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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"How many more weeks, Mum?" Mark asked one morning while Harriet served them both breakfast.
"Eleven, sweetheart. Just eleven more weeks until James and Lily are home for winter recess. That's not so long, is it?" She asked with a smile as she sat down across from her youngest son.
"That may as well be forever." Mark pouted.
"Oh, I dunno." Harriet shrugged while she began to eat, "I don't think it's that long, dear. You and I can find fun ways to pass the time together, can't we?"
Mark turned his adorable little frown onto his mother's emerald gaze.
"I miss James." He confessed in a broken-hearted sigh, "...And Lily! They're my best friends, Mum!"
"I know they are, sweetheart." Harriet frowned.
It did not escape her notice nor invoke any surprise to her that Mark had nothing to say about Mae.
"...But they're busy anyway now, dear." She smiled, "Hogwarts is not an easy school. To do well, they spend most of their days in class and studying. Even if we lived right outside of the castle, they wouldn't have much time to play."
Tom junior came down the stairs, dressed in one of his finest, dark suits, with his curly hair expertly combed and his black eyes flashing.
As he walked through Riddle Manor's foyer and passed by the kitchen, he overheard Mark and Harriet talking while they sat at the small table instead of the large one in the dining room.
"...I'm never going to go there, am I?" Mark asked as he looked into his mother's eyes, "I'm never going to go to Hogwarts, am I, Mum?"
Harriet paused to think for a second.
The truth seemed too vile to say, although she didn't want to hurt her little boy more by giving him false hope.
"I'm never going to see James or Lily again!" Mark wailed.
Outside the kitchen door, Tom junior rolled his eyes as he listened to Mark burst into tears.
"Sweetheart, sweetheart! Of course you'll see them again!" Harriet said as she rose from her seat and lunged forward to comfort Mark, "Regardless of who goes to what school, James and Lily will still come home for holidays and summers!"
"HOLIDAYS AND SUMMERS AREN'T ENOUGH!" Mark wailed.
Tom junior's stomach churned with disappointed nausea as he marched away from the kitchen in disgust.
Public records stated he had two sons.
In Tom junior's eyes, he only had one.
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After Tom had completed his stealthy eavesdropping and traveled to the Ministry for the morning, Harriet held a crying Mark on her lap at the kitchen table while she did her best to soothe him, alone.
"Sweetheart, I do wish you'd settle down." Harriet whispered as she placed a kiss atop Mark's fluffy, curly, dark hair while he wiped his eyes with the back of a little hand, "I wanted to ask for your help this morning, but I can't quite do that with you in such a state."
"My……." Mark sniffed as he tried his best to dry his little face, "My help?"
"That's right." Harriet smiled, "I need you, my dear. If you agree, of course."
Mark sniffed one last time as he asked Harriet, "I can't do anything, Mum. How could I help you?"
Harriet's smile faded at the defeat in her little boy's voice before she renewed her pleasant expression as she spoke, "Do you remember me telling you about my friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley?"
"...Yes." Mark nodded.
"Well, it seems James and Lily have met their children and I've recently started writing to them again." She explained.
"Why did you ever stop?" Mark questioned.
"I didn't mean to……I had your sister, then your brother, then you." She said as she playfully poked Mark's tummy and earned a laugh from him, "You'll learn when you grow up one day and have a family of your own, sweetheart, sometimes adults just get busy and time passes before they realize."
"Do you miss them like I miss James and Lily?" Mark asked.
"Sometimes I do." Harriet said as she flashed her son a bitter smile, "But like you will with James and Lily, I'm going to see them again soon and you're finally going to meet them! How's that?"
"Is that what you need my help with?" Mark frowned.
"Not quite." Harriet smiled, "Ron works in the Auror Department and Hermione, who is now his wife, she's headed the children's sector of the Ministry's Public Health Committee for years. Together, the three of us are going to open a massive care center for children close to Diagon Alley. Won't that be lovely?"
Mark blinked, "...What does that mean, Mum?"
