Chapter 1: Confluence (Part 1)
On the eve of November 1st, where Dimwood manor is best bustling, a witch was about to be born. To say the house was on hysterics is an understatement.
"NGHGGGGGNFF!"
"Keep pushing! Or you'll die!" Nurse Stalley(with the license and experience), was ever the humorous family nurse. Albeit the sharp tongue, she delivered her job with loyalty and gusto quite nicely.
"Oh dear, I never want to go through this again!" mumbles Mr. Edson Dimwood from the corner of the bed, huddled and cowering, while his wife in labor holds his hand in a vice grip. Whether Mr. Edson wants to exit the room out of horror, or stay faithful to his matrimonial vows: till death do us apart, what's certain is that the Dimwood triplets have better spines than their father.
Eddy Dimwood, Malton Dimwood and John Dimwood, strapping boys and turning six within the month, are doe-eyed and unable to comprehend the situation.
"Daddy why are you weeping?"
"Can we get some candy now?"
"What's nanny doing with that head on your bottom, mum?"
"GET OUT CHILDREN!" bellows Nurse Stalley, also part-time nanny of the Dimwood triplets. She had quite the story as a bankrupted widow. Her husband left her the hefty fortune. However, he had intentionally spelled Stalley Hedrickson to 'Sparty Hedingson' on his last will. Gringgots was firm, there was no Stalley Hedrickson mentioned, and thus no fortune. Mr. Hedrickson did not do it out of jest, of course, Nurse Stalley always defended. Just an April fool's joke gone awry when he'd died. Is all.
The triplets scurry out fashionably, as Mr. Domingo, the family butler slash gardener slash the occasional chaperone, rushes just in time to escort the boys out, "This way children."
"Is it out?! Is it?!" says a high-pitched Mr. Edson with a bit more decorum this time.
"BLOODY HELL, IT IS NOT!"
Maria Dimwood grunts one last feral growl as their new healthy baby arrives to the wizarding world. Insured, naturally covered in blood and in a bloody screaming fit but safe and very sound.
Mr. Edson carries the newborn baby in an affectionate embrace in a second, finally having been released from his wife's stony grip and former cowardliness forgotten.
"Maria, darling! She is beautiful. Beautiful than you I'm afraid! What shall we name our first lady witch, hmm?"
Nurse Stalley interjects, "Let me clean her first!"
Edson pointedly turns the child away from Nurse Stalley as Maria edges for them, "Give me the baby." She wheezes out, pained and tremendously tired.
Edson assents and lowers the child quickly into Maria's bosom must she faint not having held their newborn witch. That would be a waste indeed.
"She gave the house quite the chaos."
"I agree." Nurse Stalley and Mr. Edson nodded briefly, heads bobbing animatedly.
Maria's lips quirked, "Then we shall name her after this Greek goddess muggles all write about in their mythology books."
Edson plops on the sheets beside her, mesmerized by the duo and his legs were starting to ache too, "The goddess of chaos then. But alas! I don't remember her name!"
"Neither do I!" Maria exclaims in mock horror.
Nurse Stalley huffs impatiently, she was never one for theatrics as the Dimwood couple was. And the mother and daughter were still absolutely filthy COULD THEY NOT STALL?
"Will you just name the bloody baby already? Because, frankly, it is still covered in blo-"
"Oh yes, I remember now!" Mr. Edson exclaims, oblivious to their nurse's little outburst.
"Eris. Our little witch."
Both couple were beaming as the children scurried back inside together with Mr. Domingo. The triplets and their father cluster around little Eris as Mr. Domingo attends to the nights's preparations and Nurse Stalley to Mrs. Dimwood.
"Dad, what kind of boy is it?"
"It is a she and is called a girl, Malton." Mr. Edson supplies brightly as he steers the curious pairs of eyes away from the bedroom with promises of treats and a bit of frightening.
