Darkness and Devotion - A Tom Riddle Story

Bonus: The Baby

Tom had been driving Evelyn nuts for approximately... thirty-two weeks. Ever since he had found out she was pregnant, he had decided to up his protectiveness from extremely high to making Evelyn feel like she was in a prison cell instead of her own home. When Tom said he was never leaving her side, Evelyn didn't realize he actually meant it. True to his word, Tom never left her. And she meant never. He followed her to the bathroom "in case she fell", took his paper in the den while she was trying to enjoy her books "in case she needed anything and he was too far away to help", and even spent his afternoons watching her nap. He couldn't even come up with an excuse for why he did that. 

The first twenty-four hours after Evelyn told Tom she was pregnant were complete bliss. Full of lovemaking, kissing, and happy tears. He couldn't take his hands off her small yet still slightly swollen belly and the smile had never left her face.

Every hour after those twenty-four though? Well... complete bliss wouldn't be how she would describe them. Not at all.

It started with the enchantments. Riddle Manor was already extremely protected but now that Evelyn was with child, it was apparently insufficient for their needs. He dragged her out to the gardens while he placed spell after spell. Now, even Mattheo couldn't enter the manor, not without touching either Evelyn, Tom, or any of their future children. 

"Tom, isn't this a little excessive?" she whined one day after he continued to cast invisible charms around the grounds.

"Nothing is too excessive for my family," he grumbled in that surly voice of his that let her know he wouldn't accept any argument on the matter. "Now that I'm the Dark Lord, our enemies will stop at nothing to try and weaken me. They've already hurt you. They will not hurt our children."

The protective mama bear inside of her loved that their children would always be safe but the grumpy, pregnant woman was tired of being dragged outside all day. Not that she had been sitting in the sun, of course. Tom had somehow learned a charm to cast a permanent cloud over her head so she would always be shaded.

Then, he stopped letting her do anything for herself. It sounds nice, of course, not having to lift a single finger. Until she couldn't lift any finger at all because Tom wouldn't let her. At first, she adored the way he carried her everywhere, the way he dressed her and got her ready for the day, the way he even flipped the pages of her book for her. But it soon got old when Evelyn couldn't walk to the bathroom by herself or lift her fork to her mouth without Tom insisting that he would do it for her.

"You need your strength, Little Dove," he would murmur, brushing her hair back from her head in the way that she liked so she wouldn't be as frustrated. It was impossible to be angry at him when he was being so goddamn caring. Why did he have to be incredible?

"Tom. I'm going insane," she whined one day when she was about three months along and going completely berserk. She hadn't left the manor except for doctor's appointments in weeks. "Can we please go to London? We can shop or go visit my aunt and uncle."

He wrinkled his nose. "London has far too much pollution. It's bad for the baby. And you don't need the added stress of the crowds." She groaned far too loudly, which earned not just a scowl from him but also a punishment in the bedroom for her "attitude". 

Tom arranged for all of her visitors to come to the manor instead, thinking that it would solve his wife's frustration. Mattheo, Sirius, and Vivian were allowed to visit along with some higher-up pureblood families. Families like the Notts or the Malfoys, whose children would later go on to become their friends once they graduated from Hogwarts. Of course, all visitors were screened extremely. They had to turn in their wands and get checked for weapons before having a potion that Tom invented that eliminated germs and illnesses spritzed on them. This would have been excessive but bearable if not for the fact that said visitors had to remain on the complete other side of the room from her. The only exception to that rule was Mattheo, as Evelyn said that the baby's uncle should be able to be a part of the pregnancy. Tom only relented when she—with her strong, pregnancy anger and short temper—threatened to move her stuff to the other side of the house.