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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Once the Hogwarts Express completed its journey and the students all filed into the Great Hall, Harriet looked around in awe but Tom just looked at Harriet.
He stayed by her side as they waited patiently for their names to be called, although he immediately deemed the entire Sorting Ceremony to be a threat.
Harriet's turn came first and after she sat on the stool, the Sorting Hat promptly cried out, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Tom frowned as Harriet joined her new housemates at Gryffindor's table.
Another boy was called, sorted, and then finally, Professor McGonagall shouted, "Tom Riddle!"
Tom stepped forward as everyone in the Great Hall watched, but instead of taking his turn, he stared at the Transfigurations Professor.
"Well, go on, Mr. Riddle." Professor McGonagall nodded, "Have a seat and we'll get you sorted."
"Excuse me, Professor, but is it true that someone is only allowed to sit at their house's table during meals?" Tom asked.
Professor McGonagall blinked.
The onlooking students and staffed stilled before she replied, "No, Mr. Riddle……Hogwarts does not have formal rules in regards to which table students may sit at during meals. However, most prefer to seek the company of their housemates."
"Class schedules are dictated by house though, correct, Professor?" Tom asked.
Everyone anxiously listened to the bizarre conversation while Professor McGonagall nodded and said, "That is correct, Mr. Riddle."
"Then may I respectfully ask, Professor, why Hogwarts allows students to befriend one another on the train only to divide us hours later?" Tom scowled.
The staff exchanged glances.
Whispers erupted throughout the Great Hall at the unapologetic boldness of the boy named Tom Riddle.
Professor Dumbledore prepared to intervene as headmaster, but McGonagall maintained control of the situation as she silenced the whispers by raising a single hand.
Her eyes narrowed at Tom as she spoke, "I beg your pardon, Mr. Riddle, but Hogwarts hosts a variety of friendships. One is not solely limited to one's housemates for allies. Now, if you please….." She nodded urgently.
Tom's scowl remained as he stepped forward, sat on the stool, and let Professor McGonagall plop the Sorting Hat onto his head.
The brim had barely touched his dark hair before the hat loudly barked, "SLYTHERIN FOR SURE!"
Tom's new housemates cheered, glad to have the defiant new first year as one of them.
While they clapped eagerly and greeted him with smiles, Tom wore a firm frown.
He barely heard their congratulations or their names as they introduced themselves, too preoccupied staring at Harriet all the way across the room.
Tom begrudged the tragedy of the evening.
Why couldn't he have been placed into Gryffindor or she in Slytherin?
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As their first year at Hogwarts began, Tom took every available opportunity to speak with Harriet.
On the way to class, back from class, early in the morning before breakfast began, in the evening after dinner……if Harriet Potter had a free moment, Tom Riddle claimed it for himself.
While the year wore on and Harriet cultivated close friendships with her fellow Gryffindors, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Tom struggled with his own envy.
Each and every second one or both of Harriet's comrades spent in her company enraged him.
That time should have been reserved for his own visit with Harriet.
While she spent her days laughing and enjoying the amiable activities offered by Hogwarts, Tom worked.
Incapable of befriending others, Tom relied on fear and power to impress his classmates while simultaneously forcing them to keep a wary distance.
Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson were easily at his disposal after a few frightening displays of cruelty against others in his year, incidents that somehow never incurred disciplinary action.
By his second year at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle enjoyed the solitude his social standing offered him.
His accomplices chatted amongst themselves during Quidditch matches and for their own safety, left him undisturbed to watch the games.
Tom Riddle would have cursed anyone who dared try to distract him from watching Harriet zoom around the stadium.
A wicked smirk crossed his face as he watched her soar on her broomstick.
The cry of victory she gave whenever she caught the Golden Snitch sent chills down his spine.
Tom Riddle wanted Harriet Potter to be that elated about him, not some blasted game.
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Third year usually brought with it many complications for Hogwarts' students.
As each person slowly presented for their second gender, Tom impatiently waited for his turn and Harriet's to come.
After Tom had spent the previous years carefully choosing his words and actions, they remained great friends, but his ulterior motivations remained.
Tom didn't want Harriet to be his friend, he wanted Harriet Potter to be his.
His mother was his.
The flat he had been raised in was his.
The green snake in the garden outside his apartment building in London was his.
His.
Harriet would belong solely to him.
As the years began to pass, although Tom gladly returned during the castle's recesses to the flat in which he had grown up, he had never felt a larger betrayal than the morning of his fourteenth birthday when he woke experiencing his first rut.
Merope wasn't surprised in the least her son had presented as an alpha, though her heart did ache for his plight.
