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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"Tom, my boy! Do come in!" The Minister exclaimed unnecessarily as he held his office door open and allowed his assistant to enter.
Tom nodded as he stepped through the doorway and sat across from the Minister's desk in his usual chair while the leader of magical Britain took his own seat.
The Minister smiled as he clasped his hands together and spoke, "You've done some truly excellent work as my assistant, Tom! You really have."
"Thank you, sir." Tom politely replied.
An uncomfortable yearning tormented him as he wished the Minister would praise his efforts later and allow him to seek out his mate.
Tom swallowed the excess saliva in his mouth as he dreamed of Harriet lying in her nest, heated and ready, calling for him to come and-
"That being said, I hope that you won't take great offense to what I have to tell you this evening." The Minister sighed.
Tom blinked.
His fantasies of Harriet vanished as worry invaded his heart, "...I beg your pardon, sir?"
"My nephew has recently come of age." The Minister nodded, "My brother's begged me to find work for him and I've already stated I'll give him a turn as my assistant…..You know, to help the boy get some footing in the real world, just as I have you!"
Tom's mouth fell open.
"Don't take this personally, Tom." The Minister said with a kind smile, "You are an invaluable resource here at the Ministry, loved by all! Ask anyone! I have no doubt you'll go far! I think Lucius may be still looking for an assistant and I know we have some openings in the Department of Mysteries! Don't worry, I will personally give my recommendation to any position you apply for…..That will help you land on your feet!"
Tom Riddle wasn't interested in landing on his feet.
Tom Riddle was ready to walk.
He rose from his chair as his chest heaved in anger.
The Minister blinked as he noticed his clenched jaw and prepared to calm his angry assistant, but Tom spoke first, "Forgive me, sir, but have I not done everything you've asked of me?"
"You have, yes." The Minister nodded.
"Have I not shined your shoes and cleaned your suits? Reviewed documents assigned to you and briefed you on meetings you refused to attend?" Tom snapped.
"Yes, my boy……You certainly have." The Minister frowned.
"I have followed you, spoken for you, given up time with my wife and daughter……Have I not even come into the office on weekends? Late at night?...Whenever you've sent for me? For whatever reason, no matter how menial?!" Tom hissed.
"You have, yes! Of course you have!" The Minister exclaimed.
"...In return, all I've asked is for you to contact the International Board of Magical Medicine to help my infant daughter…..and you haven't even managed that!" Tom sneered, "Now you intend to throw me away? To discard me like a meaningless pile of old robes?"
"Merlin's Beard, Tom!" The Minister cried as a scowl of enraged frustration formed on his chubby face, "What would you have me do? Deny my nephew? Surely you can understand! Doesn't your family mean more to you than anything else in the world?"
"They certainly do, Minister….Forgive me." Tom sighed as he placed a hand over his face and turned around as if to hide his shameful display of distraught dismay.
A moment of tense silence passed before the Minister cracked a friendly smile and continued, "Oh, it's no trouble, my boy! I understand you're upset."
As the Minister spoke, Tom kept his back to his employer as a wicked grin danced across his lips while he stealthily withdrew his wand from the coat pocket of his jacket.
The Minister suspected nothing as he babbled on, "I have to say, if I were in your position, I'd be a bit disappointed too. It really is a shame because I truly do enjoy-"
Tom spun around with his hand extended as he pointed his wand at the Minister and roared the words that would change his life forever.
His dark eyes were wild with hatred as his lips twisted into a hideous snarl while he shouted mercilessly at his unsuspecting victim, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Cast with uncontainable rage, Tom's curse brutally crashed into the Minister for Magic.
The beam of ominous, green magic slammed into the man's chest before it ripped his soul from his body.
A dry, shocked gasp left the Minister's throat.
His eyes widened as his mouth fell open in silent horror during the flash of realization that washed over him before he entered the land of the dead.
Tom kept his wand pointed at his victim as he struggled to steady his own breathing.
In the immediate seconds after the Minister for Magic's murder, Tom became too busy celebrating his own victory to fret about what would happen next.
A happy grin planted itself on his handsome face as he stepped forward and tsked while he looked at the corpse of the man whose life he had just stolen.
"Poor decisions lead to poor outcomes, Minister." Tom smirked as he raised a hand and patted the dead man's cheek in a disturbing show of feigned respect, "Perhaps you taught me that a little too well."
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At Riddle Manor, Harriet groaned softly as she lay in her nest and writhed against the mattress.
The chill of the evening tortured her without the covers pulled up to her chest, but with her body covered, her skin itself then threatened to catch fire.
As Harriet tossed and turned in a vain search for a comfortable position, she sighed while she anxiously awaited her alpha's return.
Guilt consumed her as she silently begrudged her own selfishness.
Could she really fault her husband for lingering at the gala to make a good impression?
She closed her eyes and imagined various ways in which she could show her appreciation to Tom for all that he did to advance their little family.
