Chapter Text
Thank you for reading! I don’t own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy!
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Tears splattered against the filthy floorboards as Merope’s slender arm reached in vain for the diamond ring that had been slapped out of her grasp.
Her thin lips twisted in a cry of pain as the heavy boot that covered her father’s foot came down hard on the back of her palm.
She was alone with him, alone and unguarded, in the grubby little shack that they called a house.
“I told you then and I’m telling you now, you wretched girl, I’ll not have any daughter of mine mingling with a muggle!” Marvolo Gaunt spat, “Your brother is in Azkaban! And you, what have you done? Chase the water like your mother and every man you find it in, eh?!”
“N-No……” Merope wept through fluttering eyelids as Marvolo ground the ball of his foot into her hand. A cry of pain escaped her lips before she wailed, “I love him!…….I love him and only him! You can beat me, you can change me, but you won’t change my heart! It will never change……and you’ll never stop me!”
She didn’t even see her father move before a hand suddenly came across her cheek with swift and brutal force, knocking her backwards as Marvolo’s dark laughter echoed through the dingy air.
Stars danced in front of her eyes for a second as her vision went black.
Once the room gradually appeared before her again, she heard Marvolo’s heavy footsteps drawing further and further away as he took a seat on the opposite end of the small room.
“Have you forgotten what you are?…..Or who you are?” He asked as Merope cowered in the corner and put a hand to the stinging wound on her cheek.
She frowned as Marvolo reached for the dirty goblet that sat on the battered wooden table near his chair.
“You’re a whore, Merope. Like your mother…..I s’pose it’s not entirely your fault. No, it’s mine……that little bitch of a siren sang to me and the next thing I knew I was in this bloody cabin with you and your brother. Then she was dead………Waste of my time! What good have you two ever been?” He asked as he took a swallow. Merope’s dark eyes bore into him as he went on, “I am descended from the noble line of Salazar Slytherin himself, but you’re half monster, aren’t you, my awful girl? You love him! Ha!………..You? Half monster, half whore……Whores can’t feel and monsters can’t love…..And who could love you? You’ve never been beautiful…..You’ve never even been smart, Merope, but even I didn’t think you were this stupid.”
Merope’s breath came in sharp gasps as her dark, frightened gaze stayed fixed upon her father while she watched him raise the goblet to his lips for another drink.
“But I do love him, Father…..” She whispered as she drew her filthy knees to the rag that covered her chest and wrapped her arms around them, “I love him so much I’d do anything to be with him.”
Marvolo laughed again as he tilted the goblet back and took a drink once more.
Merope balled her hand into a fist, her blackened nails scraping against the dry flesh of her shin, painful but worthwhile.
Marvolo’s eyes widened as he swallowed over and over but found the mouthful of water still stuck in his throat.
Panic crept up his spine as the water settled to form a film over the entrance to his lungs, that bit of water so easily manipulated by the ugly, stupid, half monster he had always hated to call a daughter.
When he realized what was happening, he looked over at Merope with his eyes bulging and his face discolored from his quickly evaporating supply of air.
Marvolo staggered out of the chair and lunged towards her as he opened his mouth to let a horrible gurgling growl escape.
“I’ll do anything to be with him!” Merope repeated, with wide eyes of her own.
She watched as her father fell at her feet, his fingers grasping in wasted desperation at the tattered hem of her ragged dress.
There was an awful twitch that ran through his system, then another, before he released himself of his mortal coil in one nasty spray of water that shot through his nose to stain the already ruined floor.
As Merope gingerly stood and slowly walked out of the cabin, she didn’t even bother to put out the lamp.
Its flickering light cast an eerie glow on Marvolo Gaunt’s lifeless body as he lay sprawled across his small home, eyes still open to stare ahead blankly in shock.
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Merope shivered in the evening chill as she crept through the dark streets.
The rough cobblestones slapped mercilessly against her bare feet as she slowly made her way towards the edge of the village.
