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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"P-Please!" The filthy man begged as he groveled on the Ministry's lacquered floor, "I-I don't know anything else! Honestly! I've told you everything I can!"
Tom junior's polished shoes clicked across the elegant tiles as he walked a slow circle around his prisoner like a looming snake.
"Please……!" The man begged.
When he was met only by silence, he lowered his head while his shoulders shook in defeated sobs.
The single light that dared to enter the forsaken exam room deep in the bowels of the Ministry came from an enchantment at the top of the cavernous chamber which cruelly replicated sunshine.
Chains of enchanted iron hung around the man's neck and wrists, although the blood that had poured from his nose and mouth had weakened him enough to prevent escape or retaliation.
"An entire family is dead because of you." Tom said in his calm, smooth voice while his shoes continued to ominously click against the floor, "...Because of what you said….about our world. You risked exposure, certainly, but that could be argued away."
The man whimpered as he slowly dared to look up and meet Tom's cold gaze.
"Your wife, your children...Their blood is on your hands." Tom scowled, "...And it disgusts me."
The man gasped as Tom stretched his long arm out and painfully placed his wand tip underneath his prisoner's jaw.
His dark eyes glimmered with malice as he told the man with a smirk, "An exposure of our world, I could make that disappear, but blood...Spilled blood can never be washed away………CRUCIO!"
A strangled scream rang out in the chamber as Tom's unfortunate victim writhed and jolted under the Torture Curse's brutal influence.
He shrieked in pain as Tom pulled his arm away in one smooth motion to let the man fall painfully onto his chest, unable to hold himself up any longer.
"Now……" Tom smiled as he watched the man moan while he placed his shaky hands on the floor, "Are you going to tell me what I'd like to know? Or shall we play a little longer?"
"I don't know anything!" The man spat in a dry hiss, "I've already told you! Why won't you believe me? I don't know anything!"
"We'll see about that." Tom grinned. He raised his wand at the man again while he cried out, "LEGILIMENCY!"
Busy interrogating a criminal, he finally had no need to be discreet about his mind-reading abilities.
Tom entered the man's thoughts in a rushing whoosh and perused his memories through the span of several tedious seconds.
When the spell finally ended, a strangled gasp tore from the man's throat as Tom came back to the present moment with a victorious grin.
The man sputtered for words as Tom's polished shoes clicked against the floor while he walked away.
"...I knew you were lying." He whispered with an evil chuckle.
"Please!" The man begged, "I'll…..I'll do anything, just-"
Tom turned as he spoke.
In one quick burst of telltale green light, the Killing Curse flew forth and struck the man in his chest as Tom proudly screamed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The guards who stood by the door said nothing as the man's lifeless corpse tumbled over in a forgotten heap.
"Clean it up." Tom nonchalantly ordered them as he left the darkened chamber and made his way up the many, winding staircases that led to his office.
Before he entered his private room at the Ministry, he glanced down and made certain there were no bloodstains on his pristine, white shirt.
He looked forward to a peaceful lunch with his wife.
Tom wanted to earn Harriet's smile, not her disapproving scowl.
As if nothing at all had happened several floors below, he opened his office door and swept inside as he greeted his wife with a charming grin, "Hello, sweetling!"
The Ministry employees had already brought lunch in for the couple, which Harriet had arranged on Tom's desk.
His anxiety rose as he faced what he feared most, a scornful frown from his beloved.
"...Is something the matter, my darling?" He asked as he closed the door and walked over.
"One of your aides mentioned you'd be performing the interrogation this morning." Harriet explained.
"...Did they?" Tom replied.
He smiled to slyly disguise his grit teeth.
As he silently vowed to discover the snitch's identity, he nodded, "That's correct, sweetling. I've finished just in time to share a meal with you, isn't that wonderful?"
"What did you do to him, Tom?" Harriet frowned.
Tom raised his chin as he boldly proclaimed, "...Nothing undeserved."
Harriet said nothing else as Tom walked over, kissed her sweetly, and sat down at his desk before they began to eat their food.
"...Is he dead?" Harriet asked.
"Would you despise me if he was?" Tom quipped, "Or would you rather I have let him go so he could get more innocent people killed?"
Harriet glanced up to meet his dark gaze questioningly.
"Sweetling, I don't expect you to agree with all my decisions, but there is a time and place for harsh punishment." Tom calmly reasoned, "The wizard in our custody purposely exposed his own wife and children as people of magical blood to subject them to hate-filled muggles. Now, look what's happened…….His wife and children are dead because of him. Because of one, bloody……"
Harriet frowned.
"...Because of one man." Tom nodded as he wisely maintained his temper, "Will you honestly look at me and tell me that he should have been sent to Azkaban and lived the rest of his days in peaceful solitude? It doesn't matter that he didn't fire the curse……or the shot……that killed them. He traded their lives for his and for what? To avoid his responsibilities?"