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Tom's eyes widened as he stared down at the Minister for Magic's ruined body.
The man's death failed to bother him, but Harriet weighed on his mind.
Tom's gasping breaths became ragged as he thought back to the conversation he and his daring had shared shortly after he had slaughtered his grandparents.
If she found out he had taken another life, she would-
She would-
Tom smirked to himself.
Would Harriet really leave him?
Especially since they had a child together, had been married……
That very moment, Harriet carried his son in her belly.
His smirk widened as he imagined his darling attempting to walk away.
Tom Riddle had decided long ago Harriet Potter would never be out of his life, if he had to keep her tethered to her nest.
………But he wanted his mate to be willing and loving.
Tom narrowed his eyes as he scowled at the Minister's corpse.
The body of the slain man was a true horror to behold, with its eyes wide open, frozen in the moment Tom's kind boss had met his unexpected end.
Tom sighed as he considered the great chore ahead of himself.
All he wanted to do was go to his mate and find her in her nest, but instead, he had to take the time to clean his mess.
What an inconvenience!
During the next two hours, Tom relied on the Dark Arts to conceal his crime.
With the help of a spell, he pushed a quill into the dead man's hand and wrote a letter to the healer from Madagascar.
Tom mailed the parcel before he positioned the dead Minister in his chair to feign the appearance of a fever-induced sleep.
He closed the body's eyes and stepped back with a snarl of disgust before he cried out as he blasted the corpse with a flurry of magic.
Tom was no idiot.
There was no safe way to dispose of the massive evidence against himself.
There was no feasible lie to pass the Minister's death off as an unfortunate accident, not after Tom had been seen leaving the gala with the Minister.
Tom's snarl melted into a victorious sneer as he lowered his wand once the burst of magic ended.
No magic could reawaken the dead, but there were some spells capable of feigning life for a short time.
The chest of the Minister's corpse moved as a noise came from its mouth that sounded like a gurgling snore.
The spell elicited heat in the body's skin to replicate living warmth.
To anyone who casually entered the office, it would have seemed as if the Minister for Magic were resting.
Tom smiled wickedly at his work before he took his leave of the room and shut the door behind himself.
He narrowed his dark eyes as he walked towards the Floo chimneys and delighted in the brilliance of his sinister plan.
Harriet wouldn't accept a dead Minister.
However, Tom knew she wouldn't question a sick one.
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That night proved to be the most passionate evening Mr. and Mrs. Riddle had shared in a long time.
As soon as Tom returned to Riddle Manor, the scent of Harriet's raging hormones led him straight to her.
He practically fell into her nest as she greeted him nude, with her body open and her heart giving.
Giving.
As Tom groaned through one release after another, he marveled at his omega's generosity.
Harriet gave him pleasure, affection, admiration, and acceptance.
As he pushed his darling over yet another high peak towards the end of the night, he counted the days until she would give him another child.
Once their tumultuous need for one another became temporarily fulfilled, Harriet lay back against her pillows with her fingers combing gently through Tom's dark curls while he had a taste of his favourite treat.
"Tom……..." Harriet sighed.
He pulled back with a frown as she glanced at him and sighed, "Don't you think we should give it a rest? We don't have much longer to go until-"
She elicited a dark laugh from her alpha as his dark stare flickered to her breasts.
"-Take care of me, sweetling, and I'll take care of you." Tom whispered as he bent to nuzzle Harriet's chest.
She whimpered as he purposely ignored her need while she started to leak.
"...Because I have no intention of stopping." Tom whispered.
Harriet cried out as he latched on again, but her nails raking against his scalp didn't act as much of a deterrent.
The more she scratched her husband, the tighter he clung to her.
She lay there, blissfully enveloped in Tom's loving arms, surrounded by her alpha's scent and the safety of her nest.
As he gently stroked the firmness of her rounded belly, Harriet sighed at his touch.
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The following morning, Tom junior cuddled little Mae as Harriet read the latest edition of The Daily Prophet while they enjoyed their breakfast at the dining table.
"Have you seen this?" She asked Tom as she held up the front page.
He shrugged as a look of false innocence spread across his face while he answered, "Have I seen what, sweetling?"
"The Minister has fallen ill." Harriet frowned, "They found him in his office this morning…..It says they can't seem to wake him."
"Oh dear….." Tom replied as he used his impeccable acting skills to don a morose frown of grave concern, "I hope it's nothing serious."
"I hope not either." Harriet sighed as she stared at the article again, "He's such a generous man."
"He is, indeed." Tom smiled, "Don't worry, my love. I'll check on him myself as soon as I head to the office this morning."
Harriet glanced at Mae for a moment, who blinked at her with a calculating pout.
"That's very thoughtful of you, Tom." She smiled as her emerald eyes moved back to her alpha.
"Really, sweetling…." He said with a grin of sinister sweetness, "...It's the very least I can do."