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 and Harriet had enjoyed spending their morning languishing in each other's arms as they drifted in and out of sleep, all the while trading gentle touches and sweet kisses.
Shortly before noon, as they finally woke for the day, Tom raised himself up with a slow stretch before he moved over Harriet and smirked, "Awake at last, Mrs. Riddle?"
"...If I have to be." Harriet yawned drowsily.
Tom's dark eyes glimmered as she stretched herself backwards.
A small, teasing gasp of satisfaction fell from her lips at the welcome relief the movement brought.
When Harriet felt her husband's arousal jut against her thigh as she writhed on the pillows, she purposely let her bare breasts bounce, knowing he would notice.
She slowly blinked her emerald eyes and met Tom's dark stare as she raised a hand to cup his face.
He leaned into her palm and pressed a soft kiss there before he lowered himself down.
His lips nearly touched hers right before a sudden knock fell on their door that caused him to recoil and look over with a scowl.
"...WHAT?" Tom snarled in a voice so hateful it caused Harriet to narrow her eyes.
"Tom….." She whispered.
"Forgive my intrusion, master Riddle." Lawrence's aged voice called from the other side of the closed door, "...It appears you've been summoned to Hogwarts castle immediately."
"You had the audacity to read my mail?!" Tom cried as he scrambled out of bed and hurried over to the door.
"Tom, calm down!" Harriet urged as she sat up and pulled the sheets to cover herself.
Tom hurriedly threw on his velvet night robe before he cracked the door and peered out at his elderly servant.
"My apologies, master Riddle." Lawrence said as he handed Tom a single piece of stiff parchment, "...There was no outer envelope to conceal the message."
Tom scowled as he yanked the parcel out of Lawrence's hands in one nasty swipe.
His dark eyes narrowed to slits as he saw he had received not a letter of formal summons but a simple message with a single command instead.
The Minister for Magic is to come to Hogwarts straight away by order of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
Harriet frowned as Tom slammed the door in Lawrence's face before he stalked across the room.
"Well, that was bloody rude, wasn't it?!" She scoffed, "What are you playing at to treat him that badly? What has Lawrence ever done to you?!"
"I have to go to Hogwarts immediately." Tom muttered while he rushed around the room to prepare.
After he pulled on one of his best suits, Harriet watched him dash into the bathroom to comb his hair, brush his teeth, and wash his face.
"...I'm coming too!" She cried as she hurriedly dressed, "What is it? What's happened?! Is it Mae again?...Or James?!...Are they alright?!"
Tom had an awful feeling he had more instinctive indication about what had happened then he cared to admit.
"Sweetling, why don't you stay here and look after Mark, hmm? I'm certain I can sort the matter on my own." He reassured his wife with a nervous smile while Harriet ran a brush through her long, dark hair.
"...Mark will be perfectly safe with his grandparents." Harriet scowled, "I'm not stupid, Tom! You're trying to hide something from me……or you think you'll need to……Come on, let's be off and find out what it is."
Tom wore a frown of dread as he reluctantly offered Harriet his arm.
Although Mae had made him immeasurably proud, as he and his beloved wife apparated to the hillside next to Hogsmeade, he sincerely hoped his little princess had not managed to land herself in the headmaster's office again.
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Hogwarts had been plunged into dreadful chaos.
Students shouted questions, whispered theories, and spoke exclamations to their peers.
Faculty scrambled to ensure every child arrived safely back at their dorms amidst shouted questions and widespread confusion.
Both Quidditch teams were ushered towards the Hospital Wing as a stringent precaution.
The damage to the abandoned field lay waiting to be mended.
In the midst of the bewildered confusion, Harriet and Tom sat across from Dumbledore, next to their daughter, while they processed their own shock.
"I'm sorry, Tom, but you must understand…." Dumbledore nodded, "I'm afraid it is far too great of a risk to continue educating your daughter here at Hogwarts. Her actions today proved she is beyond any help our faculty and curriculums will be able to provide."
"Dumbledore, I don't know what to say!" Harriet gasped in mortification, "I'm sorry! We're so sorry! I didn't even realize she had a dragon! Mae, where did you find the thing?! How did you manage to ride it?!"
Mae frowned at the floor as she purposely ignored her mother.
Behind the three seated Riddles, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape stood like stone guardians as they watched the uncomfortable scene unfold.
Despite the fact that expulsion was rarely considered to be a pleasant event, no member of Hogwarts' faculty could say with any amount of truth that they would miss the ominous presence of the Minister's daughter.
"Surely we can reach some sort of agreement, Dumbledore." Tom spoke with his jaw clenched, "My daughter is only a child! Her actions were spurred by her own victimization! Shall we retrieve her memories so that you can see for yourself the torment she's endured at the hands of her own housemates?!"
