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 didn't remember how he made it back to his dormitory that night.
Harriet's smile had burned his heart as he had lifted her hand to his lips and bid her goodnight before she escaped into Gryffindor Tower.
While his roommates slept, he bit his lip as he relieved the aching want that consumed him.
His fingers and palm were an insult.
He needed Harriet, not himself.
He wanted Harriet.
His teeth gnashed together as the urge to scream rose within him.
The anger at his loneliness became nearly overwhelming before he finally found his bittersweet release.
As he panted while he came back to reality, his dark eyes opened.
His plan had gone well.
They had chatted, laughed, and kissed.
He had enough saved for the next two and a half years until he could graduate and earn more money.
Tom threw the covers off and leapt from his bed.
He hastily pulled on his night robe before he stealthily escaped from his dormitory, slunk through the dungeons and up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.
Tom Riddle loved Harriet Potter, but his patience had run out.
With a sly smile and a thinly-veiled threat, he managed to convince the Fat Lady to move aside and let him enter.
Tom closed his eyes as he followed Harriet's scent up the dark staircase to the girl's dormitory.
Her sweet smell of innocence sent saliva pooling in his mouth.
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Harriet hadn't quite fallen asleep yet when the door to her room cracked open.
She squinted as she sat up in bed, reached over, and pulled her glasses on.
"Tom!" She exclaimed in a loud whisper once she saw her unexpected visitor.
Careful not to disturb her roommates' sleep, she stumbled out of bed and quietly padded across the room.
"Tom! What are you doing here?!" Harriet hissed as she stepped out into the hallway to greet her friend, "What if Filch finds you?!"
"No one's going to find me, Harriet, don't worry yourself." Tom chuckled, "I simply couldn't wait until morning to see you again."
The chill of the evening wafted easily through Harriet's thin pajamas.
She discreetly crossed her arms over her chest, but Tom managed to glimpse the perfect points of her nipples before they disappeared from his view.
He cleared his throat as he willed his instant arousal to recede.
"What are you talking about, Tom?" Harriet asked.
Tom took both of Harriet's hands into his as he gazed into her eyes and began, "Harriet Potter, I think-"
"-Oh, no." Harriet interrupted him with a chuckle. His expression changed to a scowl for a second before his eyes widened in surprise as she went on, "It's I who should thank you. I dunno, Tom, I was a bit sad about Viktor, but you reminded me tonight that as long as I have my friends, you, Hermione…..and Ron, I have all that I need."
Tom's mouth fell open.
"I'll always be grateful to you." Harriet smiled as she squeezed his hands, "...For giving me that confidence."
Before he could speak, Harriet bent forward and kissed his cheek.
Still too dumbfounded at how badly his carefully devised plot had failed, Tom was too bewildered to reply as Harriet smiled and said, "Goodnight."
In silence, he raised a hand to protest as she slipped back into her room and closed the door.
He stood in the hallway for a long moment as he considered what to do next.
Silently, he pressed an ear to the wood until he heard the sound of Harriet's gentle snoring mingling with the subtle noises from her roommates.
Slowly, carefully, Tom pushed the door open and glided into her room.
In his bare feet, he swept across the cold tiles of the floor until he stood by her bedside.
His dark eyes softened as he gazed down at his sleeping beloved.
Tom Riddle was no fool.
He understood the importance of making the right decision at the right moment.
Although it destroyed him to know his moment had not yet come with Harriet, he vowed to find the patience necessary to wait for its arrival.
He closed his eyes as he bent down and pressed a loving kiss to Harriet's forehead while she slept.
Tom straightened himself and frowned in frustration.
Before he returned to his own bed, he glanced around and helped himself to a few souvenirs.
After generously allowing Harriet to come to him on her own terms, Tom determined his noble display entitled him to a few momentos in the meantime.
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"Hermione?" Harriet asked the next morning while she and her roommates readied for the day.
"What?" Hermione blinked as she looked up from fastening the buttons on her cardigan.
"Have you seen my bra anywhere? I can't find it." Harriet asked in shushed voice while she rummaged through her trunk once more.
"The beige one?" Hermione whispered.
"Yeah." Harriet answered.
"No, I haven't." Hermione shrugged, "You must have misplaced it, Harriet. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'm not sure how you find anything in that mess!"
Harriet scowled as she looked at her area of the room and scanned over the variety of clothing strewn about.
Shirts lay on the chair.
Skirts and socks were scattered on the floor.
A few forgotten sweaters had been draped over her trunk.
Harriet scowled at her friend before she resumed her search.
For the next half hour, Harriet checked everywhere but she failed to find her bra.
She walked to breakfast with a frown on her face.
