Oh man, It has been a loooooong time since I updated hasn't it but anyway, I am so not giving up on this story and that's for sure!
But you will have to wait for the updates!
And by the way this is not a romance fic between Harry and Tom or Hermione and Tom for that matter, it's a Harry and Hermione parenting Tom Riddle fic…..
CHAPTER – 4
After Hermione had calmed down a bit she made her way back to the common room feeling stupid for getting out with the baby in her arms. They couldn't reveal this to anyone yet. The appearance of the young dark lord would have to remain a secret between Ron, Ginny, Harry, Draco and herself.
At the thought of Ginny, Harry and Draco, she fumed thinking about how they had treated the baby sleeping soundly in her arms. Somehow she just could not see Lord Voldemort in the baby wrapped in his blanket and sucking on his thumb again. Hermione let out a sigh, "Why do I feel so protective of you already?"
She hummed and rocked the baby as she opened the portrait and went in. Seeing that neither Harry not Draco were there she decided to go into the girl's dormitory. She climbed the stairs and opened the door entering and quietly shutting the door behind her.
"Oh Hermione, there you are" Ginny said loudly turning around to look at Hermione who shushed her and rocked the baby who stirred in her arms.
"Be quiet, he's asleep" she said for good measure and adjusted the bundle in her arms before she drew her wand out and conjured a wooden crib to place the baby in.
"Ginny, would you put some sheets over the bedding so I could lay him down?" she asked as the baby in her arms opened his eyes and sniffled before looking at her face and quieting down although whimpering silently.
"I think he is getting hungry again" Hermione said while Ginny set to work on the conjured crib.
"Call for a house elf and give him a bottle or something" Ginny said as she finished preparing the crib for baby Voldemort, she shuddered thinking about just who it was that was in Hermione's arms.
"Winnie" Hermione called and soon there was a pop and the baby in her arms began to wail loudly obviously scared of the commotion.
"Winnie is sorry Miss, Winnie didn't mean to upset the baby Miss, bad Winnie, bad!" the house elf started to hit its head against the wall while Ginny sighed and pulled out her wand "Petrificus totalus' she chanted and the house elf froze.
Ginny ignored Hermione's look of indignation and said "Go bring a bottle of milk for the baby" She released the thing from her charm and held her arms up to Hermione when they heard a pop, "It was making him rustled" she stated pointing to Riddle who was screaming loudly although Hermione was holding and rocking him against her. "Hush baby, there there, come on now, stop crying, I'm with you" Hermione cooed to the baby and the baby settled for a while before the popping sound of the elf rustled him again. Hermione held out her hand for the bottle and once she had it she moved over to a bed and sat down cradling Riddle in her arms as she lifted the bottle to his little mouth which started sucking greedily. In the mean time she changed the baby's diapers magically and then vanished the used ones before rocking the young baby against her again. When Riddle was finished with the milk she placed the empty bottle on the bed before rocking him back and forth.
For some reason Riddle would not quiet down and started to wail and fuss when Hermione got an idea.
She began to sing the lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she was young and feeling quite distressed about the weather. She was afraid of storms and thunder and her mother used this lullaby to reassure her as she fell asleep. She smiled and began humming the familiar tune and then started to sing softly.
Hush-a-bye baby,
In the tree top
The baby looked at her with curiosity and Hermione smiled down at the young dark lord hardly remembering who it was she was holding.
When the wind blows,
The cradle will rock.
The baby started to suck on his thumb while his eyelids fluttered in obvious sleepiness.
When the bow breaks,
The cradle will fall.
The baby's eyes closed firmly as he sucked on his little thumb drifting off into another land.
And down will come baby,
Cradle and all
The baby stirred opening his eyes just a little as though understanding the meaning of the song Hermione was singing.
But when the bow breaks the cradle won't fall,
Cause mommy will catch you cradle and all.
The young dark lord finally slept in peace as Hermione began to rock back and forth as a little snore came out of the baby making her look at the thing with awe, she could not understand how such innocence could be tainted by the world to become into something so vile and disgusting. She swore to herself then that she would do everything in her power to preserve atleast a small part of that innocence within this baby.
Ginny gasped as she said "You said mommy"
Hermione looked at her frowning for a minute before saying "It's just a lullaby Ginny and he's supposed to call me that if he's here to stay"
Ginny gaped at her before she shook her head and said "It's all so surreal"
Hermione smiled and said "When hasn't it been for us?" and that made Ginny smile as well as Hermione placed the babe in the crib and watched the sleeping face for a while.
"You're taking this marvelously well Hermione" Ginny said with worry evident in her tone.
"I suppose I am, I don't know Ginny I can't see him as Voldemort any longer" Hermione said admitting that she was smitten with the baby sleeping peacefully in the crib.
"Mhmm" Ginny hummed and then left the dormitory to meet the rest of her family and head for breakfast.
They were all gathered in the Headmaster's room again, each of them looking aghast and tired from all the happenings of the past months. Dumbledore was scrutinizing the baby in Hermione's arms while he stroked his beard thoughtfully. Severus Snape was also looking at the bundle with a mixture of disbelief and curiosity. The portrait Dumbledore's eyes twinkled a little when he saw Hermione rocking the baby back and forth to placate him from crying.