"Will Maria be able to attend the festivities, Madam Stalley?" He calls out from the door.
Nurse Stalley's lips are set into a thin line and before she could answer Maria coughs purposely.
"Of course I will! Now get out and attend to the boys!"
Mr. Edson leaves with a wink as the doors shut firmly after him.
"St. Mungo's would have been ten times the appropriate place for child labor, Maria." Nurse Stalley starts as she begins changing the sheets.
"Oh shush, I have a talented nurse with me."
Stalley tuts before gathering the blood-sodden sheets, "Well get resting then you bloody stubborn woman."
Maria Dimwood laughs. It brought a bit of ache on her lower belly, but nothing too serious.
They had an exaggerated feast, with pumpkin juice, treats shaped into faces and cuisines designed to look macabre, and of course, an abundance of sweets for the whole household, which mysteriously disappeared overnight as the triplets went to bed. Edson ate what could only be half of the table while Mr. Domingo and Nanny Stalley both helped themselves on the other side and Maria sipped on her pumpkin juice. It was Halloween — a pretty one too, for the moon was as bright as the ambience inside Dimwood manor.
Later into the night, when all was well: with the triplets tucked into bed, Mr. Domingo rested, nurse-nanny Stalley is finally retired(for the night) and Mr. Edson hogging all the sheets, Maria Dimwood tiptoes towards little Eris' crib.
She did one last peek on the sleeping baby before going back to bed.
She slept still as a stone.
On December 31st, roughly two months later, at Little Hangleton, a wizard was born.
Merope Gaunt, abandoned by her pureblood family and then left by her muggle, daresay if only for a while, lover, lies on her deathbed. A flimsy, little bed for a woman who just gave birth and was stripped of rights, family and love.
Tom Riddle Jr. lays in his mother's arms, oddly silent for a newborn baby.
"My little angel between a wizard and a muggle," Merope starts, tracing Tom junior's tiny nose, lips, ears to his hands and little feet. "On the middle of two converging races. I hope you forgive your mother for such a, such a—"
The tears come this time, yet as salty and large as they were, they were not from bitterness or pain from childbirth or from cowardice and hopelessness of having drugged Tom Riddle with a love potion. It was rather because of the notion of this little baby growing up to be homeless, devoid of care and family, and hating her ultimately.
She could not die. Not yet.
She apparated, despite the Ministry's strict rule against magic outside the wizarding world, to the nearest Muggle orphanage. The minister might not mind some rule-breaking, Merope thought. Trial her, sentence her and even humiliate her in front of her family but the worst they could do is to prevent her from giving her baby, at least, a future it deserves.
The orphanage is barred with high iron fences and it looked like it could do some fixing. Yet Merope Gaunt is determined. After all, beggars can't be choosers. She places her baby beneath the looming railing, she had only apparated her and her baby outside the orphanage and this, Merope calculated, will be the last bit of magic she might be able to pull off tonight.
Merope bends over little Tom, sniffing, reminiscing, if she could ever smell his father on him.
She laughs, voice tinkling, "Why! You smell even better than your father and grandparents combined! And they were such the snobby aristocrats!"
The voices beneath lit houses were a haze and the snow was making little Tom's nose go a cherry red. Yet he still did not utter a single cry that night.
With one last effort Merope Gaunt opens the gate and strides towards the orphanage door.
With one last look, she puts little Tom down.
With one last moment she hope would make up for all the mistakes she had made, she knocks on the door. Two times. Three. Four. Five. Until a throaty, "Coming!" resonated from inside.
There was a crack and that was the last of Merope Gaunt.
A few years later into Tom Riddle Jr.'s childhood, he had became quite the accomplished antisocial. He was also very taciturn. He did not play with the other orphan children. This, Mrs. Cole did notice, and it worried her greatly. For reasons of being afraid for his well-being and for being spooked by Tom's apathetic behavior.
