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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Harriet was not as accustomed to sneaking in and out of Hogwarts as her lover.
It took a bit for her to figure out how to get Merope into the castle undetected.
Eventually, with Ron and Hermione's help, the Golden Trio managed to guide Tom's mother into Hogwarts using a cobwebbed, ancient passage not far from the Chamber of Secrets.
Harriet frowned as she watched Merope glance around in wonder.
"Hogwarts was the first place that ever felt like home to me." Harriet nodded.
"I can see why, it's…..it's lovely." Merope whispered as Harriet, Ron, and Hermione led her through the stone hallways.
Ron blinked, but Hermione and Harriet frowned.
"...Miss Gaunt?" Hermione asked.
Merope mirrored Hermione's expression as she asked, "Is this your first time seeing Hogwarts?"
"Yes, dear." Merope answered, "I'm afraid that it is."
Harriet's heart broke while she listened, but Hermione quickly and tactfully tried to assuage the awkwardness of the situation as she smiled at Merope and said, "Well, we're happy to have you here! I'm sure Tom will be fine, he's quite strong and very smart."
"Thank you, dear." Merope smiled sadly at Hermione, "My son is indeed a special young man."
While Hermione and Merope chatted, Harriet walked beside Ron, who threw her a sorrowful glance of pity.
His family had felt plenty of financial strain over the years, but that night, as he met a witch who had never had the privilege of attending Hogwarts at all, Ron realized just how fortunate he had truly been.
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The night was cool and foreboding as Tom made his way up the stone steps to the impressive front door of Riddle Manor while Harriet and her friends marched his mother through Hogwarts.
He took a deep breath as he raised a hand and used the elegant, brass knocker to announce his arrival.
Tom couldn't help but smirk as he eyed the grandeur of the building.
The mansion itself stood tall and imposing, with elegant brickwork and sweeping lines of handmade shingles across its wide, high roof.
After Tom banged the knocker against the door, he blinked in wonder as he marveled at the possibility that Riddle Manor could very possibly be his birthright.
Had Tom Riddle senior fathered sons before him?
The idea that someone may have come to claim the Riddle inheritance first made Tom's face twist into a grimace of irritation.
His thoughts were called back to the present though as he heard footsteps approach from inside the house.
Tom straightened his back and put on his most charming smile as the large front door slowly swung open.
An elderly man in a dapper black suit peered out suspiciously as he asked, "Good evening…..sir. May I help you in some way?"
"Good evening to you, sir." Tom nodded politely, "I've come to call upon the master of this house."
"...At this late hour?" The elderly man asked with an incredulous scowl.
Tom assumed the muggle in front of him to be the estate's butler as he nodded and replied, "Yes, sir. I do apologize for my unusual timing, but I'm afraid it's a rather urgent matter."
The elderly man frowned at Tom for a long moment, but Tom held his charming smile in a silent battle of wills against the house's butler.
His smooth voice finally broke the tense quiet that hung in the air.
"...Is your master available?" Tom asked.
"That may very well depend on who is calling, sir?" The elderly man sniffed.
"Of course." Tom nodded, "Tom Marvolo Riddle junior is seeking your master tonight."
The butler's eyes widened.
He gazed at Tom as if he were some sort of monstrous creature that had made its way to the house as he swallowed and said quickly, "Forgive me, I'm afraid my master is indisposed at this time."
Tom began to protest as soon as he noticed that the elderly man moved, "Sir, if I could just-!"
He spoke too late.
The butler slammed the door in Tom's face to rudely interrupt his plea.
A frown twisted Tom's lips as he stood on Riddle Manor's splendid front porch.
For a single moment, he allowed himself to daydream.
What would his life have been like if he had been born in that house?
If he had been raised in that house?
Tom narrowed his dark eyes as anger boiled his blood.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out his wand, and blasted Riddle Manor's front door open with a great cry.
The elderly man had vanished by the time Tom stepped through the broken front door only to be greeted by silence.
He frowned as he glanced around himself.
With seething envy, he admired the tasteful opulence in which Riddle Manor had been decorated.
Elegant paneling surrounded the mahogany walls.
Finely crafted light fixtures hung throughout the massive foyer and over the double staircase.
Beautiful carpets imported from far away lands covered the hearty floorboards with intricate designs and plush fibers.
The estate itself was classic, powerful, elegant, dignified, noteable, as if the house itself were a physical representation of everything Tom strove to be.
He felt uncomfortably small as he took his first steps through what could have been his birthplace.
A frown marred Tom's features as he continued to gawk at his surroundings.
Priceless vases stood on tables, massive mirrors hung on the walls, in between family portraits and priceless paintings.
