Author's note: Hope y'all like this

Chapter Seventeen: The Book

A few days passed. Within that time, Ariel's affections for Snape doubled. Their first date together was populated entirely by animated conversations on a variety of subjects (with the one glaring exception being their relations with Tom/ Voldemort). In their discussions, they found they were held identical positions on numerous subjects including but not limited to: potions, politics, culture, mythical beings rights, marriage, and parenting (to other's relief neither of them wanted children preferring rather being childless adults who did as they pleased for as long as they pleased). Severus managed to tell her his life story in 5 minutes and happily spent the majority of the evening listening to Ariel tell stories of herself, of her former life in the sea, of old adventures and of course, of her family.

"Six sisters?"

"Uh-huh. My poor dad had to wear a bra just to fit in."

"It must have been constant chaos."

"I loved it. I was the baby so I always had someone to play with or someone to annoy."

"I imagine you ran...wild."

Ariel smiled. The way he said it made her insides ache. She reached for his hand and started rubbing his thumb, never losing eye contact as she said, "Oh yeah."

By the time midnight came, so did Ariel. Six times. She also came to the sleepy realization, half a second before she passed out from sheer exhaustion, was that her infatuation for him had doubled—if not quadrupled—in that one night. And she knew it wouldn't be long before she would be truly deeply madly in love with this man.

It took two weeks but she proved herself right. One morning during another thrilling round of sex she blurted out, mid-climax, "I love you." Snape ceased thrusting long enough to stop and ask, "What did you say?" But Ariel lied and said it was a heat of the moment act, nothing more. They continued fucking but Snape, who felt what Ariel was too cowardly to admit, exerted every last ounce of passion he could into their sex so that when they both came undone, he could plunge forward into an open mouth kiss look her in the eye and say, "I love you too."

Ariel's heart seized and burned for him so profoundly after that if he had asked her to ruin her life for him, she would've without hesitation.

By six weeks, they were practically living together, effectively splitting their free time together between Hogwarts and Spinner's End. Ariel moved into his childhood home since there was no sense in hunting for a new home when his sat unlived in for 9 months out of the year and spent her days thoroughly enjoying full use of his laboratory while he worked after which they would rejoin in the evenings and enjoy each other's intimacy.

When she wasn't enjoying the intimacies of a new, fulfilling relationship, she did as she pleased. Which often meant potion-making, or exploring, or, as was the case for her on that fine crisp November morning, visiting her sisters.

She hadn't been in that old house for more than a few minutes, having Floo Powdered from the warmth of the Hogwarts bed to brush her hair and teeth before she would dart off to meet her all six of her sisters off the coast of some nameless beach when she was jolted out of mindless contentment by the sound of an angry voice hissing, "If I don't find that fucking book I'm going to slaughter every single fucking person in this deadbeat town."

She stopped brushing her hair and cried, "Tom?"

Pause. "Mom?"

She rushed out the bathroom, hairbrush still in hand, and peered down the hallway banister which gave a full view of the living room. Voldemort was crouched before one of the wall length bookcases but his face was drained of the rage she heard earlier replaced by the glee of a small child who had spotted their parent after a short but agonizing separation.

"Mom."

"Tom...What are you doing here?" She asked, trying to sound casual as she descended the stairs.

"I'm just looking for a book I lent Severus a while back." He said with a light almost nervous laugh as he slowly stood to greet her. "Going to catch up on some light reading finally."

She knew, the way most people who spoke with Voldemort knew, he was probably lying but she ignored it in order to appraise him. It had been nearly two months since they last saw each other and he looked terrible even for him. The white in his eyes was streaked with red and he bore the haggard, shallow-faced expression of a man who hadn't seen sunlight in many weeks. Purple and green veins glistened against his bald head like fresh claw marks.

"Oh, Tom…You look like you haven't slept in weeks."

"That depends. What day is it?"

"The first."

"Of October?"

"November."

