Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.
AN: Written for the 2012 Hogwarts Games and for HedwigBlack's weekly challenge. Still can't believe I made it this far!
Goodbye.
Tom Riddle was used to the word goodbye and he was practically an expert on saying goodbyes permanently.
There was the goodbye he said to Cecilia when he told her about his desire to end their dalliance. She had been pleasant company, but now he had his darling Merope, Cecilia was simply not needed any more and so he dropped her. She responded by throwing their engagement ring at him, but he didn't care. All he cared about was the love of his life, his darling Merope.
There was the goodbye he said to his parents when they had expressed horror at his choice of wife. They asked why he was 'throwing his life away marrying that bizarre girl' to use their own words, but Tom didn't care, he was happy with his darling Merope.
There was the goodbye he said to the village of Little Hangleton. He didn't literally say goodbye to the people there, but he was happy to give it a goodbye, escaping from the prying eyes of its inhabitants, all of them curious to know why the snobbish, widely disliked and handsome Tom Riddle had settled his affections on the daughter of that strange tramp who lived just outside its borders.
Then there was the goodbye he did not even know was coming. The goodbye that would bring Merope's world crashing down about her ears. It was a goodbye that was preceded by one very simple fact.
He was becoming immune to Merope's love potion.
It wasn't something that Merope knew about. If she had been educated at Hogwarts, or any other magical school, she might well have taken her NEWTS and learned that love potions produce a cumulative resistance effect. It's one of the reasons why love potions are legal, one of the reasons why many in the pure-blood wizarding world prefer to avoid using them in forced marriages and crucially it is one of the reasons that marrying under the influence of love potions is a bad idea.
Of course, it is unusual for a muggle to develop resistance in less than three years and so Merope would normally have been still safe to use the potion on her husband, except for one other, little-known factor.
Tom Riddle and his family had a degree of immunity to wizarding potions in their genome.
It wasn't much, but it did allow him to build up immunity far faster than any average muggle. It was a trait that would serve his son well and work against Merope in a way she could never have anticipated.
The day started normally enough. Merope gave him his morning cup of tea (dosed as it was with love potion) Tom set off for his job at the bank as usual, giving her a goodbye kiss and a loving pat on her increasingly round stomach as he did every morning since the happy news. As usual, he even whistled happily as travelled into work. But in the middle of the day, everything changed.
It started with a blurry feeling, as though awakening after a long sleep and he groaned. Quickly making his excuses, he left the building for a walk, hoping to clear his head.
Then came the sharp pain as his memories returned and his thoughts came rushing in as he realised what had happened to him and his first instinct was to run as fast as he could, but he didn't. Instead he forced himself to calm down and act as though nothing had happened.
When he returned home that night, he kissed his wife as he always did, convinced that she would feel his doubts, his disgust and hatred for her. Merope however did not and as she slept that night, Tom packed a bag and left for home, leaving her a small note with one word on it.
"Goodbye"
