Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!

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While the other students made their way towards the Great Hall for dinner, during that brief time before formality dictated her attendance of the meal, Harriet walked into the courtyard and sat down on a stone bench close to the inner wall where she could remain out of sight by passersby.

Harriet looked around anxiously as she waited.

And waited……

And waited……

She had been sitting on the bench for about five minutes, although that five minutes had felt like an eternity, when her friend finally appeared and walked towards her.

Harriet believed that it was Tom Riddle who met her in the courtyard.

However, underneath the disguise of Polyjuice Potion, Draco's longing heart leapt for joy at the happy look on his beloved's face at his approach.

"Harriet." Draco nodded as he walked up, careful to give her his best impression of Tom Riddle's suave voice.

How grand it felt to call her by her first name and see her smile!

"Tom!" Harriet chirped, "I expect we don't have long until they come and usher us to dinner. Shall we get started?"

"Of course." Draco nodded as he sat down next to her on the bench.

As Harriet unconsciously scooted closer towards him, Tom, er, Draco smirked.

Harriet pulled out her Transfiguration homework.

Draco moved obscenely close to her as he leaned down towards the parchment while he pretended to squint at the assignment.

"I think number five is very difficult." Harriet said with a sigh, "Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? Even Hermione wasn't entirely sure that she answered it correctly."

Draco narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow as if he were concentrating very hard on the question.

Truthfully, he hadn't completed the assignment yet either.

What difference did it make?

Draco had taken on Tom's form for much more important reasons than helping Harriet with her homework.

As much as it pained him, he knew that he had to put his plan into action.

He had to use Tom Riddle's appearance to disappoint Harriet and frame his rival as a scoundrel in her eyes.

However, Draco tragically hesitated, weakened by the sweet scent of Harriet's shampoo that drifted off of her hair as a gentle breeze rustled past.

"...Tom?" Harriet blinked while she waited on an answer.

Draco turned to look at her.

In the fading light of day, with her hair blowing around the sides of her face and her wide, green eyes fixed on him so revertantly, Draco couldn't help the softness that crept into his eyes.

Harriet's breath hitched as he glanced down at her lips, then back up to her face in a silent inquiry.

"Tom……?" Harriet whispered as Draco leaned in towards her.

He knew what needed to be done.

He knew that it wouldn't be right to steal a kiss from Harriet's lips while he wore the guise of another, but there she was, in front of him, with an open heart, a bright smile, and he…….

Draco closed his eyes.

Harriet's heart fluttered in her chest while she did the same.

Her hands trembled as she waited to receive her very first kiss.

Without warning, the young lovers' peace became brutally disrupted.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Harriet shrieked in surprise as Draco was thrown off of the bench and across the courtyard by a bright burst of light.

She leapt to her feet and scowled as she saw her two best friends emerge from behind one of the stone columns.

Ron had his wand held out.

His face looked unnaturally pale as Hermione clutched his hand for support with a deep frown.

"Harriet!" She shouted urgently, "Are you alright?!"

"What are you two doing here?!" Harriet hissed at her meddling friends.

"Protecting you, of course!" Ron scoffed, "From-"

"-Harriet?" A smooth voice called out.

Everyone turned and looked with wide eyes as Tom Riddle, the real Tom Riddle, came striding into the courtyard after he had managed to somehow recover from Draco's attack.

Harriet sucked in a breath as she looked between the two Toms.

Tom's eyes narrowed but Draco scrambled to his feet and dashed out of the courtyard, determined to find shelter until the Polyjuice Potion wore off.

"T-Tom?" Harriet asked incredulously as she looked back over at her handsome friend while Ron and Hermione squinted in confusion.

"It's truly me, Harriet." Tom nodded, "That was an imposter, I'm afraid. I was attacked in my dormitory less than an hour ago. The rapscallion wasted no time in keeping my appointment with you, I see."

Harriet clutched her arms over her chest as she contemplated how she should feel about the situation.

"...W-Who was that, then?" Harriet asked Tom.

"I know full well who that was.." Tom replied cryptically, "I need to speak with Professor Dumbledore straight away."

"Did they use Polyjuice Potion?" Hermione asked before she stopped herself.

"That's what I'm thinking, Granger." Tom nodded as he glanced over at Harriet's intelligent friend.

