A/N: Thank you all for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thank you to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter! You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peaks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-seven and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-eight soon!
Tom had approached showing Hermione their new home with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. He could admit that he was a proud man and there had always been more than a twinge of embarrassment when he took Hermione round to his flat. That embarrassment was only made worse when he had to move in with her after their marriage. She had the room for it after all. He'd always been a solitary sort of person and hadn't needed much space. He never imagined that he would find a witch that he wanted to cohabitate with, so he never imagined how intensely inadequate he would feel when he couldn't provide for his wife and mother of his child.
But, not anymore.
Abraxas had found them a townhouse in a good part of London that would be more than able to accommodate the growing Riddle family. And even better, he had purchased and made arrangements to furnish the four story walk up as a wedding gift. Tom wasn't stupid. He knew that he wouldn't have been able to afford such a home of this quality on his shopkeeper's salary, but he refused to look at it as charity. He was more than happy to take advantage of his Knight's generosity.
The rest of them had all given various gifts, each one trying to outdo the others to keep in his good graces. Edmond had given a hefty sum of galleons to Tom's Gringotts account, while Evan furnished their new wine cellar fully. Alfie had already been by to work on warding the building with all sorts of arcane protections, while Orion had done the heavy lifting with a Fidelus Charm.
While Tom was confident that their new home was ready, he was still nervous to show it off to Hermione, hoping that she would approve of it. But, knowing that he could not put it off forever, one early Saturday in March, he side along apparated her into the foyer with his hands over her eyes to heighten the suspense.
She giggled when they arrived and he still did not let up his fingers. "Tom," she scolded playfully. "Are you going to let me see, finally?"
Taking a deep breath, he pulled back his hands and let her adjust to the grand room. A dark wood staircase with a green runner was the main focal point and it was clear that the place had been decorated with a Slytherin in mind.
Hermione did not say anything at first, keeping him in a horrible state of distress. She spun around, then, taking it all in, but still saying no words good or bad.
Feeling on edge, Tom took her by the hand. "Come on, I'll show you around," he said, before leading her up the stairs.
On the first floor, there was an office space for both him and her on either side of the building. The room he'd selected for her overlooked the back garden and let in a nice amount of sunlight during the day. Aurelia had outdone herself in furnishing the room in a comfortable yet elegant way. He could just imagine Hermione curling up on the little loveseat by the fireplace in the winter, a huge tome spread out over her lap.
The second flood held their room, sophisticated and luxurious with an ensuite bathroom complete with large tub that he could imagine indulging Hermione in. Though they had been spending more and more time together over the past weeks, he was looking forward to waking up to Hermione everyday. He hadn't imagined that a witch would make him happy, but Hermione did. And, as a bit of a hedonist at heart, Tom needed Hermione in his life.
He took a detour and showed her to the top floor, which had enough space for four bedrooms.
Hermione raised one eyebrow at that. "Four bedrooms?" she asked, sounding shocked. "Listen, I know we haven't really spoken much about family planning yet, but I can't imagine having four children, Tom."
"We can have as many children as you want to," he promised her. Children had never been part of his grand master plan. Tom was far more interested in making sure that he lived on forever, rather than his name living on forever, but since learning that Hermione was carrying a small part of him, he found himself quite taken with the idea. He was looking forward to passing along his knowledge to his future daughter, who would be a delightful combination of himself and Hermione. Considering the extraordinary power and skill they each possessed, he was certain that his own child would be more than impressive.
That being said, he didn't feel any sort of drive to go forth and continue to multiply, overrunning Hogwarts with his progeny for years to come. If Hermione wanted to have more children, he was happy to give her them, but he wasn't going to be the one pushing her into it.
She turned to face him. "Good, because I don't even know how I'm going to handle being a mother to one child," she said, opening up and being a bit vulnerable with him.
He didn't like the idea that she thought she wouldn't be good at something she put her mind to. He closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her to hold her tight. One large hand cupped the side of her face gently, so that he could look into her warm brown eyes. "I am sure that there is nothing you can't do if you set your mind to it, Hermione," he whispered, wanting to give her every compliment in the world. "You have never disappointed me yet."
The witch scoffed. "Well, nothing I've ever tried has been like parenting yet," she argued back.
Tom smirked. "Listen, there is literally no one else that I would choose to do this with," he told her. "I never would have thought about a child if you hadn't told me that you were pregnant. You have completely changed the path that I was on, Hermione."
She gave him a hesitant smile. "I am glad that I have you as a partner in this, too," she answered, looking at him like he hung the moon.
"Even if we only ever have this child, I am sure that we won't be burdened with the extra space. Our daughter can have a playroom and an office of her own for lessons and maybe we have a guest room," he suggested.
"Are we going to be entertaining a lot of guests?" she asked with a giddy laugh.
"It would not be my preference, but I suppose it's nice to have one to offer," he said with a shrug. "Come on, I haven't even shown you the best part."
Tom led her back down to the second floor to the room across from theirs. It was the largest room in the house and something that he was sure she would enjoy. Opening the door, he led her into their very own library, all of his books already placed on the shelves around the rooms.
