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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"Tom…." Harriet frowned.

A gentle purr escaped his throat as he kept his eyes closed while he finished his morning meal.

The Riddle family had woken early.

Tom had already prepared himself to head to the Ministry.

Baby Mae lay in her bassinet, fed, changed, and happy.

"Tom." Harriet said a bit more sternly as she sat up and tried to unlatch her alpha from her breast.

He finally released her as he met her gaze with a scowl.

"You need to come home for lunch." Harriet frowned.

"I always come home for lunch, sweetling." Tom quipped.

"Yes, but today will be important." Harriet said as she explained, "I'm going to send for another healer."

"Why?" Tom asked.

"Why?!" Harriet scoffed, "We can't go on like this forever!...I think we should hear a second opinion….I dunno, maybe someone has another solution besides five days apart."

It irritated Tom that his mate didn't seem interested in serving him without question.

Instead of reacting with anger though, Tom sought to weasel his way into his wife's sympathies using his gifts of charm and gentle seduction.

He lamented the fact his darling had not yet completed her recovery from the birth……

"Forgive me, sweetling." He said with a bittersweet smile as he sat up.

His dark eyes glistened at Harriet while he spoke, "I shouldn't be selfish enough to have this great need for you. I haven't meant to displease you by relying on you this heavily at such a trying time. You have my word……I'll be more thoughtful in the future."

A frown formed on Harriet's lips as Tom stood from her nest with a pout, turned away from her, and walked towards the door.

"Tom…..?" She called out.

He halted at the sound of her voice.

"I…..I didn't mean to push you away." Harriet stammered.

With his back to Harriet, a sly smirk curled his lips.

He was careful to wipe the smugness from his expression before he turned around with a pitiful frown on his handsome face.

"Sweetling, the last thing I'd ever want to do is burden you." Tom sighed.

She reached towards him as the hormones still gushing through her system urged her to soothe her husband.

Tom obligingly walked over, took her hand, and sat down on the bedside.

"You are indescribably beautiful, my love." He whispered as he rubbed Harriet's knuckles with his soft, tapered fingertips while he looked into her emerald eyes, "Can you blame me for becoming addicted to you?"

"Tom, I……" Harriet began, but she became lost in his smoldering stare before she blinked and shook her head, "It isn't healthy, it's……we have to-"

"-We don't have to do anything you don't want to, my love." Tom whispered as he raised Harriet's hands to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

A rush of shameful warmth washed over Harriet as she batted away the lascivious ideas that began to dance through her thoughts, knowing her body remained weeks away from healing.

"Tom……" She sighed as she reached out and cupped his face.

Mr. and Mrs. Riddle came to the mutual realization a kiss would pose no harm to Harriet as he leaned down and she closed her eyes.

Just before their lips met, Harriet whispered, "Why do you have to make everything so difficult?"

A dark chuckle rumbled in Tom's chest before he pressed a kiss against his lover's soft mouth while baby Mae cooed in her bassinet.

Tom skimmed Harriet's thoughts and delighted in the doubt he had inspired in her mind about ending his new pastime.

Harriet had always been his ultimate goal and would always be his favourite treat, but the fact that she came with an added sweetness since their daughter's birth was too tempting of an offer for Tom to resist.

He looked forward to coming home for lunch.

While he journeyed to the Ministry an hour later, he wondered if the pesky healer would still be in his way once he returned home?

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The healthcare professional Harriet had summoned for an impromptu check up and more advice on her situation was very kind.

The healer came half an hour before Tom's estimated lunchtime arrival, exactly as Harriet had requested.

During those private moments, the two women spoke frankly.

"She seems to be a very strong girl." The healer smiled at Harriet as she nodded and placed little Mae back into her mother's arms after she had completed a full exam on the baby.

"Perfectly healthy?" Harriet asked with a frown.

"Perfectly healthy." The healer nodded.

"Brilliant." Harriet answered.

When the healer noticed she lacked a smile, she spoke, "if I may, my dear…..What seems to be the trouble? Your alpha shouldn't be home for another fifteen minutes from what you estimated, if there's anything you'd like to say without him listening, now's the time."

Harriet saw the flaw in her own plan as she looked into the healthcare professional's eyes and wondered how she would explain her…..bizarre…..situation again.

"Um, it's rather embarrassing, actually." Harriet said as she cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses.

"Giving birth should have taught you our bodies are designed to push the boundaries of mortification." The healer chuckled.

