Adopting a Snakelet
"I don't know what to tell you, lady. What you've got here is worthless, I'm sorry but 10 galleons is all I can give you for it without this being considered robbery. Now you can take the deal or not, but I'm done with this conversation because it won't go anywhere!"
The sickly dark-haired woman's heart shattered listening to the slimeball salesman standing behind the counter. Merope Gaunt knew very well that the final piece of her family was worth far more than a mere 10 galleons. She knew it, and the cruel salesman staring her down knew it- but there wasn't much she could do.
Her hands shook as she clenched the locket of Slytherin in her left fist. She was tired, desperately so.
She had thought she had finally escaped her family when her father and brother had been arrested and sent to Azkaban.
She thought she would have been happy when she successfully brewed the smallest cauldron of Amortentia the year before, using it to gain the attention of her one true love. She hadn't cared that he was a Muggle, no matter what her family had said about them or their dirty blood. She had been amazed when the handsome Tom Riddle agreed to marry her, and ecstatic 6 months later when she discovered that she was pregnant.
Life was finally working out for her after 17 hard years... until it wasn't.
The Amortentia dwindled, and Tom changed. Surely he would have fallen in love with her by now, right? She made him happy! She was giving him an heir! Why wasn't that enough? Why was she never enough...
Tom Riddle left in the middle of the night, and there was nothing she could do to get him back. She soon discovered that he had gone back to his childhood home, claiming he was bewitched! How dare he, she would never! Now, she was alone. Her pregnancy sapped her strength, but she had nowhere to go- and now... selling the locket was her final hope, and it produced nothing!
The world seemed to lose color around her, as she slumped her shoulders and placed the locket on the counter. Her voice was hoarse, and she was holding back tears as she whispered to the man behind the counter.
"Deal."
******************
The meager amount of money didn't last Merope very long at all.
She could have changed it for muggle money, but she didn't know how. Gringotts was a possibility, but she didn't know where to go or how to get there. She never went to Hogwarts as a child, and therefore never left Little Hangleton.
Her situation seemed hopeless.
She knew she wouldn't last the week, but she wasn't going to let herself give up until she had saved her unborn child.
Snow was falling all around her, and she clenched the ratty shawl she was wearing tighter around her shoulders. Everything hurt. Her vision was swimming, and she hadn't been able to eat in days.
Her destination was in sight, but she realized she might not make it that far.
In desperation, she cried out, "Help me! Please! I need help!"
Her vision blurred further, as she fought to stay awake. She collapsed on the paved cobblestone, and she saw the door open just as she lost consciousness.
The Matron of Wool's Orphanage had never before seen someone so grossly underweight and uncared for in her entire life. When she opened the front door to see what was happening in the middle of the road, this was not what she had pictured in her mind. She quickly called inside for assistance as she made her way to the crumpled body near the doorstep. The unconscious girl didn't look to be older than 15, but she was simultaneously severely underweight, and very obviously pregnant.
Staff members joined Mrs. Cole in lifting the girl and carrying her inside, placing her on a cot in the infirmary.
What could have possibly been going through this girl's head to be outside in this condition?
Old bruises, and scars littered the girl's skin. She was clearly in critical condition, but they couldn't do anything until she woke up. That didn't happen for two days. When the girl woke up, she was incoherent, and nothing she was saying made any sense. While cleaning her wounds, she would sometimes freeze up in a panic and start hissing under her breath but, otherwise she seemed to be surviving.
The first understandable sentence came from her on the evening of her third day being in the orphanage.
"C-Can you send a letter for me?"
Her voice was barely audible, but Mrs. Cole could hear her just fine.
"And what would that letter entail young Missy? You gave us a mighty big scare when we found you at the door."
Her reply was shakey, but got stronger the more she talked,
"I need to keep my baby safe- I ... I know if I try to go home my father will kill them, and their father left me alone... no he doesn't want them... but, if I could send a message to Cousin Kaida she would know what to do...She wouldn't abandon us... Yes! If you could write a quick note to tell her where we are when the baby is born, she'll keep them safe! I know she-"
and the contractions started.
Screams filled the room as the girl pushed to bring her child into the world.
Three hours later, on December 31, 1929, a baby boy was born.
The girl was shaking, with tears in her eyes as she held her baby as best she could. She was fading fast.
"Please. Send a letter to my cousin. Her name is Kaida Sayre and she lives in Glastonbury...She-she will keep him safe. Oh, my darling baby boy... I shall call you...Tom...after your father and Marvolo... after mine. Yes... Tom Marvolo Riddle... that sounds... perfect..."
Her eyes fluttered shut as she breathed out a final time. She was no more.
********************
Mrs. Cole wasn't expecting anything to come of the short letter she had sent out that morning. There wasn't much information to go off of about the relative of Tom Marvolo Riddle. She had decided to just address the thing to Kaida Sayre, Glastonbury, and sent it off thinking that it would be returned to the Orphanage in a few days.
She did not expect the doorbell to ring Mid-day.
When she peered out the window to see who arrived, she was shocked to discover a well-dressed woman in her mid-thirties. Cherry Brown ringlets fell down her back and her striking Hazel eyes seemed to bore holes into the wood in front of her. If you looked long enough, they seemed to flash gold in the light.
Mrs. Cole quickly opened the door.
"Hello, how may I help you today?" she stated to the woman, a tight smile on her face.
"Hello, Mrs. Cole is it? My name is Kaida Sayre. I received a letter this morning stating that my nephew was left in your care. I've come to collect him and bring him home."
Mrs. Cole's eyebrows shot up.
"Oh my, we weren't expecting- well, yes I suppose we can get that process started for you... How ever did you get here so quickly?"
"I have my ways."
"Oh... alright. Right this way."
The pair walked into the Nursery, as Mrs. Cole started collecting and filling out multiple papers that were stored on a desk in the corner.
"I would suggest taking him for a doctor's visit as early as possible, you hear. Quietest baby I've ever seen in my entire life- he hasn't cried at all. Unnatural that is- now, if you could help fill out his birth certificate. We have the name, and the name of the pappy- but we never did get the girl's name- so if you could-"
Kaida reaches over and grabs the pen before filling in the blanks in the paperwork.
"Her name was Merope Gaunt, but I suppose it was Merope Riddle nee Gaunt if we factor in the father..." She mutters under her breath, " Now, where is my nephew?"
"Right this way, Ma'am"
A ratty-looking wooden cradle was hidden in an alcove near the door and within was a baby boy.
Careful not to wake him, Kaida reaches in and gently rubs her knuckles under his eye.
"tu es belle chérie," she whispers.
When the papers are all signed and notarized, Kaida gently picks up the sleeping Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"Thank you for helping my cousin, and keeping my nephew Mrs. Cole. I will do my best to not forget this debt."
Mrs. Cole tilts her head in confusion, "Pardon?"
Before she could react, a white stick was pointed at her face.
"Obliviate"
Mrs. Cole would wake up sitting at her desk, and her headache would make her wonder why it felt like she had drunk one too many bottles of Sherry the night before.
Kaida Emrys Sayre would walk out of the Orphanage with the boy tied securely to her chest, and a folder filled with all the evidence that Tom Marvolo Riddle ever existed.
The pair would turn a corner down an alleyway, and in a flash of light, they disappeared.