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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Harriet mercifully laid unconscious during the next, woeful hours that passed.

The creeping strings of dark dread that had crawled through her veins gradually ebbed away.

Under threat of imminent death, the medical team performed to Tom's expectations as they successfully diverted the curse's effects away from Harriet.

Once it was all over, the healer who placed the small, lifeless body in Tom's arms kept her head down to avoid showing her tears to the Minister.

Silence filled the room.

Tom Riddle had made his bargain.

The price had been paid.

Harriet had survived, still deeply asleep, with her chest rising and falling as normal, healthy breaths filled her lungs.

Tom clutched his pain to his chest as he turned his back on everyone.

"Tom….." Merope began, her voice tight with sorrow as she attempted to comfort her son.

"Get out." Tom whispered harshly without so much as turning his head, "Get out……All of you……..Leave us alone."

Merope frowned as she reluctantly followed the healers out of the room.

As she made her way down the corridor to find her grandchildren, Mae didn't even look up from the magazine she had found to read.

James and Mark bounded over immediately with their eyes wide and their hearts pounding.

Merope bore the burden that Tom could not in that moment as she drew both of her grandsons close and informed them of the terrible news.

Mark wailed.

James grit his teeth in sadness and bitter defeat.

Merope only mentioned the outcome to the boys, of course.

She knew James and Mark were too young to learn about the awful decision their father had made.

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For once, Tom Riddle junior did not know what to do.

With his stillborn daughter in his arms, he shuffled over and all but collapsed onto the side of the bed Harriet lay on.

His breath came in sharp, painful pants as he looked down at his sleeping wife and stroked the side of her cheek with his thumb.

Guilt overwhelmed him as he contemplated what he should say when Harriet's green eyes opened.

Should he tell her the truth for once?

……..That he had been too cowardly to lower her into her grave and raise their children in a life of lonely solitude?

Too selfish?

Too greedy?

Should he tell Harriet he hadn't been brave enough to wake up in the world each morning knowing she was no longer a part of it and never would be again?

In horror, Tom slowly turned to look at the little face of the tiny form that lay swaddled in his arms.

He swallowed thickly as his dark eyes scanned over the baby girl, somewhat premature but still as perfect as Mae, James, and even Mark had been at their births.

Long eyelashes, chubby cheeks, soft, miniature lips.

Tom let out a sigh as he clutched his daughter close and took Harriet's hand with his free one.

He hated someone, whom he did not yet know, but he hated his unrevealed nemesis to their core.

Whoever had whoever had stolen from him…….Tom Riddle hated the person who had fractured his flawless family.

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After hours of anxious waiting, the Malfoys were nearly beside themselves with fear.

At last, the door to the dirty, crumbling dungeon they occupied flew open as a towering, masked guard stepped inside the hopeless room.

"We demand an audience with the Minister!" Lucius spat, his entitlement not wavering even in the stance of such a formidable opponent.

"The Minister has ordered an interrogation to be conducted on each of you." The guard spoke, his voice distorted by the heavy, metal mask that covered his face, "Failure to cooperate will result in a more severe punishment."

"Is the Minister's wife alright?!" Scorpius shouted.

Besides his obvious concern for his beloved's mother, he knew his future with Mae depended on her survival.

"Lady Riddle is alive." The guard nodded, "I'm afraid the Minister's daughter is not."

Scorpius's mouth fell open.

His throat went dry as a trembling panic overtook him.

Mae…….

Mae was……

"Son, calm down!" Draco ordered as he glanced over and watched Scorpius's eyes bulge out of his head.

"That can't be!" Scorpius shrieked, "She was fine at dinner! She didn't eat any of that awful bread! She didn't-"

"-The Minister's youngest daughter." The guard corrected himself.

Scorpius quieted as a frown of realization marred his handsome face.

Although relief flooded his system that his darling had been spared, his heart already ached in sympathy as he understood Mae had lost her unborn sister.

The guard took a heavy step towards Scorpius.

Intent on rising to the occasion, Scorpius lifted himself up to bravely face the ominous man as the guard spoke, "The interrogations will be painful………I have orders to make them so…However…...You mentioned the bread, boy? If you have information you're willing to divulge before we begin, now is your time to speak."

"It was an accident!" Scorpius spat, "My fiancé needed some medicine, I….I don't think-"

Before Scorpius could say anything else, the guard grabbed hold of his arm and drug him out of the dungeon while his parents and grandparents shouted in protest.

Scorpius did not struggle or flail, instead he gladly and willingly went to talk to Tom.

Some sort of accident, that's all it had been, just a terrible, tragic accident.

A scowl of determination crossed his face as he vowed to tell the Minister the truth.

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Against Merope's wishes, James insisted on going in to see their parents.

After he and Mark let go of their grandmother and pushed past her, she sat down beside Mae.

For quite some time, the two sat side by side in deafening silence.

"I'm so sorry, love." Merope eventually spoke as she reached out and laid a hand on Mae's shoulder.

"...About what?" Mae yawned as she looked up from her magazine.

"About your sister." Merope frowned.

Mae shrugged as she went back to reading, "It wasn't my baby."

Merope was more bothered by her granddaughter's callous response than she had been by her son's hateful hiss.

She furrowed her brow and insisted, "Well, no……but she was still your sister, dear."

"Mum and Dad can have another baby, if that's what they want so badly." Mae shrugged again, "They've already had plenty."

Merope cocked her head, as if an unsettling sound echoed from the distance as she pat Mae's shoulder and smiled, "Your Mum's very lucky she'll have the five of us to look after her in the days ahead. She'll need lots of rest after today……and she'll be grieving too."

"If she had figured out how to shut her legs by now, she wouldn't be grieving, would she, Grandmother?" Mae smiled sweetly.

"Sabrina Maeve Riddle, what an awful thing to say!" Merope snapped.

"Is it not true, though?" Mae asked blankly.

As Merope gnashed her teeth, she bit her tongue to avoid saying something she should not.

While her emotions capitulated from unbelievable rage to incredible frustration, she lost her chance to speak.

"...Mae?" James called.

"Yes, brother?" She looked up immediately to answer in a sing-song voice.

"Mark and I chatted with Dad." James nodded.

Mae waited for a moment, expecting to be invited in next as she stood.

She had already rehearsed her lies.

"He's not ready for you just now!" Mark scowled.

"Dad wants to talk to Scorpius first." James declared, "...And the house elf who served Mum that bread."

Despite his sadness, a smirk of spite danced across his lips while he watched his sister's face distort in repressed rage.

For once, Mae dared to let the beginnings of fear tickle her dark soul.

She had expected Scorpius to prove his loyalty to her at some crucial point or another, but with her victory that close to being assured, she hadn't wanted that moment to come quite so quickly.