"Well, it's not really so much about me….." Harriet frowned, "It's….It's about my husband."

"...Oh?" The healer blinked.

"We consulted someone previously." Harriet explained, "We were told it was natural, but……..but I don't think everyone understands my husband well enough."

"What worries you, my dear?" The healer asked as her eyes flickered over Harriet. She scanned for bruises and other signs of abuse while she asked, "...Do you feel safe?"

"Yes, I feel completely safe." Harriet said dismissively, "That's not the problem……Tom would never hurt me……but I know he'll never give me up either."

The healer frowned as she nodded at Harriet and urged, "Go on, Mrs. Riddle, tell me more."

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It frustrated Harriet when the second healer had nothing else to say besides the same advice, either let Tom's preference dwindle over time or spend five days apart from him.

After he came home for lunch, while he and the healer chatted, Harriet held baby Mae in her arms.

As the sleeping infant snuggled against her breasts and used them as warm, soft pillows for her tiny body, Harriet smiled wryly at her daughter.

From her dark hair to her adorable little pout, Harriet was profoundly glad to have borne such a beautiful baby for her mate.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tom watched Harriet lean down and kiss their little one on top of her head.

He calmly continued his conversation with the healer while he secretly ignored the urge to reach over and pull Harriet into a loving, passionate kiss.

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Unwilling to spend an entire five days and five nights separated from her alpha during the postpartum period, Harriet resigned herself to the fact that she had not one pup to tend but two.

Tom made certain his wife had plenty of fluid and food each day.

Although Harriet complained about the inconvenience, she welcomed Tom to her every time he took her into his arms and dove into her breasts.

As she lay in her nest, with her baby asleep in her arms and her alpha lazily feeding from her, she combed her fingers through her husband's dark curls while she wondered if other omegas with similar situations enjoyed the same amount of bliss.

"You're mine, sweetling….." Tom purred as he finally released her.

The sunset outside the large window in their bedchamber brought a charming glow of soothing comfort into the room.

"I'm yours, Tom." Harriet whispered as she smiled, "...And I always will be."

As Tom leaned forward and pressed a deep kiss to her lips, it surprised Harriet her greedy alpha had already swallowed down the last bit of her.

In Tom's kiss, she could no longer taste her own milk, only her husband's ferocious devotion.

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Tom's strengthened bond with Harriet provided him with unexpected benefits.

After he sought her out each morning, he found he walked with a renewed sense of arrogant confidence, painfully sure of himself with his belly full and his mind sharp.

At the Ministry, Lucius had indeed made his recommendation, which the Minister for Magic had accepted.

It was an unspoken truth that Tom Riddle enjoyed dabbling in the Dark arts, but that wasn't mentioned as the cameras flashed while he stood next to the Minister and let the journalists photograph them both for The Daily Prophet.

"Don't look so startled, my boy!" The Minister chortled as Tom blinked his eyes after the umpteenth blinding burst of light.

"I'm not startled at all, sir, only blind," Tom quipped as he passed a hand over his face before he looked at the Minister, "I hadn't imagined my acceptance of the role would warrant a press conference."

"Well, of course, Tom!" The Minister for Magic laughed, "A new assistant to the Minister is a very important matter! By the evening, every eye in wizarding Britain will see you in the paper, you can count on that!"

A wicked grin spread across Tom's lips as he delighted in the publicity his new title would surely bring.

"Come on, then!" The Minister called he bid his aides goodbye with a nod of his head.

Tom followed him out of the room as the other staff members were left to corral the rabid journalists who shouted questions while the Minister walked away, "This is only your first day, Riddle…….I'll warn you, I'm a very busy man."

"I assure you, sir……." Tom grinned as they left the press room and made their way down a lacquered corridor, "I can complete any challenge you are willing to assign."

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Later, the evening edition of The Daily Prophet arrived an hour before Tom had been scheduled to return home.

Harriet took the paper from the owl who landed on the windowsill as she held little Mae in her arms.

The baby whimpered while Harriet showed her the large picture on the cover of Tom standing next to the Minister.

"Look sweetheart, that's Daddy in the paper, isn't it?" She cooed to her daughter.

Baby Mae whined in response.

"Daddy's going to be in lots of papers." Harriet concluded as she nuzzled her little one. She smiled down at her infant as she said, "And one day, you will be too."

It unnerved Harriet how her baby instantly silenced herself.

Mae's emerald eyes glowed, as if she understood something her mother did not.