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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For the next several years, time passed by in a tender haze of quiet victories and warm moments for the Riddles.
Early one morning, Harriet blinked as she opened her eyes on a chilly autumn morning.
She smiled softly as she watched Tom sleep, his long lashes batting against his cheeks, the muscles of his smooth chest rising and falling in perfect rhythm.
Harriet laid a hand over his heart as she pressed her forehead against him and closed her eyes again.
"Good morning, Mrs. Riddle." Tom purred as he slowly folded his arms around Harriet.
Her eyes widened as she glanced up to find his still closed.
"After all these years together, have you forgotten that I can read your thoughts?" He chuckled as he finally opened his eyes to meet her emerald stare.
"Actually, I think some days you forget that I can't read yours, Tom." Harriet chided with a gentle laugh, "I suppose we should go downstairs and join your parents for breakfast……if you're ready."
A devious grin twisted his lips as he growled, "……..Not quite yet, sweetling."
Tom wasted no more time with words as he moved down and pressed his lips against his wife's.
The passage of time had left the youngest set of Riddles both a little sadder and a little stronger.
They had each grieved their two daughters in separate ways, but their love for one another had smoldered like the flames of some inextinguishable fire.
Harriet gave Tom forgiveness.
In a subconscious show of gratitude, Tom offered Harriet all that he was, all that he had, and all that he would ever be.
As he slipped under the covers to part her knees with his strong, tapered hands and find her center with the tip of his pink tongue, Harriet let her mouth fall open.
Her long, dark hair fanned across the silk pillows behind her head as she gazed up at the ceiling, her green eyes half-lidded.
Tom's name was on her lips and in her heart as her fingers raked his scalp.
Secure in his position, Tom listened to every lovely sound that escaped his darling wife, hanging on each noise she made, as if her enjoyment of his ministrations was reason for living.
For such a strong, dark wizard, the Minister for Magic had many weaknesses: Harriet and all that she had produced for him; James, Mark, and even Mae, wherever she had gone.
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True to his word, as James contemplated a career both he and his brother could share, he often came home on the weekends from Hogwarts to further their research, a rare privilege only the Minister's son seemed able to enjoy.
The failure of James's Time-Turner-backed attempt at ending Mae before she began had devastated him at first.
It was Lily and Mark's kind words that finally urged him to try again.
With the help of a few of Harriet's old friends, James and Mark had devoted large amounts of their free time over the last several years to discovering other potential ways to find and destroy their nemesis.
After being approached by James, Seamus Finnigan and Arthur Weasley were more than aware of the Minister's sons' ultimate goal.
Instead of discouraging the boys from their quest to develop an explosive that could exclusively target Dark Magic and dark creatures, the two men aided the Riddle boys whenever and wherever they could.
"Hold it up a bit more, Mark." Seamus instructed on that cold October morning.
While their grandparents dined and their parents……busied themselves…. James and Mark stood on the outer edges of the Riddles' property with Seamus and Arthur.
"That's as high as I can get it." Mark scowled as he clutched the heavy, bronze orb in his hands.
"I'll just add some of this to the final chamber." Arthur murmured as he opened a small, glass vial and poured some sort of red liquid on the back most section of that odd, circular, metal object.
James watched the scene with a nervous scowl, "Throw it fast! Throw it before-"
Together, Seamus, Arthur, and Mark heaved the bronze orb over the lawn and down the hill that lined the estate's back slope.
James stood next to them and watched as the object crashed into the ground before it exploded with a loud hiss to let a shimmering purple cloud erupt from within its metal body.
"Well done, gentlemen!" Arthur smiled.
Despite Arthur's encouragement, Seamus saw the disappointed frowns on James and Mark's faces before he sniffed, "It'd be much easier to see if it works if we could find some Dark Magic to test it on."
"How are we meant to do that, Mr. Finnigan?" Arthur asked, "Can't very well drag someone to it, can we?"
"Of course not." Seamus scowled, "But not all Dark Magic dwells in living things, Mr. Weasley…. You know that well enough. Maybe we could try against a cursed item? From Borgin and Burkes?"
"I……may be able to find something suitable." James nodded.
"What are you going to do?" Mark blinked, "Steal from Dad?"
James shrugged casually as he flashed his younger brother a confident smile.
Tall and handsome, with the same curly, dark hair and angular features that made omegas drool, the only physical difference from James and his father was his mother's bright, green eyes.
Alternatively, Mark had grown to resemble their mother more with each passing day, in terms of both looks and personality.
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Far away from Riddle estate and the entirety of wizarding Britain, a muggle family celebrated a happy moment in London's main hospital that same day.
The joy in the white room was practically tangible as the woman in bed hugged her husband and children with tears streaming down her face.
Her hairless head had been covered in a colorful wrap.
Her face remained thin and gaunt but the promise of a life returned glimmered in her eyes as she kissed her little ones and held her family close.
A sharp knock fell on the door before it suddenly opened to let the physician sweep back into the room.
"Oh, doctor….." The woman breathed as she raised a hand to wipe her eyes, "How can we ever thank you?!"
"There's no need to thank me." The doctor smiled, "Complete remission in less than a fortnight is the standard with this new treatment. My team and I have pioneered it all over the world with the same success…….I do appreciate you being brave enough to give it a try as well."
"There was no hope for us until you and Xenoid came along." The woman's husband chimed in as he gave his wife a kiss on the head.
She flashed him a smile before the doctor went on, "I'm glad to know that we've had another victory. I'll leave you all for a few more minutes, alright? Then we'll run some more tests. It is quite important for data collection. With a single vial of blood, you could aid us in our research to save countless more lives!"
"Thank you, doctor." The woman smiled through her tears as her husband kissed her head again while her children began to chorus eager questions as they climbed onto her bed.
Manufactured in mysterious facilities across the globe, although the exact formula had not been released for public knowledge, Xenoid, a product from R Labs, had been hailed as a revolutionary treatment for all forms of cancer throughout the muggle world.
Since its official release on the international market two years earlier, Xenoid threatened to topple the oncology industry as a whole.
As CEO of R Labs, Dr. Maeve Rendle had widely been hailed as a hero, the savior of mothers, fathers, children, the one who brought hope to anyone who found themselves thrown onto death's doorstep.
One by one, she had already managed to invade and capture a good portion of the human race.
The woman in the bed was the latest person to unknowingly carry a bit of Mae's affected arm in her veins, curtesy of the intravenous administration of that newest, greatest miracle drug.
As Tom's daughter walked down the hospital hallway, with her long, dark curls swinging over her back like a shimmering veil of deceitful seduction, a smirk curled her plump lips while sinister malice illuminated her emerald eyes.
Mae always had enjoyed collecting dolls.