Taking a moment, Harmony collects herself as she looks at the man across the room. She knows her godfathers will not recognize him the way he is now, and she plans on keeping it that way at the moment.
"What are you doing here? This is a private room." She says in a calmer voice than she had hoped for.
Adrat is the one that answers. "I asked him to come."
The man's amused smile widens just slightly. "Why would you ask a stranger to join us in this matter?" Sirius cries out in outrage.
"For it concerns him as well. Remember that I said there were two marriage contracts." The goblin snaps out. "We talked about one, but this one will have to be carried out if Lady Potter wants to continue to be a part of our world."
Remus sucks in a shaky breath behind the two on his side of the table. "You don't mean?"
"Yes, if Harmony Lilith Potter does not agree to this contract, she will be stripped of all her titles, possessions, and magick. It will be given to the other person in the contract, and she will most likely die."
There is complete silence in the room until the scraping sound of the chair against wood is heard. Everyone turned to see the lone female in the room, picking up her chair calmly. She turns towards the goblin, her hands placed on the back of the chair in front of her.
"Please tell me about the contract and its terms. Then I would like to talk to my, might be, future husband."
Everyone is in shock at the girl's calm response, but after a moment, the goblin clears his throat and explains. "In 1005 Hardwin Potter got his love out an unwanted marriage to a cruel man by promising that if either the line of Potter or Slytherin was on the verge of extinction, they would marry."
The two older looking men took in a deep breath how could Hardwin push this on his descendant?
"As such, the requirements are as follows.
At least two heirs are produced, one for each line.
Neither family can cause the extinction of the other.
Neither participants can purposely or knowingly cause permanent harm to the other."
Harmony nods her head and begins walking towards the door. As she passes him, Moony grabs her. She cringes at the sudden contact. "Are you sure about this?"
"I'm going to go talk to and see what he is thinking about this marriage while you guys make sure that contract is real." She turns to the goblin. "Do I have your permission to use a privacy charm." The goblin gives a sullen nod. Before anyone can stop her, she is out the door with her enemy on her heels.
Tom watches the young witch with interest as he follows her to the room across the hall. He was supposed to wait outside the door until the goblin had come and collected him. But he had felt the sudden surge of delicious power. It had been so unexpected and familiar; he just had to make sure he was correct. Her face as she promised vengeance on those who wronged her sent a shiver of pleasure down his spine.
Maybe this marriage won't be as bad as I thought it would be?
The girl quickly cast the approved charm on the closed-door before turning on him. "What in the world do you think you are doing?" She hisses out, barely keeping to English. "You just saunter in here and expect me to tie myself to you? You are a bloody insane bastard. You have been trying to kill me since the moment I was born. Do you think I'm stupid enough to just traipse into your warded home so you can torture me as you please?" She lays into him while pointy at his chest.
How did the girl recognize him? "I can't do any permanent damage, remember." He answers in a smooth deep voice that would make most girls fall.
The girl snorts appearing to be unaffected. "Like you don't know how to torture without being able to reverse it, just to begin again. It didn't say anything about not making me your slave. Been there done that, thank you very much. There are much worse things than just dying or being a penniless muggle."
He tightens his jaw. This was not going how he wanted. He needs the girl to see sense, and making her swoon doesn't seem to be an option. "That was not in my plan." It looks like he will just have to show his cards.
"Yeah, and why should I trust you, because again. You have tried to kill me multiple times." She crosses her arms looking up at him. As she speaks, she slowly lets go of a part of her magick, showing him she would not be pushed around. "Everyone, everyone has lied to me, so why should I trust you?"
He pulls his magic to push against hers. "I have done no such thing." This girl never had the common sense to fear him. Throwing out those surprisingly dark curses in the graveyard as she laughed, taunted, and mocked him. Thinking from the day two years ago and now he wonders where all this power is coming from. It is new, intriguing, and he wants to know.