Tom sucked in a breath as he heard voices echo down the empty hallways from two massive doors at the far end of the corridor.
He blinked and slowly moved towards the sound as if he were in a trance.
Although a plethora of valuable, delicate items surrounded him, Tom destroyed nothing as he slowly glided down the main hallway of the house.
He had no intentions of harming the place that would one day be his.
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"And then I said to him….'Well, why don't you go ahead and have me end your funding? Let your pathetic little business see exactly how far it can get without my family's assistance?' HA!" Tom Riddle senior guffawed as he sat at the head of the family's large, ebony dining table.
Across the massive room, a fire roared in the expansive hearth as the elderly man and woman seated beside Tom senior laughed at his confession as if it were a great joke.
"They'll be ruined in a month without us, well done, son! Well done!" Thomas Riddle chortled.
"Your father and I are very proud of all you've accomplished, my darling." Mary Riddle smiled as she laid her hand on her son's.
Tom senior visibly flinched as he jerked away from his mother's loving touch with a sneer, "Don't put your leathery hands on me, Mother! Your wrinkled, old skin is callous enough to cut…...I'd hate to send you and Father away again, you know….."
The happy contentment of the moment ended as Mary quickly withdrew her hand.
A somberness settled between Tom Riddle senior's parents for a brief moment as they exchanged nervous glances.
"Forgive me, my son." Mary whispered as she meekly stared down into her lap.
"Women should know their place." Thomas nodded at his son, "Your mother's always been a bit mad about you, Tom…..I hardly hope you'll consider that reason enough to send us away once more. She meant no offense, you know the nature of her kind, women are fair but stupid."
"Perhaps you speak wisely, Father." Tom Riddle senior huffed.
"...She won't let it happen again, son." Thomas promised his only child as he shot his wife a threatening glare.
Mary opened her mouth to reply, but before any words could tumble out, the massive, mahogany, dining room doors burst open.
The Riddle family looked over in surprise as a young stranger boldly strode inside.
Tom junior's Hogwarts robes swished around his legs while he approached the table and took his first look at his father.
The connection between them was immediate and unquestionable.
As Tom Riddle senior and Tom Riddle junior's eyes met, they instantly recognized each other as father and son, yet Tom senior hissed, "Who the hell are you?!"
The resemblance was almost eerily exact.
If the two Toms had been the same age, they would have been nearly identical.
"Are you Tom Riddle senior?" Tom asked his father.
"No, I'm Thomas Riddle senior." Tom's grandfather nodded, "Who are you, boy?"
"Is he that awful whore's child?" Mary asked her husband in a whisper.
A dangerous glare crossed Tom's face while he listened.
He didn't hesitate to turn his scowl onto Tom senior, cross his arms, and proudly state, "I am your son, Tom Marvolo Riddle junior, and I've come to speak with you."
"Leave this house at once!" Tom's father commanded him with a wave of his hand, "How dare you have the courage to show your face here! You are no son of mine!...I'll proudly proclaim that to anyone! Any day!"
"If the similarities between us don't provide enough proof, I gladly can with a blood test." Tom said calmly, "We have a lot to discuss, Father."
"We have nothing to discuss, you son of a bitch!" Tom senior snapped. His dark eyes were as narrow as Tom's while he spat, "Hoodwinked, bamboozled…..I have no memory of your conception. I only remember waking up, as if from a nightmare, to see the filthy face of that ugly, lying witch beside me…….I prayed you both would die when I left her that morning. I shouldn't have shown her the mercy of letting her live…..that appears to have only created more problems……It's funny, though, isn't it? She was young and stupid, I was certain she'd starve to death on the streets!"
Tom clenched his jaw as he listened to his father's hateful speech.
While Tom senior spoke, Thomas Riddle rose from his seat, quietly crept past his grandson, and silently padded out of the dining room.
Tom had become so consumed by his conversation with his father that he had barely heard his grandfather move.
He resisted the urge to draw his wand as his father sneered and asked, "How did you find me, boy? Are you a witch like her?"
"A wizard." Tom corrected his muggle father..
His dreams of finding a loving welcome crumbled away as Tom senior and Mary Riddle exchanged wicked cackles with each other.
"There you have it, Mother!" Tom senior exclaimed arrogantly as he sat back in his engraved dining chair with a boisterous laugh, "Fathering an ordinary bastard would have been too simple for me! No, I fathered a bastard freak! Is that not a hilarity in itself?!"
Mary Riddle joined her son while they both laughed until tears ran down their faces as if Tom junior's very existence was nothing more than a hilarious testament to his wealthy, handsome father's virility.
"The conditions of my conception were no fault of my own!" Tom junior insisted as his father and grandmother laughed in his face.
