The Serpent & the Eagle - Tom Riddle x OC (HP x OC) 1/8

Prologue

Another vase had broken that night.

Shouting had echoed through the hollow mansion, and the front door had slammed so forcefully that throughout the house its occupants all flinched.

Then silence.

A few moments passed before the door to the sitting room slowly opened and a dark head of hair peered cautiously into the room.

A woman with dark brown hair stood in the center of the room her back to the door.

Another moment passed.

A pained smile tugged at the woman's lips, "It's alright Vera, he's gone."

For now hung unspoken in the air as the child slipped inside and quietly shut the door, pulling down on the handle so it wouldn't click.

The girl made her way to the brunette woman, steadfastly ignoring the shattered glass not inches from the pair.

Grasping hold of the skirts of the woman, the child met a pair of dark brown eyes with her own matching, albeit overbright, ones.

"Why is Dad so loud?"

Again the woman smiled painfully, raising a hand to stroke her daughter's hair soothingly. "He's bitter and jaded, Vera. He has a certain way everything should go set in his mind and he doesn't like when things don't match up."

"Why?"

The woman's smile became less strained, thoughtful, "That's one of life's mysteries. Human nature and each human's nature specifically."

"Then why did you marry him?"

The smile faltered, "Because I loved the idea of what he could be, but now I realize that that could never happen. Not in this world."

Vera's brows furrowed, her grip on her mother's dress tightening. "Then—why do we stay with him?"

Her mother's smile turned bittersweet, another emotion Vera could not recognize flashing in her eyes. "The reasons will present themselves in time, little one, but for now," reaching down, she scooped Vera up with one arm and pulled a thin wooden stick from a hidden pocket in her dress with her other hand, "I think it's time you got to bed."

With a wave of the stick, the glass scattered across the floor pieced itself back together into the vase and returned to where it was on the coffee table beside the sofa.

Vera's eyes followed the stick and then the pieces of glass with rapt attention.

"When do I get a wand, momma?"

Her mother's smile softened as she headed towards Vera's bedroom, slipping her wand back into her pocket, "When you get your letter to Hogwarts, young one, and that's still a few years away."

Vera looked up at her mother, "Do you think I'll be as good as you are?"

A chuckle slipped past her mother's lips, "Oh, my dear little Vera, I think you'll be better."

Vera's eyes light up further, "Really?"

The woman laughed at her daughter's breathy and awestruck tone, "Really."

Reaching Vera's room, her mother opened the door and entered the soft blue room, her mind flitting back to her daughter's birth.

Quickly suppressing her thoughts, she pulled the covers back from Vera's bed and set her daughter on the bed.

"Mom?"

Vera's mother looked down to identical brown eyes, humming her acknowledgment as she brought the sheets up to her daughter's chin.

"What exactly is love?"

She paused, "What makes you ask that, sweetheart?"

Vera fiddled with her bedsheets, "Well, you and I say we love each other, and you say you love dad, but he never says it to anyone."

Her mother raised her brows before chuckling softly to herself, "Sometimes you're too observant, Vera."

Vera cocked her head, her brows furrowing.

Sitting on the edge of her daughter's bed, a thoughtful look crossed the woman's face.

"In a basic sense, love is when you care for someone very much. You like to see them happy and safe; it hurts you when they're sad, afraid, or hurt themselves; and sometimes you'd be willing to do something, anything to make and keep them happy and safe.

"There are different types of love too. The love I have for you is familial love, there's platonic love between friends and family as well, then there's romantic love like I feel—well, felt—for your father that couples tend to feel for one another. The love I feel for him now is more an impression of the love I had for him."

Vera nodded slowly, the gears in her head turning and processing everything her mother said, "And in a more complex sense?"

Her mother smiled, "It's a chemical and metaphorical mix that one cannot always explain how or why it's there, it just is.

"There are also things that people think are love like affection, respect, obsession, a crush, and many others."

Vera's expression became more confused, "So, you married Dad because you loved him, but why did he marry you?"

Her mother's smile faded, it was a haunting curl in her lips. "I don't quite know myself. It's possible he just wanted to continue the Ryder bloodline, but there might be more to it than that."

Vera frowned slightly, "Is that why he doesn't like me that much? Because I was born a girl?"

With a look of sympathy, her mother caressed the girl's face in her warm hands, her long fingers brushing Vera's hair behind her ears. "Partially, yes. Although, I think it might also be because I'm not trying to raise you to meet your father's expectations."

"You mean going to Beauxbatons and such?"

A flicker of pride and fury shown in her mother's eyes, "Yes, and I'm also raising you to be a free thinker and to question everything and hold some belief in love. That's actually how you got your name."

Surprise filled Vera's face, "My name?"

"Mm-hm," Her mother nodded. "Veronica: 'bringing victory' or 'true image' and Gale: 'jovial' or wind. Then, of course, there's Vera: 'summer', 'true', or 'faith'. Each meaning has some sort of importance to me, and to you."

"Even 'summer'?"

Her mother laughed, "Well that's when you were expected. That's why you're smaller than the average child your age. You were a premature birth."

The woman could see a whirlwind of thoughts behind her daughter's eyes and wondered, not for the first time, if that's how she looked when she was younger, and if she still looks like that when thinking or learning something.

"Is that why you insist on calling me Vera? Because it means faith?"

She nodded, "And because your father insists on using your full name as if it gives him some sort of control over you."

Vera gave her mother a wicked smile, "And he thinks I'm the rebellious one."

She laughed again, "That's true. Very true."

They shared a grin.

Brushing Vera's hair back from her face again, her mother leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. "I gave you a lot to think about, hold on to what I said and get some sleep, alright?"

Vera smiled, "Okay."

"Okay," her mother smiled back before fixing the sheets and standing up.

She opened the door when Vera spoke.

"Mom?"

She turned.

"I love you."

"I love you too." The woman smiled gently before pulling her wand out, extinguishing the candles, and closing the door to her daughter's room.