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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Long after the Death Eater meeting was over, the Dark Lord no longer seemed like a formidable enemy as Harriet found herself fighting an entire swarm of adversaries.
Lucius, Ellery, and Narcissa sat on the sofa in the parlor as Severus, Lily, and Draco paced around her.
Voldemort had gone out on a raid with a few of his drunken elite.
Malfoy Manor had been mostly abandoned in his wake.
"What on earth did he mean?!" Draco spat at Harriet, "Have you gone and gotten yourself knocked up? Spent too long lying about with your darling Tom on your 'mission', whatever it is?!"
"That's ridiculous!" Harriet shouted, "Mum! Dad!" She cried as she turned to Severus and Lily.
Severus frowned.
"Sweetheart, are you certain, completely certain, that he......was wrong?" Lily asked with a frown, "It's alright, we'll.....we'll sort it all out, my darling, but you need to tell us."
Harriet scoffed.
"Of course I'm certain!" She cried, "This is ridiculous! You told Tom to teach me and he did! He taught me well! Were my thoughts read tonight?!"
Severus swallowed dryly before he let out a breath and spoke, "It is a waste of everyone's time for you to continue this ridiculous ruse. Perhaps we should take you to a midwife for confirmation......The Dark Lord would have seen the truth in Draco's lie.....if it had been one at all."
Harriet's eyes widened as her father took her by the shoulders and stared into her face as he demanded, "Safety is becoming more and more of a rarity, my daughter, I beg you to tell us.......What....are.....you hiding?"
"Nothing!" Harriet blanched as she roughly shrugged Severus off, "If you don't mind, now that I've gotten this out of the way, I have to go....I....I have to!"
Harriet's face turned into a mask of forlorn melancholy.
The frantic need to escape overwhelmed her as she slipped her wand from her pocket and hurriedly apparated away.
Left to worry in her absence, Severus, Lily, Ellery, and Draco were nearly beside themselves.
Lucius and Narcissa left the room when a noise erupted from down the hallway as Bellatrix let herself back into the mansion in a stomping march to find her sister.
"What is she doing out there?!" Draco hissed at Severus and Lily, "In the woods, all alone with those imbeciles? What are they up to?!"
"Draco, please....." Lily said as she gave him a sensible nod, "She has her friends......She has her snake, she has what she needs. She'll be safe, I have to hope that she will anyway, we all do."
"Is she really-" Draco asked as his voice trailed off.
Lily leaned her head against Severus's chest in weary exhaustion.
His long, black robes billowed as he enfolded her in his comforting grasp while he looked at Draco and nodded, "I am not the Dark Lord, of course, nor do I possess his many talents and frightening skills, yet I sensed nothing when I placed my hands on her shoulders tonight. A single heartbeat, not two. The Dark Lord has been.....troubled.....recently......It seems difficult to imagine, though perhaps he made an error in judgment........Perhaps he could not see the truth itself and instead, believed your lie."
"Please....." Draco frowned, "Isn't there anything you can tell me? You sent me to her once, do it again! I'll gain her trust, report back to you, let you know what's going on! How she's doing!"
Lily glanced up at Severus in a silent ask.
He returned his darling's hopeful gaze with a resigned frown.
"Think about it! I can watch over her!" Draco claimed, "I hate it here, I could be useful to you! To her! I already have an excuse set for both of us with the Dark Lord."
Severus grit his teeth as he thought.
".......I'm not Tom Riddle." Draco shrugged, "I'm not a villain, I'm not a hero, but you can rely on me....when it comes to Harriet."
Severus raised his chin in silent brooding.
"You have my word, I will protect her with my life if that's what it takes." Draco promised with a solemn vow, "Please, tell me what she's facing....."
Severus and Lily exchanged nervous glances as they took a moment to ponder the situation.
"........Why don't you sit down, Draco?" Lily asked at last.
Draco glanced over his shoulder at her before he turned back to frown at Severus.
The slight nod that stoic Professor Snape gave him was the most reassuring gesture Draco had encountered in a long time.
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Three days later, Draco packed his necessary belongings in a small, enchanted nap sack and bid his parents goodbye.
Voldemort thought Draco had gone to care for his pregnant fiancé while he really went to join the hunt for horcruxes instead.
Harriet had wandered away from camp the evening that Draco came walking down the slight hill in front of her temporary residence.
She scowled as she looked up and saw him stumbling towards her.
"Hello, Snape." Draco greeted her with a nod.
"What do you want now, Malfoy?" She snapped.
"Your parents told me about them." Draco nodded, ".......About everything
"What do you mean?" She hissed.
".........I know about the horcruxes." Draco frowned.
