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 Tom's frustration and Harriet's dismay, the potion had no effect on their daughter's odd wound.

The following morning, Mae's bruise had failed to vanish.

At last, Tom gave in to Harriet's insistence and summoned a team of wizarding Britain's five best healers to examine his little girl.

Harriet stood beside him while each medical practitioner conducted a careful study of their small daughter.

"Don't worry, sweetling." Tom reassured Harriet in a gentle purr as he leaned in and kissed her lips softly during their wait, "Our princess will be just fine."

Harriet nodded as Tom pulled away, although for some reason, ominous dismay washed over her.

Once Mae's exams had been completed, the medical team shared a brief discussion of worried whispers while the nervous parents looked on.

"...Mr. Riddle?" The eldest healer, an old man with a long beard, finally asked.

"Yes?" Tom answered as he narrowed his dark eyes.

"Mrs. Riddle….." The eldest healer nodded while his colleagues frowned. Harriet blinked at the elderly man before he went on, "We've finished our study of the child……Please, allow us to leave you and your wife with a few jars of Bruisewort Balm. Place a bit on the little one's affected arm each morning for a month."

"And that should mend her?" Harriet frowned.

"What caused the wound?" Tom pressed distrustfully, "We've done her no harm and she's suffered no accidents."

The healers shuffled on their feet as they glanced at each other uneasily.

"Mr. Riddle, Mrs. Riddle….." The eldest healer spoke, "We're certain that Bruisewort Balm will……help the child. If you'll excuse us, we'll-"

"-Tell us what's happened to our daughter!" Tom demanded as he took a protective step in front of Harriet.

Harriet moved to stand next to him as the eldest healer scowled.

"We cannot know for sure at this point, sir. The child is too young to make a definite determination." The healer shrugged.

"What are you saying?! Isn't that why you've all been called here today?!" Tom snapped as he glanced at each healer in turn, "'To make 'a definite determination'? How are you going to heal my daughter if you can't even tell us what's the matter with her arm?!"

"Tom…." Harriet whispered warningly as she squeezed his hand.

Tom glanced over at his wife with a glare, angry she had attempted to calm him before he turned to look at the elderly healer again who explained, "A simple bruise should repair itself…...Especially after a dose of Children's Healing Potion……..It is possible that your daughter may not have a simple bruise, Mr. and Mrs. Riddle."

"Then what does she have?!" Tom spat as he balled his free hand into a fist.

"All we can say at this time is it may not be a simple bruise." The healer replied as he spoke in circles.

"That's not good enough!" Tom hissed.

"I'm very sorry, sir." The healer nodded, "Right now, that's all we know."

The healers nodded briefly at the concerned, young parents before they all hurriedly left the room and walked into the hallway, not wanting to frighten little Mae, who sat on her bed across the room, by Disapparating without warning.

After the healers had gone, Mae whimpered pitifully until Tom rushed to take her into his arms.

While Tom cuddled Mae, Harriet chose to rush into the hallway and pursue their unhelpful guests.

She called out to the elderly man who had spoken to them, "Sir?...Sir?!?!"

The healers halted as the elderly man turned around and faced her with a deep, remorseful frown.

"Please, sir…." Harriet begged as she caught up to the magical healthcare worker, "What do you think is wrong with my daughter? You must have an idea, a guess…….anything?"

The healer glanced solemnly down at the floor for a moment before he dared to meet Harriet's gaze.

"Mrs. Riddle, it is no secret throughout our world that your husband is descended from Salazar Slytherin himself." The elderly healer began.

"Yeah, I know." Harriet blinked, "What does that have to do with my daughter's wound?"

"You may call it a wound, Mrs. Riddle." The healer sighed, "But what frightens my colleagues and me is that your daughter's disfigurement may very well be a marking."

"A……marking?" Harriet frowned.

"A child conceived in the birthplace of monsters, fathered by a wizard with a love for the Dark Arts flowing through his veins as plainly as the red drops of any man's blood……….Darkness, Mrs. Riddle, your husband knows it well." The elderly healer spoke as he stared at Harriet, "It is possible, fearsomely possible, that your child may have been born into this world already hopelessly tainted by that darkness."