"B-But…..W-Why would….Why would someone want to……..?" Harriet stammered as she asked Tom with a frown.

"Isn't that obvious, Harriet?" Tom replied with a bitter laugh, "Clearly, that person wanted you."

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Draco ran until he reached the outer edge of the Black Lake, but his efforts to escape were made in vain.

Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall arrived quickly to apprehend him and bring him straight to Dumbledore's office, where Tom waited with a threatening scowl.

As Severus and Minerva escorted their prisoner into the headmaster's chamber, Harriet's father wore a grim look of total loathing on his face as he glared at Draco.

Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall stood a respectful distance away from Dumbledore's desk while Draco stepped forward and stood beside Tom Riddle as the Headmaster frowned at him in disapproval.

Draco glanced around the room and felt grateful for one small mercy…...Harriet was not present.

Although her father stood behind him, Draco clung to the futile hope that somehow, Harriet may not learn that he was the culprit behind the confusion in the courtyard.

"Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore began in a very serious tone, "Tom Riddle had told us that you attacked him in the Slytherin dormitory this afternoon with a paralysis spell, used Polyjuice Potion to assume his likeness, and then proceeded to use his form so that you could steal a private moment with Harriet Snape."

Draco heard the buttons of Severus's tight sleeves creak behind him as the enraged alpha's hands balled into angry fists at Dumbledore's words.

"I neglected to mention your name to anyone, however, those present in the courtyard this afternoon did verify that they encountered two Tom Riddles simultaneously." Dumbledore added.

Draco's pale face twisted into a pitiful frown.

"Do you have anything to say in your defense, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked, "Before you speak, I must warn you, lies are seldom rewarded, but truth can be a great liberation."

Draco drew in a deep breath.

He stared into Dumbledore's deep eyes, then over at Tom, who threw him a scathing glare.

Draco turned and shivered at the look of ominous disgust that he found on Harriet's father's face.

It was the frown that McGonagall threw at him though that made his last bit of resistance crumble.

They had him, Draco knew it.

What other choice did he have?

Perhaps if he confessed, he may lessen his own punishment.

"Yes, sir, Professor Dumbledore, you've been told the truth." Draco nodded with a reluctant frown.

He could feel Tom and Severus's eyes boring into him as he lifted his head and admitted to Dumbledore, "I did cast the paralysis spell on Tom Riddle…..and I did impersonate him in the courtyard this afternoon…...by using Polyjuice Potion."

"...May I ask why, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore blinked.

Draco shifted on his feet.

"...I'd rather not say, sir. Although, I do regret my actions…..If there was a way for me to undo them, I would." He finished with a lie.

Draco would do anything to win Harriet's heart and spend time in her company, for that, he wasn't remorseful in the slightest.

He only regretted that he had gotten caught.

However, as he stood in the presence of her seething father and his own rival, he had no interest in revealing his romantic feelings for her.

"...Very well, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore nodded, "I hope you realize how many school rules you've broken today…….under normal circumstances, this would be grounds for expulsion, but as generous as your father has been with Hogwarts through his charitable donations and service, I'll allow you one more chance. A letter will be sent home to your parents…...You'll also be spending the next two weeks in detention with Professor Snape."

Draco's pale face lost what little color it held as he whirled around and met Severus's severe scowl with his grey eyes wide in mortal terror.

"But-!" Draco cried as he turned back to the headmaster.

"One more blot of misbehavior, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore nodded warily at Draco, "...And I'm afraid that I'll have no other option but to cast you out of Hogwarts…..permanently."

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Draco's heart thudded in his chest as he sat cowered in a hidden corner of the Slytherin hallway that night.

His hands trembled as he held the torn out diary page in his fingers and nervously waited to see if Harriet's handwriting would appear.

Draco felt trapped in the depressing dread of Harriet finding out that it had been him who had impersonated Tom.

What if she knew?

What if her father told her?

…….Or Dumbledore?

……..Or Tom Riddle?

Draco clutched the paper in his hands as he sucked in a breath.

Two weeks of detention with Professor Snape…..what was that going to be like?

The Potions Master would probably dunk him into a cauldron and boil him in hot-

Hello.

Draco's eyes widened as Harriet's words of black ink appeared suddenly on the page.

He pulled a quill from his pocket and hurriedly wrote back:

Hello.

