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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News of the events that had transpired at Tom Riddle's home during the winter recess quickly circled Hogwarts.
Some hailed Tom as a hero, others saw him as impressively courageous, but no one except Harriet knew about Asherah or his talent as a Parselmouth.
A portion of the fear Tom Riddle had inspired amongst his peers turned to admiration when it became widely known and accepted that he had saved Harriet Potter's life, although his deeds didn't make him any less impressive to his Slytherin housemates.
Whenever Tom was not with Harriet, Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, and other notable members from the house of cunning eagerly attempted to gain his favor.
Tom Riddle earned quite a bit of respect for bravely rescuing his darling and yet, respect was not enough for him.
From his desire to learn subject matter beyond his academic year to the hungry way he gorged himself on Harriet's kisses during their private moments, Tom Riddle was not only a selfish young wizard……..he was also exceptionally greedy.
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Harriet's best friends heard all of the rumors, regardless of their validity, that the inhabitants of the castle murmured.
Hermione and Ron sat with her on the sofa in the abandoned Gryffindor common room late one evening as they all chatted by the fireplace.
"Is it…...is it true, Harriet?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Is what true, Hermione?" Harriet smiled.
She knew that her friend asked about her progressing relationship with Tom.
Harriet had continued to receive enchanted roses from her love each month, her visit to his home hadn't changed that.
Ron wore a very serious expression as he hesitantly asked, "...Do you think you'll be a Mum soon?"
Harriet furrowed her brow as she blinked at Ron and replied in confusion, "...What?"
"I heard some of the other girls whispering that you…..well, that you shared his bed." Hermione said with a shrug.
"I did." Harriet answered innocently.
Ron and Hermione exchanged glances while they gasped in shock.
Realization dawned on Harriet as her green eyes widened behind her glasses.
She quickly raised a hand and exclaimed, "No!...No! Not in that way! I felt ill and Tom looked after me! I was only there for a moment or two, then you know…...that man came and everything happened….I don't think either of us had any proper sleep that night, we were too upset……But we did go to our separate rooms!"
"Oh." Ron nodded.
Harriet glanced between her two best friends as she chuckled in exasperation, "You two have to believe me!"
"Of course we believe you, Harriet." Hermione nodded.
"It's getting late." Ron said as he stood to his feet, "With that cleared up, I suppose I'll be off to bed before McGonagall makes her rounds."
"Goodnight, Ron." Hermione nodded.
"'Night, Ron!" Harriet called as he waved before he walked up the staircase.
After Ron had left the room, Harriet frowned at Hermione while they sat alone on the sofa.
"You really do believe me, right, Hermione?" Harriet asked.
"Absolutely!" Hermione reassured her with a smile.
Harriet could see that something troubled her friend as she watched the corners of Hermione's lips fall into a frown.
"...Then what is it?" Harriet asked worriedly.
"It's Tom I don't believe." Hermione admitted.
"What do you mean?" Harriet scowled.
"Harriet…" Hermione began as she huffed with a bitter smile.
She looked over at the fireplace while she searched for the right words.
Hermione sighed as she turned her amber gaze back to her friend and spoke, "Legilimency is a really powerful magical art. It takes most wizards years of practice to get it right……..Don't you find it a little odd that Tom claims he used it at all, let alone the morning you had that awful nightmare?"
"I think it shows how talented Tom is, to read about it in a book and then be able to save me from a bad dream." Harriet said with an arrogant movement of her shoulders.
Her lovestruck blindness irritated her friend.
"Oh, Harriet! You still don't understand!" Hermione cried as she leapt to her feet and traipsed towards the staircase.
"What don't I understand?!" Harriet gasped.
Hermione whirled around with an angry scowl as she spat the truth, "Tom didn't save you from a nightmare, Harriet! He used Legilimency to give you a nightmare!"
Harriet's mouth fell open in shock.
"Tom Riddle is a bad boy! He'll be a dark wizard one day, Harriet! Open your eyes!" Hermione shouted before she turned and stomped up the stairs to her dormitory.
