Chapter 3
October 7th, 1985
Wizengamot Chamber #7
Call to Order: Albus Dumbledore vs Merlin’s Montessori
“Tom this is a serious matter!”
“That’s Minister Riddle to you Headmaster and I agree, this is a serious matter. We as a community have been throwing muggleborns headfirst into the wizarding world with no prior knowledge, and we’ve been doing it for generations! Enough is enough!”
Tom huffed a breath and then with an angry look towards the old wizard continued, “The Magical Montessori’s around Great Britain and Ireland have had nothing but positive outcomes. Look at the literacy rates in your school, test scores, and magical retainment levels, and tell me, tell the Wizengamot, why we should shut them all down, the floor is yours.”
To say that Tom was angry was an understatement, Dumbledore had called an emergency Wizengamot meeting to try and shut down the schools that Tom’s campaign had funded.
Merlin’s Montessori For Young Wixen were grade schools for children ages 8-11. They started as a way to help introduce muggleborns into the wizarding world but once Tom saw the literacy rates in Hogwarts he made it available to all Pureblood, Halfblood, and Muggleborn families. The schools teach basic subjects like Maths, Reading, Writing (with a quill and parchment), Arts, Wizarding History, and Magical Ethics (Magic is not bad but sometimes bad people use magic to hurt others, Unicorns exist but no you cannot use their horns to make sparkly glitter, things like that).
The schools had been operating for over 15 years and within the first year of operation Hogwarts had seen the highest improvement in reading, writing, and magical comprehension skills.
Tom was even planning on having the schools do summer camps and something muggles call “lock-ins” but of course, Albus Dumbledore, Savior of the Light, has to come in and say something.
‘You’re taking children away from their families, Tom’, ‘This is immoral, Tom’, ‘This is indoctrination, Tom’, and blah blah blah bullshit. If it wasn’t for Dumbledore, Tom is 100% positive that his legislation to open magical orphanages would have passed.
The meeting went on for a few more hours with the older omega prattling on about this and that before Tom, with all the power vested within him as Minister for Magic, ended the meeting. A small sigh of relief could be heard echoing in the room before everyone started packing up to go home.
As Tom made his way to his office he couldn’t help but think about the lives that could be helped if only Dumbledore got out of the way.
The old coot didn’t know what it felt like to be unloved, to not know when your next meal would come or where it would come from. He didn’t understand that with the right, nurturing environment, many mistakes and misdeeds could be avoided.
Tom knew that not everyone would be on board with the magical orphanage but for them to side with Dumbledore and reject his legislation, made him angry.
Walking into his office Tom was unprepared for the tiny human that flew to him. Luckily his alpha reflexes were quicker than his brain and he caught his youngest son at the last minute.
“Hi, Daddy!” Nathaniel said, snuggling close in his Alpha father’s arm, trying to scent him.
“Hi, Bunny!” Tom said, allowing the 5-year-old to get his comforting scent before scenting him back. “I thought you were with your auntie, what happened?”
“Aunt Nini had an eeee-mer-gent-cyyy and had to go save the world!” Nathaniel said excitedly, face still buried in his father's neck.
Nagini worked for the International Confederation of Wizards as a Creature Liason and was often called to handle high-risk situations and resolve them peacefully. Tom was guessing it had something to do with the Vampire and Werewolf population over in the US.
Tom sighed and checked the time, 2:30, almost time to pick Delphi and Corio up from Merlin’s and make dinner. As he walked over to his desk a red envelope sat on his desk unassumingly.
“Baby is this from Nini?” Tom asked, casting a few surveillance and detection spells over the envelope.
“Nuh uh, I not know what that is Daddy.”
“I don’t know what that is” Tom gently corrected, picking up the envelope after it turned blue; clean , and putting it in his bag. “You ready to go pick up Corio and Delphi from school?”
“Yeah! And then we can play!”
Tom chuckled as he held his son closer to his chest, the red letter forgotten about.
Severus yawned before taking a sip of his coffee. ‘Screw Thompson and whatever baby shower he’s attending.’ He thought tiredly, putting his mug down to lace up his boots.
Severus had gotten off at 7 p.m. and went home, made him a light dinner, and took a nap. When his alarm went off at 9 p.m., he got in the shower, brushed his teeth, and went over his face with a quick razor. Ideally, taking a nap after a work shift sounds like a good idea but when the shift you just worked was 12 hours long and the nap was only two hours, you start to feel the error in your judgment.
Before he left the house Severus went into his bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. He made sure to grab his suppressant bag and a bottle of pheromone reducer to spray on his scent glands. Before Severus started working at St. Mungos the hospital did a thorough screening process on the omega to make sure that he was physically and mentally well enough to handle the pressures of magical healthcare.
Every alpha and omega working in the ministry or in St Mungos has what one would like to call instinct-control patches. They are usually clear transdermal patches that are placed on the neck and wrists, directly over the scent glands to stop the transfer of pheromones. Severus uses those as well as oral medications like gel pills and potions for added protection, especially since now he can afford to buy them and have them on hand.
Growing up in a malnourished and unsafe environment left Severus’s omega … a little underdeveloped to be nice about it. When he first presented at 16 (much later than other omegas who usually presented at 14) his heats were irregular and he would succumb to whatever an alpha said, no matter who it was.
When the marauders found out they spared no expense in humiliating him because of his second gender, and Severus couldn’t have despised himself more than he did when he was at the mercy of those four monsters.
If only he had presented as an alpha, or better yet, a beta, then the whole situation would have gone away. (At least, that’s what Severus liked to tell himself.)
Now at 25, having years of proper nutrition, vitamins, and exercise Severus often gets confused for a beta or at least a rather lanky alpha, and he’s fine with that. The less people know about him the better.
Severus puts his suppressant bag inside his backpack before tossing it over his shoulder. Locking up his flat and replacing his protective wards. Popping one of his gel suppressant pills Severus couldn’t help but wish that the night was as dull as Thompson said it would be.
After Tom put the kids asleep he went to his office to do a bit more paperwork before bed.
As he reached into his bag to pull out his journals the red envelope he found in his office earlier that day fell to the floor. Tom reached down and picked up the mysterious letter, thinking it was some silly love letter from one of the omega chits down in the mail room.
Instead of throwing it in the trash as he would usually do, Tom decided to humor himself. With an easy smile, he opened the letter but as he read through the poem the smile slowly dropped from his face.
***
You don’t know me but I know you,
Of course, I do,
I’ve trained my entire life to kill you.
Our lives are intertwined,
they’re practically parallel,
I would run if I were you,
I’m the man who’s going to send you to hell.
This is a war that I can no longer ignore,
By the time I am finished,
Lord Voldemort will be no more.
Await the night,
your demise is near,
I’ll gather all of my might,
And make you and your loved ones disappear.
Your greatest admirer,
The Puppet Master
***
Before Tom could fully comprehend the letter completely there was a loud bang from the streets and the house shook dangerously. The smell of smoke was traveling through the house at a terrifying pace.
Tom tried to stand up and make it out of the room to his children, but before he could even take two steps, everything went black.