"If you kill a killer, doesn't that make you a killer too?" Harriet reasoned, "I dunno, Tom. I can't endorse violence……And you know I don't approve of the Unforgivable Curses."
Harriet expected to hear softer sentiments than his reply as he smirked and said, "Then one day, sweetling, when you're Minister for Magic, it can all be done your way instead."
Tom glanced up the minute he heard the fork slam against his desk.
"...Harriet!" He called as he watched her rise to her feet and withdraw her wand.
"Where are you going?!" He hissed, "There's a press conference this afternoon! You have to be beside me!"
"One day," Harriet quipped as she took her wand into her hand, "One day, when you're married to the Minister for Magic…..Tom…..you can decide which press conferences you want to attend."
An awful scowl marred his handsome face as his darling audaciously turned his words against him before she apparated back to Riddle Manor.
The instant she had gone, Tom walked over to his desk and let his fingers rest against the wood as he closed his eyes.
A silent pause passed while the rageful whisperings of his own dark heart forced him to rethink the arrogant statement that had sent Harriet fleeing from his presence.
With one loud roar, he swept his arm across his desk and sent the remains of their unfinished lunch clattering to the floor.
Although Tom wanted to focus his anger on his wife, no matter how much he tried to lie to himself, he knew the truth.
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Harriet furiously stormed through Riddle Manor's hallway as she marched up the stairs and towards the bedroom she shared with Tom to change into less formal robes.
She locked the door as she hurriedly switched outfits before she sighed to herself and sat down on the bed.
A few moments later, the sound of quiet rapping caught her attention.
"...Tom, if that's you, I'm not in the mood to talk right now." Harriet firmly spat.
"Well, I go by James." The voice called through the door.
"...It's us, Mummy!" Mark's singsong giggle sounded.
"Oh……" Harriet smiled before she leapt to her feet, hurried over, and unfastened the lock.
A warm smile danced across her lips as she opened the door, "Come in, boys! What's the matter?"
"We saw you come home." James explained as he and Mark walked into the room.
"You looked sad, Mummy." Mark frowned.
"Is everything alright?" James asked, "You normally don't come home this early. Where's Dad?"
"Back at the Ministry." Harriet forced herself to reveal without flashing her sons a sarcastic grimace, "I had urgent business I had to tend here, so we decided it'd be better if I went ahead without him."
"Are we still going shopping tomorrow?" James frowned.
"Of course we are, sweetheart." Harriet smiled as she reached out and stroked James's hair, "There's no need to worry, everything's fine!"
She turned to Mark and patted his head before she brought the boys into the kitchen and spent the next hour making cookies with them.
Whenever her back was turned as she checked the baking sheet in Riddle Manor's massive oven, she allowed her frown to show.
Harriet had never approved of Tom's extreme methods.
Brutality had no place in her heart or mind, neither did rudeness.
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As sly as any slithering serpent, Tom managed to smooth things over with his wife by the following morning.
Somewhere between his loving embrace and his wicked tongue, he had reminded her of the passion they shared and of their mating bond's resilient strength.
With James and Mae's school supply lists tucked in their pockets, Minister Riddle and his wife held hands while they walked through Diagon Alley together.
Their children ran ahead to gawk at shop windows and marvel at the items on display.
They circled back to Tom and Harriet for money like pigeons flocking around a bench for bread crumbs.
Tom gladly gave his children whatever they asked for as he and Harriet talked.
"I can't possibly begin to impress how impactful your recent work at the orphanage has been, sweetling." Tom praised his wife as they walked down the street.
"You're not going to make me forget about yesterday, Tom." Harriet nodded, "Not out of bed, at least. It's brilliant of you to try, though."
Tom scowled before he forced himself to smile, "Of course, my love. Believe me, it is a wound in my soul that I must do such dreadful things, but the people voted me to be their leader, their protector…….and sometimes, to protect, you have to hurt."
"No, you don't have to, Tom." Harriet frowned, "You never did things like this before you became Minister…..that's what scares me."
Tom forced himself not to smirk at the truth.
"Sweetling," He sighed, "...If Asherah had not eaten that man the night we brought her home from the zoo, I would have gladly killed him where he stood rather than watch him destroy you."
Harriet glanced over at Tom as her eyes softened.
"I do not do evil things, my dear." He said with a handsome smile, "But I possess the courage to do what is necessary to keep you, our children, and our people…." Tom paused as he raised Harriet's hand to his lips and kissed the sensitive spot between her knuckles, "...Safe."
Harriet wanted to reopen their argument.
She wanted to be angry, to hiss a retort back at him and storm off again, but as she gazed into Tom's handsome face, the rage left her heart.
Tom junior did not deserve the warm smile his mate gave him.