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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Mae knew power when she saw it.

From the siren's seductive song to the merciless way her nails cleaved through flesh and splintered bones, after spending an evening in the sea creature's macabre company, Mae wanted more than anything to linger on the shore of the Black Lake a bit longer, even as morning approached.

"I have done what you asked." The woman nodded, "Return to your home, daughter of the land, and I will do the same."

"I want to see more." Mae said with a firm frown.

The woman blinked as she commanded, "You will teach me your ways so that I can use them."

The woman parted her teeth in a hateful hiss until Mae held up her afflicted hand and smirked, "I am a direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin, if his name meant nothing to you, you never would have consented to give me a tour….My bloodline gives me dominion over scaled creatures…….." Her emerald eyes shimmered with condescending malice as she glanced over the subtle scales that wrapped in thin lines around the woman's neck, "...All the scaled creatures, even you."

Mae's smirk widened as the woman narrowed her eyes and snapped, "...Tomorrow, I will return to this place……You may spend a season at my side, only a single season and then I will have no further obligation to you…..or your blood…..Is that made clear?"

"Crystal." Mae smiled with feigned politeness.

The woman gnashed her sharp teeth before she turned and slipped away under the dark waters of the Black Lake.

While the rest of Hogwarts' students slumbered, Mae hurried into the castle and quickly set to work.

As much as it pained her to leave her dolls and dear brother for the summer, she could hardly refuse the incredible internship she had stumbled upon.

Before her roommates woke, she hurriedly penned a letter:

Daddy,

I've been offered a job for the summer and I would very much like to take it. I'll be in and out of the Black Lake doing medical research, but I'll be home in the fall for the holidays. Please don't worry about me.

Please also give James all my love.

Your doting daughter,

SMR

After she sealed the envelope, Mae carefully escaped her room once again and padded out to the Owlery.

She mailed her letter with a set grin on her fair face, confident enough in her own abilities that she would not be detected.

As she returned to her dungeon dormitory at last and laid down to pretend she had received a good night's sleep, a soft smile rested on her lips.

Finally, she had found a more suitable educational program!

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Tom held his daughter's letter with a frown the next morning as he sat on the bed while Harriet sat at her vanity and brushed her hair.

Guilt welled in her heart that her husband had been disheartened by the news of their daughter's extended absence while she herself felt relief at the announcement.

"It's only for a season, Tom." Harriet quipped as she glanced at him in the mirror.

"A season which could have been spent together as a family." Tom frowned as he tossed the letter onto the duvet.

"You took a summer job when you were her age." Harriet shrugged.

"That's because I needed the money, sweetling. What money does our precious princess need?" Tom scowled.

Harriet had no interest in ruminating over their daughter's decision of how to spend her time.

"I noticed she failed to say anything about me or Mark." She sniffed.

Tom blinked, his mouth agape as if Harriet had just uttered a sentence in some foreign language.

"'Please also give all my love to James.'?" Harriet blinked back at her alpha, "She purposely made no mention of her mother or her younger brother."

"You're being ridiculous, sweetling." Tom scoffed, "I'm certain she was in a hurry, that's all. She probably ran out of ink and couldn't list every family member's name."

"'Probably ran out of ink'?" Harriet laughed mockingly as she looked over at her husband, "Do you hear yourself?...Tom, when will you finally accept……or at least acknowledge that Mark and I have no place in her life?"

"Why are you so desperate for conflict?" Tom scowled, "Honestly, you haven't let the poor girl have a moment's peace since her birth!"

Harriet didn't know what to say.

Shocked, offended, and speechless, she let out a furious laugh while all the many things she had done and sacrifices she had made for Mae over the years drifted through her mind.

Tom watched her run a hand through her long, dark hair as she sighed to herself and stared at him.

"What's that expression for?" He frowned.

"I thought you loved me, Tom, I really did." Harriet said as she gave him a wry smile.

