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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The days of Harriet's visit with Tom and Merope were punctuated by pleasant conversations and a warm sense of comfort despite the bitter chill of winter.
Merope worked a large portion of the time which left Harriet and Tom alone to snog, chat, and spend the hours in each other's company.
Regardless, Tom never abandoned his quest for revenge against Harriet's misbehavior.
After thoroughly researching the ins and outs of magical law through letters to Draco Malfoy, he felt confident that he had found a viable way to get even with his darling for teasing him.
On the morning of his birthday, Tom quietly cracked Harriet's door open and peered inside her room.
His mother had presented him with a new set of school robes moments earlier before she had left for work.
Merope had already pleased Tom that morning, but Harriet had not.
As Tom stared at her from her doorway, it irritated him that she continued to slumber.
It was his birthday……..she needed to wake up and pay attention to him.
He silently withdrew his wand, pointed it at Harriet, and whispered, "LEGILIMENS."
A few seconds later, her brow furrowed as she writhed in bed while Tom slyly hid behind her door.
He had much to learn yet about Legilimency, but he succeeded in placing visions of shadows in Harriet's mind that roused her from her sleep as she sat bolt upright in bed with wide eyes and cried out, "AAAAHHH!"
Tom burst into Harriet's room with his own eyes widened in feigned surprise as he played the part of a hero while he shouted, "Sweetling, I'm here! I'm here!...What's the matter?"
Harriet gasped as she blindly reached for him in her overwhelming bewilderment.
Tom promptly rushed to her bedside with a sympathetic frown and eagerly let her cling to him for comfort.
Tom Riddle greatly enjoyed it whenever Harriet Potter depended on him for something.
"...What's the matter?" Tom asked as he hid his smirk and rubbed her arm soothingly, "What's wrong?"
"I…...I had a bad dream." Harriet confessed as she shivered against him, "There was something dark and cold…...all around me…..Tom, I-"
"-ssh." He whispered while he kissed her cheek. Tom patted her back as he rocked her gently and purred in his velvet voice, "It's alright……..I'm here, I'm here…..There's no reason to be frightened."
Harriet sighed as she relaxed against him and murmured into his neck, "Happy Birthday, Tom."
"Thank you, sweetling." He answered with a smug grin while Harriet crawled into his lap and held onto him as she draped her arms around his shoulders.
That had been exactly what Tom had wanted, for Harriet to hold onto him and let him feel her warmth while she wished him a happy birthday.
A short while later, he sat with Harriet at the dining table while she ate her breakfast.
The pair chatted casually until an owl appeared on the windowsill, slipped a letter through a wide crack in the glass, and flew away.
Tom and Harriet blinked as the letter opened itself, formed into the shape of a face, and spoke its own lines:
To the Household of Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle,
Magic was detected at this address thirty minutes ago. While this may not have been the work of an underage witch or wizard, please take note that the Ministry will scrutinize the next offense. Should a residing adult witch or wizard wish to use magic, please notify the Ministry beforehand as long as underage children remain in the household. At this time, we have received no such communications.
Kind Regards,
Mafalda Hopkirk, Office of Improper Use of Magic
"Did you do magic this morning?" Harriet blinked at Tom.
"A single spell, that's all." Tom shrugged.
"Tom!" Harriet gasped, "You could get expelled for that! Under-"
"-Underage magic is illegal…. if….they can prove it was performed." Tom said with an arrogant nod, "There were no muggles here this morning…..My mother has lost her powers but the Ministry doesn't know that…..Don't worry, sweetling, I've done my research."
Harriet stared at Tom as a mischievous smirk crossed her lips while she shook her head.
"...I doubt they'll send a warning next time." Harriet laughed.
"For my birthday, I wanted to practice something new." Tom shrugged.
His dark eyes smouldered as he stared at Harriet and contemplated more pleasant ways to wake her in the future.
With his revenge complete, he had no intention of giving Harriet Potter any more nightmares.
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Harriet foolishly thought it may have had something to do with her bad dream, but she felt unwell for the rest of the day.
She said nothing to Tom about it as they bundled up in their coats and went out into the city.
Tom chatted with her while they walked through the dodgy area around the apartment building and through the nearby park to eventually arrive at London's zoo.
Harriet kept nodding at him with a forced smile on her face while her stomach churned with nausea.
Her face tingled with the strange sensation of magnified dizziness.
She couldn't identify the unfamiliar sensation, but in her lower abdomen, deep, hard cramps rolled through her core that alarmingly increased in intensity as Tom's birthday continued.
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The young couple bought their tickets to the zoo and walked into the attraction while Harriet succeeded in hiding her plight from Tom.
Their tour brought them to the zoo's reptile collection when he noticed Harriet bite her lip as her emerald eyes glazed over.
"Sweetling?" He whispered as he looked over while she stared at the iguanas, "...Are you ill?"
"No, I….I'm fine." Harriet nodded, "My….stomach…...hurts, that's all."
"Do we need to find a lavatory?" Tom asked in concern.
"No." Harriet said as she looked at him and furrowed her brow in mortification, "It's...It's not that kind of hurt."
