Harriet Potter: Tom Riddle's Wife, Severus Snape's Lover

Chapter 2 - Masks

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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When Harriet opened her eyes again, she found herself alone in that same, stone room.

The morning had drifted by, but since the bright light of day remained, Harriet could tell that only a few hours had passed.

Her bedroom appeared to have been finely outfitted.

The sumptuous sheets made her bed cozy and the elegant rug on the floor complimented the tapestries that hung on the walls, but Harriet had little interest in those things.

She threw the covers off of herself and crawled out of bed.

Her pace was paused by the tremendous shaking that overtook her limbs as she swallowed thickly.

Tom Riddle had mentioned that she had been unconscious for a long time.

How long though?

How many days or weeks or months had she slept to cause her legs to jiggle underneath her  like jelly?

Harriet took a deep breath and held onto the bed until she gradually found her balance.

After she regained the ability to stand on her own, she walked across the room, and cautiously opened the door.

She wondered if she would be met by guards in the hallway, but once she found the stone corridor abandoned, she looked down one end and then the other.

As soon as she saw that the hallway was indeed vacant, she wasted no time in fleeing her prison.

Her steps disrupted the eerie silence as she ran, barefoot and desperate, down the desolate stone hall with the great, billowing layers of her gossamer gown flowing behind her.

Harriet found door after door, but she wasn't looking to delve deeper into the castle, she was searching for a way out.

One corridor, then another........

Nothing.

No one.

An endless labyrinth of stone, numerous silent locations of new possible horrors, but no escape.

Harriet had to get out of the castle.

She had to make it to the Ministry, she had to-

As she rounded yet another corner, a shriek tore from her throat as a black figure suddenly swooped towards her.

Strong arms wrapped around her.

Harriet shrieked again until a familiar voice hissed out, "Be quiet, Potter!! Do you want him to hear you?!"

Her emerald eyes widened in bewilderment as she turned, looked, and saw that her captor was Severus Snape.

When she found a look of anguished desperation on his face, she calmed and stilled.

Once he sensed her cooperation, he released her from his grasp.

As Severus stepped back, a whiff of his comforting scent billowed towards Harriet, the lovely smell of old parchment and vetiver.

She frowned as she wished that their meeting could have been under different circumstances.

"Show me the way out." Harriet commanded as she looked at Severus with a needy hiss, "Professor, please! You must show me the way out so that I can-"

"-So that you can what, Potter?" Severus cut in as he stared at his former student, ".....So that you can go to the Ministry and plead your case?......His control of the government has grown tenfold while you've taken your languid nap.......No one will believe you. No one will support you, not now........They've all fallen under his spell."