A/N: I wanted this to make 10K words but the word count is 9,070 words. Maybe I'll come back one day and add a short scene just to make it to 10K.
One early morning, a naked Snake Girl woke up to her half brother pressed up against her back, his half hard excuse of an erection poking her rear. She hissed in disgust at the sticky residue between her rear cheeks which further reminded her that the Gaunt heir had used her exhausted body for pleasure the night before or rather the early morning. A ray of sunlight shone through the hedges that blocked the tiny window of the bedroom. In the silence, she could hear her sire, her father, barking at his daughter - the legitimate one - for yet another one of her mistakes. She sighed. She didn't have the willpower to deal with Mr Gaunt just yet.
"What are you staring at?!" a voice spat from behind. Unfortunately, she couldn't avoid dealing with Master Morfin every single morning.
"Nothing," she replied in Parseltongue, wrinkling her nose at his putrid breath. "Mr Gaunt seems angry." He suddenly cackled which sounded like more of horrific gargle before tugging on her hair so hard that it forced her head upwards. She didn't dare try to free herself like she knew she could. It wasn't worth a black eye.
"I hope you weren't looking at that filthy Muggle," he sneered, his lips touching her earlobe. "That stupid slut can't stop looking at him when he passes by, even when he's with one of his Muggle whores."
She didn't bother pointing out that the only window any of them could see anything from was the one in the sitting room. It would be lost on Master Morfin. He was right about one thing, though. Indeed, the presence of his latest Muggle woman didn't deter Miss Gaunt from looking at the Muggle boy but it didn't stop said Muggle boy from leering at her either. She shuddered in revulsion. How dare the filth even look at her, let alone openly convey his lust for her?
Her scalp was starting to burn. "I wouldn't look at such filth, Master Morfin."
"Of course you wouldn't, you bitch!" he snarled, releasing her hair but yanking her arm so that she was facing him. She felt the usual bout of repugnance when she laid eyes upon his face, especially the cross eyes he shared with his sister, but she didn't let it show though she doubted that he cared either way.
As he proceeded to touch her naked body, she stared directly up at the shoddy ceiling and tried to think of anything but her so-called family. She hated herself just that little bit more when that Muggle boy's handsome face appeared in her mind's eye almost straight away.
.:. QK .:.
Snake Girl sat at the table with Miss Gaunt, eating something the latter had prepared when Mr Gaunt strode into the doorway of the kitchen, giving his bastard a cold, hard look before stepping out of view. She exchanged looks with her half-sister who shrugged, her eyes still pointing in opposite directions.
"Morfin!" Mr Gaunt hollered, and a door was heard opening, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps.
"Yes, Father," Master Morfin replied gruffly. He almost sounded excited when he asked, "Do I get to beat Merope?"
Snake Girl shifted awkwardly as Miss Gaunt stiffened and cowered. If they were like normal sisters, she would've comforted her but they weren't and so she didn't even attempt to calm the scared girl down. Sometimes, she thought Miss Gaunt deserved to be punished because the Gaunts did not touch their uterine sisters, not like that, but they had no qualms about defiling their father's bastards. It was only fair that Miss Gaunt suffered as well although Snake Girl would give everything to swap places with her.
"Why isn't your wife withchild yet?!"
Wife. It didn't matter that such a marriage was illegal, even between a man and his father's bastard. Apparently, the other wizards didn't approve of or even tolerate such a union but Mr Gaunt deemed himself holy enough to officiate his own son's incestuous marriage. So she was Master Morfin's wife, had been ever since she started bleeding, but she still wasn't important enough to get given a name and so she remained, as ever, Snake Girl. Her mother hadn't bothered to name her even before she'd been nailed to the front door.
"I don't know, Father!"
Rolling her eyes, she suppressed a laugh. She knew precisely why she had yet to bear Master Morfin a son; her so-called husband was incapable of taking a woman the way required to sire a child. He could manage every other abhorrent act imaginable but he couldn't stay hard long enough inside her to produce his father's desired result. He had failed for eleven years.
"She is becoming old!" Mr Gaunt hissed despite the fact that Snake Girl was younger than twenty-five-year-old Master Morfin. "Hurry or I will take her!"
Her blood ran cold and even Miss Gaunt gasped at the statement. She had always allowed Master Morfin to touch her because what was the point of resisting (?) but she didn't think it was right for the man who sired her to sire her own child. From what little she knew of the rest of the wizarding community, she knew that a wizard siring yet another bastard on an existing bastard was unheard of. Surely, even the filthy Muggles didn't engage in such behaviour?
"Father, you can't!" Master Morfin squealed in protest. "She's mine! You can have Merope!"
Snake Girl heard a thud to her right. She turned her head to see Miss Gaunt slumped over her the table, unconscious. For once, she felt sorry for the girl. She marvelled at Master Morfin's sheer stupidity in telling his father to have his own wife-born daughter.
"I wouldn't touch her even if she were my bastard," Mr Gaunt declared pompously. Snake Girl thought it unfortunate that even Mr Gaunt wouldn't bed Miss Gaunt if he could. It was no wonder that the Muggle boy never once looked at her in anything other than disdain.
.:. QK .:.
She was running out of time. Every day that passed was another day that Master Morfin failed to put a child in her. Mr Gaunt's patience was wearing thin. Snake Girl could tell that her he was seriously considering fulfilling the task himself, dissuaded only by his desperate son who kept begging for more and more chances in vain. She knew that her sire would eventually stop taking pity on her half-brother/husband but she had made her mind up to do whatever it took to resist him. Under no circumstances would she let the old man touch her let alone impregnate her.