Tom frowned while Harriet looked away and staggered towards the next exhibit.
She said nothing else about her pain as they gazed at the last few cages that held various species of snakes and lizards.
By then, the sun had started to set outside as most of the zoo's visitors made their way towards the exit.
Harriet felt glad their day was nearly done.
She desperately wanted to return to the flat, curl up on her bed, and try to sleep through the pain, but Tom grabbed her arm suddenly.
Harriet looked at him with a scowl as he pointed and nodded, "Let's have a look in there before we go."
She narrowed her eyes at the sign that hung on a door across the hallway:
Anaconda Room
"...I suppose." She huffed as Tom took her by the hand and quickly led her towards the narrow entrance that led to the last exhibit they would view.
Harriet wasn't very intrigued, but Tom's dark eyes were wide with interested curiosity.
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The zoo's anaconda room was large, unsettling, and intimidating.
Its walls were dark.
Its enclosures were lined with thick foliage and filled with deep, black water.
Muggle devices had been placed in the room's ceiling to imitate the sounds of the jungle.
Harriet frowned as she squeezed Tom's hand after they stepped into the room.
"It's alright." He chuckled as he glanced at Harriet.
"I never said it wasn't." Harriet huffed.
Together, Tom and Harriet walked over to the thick glass of the room's main enclosure.
They stared at the mound of scales that they could see above the water…...no head, no tail, only a huge girth of bulky snakeskin.
"Look at that!" Tom nodded at the glass, careful not to point.
"Right, that's a…...huge snake." Harriet said through grit teeth as she placed a hand on her lower back and leaned over to move with her latest cramp.
Tom stood with his mouth slightly open, completely fascinated by the animal.
As he stared at the snake's body, he heard the distinct whispering make its way through the glass, "...Have you come to free me, son of Salazar Slytherin?"
Tom and Harriet's eyes widened as movement rustled inside the enclosure until the massive anaconda within raised its head up from the dark water's depths to stare directly at Tom through the glass.
He responded in Parseltongue before he thought, which only increased Harriet's surprise as she watched him hiss back, "Son of Salazar Slytherin? You must have confused me with someone else."
The anaconda stared at Tom with its cold eyes as its long, forked tongue flickered for a moment while Harriet gasped, "Tom!...You can talk to snakes?!"
"Oh……." Tom blinked as he looked over and flashed Harriet a smug smirk, "Yes, I can, sweetling….Forgive me, I never saw a particular need to mention it. You'd be surprised to learn about them, they are truly delightful creatures."
The anaconda went on as it hissed, "A son of a son is still a son. My kind senses blood and your blood comes from Salazar Slytherin……….Will you show loyalty to your ancestor and free me from my prison, son of Slytherin?"
"What's it saying?" Harriet asked with her brow furrowed.
"It's asking me to let it out." Tom replied with a concentrated scowl.
Harriet's eyes widened in horror as Tom answered the snake, "My name is Tom Riddle, serpent. Why do you want to be free? Do you not live a good life here?"
"I led a better life elsewhere." The anaconda answered, "I was taken from my homeland against my will….Free me so that I may find my way home and I will honor your heritage, Tom Riddle."
Tom couldn't hide the smirk that passed over his face at the snake's offer.
As he stared at the anaconda, he felt baffled by what she had mentioned about his lineage, but he saw power…..raw, enviable power.
Power that made him giddy with dreams of what he could do if he harnessed it wisely.
Harriet hunched over and placed a hand on her belly when the next cramp pummeled her insides.
The anaconda glanced at her before it hissed at Tom, "Make your choice quickly…heir of Salazar Slytherin…your mate is in distress."
Tom glanced over at Harriet and caught her as she swooned while he cried, "Sweetling!"
As Harriet gasped, Tom supported her and looked up at the snake to demand, "How do you know her as my mate?"
The anaconda didn't respond as it looked at Tom and flicked its forked tongue once more.
"...Even if I wanted to, serpent..." Tom hissed to the anaconda as he held Harriet, "I have no way to free you."
The anaconda nodded at the spot of its enclosure's glass above the dark water and replied, "Some of my prey has told me the weakest point is there. If that's true, then a single break would be all I need. Surely a son of Salazar Slytherin could manage that?"
Harriet's suspicions grew as she watched Tom and the snake both stare in the same direction.
"Tom……." She cautioned.
Her heart clenched as she watched her beloved take his wand into his free hand and hold it as a weapon while he swung his arm back.
"TOM!" Harriet cried.
Her shout came too late.
The anaconda's prey had been correct.
By using the sharp tip of his wand as a battering ram against the glass's weakest point, Tom struck the glass over and over until shards started to splinter towards the ground.
Harriet gathered her courage not to shriek as the anaconda used the force of its body to push through the shattered glass and slither out into the floor of the dark, eerie room while black water gushed around its weighty form.
"I need a place to hide, Tom Riddle." The snake hissed as it continued to pull its long body out of the broken enclosure.
"You can come to my home for the night." Tom answered before he asked, "What is your name, serpent?"
"My own mate used to call me 'Asherah'." The anaconda revealed as she raised herself up to stare directly into Harriet's green eyes.