"Yes, you have. Everyone" The man cuts her off grabbing her biceps, he notices her wince but thinks nothing of it, knowing he didn't hold her tight enough to hurt.
"Tell me, tell me when I have lied to you." She pauses in thought, running through all their encounters. "I may not have told you everything, but I have never lied to you." She couldn't disagree; she couldn't think of a single moment.
He shakes her gently, bringing her back to him. "I did not go through all the work, getting you here to fight you." He thought he could just seduce her to his side once she was disenchanted with Dumbledore.
Her vibrant green eyes look up at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"How do you think you got that letter?" He smirks as he sees the realization on her face.
"It was you." Not a question, just a statement.
He smiles, grabbing one of her raven locks and wrapping it in one of his long fingers. Her flinch is more noticeable this time. "Yes, I was surprised about the contract. It took me a while to come to terms with it. I needed you here. I had to get you here without Dumbledore so we could talk. So I stunned the owl that was carrying it to the old bastard and made it appear on your desk."
She steps back out of his reach, running her hands through her already perfectly messy wavy hair. "Okay, and why would you want this? What do you get out of this? What even is your plan? I mean, you can't just walk into the ministry say 'oh I'm gonna marry the bloody girl who lived.' What if someone recognizes you?" She goes back to questioning and ranting at him once again.
He slightly licks his lips as she places her hands on her hips and continues her tirade. It was so amusing to watch her. No one, especially a witch, had been on equal footing as him in decades. All bowed and groveled, hoping that he didn't punish them. It was invigorating. His mind goes back to the graveyard when her magick slightly pushes against his once more. This was the level he was used to her having, somewhere above average, even for an adult. It was surprising, and the curses, spellwork, and power had been remarkable. He had been excited by the challenge, but he had refused to show anything but furry. She seemed to be hiding her actual magick level.
Now that they were going to marry, he didn't have to do that; she didn't have to do that. "Are you done yet?" Such fire in a small package. She nods her head. "Good, to start, you need to understand that I was just as shocked as you are about this. I'm going to explain from the beginning, and you might need to fill in some blanks."
"Yes, oh great one," She says with a mocking voice.
Taking a deep breath, he swallows so not to remark. I want this girl on my side; he reminds himself. "I'm going, to be honest; I did a dark ritual that I shouldn't have. It tore my soul apart; it made me lose my mind and the reason I was fighting this war."
"Yes, you made Horcruxes." Her smirk is meet with his glare. "I was so surprised to find out that memory of you that I fought in my second year was a part of your soul." Well, that explains why she recognized me and how they had been destroyed. It still pissed him off that she had eradicated his diary, but he could let it slide. After all, in the long, run it helped him. The thought allowed him to regain his senses.
"Hmmm, well, I was desperate when I made the first. I had to outlive Dumbledore to reach my goal. After our battle in the graveyard, that piece of my soul returned to me. Along with the memories of why I started this war in the first place. Slowly through last year, my soul returned to me." He turns sideways and gives her a look.
"Dumbledore and I started collecting the items and removing your soul from them. I even figured out how not to destroy the founder's artifacts." He gives her a curious look. "A single drop of basilisk venum. I had destroyed the diary by plugging its fang in the book. Before I left the chamber, I collected as much as I could thinking it could be useful." A dark laugh came from her. "Thought about putting my uncle's coffee on more than one occasion."
He raises his eyebrow at this comment. Why would the golden girl want to kill the uncle that dots on her? "Well, with my soul returning the way I decided to go about this war changed, lest blood-shed, more political. I realize that I'm going to have to get rid of many of my death eaters because that is all they want. I worked with the goblins to make a new identity. I am now Thomas Lynx Riddle. Even got a full family history saying I'm the illegitimate child of my alter ego."
The huff that leaves her mouth makes him pause for a moment, watching as she wanders further away. "Then, at the beginning of May, this contact appeared on my account manager desk with another part of my soul. I was enraged. Destroyed my study in my fit. The thought of having to marry you was ridiculous. You are my enemy, the one destined to crush me and my plans, but then a thought came to mind. If I could get you on my side, then nothing could stop me from my goals."