The sound of hooves fast approaching drew her attention and she peered up from her book - an uninspiring cookbook they only had half the ingredients for - to see Miss Gaunt gazing out of the window as best she could with her opposite pointing albeit sparkling eyes. Only one thing - one person - got the girl so excited that she abandoned her daily task of cleaning the ever filthy floor up, something that Mr Gaunt would surely punish her for if he ever caught her doing it. Snake Girl turned back to her book, uninterested in seeing the boy who would undoubtedly give her a lecherous look through the window.
However, when Miss Gaunt let out a contented sigh, Snake Girl just had to look, craning her head to get a better view and regretting it when she caught a glimpse of the Muggle boy's dark eyes as he looked directly at her. She hastily ripped her eyes away from his, her chest tightening in an awful way for reasons she couldn't place, and she jumped as Master Morfin suddenly appeared out of nowhere, flying towards the window with his wand in tow. Moments later he fell to the floor, howling with laughter as Miss Gaunt cried out, her arm outstretched towards something outside the open window.
The Muggle, she realised. Master Morfin had attacked the Muggle. She suddenly felt incensed, though not enough to check on the Muggle herself, and turned to the insane man on the filthy floor in front of her. She wondered if he realised what he was rolling around in before dismissing the thought. Of course, he didn't.
"Master Morfin! What have you done?!" she exclaimed, thinking about the repercussions of Master Morfin's actions. This wasn't the first time he'd broken the International Statute of Secrecy but this was the first, to her knowledge, that he'd hexed a Muggle.
"He got what he deserved!" he spat, his head snapping up towards her. "Why were you even looking at the filth, you lying bitch?!"
Her heart skipped a beat as Master Morfin grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to their bedroom. He was right. Why did she even look at the filthy Muggle? She grimaced as Master Morfin undressed her with his loveless hands and muttered a slew of profanities directed at her, recalling how the Muggle never failed to throw her a lascivious look whenever she was near the window when he passed by. It was her own fault for giving him the opportunity, though, because she, like Miss Gaunt, knew that the Muggle rode home around the same time every day. What did that say about her? That she liked the sight of the Muggle just as much as her half-sister did? She quivered at the thought as Master Morfin forced her to kneel on the dirty floor, and yet she had to admit to herself that she found herself thinking of the boy more often than not whenever her husband took her.
Her thoughts drifted into dangerous territory regarding the Muggle when she suddenly remembered her current predicament. Mr Gaunt would take her if Master Morfin didn't put a child in her. Master Morfin wasn't capable of putting a child in anyone... but perhaps another young man was. She shivered in self-disgust at the very idea but what choice did she have? She couldn't let her own father have her.
.:. QK .:.
Her blood 'gift' had its uses. For one, Mr Gaunt treated her as well as he could any woman which meant he allowed her access to all of his books and let her decide when, if ever, she was going to cook a meal for the family - Miss Gaunt had no choice in the matter. He regarded her condition as an asset for her kind were extremely fertile and were believed to be a creation of and testament to the great Salazar Slytherin himself.
The greatest perk of all was that when it came time for her to transform at nightfall, she was allowed the bedroom all to herself and Master Morfin had to make himself scarce on the mucky floor of the sitting room. Mr Gaunt allowed her this 'privilege' so that she didn't have to go outside at night to roam as a snake and become 'lost' (read: free). None of the others knew that she was only forced to stay in viper form for a few hours; they all thought it was strictly sunset to sunrise. Of course, this meant that the three would be none the wiser if she slithered out of her bedroom window and disappeared for a couple of hours.
Snake Girl's loosely termed 'freedom' was exactly how she was able to stand outside the house on the hill one night, a resplendent mansion which could be seen all the way from the sitting room window of her - the Gaunts' - tiny shack. After unsuccessfully trying to guess which of the many adozen windows belonged to the Muggle boy's quarters, she happened upon the stables and found him tending to his horse. Before she could think of a way to explain her sudden presence in a less queer way, he turned to her, his eyes widening in shock.
Instead of accusing her of trespassing, he laughed somewhat nervously, startling her. That was one reaction she hadn't expected. "Now I'm even seeing you while I'm awake..." he muttered, pinching his arm before frowning at her. "Are you... are you real...?"
"I am," she replied, pleasantly surprised that he'd been dreaming of her. Any reservations she'd had about him potentially rejecting her were gone and she started to experience something she'd never felt before: confidence. "I was... looking for my pet snake. Have you seen her?"
"I haven't," he responded, smirking a little and stepping slightly closer to her. "That's not really why you're here, is it?"
She refrained from rolling her eyes at his arrogance, mimicking his step but stopping at a respectable distance. While she did want him to bed her, she didn't want to appear too desperate. She wasn't allowed to have any self-respect at home; she wouldn't let go of the chance to display some here.
"I don't know what you mean," she answered innocently, wondering if her English sounded the same to him as her Parseltongue did to her. "She's my brother's snake"- she tried to remember what kind of snake she'd seen Master Morfin speaking to lately -"not really mine. She's an adder."
He shrugged as if to say he had no idea what an adder looked like anyway. She had no doubt that was true. "You look nothing like your brother... or sister."
"We have different mothers," she clarified, drawing some pride from the fact that she wasn't as inbred as Mr Gaunt's legitimate children. "Have you really not seen my pet?"
"No," he said, still smirking and obviously not convinced. He was clever, for a Muggle. Hopefully not too clever, though.
"Well then, I'll best be going," she said, throwing him a look that she hoped was suggestive. "I will have to look elsewhere."