Harriet furrowed her brow.

"...And if that is indeed the cause of the girl's plight…." The elderly healer frowned, "...Then I'm afraid there isn't a balm or a potion in existence that can aid her."

Harriet didn't know what to say.

As the elderly healer fell silent, Harriet watched him and his team take their leave of Riddle Manor while she turned around in the hallway.

She took a deep breath as she walked back into Mae's luxurious bedroom.

Tom's handsome face lit up with a bright grin as soon as Harriet stepped through the door.

"Oh, look! Mummy's back, isn't she?" He asked Mae as he held her against his chest, "Shall we let her say hello?"

As Mae glanced at Harriet, a disappointed pout formed on her pink lips, as if she were annoyed she and Tom had to be bothered with her mother's presence.

"That's alright." Harriet smiled at their daughter, "Mummy just had to thank the healers for their help."

"But they didn't really give us any help, did they, my princess?" Tom asked as he nuzzled Mae, "All they did was waste Mummy and Daddy's time and make excuses."

Harriet frowned as she watched her daughter close her eyes and readily accept her father's affection with a sweet, little laugh.

"We have some Bruisewort Balm now." Harriet shrugged as she nodded to the jars the healers had left for Mae's benefit.

Tom didn't seem to hear her as Mae's laughter grew louder while she cuddled into the crook of his neck.

"It's alright, my princess." Tom whispered to Mae while he kissed the top of her head, "Mummy and I will take care of you. You don't have to worry about that little spot on your arm."

Harriet frowned as she listened to her husband.

After her chat with the healer, that spot on Mae's arm was exactly what worried her.

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That evening, after Mae had been tucked into bed with Polly in her arms and her tiny lips pursed as she slept, Harriet and Tom retired to their own room.

Once Tom closed the door, Harriet sat down on their bed.

"Don't worry, sweetling." He smiled at Harriet as he glanced over and noticed her melancholy expression, "We just need to find healers with more expertise. I'll ask the Minister if he may help us somehow. He has access to contacts all over the magical world, far beyond Britain."

"Right……." Harriet nodded as she sighed.

"Do you doubt me?" Tom smirked.

"No." She answered with resolute sadness in her voice, "I don't doubt you at all, Tom."

"Then what troubles you, sweetling?" He asked as a concerned scowl marred his handsome face.

Harriet shook her head as she lifted a hand and rubbed her eye as if she were very tired.

"Harriet…….?" He asked as he sat beside her and took her other hand while she turned to look at him, "I am your husband, your alpha, your mate. It is within my rights to know what bothers you and within your duty to make me aware of whatever you find upsetting. Either you tell me what's going on or I'll read your thoughts and find out for myself."

"Can you please?" Harriet asked with a frustrated sigh as she gripped his hand, "There's a few things I need to show you actually."

Tom blinked in surprise before he answered, "...Certainly…….I'll slip in now, alright?"

Harriet nodded as she closed her eyes and waited.

Tom stroked the back of Harriet's hand with his thumb while he slipped his wand from his pocket and used his free hand to point it at Harriet as he whispered, "Legilimens!"

He was instantly with Harriet in her thoughts.

Tom felt her fear.

Tom realized her sense of unassuming dismay.

In her mind, Harriet walked beside him as she showed him her memory of the old witch's visit before Mae's birth and then her conversation with the healer earlier that same day.

Once those recollections ended, Tom withdrew from her mind and opened his eyes to face her with an irritated scowl.

"May I ask, sweetling, why you failed to mention any of that to me before?" He asked in a low voice that rang with displeasure.

"Well, I've told you what the healer said now, haven't I?" Harriet scoffed as she let go of Tom's hands and stood, "The old woman…..I thought she was mad or……or hired by someone who hates you for some reason. I didn't dare dream that anything she had to say could actually be true, not until……well….."

Tom and Harriet exchanged mutual frowns as they stared at each other.

"I didn't want to believe it!" Harriet exclaimed, "Since before Mae's birth, there's just one thing that happens after another and I can't help but think it may be true, Tom! Perhaps Slytherin really is a doomed line…..Perhaps we should……we should do something with Mae! Perhaps we shouldn't have any more children!"

