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After more than ten years of waiting for his best opportunity, Tom wasted no time approaching Harriet the very next day.

Before he ever went to his office, he strode into the Auror Department once he arrived at the Ministry and headed down the hallway to knock on her door.

"Come in!" Harriet called.

As soon as her voice rang out, Tom turned the doorknob and strode inside her office.

"Tom!" Harriet exclaimed in surprise as she looked up with a confused frown, "You're here awfully early, aren't you? Or did you want to change our plans for lunch? We can go back to that same cafe we visited yesterday, if you'd like. I don't mind."

"Actually, I'd like to give these back to you." Tom explained as he reached into the pockets of his robes and withdrew Harriet's prenatal pills, "I'm afraid you dropped them."

He watched her expression visibly change to one of embarrassed surprise before she swallowed thickly and reached out with a trembling hand to take the pills while she murmured, "Oh…….Thanks."

"You should have mentioned your condition." Tom chided as he flashed Harriet a kind smile, "The Ministry will gladly make any accommodations necessary to assist in your daily duties."

"Oh, no……" She chuckled dryly as she placed the jar of pills back in her desk drawer, "You don't understand….I'm…..I'm not expecting."

"Oh?" Tom blinked as if he were surprised.

He congratulated himself on successfully manipulating his darling into disclosing information she had previously decided to hide.

"No, I…..Actually, I'm hoping to conceive soon. That's why I'm taking these." Harriet explained as she nodded at the drawer before she closed it.

"Ah." Tom answered. He gave Harriet a warm smile as he added, "Well, your mate's a very lucky man. I'm certain you'll make a wonderful mother, Harriet."

"Thanks, but…..I don't have a mate." She laughed mirthlessly.

Like a snake slithering through grass to grab an unsuspecting mouse, Tom began his approach.

"You don't?" He gasped in feigned shock.

"Unfortunately, no, I don't." Harriet confirmed with a bittersweet smile, "I haven't found anyone capable of…..You know, being there, being a good partner, or a decent father, for that matter. I'm not getting any younger, but I am getting more impatient. This last year especially, maybe it's just part of the aging process or hormones of whatever…….Anyway, I'm desperate to become a mother!"

Tom listened vigilantly as she raised a hand to her head and sighed, "I signed up to adopt a child, but I've been denied at every turn. It seems not many expectant mothers wish to turn their baby over to a woman with no husband, unfortunately."

Say it, Tom would force her to say it and give him the chance to present himself like a fine riding stallion.

"May I ask why you're taking supplements, then? Isn't that harmful?" He questioned.

"Well, Tom, it's a bit embarrassing." Harriet chuckled as she dropped her hand and met his gaze, "I have an appointment at the end of the month to visit St. Mungo's and receive a……donation. They've assured me whoever I chose from their inventory will remain anonymous……..They've also mentioned the procedure is painless and low risk, which is reassuring."

Tom nodded as a silence settled between them.

"You're quite brave, Harriet." He grinned, "Approaching motherhood, prepared to go through it all on your own."

"I'm an orphan." Harriet shrugged, "Maybe that's why it doesn't really bother me much, not having a mate for this."

Tom eagerly sought to worm his way inside her life as he spoke, "I understand…….It is rather fascinating, I suppose."

"Yeah." She shrugged, "They're going to give me basic information on the potential fathers, you know…..their height and eye colour, if they have a documented family history of diseases, things like that. I'm glad, but I wish I could know more about them."

Tom sucked in a silent breath of joyful anticipation.

He slyly hid his excitement from Harriet as he nodded, "Of course……I assume you'd ideally want the father of your child to have excelled academically."

"Well, yes, ideally." Harriet blinked.

"...And to be gifted in magic." Tom added.

"If I could choose, sure." She nodded.

"Perhaps you'd even want the father to come from a noble bloodline." Tom smirked.

Harriet grinned back before she coyly asked, "Sorry, Tom…….What are you playing at, exactly?"

Tom kept his shrug casual as he lifted his hands in a gesture and replied, "The choice is yours, Harriet…..Though I'd gladly offer to father your son or daughter, if you'd allow it…..You and I have always been so very close."

Harriet's breath hitched as her cheeks instantly flushed a bright shade of red.

While she was moved by Tom's generous offer, she couldn't calm her racing pulse as she enterainted lewd visions of nesting with the strong, handsome, dominant alpha's child in her belly.

"You'd be willing to do that…….for me?" Harriet asked.

"Perhaps." Tom mused as if siring Harriet's child were a fleeting thought that had occurred to him, "I know you have an awful amount of work, why don't we talk it over during lunch?"

"That'd be brilliant!" She smiled.

Tom flashed her a charming grin before he turned and left her office.