Snake Girl turned away, only for the Muggle to call out for her to wait. She released a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. Turning back to him, she found that he was now standing close enough for her to see herself reflected in his very dark eyes. Indeed, he was as handsome close up as he was when he passed by her house.
"Umm, maybe I'll see you here again?" he suggested, seemingly unsure for the first time during this whole exchange. "I mean, maybe you'll lose your snake- adder - tomorrow night?"
"Maybe you'll lose yours," she countered, not realising what she was saying until after she'd said it. She bit her lip. That'd perhaps been too forward. It'd probably be more dangerous at hers but, at the same time, it'd be somewhat less risky. "Near my outhouse... tomorrow night?"
He smiled a brilliant smile - not a smirk this time - and nodded. Her heart skipped a beat and she berated herself for it as she turned away and walked off. She knew the filthy Muggle wouldn't look at her twice other than to ridicule her if she was as ugly as Miss Gaunt.
.:. QK .:.
"Oh Tom!" she moaned, throwing an arm around him to steady herself as he drove into her.
What Master Morfin couldn't do for her in over a decade Tom Riddle the Muggle had done over and over again in a matter of a few days. She told herself that she let him take her so frequently because she still had to wait until her monthly was due to know if she was withchild or not but the truth was much simpler than that: she liked it when he took her.
Her back was up against the outhouse wall, her legs around Tom's waist as he held her up with his strong arms. Though she tried to suppress her moans, there was something terribly exciting about being fucked by a not-so-filthy Muggle just a stone's throw away from where her sire and husband were both sleeping. Becoming mother to a half-blood son would be the ultimate revenge against the two pure-blood extremists. She was as proud of her Slytherin and Peverell heritage as much the next Gaunt but Mr Gaunt and Master Morfin overdid it. Miss Gaunt didn't seem to care much at all, at least about blood status given her infatuation with the man currently deep inside her half-sister.
Guilt welled up inside Snake Girl - Miss Gaunt had never really done her any wrong and she had wanted Tom first - but was soon forgotten, giving way to ecstasy when she reached her peak. Tom was making his pleasure known so loudly that she wanted to slap him but she devoured his lips instead, absorbing his groans. Soon after, a pleasantly tired-looking Tom loosened his hold on her, letting her down so that she could go inside the outhouse and wipe the evidence off her body. It was times like this that she wished she had magic and a wand like the rest of them.
She went back outside to see Tom lazily dressing. He threw her his trademark smirk, prompting her to roll her eyes as she always did.
"I can't come by tomorrow," he said, passing her tattered nightdress to her. Master Morfin was often rough, not caring the slightest about the number of her garments he'd torn over the last decade.
"Alright," she responded, just about stopping herself from asking why as she slipped into her dress. It was none of her business. She knew she couldn't possibly be the only woman he was bedding these days; she'd always seen him ride past her house with a different girl every few weeks. She had to become withchild before he grew tired of her.
He opened his mouth and then quickly closed it again, clearly wanting to say something. She wondered why he stopped himself. He never refrained from voicing his opinions, especially when it came to her family.
"Do you... would you want to go into town with me?"
Almost in an instant, she felt her face grow red which was ridiculous in itself. She didn't feel shy when it came to fornication but a few words from Tom made her blush like mad. It made no sense. The way her stupid heart fluttered threw her off.
"No!" she blurted out.
He appeared to be taken aback. "No...?" he repeated in a tone of disbelief. She felt a stab of irritation. Oh of course. His whores had probably never denied him.
"No," she repeated firmly, fastening the ties of her dress. "I won't become one of those"- what was the word Master Morfin called Miss Gaunt again (?) -"sluts you parade around the village."
"I don't parade anyone around. They know what it means to get involved with me and they still choose to be with me," he said coldly. She was startled by the cold look on his face, having expected him to act out in anger like the men in her family did.
"You think I'm like them?" she questioned hoarsely, her heart slowly sinking. Why did she bring this up now? She still needed him just in case she wasn't as fertile as she thought she was.
He shook his head, shrugging his overcoat on. "Forget it."
This time, she was left staring at his back as he walked away. He didn't look back.
.:. QK .:.
Snake Girl winced as Master Morfin finally finished using her body for his pleasure, her body aching all over. She lay there on the bed lifelessly, trying to keep a straight face as she heard him dress and mutter something to himself about his adder. As soon as she heard him leave and close the door behind him, she let her face crumble, her eyes prickling with tears. She had no idea why she felt the urge to cry a river; things were actually going well. The Muggle had served his purpose for she hadn't bled at all in over a month. She wasn't yet ready to tell anyone, though, for fear of something going wrong in the early months. Of course, if Mr Gaunt decided Master Morfin's time with her was up, she would have to announce it but, for now, it was her little secret.
She smiled as she rested her hand on her bare abdomen underneath the sheets, splaying her fingers, only to frown when she thought of her son's father. He hadn't visited the outhouse ever since he stormed off that last night and she loathed to admit that she'd waited for him a few nights after before realising that he was finished with her. But then again, she too was finished with him - why should she need him anymore when she already had his child growing in her belly? To her dismay, she oftentimes found her thoughts drifting to him and not even because of the child or Master Morfin. The realisation scared her and so she always made sure she was in her room when he was due to ride past the house.
A knock on the door roused her from her thoughts and she turned to see Miss Gaunt popping her head around the door.
"I didn't tell you to come in," Snake Girl muttered, sitting up and clutching the covers to her chest. "Do you want something?"
Miss Gaunt looked back before stepping inside, closing the door behind her. "You're withchild."