She lovingly placed meals outside his door and tried her best to ignore the slams of hormonal rage and frustrated growls that came from her teenage son's bedroom.
Tom's instincts proved to be more overpowering than he realized.
After an hour spent successfully pounding his fists against his closet door in seething rage at his own loneliness, Tom rushed over and threw open his small window.
A few flurries of white snow blew into his room as he looked out over the stark landscape of another grey London winter.
His bare chest heaved with the force of his breath as fog poured from his nostrils.
Tom's dark eyes narrowed to slits as he yearned for Harriet.
In all of his young life, he had never known such a painful, gnawing ache.
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Tom had no need to describe his new experience to Harriet after the winter recess concluded.
The moment she saw him again once the school year resumed, a heated flush covered her cheeks as she instantly realized he had in fact become an alpha.
Mature but longer on his rut, his scent had darkened into a mystifying mixture of musky decadence and smoked lavender with just a hint of fresh forest mint.
Tom watched her green eyes widen behind her glasses as if she noticed his thin, lean physique from the first time while they chatted in the stone corridor.
"Did you enjoy your holiday, Harriet?" He asked with a deep chuckle that sent an anticipatory shiver down her spine.
"I……Well, not really. The Weasleys vacationed abroad so I spent the fortnight with my aunt and…..er, uncle." Harriet stammered.
"That's too bad." Tom sighed, "You should have told me. I'd gladly have invited you to my house for the recess. Mother would have been elated to have a guest."
The smirk on his handsome face as he gazed at Harriet made her weak in the knees.
Tom's gratitude for Hogwarts' robes suddenly increased as the billowing fabric hid his immediate arousal as he imagined what would have happened if his darling had been with him during his rut.
"That's very kind of you, Tom. I suppose it worked out for the best." Harriet shrugged, "I would never want to intrude."
"That's it though, Harriet." Tom laughed as his dark eyes smouldered, "You never could."
As they stood there in the hallway, a tense silence fell between them.
For the first time, they were no longer children delighting in one another's company.
Tom Riddle was a strong, dominant alpha and Harriet Potter was hypnotized by his dark eyes as she gazed into his face.
They unconsciously took a step towards each other.
Tom scanned Harriet's face for any sense of hesitation as he lowered his head.
Harriet's eyes fluttered closed while he leaned in and-
"Mr. Riddle! Miss Potter!" A shrill voice rang out.
No.
They both lurched as the moment cruelly vanished.
Harriet opened her eyes as Tom straightened his spine, stepped back, and turned his head in the direction of the voice.
"Good afternoon, Professor McGonagall." Tom said as he forced a polite smile on his face, "It's wonderful to see you again."
Harriet could not hide her frown as her head of house approached.
"You both should get yourselves to the Great Hall! Quickly!" McGonagall commanded as she walked towards them, "There won't be any apple tarts left! The house elves only made so many today!"
"Of course." Tom nodded, "We were just on our way there now." Harriet cast her teacher a frown of sad remorse before she and Tom began their short walk to the Great Hall.
As Harriet contemplated what may have happened if they hadn't been interrupted, Tom gnashed his teeth.
Harriet Potter had finally been in his grasp.
Why had his victory been so cruelly withheld?
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Tom replayed that moment over and over in his mind throughout the entire spring semester.
One day in early April, Harriet gave it more than a little thought as she looked out the window of the Hospital Wing.
Under the white sheets, she writhed as she tried and failed to find a comfortable position.
As Hogwarts Healer made her morning rounds, Harriet watched her stand next to her bed and begin to portion out different potions and several pills.
"How long do I have to stay here, Madam Pomfrey?" Harriet asked.
"Just another couple of days, Potter." Madam Pomfrey replied, "Once your hormones settle enough that you won't have every alpha in sight chasing after you like a wild dog, then we can release you."
"Why doesn't every omega come here for their heats?" Harriet asked.
"They do if treatment doesn't work." Madam Pomfrey replied as she handed the potions to Harriet, "We can more easily predict them after the first. There are pills that can help, Potter, but they're dangerous to give until after the first cycle."
Harriet said nothing as she grimaced while she swallowed her two potions and laid back in bed.
"Try to relax." Madam Pomfrey nodded, "...And sleep as much as you can, what you've just swallowed should help with that."
As Hogwarts' Healer gave her one last nod and moved on to the next patient, Harriet sighed as her eyelids fluttered closed in the early morning light.
Her slumber released her from the pains caused by her hormones.
Although the low, punishing cramps from her belly disappeared, in her sleep, another agony tormented her.
While Harriet dozed, she dreamed only of Tom.