Harriet had grown frighteningly pale in a matter of minutes, but not because of the snake.
Asherah flicked her tongue at Harriet as she whispered to Tom, "I smell blood……."
The pain, dizziness, and nausea all became too much for Harriet as she stared into the anaconda's frigid, unfeeling gaze.
When Tom saw Harriet's eyes roll back in her head, he instinctively swept her into his arms.
"I need to take her home!" He hissed to Asherah.
Talking to serpents was something that Tom had grown used to and he looked at the anaconda as if she were a new, friendly acquaintance, "...But the fastest way back is the most dangerous."
Asherah's tongue flickered again as she replied, "As long as I may hide there, I will escort you both, Tom Riddle. My kind will not allow harm to come to the heir of Salazar Slytherin."
With nearly all of the zoo visitors gone, Tom made his escape with Harriet in his arms and Asherah by his side.
Under the cover of night, the three of them walked unbothered through the crime-ridden backstreets of the city that bordered the apartment building where Tom and Merope lived.
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It thrilled Tom to have the anaconda in his temporary keep.
The formidable predator was what he had surmised, power.
No one approached him on the street, no one heckled him, no one shouted at him…...not with Asherah slithering next to him.
As soon as they made it back to the flat, Tom pointed her in the direction of his room.
Obediently, Asherah immediately slithered down the hallway, through Tom's open door, and wound her voluminous body in colossal coils under his bed.
It wasn't quite the jungle, but at least in Tom's flat, she could hide from curious eyes and hateful jeers.
While Asherah slid her scales against the faded carpeting, Harriet started to rouse in Tom's arms.
"T-Tom?" She asked as she opened her eyes.
"It's me, sweetling." Tom replied as he kissed her forehead, "Tell me, do you still ache?"
"...A bit." Harriet whimpered as she grimaced at the pain.
Tom touched her gently and felt that the bottom of her pants had dampened.
When he pulled his hand away and looked, he scowled at the blood that covered his palm.
As Tom hastily carried Harriet into the bathroom, he prided himself on having previously read about witches' health.
He lifted the toilet lid, sat her down on the seat still clothed, and left for a brief moment.
He flurried around the flat as he gathered a few things; a change of clothes from Harriet's suitcase, a couple of his mother's sanitary napkins, her heating pad, a muggle pain pill, and a clean towel.
Asherah's tongue flickered as she watched him from her hiding place under his bed.
When he returned to the bathroom, he knocked on the door, and asked, "May I come in?"
"...Yes." Harriet's pained answer came.
There weren't many fifteen-year-old boys who would have been so supportive at such a delicate moment.
Harriet was more lucky than she realized as Tom brought her everything she needed, explained to her what to do, and left the bathroom to allow her the dignity of cleaning herself.
He waited loyally outside of the door until he heard Harriet call for him.
Already spoiled by her young lover, she didn't have to bother walking to bed as Tom lifted her into his arms again and carried her there.
Although, a blush covered Harriet's cheeks when he brought her to his bed, not hers.
"Tom….." Harriet began with a surprised gasp, "We can't…."
"I have no vulgar ideas for the night, sweetling." Tom promised while he tucked Harriet into the covers, plugged Merope's heating pad into the muggle power outlet on the wall, and slipped the pad underneath Harriet's back, "I only want to ease your suffering."
Harriet tried to relax while Tom laid down beside her, but that was a difficult task as she thought about his new friend.
Her pain had started to lessen but her brow still wrinkled in discomfort as Tom propped himself up on one arm and boldly let his fingertips drift over her bloated, lower belly.
"Sorry I didn't give you a gift for your birthday." Harriet whispered as she closed her eyes tightly.
"Sweetling……." Tom said with a happy smirk, "...You gave me a wonderful gift."
Harriet opened her eyes with a confused frown as Tom explained, "...Your bleeding promises me children one day."
Harriet's cheeks tinted pink again as Tom leaned down and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips.
There was something intimate about lying there in his bed, with her empty womb roaring at her while his hands drifted over her skin that evening.
Few alpha females experienced menstrual cycles.
Harriet's unfortunate anguish meant that she was one step closer to presenting and from Tom's point of view, one step closer to-
Their kiss ended abruptly as the front door to the flat swung open with a loud thud.
Tom and Harriet both scowled as they glanced at each other, but Tom laid a finger to his lips as he nodded at Harriet and stood.
His eyes narrowed as he walked over and cautiously peered around his cracked door to stare out into the dark hallway.
An angry scowl formed on his face while he watched two figures wrestle violently in the blackness of the flat's main room.
Tom had already reached for his wand by the time he heard his mother's pitiful whimper.
The man holding her roughly in his grasp raised his arm to strike her.
In his hand, although fine details remained concealed, the unmistakable flash of a gun's grey metal glimmered in the darkness.
Tom gripped his wand in his hand as he opened his mouth.
Harriet blinked as she sat up and whispered, "Tom…?!"
Tom had already left the doorway to charge down the hall and come to Merope's aid, but from underneath his bed, Asherah rushed forth with incredible speed.