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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Young, destitute, and alone, Merope Gaunt kept a hand pressed to the side of her swollen abdomen while she forced herself to stagger down the desolate street.
As another contraction threatened to begin, an icy blast of winter wind mercilessly slapped against her flushed cheeks.
Merope grit her teeth through the pain as she finally made it to the grey building towards the end of the cobblestone row.
The plaque on the outside of the building clearly read:
Wool's Orphanage
A quiet groan escaped her lips as the pain crescendoed while she clutched the wrought iron railing and hobbled up the steps.
Before she had the chance to announce her arrival, a woman opened the door and frowned when her eyes fell on Merope.
The woman had seen others come to her workplace in a similar condition, yet her heart broke every time.
"Goodness, dear! A girl in your state has no business on the streets in the dark chill of winter!" The woman cried as she rushed forward.
Tears welled in Merope's dull eyes as she clung to the woman for support, dazed from the pain, but grateful for the small display of human kindness after so many bitter months of cruel rejection.
The woman carefully helped Merope inside the dismal orphanage.
The labouring mother gasped for breath as another pain forced the air from her lungs while they crossed over the grey threshold.
The woman let Merope squeeze her hand as she turned towards a damask stairway and called out, "Myrtle! Elizabeth! Come quickly! A baby will be joining us this New Year's Eve!"
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The pain had been extraordinary, but it had all seemed to fade into a miserable, hazy memory once a squirming, naked newborn was laid on Merope's chest forty-five minutes after her arrival at the orphanage.
"It's a boy!" Myrtle, the woman who had assisted with the delivery, smiled at the new mother.
Sweat glistened on Merope's face while she looked down at her baby in silent awe.
It was done, she had completed her task.
Her lover's son had been born safely.
Merope could relinquish her dreadful existence and go to her grave in peace.
She could already feel herself slipping away, but she still needed to have a good look at him first, the souvenir from Tom Riddle that had grown within her womb.
Slowly, the infant cracked his eyes open to blink up at his mother curiously.
As soon as Merope stared into her newborn's face, her heart shattered.
The women at her bedside hadn't heard her wail as loudly when she had given birth as she did while she clutched her baby close.
Merope's attendants shifted on their feet, until Myrtle glanced down and noticed that the sheets had dampened with scarlet streaks.
"Oh…..be still, dear. You're bleeding just a bit. Don't fret, I've done this for thirty years, a moment or two and you'll be righted." Myrtle murmured as she set to work.
"What's the baby's name?" Another woman asked Merope to distract her.
The women of Wool's Orphanage sought to help the birth mothers who came to their doors in any way possible.
Surrendering a child for adoption was no easy feat.
"His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, after his father and mine." Merope sniffed once her cries finally quieted down.
As she wiped her eyes with one hand, she couldn't help but notice that her newborn kept his dark gaze focused on her, as if he were waiting on something.
The baby didn't cry.
The baby didn't whine either, he only stared at Merope and waited.
"I hope that my son will be as handsome and as powerful as his father one day." Merope sniffed as she wiped at her eyes again, "...Please, look after him when I'm gone."
Myrtle finished tending Merope while the others glanced at each other with sad frowns.
"Oh, there's no need to talk like that!" Myrtle smiled at the new mother, "I'm sure these last few months have been hard for you, dear, but I've got the bleeding stopped now….You and your wee one will be perfectly fine!"
Merope's mouth fell open as she looked at Myrtle in horrified shock.
"I…...I'm not going to die?" Merope asked.
"Well, not tonight, no!" Myrtle chuckled.
"But I can't care for him!" Merope exclaimed, "I….I have no money, I have no home...I-I have no occupation, I have-"
One of the other women touched Merope's hand and spoke to her in a gentle voice, "Miss, there's no better place for a child than with its mother. We can see your love for your boy in your eyes!...If you want to stay with your little one, then there are resources available to help you both. We have a few rooms upstairs reserved for this exact situation. You and little Tom can stay here until you've recovered and found employment. We can even guide you on how to fill out the paperwork to receive some aid from the government…...The crown doesn't neglect families. This is 1979, dear, society has advanced!"
As the woman finished speaking, the others all gasped.
Merope felt a pressure on her chest and glanced down.
Her eyes widened when she saw that her tiny baby had managed to raise himself up onto his little arms.
"My goodness, what neck muscles he has!" One of the women laughed.
"Can babies do that this young?" Merope asked while frowned at her little boy, who continued to silently stare at her.
"It's very rare!" Myrtle exclaimed, "I have seen this happen once or twice before, but it is quite exceptional! You have a strong lad there!"
"...He's strong like his father." Merope whispered.
