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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In the weeks that followed, Mae did her best to maintain a level of discretion her father would appreciate.
With his memory spell, Tom had ingrained in each student's mind the idea to leave his daughter alone.
Free from her enemies' assaults, Mae went about her school days undisturbed.
Regardless, Tom's spell could not undo pure love or raw, spiteful hatred.
Slytherin's Quidditch captain threw Mae plenty of glares.
Scorpius balanced them by the many, dreamy gazes he cast at Mae.
While the rest of the semester slowly dwindled by, Scorpius followed her around like a lost pet hoping to gain its caregiver's attention.
James and Lily were at last able to enjoy their studies and their new friendships in peace.
James had made plenty of friends in Gryffindor, although Lily, Hugo, and Rose remained his best mates.
The four ate their meals together.
The four spent many evenings chatting in Gryffindor's Common Room, secure and cozy by the roaring fire.
Lily ignored Mae.
James did his best to dismiss his sister's vigilant, watchful gaze.
No matter how much he tried, however, during every meal that he ate in the Great Hall, he felt her emerald eyes burning into his back.
James' only respite came from knowing that Mae would graduate and be gone from the castle years before him.
That would give him endless amounts of days to enjoy Lily's company all on his own.
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Much to Harriet's dismay, the Children's Triplex encountered one unforeseen delay after another.
"This is ridiculous." She huffed one morning as she stood in Tom's office while he signed the approval paperwork to hire another set of magical builders, "This was supposed to take two weeks and here we are at three months! Hermione and Ron haven't even been by recently, they're too busy with their other jobs. Remember? I think I mentioned that to you last week."
"Oh, yes, sweetling, you did." Tom said as he gave Harriet a sympathetic frown, "I'm so terribly sorry, my darling. Projects like this often go awry…..Hopefully this set of builders will be able to finish the job."
"Hopefully!" Harriet exclaimed, "This is the fourth crew we'll have hired!"
As Tom handed her the signed paperwork, Harriet gladly took it and stormed out of his office, on a mission to hire another crew as soon as possible.
He sat quietly while he listened to his mate's footsteps echo into the distance until they died away completely once she exited the hallway.
As soon as he was certain his wife had disappeared from earshot, Tom slipped his wand out of his pocket and tapped its white tip twice against the dark wood of his desk.
Knock, knock, knock!
"Come in." He called with a smirk just before his office door swung open to reveal three of his best aides.
"You sent for us, sir?" The first one asked as the other two cowered behind him.
"My wife will be hiring another crew for her…..project." Tom said with a disgruntled scowl that quickly turned into a mischievous grin, "See that you run them off as well, won't you?"
"Of course, Minister." The first aide nodded.
The relief was evident on all three aides' faces as they learned of their newest task's simplicity.
It was a good day if the Minister for Magic only wanted to frighten people.
Tom's aides had been asked and expected to do much worse.
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Little Mark enjoyed the happiest world of all the Riddle children.
With Mae gone and his days spent between his mother's loving arms and his smiling grandparents, he enjoyed free reign of Riddle Manor.
Still, his innocent heart always held a quiet longing for his absent brother.
His spirits swelled with joyful anticipation as the week of Hogwarts' winter recess finally arrived.
Harriet kept a muggle calendar on the wall of Riddle Manor's kitchen, which allowed Mark to check off each day until his brother and his good friend, Lily, would return home to spend the following weeks playing with him.
Determined to let James and Lily know how happy he was to see them again, Mark decided to make them each a homemade greeting card.
He spent the day before James and Lily's return traipsing through the house to collect the many wax crayons he had strewn here and there.
He kept the blues, reds, and greens in his room.
Unfortunately, he favored drawing in the parlor on sunny days and most of the pinks, oranges, and yellows had somehow ended up in there instead.
Late that Thursday afternoon, Mark walked down the hallway to retrieve the last of his crayons.
