This is a short piece describing what may have happened when Merope's heart was broken and she realizes her mistake.

"Will you marry me?"

"No"

"Please?"

Softly, eyes closed, turning his head away, he said, "No".

Merope Gaunt suddenly burst into tears just as the words were uttered. Her world felt as though it had been shattered. Her perfect little world. She had the man of her dreams, and was pregnant with his baby. Earlier that day, she got permission to ask him to marry her from the Ministry of Magic, as it was custom to have it the other way and because he was a muggle, she had to have it customized under the condition that she can only ask him. The person she asked, Tom Riddle, the man she loved and who she thought loved her, has just refused the question she can ask no other man.

"But I'm carrying your child! Surly you must love me or at least marry me for that?! I wanna be with you, only you. I love you, now and forever. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"I can hold no love for a liar; for a witch. You have tricked me for far too long with that potion or whatever that vial thing is. You don't love me, you don't even know what love is."

"Can't you see where your wrong? I do know what love is and it came riding down the hill on a horse every day, past my house, with other friends walking by. It sneered at me so, called me names I didn't care to hear and I didn't care, I didn't let it hurt me, cause I saw love and just that sight made my day hopeful again. I gave love water to drink as my silent thank you. I endured the hundreds of days, thousands of hours, millions of minutes when love would not even turn my way. Don't you see that I wanted, desperately, to see what it would be like to be loved by love; to be loved by you. You are love to me. I waited for you as long as I could and now I take it into my own hands. Yes, I admit that I did make a potion, a love potion, that I am a witch. But can you not see the reasons why? Can you be so blind as to see that you mean the world to me and that my life is nothing, without you. No one else cares for me. I can't call what I have family, I have no friends. I made up stories to keep busy. Stories that was once of despair, of killing myself in numerous ways so that other might just think of me. Now these stories involve you and me, this baby, in a family, in love with each other no magic potion needed. I didn't want to put you under anything but your own mind, but you left me no choice. You wouldn't even THINK of me. The reason I'm alive is because of you damn it.

"I'm leaving here and going back to my t-t-true love." As he said these last words, he stuttered, not at all certain himself, if it was true. "Nothing you say can convince me. Don't hold out for me. I am NOT coming back."

She burst in tears again and ran after him, clinging on to anything she could, his leg, his arm, the tail of his coat. He turned down to her and took one last look at what he was leaving behind; a girl, pretty in a plain way, unseemingly magical in another, who was pregnant with his baby (there was no denying it).

He decided to comfort her with a secret of his, a secret he was hiding even from himself. She saw him through her tears coming down toward her, not angry but lovingly. Tom came over, held her head and leant his shoulder to her so that she may calm down. The love potion must still be having some effect she thought.

"Know that I am not under the influence of your potion witch, know that I am in my own mind. I must tell you something you can never repeat, keep what I said earlier in mind. 'I loved you before you tricked me. Even before when you stood there waiting for me everyday. I knew you for your whole life. I know the stories you tell when you thought know one is listening. I was the one who gave you ideas for new ones. I convinced you to make ones with happy endings; to involve me and a family; a future. I listened when no one else would. That thing of a family doesn't deserve you. You didn't know me but I loved you. All those days, hours, minutes, you say I never thought of you is a lie. I don't know then how it was that I saw and heard your thoughts but I did it and I am grateful. All those things I said were pretense. I only said them because my friends were near. Let you know though, that even my love of you and the love of my unborn child cannot fix the mess you have caused."'

Oh Merlin, I really did badly this time, didn't I? she thought.

And with that being said, he headed out the door, with a nagging feeling in the back of his mind telling him that this may be the wrong choice, the wrong path. Nevertheless, he walked out, to live a normal life, happy and content life only to meet his son again, to be murdered by his own son, his last thoughts only being, this is what I deserve, and at last I can fix my mistake, Merope, I coming!

FIN