He meets auburn bearded Albus Dumbledore in 1938, where the man reveals to him his parentage: his deceased mother, Merope Gaunt and his father, Tom Marvolo Riddle and of course, his affinity for magic.
Tom was already the curious child and had known he had a weird ability even before Albus Dumbledore had told him about his magical lineage. He confided this to the man, along with the lines, "I can make bad things happen to those who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to."
These were the wrong things to say, however, older Tom would have realized. For that moment, Albus Dumbledore knew it best to develop distrust and fear that would last even till Tom's education at Hogwarts ended. He knew he was going to be dangerous.
Nevertheless, Tom was to start his first year at Hogwarts. His education funded by the school, provided he maintained high marks. Tom was surefire he would live up to his professors' academic expectations.
However, as the day descended into the night and Tom was still unable to sleep, he decided to let his thoughts wander. Of his mother, probably muggle, he had assumed, dying, of dying, of blood, of pain and of dying again.
He had never been more afraid in his entire life.
Meanwhile at the Dimwood manor, Mr. Edson was to remarry a Pureblood aristocrat from the Greengrass family. She had the exquisite Greengrass mien: long, ebony locks, striking green eyes and the high cheekbones that could cut through diamond.
The Dimwood triplets were not children anymore but rather budding adolescents blessed with the family's pretty golden manes and deep grey eyes. They were currently on their last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, specifically stressing over the incoming N.E.W.T.s.
It is in this time of the year, Eris also receives her acceptance letter from Hogwarts.
Nurse Stalley also begins working at St. Mungo's when this happened, since the children were of age and there was no need to babysit them anymore. Even little Eris.
Over the years, Eris Dimwood grows finer in beauty and so does her taste for anything 'blunt', e.g. choice of words, empathy, hairstyle and magical prowess. The last one was the most troubling of all because Eris's display of magic had always been from none to meager. What the only girl in the family was terribly obsessed at was using the kitchen's cauldrons and mixing ingredients from hair to dead lizards or leaves to create something of semblance of a proper potion.
But of course, her experiments were still improper and thus garnered hazardous results most of the time, e.g. blowing up the kitchen, foul smell throughout the house, wreckage of tools, decimation of her father's sanity and the like. The triplets did not mind the discord but are rather amused by their sister's efforts at a subject they always fail at school.
Mr. Edson however was a different story. It had left him paranoid and running the minute the sound of bubbling and clanging of cauldrons echoed and he'd arrived at her room only to discover no trace of ruination whatsoever and just Eris sleeping.
The very next day Mr. Edson furnished a room for all potion making in the house, brought Eris a textbook entitled "A VERY Beginner's Guide To Potion Making", ordered ingredients listed in the book, sternly ordered Eris to wear protective gear every time she went inside this room, insured that part of the house and finally retires to his room for a very long, relaxing slumber he'd been itching for in months.
This coaxed the manor for a bit until the news of his father remarrying.
The triplets were complying to their father's decision, only secretly bummed out.
Eris was a wee more stubborn and handful.
"No." She had simply said on the day of the announcement and walked out.
"Your hair looks that of an old, mangled woman vying for youth." She had said one occasion at dinner.
"Your eyes look like moss." On another occasion.
The last string her father could take was on the morning before her departure to Hogwarts with her brothers, "You will never feel welcome in this family. That tidbit should be common for the second woman."
Her father had slapped her there, at platform four and three-quarters. A few onlookers were horrified, her brothers more so, and surprisingly even Mary Greengrass, albeit hurt and crying from Eris's words. It had stung for both women.
Mary tugs on Edson's sleeve, "Ed, you shouldn't have done that! I'm sorry Eris—"
Eris, however, had already left.
Eddy, Malton and John give their quick good byes and apologies to Mary in behalf of their sister and then left.
The Dimwood couple were forlorn figures among the bustling mass of people. Finally Mr. Edson Dimwood turned and said, "Let's go, Mary."