Tom blinked at his mother while she pressed a kiss to his tiny forehead and closed her eyes.
She barely heard the women around her when the grandfather clock downstairs struck twelve and they all cried, "Happy New Year!"
Merope Gaunt, a sad and abused omega, loved Tom Riddle Senior, the wealthy, handsome alpha, with all of her heart.
Although he had abandoned her when she needed him most, her feelings for him remained unchanged.
She could feel her broken spirit beginning to heal as she clutched the son he had fathered.
While her newborn cooed at her, Merope decided that she would live and love.
Tom Riddle Senior wouldn't allow her to dote on him, but there was nothing that he could do to stop her from dedicating her life to raising their son.
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Several months after Tom's birth, an elderly man with a long white beard, dressed in flowing robes and a velvet hat stood on the darkened end of Privet Drive late one evening.
The elderly man withdrew a long, wooden wand from his pocket and with a single flick of his wrist, put out each street light that glowed nearby.
The elderly man looked over to his right and blinked as a grey cat approached.
"Ah, Professor McGongagall," The elderly man nodded, "I trust you had no issues arriving earlier today?"
The grey cat slowly changed into a middle-aged woman, who also wore billowing robes.
A pointy, black hat sat on top of her head.
Professor Minerva McGonagall frowned as she nodded and replied, "No trouble at all, Professor Dumbledore, but I have to beg you…...Is there no other place for the girl to go?"
In the sky above them, the roaring of an engine rang out.
Professor Albus Dumbledore kept his eyes fixed on McGonagall as he answered, "James and Lily Potter's will clearly stated that in the event of their deaths, their daughter, Harriet Potter, is to be raised by blood relatives. I'm afraid that Petunia Dursley and her family are the only people alive who meet that description."
The engine's roar grew louder until a flying motorcycle came into view.
Once the enchanted vehicle landed, its rider, a huge man with a bushy, dark beard, turned the engine off and lifted a heavy set of goggles from his eyes.
"Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall." The large man nodded in greeting.
McGonagall nodded back, but Dumbledore replied, "Good evening, Hagrid. Young Harriet did well with the journey?"
"Oh, she did fine, she did!" Hagrid, the half-giant gamekeeper, reassured the headmaster as he carefully stood from the motorcycle while he tenderly clutched a leather satchel against his side.
McGonagall frowned as she and Dumbledore walked over to Hagrid.
Carefully, Dumbledore reached inside Hagrid's bag to remove a small bundle from within.
All three adults stared down at the beautiful, dark-haired baby girl who lay inside for a moment before Dumbledore lifted his face and started to walk towards the house marked "Number Four".
"Albus, please!" Professor McGonagall pleaded as she scurried after him, "You can't do this to the child! I've watched these people all day! They're the worst kind of muggles! I myself would gladly take-"
"-Enough, Minerva." Dumbledore interrupted as he walked up to the house and laid the baby on its front step. He turned to look at his coworker as he went on, "Under magical law, we are obligated to respect James and Lily's wishes for the time being, no matter our personal feelings about the issue. So then, let's be off before we're seen."
In the background, Hagrid sniffed quietly.
When Dumbledore heard, he turned around with a small smile as he reassured his old friend, "Now, now, Hagrid, there's no need for tears. It really isn't goodbye, after all……..."
Dumbledore rang the house's doorbell before he, McGonagall, and Hagrid fled.
A moment later, the door to Number Four Privet Drive opened and Harriet Potter finally met the people who would become her adopted family.
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Tom and Harriet were opposite souls raised in opposite situations.
Fed and unclothed but unloved, Harriet spent most of her childhood exiled to a small cupboard underneath the stairs.
During Tom's formative years, Merope Gaunt worked harder than she ever had in her life. She did so gladly because she felt that she had something worth labouring for…..her son.
Due to her meager wages, the only flat that she could afford was small and dim.
Although Merope and Tom had nothing in abundance, they did have what they needed.
Amidst their desperate circumstances, mother and son grew to genuinely cherish each other.
Merope shared what knowledge she held of the magical world with her little boy, but her powers never fully returned.
Tom took pity on his hard-working, kind-hearted mother.
Merope's helplessness spurred him on to pursue his own skills and enable himself to protect her.
Perhaps it was the conditions of his conception or his family's history, but it became obvious from an early age that Tom Riddle exhibited dark tendencies.
One afternoon, young Tom walked with his mother down the street until a man ran up to them and attempted to steal Merope's purse.
Tom glared at his mother's assailant and promptly lit the man ablaze without uttering a word or waving a wand.
Merope did not teach her son how to talk to snakes, yet that was an activity that she often found him engaged in as he walked around the sparse gardens outside of their building.
