Always || Tom Riddle

Amber

The next morning, I awoke to find that although me and Tom had fallen asleep together, we did not awake together. The sun was streaming into the room from the windows and the fire must have been re lit by the elves as they were on strict instructions to keep the house warm, even though the sun was out, there was still a cold breeze. Getting up, I turned on the bath taps and began to undress from my pyjamas. Hopping into the warm water, I slid down in the bath until the water covered my shoulders, closing my eyes and ending up falling asleep. It was peaceful...that was until a little kid began to try and wake me up once more. 

"Mummy?!" Slowly, my eyes opened, and for a moment, I was blinded by the amount of light in the room. 

"Amber?" The little girl before me smiled, engulfing me in a hug even though it would mean she too got soaked. 

"I missed you!" Noticing how young she looked my head turned to Tom, who had just entered the bathroom, and was leaning against the doors threshold for support. 

"Tom...Do you have something you want to explain?" Huffing, he gently led Amber out of the bathroom, explaining to her that mummy had to get dressed, shutting the door whilst Amber began to jump on the bed.  Letting Tom help me out of the bathtub, I put on a robe and sat on closed toilet seat.

"I brought her home because she needed to be with her parents-"

"Tom, she doesn't know who her father is!" At that he did a double take and frowned, looking to the floor and gripping my hand, that had been resting on the bath tub tightly. 

"Why did you never tell her? Are you ashamed of me?" 

"I never told her because she was too young to understand why her dad wasn't around, when I was with her, and even when she was old enough to grasp why she couldn't see her father, I wasn't there" 

"And who's fault is that?!" Tom exclaimed, an unknown look filling his ebony eyes. 

"I left her with Penelope for her own safety, I left you for her safety. I would never have left if you had just-"

"Had just what?!" 

"Had not been her pyscho murdering father! I didn't want Amber growing up somewhere she was constantly in danger, where her parents couldn't take her out to the play park because there may be aurors there, or she couldn't have her friends from school for sleepovers because her friends may see the wrong thing and get us into trouble! I had every right to do what I did, you would have done the same if it were the other way around" Tom had gone silent, he wouldn't meet my eyes, and was using the counter for support. This would have been the point that if we had not just had a massive argument that I would have thought how handsome he was, and gone up behind him to pull him into a hug, comforting  Tom. But I knew what I had said was true, and I had a feeling he knew that as well. 

"What do you want me to do? I can't exactly change this. The time turners gone, it was taken by someone here. I have searched their rooms, but it's not anywhere And if handed myself in, they would kill me, then they would come after you and Amber. The only way we can all be safe is to stick together, we can't be fighting each other when the enemy is out there. Which is why I am going with the death eaters tonight to kill Potter, once and for all."

"You are what?" 

"I wasn't going to tell you, but tonight, the boy is being moved to a safe house with the Order of the Phoenix, if I can cut them off, and kill him before he gets there, then we stand a chance" 

"Why would you bring Amber here? She was safe where she was, Tom" 

"No, she wasn't-" Turning to face me, he pulled me into a hug and rested his chin on the top of my head.

"I've heard that Penelope has been in contact with the order, if they found out that Amber wasn't Penelopes daughter, the order or the ministry would use her as bait, to get us to come after her and-" His voice broke, that was a rare thing for him. Pulling away to look at him, I noticed there was tears forming in his eyes, and this time, he didn't try to hide it from me. 

"So you aren't as cold hearted as you make out to be" I whispered, for we were too close that it would seem too loud to speak at anything above a whisper. Pressing my lips to his we only broke the kiss, when Amber knocked on the door. 

"Mummy? Are you coming out soon?" Without answering her, I grabbed Toms hand and together, we entered the bedroom, where Amber had now stopped jumping on the bed, and was looking at my photo album. 

"Sweety, we have something to tell you-" Before I could even continue, Amber had pushed the photo album away and was looking at me with wide eyes. 

"Am I going to be a big sister?" Bursting out laughing I shook my head.

"No, Amber. You know you have always wanted to know who your father is?" Ambers head shook yes excitedly.

"Well, this is your daddy. His name's Tom, and he loves you very much sweetheart" Giving Tom a slight shove forward, I watched happily as Amber began to recognize her father, and jumped up to hug him. If I could have woken up to that sight every day for the years lost, I would count myself very lucky, and content. 

"Now, Amber, how do you feel about the fact that your little friend, what was her name..."

"Eva?" Tom nodded, smiling down at his daughetr in his arms. Our only child, and most likely it was going to remain that way. Practically leaping out of his arms, she squealed happily, running down the corridor and what it sounded like, finding her little friend. 

"How did you get her friends parents to let her come here?" 

"They are muggles, they are really quite easy to persuade" Wow, I never thought that he would go to such lengths to make Amber happy, Tom hates muggles, let alone muggle borns. I must have had dropped my guards for he smiled, and pulled me into a hug. 

"Your guards have been down for quite a while you know" Oh shoot. How much has he been listening in on? 

"All of it" If someone could just kill me now... 

"My lord, we are ready when you are" Apparently, I had not woken up in the morning, but the evening, for Lestrange stood at the door. 

"Its time" With a loving peck on the lips and forehead, he was gone. I secretly hoped this would end tonight, so that we could all just try to be somewhat happy and at peace. But that was hopeful thinking, and deep down I knew that would never come true.