Riddle Manor stood like a watchful guardian as it loomed over Little Hangleton, with only the glow of the moon to light its vigil.
Merope grit her teeth as she pulled her thin shawl around her shoulders more tightly.
Something soft came between the sole of her feet and the grass she stepped on as she left the far end of the last street. Only once she looked down did she realize the stones had cut into her brittle skin. Blood oozed from-
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Merope started suddenly as her dark eyes flew open while a sharp gasp left her throat.
Thunder shook the house as she sat up in her sumptuous bed.
Beside her lay her dear husband, Tom Riddle senior.
For a moment, she stared at him agape as she realized she had relived a nightmarish night from many years ago.
She shuddered and closed her eyes.
No, no more nightmares.
Her life had become a dream.
As she slowly, deftly rose from the bed, her perfumed hair whispered over her shoulders as she reached for her silk robe. She wrapped it quickly around her before she opened the heavy, wooden door and slipped out into the carpeted hallway.
She narrowed her dark eyes as she padded over the long rug while a distinct, rhythmic hissing broke the silence, barely audible from the cracked door at the far end of the hall.
Merope frowned as she glided down the corridor, put her hand on the knob, and opened the door.
Her dark eyes met her son’s as eleven-year-old Tom Riddle junior looked up at her in surprise.
He sat on his bed in his pajamas, seemingly discussing something quite important with the small, green snake who lay coiled on the covers.
“Tom!” Merope chastised in a hushed whisper, “You naughty boy! You should be asleep!”
“This is the only time I have to talk to Atanr.” Tom whispered back, “You know Father’s frightened of snakes.”
“Well, send….Atanr…..on his way, please, and get to bed!” Merope snapped, “We have a busy day tomorrow!
Tom cast his mother a menacing scowl as if he did not appreciate her direction very much.
“You can talk to snakes too.” Tom said after he opened his window and let Atanr slip out into the night.
“I can, yes.” Merope nodded as she confirmed something they both knew.
“And you can make water move……you can make it do what you want……Like I can.” Tom observed.
“That’s right.” Merope said with a soft smile.
“And you can sing.” Tom added, “……People do what you want when you sing to them, don’t they, Mother?”
“A gift you’ve also discovered we share, Tom.” Merope said with a nervous smile, “Don’t be coy, please? It’s time for bed.”
“I don’t understand why Father can’t do anything.” Tom scowled.
“Your Father can do plenty of things.” Merope said with a grin of feigned reassurance, “Just not the same things we can…..we’re different you and I, Tom.”
“Will I meet others who can do the things we can at Hogwarts?” Tom asked, “Can other people sing and talk to snakes?”
He blinked at Merope as she nodded, “…….Perhaps. I’m certain you’ll make many friends at school, dear.”
“I heard there was a lake at Hogwarts.” Tom said, “I heard a boy talking about it when we bought the school supplies last week…..in Diagon Alley. They call it ‘the Black Lake’.”
The colour drained from Merope’s face.
“I want to see it………Tell me, Mother, does water whisper to you too?” Tom asked.
“You know to never go into water, Tom.” Merope sniffed, her tone short; her smile gone, “Now, lay down and go to sleep. You have a long journey tomorrow.”
Tom frowned after her as she closed the door to his room rather suddenly.
As he laid down and slept, it was as if his mother’s memories influenced his that night.
In his sleep, he could see it clear as day, the sun glinting off that beautiful beach……
He had been little more than a babe but he toddled forward, forward, faster and faster, as quick as he could go to the foaming mystery of the lapping tide……..
He grimaced in his sleep as his mother’s high-pitched scream of unbridled terror rang through his ears.
His feet touched the water and something reached out, but Merope snatched him away.
Tom flinched in his sleep.
Tom Riddle junior had little idea about what lay in store for him at Hogwarts, but he had several good notions of what he hoped to get out of his magical education.
Answers, of course, but power.
One day, Tom Riddle junior would become the most powerful wizard in the world and his mother would never have to scream like that again.