Despite Tom's questionable inclinations, no mother was prouder than Merope on the day that her precious little boy received his letter to Hogwarts. She worked overtime for three weeks to afford the supplies that he would need to attend the famous educational institution.
On the day that the Hogwarts Express sat waiting, Merope walked Tom across Platform Nine and Three-Quarters until they stood in front of the impressive train.
Tom was dressed in black, simple clothes, but his drab garments complimented his dark hair and eyes.
Already handsome at the age of eleven, Merope smiled down at her son while she turned to him and lovingly combed his silky hair with her fingers.
"Be a good boy, Tom, and work hard in school, alright? Mind your professors and make me proud." Merope urged her son.
"...But Mother, how can you send me away? You've always told me that I'm your world." Tom frowned.
"Well, that's true, my darling, you are my world." Merope frowned back.
"...Then what will you do while I'm gone?" Tom asked.
"I'll wait for you for you to return." Merope smiled down at her son, "...And I'll work to bring us enough money so that you can stay in school and get a proper education. Education is important, Tom, and it's something that I never had much of."
Tom stared up at his mother for a moment as he scanned her face.
He appreciated her willingness to give, yet it angered him that he had to get on the train.
His dark eyes narrowed as he opened his hand and dropped his trunk to the ground.
Merope thought it had been an accident, but really, it was a test that her son had calculatingly designed, a carefully placed show of power to confirm her love for him.
Although he was too young to present yet, it was blatantly obvious that Tom Riddle would grow to be an alpha...a strong, dominant alpha.
He watched as Merope fell to her knees and obediently fetched his trunk for him as she returned it to his hands.
Tom stared into his mother's eyes as he took his trunk from her and promised, "One day, you won't have to work anymore, Mother. When I'm Minister for Magic, I'll take care of you."
The smile that crossed Merope's lips was as joyful as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her shoulders.
"I know that you will, Tom." She nodded happily.
When the train's whistle blew, they both looked over before Merope hugged her little boy to her chest tightly and whispered, "Make me proud, darling. I love you very much."
Tom closed his eyes and breathed in his mother's comforting scent before she released him and stood back to watch him walk onto the train.
Tom Riddle glanced over his shoulder at Merope one last time before he officially entered the magical world.
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There had been no one to hug Harriet Potter that day or whisper words of love to her before she boarded the Hogwarts Express.
That didn't dampen the bright smile on her face though as she rode in the train compartment next to her new acquaintances, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.
Harriet didn't know what made her happier, to be away from her cruel aunt and uncle at last, or to feel what she suspected were the beginnings of friendships forming while she chatted with children her age who were not her cousin, Dudley.
As well as their conversation went, eventually, the iced pumpkin juice that Harriet drank during the journey forced her to leave the compartment and walk down the train's narrow hallway in search of the lavatory.
At that exact moment, Tom happened to walk from the opposite end to seek out the trolley that he had missed.
Two galleons had been all that Merope could scrounge, but that small amount was enough for him to buy himself a treat.
Other students roughly bustled through the train's hallway as well. Their movements obscured Tom and Harriet from the focal point of each other's vision.
As they passed by one another, a particularly rambunctious boy knocked against them both with a devastating thud.
Tom and Harriet were thrown against the sides of the train's walls.
The impact caused Tom's clenched hand to open, which sent his money clattering to the floor.
As he recovered from the shock, Harriet noticed the gold that glistened on the thin carpet.
Tom scowled as she bent forward and reached down to pick up the galleons, but his expression changed to one of surprise as she handed his money back to him and asked, "Sorry, did you just drop these?"
Tom's dark eyes glimmered for a moment as he stared at Harriet.
The girl in front of him had passed the same test that he had given his mother.
Harriet's kind action impressed Tom as much as her dark, messy hair, which reminded him of Merope.
Her eyes though..,
As Tom stared into Harriet's serpentine green eyes, he found himself utterly transfixed.
Harriet's eye colour made him fondly think of the snakes with which he so enjoyed chatting.
While Tom looked at the girl in front of him as the train hurtled along its track, he had to force his voice from his dry throat.
"...I did, thank you." Tom said as he took his galleons back from Harriet, "...My name is Tom Riddle. What's yours?"
"Oh, um, I'm Harriet Potter." Harriet nodded, clueless about the enamored gaze that she received from her new admirer.
An awkward silence passed between them for a moment before Harriet quietly added, "Right…..see you around then, I suppose?"
Tom narrowed his dark eyes in response as Harriet politely stepped past him.
He turned to stare after her until she disappeared from his view.
Silently, Tom Riddle thought to himself.
Oh yes, he hoped that he would see much more of Harriet Potter…..very soon.
