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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To Harriet, the days seemed longer and the hours more tedious to pass as graduation approached.
With the baby due to arrive a mere three days after the ceremony, her alpha and Hogwarts' staff gave her generous allowances.
Tom stayed beside her day and night as her scent gradually sweetened.
It nearly drove him mad as her hormones begged him to remain close and ease her aches.
If Harriet complained of fatigue, the castle's professors allowed Tom to escort her to her nest.
Although gossip flourished and bets were made on exactly when the baby would be born, the couple ignored those pesky whispers from their peers.
While Harriet slept through one rainy afternoon, Tom lovingly gazed down at her.
His hands cradled her bulging belly as an uncharacteristic softness glimmered in his dark eyes.
Tom Riddle loved his little family more than anything else in the world.
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Once the morning of Hogwarts' graduation ceremony finally arrived, Tom woke and breathed a sigh of relief.
They had made it at last!
They only had to endure a few brief hours of formality until he and his omega could focus less on concluding their academic careers and more on their little one.
As he laid there with mirth tickling his heart, he noticed the sheets rustle beside him.
He blinked as he glanced over, though he did not speak until he was certain Harriet had already woken, "...Sweetling?"
"Good morning Tom." She sighed as she kept her eyes closed.
"...Is something wrong?" He asked quickly.
His eyes widened as he noticed the sharp increase of decadent sweetness in his mate's scent.
"No, nothing's wrong." Harriet irritably huffed, "I'm just a bit tired still, that's all. I'm going back to sleep now……I need you to be quiet."
He frowned as he watched his mate roll over in her nest before her breathing became slow and deep once more.
Tom checked the time and delighted in knowing he could let his pregnant wife sleep a while longer.
Worriedly, he frowned as he let his hands slip under the covers to cradle her swollen abdomen.
Tom couldn't quite explain the slight tremble in his limbs or the racing of his heart, but his instincts knew what he did not.
His mate would have a great need for him later that particular day.
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Tom stoically remained calm as Harriet confirmed his suspicions an hour later.
Instead of her usual, sweet, kind personality, Tom watched her become visibly hateful and easily frustrated.
He ignored his darling's rudeness as he helped her into her altered uniform before he gently brushed her hair.
Harriet sighed as she sat in her nest afterwards and laid a hand over her mounded belly.
In place of her typical smile, she wore a firm frown on her face that morning.
Harriet didn't much care about graduation or what it would mean for her and Tom.
The gnawing ache in her lower back that wrapped around the front of her belly consumed her thoughts.
Fatigued and out of sorts, all Harriet wanted to do was lie in her nest with Tom beside her, even if he had grated on her nerves since she had woken.
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Harriet's pesky, gnawing ache continued while the couple ate breakfast an hour later.
The other students cast nervous glances at Mrs. Riddle, but she only scowled in response as she kept a hand on her belly and poked her food with a fork.
Tom frowned next to her at Gryffindor's table.
His new seat had been another generous accommodation allotted by the staff.
Tom, Ron, and Hermione all gobbled down their meals, though it did not escape their notice Harriet only took two small bites.
"Sweetling, you should eat a bit more." Tom gently urged her as he reached out and laid a hand on her abdomen, "Our child needs nourishment and you need your strength for today."
He didn't yet understand how true his words would become.
"I don't want to eat!" Harriet stubbornly refused. She narrowed her eyes as she abruptly dropped her fork and stood up, "...I don't feel well, either! I'm going to the lavatory."
Tom glanced at Hermione and Ron as Harriet stomped out of the Great Hall to head towards the bathroom.
Ron gazed at Tom wide-eyed, but Hermione gave him a curt nod.
Together, Harriet's mate and best friend rose from their seats to follow her.
For an omega in her condition, Mrs. Riddle could still move fairly quickly.
She reached the bathroom with an angry glare on her face while her fists shook in unexplained rage.
Before she could let out an infuriated scream at nothing, she raced into a nearby stall, hunched over the toilet, and began to vomit violently.
That gnawing ache in her back frustrated her more than her sudden illness, but to her relief, hands suddenly pulled her dark hair away from her face.