"That means," Harriet said as Mark settled himself against her while her arms cuddled him close, "That there'll be a hospital for magical children…..An orphanage that will give them safe homes……and a learning center for people who don't have magical talent but do have magical children."
As Mark turned his head to give Harriet a wide-eyed stare, she realized her little boy was far too young to really grasp what all of that meant and the services that would be rendered to the community in each of those new facilities.
"All I need you to do, Mark," Harriet smiled, "Is be kind to the children who come there, alright? You and I will be spending a bit of time there and you'll get to meet a lot of others your age. Some will be very sad, some will be very sick, but they'll all need you as their friend. Do you think you can be kind to them for me? And help them not feel so alone?"
At his young age, Mark Riddle had been made well aware of what it was like to feel alone, due to his father and sister's inhuman treatment, but Harriet, James, Lily, and Merope had always been his lights in the dark.
As Mark gazed into his mother's fair face, he returned her warm smile with a happy giggle and a nod of his head.
"That's my sweet boy." Harriet said as she gave him an affectionate squeeze.
Mark giggled again as she kissed his cheek and whispered, "Mummy loves you very much, Mark, never forget that. Promise?"
"I promise, Mummy." Mark whispered back as he happily accepted his mother's hug.
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Tom worked through his morning with his eyes narrowed in thought, although the mound of documents he signed barely crossed his mind.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not get over the fact that he and his perfect mate had created an imperfect child.
He had article after article, text after text on obscurises and their many forms, determined to coax himself into believing that one day, when anyone least expected it, Mark would show some sort of magical ability and prove that he had not in fact, been little more than a waste of resources.
Tom prided himself on what a good father he was as he finished his morning's work and took an entire quarter hour to read yet another ancient text on latent magical talent.
Only a parent as loving as him would have been that willing to help their doomed offspring.
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Not long after that morning, Harriet finally reunited with her two best friends for the groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of the children's triplex, conveniently located directly next to Diagon alley.
It had taken a bit of magical engineering to make space for such a large center, but as the Minister's wife, Harriet had been able to consult and enlist only the best.
Cameras flashed and Quick-Quotes Quills flew across parchment while she, Ron, and Hermione gave a few opening remarks before the construction team took out their wands and began the task of building.
In the muggle world, a project of that size would have easily taken years.
In the magical world, the children's triplex was scheduled to be completed and opened within a fortnight.
Mark shyly watched his mother stand next to her friends from the comfort of hiding behind the legs of Harriet's accompanying aides.
Only after his mother finished her speech and walked off the platform towards him did Mark finally dare to fully emerge from his hiding place.
"All done, Mummy?" He asked cautiously.
"All done, love." Harriet smiled. Mark blinked as she stretched out her hand and said, "Come on, then! I want you to meet two very special people!"
Mark cautiously accepted his mother's hand, but before he could blink, Harriet had already brought him over to Ron and Hermione, who had just walked off the temporary platform they had gathered on.
"Oh! This must be Mark!" Hermione exclaimed.
"This is!" Harriet laughed as she scooped Mark up and bounced in her arms to lodge him into a more comfortable position, "Mark, these are my friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Gran-, er, Weasley." Harriet nodded.
"...Hello." Mark greeted them both as his large eyes darted between them.
"It's nice to meet you, young man." Ron said with a nod of feigned formality.
Harriet had told her friends all about her youngest son's plight, but Hermione tactfully chose to ignore the subject as she asked, "Your Mum told us you'd be able to be a friend to the children who are coming here soon, Mark. Do you agree?"
"They'll really want to be my friends?" Mark blinked.
"Of course they will!" Ron laughed, "Why wouldn't they?"
As Mark cracked a wide smile, Harriet carried her little boy in her arms while the Golden Trio walked over to the nearest food cart to grab a bite to eat.
It pleased her to watch Mark take to Ron and Hermione almost instantly.
Friends away from home who were not Lily and James were exactly what Tom junior's youngest son needed.