Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
—————————————————————
The following day was a busy one for the Riddles.
Tom had set aside the morning to welcome his son back home.
He stood with Harriet, Mark, and the Trendells on the receiving section of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters to greet James, Mae, and Lily once they stepped off the Hogwarts Express.
Mae vanished into the confines of her room as soon as she walked into Riddle Manor, but James gladly spent his time with his younger brother.
It surprised him that Mark asked first to speak privately instead of colouring or playing a board game.
As the two held their secret meeting, James furrowed his brow while he listened to his little brother's recollection of events.
"...And that's what I overheard." Mark finished with a frown.
James sat beside him on the floor of his bedroom as he stared off into the distance while he considered what his little brother had just said.
"...So Mum and Dad want another baby?" He mused.
"Does that mean we'll have a new sister?" Mark frowned.
"Well…..it could mean lots of things." James shrugged.
"Lots of things like what?" Mark asked.
James laughed as a small smile danced across his face, "I suppose it doesn't really matter does it? There's not much you and I can do to stop any of this."
Mark looked away as a miserable pout clouded his little face.
"What's that for?" James asked, "Are you upset that there'll be someone younger than you in the house?"
"No……" Mark sighed, "What if….What if someone else comes who's mean?" His eyes widened as he gasped and exclaimed, "What if someone comes who's even meaner than Mae?!"
"That won't happen." James flatly determined.
Mark blinked as he watched his older brother nod in gentle reassurance, "That won't happen, Mark. I'm sure our new brother or sister, whoever they'll become, will be more like us and Mum than Dad and Mae. Won't that be nice? There'll be someone small for you to watch over."
No matter what James said, Mark's frown remained.
"Come on…..." James said after a moment.
He slowly stood and tapped his little brother's shoulder while he smiled, "Lily wanted us to meet in her backyard at four. We can't do much about the baby, but we can all build a snowman together, can't we?"
"Yeah!" Mark cheered.
Without hesitation, James pulled him to his feet before they bundled up in their winter coats and set off running across the grounds of Riddle Manor towards the Trendells' humble house.
It would have unnerved James to realize that across the hallway, Mae's room sat empty, her hundreds of dolls still and staring.
Mae hadn't deemed an invitation necessary to go and play with Lily while her brother's back was turned.
—————————————————————
Across the snowy grounds of Tom's estate, on the Trendells' property, Lily walked out to the very edge of her backyard, behind the line of bushy, decorative trees, and opened her mouth to let some of the falling snowflakes land on her tongue.
"I bet you have the audacity to think you'll do something that vile to my brother soon enough." An angry voice abruptly accused from the nearby trees.
Lily instantly abandoned her whimsical pastime and looked around with wide eyes as she called out, "Who said that?...Who's there?"
Mae slowly slunk forward from her hiding place between the trees as she gazed at Lily with ominous intent glinting in her emerald eyes.
"Do you honestly believe my brother will never tire of you?" Mae asked, "I am the princess and he is the prince……..His life and all meaning associated with it cannot even be comprehended by………someone as insignificant as you."
"I beg your pardon?" Lily frowned, "Someone as insignificant as me? What's that supposed to mean? Are you mocking my heritage?" She scowled.
It was a well-known secret that Minister Riddle held a fair amount of disdain for muggles and muggleborns.
"I am not as blind as my father." Mae said as her red lips curled into a hateful smirk, "Blood status does not equal strength…….You're weak, Lily Trendell…..You're nothing but a weak, little girl who hangs onto my dear brother hoping for fame and wealth, aren't you?"
"No!" Lily cried as disgusted dismay twisted her fair features, "James and I are friends! We've been friends-"
"-Since your money-grubbing family met mine at the hospital the day of your birth." Mae finished for her, "I'll let you go, for now, but know that I see you for what you really are…..a puny, insipid spider. You'll never get your grimy hands on my brother……Remember that!"
Lily's frown had melted into an angry snarl by the time Mae finished speaking.
"...What James and I do or do not, choose or choose not to do, is none of your business." Lily scowled. She scoffed as she crossed her arms and huffed, "James was right! You really are quite terrible, aren't you? To think I was stupid enough to ask him to think otherwise!"
"What nonsense are you on about?" Mae narrowed her eyes.
"Every time you've been in trouble at Hogwarts, I've begged James to be merciful towards you." Lily snapped, "Don't worry, I won't make that mistake again."
Mae froze.
An odd look came across her beautiful face, as if some hideous truth had presented itself to her that she could not comprehend.
"...James……Thinks poorly of me….?" She frowned.