His eyes rounded with mild surprise. "Oh wow. It's been six weeks." He let out a small, delirious chuckle of a man who had discovered he had unintentionally done something naughty. "That's a new record for me." But when he caught her worried eye, he exhaled pensively and said, "You look like you're on your way to the beach."

She looked down at herself, having forgotten she had tugged on her swimsuit mere minutes beforehand. "I am. I'm going to go to visit my sisters."

"Aw, a sister day. Sounds delightful," he said with a grin, his head turned slightly towards the bookshelf. He had finally spotted the book he needed out of the corner of his eye. A slender black spellbook for which held the curse he needed. He grabbed the book with one hand and turned to leave, telling Ariel, "Well I won't keep you. I hope you enjoy your day. We should do lunch soon."

Ariel tried to catch a glimpse at the cover of the book he took but only saw symbols she didn't understand written, in what looked like, crystallized blood. She didn't have to know what the book was called to know the book possessed an energy that sent a clammy fear down her spine. It was clear that this book held the power to create, and teach great evil and that if she let him walk away with that book it would cause great harm.

"You know, you're welcome to come and meet your aunts if you want," Ariel said to the back of his head.

He stopped so abruptly he felt his heart slam into his ribcage. Aunts. The very word tickled his ears. Less than two months ago, every last one of his family members was dead. Now, not only did he have a mom—a beautiful, sweet, loving, lovely, funny, fun, brilliant mom too—but now…he had aunts. Six aunts.

But then his mind reminded him of his work. Since his duel with Albus, he had become obsessed with getting everything ready for war. In his last six weeks, he had spent every last hour of his time in a sunless cave trying to figuring out a way to spare the inferi from decomposition. And here he finally found the book that held the curse that would solve his decaying army problem. "Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude…"

"You can't intrude if you're being invited." She replied, taking a half step towards him, wearing the sweetest smile. "Besides, I'm sure my sisters would love to meet their nephew."

At the sound of "nephew", Voldemort made a noise he wasn't proud of: something of a deranged little squawk of utter jubilation. Then with breathless energy, he said, "I would love to." He quickly stuffed the black book into the pocket of his robes then dug into his other pocket and drew out a vial which he promptly uncorked and ingested the contents in a single gulp.

His face contorted instantly. Color grew within his cheeks, hair produced at remarkable speed and, to her heart-stopping surprise, a face she once knew returned. In less than a minute's time, a twenty-something Tom Riddle stood in Voldemort's robes wearing the widest smile.

"I kept some hair for when I need to look…well…human." He explained, taking delight in her involuntary stares. "Better?"

Ariel didn't say anything right away. Instead, she continued to scan over his lovely face with widened eyes for a heartbeat. Then she took a step forward and slowly lifted her hand to his hairline. He didn't move his head when she ran her fingers through his dark-brown waves.

For a moment, they stood there, studying each another's face with loving eyes.

"Wow," Ariel breathed. "How old were you here?"

"Twenty-five I think." It was in-between the making of his first and second Horcrux. Back when he was still discovering the lows he would sink in order to be immortal.

"Twenty-five," she sighed, letting her hand drop to her side. "I don't even remember my twenties."

Tom gave her a closed-lipped smile. "Probably from all that drinking."

Ariel pinched him in the upper arm. "You're such an asshole." Tom feigned as if she had stabbed him and she pinched him again harder to which he let out an actual yelp of pain. But then they dissolved into fits of laughter and for a moment it felt like old times.

Eventually, Ariel remembered her plans and she prepared their leave by placing seashells in a circle on the ground, which Tom watched with a vague smile on his handsome face. He was filled with a joy he never knew or never expected to know. Everything was coming together for him: Albus was dying, no doubt the old man would be dead before the end of next year; he had more followers now than he did forty years ago; and soon, when he obtained the Elder Wand, his powers will be stronger than they ever were, even before his quasi-death; and now, on top of all that, he was apart of a family.

When Ariel gestured for him to step into the circle, he jogged to join her and laced his fingers around hers, planting a quick chaste kiss on her cheekbone as they disappeared from Spinner's End.