"And I suppose they sent you to look after me? I'm not a child! I don't need your protection." Harriet stubbornly scowled.
"Of course you don't." Draco spat, "You've got your precious Tom, don't you?" He sneered, "Actually, they've sent me to help and hurry you along. You're taking too much time!"
Harriet blinked at Draco's boldness as he pushed past her and walked towards the secret place that hid the camp she shared with her friends.
Draco hadn't asked if he could join her band of anti-Voldemort vigilantes, he had simply declared he had come and staked his claim.
Harriet silently admitted to herself that his actions did earn the slightest hint of her admiration.
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Hermione and Ron had already gone to bed.
Harriet and Draco foolishly assumed Tom had as well.
While they spoke, she nodded at the tent the two boys shared and explained, "There's plenty of space for another cot in there. That's where Ron and Tom sleep, Hermione and I are on the other side, next to Anuman, my snake."
Draco nodded with a serious frown as he shuffled off towards his new sleeping quarters.
"........Draco?" Harriet called.
He turned to face her before he disappeared into the tent.
"..........Thanks." She nodded, "For helping......Even if my parents did send you, it means a lot, you risking it all and everything.....Maybe you're not as foul as I thought."
Unable to speak as he admired Harriet's beauty while she stood there, bathed in the glow of the flickering campfire, Draco turned back around and made his way into the humble space that would serve as his new quarters.
The tent was far nicer than any muggle's, yet Draco still furrowed his brow at the downgrade in his accommodations he had received in giving up the magnificence of Malfoy Manor.
He contented himself with the knowledge that Harriet was worth it as he quickly used a few of the spare sheets and blankets stacked in the corner to cover the thin cot that lay waiting for him on the floor.
"Draco Malfoy......" A smooth voice chuckled in the dark, "What a vexing surprise to see you here again......and so tragically soon."
Draco blinked as he glanced over and saw Tom Riddle's sinister eyes glowering at him from the darkness.
"I've come to help end the war." He huffed, "That's all."
"I have not been weakened by injury like my other half, I can read the inside of your mind as easily as leafing through the pages of an open book." Tom chuckled arrogantly. Whatever diluted humor lingered in his statement quickly vanished as he hissed, ".......Do not lie to me, Draco Malfoy. Help where you can, certainly, but know this.......Harriet Snape belongs to me."
Ron snored in his cot while Tom did his best to skewer Draco during their quiet battle of words and hearts.
Draco had grown tired of everyone pushing him into a box.
Told what he could think and believe by his parents, commanded by Voldemort, spurned by Harriet, Draco had given up all of his comforts and risked his very life to do more than be bullied by a young Tom Riddle.
".........We'll see about that." Draco retorted in a defiant snap before he flopped down onto his cot and pulled the thin covers over himself.
High above the floor, in the bunked frame that securely held his own bed, Tom Riddle scowled dangerously as he stared down at Draco in deep disdain.
It irritated him beyond measure that his slight, weak foe had not immediately yielded upon hearing his threat.
Would Tom actually have to work to be rid of Draco, once and for all?"
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"There's going to be an awful fight, Sev." Lily sighed as she and Severus shared a bath together the following evening.
"Such a thing is unavoidable in a war, my love." Severus frowned, "We can only hope that Harriet continues her streak of fortunate success."
"I'm not talking about the war, Sev." Lily chuckled.
Severus blinked before Lily began to tease him as she shifted in his lap and began to wash her neck and chest.
His dark eyes followed her fingers as they moved down to squeeze and knead at her own, full breasts before he cleared his throat and forced himself to look into her eyes.
"............See something you like?" Lily smirked.
Severus took another luxurious pause to stare in abject admiration as she dipped her hands in the water, brought them to her chest, and let the liquid drip freely over her body as the suds were washed into the tub.
"May I ask....." Severus began in a voice that cracked with want. He cleared his throat as he gazed into Lily's emerald stare and went on, "What is it exactly that you mean? If not the war, then what, my love?"
"Tom.....Tom Riddle, Voldemort's memory, whatever he may be, Tom and Draco......" Lily said with a knowing laugh, "Both boys love Harriet, Sev. I imagine Tom must if he's willing to go with her to hunt pieces of himself and destroy them one by one. Harriet will be lucky if those two don't defeat each other before the real battle ever begins."
Severus frowned while he contemplated his darling's words.
"And if that is to be, my love, how should we be expected to intervene? Going to Harriet would put a tracker on us all." Severus frowned.
"I suppose they'll handle the matter themselves, Sev, all young rivals in love do." Lily smiled wryly, ".........Whether we intervene or not."