Ch 8
The winter was almost endless and finally, spring arrived, the snow melted away freeing all life from the brutal cold and frozen rain, in the village, there were rumors of a terrifying creature known as the Riddle Beast, who never returned to the forest near the village but the people still lived in fear.
The townsfolk believed it to be a prince of the Riddle family, whose mother was said to be a witch. Legend had it that she fell in love with a wolf during her imprisonment and loveless marriage to the Riddle king. She died giving birth to her son, and the king, along with his family, locked the wolf prince in a tower, having his mind unravel and embracing his animalistic instinct. However, the prince eventually escaped and, with his wolf brethren who heard his call, he killed them all on the night of the full moon in the year of his sixteenth celebration. The castle manor was left in ruins and abandoned for all time, leaving the villagers in constant fear of the Riddle Beast.
As for the Boy Who Lived and Became the Wolf, he too was never seen again after the priest, hunter, his two friends, and a group of men invaded the now abandoned Dursley cottage. They claimed that the boy had become the wolf, and they were there to save him from the beast. The boy's cottage was now in abandoned ruins, and the boy's abusive relatives were all dead, presumably at the hands of the Riddle Beast. The villagers whispered that the boy had joined forces with the Wolf Prince and was now a part of the Riddle family's curse of the Wolf Prince.
Inside the Riddle family manor was covered in shredded floors, drapes, dusty webbed armored knights, statues, destroyed furniture dust, and cobwebs all over, and outside the manor gargoyles that remained watching the castle grounds from the top of the roofs of the manor watching out for trespassing intruders for their ruler to hunt and kill and sharp vines surrounded the manor gates as the roses grew from the many strings of the vines and inside in ruins there was something precious inside as the wolves lay perched on the ruined furniture, upstairs where their alpha lies with his mate.
Voldemort perched on the floor, panting with ears straight up like an innocent happy little puppy with a big content smile as his wide eyes stared into the sight in all of relief and happiness, Harry was lying securely on the destroyed bed with his wolf eyes showing exhaustion but also happiness as he stared at the wolf cubs of eleven who were nursing on their mother.
Hearing them make their squeaky grunts and whines and Harry making growling purrs were music to Voldemort's ears and seeing the sight of them granted him something he never thought he could have. Happiness.
Voldemort jumped on the bed and stared at his little ones who were still deaf from their sealed ears and blind from their sealed eyes hearing their squeaking whines and slurps of their mother's milk and he smiled nuzzling his face on Harry's canine face seeing his emerald eyes then licked him on the nose.
"You did well, my dear", Voldemort pride purred with a growl, licking the exhausted Harry.
"It was quite challenging. But I had you, my love, to help through it", he purred licking his mate's nose Voldemort chuckled and they pressed their noses together in a kiss Harry yelped and then stared at the little cubs who were yanking for more milk and he and Voldemort chuckled hearing continuing hungry squeaks and growls from the cubs.
Voldemort leaned to his sons and daughters with a deep purring growl and nuzzled them continues hearing them slurping and squeaky sounds. "Easy with your mother, little ones", he softly said with a prideful grin.
"Yes, you don't want to be like your father when we first met", Harry makes a wide wolf smile and Voldemort makes his own wider smile on the day they met when it was still winter.
"Yes. That day...seeing your hair as black as mine...and your skin was white as snow, Harry...It was like I was in a wonderful dream that I didn't want to wake up from", he purred.
Harry licks him on the nose. "Yes, it was such a wonderful dream that became a reality. Like once upon a dream?" Harry asked adoringly stating how he was once a human but his life came to him when he met Voldemort who couldn't and refused to harm him and grew in love with him, and even killed for him. There were many times when Harry feared that if he went to sleep he would wake up in his prison cabinet and find himself as a human again, but the dream was real.
Voldemort made a deep chuckle and nuzzled him close. "Yes. Like once upon a dream", he answered with a deep purr. The mates soon stare at their feeding young.
"Granny, did they live happily ever after? Did they? Did you and Grandpa ever see them again?" A little girl asked cheerfully.
She smiled at her dear granddaughter. She and Ron never saw their dear friend again after that night, but they both along with the late Dumbledore and Severus hoped and knew that he was free with the wolf and hoped that they were safe.
"Why they most certainly did live happily ever after I am hopefully sure, my dear. But...we never saw him again but if you stop and listen to the wolves' melody to the moon, you might be able to recognize that one of them was Harry Potter who was the Red Riding Hood"
Her granddaughter headed to the window gazing at the full moon and her grandmother gently placed her in bed and covered her up in the welcoming embrace of the blanket. "Have pleasant dreams, my dear", Hermione kisses her grandchild on the forehead and leaves her to dream dreams.
Hermione took the red hood of her friend nuzzles it close to her face and stared at the picture of her and her husband on the day of their wedding and she felt tears filling her eyes. She remembered on the night of their wedding they heard loud howls out in the woods after the years when Harry took off into his new life with his wolf mate.
She kissed the picture of her husband. "My dear Ron, I wish you were still by my side", she walked to the rocking chair and smiled staring at the dancing light sparks of the fire in the fireplace she heard a howl and smiled staring at the window.