Snake Girl immediately shushed the younger woman, ushering her to the edge of the bed. "How do you know?" she implored, her heart beating wildly. She didn't want Mr Gaunt and Master Morfin to find out through Miss Gaunt instead of her and she hoped the other woman hadn't said anything.
"I started my monthly today and went to fetch my supplies but I realised that you haven't asked me for some since last month."
Snake Girl sighed. She had forgotten that Miss Gaunt was her supplier. "Don't tell your father or your brother. Not yet. You must know why..."
"I know," Miss Gaunt responded, staring at her in a way that unnerved her. Her face was marred with scepticism plain for the eye to see.
"What?"
"How can you be withchild?" Miss Gaunt asked, twiddling her thumbs. "My brother can't make children." Snake Girl gulped. "Is it Father's?"
She resisted the urge to vomit at the very notion of carrying her sire's child.
"It isn't your father's," she answered truthfully for it was the only truth she was going to be able to tell. Miss Gaunt raised an eyebrow. "It can only be your brother's. Who told you he can't make children?"
"I just thought that because you've been married for eleven years without becoming a mother that there's something wrong with him," Miss Gaunt explained with a shrug of the shoulders. Snake Girl inwardly sighed in relief - Miss Gaunt didn't know for certain that Master Morfin was impotent. "I know it can't be you. Your kind are so fertile."
And yet Snake Girl's mother, a special being like herself, had only had one child but Miss Gaunt's mother had given birth to two. "Your brother has finally made you an aunt," she lied for lack of anything else to say.
Miss Gaunt smiled sadly. "He'll just be another Gaunt who shouts at me to cook and clean."
"It's better than having a girl, isn't it?" Snake Girl tried half-heartedly. "I don't want to give birth to another generation of Gaunt wife or concubine." Miss Gaunt nodded fervently. "It's a good thing your father brewed that potion for me to conceive a son."
Miss Gaunt suddenly stopped smiling. "Umm... yes, yes it is," she said quickly, looking out of the tiny hedge covered window. "Father and Brother want food. I had better be going."
Before Snake Girl could even get another word in, her half-sister scurried out of the room, slamming the door behind her. That was bizarre, even for her. She turned to the window, wondering what Miss Gaunt had seen through there. One could barely see anything and Snake Girl hadn't used it for nightly escapades ever since she realised the Muggle wasn't going to come back.
Perhaps Miss Gaunt was becoming mad like her brother. Snake Girl just hoped that Miss Gaunt would keep her secret to herself.
.:. QK .:.
The next day, Snake Girl was keeping to herself in her room when she heard a blast and an unfamiliar man shrieking. She had noticed that someone had dropped by a few minutes ago to visit either Master Morfin or Mr Gaunt but she had dismissed it as business related to whatever the two men did whenever they went into town and left her and Miss Gaunt behind. This was unusual, though, even for her family.
She cracked the door ajar and peered out to see Mr Gaunt clapping Master Morfin on the back. There was no one else to be seen although she could hear Miss Gaunt bustling around in the kitchen. The two men were guffawing, clearly proud of something they, or perhaps Master Morfin, had done. She closed the door, returning to the book she'd left on her bed. The less she saw of the two men, the better.
However, not twenty minutes later, another commotion was heard and, this time, she could hear her sire and husband roaring in protest at something. She could tell that there were other people in the house so she donned some more decent, almost scratchless clothes before opening her bedroom door, only to find no one but Miss Gaunt who was sitting on the floor in a daze.
"Miss Gaunt?" she called, rushing over to said woman and gently shaking her by the shoulder. "What happened?"
"Father and Brother have been taken by the Ministry," Miss Gaunt replied, seemingly in a state of shock. Snake Girl stepped back, experiencing a barrage of emotions, the chief one being fear. "I have been called to give evidence at the Wizengamot." Miss Gaunt peered up at her, a crazed look in her eyes. "You can come with me. You can tell them about how Father married you to Brother when you were just a child, how Brother has bedded you with force for eleven years, how Father intended to have you, his own daughter, if Brother failed to get you withchild. They will go away for ye-"
"That's enough, Miss Gaunt!" Snake Girl interjected, her head spinning. She stumbled blindly, dropping onto the dirty old settee as she tried not to vomit. Miss Gaunt was looking at her in indignance. "What do you think will happen?" she asked, her nausea slowly subsiding. "There's no evidence of my marriage, of Master Morfin bedding me, of Mr Gaunt's threat..."
"They can extract memories from any one of us, especially you and Brother Morfin," Miss Gaunt piped up, sounding hopeful. "I read that they can do tests on babies, even the unborn, to see if they belong to a certain man or woman."
Snake Girl's eyes widened. "You read?" she inquired, clutching her head as she felt the nausea return in full force. Miss Gaunt mumbled something about reading books when someone was asleep.
"Please don't tell Father!" Miss Gaunt pleaded.
"I won't..." Snake Girl assured distractedly, thinking about the trial.
She couldn't go to it. Her child would fail the paternity test if such a thing even existed, and then there was the risk of someone extracting a memory of her being fucked by the Muggle. She knew that Legilimency and/or Veritaserum were also sometimes used in the courts. At least one of these methods would bring the truth out.
Miss Gaunt could do what she wanted but she would not endanger her pride or her child. No matter how long Mr Gaunt and Master Morfin went away for, they would return and take their anger out on whoever helped put them in Azkaban in the first place. She would not be party to this.
.:. QK .:.
