The Love Story of Harriet Potter and Tom Riddle

Chapter 107 - Sweetling

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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Tom Riddle junior bore more guilt than most people could ever dream of carrying.

For the most part, he slept soundly, as if he could not hear the ragged wails of his own tired conscience.

He had murdered.

He had tortured.

He had lied, cheated, and stolen.

Yet those heinous acts had left him with deep, dreamless sleeps of restorative rest, a happy home, loving sons, and a beautiful wife.

Tom found it irksome that his darling bride unknowingly refused to let him bear the weight of his latest deception.

Since his meeting with Mae, Tom had become a tortured man, caught between two ideals, susceptible to the longings only someone faced with an impossible choice could understand.

His peaceful sleep has finally been disturbed by nightmares that ended in drenching sweats.

On one such occasion, less than a fortnight after his secret reunion with his firstborn, he woke with a startled gasp as thunder clapped outside.

"TOM!" Harriet cried.

His dark eyes were wide as he glanced around their darkened room, startled.

The sight of Harriet sitting at his side in her nest calmed him.

"Sweetling......" He sighed as he swallowed thickly and closed his eyes.

The familiar sound of rain beating against the window seemed as calming as Harriet's cool hand as she lifted it to cup his face before she gently ran her fingers through his short, dark curls.

"You haven't been yourself lately, Tom." She frowned as her emerald eyes flickered over her alpha, blurry as he appeared to her without her glasses on.

For once, Tom had grown tired of his lies.

The great weight of deception he had chosen to shoulder had become too heavy for even his dark heart.

"Harriet....." He began as he swallowed thickly once more.

She froze.

She rarely heard her actual name fall from his lips.

Tom had given her new names instead.

Sweetling.

Darling.

Love.

Mum.

Lady Riddle.

"Tell me what's going on, love." She whispered.

Tom dreaded the words that rattled in his mouth, threatening to rise to the surface like the unwanted truth usually did.

"There's something I need to tell you, but I'm not sure that I can." He said as a bittersweet smile struggled on his lips.

Harriet frowned.

"You can tell me anything, Tom." She said as she furrowed her brow and began to stroke his hair once more, "You and I belong to each other, don't we?"

"Of course we do." He nodded.

".............And there are no secrets between us." Harriet declared.

Tom bit down on his tongue to stop the pesky smug smirk that begged to spread across his face.