"What do we do Dumbledore?" Draco Malfoy asked what everyone had wanted to ask ever since they set foot in the room.
"It's not like he's going to disappear" Ginevra Weasley added looking sullen.
"With his luck, it's not bloody likely" Ron said still not quite believing that it was the dark lord in Hermione's arms.
"We have to give him a name and blood adopt him" Hermione said which made all of them turn to look at her in surprise that she would suggest adopting the baby in blood.
"She is quite right" Dumbledore spoke from his portrait.
"But that would mean he would be truly ours in blood" Harry said not wanting to even think about his blood running in the child's veins.
"Exactly and we will have to hide the adoption after performing it so that when he grows up he wouldn't be able to investigate and find out the truth" Hermione said and when everyone in the room except the former Professors looked confused she explained "I don't want him finding out who he is"
"But he will, he is smart Hermione" Harry said eyeing the baby with trepidation.
"I don't think it is possible Harry, the only thing that will connect him to Salazar Slytherin is parseltongue and you speak the language so he will assume he inherited it from you" said Ginny
Harry shook his head not convinced at all by Ginny's words, "There are books about family histories, he is too smart, he will find out one way or another"
"And there is the fact that he would still look like Tom Riddle even if you blood adopt him and all he has to do is search through Hogwarts yearbook and he'll nail it down" said Draco and Harry nodded meaningfully.
"Wait a minute, you're all just assuming he's going to stay, we can't be sure if he's going to be here, I mean we don't even know how he got here" Ronald said and then added "And we don't know from where he came here"
"Time travel?" Harry questioned but Hermione shook her head explaining "It is impossible to travel in time so far especially when it comes to the future"
"Or maybe Voldemort had another back up plan or something, something we didn't know about" Ginny said pacing the room.
"The matter of how he came here is not so important now, let's decide what to do with him" Hermione interrupted them all as she sat down on the armchair she had conjured and placed the infant in her lap.
"He needs a name, a name he won't be able to connect to Voldemort or Tom Riddle, we need something very random and it would be best if he couldn't connect it to Hogwarts either" Harry said thinking about the possible names which wouldn't arouse suspicion in the young dark lord. "It has to be a muggle name or a completely other country magical name" he concluded watching the other's deep in thought.
"It has to relate to us as well Harry" Hermione said and then began to think about all the rare names she knew.
"Maybe we could have his middle name close to Harry's" Ginny suggested and Hermione nodded thinking still to find a good name.
"I can't believe we're about to name the dark lord" Ron said with a nervous laugh before he pulled his hair in frustration. And everyone's mood turned sour as they realized just how serious the situation was, they were having a potentially murderous dark lord in their midst and they were trying to name him when they were supposed to be handing him over to the Ministry but they all knew what the Auror's would do if they told them the baby was Lord Voldemort, baby or not they'd throw him in Azkaban and no one in the room could abandon a barely month old infant like that dark lord or not.
"Dietrich" Hermione said loudly interrupting all of their musings to look at her uncertainly. "It means rightful ruler in German"
"You're forgetting he did want to rule Granger" Draco bristled.
"But we can't give him a name that he wouldn't like, he obviously didn't like Tom and Harry is the light leader after all, it would make sense for us to name him as such" Hermione finished.
"I think it's a wonderful name Miss Granger" Dumbledore said from his portrait which made Hermione smile.
"Uhhh, Hermione doesn't diet mean food in muggle English?" Ron asked not able to hide a grin of amusement.
"Ronald, the pronunciation differs!" Hermione said with a scandalized look.
"You could name him Adalhard, it means brave and it obviously connects to you Gryffindorks but that would be sad because he" Draco pointed to the baby and said "is a born Slytherin"
"That is true, we shouldn't name him as something he is not" Ginny said as she sat down on the Head's table. "I think Dietrich is good"
"Me too" Harry said and all of them nodded eager to get this over and done with.
"Now Harry and Hermione, you should blood adopt him as your own without others knowing, it has to be done illegally I'm afraid" Dumbledore said and when Harry frowned he added "The ministry keeps records of blood adoptions Harry and if this child is here to stay the last thing I want is him finding out his heritage"
"Draco and Ron could be his godfathers" Harry said and the blond nodded. Ron sighed but nodded his head after some time.
"Ginny could be his godmother" said Hermione.
"They can be the witnesses to the blood adoption as well"
"Now as for the middle name" Hermione started and Harry groaned and Hermione glared at him and he put his hands up in surrender.
"Harrison" Ginny supplied and Hermione smiled as Harry scowled at the thought of lending his name to the baby.
"Dietrich Harrison Potter" Hermione said with a bright smile and Harry had a small smile despite himself as Hermione intoned "PERFECT!"
God it was hard to come up with a good name…and I hope it's not too bad?
So yeah, they are going to adopt him and no Tommy is not going to be a goody goody ittle baby in this story, Harry and Hermione will face complications as they try to teach him to love and care….
That's it for now but you'll have atleast three chaps to look forward to within this month!
R&R!