"What…..?" Tom asked incredulously, "What exactly do you mean by that….'do something with Mae'? It's a bit late now to consider not having any more children, sweetling." He quipped as his dark eyes flickered to Harriet's still flat belly.

"I…..I don't know, Tom, I don't know what to do……now." Harriet frowned.

"Are you suggesting we harm our own daughter? Our unborn?! The physical products of our love?!" Tom asked in a frigid, scathing hiss.

"No, of course not!" Harriet snapped.

"Then I suppose you expect us to consign them somewhere! In a home for dangerous magical children? Or parentless waifs? If my mother had died in childbirth, that would have been my fate, you know, sweetling……Raised in a drab, lonely orphanage, is that what you want for our children?!"

"No, that's not what I want, Tom! You aren't listening to what I'm telling you!" Harriet cried.

Tom stood and pulled Harriet up from the bed as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

Harriet looked into his dark eyes as he swept a strand of her soft hair out of her face and smiled, "There's no reason to be afraid, sweetling. Mae loves you as much as she loves me, she can sense it, I assure you, as all children can…..You are her mother. Those healers today weren't even skilled enough to repair a simple bruise, what makes you think that gives them the finesse to make accurate assumptions about my family? About my ancestors? And the old witch who came here……who is she? Who is she to know the outcome of Slytherin's line? A nameless, filthy hag? She is no one, sweetling…..You are mine and I am yours. We will raise our daughter to be a beautiful, clever girl and our son to be a handsome, strong man…..Children we can be proud of! Harriet, my queen, you and I will ensure many more generations of Slytherin's descendants walk the earth."

Harriet sighed as she laid her head against Tom's chest.

She listened to the low rumble of his dark chuckle as he continued while his elegant fingers traced patterns over her lower back, "If that doesn't sound agreeable to you, sweetling, we can always indulge those shameful fantasies of yours. I wouldn't necessarily prefer it that way, but if you force me, I'll have no trouble chaining you to your nest and breeding you, my dear omega."

His words should have been horrifying.

Those statements would have sickened others to hear, but Harriet only felt a surge of arousal as she listened.

To her mortification, a rush of warmth pooled between her thighs as she imagined being Tom's prisoner somewhere safe and secluded, where she spent her days lounging in her nest, waiting for him to take her into his arms.

Tom grinned as he detected a hint of his mate's arousal from the sudden burst of sweetness he noticed in her scent.

With a gentle purr, Tom tilted Harriet's face towards him and bent down to press a gentle kiss to her lips.

Their kiss didn't stay tender for long.

Hungry for one another, Harriet gripped onto Tom's shirt with a renewed sense of desperation as they stumbled back onto the bed.

Wound in each other's arms as their fingers began to work on the fastens of one another's clothing, Harriet let the dangerous trap of her intoxicating alpha's charms once again convince her to discard her concerns.

Tom was her love, her comfort, her security.

They would have a lovely family and a lovely life together.

Those pesky strangers had all been wrong.

Slytherin's bloodline was no different than any other family.

Tom junior and little Mae were merely misunderstood.

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The youngest Riddle couple spent an exquisite night making love and enjoying the deep sleep that followed their exertions.

Once the sun rose the following morning, Tom convinced Harriet to resume her drowsy doze with a single kiss as he rose from her nest and headed to work.

A short while later, he sat next to the Minister for Magic in his office as he assisted his employer with answering several letters.

At length, he glanced up and asked, "...Sir?"

"Yes, Tom?" The Minister replied absently as he stared down at the document on his desk.

"My daughter…..it's the strangest thing, but there's an ugly bruise on her arm that won't heal…..My wife and I have consulted Britain's best healers, though I'd like to seek a second opinion. Is there any way you can contact someone from the International Board of Magical Medicine? I think she could benefit from more precise care." Tom politely inquired.

"...Certainly, my boy. Let's finish this first." The Minister nodded dismissively without looking up.

Tom scowled as he turned back to his work.

If Tom Riddle junior hated anything, it was being ignored.

He hoped the Minister for Magic hadn't made the foolish mistake of underestimating his persistence.

Tom had no intention of abandoning his request until his small princess had received proper assistance.