The day before, at the ball, she clearly remembered wearing the new set of panties she had bought to go under her dress.
It baffled her that she failed to find them that morning too.
Harriet knew she had taken them off and left them on the floor the previous night before she had slipped into her robe and headed to the showers.
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Tom was late to breakfast that morning.
After his roommates had left Slytherin's dormitory to attend breakfast, Tom finally slipped out of bed, reached into his trunk, and collected his newly-acquired trophies.
While Harriet, his friends, and the rest of Hogwarts' students enjoyed their morning meal, Tom found a more blissful state of ecstacy.
He crouched in one of the shower stalls while he held Harriet's bra and panties in one hand as he furiously worked himself with the other.
Tom panted against the pressure caused by his own fingers as he nuzzled the soft cups of Harriet's beige bra before he buried his nose in the portion of her knickers that smelled most strongly of her.
He growled as he felt his release approach but stopped suddenly as a harsh gasp rang out.
Tom moved his narrowed eyes in the direction of the noise as he looked above the stall and spotted the Bloody Baron floating there.
"My dear boy," The Bloody Baron chuckled, "Unrequited pining will do you no good if she doesn't choose you."
"She already has." Tom snarled.
"Has she……or have you chosen her?" The Bloody Baron frowned.
The ghost threw Tom a mournful frown as he drifted by, but Tom foolishly shrugged off the spirit's wise warning.
As Tom resumed his motions, all he focused on was how lovely it would be one day when his beloved replaced his hand.
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Tom and Harriet exchanged a couple of short, experimental kisses over the few remaining months until the summer term.
Once they were dreadfully seperated yet again for the warm season, Tom spent those sunshine-laden days hard at work at the apothecary.
Harriet had gone to spend the summer at The Burrow, which further spurred Tom's hatred of Ron.
Instead of wasting time brooding, Tom poured himself into his work.
He spent nothing from his earnings.
By the end of summer, with his increased hours and the small raise the shop owner awarded him for his incredible quality and speed, Tom had saved enough to rent a small flat in Hogsmeade and cover the first few months of living expenses.
He gladly told Harriet a week after school resumed as they each enjoyed a butterbeer in The Three Broomsticks.
Harriet considered the occasion to be a joyous reunion with her be friend.
Tom considered it to be their first outing as an official couple.
"So, then you've saved up enough to start living on your own as soon as we graduate. Brilliant, Tom!" Harriet congratulated him with a smile.
"Thank you, Harriet, yes, that is part of it." He smiled, "However, not only that………I'll be able to support a mate too."
Harriet blinked as he flashed her an impish grin and explained, "Don't you understand, Harriet Potter? I can provide for you, I can protect you, I can care for you…….Nothing stands between us now! We have mere months until graduation and then you and I can be one forever!"
Harriet's emerald eyes widened behind her glasses.
Tom's chest swelled as he waited with baited breath for Harriet's ready acceptance of his generous offer.
"I……….I don't know what to say." Harriet chuckled nervously.
"You only need to say yes, Harriet." Tom purred, "Then I will be yours and you will be mine."
"That's the trouble though, Tom." Harriet frowned as she glanced up and met his gaze, "We seem to be in two different places."
Tom's chest deflated as he asked, "...I beg your pardon?"
"Well, you're clearly ready to find someone, settle down, and get on with it." Harriet shrugged, "...And I'm not."
"What?" Tom snapped in abhorrence.
"I'm not ready to take a mate yet." Harriet chuckled, "You've shown me that I don't need to be, remember what I said? You've held me up when I faltered, you've encouraged me, stood beside me……I see the other girls in my year falling over themselves to trap an alpha and a husband, but that's just not me, and you've helped me see that."
Tom's mouth dropped open.
"You intend to spend the rest of your life alone, then?" He snapped, "You're an orphan, Harriet. You will need someone eventually, you will want for company!"
His hateful words failed to bother her as she nodded and replied, "Yeah……I will someday. Just not now, I want to establish a career first, you know? I want to take some time for myself before I give my life over to having a family. I've already given the past seventeen years to my aunt and uncle. I need to find out who I am before I can be a decent partner to someone……..much less a decent mate or mother."
If Tom's mug hadn't been made of steel, he would have shattered it in his impossibly tight grip.
"I'm certain you understand." Harriet nodded.
"Of course, Harriet………I understand." Tom smiled through grit teeth.
"I won't ask you to wait on me." She chuckled dryly, "I'm leaving the day after graduation for the Auror Training Programme. I expect that everyone will be married off by the time I come back."
As Tom pondered what to say next, Harriet's grotesque underestimation of his character made him want to laugh in her face.
He had already waited six years, what trouble would a couple more present to him?