"Harriet! We're here!" Hermione cried over the noise of her retching.
"I've got you, sweetling. That's it….let it out." Tom whispered as he clutched her hair in one hand and rubbed soothing circles into her lower back with the other.
After Harriet finally finished, Hermione helped her clean up as she closed her eyes and silently wished Tom wouldn't stop his ministrations.
The counter pressure from his hand seemed to help ease the miserable pressure at the base of her spine.
Hermione frowned while Tom asked Harriet, "...Sweetling?...Do you think it's time?"
"Oh, how should I know?!" Harriet snapped as she opened her eyes.
Although he showed no outward signs of his anxiety, Tom's pulse raced as he watched his heavily expectant omega wrap her hands around her belly and blow out a breath while she confessed, "I don't feel well…...I…..I need to be in my nest."
"What about graduation?" Hermione frowned.
Harriet scowled.
Despite all her years of hard work, she didn't particularly care much about the ceremony right then.
"We have another hour before it starts, sweetling." Tom nodded, "Would you like to lie down again until then?"
"Yes." Harriet answered quietly.
Tom carried Harriet down to the Chamber of Secrets while Hermione worriedly followed alongside them.
As they went, Harriet sighed and laid her head on Tom's shoulder.
For some reason, she couldn't let go of the mortal dread that held her in a vice-like grip.
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As the trio entered the subterranean room, Tom brought Harriet to her nest while Hermione respectfully waited outside.
"Here we are, my love, oh…….What's that?" Tom asked as he carried his beloved into their bedroom.
Harriet groaned as she blinked and looked up.
Her emerald eyes narrowed to incredulous slits as she saw the plush dragon toy she had purchased on the day of her mysterious attack, clean and new as it waited on top of her nest.
"I…..I bought that when…..when those four men came after me in Hogsmeade." She said while she scowled at the toy in confusion.
"...What?" Tom frowned.
"I bought it before the attack….It must have fallen from my hands, I haven't thought about it anymore, but now….it's…..it's here." Harriet explained.
She reached towards the toy as Tom gently lowered her into her nest.
He scowled as Harriet took the toy dragon in her hands before she asked, "Tom?...How is this possible?"
"I don't know, sweetling." He frowned.
Harriet grimaced as another uncomfortable spasm took her mind off the mystery.
Tom kept his frown as he let her cling to him while he massaged her back.
He kissed the nape of her neck while he whispered, "We can ask questions later. For now, let's just get you two through the morning, alright?"
Two.
Harriet knew as she squeezed her eyes shut that by the end of the day, her and her baby would indeed be two, not one.
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The next hour offered Harriet no rest as her pain crescendoed.
Tom and Hermione threw each other nervous glances as they helped her out to the front of the castle where the graduation ceremony had been slated to take place.
She barely noticed their qualms as the rhythmic spasms in her back and belly increased.
Harriet managed somehow to step forward and collect her diploma from Professor Dumbledore once her name was called, but she hastily turned and shakily walked back to her seat in the stands which had been erected for the day.
Hogwarts' staff, the other students, and the attending families all watched her closely as she rejoined her husband and friends.
"Sweetling…..?" Tom asked as he placed a hand on Harriet's shoulder.
The beautiful spring day irritated her.
Tom's voice irritated her.
The oxygen in her lungs irritated her.
"I'm fine!" Harriet snapped with an animalistic hiss as she sat, rigidly hunched over her belly.
Tom glanced at Hermione who raised her eyebrows.
"It may help to take deep breaths, Harriet." Hermione whispered as she gave her hand a supportive squeeze.
The hard cramps in Harriet's belly and back made her want to growl in anguish.
For some reason, holding back from making any sound seemed to make the pain worse as one graduation speech after another droned on while Harriet battled to endure.
Her robes began to dampen with sweat by the time the ceremony concluded as the boats were brought for the seventh year students' travel back across the Black Lake one final time.
Strangely, the weather began to imitate Harriet's plight.
As the coming storm gathered in her womb, dark clouds covered the sun until thunder crackled across the sky.
