Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
—————————————————————
The summer that followed was unlike any that Tom had ever experienced before.
He was no longer Tom Marvolo Riddle, son of a poor, working-class, single mother who shamefully lived in one of London's shabbiest flats.
No.
He was Tom Marvolo Riddle junior, son of Mr. and Mrs. Riddle, descended from a noble bloodline that could trace its ancestry all the way back to a connection with the muggle royal family on his father's side in the Middle Ages.
Also, from a lesser known point, Tom clung to the fact that he was the direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin on his mother's side.
Tom walked through Little Hangleton that summer with his head held high and his shoulders thrown back as the villagers whispered about him as he walked past.
The long lost heir to the village's most prestigious family, finally found……
His mother's mercy, his father's pride and joy……
Handsome and kind, although Tom effortlessly won the heart of every muggle girl in the village, he made it known in no uncertain terms that he had already chosen his intended mate, which made him all the more desirable to some.
The hard feelings about Tom's relationship status explained the angry, jealous glares that greeted Harriet the day she came to tour the village with Tom as soon as her girls' trip with Molly and Ginny Weasley concluded.
"They're all scowling at me." Harriet whispered to Tom as they walked through the streets together.
Tom proudly clutched Harriet's arm in his as he smirked at the onlookers and whispered, "That's because they want to be in your place, sweetling. Pay them no mind, we'll be at my new home soon enough."
Harriet couldn't help but pay her enemies at least a bit of attention until Tom led them out of the village's center and up the rolling, green hill towards Riddle Manor.
As they came to stand on the stone steps, Tom reached out and used the heavy door knocker exactly as he had on the night of his grandparents' murders.
A moment later, the door swung open, and the same butler appeared.
Instead of scowling, the elderly man smiled as he greeted Tom and his guest with polite bows and nods, "Good evening, young master…..and young Miss…..Welcome back to Riddle Manor, sir, and welcome for the very first time, Miss…?"
"This is Harriet Potter." Tom quickly announced as he raised Harriet's hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, "My future wife…See that you treat her with the utmost respect, Lawrence. She'll be your mistress one day."
"Miss Harriet Potter, welcome to Riddle Manor." The butler, Lawrence, nodded as he bowed deeply to Harriet.
Tom watched his servant carefully with a concentrated scowl on his handsome face as he made sure that the elderly man bowed low enough in front of his darling and that his voice rang with the proper amount of respect.
"Thanks." Harriet said as she smiled awkwardly and nodded in return.
Tom's dark eyes glimmered as Lawrence straightened his back and led them inside the mansion.
Despite the home's vast proportions and understated opulence, Harriet couldn't help but fight off a stomach-churning wave of woe as she walked with Tom through his father's ancestral residence.
As Lawrence led them both down the hallway, she glanced over at the closed dining room doors and shuddered to think that she'd be eating a meal there in a few, brief hours.
The wood paneling did not erase Harriet's memories, nor did the shining suits of muggle armor displayed along the walls in splendid body frames.
While Tom chatted to her in his smooth, low voice, even the soothing tones of his cadence couldn't stop Harriet from glancing towards the closed mahogany doors of the dining room.
"I'll give you a short while to ready yourself for dinner." Tom said as he smirked at Harriet while they began to ascend the staircase as they followed Lawrence, "I'm quite excited for it, sweetling…..Our first family meal together, how lovely will it be?"
"...Yeah….It'll be brilliant, Tom." Harriet nodded as she quickly smiled, though her thoughts were far away from the potential pleasure that would come from sharing a meal with Tom and his family.
Harriet hadn't seen the dining room doors at all, all she had seen instead had been the lower half of Thomas Riddle's lifeless body lying on the dining room floor as recollections from that horrible night played through her mind.
—————————————————————
Once the trio reached the second level of the Riddle family's home, Tom kissed Harriet's hand and went to his bedroom as soon as he and Lawrence had escorted her to her own.
As Harriet opened the door and stepped inside, she paused to admire the sophisticated splendor of her new lodgings for the first time since her arrival a few hours earlier.
Neat and elegant, with tasteful furnishings and rich, stately colors that would stand the test of time with their classic style, the bedroom was…….magnificent.
Harriet took a deep breath.
Tom's new home was far beyond that of the apartment he had been raised in, not that she had minded that place at all.
To Harriet, their location mattered little.
As long as Tom was with her, she felt content.
Besides, having spent her formative years in a cupboard under the stairs, even the humblest of houses seemed splendid to her.
With the door to her bedroom closed, Harriet walked over to her trunk, unlatched it, and began to rummage through its contents.
If she had been eating only with Tom and Merope, she would have been less fussy with her outfit choice, but in that grand house, in front of Tom's father for the first official time, Harriet sought to make a good impression.
After frowning while she sorted through the clothing she had brought with her from the Burrow, she finally, reluctantly, settled on a green dress.
The dres's hem ended just above her knee.
Its neckline plunged somewhat, but not to a level where anyone could possibly consider it obscene.
The gentle flutters of fabric that fell around the sleeves highlighted Harriet's athletic shoulders, sculpted from hours of Quidditch.
After she changed out of her clothes and into her green dress, she stood in front of the floor length mirror with an irritated scowl on her face while she brushed her hair and attempted to tame her dark, messy locks.
The single knock that fell on her door caused her to start as she called out, "Come in!"
The door slowly creaked open.
Harriet blinked in the mirror and smirked slightly when she realized that Tom had walked into her room.
"Merlin's beard, sweetling~..." She heard him gasp before he swept up behind her, placed his hands on her waist, and stared into the glass, "Look at you~."
