Well, here it is, my first attempt at Tom/Merope! Tell me what you think.
I'm sorry for my grammar mistakes and awkward wording, English isn't my first language.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
True Love Isn't Meant To Last
„Oh Tom, it was horrible! The women talked about how ugly I am and the men wondered aloud how you could ever bear to have me as your wife! But I paid them back good, let them try to perform their husbandly duties this week and they'll receive a nasty surprise!" Merope's eyes gleamed with a fanatical light.
Tom petted her hair soothingly. "It's fine, my dear, don't let them get to you."
Merope smiled against her husband's chest. So maybe Tom was a Muggle and her father and brother would kill her for marrying him once they got out of Azkaban, so maybe she had been forced to drug him with a Love Potion in order to finally be together with him, it's all worth it for happy moments like this one.
Whenever Merope had watched him from the window of the shabby Gaunt residence, she had fantasised about the kind of life she would lead as his wife, how he would treat her once he finally realised that he's in love with her. Naturally, he would never scream at her and hit her like the men of her family did, Tom wasn't like that. He would treat her like a queen and all the Muggles would, too.
Tom was all she had ever hoped for and much more. What she hadn't counted on was that her love would become more than a selfish, possessive obsession and infatuation. Merope had always loved Tom Riddle, but she would have never thought it possible just how much she loved him nowadays. She had never believed that she could love someone so much that she would be willing to put her beloved's happiness over her own.
Yes, Merope decided in that moment, she would stop to give him the Love Potion. It wasn't fair to Tom and she wanted him to be happy. Whether he would find this happiness with her or without her was something only time could tell. Naturally, she hoped for the former, she couldn't truly imagine that her dear, loving Tom would suddenly not love her anymore. That couldn't truly happen, could it?
Yes, Tom would awake from the doze the Love Potion had put him into and he would realise that he had truly come to love Merope in the time they'd spent together, potion or not. He would love her even more for the sacrifice she'd made and the great risk she'd taken, all for the sake of his happiness. Then she would tell him about his heir growing in her belly and they would be happy forever and ever. Always together, in good times and in bad, just like their wedding vows had said.
Yes, exactly like that. Life would be perfect and Merope would finally have all she could have ever dreamt of.
When Tom went into the sitting room to read his newspaper, Merope went into the kitchen and poured the six months-supply of Love Potion down the drain. She smiled and whistled a cheerful tune as she did so.
Everything would be perfect.
#
Two weeks later, Merope sat crying in the very same armchair Tom had loved and claimed as his own whenever he read. She hugged his picture to her chest, the pictures and the baby in her womb were all she had left of him.
Tom had disappeared in the same night the Love Potion had finally worn of. He hadn't even given her a chance to explain herself, let alone to tell him about their child.
He probably wouldn't have cared anyway, she mused bitterly.
She was reminded of a quote Tom had read to her once. When you love someone, let them go. If they come back to you, they're yours forever.
And if they didn't come back? No one had told Merope what was to happen then. She only knew that he was gone forever, like a mirage that had never truly been hers to have. Their love had never been more than a naïve, lonely little witch's dream.
Maybe Merope had found her answer already. If the one you loved didn't return, then a woman like Merope was left behind broken.
The End