"What are you doing?" Snake Girl questioned as Miss Gaunt stood at the stove, stirring the contents of a cauldron. They had just had lunch and dinner wasn't for hours yet. The smell coming from the cauldron literally smelt like hay bales but was strangely satisfying at the same time.
"You'll see," Miss Gaunt replied, a small smile gracing her plain face.
It was jarring, a reminder that said woman had helped put both her father and brother away in Azkaban for at least six months. She still didn't know where the young woman had gained the courage to stand up against her two abusers in court, right in front of their faces. She wouldn't have been able to do it.
When they sat down for dinner that night, Snake Girl noticed Miss Gaunt put a small vial of pink liquid inside a cupboard before joining her at the table. She gave her half-sister a side-long glance but the younger woman did not return it, happily eating away. Snake Girl looked down at her bowl and sighed. They barely had any money left and with her sire away for six months, it seemed like he was going to come home to two starved corpses.
She took a swig of her glass of water, blinking rapidly at the sour, rancid taste it left on her tongue. Miss Gaunt immediately got up and fetched her another glass of water.
"I'm sorry, I love brewing potions," Miss Gaunt said, tipping her head to the side and offering up an apologetic smile. "I came across the withchild confirmation potion and decided to try brewing it for you."
"I already knew," Snake Girl almost snapped before downing the water. "It's so sour!"
"Sour...?" Miss Gaunt repeated in askance, concern etched upon her face. "Are you sure?"
"Yes!" Snake Girl exclaimed, the taste still on her tongue. She stuffed some of the soup in her mouth, hoping it'd expel the awful taste. Sometimes she wondered if Miss Gaunt did these things to annoy her. After all, she was the insane Master Morfin's sister of the full blood.
"It should taste sweet..." Miss Gaunt trailed off, sounding worried. "Sour means you're carrying a girl."
A girl? That was impossible. Mr Gaunt had given her the potion that took away the ability to have girls. He had told her himself. It was a potion of Dark magic but it was extremely powerful, he'd told her. In other words, it could not fail. Any child of hers had to be a boy.
"It's not possible," she argued, shaking her head. "You know what Fa- your father gave me."
"Umm... I don't think it's quite like that," Miss Gaunt spoke hesitantly, staring down into her more-empty-than-full bowl of soup. "I've read all of the potion books now and I haven't come across a potion that takes away one's ability to have girls but I have found a potion that gives one a higher chance of having a boy. But it comes at a price; if the woman who takes the potion conceives a girl, that girl will be born... malformed."
"What?!" Snake Girl yelled, suddenly feeling the urge to vomit. She hoisted herself to her feet and ran to the sink, knocking her chair down in the process. The bile flowed out of her mouth and into the sink, painfully burning her throat. Something occurred to her just then. She turned to Miss Gaunt and glared at her. "You knew when you first realised I was withchild, didn't you?" She choked, fighting back tears. "All this time you knew and you didn't tell me."
Miss Gaunt floundered, rushing forward to comfort her but backing away at the last second. "I- I- there was a much higher chance of you having a boy! I was certain that you were carrying a boy!"
"No, you weren't!" Snake Girl cried out, vehemently shaking her head. "It was always in the back of your mind, wasn't it?!"
Miss Gaunt became silent, clearly aware that she was in the wrong. Snake Girl fell to the floor, pushing her half-sister away when she tried to help her up, a million thoughts racing through her mind. Mr Gaunt had betrayed her and now she was carrying a deformed baby girl because of him. She had never wanted a girl. A girl would only become the Gaunt men's new concubine or slave, destined to live a life like hers or Miss Gaunt's or their respective mothers'. And that was a normal girl. What would Master Morfin and Mr Gaunt do to a deformed girl?
The two men were locked away for now but they would return soon enough to torment her daughter for the rest of her life. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't have this child...
.:. QK .:.
"Are you alright, dear Sister?" Miss Gaunt called through the outhouse door. "We have a guest!"
"I'm fine!" she responded loudly as she washed her hands. She wondered who had called upon them. They never had guests. The last people they had received had been the Ministry officials who'd taken their men away.
She left the outhouse and made the short walk back into the main house, if it could even be called such, and was surprised to see the last person she'd ever expected standing in the sitting room. Tom Riddle reacted to her as if he'd just seen a ghost. She could see Miss Gaunt looking between the two of them and so she forced herself to behave naturally.
"Mr Riddle, this is my sister in law." Snake Girl could've sworn she heard a pin drop. Miss Gaunt had no idea what she'd just said. Why hadn't the stupid girl just said 'sister'? Snake Girl averted her gaze, unable to bear the way Tom was staring at her as if he'd been betrayed.
"What- What are you doing here, T- Mr Riddle?" she asked as nonchalantly as possible, trying not to look at and end up staring at his classically handsome face.
"Your sister- sorry, sister in law- invited me in for a drink. It's terribly hot outside," he answered dryly, sitting down on the old settee. He wrinkled his nose, presumably at the state of the furniture, before looking up at Miss Gaunt. "Could I get that drink then?"
"Oh, of course," Miss Gaunt replied meekly, scurrying into the kitchen as if her life depended on it. Her response to the man's rude and self-important tone was disappointing but, then again, she had been abused by two older males her entire life.
Snake Girl stood in the middle of the sitting room in silence, wondering what was taking Miss Gaunt so long. Being in the same room as Tom was awkward, especially after what had happened between them a few weeks ago. Their incredibly short history coupled with Miss Gaunt's revelation made Snake Girl feel like disappearing in embarrassment. Despite everything, her eyes drifted, as if with a mind of their own, to meet his, reminding her of their liaisons next to the outhouse and by his parents' stables and the result of said liaisons she'd erased from her womb not too long ago. Tom's dark eyes still stirred something deep within her even as they held such distaste for her. She felt as insane as the rest of the Gaunts.
