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 had barely woken from her sleep when she heard the bedroom door gently close.

She blinked her eyes open just in time to make out a tall silhouette against the dim light of the early sunrise.

"...Tom?" She asked as she furrowed her brow.

"It's me, sweetling." He purred in the brightening room, "We've received a letter…..And it bears wonderful news!"

"Does it?" Harriet asked as she yawned.

"It seems our daughter has found her first suitor." Tom smirked.

Harriet furrowed her brow, "Are you certain? She hasn't mentioned anything about-"

"-It's Scorpius Malfoy." He went on, "Heir to one of the finest families of the Sacred Twenty-Eight?...What a wonderful match!"

Harriet began to grow irritated, "Tom, she hasn't said anything that points to-"

"-Well, of course she hasn't!" He scoffed, "Mae is no fool, not many her age approach their parents about things of this matter. I was very fortunate to have my mother's full support with you, of course….but if she has found an alpha in this boy, I say we encourage their love…..This letter holds an invite to Malfoy Manor for dinner."

Harriet blinked as she pushed aside her drowsiness to comprehend exactly what Tom had said.

"...It's really the Malfoys?" She frowned.

"Wouldn't it be a wonderful gift for our precious princess if we secretly accept the invitation and take her there as a surprise? She can visit her darling and I can discuss their arrangement with Draco and Lucius." Tom grinned.

"Tom, I……" Harriet swallowed as she tried to think, "Shouldn't we ask Mae about this first?"

"Of course not!" He laughed, "I couldn't have dreamed of a better way to spend an evening than with you and your family when we were courting! I'll write them back immediately."

As Tom left the room to rush downstairs, quickly pen and mail a letter of response, Harriet sighed to herself.

Tom and Mae had a close-knit bond, the likes of which she had gradually accepted she would never share with her daughter.

The fatigue of her pregnancy diminished her will to argue with her husband.

Besides, he knew their eldest child best.

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During the next few days, James and Mark purposely kept a close watch on their parents as Mae hovered around Harriet.

"What's she doing, brother?" Mark whispered while James narrowed his eyes to slits at their sister.

"Nothing good, I guarantee that." James hissed under his breath.

As Mae glanced up and peered across the room at them both, James and Mark quickly turned their heads back to the drawn pictures they pretended to focus on.

"What should we do?" Mark asked without looking up, "She's here now."

"The only thing we can do……." James sniffed, "Warn Mum."

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Later that night, once the Riddle family had all retired to their separate rooms, James quietly padded out of his.

His bare feet barely touched the floor as he gingerly made his way down the dark and winding corridor that led to his parents' bedchamber.

Once he finally came to the heavy, carved door, he frowned as he raised a hand and knocked on that elegant wood.

Shuffling feet and muffled voices sounded from inside.

For some reason, James battled a wave of anxiety as he heard footsteps coming towards the door.

By the time it swung open, he had recovered himself, although his face still visibly relaxed when he found Harriet standing in front of him.

A worried frown creased her face as soon as she discovered the identity of their late night visitor.

"James, love, is something wrong?" Harriet asked.

Behind her, over her shoulder, Tom could barely glimpse his father's scowl as he waited impatiently for his pesky child to leave him to his mate and the pleasures they found in one another's arms.

"Um……no, Mum, nothing's wrong, at least, not right now, not yet," James shook his head.

"Not yet?" Harriet raised an eyebrow while she chuckled, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I….." James began before he glanced behind himself, "I….uh, listen, I…..I'm worried."

"About what, sweetheart?" Harriet frowned.

"About you." James whispered.

He chose his words very carefully, as if he anticipated that the surrounding walls themselves may very well be listening to him speak.

"About me?" Harriet asked, "James, dear, what are you going on about?"

Behind her, Tom listened closely.

"Mum, there's someone…..someone close…..who I think is going to try to hurt you. Please, I'm begging you, please be careful!" James warned in a hushed whisper.

"Oh, sweetheart, don't worry!" Harriet said as she opened her arms and embraced her eldest son in a tight hug.

Her lips touched the top of his head as she laughed and replied, "No one's going to hurt me, alright? No one at all. And look, your father's right here to watch over me, eh? He won't let anyone get close enough! He loves us all, dear!"

As Harriet turned to let James see Tom sitting in his nightclothes on the bed, staring at him as if he were the world's most annoying inconvenience, James bit back a disheartened sigh.

Terrified of bringing more of his sister's wrath down upon his mother, or anyone else, James looked at Harriet again and begged her, "Just be careful, Mum…..Please be very, very careful."

As Harriet blinked after him, James grimaced while he turned and walked back down the long, winding corridor.

Harriet's love for Tom had only increased her arrogance, even extended it to the abilities her alpha possessed.

Tom could have saved her from any threat in the world, except the very real danger their daughter posed.

James knew that even at his young age.

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Determined to fall asleep as quickly as possible so that he could rise and continue his vigilant watch over his mother, James shuffled into his room, slipped off his night robe and lay down, clothed in his nightshirt and sleep trousers.

He sighed to himself as he stared up at his ceiling with a defeated frown.

Everything was fine for the moment, he and Mark still had a chance.

As James closed his eyes, he rolled over to face his wall, prepared to let himself slip into a pleasant sleep.

The sudden jolt of cold nausea that ran down his spine quickly sent his eyes popping wide open.

James sucked in a gasping breath of shock as he realized he was no longer in his room, but in his sister's instead, cuddled in her frilly bed, with her beside him, under the covers.

"Wha?!?...W-What is this?! What have you done?!" James snapped in bewildered shock as he scrambled to sit up.

"Oh, brother, don't be so skiddish." Mae chided as a heavy pout formed on her full, pink lips.

James sneered at the sheerness of her nightdress, noticing she had purposely left herself unclothed beneath the layer of gossamer fabric, which offered more than a hint of the curves boy his age were still too young to desire.

"How did you take me out of my room?!" James cried as he moved to throw the covers off himself and escape.

When his arm froze on the top of the duvet, grim realization washed over him as he gasped at his stuck limb.

"Don't be frightened." Mae laughed at the horror on James's face when he turned his head to look at her again, "You're finally where you belong, here with me. Why are you in such a rush to leave?"

James did his best to thrash but that awful paralyzation he could not explain crept over his arm and across his chest to firmly hold him in place while Mae lifted a hand and laid it lovingly on his cheek.

The gesture itself made his stomach churn, that his own sister would dare to touch him in a way that Lily might.

"Let go of me!" James cried as he got one last jerk of his head in before his neck stiffened, "Let go of me!"

"You're lucky that I love you, brother." Mae chided as she traced the outline of his lips with a finger, "...Else I would have had to carve out your perfect tongue."

Every other boy found Mae's enchanting aura and devastating beauty irresistible, but to James, it was all nothing more than a grotesque expression of the deepest perversion imaginable.

"LET GO OF ME!" He shrieked, racing against that crippling sensation to get the words out before his vocal chords refused to move.

He closed his eyes as Mae's pointed, sharp nail pressed down on his lip, threatening to open a deep cut.

As he braced his useless body for the worst, an unexpected reprieve arrived.

That sickly feeling of utter despair dissipated as the invisible vice that had held him in place finally relaxed.

James gasped as he opened his eyes and discovered his waking nightmare had ended.

Although his skin was clammy and his throat metallic with the urge to vomit, he panted breaths of unimaginable relief that he was back in his room.

Cowardly boys would have pulled their covers over their head and minded their own business, but James could hardly wait for morning to come so that he could rise and continue his quest to expose his sister's treachery.