"Is there something wrong with my dress?" Harriet asked as Tom spread his fingers possessively over her hips to secure his grip on her.
"Not in the least…." Tom chuckled, "I rarely see you wear much green, though I wish you would more often."
"I'm glad that you like it." Harriet smiled as she used a hand to arrange her hair, "Hermione convinced me to buy it in the sale last month from that dress shop beside Honeyduke's."
"It's fit for a Slytherin queen." Tom purred in his decadently smooth voice as he placed gentle, sucking kisses along Harriet's throat.
Harriet let out a sound between a gasp and a chuckle as her hand came up to hold his face while she breathed, "Tom…….."
Tom said nothing as he continued on his way down Harriet's throat until he nipped teasingly along her sternum.
"Tom!" Harriet whispered as his hands moved towards the outlines of her breasts.
Tom pulled back to meet her gaze in the mirror with a scowl on his handsome face.
"Your parents will wonder where we are." Harriet laughed.
"...Then let them wonder." He glowered before he moved down and began kissing Harriet's throat again.
A smirk played across Harriet's lips as she leaned back in Tom's arms, let her head roll to the side, and basked in those intoxicating kisses he graciously placed on her bare flesh.
It didn't take long for Tom's skillful hands to push aside Harriet's beautiful dress until his fingers brushed against her bare body.
Locked in Tom's passionate kiss, Harriet stammered against his lips while he walked them over to the bed, "I can't….I don't want to be-"
"Don't worry, sweetling." Tom chuckled as he lay down on his back, "I merely want to have you on my tongue again. Surely you won't deny me another taste?"
He wisely chose to stay within the boundaries he knew would keep Harriet intrigued but comfortable.
Revisiting a bit of pure joy his darling had already allowed offered the couple few risks but great rewards.
He watched the flash of excitement that sparkled in Harriet's emerald eyes as she climbed onto the bed.
The surprised squeal that left her lips as he reached under her skirt, slipped her panties off, and brought her to sit on his face made him shiver.
As Tom indulged himself by devouring his mate, squished between Harriet's soft thighs and her fingers pulling his dark hair, he squeezed her hips as he dreamed of the day he would be able to take her into his bed and do exactly as he pleased with her.
Despite Harriet's fierceness, she shivered and convulsed around him with a wanton, throaty sigh once her pleasure crashed over her.
As he listened to Harriet express the bliss he brought her, Tom dangerously realized just how easily he could make his beloved melt with his hands and tongue.
————————————————————-
An hour later, Tom and Harriet sat at the grand table in the massive Riddle dining room across from Merope and Tom senior while the family shared their first meal together.
Tom used his quickly developing skills in Occlumency to insure his mother could not pick his brain and see exactly what he had been doing a few minutes earlier while he ate with the utmost calm, as if he bore no guilt at all.
Harriet breathed a grateful sigh that the soft glow of light from the fireplace hid the pink tint of afterglow that stubbornly stained her cheeks.
It made her weak in the knees as she contemplated what it could be like to have Tom tend her during a heat knowing that he could make her lose her mind with a few well-placed strokes of his tongue alone.
"You've found a fine lass, son." Tom senior nodded approvingly at Tom junior before he addressed Harriet and smiled, "I'm very sorry, my dear…..That you and I caught our first glimpse of each other under such unfortunate circumstances. My wife and I have been counting the days until your visit…..We've heard so very much about you from our boy!"
"Oh…….Thank you, Mr. Riddle." Harriet nodded.
As he spoke of that awful night, she pushed aside the uncomfortable churn of nausea that flipped her stomach as she contemplated that she sat a very short distance away from where the body of Tom's grandmother had laid.
Harriet's eyes wandered over to that spot before she glanced back and realized that both Toms and Merope stared at her.
"Harriet, dear? Are you alright?" Merope frowned.
"Yes…..sorry." Harriet laughed quickly, "I'm a bit tired, Tom showed me around Little Hangleton today. We were quite busy."
A sly grin curled Tom's lips as he contemplated just how….full…..his schedule with his darling had been that day.
"Perhaps you can sleep well tonight." Merope nodded at Harriet with a smile, "I'll have Lawrence fluff your pillows after dinner."
"Thanks." Harriet nodded.
"Look at that smile on my son's face!" Tom senior quipped as he glanced over at Tom, "Is there anything better than to be in love?"
As Tom senior spoke, Harriet marveled at the eerie resemblance between father and son as her eyes flickered between the two.
Tom junior took her hand as he smiled at his father and announced, "Perhaps, father…..to be mated and married."
Merope smiled wryly.
Tom senior raised his goblet at the young lovers as he followed his son's example. He took his wife's hand and commented, "Merope, my dear! I believe we may have a wedding to attend as soon as our boy graduates! A Hogwarts alumni and a married man before the age of eighteen! No father in all of Britain will be prouder than I!"
"Then shortly after, you'll be a grandfather." Tom smugly added.
Tom senior chortled with joy as he glanced over at Merope's happy smile, but Harriet scowled at Tom.
As joyous as everything sounded, she couldn't help but notice there was an insincerity in Merope's smile.
……Or was that a lingering sadness?
…….A bitter disappointment about an unspoken truth?
In light of those pleasant musings, Merope frowned at the expression of unhappy mistrust on Harriet's face.
She interrupted the jolly moment as she asked her adopted daughter, "Harriet, dear……are you certain you're alright?"
"I'm fine, thanks." Harriet nodded as she wiped her scowl from her face.
Secretly, she wanted to ask Merope the same question.