Harriet followed her a short while later, but she tossed and turned that night as anxious questions assaulted her thoughts.
Harriet didn't really want to sleep after her unsettling conversation with Hermione, she wanted to confront Tom.
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The following day, during the longest break between class periods, Harriet met Tom in the usual, dark corner of the vast stone castle that they used as a private place to snog.
She breathed in his soothing, fresh scent as he pulled her against him and closed his dark eyes, leaning in for a kiss.
Harriet's heart felt heavy in her chest.
She didn't want to believe Hermione.
She didn't really want to learn the truth, but she had to know…..
"Tom?" Harriet whispered before his lips touched hers.
"Yes, sweetling?" He answered.
Although Tom pulled back to look at her with a soft smile, Harriet detected the hint of aggravation in his voice that her interruption of their kiss caused.
"Did you……...Did you give me that nightmare?...When I visited you and your mother?" Harriet asked as she gazed up at him with a frown.
In the darkness of the corner, Tom could still see the depth of Harriet's bright, green eyes clearly as she waited for his answer.
He could have easily lied.
If it had been anyone else he would have, but his love for Harriet pushed him to be truthful.
"Yes." Tom confessed as he gazed down at his darling, "...I did."
Harriet sucked in a breath as if he had struck her in the gut.
"W-Why?!" She asked as a sad pout formed on her lips, "I thought you cared about me!"
"I thought you cared about me, Harriet Potter." Tom glowered as he slipped his hands onto her hips.
The subtle gesture of possessive dominance thrilled Harriet more than she wanted to admit.
"I….." Harriet stammered, caught off guard, "I do care about you, Tom….I'd do anything for you!"
"Including showing me the cruelty of dangling yourself in front of me?" He asked with a scowl.
Harriet thought for a moment.
A nervous smile crossed her lips as she remembered opening the door in her knickers as she laughed, "Oh! That…..I was….I was only having a bit of fun with you."
The ominous scowl that darkened his handsome face made Harriet frown.
"Every day," Tom began as he drew in a deep breath, "...I spend the hours thinking of all the ways I can love you and all the things I can give you. Every night, I lie awake, lonely and tormented that you are not beside me, knowing full well that we have an unfortunate waiting period ahead of ourselves before we can couple as one and unite…..forever. Do you think that taunting me with what I cannot yet lay claim to is fun, Harriet Potter?"
Harriet frowned as she looked through Tom's harsh words and realized that she had…...angered him?
Injured him?
Wounded his pride?
"I...I'm sorry, Tom." Harriet shrugged, "I...I didn't mean it like that."
"Focus on pleasing me as much as I focus on pleasing you," Tom instructed as he placed two fingers under Harriet's chin, "...and I'll see to it that you never have another nightmare as long as you live."
Harriet smiled as she started to reply, "Well, Tom, I-.."
"-Disobey me, sweetling," He warned in a low, dangerous hiss, "...and you'll shatter my heart into a thousand sharp shards."
Other girls would have run, but the commanding words spoken in Tom's eerily calm voice excited Harriet.
With Tom, Harriet felt bizarrely secure and adored to an unhealthy point.
The musky scent of his natural cologne captivated her as his piercing gaze smouldered.
Harriet grabbed onto Tom's white shirt and his Slytherin tie as he closed his eyes, squeezed her hips, and welcomed her kiss.
Hermione's accusations had been true.
Tom Riddle was indeed a bad boy, but Harriet loved him more for it.
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The summer from third year to fourth year brought with it a new season of visits, growth, and ever increasing maturity for Hogwarts' students.
Harriet and Tom traveled to each other whenever they could arrange transportation with their guardians.
Between Merope and the Weasleys, they enjoyed several visits over the summer.
During the days when they had to be apart, they would write letters to one another.
Harriet came to see Tom one warm, August morning, but she frowned when Merope opened the front door of their flat and peered out at her with an anguished expression.
"Hello." Harriet smiled politely.