Draco frowned when Harriet wrote:

A boy tried to kiss me today, but not the boy who's kind to me. I don't know who it was and it upsets me very much.

The quill jostled in Draco's trembling hand as he wrote back:

Maybe the other boy is just shy.

Harriet's reply came quickly:

That's what I don't understand. Why would the other boy be shy?

Draco smiled mirthlessly as he replied:

If he wanted to kiss you, then that must mean that he fancies you very much.

Harriet's response broke his heart:

That doesn't make any sense. No boy has ever been kind to me except for one. No one's ever fancied me at all, except perhaps the kind boy. Why would anyone besides him want to kiss me?

Draco had just pressed the tip of his quill to the page when he felt someone grab him roughly by the collar of his robes and hoist him up into the air.

He gasped as he found himself staring into Tom Riddle's scowling face.

"I think it's time that you and I had a little chat, Malfoy." Tom hissed.

Tom moved his hand to squeeze Draco by the throat as he went on, "The next spell you throw at me will be the last that you ever cast, do you understand? I am the heir of Salazar Slytherin, I take what I want, I get what I want…..and I can't be bothered by your pathetic attempts at interference. Come near Harriet Snape again and you'll regret it from the bottom of your soul."

Draco sputtered under his enemy's choking grasp.

Tom narrowed his dark eyes at his rival.

He wickedly waited until gurgling noises echoed from Draco's throat as an indication that he could no longer breathe before he finally released him.

Draco clattered to the floor with a heavy thud while his chest heaved as his lungs sucked in the air of which they had been so cruelly deprived.

"You're a fool, Draco Malfoy….." Tom called while he walked away. He threw Draco one last menacing glance as he added, "...If you think that you can steal from me."

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"Sweetheart, you have to calm down." Lily fretted as she sat in her nest and watched Severus pace around their bedroom like an angry bat locked in a cage, "I'm worried about your health."

"It isn't my health that you should worry about!" Severus hissed as he flustered around the room with a scowl on his face. He glanced over at Lily and gave her an incredulous look as he snapped, "A boy tried to kiss our daughter!...With his mouth!"

Lily blinked as Severus walked over toward her and leaned down close as he slowly encunicated his words for extra emphasis, "He intended….to put….his mouth…..on her mouth! He used Polyjuice Potion to deceive her! He-"

"-Was it Lucius's son? What's his name…...Draco?" Lily interrupted as she raised an eyebrow.

Severus ignored his mate's soothing scent as he remained temptingly close to her and replied in a sullen tone, "...Yes…….How did you know that?"

Lily laughed as she lifted a hand and placed it on the side of Severus's face.

She began to gently stroke her alpha's cheek with her tapered fingers in a subtle attempt to soothe him as she looked into his dark eyes and asked, "Sev? Hasn't he been the one who's teased Harriet since her first day at Hogwarts? Did you see the way that he looked at her in Flourish and Blotts?...I did…...Who else would it be?"

When Lily saw that her attempt at relaxing Severus seemed to be working, she pouted and made sure that her green eyes glowed as she stared at her lover.

"Sev………..he's a young boy. He has a crush on her, that's all. He wouldn't harm her for the world, I saw it in his face." Lily cooed as she bent forward and kissed Severus's lips sweetly.

She sighed as her husband let a low purr escape from his throat while he accepted her gesture and lovingly kissed back.

"Tell me, my love…." Severus whispered against Lily's lips.

"Hmm…….?" Lily asked as she nibbled at Severus's mouth teasingly.

"Will you be this calm……...when our daughter presents and Lucius's son makes her with child?" Severus answered in a low growl.

Lily pulled back from Severus and blinked at him for a moment before she burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Sev!" She roared while she smiled at him in amusement, "It was an innocent kiss that a school boy tried to steal from the girl that he fancies! No one's making anyone with child!"

"...Not yet." Severus grimaced.

Lily laughed again, grabbed Severus by his robes, and pulled him into her nest so that she could cuddle him until he calmed.

It took awhile, but after an hour or two of gentle snuggling, reassuring kisses, and breathing in his beloved flower's scent, Severus's harsh scowl had relaxed to a subtle frown while Lily lay on his chest and listened to his pulse.

While she slept that night, Severus laid awake and stared at the ceiling.

Part of him wanted to express his displeasure to Lucius.

The other part of himself wanted to wrap a rope around Draco's thin neck.