As he made his way out of the Auror Department and across the Ministry, his soul burned with a deep sense of satisfaction.

The wait until noon proved to be the longest four hours Tom Riddle had ever endured.

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Ten minutes after twelve, Harriet sat across from Tom in his office while they ate the food that had been ordered from the small deli outside the Ministry.

The first half of their meal passed silently.

Once Harriet cleared her throat after she swallowed, Tom finally spoke first, "Have we not been friends for more than a decade, Harriet? There's no need for hesitations. Won't you confide in me?"

Harriet chuckled as she glanced up and met his gaze, "It seems a bit odd, doesn't it?"

"Actually, I think it's rather natural. Most omegas want children. Years ago, when you said you didn't want a family, I knew you'd change your mind eventually." Tom grinned.

Harriet shrugged as she confided in him, "I never said I didn't want a family, just not as soon as I graduated. I've consulted the healers at St. Mungo's. In the women's department, they offer fertility services, though it's quite difficult to get an appointment. I was told most of those time slots are dedicated to omega couples or a pair consisting of a beta and an omega."

"Ah." Tom nodded.

"Anyway," Harriet shrugged, "I managed to secure an appointment. I was told when I go in, like I said, they'll allow me to select a donor of my choosing from their available specimens, but I don't particularly want to do that."

Tom gazed into her emerald eyes as she added, "I'd rather know who the father is, if I may."

"A logical conclusion, for various reasons." Tom nodded in understanding.

"I'm surprised by your willingness to do this, Tom." Harriet chuckled.

"Have I not always been helpful to you, Harriet?" He asked before he took another bite.

"Well, yeah, loads, but…….but this is different." Harriet stammered. She held up a hand to reassure him as she added, "I don't want you to worry! You won't be expected to be involved with the baby……financially or otherwise. I can contact my attorney and have him draw up a document we both sign."

"Now Harriet," Tom sniffed once he swallowed and dabbed his mouth with his napkin, "That's where our discussion will ultimately lie."

"Sorry?" Harriet frowned, "What do you mean?"

"If I am chosen as the father of your baby," Tom nodded, "Then I will expect you to allow me to act as such."

Harriet's eyes widened behind her glasses as she asked in disbelief, "...Are you saying that you want to be involved?"

"More than being involved, I want to parent my child." Tom replied, "I find myself without a mate or any immediate prospects……Despite my loneliness, it is never any great man's goal to die childless. If your womb will bear the fruit of my loins, then as Slytherin's descendent, I am obligated…..and honoured…..to protect my noble family's next heir."

Harriet shifted in her seat to battle the glowing flame of desire Tom ignited in her heart.

She nodded, "...Right."

"So you can rest assured I won't be signing away my rights to our child." Tom firmly informed her before he took a sip of his water.

"May I ask how you'd want to be, I dunno, involved?" Harriet blinked.

"As much as you will allow." Tom smirked, "I'll gladly take whatever visitation is offered, teach them, raise them, and spoil them with the luxuries I never had."

A small smile cracked across Harriet's lips.

"Between the Black, Potter, and Riddle fortunes, I dare say our son or daughter would want for very little in this world." He grinned haughtily.

"I imagine you're right about that, Tom." Harriet smiled.

"And….." He continued as he nodded and gestured with his hand, "...If you would allow it, of course, Harriet, I would gladly look after you through the pregnancy, during the birth, and while you recover."

Harriet gasped quietly as Tom spoke to her most primal instincts.

"You would go to all that trouble too?" She blurted out.

"For our growing family's sake, yes, I most certainly would." Tom replied as he took another sip of his drink, "It would be an honour and a pleasure to assist the mother of my child."

"Oh……." She breathed.

If Tom hadn't watched the pleased smile that formed on her fair face, he may have mistaken her sigh for disappointment, but Harriet's happy grin allowed him to swallow the last of his drink in the silence that followed.

She could hardly believe what she had heard.

Tom, her dear friend, the alpha she had spent the last years secretly admiring, wanted to help her have a baby.

Not only had he offered his physical donation, but he wanted to protect her, to comfort her, to provide for her………qualities that would have made him a dream mate for any omega eager to start a nest and build a family.

"What do you say, Harriet?" Tom asked after he gave her a few generous minutes to ponder what had been said. He smirked as she lifted her eyes towards him, "Will you allow me to be your son or daughter's father?"

"Yeah, alright, Tom." Harriet smiled, "Let's have a baby."

As they exchanged longing glances, Tom balled his hands into fists under the desk as he resisted the desire to launch himself across the table and pull Harriet into his arms.

Harriet entertained startlingly similar fantasies, although her auror training tragically prevented even Tom from seeing those desires in her thoughts.