"Oh, Tom," she said, spinning around like a giddy child. "My very own library."
"Our very own library," he corrected her gently. "I told Aurelia not to touch this room — that you would want to handle the furnishing yourself. I want you to set it up just how you want it. You can even put in whatever kind of organizational system you want when you bring your books."
"Aurelia," Hermione said, with a pause. "So the Malfoys really just gave us this townhouse out of the goodness of their hearts, then?" She did not seem to be entirely comfortable with the idea.
"Well, not out of the goodness of their hearts. It was a wedding gift," he said tersely.
"I'm just not used to getting a whole bloody house as a wedding gift," Hermione said. "You told me before that your father had an entire manor and that he's no longer alive. It's yours by right, if you just put in a little bit of effort. I can help you."
"Is this townhouse not enough for you, Hermione?" he asked, even though he knew he was being unfair. "Now you need a whole manor house to be happy?"
"No, of course not," she argued. "I'd be happy in my flat with you until we could find something that we could afford. But...don't you want something of your own? Something with your name on it?"
Tom had considered Riddle Manor, but he didn't really want a reminder of his muggle father or the way that he had been rejected by him. He did not want to go through all of that effort for something that was never really his to begin with. He'd been running from the name Riddle for years. It felt weird to be accepting that legacy already, he didn't need the house to go with it.
"Abraxas wants to keep me happy," he explained, wanting her to drop the subject all together. "He knew that this would make me happy. I'm not going to turn up my nose at his generosity."
"I just...I don't want to feel beholden to him," she whispered to him. "What if he tries to use this against us...get you to do something during the campaign, some...political favor?"
Tom smirked at her, remembering that she was decidedly not a Slytherin in nature. (He hadn't put much thought into which Hogwarts House she would have belonged to. Ravenclaw, perhaps?) "I would be disappointed if he didn't try," he teased. "But he also is smart enough to realize that I will only do what I want to do."
"I just don't like some of the politics that Abraxas has," she said, unwilling to give up the fight so easily. She was passionate about the things that she believed in - just one of the many things that had drawn him to her in the first place.
He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "You don't need to worry about this. Okay? Abraxas wouldn't dream of crossing me," he told her. "Let's talk about something else. I was curious...do you have any name ideas for our daughter?"
She spun away from him, going to walk around the room, pursuing the half empty shelves. "I hadn't really given it much thought yet," she said with a shrug. "I'm not one of those witches who's had baby names picked out since I was five."
"Victoria?" he suggested.
"A bit on the nose, don't you think? She'll be born while you are campaigning or perhaps even after your victory," she said with a grin. "I don't want people to think we are rubbing their noses in it."
"I am pleased you are so sure that I could win," he said, buoyed by her faith in him. "Alexandria?"
"I am sensing a very regal trend in your suggestions, Tom," she teased. She picked up a book off of the shelf and leafed through it.
"She will be our little princess, she should have a name to suit," he answered.
"How about Rose?" she suggested. "Or maybe Grace?"
"Hm, I rather like the name Grace," Tom told her, though he still did not feel like it was quite right. "Phillipa? We could call her Pippa for short."
Hermione laughed. "Pippa Riddle — that is a rather sweet name," she said, biting her lower lip. "Tom, I was meaning to ask you something. A name that just seemed to…pop in my head out of thin air and I can't seem to get rid of it. Does the name Voldemort mean anything to you?"
Tom felt as if all the breath had been punched from his gut. And who should land the blow, but the woman he had come to trust. How could she have possibly come across that name when he'd never even uttered it out loud?
"Voldemort?" he repeated, hoping to sound nonchalant, though his heart was beating wildly against his rib cage. "Where did you hear that?"
"That's the thing," she said, setting the book back on the shelf so she could give him her full attention. "I don't know where. But it feels…I don't know…important."
"Well, I haven't the faintest idea," he lied to her. "Why don't you go home and pack a small bag. We'll sleep here tonight. We can pack your flat up fully tomorrow."
"Great idea," she said with a smile. "Shall we get a takeaway tonight?"
"Mm," Tom agreed, even though his mind was a million miles away. "Yes, whatever you want, darling."
Hermione, pleased with the direction and none the wiser to his unease, happily left him to his own devices in the library.
Tom could not relax. How could she have figured out the name? Once again, he was beginning to grow concerned that she was perhaps too perfect. Had she been designed to uniquely pique his interest? Only, surely she wouldn't marry him and get pregnant by him if she was merely some spy trying to bring him down. That was so permanent he couldn't imagine someone sacrificing their life like that.
And yet…
He walked across the room and found the book that she had been looking at. To his surprise, he realized that it was his diary from his time at Hogwarts. And crucially, his first horcrux. He leafed through the pages as she had and found them still blank. Perhaps handling the dark object had somehow triggered the name in her? After all, with their marriage, their very souls were now connected.
Maybe his horcrux had just recognized its other part in Hermione?
Yes, he decided, that must be what happened. Because, the alternative was too sinister for him to bear.
