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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A part of Mark wanted Mae to attack him during her break from school, just once, so that he could go to his mother and tell her all about what had happened with Lily.

He eagerly awaited his sister's next vicious onslaught, but to his disappointment, that terror never came.

Mae retreated into her own brooding for the rest of winter recess.

She barely looked at Mark the morning she walked away from her family and boarded the Hogwarts Express to return to the castle.

Her heart ached as she watched Lily rush to James and take him by the arm as the two of them wandered off to find seats with their friends.

The days and weeks that followed passed by in a meaningless haze for Mae.

Why should she go to class?

Why should she even try?

The world lost all meaning without James.

Knowing she had earned his hatred was nearly more than she could bear.

Early one spring morning, before classes started for the day, Mae chose to spend that last hour of freedom sitting atop the hill next to the Black Lake.

She sighed as she drew her knees to her chest and propped her chin up on a bent arm.

Birds flew overhead, across the beautiful backdrop of the vivid sunrise.

Beneath them, the lake rippled as some large, aquatic inhabitant below swam through the water.

A frown marred Mae's beautiful face while she thought.

Coming to the castle has been the worst thing that could have ever happened for her and James.

How was she supposed to stay close to her brother when he irritatingly surrounded himself with all of his…….friends?

Mae furrowed her brow as she silently let her mind attempt to put together a plan.

She could undress Lily, then Rose, then Hugo, then the other Gryffindor boys her brother had become acquainted with and use them all, in the exact manner she had with her doll acquired from the toy shop that day, the previous summer.

……..Then what?

Her heart fluttered as she thought about James's brilliant smile and chivalrous charm.

Unless she were to lock her brother in a cage, somewhere hidden far away from the world, James would always have friends and admirers.

Mae's emerald eyes narrowed.

………..She would face annoying rival after annoying rival.

Her affected arm began to itch in abject aggravation until a voice called out, "...You missed breakfast."

Mae kept her eyes narrowed as she turned around and watched Scorpius walk up the hill with a small, cloth bundle held in his hands.

"...I don't mind." She said in her smooth voice once he came close enough to sit next to her.

"I brought you something, anyway." He shrugged as he moved the cloth aside to reveal some of Hogwarts' most delicious morning morsels, "...I know how well you like those little cinnamon biscuits."

Mae glanced down at the biscuits before her miserable frown gave way to the slightest grin.

Like her father, she enjoyed being served.

Without a single word of thanks, she reached out and began to pop the biscuits into her mouth, one by one, as Scorpius asked, "So, what are you doing out here? Watching the sunrise?"

"...Clearing my head before I'm forced to endure the buzzing of another senseless day." Mae replied.

"You really hate it here, don't you?" Scorpius frowned.

Mae scowled as she looked out over the landscape while she swallowed her last bite of cinnamon biscuit.

Scorpius had to remind himself to close his mouth in an effort to avoid looking like an idiot in front of the beautiful girl.

Bathed in the morning sun's radiant beams, Tom and Harriet's daughter seemed too flawless to be real, from her perfect skin to her bright eyes.

Although her dark hair fell in tousled, soft waves around her shoulders, not a single strand had gone awry or frizzed.

Magical and muggle women paid exorbitant amounts of money hoping to achieve a fraction of that look.

"My brother is very important to me." Mae explained as she glanced over at Scorpius and flashed him a false smile, "...I rarely get to see him now that we've come here, to this place."

"I don't have any siblings……" Scorpius shrugged, "...But I miss my home too. Here it's harder to find people to listen to me. My father always listens to me."

"Mine does too." Mae remarked with a mischievous smirk as she raised an eyebrow at Scorpius.

Eager to throw him enough emotional crumbs of false hope that would lead him to believe she held him in anything slightly above total contempt, a delicious laugh erupted from her lips.

The sound was so joyful and full, Scorpius couldn't help but join in, mistaking the moment for a brief pause of bonding.

Mae Riddle did not know how to bond.

Mae Riddle did not know how to love.

What she did know, however, was that to perform necessary manipulation, the proper techniques demanded use.

With Tom, she flashed her large, sad eyes, which she astutely inferred reminded him of her mother's.

With Scorpius, a simple smile and laugh seemed sufficient.

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Tom furrowed his brow as he stood in the bowels of the Ministry's largest potions laboratory.

In his hand, he held the ancient book open that he had snatched from the governmental library as he scowled down at the page.

He bit his lip as he grappled with his own conscience.

The formula was simple enough for someone of his skill.

It could be brewed and bottled in a day, immediately ready for use.

Tom smirked as he considered doing just that.

Harriet would never detect it on his tongue or his fingers as he took her into his arms and-

Tom closed the book.

No.

He shut his eyes tight as he silenced the dark yearnings of his own selfish heart.

Tom dropped the book to the floor as he suddenly pulled out his wand and apparated away.

He didn't care that someone would inevitably find the discarded text there and wonder how it had come to lay on the floor next to the laboratory's largest cauldron, abandoned.

Tom only cared that he had resisted the darkness in himself long enough to keep his mate safe.

Harriet blinked as he appeared directly in Riddle Manor's parlor where she sat.

"Hello, Tom." She frowned, "Is something wrong? You're home ea-"

Her question was soon silenced as Tom rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her.

Harriet couldn't help but frown at the tightness of his embrace, as if he clutched her close to guard her against some unforeseen danger.

From her position, Harriet slowly lifted her hands and placed them on what she could reach of Tom's back.

"...Are you alright?" She asked quietly.

"Do you remember the day we first mated?" Tom asked.

"...Yeah, of course I do." She frowned.

"And do you remember the day we were married?" Tom asked in his smooth, low voice.

"...I do." Harriet said with a nod.

She grew uneasy as their hug seemed to linger on forever as Tom squeezed her tighter while he laid his head in the crook of her neck.

"Tom……?" She asked, "What's the matter? Has something happened?"

A bitter chuckle tumbled from his chest.

"You've never told me what the note was about, Harriet." He whispered.

Harriet's eyes widened.

"Of course I did……" She frowned, "Don't you remember? We went over it last week for a-"

"-For a moment and that was it." Tom sighed as he kept his firm grip on her, "I have allowed you privacy by not reading your thoughts, sweetling, but I cannot ignore the notion that your heart is troubled. It eats at me whenever I stand in your presence. My own is enough of a battleground, please!" Tom hissed as he suddenly released Harriet's waist and pulled her by the shoulders to look at him, "Talk to me! I am your mate! Rely on me, as you used to, for confidant, for-"

"-What do you mean your heart is a battleground?" Harriet pouted.

Tom gave her a wry smile as he asked with a bitter chuckle, "Is this really how far we've drifted apart? That you do not know me and I no longer know you?"

"No……." Harriet said as she reached up and grasped his hand, "No, of…..of course not."

Tom gave her a wry smile until she took him by the hand.

"Come on, then." Harriet commanded as she led him away, "I suppose we have some work to do."

For the rest of the day, the youngest Mr. and Mrs. Riddle worked on themselves and their marriage.

They lounged in bed together as they spent the next hours talking, cuddling, and kissing.

Tom didn't take Harriet into his arms until the very end once she had shared her concerns and he had shared his fears.

As a dry gasp left her throat while she moved her hips over him, his hands on her waist to hold her in position, her palms on his chest, Tom and Harriet hadn't felt so connected since their Hogwarts days as young lovers dreaming.