Different (Tombert)
June 2000
(Ten Years Post Ron Weasley’s Judgement Error)
“Mum…” Robert prompted Hermione hesitantly, “Am I… different?”
The witch frowned, continuing her task of running a comb through her ten-year-old son’s unruly ginger tufts and conforming them into a presentable hairstyle, “Of course you are,” she said immediately, not giving him a pause to respond as she continued, “And so am I… And so is Daddy, and Rosie, and Hugo, and—”
“That’s not what I mean,” the half-eldritch pouted, crossing his arms and slouching forward in a way that reminded her of her mate’s more despondent moods.
“Little love, it’s silly to believe yourself ordinary when no such thing exists. Everyone has their own experiences, preferences, and dreams for the future,” Hermione gathered his tall stature in her arms and was barely able to press a kiss to the top of his head without adjusting her height, “And that is something you will learn as you get older, and go to school, and discover who you are and what you want for yourself.”
Robert turned his head around a bit too far to be a human movement and regarded her with nervous baby blues, “Someone’s dad brought their dog to school today… Everyone wanted to pet it, but I didn’t…”
Hermione brought her arm up and rubbed her son’s nape, an action that never failed to relax him when he was nervous. However, all it seemed to do now was make him start weeping, “Oh, PJ… It’s okay. Not everyone likes animals. Tom likes his snakes, but he doesn’t like other animals either—”
“I wanted to eat it, Mum!” Robert sobbed now, fully turning around in her grasp and hugging her nearly to the point of suffocation, “It was so scared… and it smelled so good!”
Hermione took it in stride, pinching his nape a bit harder until he froze, his body growing limp in her hold. He still wept, albeit silently, his tears falling upwards in ceaseless rivulets to wet his groomed hair, “You should talk to Daddy about this, little love… He’ll understand and can help you more than I,” she held his head to her breasts and let him nuzzle close despite his tears and snot ruining the front of her dress. It would take a simple cleaning spell to fix the issue, so the witch paid it no mind, “Do you want to stay home? Daddy can stay with you…” she prompted him, but Robert immediately drew away from her, shaking his head ‘no.’
“No! I want to see Hogwarts!” the half-eldritch whined, sniffing with his now stuffy nose and reddened, blotchy yellow eyes. He wiped his eyes and nose on his own robes and Hermione sighed, waving her wand to clean off the wet marks.
“Alright, alright,” Hermione smiled at his determination, “Maybe you can talk to Daddy later, after we go see Hogwarts and see Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, Aunt Ginny, and Aunt Lavender. Your cousins will be there too…” she enticed him and he smiled a bit at the reminder of his distant “family.”
“Okay, Mum…” Robert reached forward to grab his mother’s offered handkerchief to dry his eyes once more and his hand took on the look and texture of a frog’s, “Ah!”
Hermione giggled quietly, taking her son’s amphibian-like hand in hers and rubbing along the back of his palm, “There is no need to be nervous, Robbie… I spent seven years of my life at that school, and they were some of the best years of my life… at least before I met your father,” she joked, re-situating the both of them until they both sat on the bathroom counter, “I made wonderful friends that got me through some of the darkest parts of my life, and despite all the bad things, the good triumphed. But that was just me… You might not see what I saw when I first looked at Hogwarts. You might first see Ilvermorny and feel that same sense of belonging. However, I don’t want to deny you five the chance of going to school with James, Albus, and little Luna. James will be the same year as you, you know!”
“I know…” Robert nodded, understanding that things were going to be different now, no matter what school he and his siblings collectively decided to go to, “I’m scared…”
“And that’s okay, Robbie,” Hermione soothed her son, noticing that his hand was slowly returning to normal, “Daddy and I are here for you, and we will be there for you when you need us, especially Daddy,” she chuckled, knowing how much their first clutch’s future schooling away from home was affecting him, “I’m sure he’ll love to come visit you, and he’ll probably bring Roman, too.”
Robert rolled his eyes at the mention of his little brother and Hermione held back a laugh, knowing that he was getting to the phase where he would be “too cool” for his parents and younger brother, “Oh be nice, Robert! He adores you.”
“He won’t leave me and Tommy alone…” he huffed, shaking out his newly-transformed hand and growling quietly when it regressed a bit at his irritated state.
“He’s just excited for you all, and he’ll miss you very much when you go to school. You’re his favorite you know. Remember when you, Tom, and him would play house? Oh, it was so cute!”
Hermione took many photos of their games, completely invested in their imaginary lives of Robert imitating his father as the ‘Dad’ and Tom being ‘Mum’ while Roman, who was three at the time, played the role of their child. It was almost laughable how serious Robert handled his imaginary role while Tom just played along, half listening to his brother’s antics while reading a book of his choosing. The half-eldritch took it in stride, interpreting the behavior as Tom being “at work” like Hermione was. Roman was simply eager to play with his older brother, uncaring how they played but rather that they played at all.
“Mum! Mum!” Roman ran into the bathroom, noticing Hermione and Robert sitting on the bathroom counter, “Look! Look what I made!” he yipped excitedly, a bit of his canine demeanor coming through in his excitement to show off a colorful piece of paper to his mother.
“Oh!” Hermione gushed supportively, looking at a scribbled portrait of their family drawn with markers, complete with garish colors for clothing and skin colors, “This is beautiful, Rom-ee! Not bad for the last day of school. Is it for me?”
