that Hermione Confounded him to say things that he did not mean. Being a former student of Durmstrang (as Hermione and the others were pretending to be), it would be something that was believable to Dippet. And no one liked to believe that they are wrong. So, Dippet and the professors would rather believe that their previous opinions of Tom was correct, and these four new students are troublemakers.
Instead, she goes to TALK to Riddle! She wants to REASON with the future Lord Voldemort, the guy who already killed Moaning Myrtle and split his soul, the guy who will kill countless of innocent people in the future! I know Hermione is an idealist but this is bordering on stupidity. - I certainly would have agreed that under normal circumstances, this would have been considered stupid on Hermione’s part. However, she had been under stress (breaking up with Tom, Harry and Ginny coming back and keeping an eye on her, the Slytherin Banshees, etc.), and Hermione had been known to be rash when she is stressed. When she was back in third year, she knew what kind of influence Lucius Malfoy had over the Ministry and Hogwarts. Yet, she still slapped Draco. When it comes to her friends, she is willing to sacrifice herself and take chances.
And then she enters a room where she sees a tortured Draco collapsed on the floor. My first reaction would be to run and call a teacher. Or try to stun Ridle when he turned his back and run with Draco's body. But nooo, she tries to EXPLAIN to Riddle that Draco is a human being and doesn't deserve this. For crying out loud, she's trying to make a guy who killed his parents see the wrong in his ways! No wonder he crucio-ed her, that's the only in character reaction in the whole bloody scene. - Actually, she would not have been able to run out of the common room even if she had wanted to. Tom was pulling her throughout the length of the Slytherin common room, all the way up to his dorm. So ... running off to find a professor or hexing Tom were not actually options here. Additionally, Hermione ... well, she is not very practical all of the time. Recall the times when she had tried to get everyone else to see her point of view regarding house-elves, when it was obvious that wizards, witches, AND house-elves did not want all house-elves to be free. But what did she do? She continued trying to trick house-elves into freeing themselves. She was certainly not being practical here, and everyone tells her that. But she does not listen.
Another part that bothered me: Draco's thoughts during the interrogation. I mean, if he tells Riddle about the future that could bring doom to the whole Wizarding World and the deaths of countless people, possibly including his parents. But he's more worried that Hermione will hex "SNEAK" onto his forehead.. Sigh. - Actually, I thought that those points were more like a given. Draco knows these facts already, and he honestly did not want to think of those more horrifying consequences. These were actually the reasons why he had not heaved in the first few times he had gotten Cruciated by Tom (the scenes that I had not written out and were mentioned by Draco to Hermione). However, I did not want to be repetitive, in regards to Draco’s reasons, because he would have undoubtedly thought of these things in his previous encounters with the future Dark Lord.
So yeah, I'm sorry this wasn't a nicer review, but if didn't like this story so much I wouldn't have bothered to write it (if that makes sense). If you feel like posting a reply (nice or not) I'll be checking the your review reply page, also Deea101 is the name of my lj account. - Meh, don’t worry about it. I do appreciate that you have taken the time to write a long review. Hopefully, I have cleared things up in regards to why I had written the chapter this way. Thanks for reading and reviewing!