Chapter 2
Tom sat in his home office looking over past Wizengamot Legislation. Tom sighed and put the papers down, rubbing his eyes to clear out some of the fog.
In 3 months, it would mark Tom’s seventeenth year as Minister for Magic, and the one, the singular, legislation that he wanted to get passed at the beginning of his run for office is still off the table.
When Tom came into office in 1968 at 41 years old, he was coming off a 20-year professional dueling winning streak, he was practically untouchable.
A few months after graduating from Hogwarts, Tom packed his bags and left Wizarding Britian, he didn’t know where he would go, or what he would do, but all he knew was that if he had to work another day at Borgins and Burke’s arguing the prices of cursed artifacts against someone who could pay the ticket price for the object, (if the fabric of their robes and the entitled air that suffocated everything around them were anything to go by), Tom knew that he would have killed someone. It was by chance that he came across the International Dueling Conference, and it was by sheer luck that he found someone willing to mentor him in the dark arts so that he could compete.
In between training and traveling the world, Tom would go to school and along the way obtained masteries in Spell Crafting, Dueling, Dark Magic, and Advanced Magic (i.e. Elemental Magic). When he was studying Advanced Magic with his mentor in Albania he came across a gorgeous Reticulated Python, Nagini, her name was. Tom learned later on that Nagini was once human, is human, she just suffered from being a Malidictus, and Tom being Tom, promised to cure her.
He took Nagini on the road with him and his mentor and every place they stopped in Tom asked around for anyone who knew of blood curses. Eventually, during an IDC tournament in Brazil, Tom had the information necessary to cure Nagini. After months of treatment the female alpha that had stood before him, finally on two legs instead of on her stomach, was one of Tom’s greatest accomplishments (and closest friends), trophies be damned.
Abraxas and Nagini forced Tom to publish his findings and the possible cure for Malidictinitus, and the Masters of the wizarding world fell head over heels for the Dueler. His fame opened doors for him and those doors finally led to Tom accepting the Guant and Slytherin Heirship, as was his birthright.
Hell, even Riddle Snr. kicked the bucket and left his ancestral home and fortune to his son, or at least the muggle bank did, sending one of their magical tellers to track him down and tell him about his fortune.
Throughout all of this, The Halfblood Alpha took the wizarding world by storm, something that was both shocking and unprecedented. Even throughout his career as an IDC Champion Tom only lost twice, but never where it counted. It wasn’t until a month before his 40th birthday that he decided to retire from Dueling; he had the trophies and the medals, he had the money, he had the legacy, he had friends, and most importantly, he had the power. It was time to turn over a new leaf in life.
In May 1967, at 40 years old, Tom announced his run for candidacy, and on May 20th, 1968 he won. Tom spent his first few weeks in office gathering all anti-dark legislation and brought it in front of the Wizengamot, getting a whopping 85% of it overturned. It continued like this for a while, but when Tom wanted to make a few changes to the outdated Hogwarts curriculum, everyone turned against him, even members of his own party.
He went to Abraxas who was his closest friend and campaign manager and asked him where the hell everything went wrong.
Abraxas looked at him warily and started to fidget. Tom knew that his scent and his magic must have been flaring, not wanting it to seem as if he was challenging the other alpha Tom took a few deep breaths and reigned in his magic (there was nothing to do about the scent since it had already left his glands so Tom went and opened a window).
Abraxas took a few deep breaths of his own and seemed to calm down.
“Tom the problem is that you’re an unmated, alpha bachelor trying to make decisions in our children's lives, that’s simply not your place. It would be different if you had a spouse or even one or two pups but without that … you’re messing with something that doesn’t concern you.”
“Doesn’t concern me? I attended Hogwarts, I was the goddamn head boy for crying out loud! The curriculum is underwhelming, outdated, and lacking the proper quality that is needed in this day and age!”
“You’re taming the wrong dragon here Tom, I agree with you about the curriculum, I just don’t think that the wizarding world is ready for someone like you to push that agenda.”
“Someone like me as in a Mudblood, someone like me as in a dark wizard, or someone like me as just another brain-dead dueler that’s taken one too many stinging hexes to the brain?” Tom asked darkly, standing up to pace around the room.
“For Merlin's Sake Tom!”Abraxas said exasperated, “Someone like an unbonded alpha with no children of his own. You’re 40 years old, you can’t sit here and tell me that you haven’t thought about Marriage or Children.”
“What Abraxas means Tom,” Nagini said, leaning against the doorway with a steaming mug of tea, “Is that, generally Alpha’s don’t get involved in education or taking care of pups, that’s an omegas job, and for you to want to do that, to make a change, is a little suspicious in the eyes of the wizarding world, even if you mean well. I think that if you were mated or even in a public relationship, it would make you appear softer and show the wizengamot that you have good intentions.”
“So I just have to be mated to pass my legislation?” Tom said with a grimace, he didn’t want some pathetic omega slobbering after him and stinking up his home.
“You could always marry a beta, no mating involved,” Abraxas said, seeing the look on his friend's face and determining his train of thought, “but you will have to have children, on that I am sure. Merlin forbid if we would have elected that omega chit into office, we would not have this problem.”
Tom scowled at Abraxas, Melissa Merrythought had run a tough campaign, playing into the wizarding world's backward ideology over “Family is power” and “Magic is within Blood.” If she wasn’t an omega Tom is sure he would have lost the election to the Pureblood Witch, but that’s in the past.
“A beta … Say Abraxas? Is your sister still looking for an Alpha?”
Tom married Athena Malfoy in June 1970, a large affair celebrated by the entirety of the wizarding UK and Ireland. Tom and Athena had grown to be good friends but there was no love between them, but at least Tom was able to pass his amendments to the Hogwarts curriculum and there was nothing Dumbledore could do about it.
As the years went by the couple got more used to each other and the expectations of marriage.
In 1972, they welcomed Salazar Valerian Guant-Riddle, a small bundle with chocolate curls and eyes as equally dark.
Two years later in 1974, they welcomed their first girl, Aurelia Calytrix Guant-Riddle, with silver hair and grey-brown eyes, fairing strong resemblance to her mother.
In 1976, Tom and Athena adopted a young werewolf cub out of Greyback's pack and named him Coriolanus Hawthorn Guant-Riddle.
In 1978, they welcomed Delphini Belladonna Guant-Riddle into the family and welcomed she was with her icy blond curls and chocolate eyes. The Riddles agreed that Delphini would be their last child but on May 11th, 1980, Nathaniel Florian Guant-Riddle came into the world.
It was supposed to be a happy day, a day of celebration, and joy, and it was. It was the day after on May 12th, 1980 that Athena Malfoy succumbed to the difficulties of her childbirth.
Tom was at a loss, of course, he had his friends but he was a public and political figure raising 5 children by himself and one of them was an infant! It took a few months for the family to recover from the loss of their wife and mother and even then things were rocky, with Tom’s schedule, the kid's schooling and extracurricular activities, and family time but the Riddle’s fought hard and with the help of friends and mind healers they did pretty alright for themselves.