Marauder's Daughter (Eventual Tom Riddle X OC)

Chapter 79: Epilogue - Five and Ten Years Later

A/N: Possible trigger warning

~ 5 Years After Wedding. ~

~Abigail age 25, Tom age 31 ~

"Tom..." I say weakly to my husband, a broken sob in my voice. "I... I can't do this anymore. I can't keep doing this."

"Darling." Tom calls to me with a heartbroken tone. "We can still try other means."

"No." I sob out. "I can't keep getting my hopes up every month. I can't keep taking all these potions and using experimental charms. It's not working. And it hurts... Tom it hurts so much each time it doesn't work." I cry out, and he finally joins me on the bathroom floor and holds me tightly as I sob into his shoulder.

For five years now we've been trying to have a child. At first we tried the natural way, but after a year I still wasn't pregnant so we went to the healers at St. Mungo's to see why. They couldn't find anything particularly wrong with us, so they gave us each a potion to increase our chances. After those didn't work, they tried spells.  When those failed, Tom took it upon himself to try different potions or spells. We even went to muggle doctors to see if they could find a reason, but they were insistent we were both showing healthy signs. 

Over the last year though, I've been growing more stressed out and depressed from the constant disappointment every month. My depression hit its worst when I had finally missed my period and let hope form in my chest, only to find out it was a false alarm a few weeks later, the last potion having started to mess with my monthly cycle. I was getting scared about what else the potions and spells might be doing to me, and honestly I just reached a point where my heart couldn't handle the anticipation and disappointment anymore. Which is what lead me to my bathroom floor, my monthly cycle just starting it's first day yet again, and my heart shattering.

"I'm so sorry, Darling." Tom says softly to me as he holds me at my lowest moment. "I just wanted to give you everything you wanted, and I can't give you what you want the most." He is also crying too, the reality of our failure not sitting well with him.

"You have given me everything I wanted, Tom." I say stubbornly. "Maybe... it just has to do with our souls, or maybe our resurrections. Or maybe it just isn't meant to be." I whisper out. "But either way, I can't keep taking these experiments anymore. I can't keep hoping and then having it all fail. If... if we are meant to have children, it can happen naturally on its own, but I won't keep trying to force it, Tom. I won't. It hurts too much."

"I know, Darling, I know. I'm so sorry." He whispers out to me as he strokes my hair. He holds me for several long moments as we both cry together before he lifts me up into his arms and lays me on the bed, crawling in next to me and holding me tightly. "We can always adopt, if you want to."

"I..." I struggle out, and then sigh. "As much as I like that idea, I don't think I can. At least not now. I need to let my heart heal for now. I really... just need some time after this. Besides, maybe the timing is best for now, work is sending me to Romania so often these days."

My role as a Curse Breaker ended up evolving into me becoming a Runes Specialist for Gringotts. Charlie's dragon compound has a Runes Specialist that has been helping there for over 40 years and is now retiring, so he's been training me on what runes they use to help the dragons. Gringotts partners with the dragon reserve since dragons can be trained to guard the vaults, so I moved from being Bill's apprentice, to a full time Curse Breaker in Rome for a year, to now being the apprentice of the retiring Runes Specialist. 

I'm excited for the new position. I didn't like traveling to Rome every week and being away from my husband and family, only seeing them on the weekends if I could even manage to go home at all. But the new apprenticeship will be hitting it's prime time here soon, and I'll be gone for three months solid in Romania to do the annual runes barriers for the dragons. The beasts end up scorching off the barriers every year, and they take a lot of time and delicate practice to re-establish them, and this will be my first run through before I take over the position permanently.