She snorts. "Yeah, the goal to kill all muggles and muggleborns."
He smirks, can't blame her for that one. "That may be what my twisted insane mind made it seem like, but it's not. I want our world separate from muggles. Put people in a position they earned not used the coattails of their family to get. I want to bring back the magick holidays." He slowly starts gliding towards her. "Have you noticed that your generation is so small, most magical families only have one child? It is because magick is dying. After all, we are turning away from giving back to Lady magick."
Harmony pauses before her next comment. She had noticed that, though she thought it had just been because of the war. But there has been plenty of time for the families to have more kids. Lost in her thoughts, Harmony didn't even notice that he was behind her until she felt his breath on her ear.
"I want to get magical children out of non-magical homes. So there is less chance of abuse." this time, he could not ignore the way her body went rigid at his closeness.
"You mean, no one will go through what I did?" Her words were breathy as though all the air had been knocked from her lungs with his words.
Those words spurred him into action. Grabbing her wrist, he quickly turns the girl around. She pulls, trying to get away from his grip. He makes sure not to hurt her, but he refuses to let her move away again.
"Let me go, please" He did not like the whimper that the words came out as. What happened to the fiery girl that was in front of him a moment ago. He grabs her chin firmly, tipping it up so he can meet her eyes.
"I promise I'm not about to hurt you, just let me see."
Dark green pools of Avada green look at him, not fearful but sad as she nods her approval. Gently he enters her mind through their connection and the opening she gives. He has to fight for a moment to get in with the protection she gets from the rings. He focuses on the memories of her with her relatives, and he feels himself losing control in indignation. How dare they do this. He leaves her mind, eyes changing to blood red.
"I will kill them for you." He hisses in parseltongue. The worst thing a person can ever do is abuse a child. Even when she was the enemy, he just wanted to kill and be done with it. No child deserves this. She seems embarrassed for a moment then snaps out of it.
Her twisted smile causes blood to flow downwards in his body. "I want to take what is mine, to show them no one can control me, and strike down everyone in my way. Everyone who thought they could take advantage of me. To change this world to the way it should be, get rid of the bigotry. And most of all, destroy Dumbledore for what he has done to me and everyone else."
Yes, this marriage will be better than I thought. "It seems that we have similar goals." He lets go of her wrist, but neither steps away from the other.
"Yes, but there are two more things I need before I agree." He raises his eyebrow, curious about what she wants. "I want you to hand over Pettigrew for my godfather." She mumbles only loud enough for him to notices the change curiously.
After a moment of thought, he nods his head agreeing. Pettigrew was pretty useless and got on his nerves. He didn't mind getting rid of it if it meant gaining this new ally.
"I am not one of your minions." She begins with more convection after her first condition is agreed to. "I will be your wife. We will be partners in this. You will listen to my opinion and respect me. I will have to defer to you on things I don't know or understand, but you will not just push me to the side."
The laugh that leaves his mouth is full of mirth at her condition. This will be fun, indeed. He takes her hand in his, and his other hand wraps around her hip, pulling her to him. "Harmony Lilith Potter, if you will have me, I promise on my new life to fulfill your request of me. Will you marry me, Thomas Lynx Riddle?" He says, leaning down to place his forehead on hers.
Magick filled the air at his proposal surrounding her own, asking it to come out to play. For once in her life, she wholly lets go of her own, allowing someone feel her true potential. It sent shivers down their spines as it intertwined with Tom's. He can not wait to see what she could do.
"I will marry you."
A/N: If you have not figured it out, this story is inspired by Riddle and The Ancient Contract by HERMIT532. Their story is incredible, and it inspired me. If you are enjoying the story, then you should check it out. So there will be parallels in the two stories, but there will be differences. I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my story.
Now that I am at 5 chapters I hope you have a feel for the story and tell me what you think. Please review, and thanks for reading.