"Hello, Harriet." Merope greeted her fondly, "I'm terribly sorry, but Tom's indisposed today. You can try back next week if you like."
"...Indisposed?" Harriet frowned, "What's wrong with him? Is he ill?...Why should I come next week?...Do you expect him to be ill tomorrow too?"
A sound came from inside the flat, behind Merope.
She turned around quickly in the direction of the noise before she looked back at Harriet and whispered, "No, dear, Tom isn't ill, but he makes for poor company now. Do you understand, love? I don't have the time to say anymore! Thanks for stopping by! We'll see you next week."
"Miss Gaunt, wait!" Harriet exclaimed as Merope moved.
Before Harriet could protest any further, Tom's mother closed the door right in her face.
Harriet would have been terribly distraught and morbidly offended if the rush of pleasant scent that the closing door carried hadn't knocked her dizzy.
It smelled of rich woods, smoked spice, and a pleasant bit of minty apple….it smelled like Tom, only better.
Increased.
Heightened.
Intoxicating.
In a hazy cloud of pleasant daydreams, all Harriet could think about was Tom as she staggered back down the cracked, concrete steps to Fred and George, who sat waiting in the Weasleys' enchanted car.
Reeling from the blast, Harriet couldn't see the car, Fred, or George.
All she could see, all she could smell, all she could want was Tom Riddle.
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Tom crouched on his knees with his teeth gnashed together.
Sweat dripped down his spine as he dug his fingers into the soft flesh of Harriet's rounded bottom as he pounded into her while she spread herself on all fours in front of him.
He could feel the passage that led to her empty womb flutter around his manhood while she moaned his name and begged him to…..
Begged him to…….
To…….
His body shook as he found yet another unsatisfying release in the tight grip of his hand.
As the summer sun blazed outside his window, the sheets on his bed dampened with the perspiration from his frantic exertion.
Tom opened his dark eyes and sat up as an irritated grunt escaped his throat.
He snarled as he reached over and cleaned himself with a tissue from the box on his nightstand.
A predatory growl issued from his lips as he heard his mother whispering to someone, outside of his door, all the way down the hall.
All young alphas had a difficult time with their first rut, but when Tom caught the slightest hint of Harriet's scent, in the second after he heard her voice, he leapt out of bed and shoved his slippery body into one of his discarded school robes with terrifying speed.
Merope had just closed the front door when Tom burst forth from his bedroom and demanded with an angry scowl, "Who was that, Mother?!"
"...The postman." Merope lied as she listened to Harriet walk down the steps outside.
She only needed to stall her son for a moment to let the poor girl safely make her escape.
"You don't have any letters in your hand." Tom glared at Merope distrustfully.
"We…..didn't receive any mail today, my darling." Merope reasoned with a sly smile, "You know how Charlie is, always eager to chat when he has the chance."
Tom narrowed his eyes at Merope in suspicion before he turned on his heel, retreated back to his room, and shut the door.
Filled with rageful disappointment, Tom picked up an alarm clock from his dresser top and violently hurled the object into the wall.
CRASH!
Under his bed, Asherah flicked her forked tongue and wisely stayed out of the way.
Tom crawled back onto the bed with a groan and wrestled around in a futile attempt to find peace.
In what remained of his logical reasoning, it comforted him to know that he was in fact, an alpha.
All he needed to do was wait for Harriet to present, then they could mate.
Tom grit his teeth as he stared up at the ceiling while he recalled his interaction with Merope.
He had felt certain that Harriet had been at the door.
Why had his mother hidden her from him?
Harriet had already agreed to be his mate, his omega, his lover….his.
He had no intentions of hurting her, he only wanted to drag her inside the flat, lock her in his room, and generously give her a nest.
And a kiss.
And a lick.
And more than a few touches…….
Tom groaned while his hand found his relentless arousal again and began the exhausting quest to end the ache his uncomfortable condition caused.
As he closed his dark eyes, he hoped that the next time he had to experience such a grave inconvenience, Harriet Potter would be next to him…...ready, loving, and naked.