Miss Gaunt returned with the drink, obliviously breaking up the staring contest between the two former lovers. She turned to Snake Girl. "Could you please close the cupboard for me?"
Snake Girl raised an eyebrow at the request but complied, grateful for the excuse to leave the room. She entered the kitchen to see all of the cupboards already closed and frowned, checking again to see if she was merely mistaken. She was not.
She returned to the sitting room to see Miss Gaunt and Tom attached at the lips.
.:. QK .:.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Miss Gaunt enquired as she packed her meagre belongings in an expensive bag Tom had given her. "Tom will look after you if I tell him to. You're his sister in law now."
Snake Girl glared at her half-sister. The bitch was more of a Miss Taunt than a Miss Gaunt. Snake Girl wasn't stupid and she knew that Merope - someone who was no longer afforded the polite title of Miss - wasn't either. After her tense reunion with Tom, Merope had to know that there was something between them and yet she'd still slipped the Muggle some love potion. It'd taken Snake Girl a while to figure it out but she'd soon realised Merope had been brewing love potion the other day and had been looking for an opportunity to give it to Tom ever since. Yesterday had been Merope's lucky day.
"You know that Tom would never love you without the potion, don't you?" she questioned, no longer bothering to hide her displeasure at her half-sister. "He's too shallow to even look twice at someone who looks like you."
Merope snapped her towards her so fast that she literally heard the whiplash. She had a dark look in her eyes. "Someone who's not beautiful like you, you mean?"
"Yes," Snake Girl answered harshly. "You're not beautiful like me. Everyone knows that. Our father knows it. Our brother knows it. I know it. You know it. Tom knew it."
She knew she'd gone too far but she didn't care anymore. It was better to throw everything out into the open rather than to keep it stewing inside oneself.
Merope smirked, resembling Master Morfin during one of his mad stints. "It didn't help you, did it? He fucked you, put his child in you and then he left you... like a common whore."
Whore. The blood rushed to Snake Girl's face. Maybe it was because Merope seemed to have always known about the outhouse trysts or maybe it was because she was right about Tom but something inside her just snapped. It didn't matter that she had used Tom and never wanted him in the first place because, in the end, she was just as mad about him as Merope was.
She ran into the kitchen, smashing all of the vials and other containers one by one. She knew that some of them were harmless food spices but she didn't discriminate, destroying all of the ingredients within her reach. She heard Merope yelling at her to stop and it only spurred her on. Grabbing a nearby bucket, she filled it up with water and washed the contents of the vials away for good. Even Merope's magic wouldn't be able to recover her precious work now.
"What will you do now, you desperate whore?!" she taunted, throwing the bucket to the side and holding her arms out in triumph. "He'll be disgusted when he remembers marrying you."
Merope pulled her wand out of a pocket in her dress and held it up. Snake Girl let her arms drop, the euphoria she'd felt at her victory dying down. "There's always the Imperius Curse."
"You wouldn't!" Snake Girl scoffed, trying to convince herself more than her half-sister. "It's an Unforgivable Curse. And you really have to mean it."
"You think I can't?" Merope implored, her eyes gleaming with something terrifying.
Snake Girl didn't answer. Merope was, after all, the daughter of Marvolo Gaunt and sister of Morfin Gaunt. There was nothing they couldn't and wouldn't do. That was exactly why they were in Azkaban in the first place. Merope was just as bad as them, if not worse, and she'd have no problem converting Tom's money into wizarding money in order to buy ingredients for the love potion.
Snake Girl couldn't fight with that. She wasn't a witch like Merope. She wasn't even a legal person by wizarding law. If she went to the Ministry to report Merope, the officials would turn around and take her into custody because of what she was.
"Tom will be happy with me," Merope crooned, tipping her head to the side. "I'll actually live my whole life out as a human."
Snake Girl closed her eyes in defeat. Merope had dealt her that last, terrible blow. Even if she wanted Tom for more than just a physical relationship, she'd permanently become a snake somewhere down the line and would have to leave him. Her mother had turned in her twenties. Her grandmother too. It was better to just let him go now.
What could she do to stop Merope anyway?
.:. QK .:.
A few days after Merope had left Little Hangleton with her new husband, Snake Girl found herself counting the last of the Gaunt family's money. Merope had taken the Slytherin locket but had left the actual money to her though there was almost nothing left. By Snake Girl's calculations, it wouldn't last her another week. She wondered if she should've taken Merope's offer to go to London with her if only to have a stable roof over her head as she learnt how to become independent.
She glanced at the letter on the bedside, recalling how Merope had sent it to her only a day after leaving for London, begging her forgiveness for how she had spoken to her the other day. She had said she didn't mean it but Snake Girl knew better. Merope had always been jealous of her just as she herself had envied Merope but for very different reasons. She was just glad that they now knew where they stood with one another.
Grabbing the letter, she read it one more time before ripping it up. It was far too soon for her to live under the same roof as Merope and watch her behave like T- the Muggle's wife. Knowing Merope, she would purposely engage in marital relations within Snake Girl's earshot just to show off her victory. Merope was simply no longer the girl she'd grown up with and she wasn't ready to face said woman and the Muggle just yet.