Tom's handsome face twisted into a pained scowl, "What on earth are you talking about, Harriet? I love you more than anything in this world…..everything I've done…..everything that I've become…..It's all been for you!"

"...Yeah." Harriet shrugged, "I dunno, Tom. I can't ignore this awful feeling that however much you love me, you'll always love her more, Mae."

"Harriet." Tom said flatly as he stood from the bed while his mate buttoned the last of the closures atop the bodice of her robes and grabbed her wand.

"Harriet, you're-!" Tom called as he rushed to her.

Harriet wouldn't have let him reach her if her life had depended on it.

With a simple wave of her wrist, she apparated away and left Tom to grab onto thin air as he lunged towards her, intent on embracing her for a bit of sweet affection.

As he glanced up, his defeat nauseated him to his core.

Without his wife present to hear or see, Tom let out a growl as he roughly pushed the bottles of perfume off of Harriet's vanity and watched them clatter to the wooden floor.

The smashing of glass seemed to give him a twisted sense of satisfaction as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Fluid pooled close to his feet while the dancing scents of mixed fragrances wafted through the air.

Tom didn't even bother to look down.

With a frown on his face, he dressed in one of his finest dark suits, repaired the damage he had done, and apparated away without a single word.

He barely made it into his office long enough to give his aides a warning about his absence for the next hour before he departed from the Ministry and headed to Knockturn Alley.

Magical Britain would be fine for a few minutes without him at his post.

Harriet's heart was the more pressing concern.

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From one mysterious building to the next, Tom marched himself in and out of every retailer in Diagon Alley's neighboring street.

He encountered one temptation after another as he went.

A necklace that could take away free will without the pesky, traceable enchantment of the Imperius Curse.

A cake that would make him appear irresistible to its eater.

A pair of panties that would cause unignorable arousal until they were torn off by their giver.

Tom exercised amazing self-restraint during those many sales pitches.

No matter how enticing the goods he was presented with appeared, he flatly held up a hand and maintained his staunch refusal, not from his own good, moral standards but from his love for Harriet.

Above all else, Tom never wished to cause her harm.

Tom never wished to force his darling's hand, else he would have enslaved her long ago.

With a scowl of frustration twisting his handsome face, he trudged along until he passed by yet another shop window with a man and a little boy standing out front.

Tom blinked as he looked over at the two.

"Dad……?" The little boy frowned at the man, "If Mum were still alive, what would you buy her?...From the window?"

"If your Mum were still alive," Tom heard the man sigh as he turned to his little boy, "...I wouldn't buy her anything from the window, I wouldn't buy her anything at all because I wouldn't have the time. I'd hold her close forever and tell her how much I've missed her……If I had known she wouldn't come home to us that day, I'd have never let her go."

Tom's scowl had melted into a lamentful frown while he listened.

Instead of wasting more of his day looking for a gift suitable for Harriet, Tom apparated away a second later.

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Harriet had just finished visiting the children housed on one of the triplex's many floors when a sudden pop rang out in the empty hallway.

She blinked as Tom unexpectedly rushed forward and pinned her against the wall.

"I don't give a damn what you, or Mae, or James, or Mark, or Mother, or Father, or anyone else says!" Tom snarled as he placed his hands on the wall, close to either side of Harriet's face.

Her emerald eyes widened as she gazed into Tom's focused stare, "I have loved you with all that I am and all that I have…..and I will never stop. Not when you die, not when I die, not even if you beg me. You belong to me, Harriet Riddle. Our children are perfection……a mix of me and you, can you fault me for loving them too?"

Tom's words ensnared her heart.

She raised her hands to cup his face just as he leaned down and pressed a heated kiss against her lips.

While they enjoyed their feverish affection, neither of them worried about the mortifying consequences they would face if someone came around the corner and caught them there.

If expressing their love was a crime, then Tom and Harriet were more than ready to be labeled as guilty.