Mae made sure her bottom lip trembled while she glanced up at Dumbledore pitifully.
Professor Snape frowned.
McGonagall's face twisted into a sour scowl of doubt.
"If the torment you mention, Tom, was severe enough to cause Ms. Riddle to attempt murder, then I must ask why she did not previously alert me or Professor Snape to her trouble?" Dumbledore countered.
The veins in Tom's temples stood out as he grit his teeth while he slowly formulated his words, "With all due respect, headmaster……..As the heirs of Slytherin, I'm afraid my daughter and I do not often seek charity from others."
"And yet, you ask for it now." Dumbledore quipped with a wry smile, "I'm sorry, Tom, my answer is firm. I cannot knowingly endanger others in the name of your daughter's education."
"Perhaps I can convince the board of governors to pass another sizable increase in the school's budget if your mind were to change." Tom grinned.
Harriet glanced around at the damask expressions on her former teacher's faces.
"Perhaps it is time that Ms. Riddle and her father learned the hazards of hubris." Dumbledore retorted with a sly smirk.
Mae huffed a single sigh of disappointment.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she glanced from Dumbledore to her father.
Would her knight finally fail?
Had her most trusted servant proved his own usefulness to be over?
"My little girl is a victim of circumstance!" Tom roared, "And I am the Minister for Magic! How dare you speak to me that way!"
"Tom!" Harriet cried.
Mae's eyes widened as she watched her father slip his wand into his hand with one smooth motion as his palm all but glided over the pocket of his suit jacket.
With a great cry, Tom folded himself over and straightened his spine as he stretched out his arms and pointed his wand towards the ceiling.
Mae squinted her eyes shut as a dark blast of purple magic enveloped the room to quickly encase the castle, the grounds, and the Quidditch stadium.
Every living person on Hogwarts' grounds halted where they stood as their eyes glazed over and their jaws went slack.
"DADDY!" Mae shouted as she looked around and watched everyone in the room except her father stare blankly ahead while their recollections of the day's Quidditch match played like a muggle film in front of their eyes.
Since Harriet had not seen the events themselves, Tom was spared the need to alter her memory.
With her head gently resting on her shoulder, she enjoyed a pleasant nap during his sinister spell.
Tom's shoulders shook with the force of maintaining the Dark Magic as he glanced over at Mae with a hideous snarl on his handsome face.
"I love you more than life itself, my little one, but you try my PATIENCE!" Tom shouted at Mae, "You have helped yourself to the treasures imparted upon by your birth since the day you slid into my hands! You'll be wise to remember my words, daughter, everything in this fragile world HAS A LIMIT!"
A great guttural groan left Tom's throat as he curled over and released a second blast of magic from his wand that covered the dark purple bubble in a hazy, green fog.
Mae screamed as she covered her ears against the unbearable vibration the second eruption brought.
As she glanced around with her eyes cracked open, she watched the replaying memories slowly change in front of her professor's faces.
She no longer rode the dragon during the Quidditch match.
The game went on as easily and safely as any other.
Slytherin won by fifty points.
Mae sat obediently in the stands the entire time.
"You are like me." Tom said flatly as his dark eyes bore into Mae. She frowned at the fine line of sweat that dripped down his face as he struggled not to let his bones crack under the impossible weight of holding his spell long enough for it to be effective, "You are willing to do what must be done, what should be done, but I beg you to learn the lesson now, my princess, what we do cannot be comprehended by most people…….YOU MUST BE MORE DISCRETE!"
Tom finally ended his spell with an inhuman shriek as he snapped himself backwards.
The bubble of dark magic and the hazy, green fog vanished as quickly as they had spread.
For the two minutes it took the faculty members to snap out of their trance and Harriet to wake, Tom blotted the sweat from his face as he pocketed his wand.
"...Ah, Tom, Harriet." Dumbledore blinked and nodded at the seated parents.
Harriet frowned as she tried to remember why she had fallen asleep in the headmaster's office.
"I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore, I must have had an odd dream……..Was there something about Mae and a dragon?" Harriet frowned, "Is that why we're here?"
"Of course not, sweetling." Tom chuckled. He reached out, took her hand, and pressed a loving kiss to her knuckles as he smirked, "Don't be silly."
"Actually, Harriet, I've called you and Tom into my office today to let you know what a fine job your daughter is doing. Hogwarts is enriched to have her as one of its students." Dumbledore nodded.
Harriet beamed.
Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall stood with stoic looks of respect on their faces while they listened to Dumbledore.
In her seat, Mae smirked.
However, as Tom glanced over and threw her a dangerous scowl of ominous warning, her arrogant grin faded into a humble frown.
"You must both be the best of parents." Dumbledore concluded as he looked at Tom and Harriet, "Each of you should be very proud."