There were barely any options remaining. Before, back when she'd thought she was carrying the Gaunt heir, she was quite content in waiting in the tiny shack until Mr Gaunt's release and return from Azkaban. It was quite a different story now that she knew he had tricked her into drinking a potion that had brought her grief instead of the son she was promised. She wouldn't stay here even if she could. With Master Morfin in prison for another two and a half years, Mr Gaunt would take up the task of siring the next Gaunt heir on her. Even if he left her untouched for his son, she no longer had it in her to lie on her back and think of the Muggle, especially after said Muggle had pleasured her in ways Master Morfin could never even dream of.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. She stilled, wondering who it could be, somewhat worried that either Mr Gaunt or Master Morfin had been released early.
"Letter!" the person outside called before she heard something being slid under the door. She blinked. Muggles had their letters delivered in this manner - the Muggle boy had told her once.
Leaving her meagre amount of savings on her bed, she walked to the front door and picked the letter up. There was no one to be seen outside the window. She vaguely remembered seeing the Muggle ride home every day for years. It seemed like such a long time ago but in reality, it'd only been about two months. Shaking her head, she ripped the letter open and immediately searched for the sender's name at the bottom of the page.
Mr and Mrs Riddle.
.:. QK .:.
The Muggle couple looked exactly like what she'd expected them to look like: a snobbish and finely dressed middle-aged couple who appeared to have a constant bad smell under their noses.
Five minutes into her visit, they were still muttering to each other about her 'slit' eyes and 'yellow' skin as if she wasn't sitting right in front of them. She was astonished by their fixation on her ethnicity; Mr Gaunt and Master Morfin had never once used her ethnic origin to taunt her or badmouth her mother. It was unheard of in the wizarding world. She wondered if all Muggles were like this. Had the Muggle boy secretly thought of her like this as well as he took her every night for three weeks straight? Surely not. He'd never been shy about voicing his opinions.
"Well," the Muggle woman began, awkwardly clearing her throat. "You must know why we've called you here."
"About your son eloping with my... kinswoman," Snake Girl replied airily, disliking how the old couple were turning their noses up at her. She was from the noble family of Gaunt, and one of the last descendants of Cadmus Peverell and Salazar Slytherin. They had no right. "I don't see what you think I can do."
"We were hoping you and your family could persuade the girl and Tom to return," the Muggle man said, clasping his hands. "We'll give her whatever she wants for a divorce."
"She'll never divorce him," Snake Girl informed flatly, watching as they frowned. "She's wanted him for years. She even fought me in order to be with him."
"Do you know where our Tom is?" the Muggle woman implored, a hopeful expression on her face. "Maybe the girl told you?"
Snake Girl thought back to the location specified in Merope's letter to her. London. She glanced around the massive drawing room which was bursting to the seams with expensive and ornate furniture and decor. These Muggles were perhaps much richer than she'd initially thought. Merope's husband was their only son. What wouldn't they be willing to give in exchange for information about him? She felt a pang of guilt for even thinking of exploiting his parents but she had to stoop to Merope's tactics if she wanted to live past the next week. If Merope could use the Muggle boy, she could use his parents.
"She wrote me a letter," she started as both Muggles leaned forward in anticipation. "But I disposed of it. The slut ruined our family honour, you see. Her father and brother are preparing to hunt them both down and kill them. They've both been to prison before; they won't mind doing another few years for the murders."
"No!" the Muggle woman cried out, clutching her equally terrified husband. "He's the only son we've got! Tell us where he is!"
Snake Girl felt a sick sort of satisfaction seeing the filthy old Muggles suffer this way. She had to refrain from smiling. "I can't quite remember," she lied, attempting to appear confused. "I think it was... hmm..." The Muggle man sighed and dropped a bag of coins on the table in front of her. The corners of her lips twitched as she swiped the bag of coins from the table. It was light. Far too light for her liking. "You think you can buy my answer with this?"
The Muggles exchanged a look. She smirked. The woman looked at her, seemingly just about ready to hand an emtire fortune over to her. "Name your price."
"Enough money to start a new life somewhere far far away from here."
She didn't even know what she was saying - the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them - but as she pondered on her request, she found that it couldn't make anymore sense than it already did. What did she have left here? She was a mother no longer, Merope was gone and had taken the Muggle with her, and she didn't want to continue giving her body, a body she would soon have no control over, to the Gaunt men.
"No," the Muggle man instantly declined, pointing at the bag she was holding. "Take it or leave it."
"Thomas!" his wife gasped, a hand flying up to cover her mouth. Snake Girl rolled her eyes at the display of false politeness. What was the point of acting genteel when you were so rude?
"No," the man repeated sternly, ignoring his wife's continued gasps of protest. "We are not a charity. We're already going to have to give the other girl God knows what to get her to leave Tom. We can't go around doling out money to random immigrants too."
Immigrant. What did that mean? Judging from the superior look on his face, it was supposed to be an insult.
"Would you rather wait until my kinsmen locate your son?" she questioned, squeezing the bag in her hands. "You'll be lucky if they send you his head."
The Muggle woman shrieked, turning to her husband. "We can't lose him too!"
Too? The Muggle boy had never mentioned a sibling. Then again, they'd spent more time fucking than talking during their short acquaintance.
"Alright, alright," the Muggle man relented, glaring at Snake Girl. "I'll have the money delivered to you by tomorrow. Now tell us where our son is."
Snake Girl scoffed. While the Muggles had no reason to not give her the money, she wasn't going to take any chances. She stood up, smiling when they looked up at her in shock.
"I'll tell your man the location after he delivers me the money."
"You brazen faced bitch!" the Muggle man called after her as she sauntered out of the drawing room and into the hallway. She didn't care. She wasn't the one desperately cleaning out her pockets to save her family name. If anything, he was her bitch.