Most of the students had already risen from their seats and walked towards the boats when the professors halted them suddenly as a violent flash of vibrant lightning shot down and struck the surface of the water.
As if the activity in her womb aligned with the storm, the pain of all pains landed squarely in the center of Harriet's torso.
She cried out against it as she fell forward and clutched her belly.
"AAAAAAAAGGGHH!"
Everyone turned to look as Tom scooped her into his arms while fluid pooled underneath her.
Gasps rang out as eyes widened.
Madam Pomfrey rushed forward, eager to fulfill her duty as Hogwarts' healer, even if that meant tending a labouring mother.
Mrs. Weasley, Merope, and Hermione rushed to Harriet's side as Tom carefully lifted her.
"Mrs. Riddle!" Madam Pomfrey called over Hermione, Merope, and Mrs. Weasley, "Mrs. Riddle!"
"Harriet!"
"Oh, sweetheart!"
"You poor dear!"
"We must get her to the Chamber immediately!" Tom exclaimed to the four women, "The baby's coming!"
Harriet didn't care what was said or done as Tom and her birth attendants raced from the graduation grounds into the castle, desperate to transport her somewhere private where she could labour in peace.
Harriet just wanted Tom close to her.
The group had barely left the graduation before another vicious bolt of lightning crashed from the sky and struck Professor Trelawney directly in the chest, knocking her to the ground.
"Sybil!" Professor McGonagall cried as she, Dumbledore, Snape, and Flitwick all rushed to hover over her.
While everyone watched in horror, Professor Trelawney shook violently as her mouth fell open.
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As her coworkers gathered around her convulsing body, Sybil Trelawney opened her eyes in a dark place covered by a blanket of twinkling stars.
She gasped as she looked down at her feet and watched shifting sand sway to and fro across an endlessly reaching void.
In the distance, a small, dark-haired girl walked towards her as a pendulum slowly swung by.
Once the pendulum passed in front of the child, she changed into a haggard, old woman.
Upon its return, the old woman shifted back into a child again.
The pendulum swung and the changes continued in rhythm.
Young to old.
Old to young.
As the girl, or old woman approached, Sybil blinked as she heard a whispering voice ask, "And will you be my messenger, then?...One as slight as you?"
"I…..I beg your pardon, my dear?" Sybil asked as she gazed at the stranger from behind her wide spectacles.
"...Will you be the one to relay my message?" The girl asked before she changed into an elderly woman with another swing of the pendulum.
"I……" Sybil asked as she tried to understand, "I'm sorry, I……I'm not quite sure what you're talking about."
In one thud, the huge pendulum stopped its swinging and collapsed into the shifting sand.
Sybil frowned as the little girl glared.
She watched in horror as the child's flesh tore itself away to reveal a rotting corpse while her bones cracked and stretched.
"Tell everyone, messenger…." The fleshless creature commanded in a warning growl as it reached out and grabbed Sybil by the throat. Professor Trelawney whimpered for mercy as the vile being threatened to crush her vocal chords, "That I have come to this world…….and now it is mine."
With one brutal wrench of its arm, the skinless, decaying monster effortlessly hurled Sybil across time and space.
As she soared through the air, Hogwarts' seer had a good look at the fire, death, and sheer might doled out under the command of a beautiful, dark-haired, green-eyed witch.
Upon the completion of her otherworldly journey, Sybil landed back in her body with a dry gasp.
Her coworkers watched in terror as her eyes opened wide while her voice rasped from her throat, "The one with the power to vanquish Slytherin's heir approaches……Born from pure love into pristine hatred….Born as the seventh year dies……The heir of Slytherin will mark the child as his equal, but the child will have power the heir knows not….The two cannot exist in one world, for neither can live while the other s-survives..."
Her trance broke in a wheezing cough as she blinked and put a hand over her chest.
Hogwarts' staff exchanged incredulous scowls upon hearing Professor Trelawney's disturbing prophecy.
While Sybil panted to recover from her ordeal as she returned to her senses, Harriet panted through another contraction in Tom's arms while they hastened towards the Chamber of Secrets.