Lily liked pink, he couldn't possibly leave that out of her card.
What kind of friend would he be?
His large eyes widened as he overheard his mother and father whispering to each other as he approached the parlor doorway.
The heavy, double doors could be slid back and forth to either open or enclose the parlor.
As Mark saw the doors were nearly folded shut, he frowned as he walked up to them and pressed his eye against the crack to watch and listen to what happened within……..
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Harriet sighed as Tom pressed his lips to hers once more in a passionate kiss.
She sat with her bottom spread across one of the parlor's mahogany tables.
The soft fabric of her green robes draped between her open knees as Tom slyly hovered between them.
His hands kneaded the fleshy bit of her hips that led to her plump bottom as Harriet arched her back towards him, seductively allowing her full breasts to press against his chest.
"You'll have another heat soon." Tom growled in a husky whisper as he nipped Harriet's lips between kisses, "...I can smell it."
"Mmm, you've said that for years, Tom." She answered with a low chuckle, "Mark's nearly nine now. Almost a decade without hardly any cycles, what makes you so sure one's coming soon?"
"I can taste it, sweetling." Tom whispered as he licked Harriet's plump, bottom lip.
She shivered in anticipation as she raised both her hands up to cup Tom's face while he renewed their affection as he slowly bent her backwards to gently lay her down on the parlor table.
Tom pulled back from their kiss to admire Harriet for a long moment as he gazed at her fair face, softened by the glow of the crackling fireplace.
Her dark hair fanned behind her head.
The weighty, velvet fabric of her robes made her breasts seem even fuller as they waited for his touch, annoyingly hidden by her gown.
"Won't you let me, sweetling?" Tom asked as his skillful, tapered hands drifted from her hips to dance across the outer edges of her sides and ribs.
"Won't I let you what, Tom?" Harriet asked as she gripped his waist with her knees.
"Won't you let me breed you again?" He asked as he kissed his way from her jawline down across her throat, "When your next heat comes?"
Harriet's emerald eyes widened.
She chuckled as she spoke, "A-Another heat doesn't mean another-"
"-But if it did?" Tom asked as a smirk curled his lips between the soft kisses he gave to Harriet, "If I asked you to carry again, would you?"
Harriet blinked as Tom raised himself up to stare into her emerald eyes.
"You really want another baby?" She frowned.
"There will never be a time when I don't want another baby, sweetling." Tom promised as a decadent smirk spread across his handsome face.
"I haven't had a heat in years." Harriet smiled wryly as she played with a stray, dark curl that flopped across Tom's forehead, "...And after the next one, I dunno, the pattern may be similar……Go on, then, Minister for Magic, heir of Slytherin, if you think you can hit the mark, you're welcome to try."
The playful, teasing grin Harriet threw Tom nearly drove him insane with need.
He all but pounced on Harriet as he pushed her roughly against the table and devoured her mouth in a passionate kiss.
The primitive cry that left her throat as his hands slipped her skirts up to her thighs caused him to growl before he could stop himself.
Heat or not, Tom couldn't wait to unite with his darling wife.
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Mark's left eye twitched as he turned away from the parlor door and hobbled back to his room, disgusted by what he had seen and heard.
His heart pounded as anxiety flooded his system.
A baby?
His parents would have another baby?
………..But he was the baby.
He had an older brother and an older sister.
He had his parents and his grandparents.
Where would another baby fit into all of that, into his family?
As Mark made it back to his room, he closed the door and sank to the floor.
He pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them as he thought with a pout.
If only he could speak to James………
Yes, when James came home tomorrow, he would tell him, that would help!
His big brother always knew what to do.
While his young mind brooded on what he had just learned, Mark's eyes widened as a hideous possibility presented itself.
Mark had two siblings, one evil, and one good, even at his young age, he was more than aware of that.
He whimpered in fear as he wondered…….Who would his next brother or sister be more like?
Him and James……..or Mae?