Lily blinked as she tried to understand the tears that gathered in her enemy's eyes.
"Of course, he thinks poorly of you!" She laughed after a hesitative second, "Look at everything you've done! How could he not? He knows it's all your fault. That odd attack in Slytherin's common room, mass waves of collective memory loss. James isn't stupid."
The conclusion that her darling brother thought less than the world of her was one Mae seemed incapable of bearing.
"You're lying." She hissed as a hot tear of broken-hearted rage dripped down her blemishless, rosy cheek.
"No, I'm not!" Lily spat, "Ask him yourself, why don't you?!"
"YOU'RE LYING!" Mae shouted, a wild sort of disconcerted disbelief erupting in the form of a primitive scream.
"I am not!" Lily frowned, "James hates you! That's the truth!"
She unknowingly pushed Mae too far.
As the snow fell around them, Mae ripped the sleeve off that covered her affected arm and screeched like a raging harpy, "YOU'RE LYYYYIIIINNNGGG!"
Even if Lily had been given the chance to draw her wand, she would have still been powerless to defend herself against the bright, emerald green tree roots that shot up from the snow-covered earth and bound her limbs.
A scream left her lips just before the tallest root of all rose like a serpent made of twigs to wrap its scratchy arms around her throat.
—————————————————————
Close by, Mark and James heard the shrieks that rang out as the two girls battled.
Their eyes widened as they looked at each other in horror.
Without saying a word, both Riddle brothers trudged through the deep snow with impressive speed as they raced towards Lily and Mae.
———————————————————
James gasped in terror as he and Mark burst into Lily's backyard, only to see that his sister had suspended his darling in the air.
The heavy plant roots constricted Lily's breath as they slowly cut into the flesh of her neck, wrists, and ankles.
"MAE!" James shouted, "LET HER GO!...LET HER GO NOW!"
Mark whimpered as his brother withdrew his wand.
"You'll be expelled!" He reminded James in a frightened whisper.
"I don't care!" James hissed without taking his eyes off Lily.
Faced with a true crisis, James battled between his inheritance of Tom's protective nature and Harriet's kind heart.
Although he had no real wish to hurt his sister, he refused to idly watch his beloved's torment.
"LET HER GO!...NOW!" James shouted in a final warning, "I WON'T WARN YOU AGAIN!"
Mae's mouth had fallen open.
Her emerald eyes shone brightly.
In her affected hand, she crooked her fingers towards her palm, intent on finishing off her rival, once and for all.
Lily's eyes widened as the roots tightened their grip at Mae's command.
James raised his wand.
Before the battle could end in death or expulsion, the war was interrupted by the sound of a sliding glass door.
"Lily?" A kind voice called, "...Lily?"
Mae glanced in the direction of the sound.
The moment she peered through the trees and saw Mrs. Trendell step onto the back deck to look into the yard, she ended her evil spell.
James pocketed his wand and ran to Lily as she fell into the snow with an ungraceful plop, free from Mae's bonds.
"Lily!" James shouted as he gathered Lily into his arms while Mark raced forward to frown over his brother's shoulder at his friend, "Lily, are you alright?"
Lily swallowed as she blinked and gasped for breath.
A second of silent terror swept over James until she nodded and swallowed thickly, "Y-Yeah…...Yeah, James, I'm….I'm alright."
"...Lily?" Mrs. Trendell called again.
Mae grit her teeth in nervousness.
Knowing she could not murder Lily, Mark, and Mrs. Trendell without being caught, for once, she feared her father's rage as his words about necessary discretion echoed back to her.
"If any of you say anything about this to the adults," Mae warned as her emerald eyes flickered between her brothers and Lily, "...I doubt you'll ever speak again."
Before they could protest or retort, Mae turned on her heel, pulled the fur-lined hood of her black and green velvet cloak over her head, and marched back towards Riddle Manor.
"...Lily?!" Mrs. Trendell shouted, growing impatient and worried.
"I'm fine, mother!" Lily called as she used James and Mark's help to struggle to her feet.
"We're building a snowman, Mrs. Trendell!" Mark called.
"We're only playing!" James added.
"I'm fine, Mum!" Lily said as she walked out from behind the line of plump, bushy trees that had concealed the battleground from Mrs. Trendell's view.
"Oh, very well, then, sweetheart." Mrs. Trendell smiled, "Would you and your friends like to come in for some tea and biscuits?"
Lily nodded as she forced a smile on her face.
Ten minutes later, she, Mark, and James huddled around the fireplace as they enjoyed their refreshments.
None of them had ever been so grateful to receive a parent's interruption.