Tom junior balled his hands into fists as he grimaced at his cruel family, but he failed to notice Thomas Riddle silently sweep back through the dining room door with the old family musket in his arms, ready and loaded.
"The least you can do is speak to me! You are my father! You were married to my mother!...This house and everything in it is my birthright!" Tom junior snarled.
"A sham marriage to which I did not agree is hardly any marriage at all." Tom senior chuckled as he wiped the tears of amusement from his handsome face.
Tom junior heard a voice call out suddenly from behind him, "Son, do you mind terribly if I kill your bastard?"
Tom senior shrugged as he raised a silver goblet to his lips and chuckled, "No, I don't mind at all if you kill my bastard, Father. I suppose I should have done it long ago."
Tom whirled around with wide eyes to stare at his grandfather who pointed the loaded musket directly at him.
He opened his mouth to shout in rageful, horrified protest, but Thomas Riddle had already pulled the trigger.
The old man's trembling hands saved Tom's life as his unsteadiness badly misguided his aim.
BANG!
Tom junior cried out as the shot from the muggle weapon ripped through his shoulder to shred his Hogwarts robes, tear his flesh, and shatter his bones as he fell to the floor.
On his way down, Tom junior felt as if his life itself had fallen to pieces.
He had been stripped of his birthright, he had no father, no family at all besides Merope.
As Tom junior's blood splattered on the wall and floor, his grandfather casually loaded another shot into the musket.
Tom junior lamented the fact that he had no dignity left, no joy, no hope, nothing except pain…..pain and rage.
Tom senior continued on with his meal as if nothing at all were happening while Thomas Riddle stepped towards his grandson with a gleeful smile of pure malice on his aged face.
It was that horrible smile that motivated Tom to fight.
The desire to see Harriet and his mother again, to not die on the floor, beaten and bloody like a dog, overwhelmed Tom junior as he grit his teeth against his pain and watched his grandfather point the loaded musket at him again.
"Any last words, bastard?" Thomas Riddle chuckled as he slipped his finger onto the trigger.
"Only two, Grandfather." Tom whispered.
Crimson blood flowed freely from the gaping wound on his shoulder.
Mary Riddle and Tom senior casually glanced over with minimal interest to hear what Tom junior would have to say, as if they watched a rat flail in a trap.
He moved surprisingly smoothly in his weakened state.
Tom junior swiftly used his uninjured arm to reach inside his pocket, pull out his wand, and point it at his grandfather before he shouted, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Tom junior had used Dark Magic many times before, but never the Killing Curse.
He quickly discovered he had not properly prepared for it.
The ominous blast clawed through Tom junior's soul as hideous, green light burst forth from the tip of his wand and slammed into Thomas Riddle to snatch the life from his body.
Thomas Riddle screeched in pain before he ungracefully collapsed to the floor, dead.
The heavy thud of Thomas Riddle's lifeless body as it smashed into the dark floorboards earned a sorrowful wail from his wife and an angry roar from his son.
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"Hurry up! Please, hurry up!" Merope begged in Parseltongue.
"I am moving as fast as I can without being seen……We must keep to the trees." Her answer came in a low hiss.
Merope and Harriet clung tightly to the spikes that bordered the heavy scales of the Basilisk's back as the giant snake slithered with incredible speed through the forest that surrounded Little Hangleton.
The Basilisk's cumbersome body snapped trees and thickets in its wake as it prowled the outside of the village and approached the rolling countryside nearby the small town.
"There!" Merope cried to Harriet as she pointed towards Riddle Manor once they reached the clearing at the bottom of the estate's grounds, "Tom's father used to live there, he most likely still does…..That's the Riddle family's home."
Harriet blinked at the magnificent mansion in silent wonder.
"Move!" Merope hissed to the Basilisk once the pause became too lengthy for her liking.
The giant snake said nothing in reply as it hurriedly slithered towards the house, but Harriet asked Merope nervously, "...And you think he's come here, then?"
As Merope and Harriet spoke, through two windows on Riddle manor's lower floor, they saw the telltale colour of evil, green magic menacingly flash.
Merope and Harriet glanced at each other with their eyes wide and their mouths open in shock.
Harriet swallowed as disbelieving fear flooded her heart while she asked, "D-Do you think that was-?"
"-Take me to my son! NOW! HURRY!" Merope hissed at the Basilisk as she gave it a spurring kick.
"I am doing my best, mother of Slytherin's heir." The Basilisk answered in a low, irritated hiss.
The giant snake increased its pace as it hurtled towards Riddle Manor.
Merope's heart pounded.
Harriet's stomach churned with worry.
The heir of Slytherin had unknowingly walked into a serpent's den.