As she walked down the hallway, she passed the staircase and spotted a golden framed photo of the Muggle couple and a baby. The baby had dark eyes like To- Merope's husband but his hair was much darker, about as dark as her own. She cradled her abdomen, wondering if her daughter would've looked like that had she been healthy.
"That's my eldest." Snake Girl turned to see the Muggle woman approaching her, her gaze fixed upon the photo. She discreetly let her hand drop, not wanting any funny questions. Little did the Muggle know that she was standing next to the woman who had once carried and terminated her grandchild. "He and my sister both died at sea together a few years before Tom was born."
"I see," Snake Girl simply said, momentarily feeling sorry for the woman. She was still a filthy old Muggle but she imagined that even their kind loved their children as much as witches did. "Just make sure I receive my money and I'll make sure you get your son back."
.:. QK .:.
Exactly a week later, Snake Girl had used up Mr Gaunt's money and was finally ready to leave her tiny shack in the middle of Little Hangleton. She woke up early in the morning and packed the nice new dresses she had brought using the last of her father's money into a modest sized bag, intending to catch a boat that would take her across the channel. She had little more than these dresses and hoped that travelling light would allow her to locate a new lodge fairly quickly.
Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she took a look at her bedroom one last time. She felt a strange sort of sadness as she thought about never seeing this room, never seeing this shack ever again. She was confused when she realised how wet her cheeks were, how her eyes were full to the brim with fresh tears. Why should she miss this place, especially this room, when all she could remember was Master Morfin pushing her down and taking what he deemed rightfully his?
No, that wasn't true. As she walked out into the sitting room, she remembered the other times too. She recalled Mr Gaunt buying her a new romance novel, herself and Merope peacefully dining together, even Master Morfin sitting in a chair, whispering to his latest pet snake. Why? All of these people had hurt her, had betrayed her, had used her... but in the end, they were still her family. She wanted to slap herself for her weak heart.
She'd decided not to leave a letter for Mr Gaunt like Merope had done. She was in her twenties now and it was best to let Mr Gaunt draw his own conclusions - that one daughter had squandered his money with her Muggle husband and that the other had already undergone her final transformation. Mr Gaunt thought she was getting old anyway. He would have no trouble accepting the plausible explanation.
Snake Girl glanced at the clock one last time. She still had a few minutes left to visit her mother's grave and seek her blessings from beyond. After she'd made the absolute decision to leave the shack, she'd taken her mother's snake corpse down from its place on the door - Master Morfin had killed her and nailed her there - and buried her in the back garden. Unfortunately, when she reached the unmarked grave, she spotted the outhouse a few metres to her right.
It wasn't as if she hadn't used the outhouse every day since she stopped seeing the Muggle but the realisation that this was the last time she was going to see it really struck a chord in her. She shamefully reminisced about the man who was now her brother in law holding her in his arms, thrusting deep inside her, and even, on occasion, daring to kiss her. She remembered everything, even the time he'd whispered that he liked her ('really really liked [her]') after which she'd pretended not to hear him, and that night he'd walked away from her and their affair.
She berated herself. It was all in the past - him, her, and their daughter. If she ever saw him again, she'd behave like his sister in law; nothing less, nothing more.
Turning back to her mother's burial spot, she whispered a prayer, both praying for a good future for herself as a human and as a viper and for her mother's wellbeing in the afterlife. She barely knew the woman - Master Morfin had killed her mother when Snake Girl was eight - and she had always resented her for bringing her into the world to be her half brother's wife/concubine but she now knew that they were both victims of (the same) circumstance(s).
Walking back through the house and out of the front door, Snake Girl closed the small wooden gate behind her and ventured outside of the Gaunt family plot for the final time. Her future lay elsewhere.
A/N: So I wrote this because I really wanted to write a fanfic where Nagini is Merope Gaunt and Credence is Tom Riddle Sr. but without contradicting Fantastic Beasts and HP canon. That is, of course, impossible. When I realised I couldn't do that, I came up with this instead.
I tried my best to be realistic. As we know, Tom Riddle wasn't the dashing Prince Charming Merope had hoped he was. I imagine that his son got some unpleasant qualities from him. I hope these came through.
As for Merope, I wanted to sort of show where she comes from and how the abuse she's experienced has shaped her. At the same time, I didn't want to make her some completely innocent, misunderstood character either. She is, after all, a rapist. However, due to the lack of morals she was brought up with, I don't think her treatment of Tom is surprising. She probably doesn't realise that it's wrong.
The Nagini/Morfin angle was supposed to be implied as a possible future happening but it ended becoming a very much present aspect of Nagini's life. Morfin's impotence is the result of the generations of inbreeding in his family. Somebody has to pay the price. Since Merope has no problem reproducing, I felt that Morfin had to take the fall.
Last but not least, I didn't want to make Nagini a goody two shoes. I feel like the majority of fanfic authors write Nagini as someone with an extremely strong moral compass because she didn't join Grindelwald. I disagree. She had her own reasons. In this story, there was no way she was going to be this saint like damsel in distress. She's a victim of abuse and a member of the Gaunt family, and that has to mess with her psyche in some way. She's not as insane as Morfin, as cruel as Marvolo, or as ethicless (is this a word?) as Merope but she isn't above using low tactics to get what she wants.
I know some people will be uncomfortable with the idea of Nagini being upset at leaving her abuser's home but I believe that these situations are never black and white. She still shares her family's ideals (blood status, heritage) but she doesn't appreciate the way they've treated her and rightly so. It's sort of like how Merope gave her son her father's name for his middle name even though her father (and brother) put her through so much abuse.