Saving Harriet Potter: Tom Riddle to the Rescue

Chapter 12 - Finally

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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Months passed of eager, disappointing waiting.

Harriet didn't think much about it when she woke one morning with a slight headache.

James had been up most of the night as he suffered through a miserable fever brought on by the onerous process of teething.

Tom had already left for St. Mungo's as she washed and dressed for the day.

At first, Harriet attributed the pain in her head to fatigue and nothing more, but she blinked as she noticed a familiar soreness had settled into her breasts that morning while she fastened her bra and pulled on her robes.

As she left her bedroom to prepare Isabelle's breakfast and wait for her children to wake, she smirked as she felt telltale cramps pulse through her lower belly.

Harriet had spent the majority of the last year patiently waiting and wondering.

Finally, as James approached his first birthday, her next heat threatened to begin.

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By that afternoon, Harriet had started to feel significantly worse.

Her cheeks had flushed, her headache had strengthened, and the cramps she experienced had become downright painful.

She had written a letter to Ron that asked if he could watch the children for a few days.

The Potter-Riddle household seemed to never receive its most wanted responses.

Merope had failed to reply to Tom's letter.

When no communication came in an answer from Ron, Harriet contacted her former mother-in-law through the use of a summoning charm.

There were few times that Harriet had been more grateful for Molly and Arthur's help than she felt as she brought Isabelle and James to the Burrow that morning.

"Don't you worry one bit, Harriet!" Arthur Weasley promised as Isabelle ran past him to find her currently present cousins, "We'll take good care of them!"

"Of course we will, dear!" Molly smiled at Harriet before she gasped at her little grandson as she took the baby into her arms.

Molly's playfulness earned a happy giggle from chubby baby James.

"Thank you both." Harriet nodded at the Weasleys, "I wrote to Ron, but.....I suppose my letter must have gotten lost."

"Most likely." Arthur nodded reassuringly at Harriet.

She could see the anxiousness in Arthur's face as she smiled politely before she turned and went back to the cottage.

It upset Harriet, especially with her hormones raging, that Ron had failed to reply.

He hadn't offered to care for or asked to visit his children in months.

Harriet didn't mind that she herself hadn't heard from Ron, although her heart ached for her little ones as she apparated back to the cottage.

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As soon as she stepped through the door, she paused to draw a deep breath as she closed her eyes.

Tom's scent lingered throughout the small dwelling.

The mere smell of him offered Harriet a temporary pain relief as her sadness vanished from her mind.