Roman huffed once, snatching the picture out of her hand, “No! It’s mine,” he spoke decisively, “but it could go on the fridge…” he added, shuffling his padded foot at his mother’s faux downcast expression.
Hermione giggled, running her hands through her son’s chaotic tufts of hair, “I’ll take it! I can put it up after I finish helping your brother get ready,” she moved to grab her older son’s hand and he waved her off, walking out of the bathroom.
“Ah, that’s okay, Mum. I’m fine…” Robert told her sheepishly, ducking out of his parents’ room and into his own, noticing Tom putting his snakes away in their large tank, “Oh! Hey,” he interjected, announcing himself as he came up behind the human male.
“Hi, Robbie,” Tom returned cooly, turning his head once to acknowledge his intended before returning to his rather fussy pets, “It’s unfortunate that I cannot bring them along. The young ones get so lonely…”
“I think we’ll be home before bedtime, so I think they’ll survive,” Robert pouted, mildly irritated that his intended was paying more attention to his snakes than him.
Tom closed the tank and pressed his hand against the glass, hearing their tiny protests with his parseltongue ability. He hissed reassurances and promises to return, making Robert simmer further with jealousy. He’d never been able to understand the snake-language, but to be fair, Tom never understood his eldritch tongue, something easily understood by his father.
After a moment, the raven-haired boy turned around and Robert looked down at his unbuttoned dress shirt and everyday wizard robes. Tom’s pale chest was unmarred by a toothed fissure, unlike his, which had grown in the previous year to his own horror. His mother and father had fretted over the growing vertical mouth, assisting it with its odd version of teething by cooling its itchy ‘gums’ with ice charms and dripping blood into its gaps to keep it from gnawing its ‘milk teeth.’
Tom, meanwhile, shared his bed as he’d always done, but this time, he would sneak little touches after their parents had tucked them in, fascinated with his adopted brother’s anatomy. At first, his fingers tickled along the bony teeth, making him twitch with suppressed giggles while his secondary mouth would purr happily. The area between the skin of his torso and the teeth themselves was particularly sensitive, leading the half-eldritch to wonder why it made him feel so... tingly.
Robert shook his head and reached for the opening of Tom’s dress shirt, bringing the two sides together and quickly doing the buttons until his fingertips were purposefully grazing his neck, feeling the steady pulse beneath his skin. The other boy looked down, bemused at the askew placket.
“You missed one,” he smiled, his own hands undoing the buttons and correctly lining up the little discs and slots before buttoning up his shirt.
Robert blushed embarrassedly, turning away to grab his intended’s shoes and set them on the floor, only to kneel at his dark sock-clad feet and make a grab for Tom’s right ankle, “Shut up,” he huffed at Tom’s confused eyebrow raise at the half-eldritch’s behavior.
Wordlessly, the wizard allowed him to slide his shoes on and tie them tightly enough so they wouldn’t slide off. Tom wiggled his feet afterwards, testing how well they’d been tied and finding that Robert had done a good job, “Is this an eldritch thing?” he wondered aloud.
The half-eldritch paused, considering his submissive and serving behaviors concerning his intended, and nodded, standing up to tie the younger boy’s tie, “I think so… but I always want to do things for you, so you don’t have to do anything.”
“But if I don’t do anything, what’s the point of living?” Tom countered blithely, buttoning his vest over his shirt and tie before reaching a hand up to smooth down a piece of Robert’s hair that had puffed back upwards.
Robert didn’t have an answer.
★★★
Hogwarts was still just as magical and majestic to Hermione as when she’d first sailed across the black lake. Of course, there were many pieces of stonework and structures that were more recent, reconstructions made after the Battle of Hogwarts. Nevertheless, it still felt like the same school of magic filled with optimism and hope. A small part of her hoped that her children would wish to attend school here, make friends, grow up. However, where they currently lived in the United States, she knew it would be easier for them to go to school an hour away from home, rather than thousands of miles away.
Bill Gray cradled her hand in his larger one, squeezing it gently to bring her out of her thoughts. He smiled reassuringly at her, indicating to the vacant yet pristine courtyard. She suddenly remembered seeing Umbridge fire Professor Trelawney in this very spot and she shivered at the memory, dragging her mate’s arm around her shoulder. Maybe she wasn’t quite over all the bad things that had happened within these ancient walls.
“Are you in pain, my love?” Bill concernedly whispered in her ear, lapping once at the cartilage with the tip of his tongue, “Your friends should be here soon to distract you… unless you want me to distract you in a certain bathroom…”
Hermione irately swatted at his shoulder, scandalized, “We are not going to leave our children to wander the corridors of my old school while you fuck me in the prefects’ bathroom of all places. I assure you that my recreations of it at home are plenty realistic enough and infinitely less likely to get us arrested for public indecency. And don’t you dare take that as a challenge!” she warned quietly when the large group of Hermione’s friends came up the path leading to the courtyard.
Harry led the group, holding Ginny’s hand while she held her daughter’s. James and Albus trailed behind, making a game out of stepping on certain cobblestones. Next came Harry’s godson, Teddy, holding Victoire’s hand. According to Harry, they’d been dating for a couple of years now, much to her father’s dismay. All in all, Hermione thought they made a very cute couple, especially with Teddy being half werewolf and Victorie being a quarter. Ron and Lavender brought up the rear, the latter toting a rather heavy-looking pregnancy belly.
“Hey, Hermione!” Harry yelled over to her and the others followed suit, giving their enthusiastic greetings from across the yard, “How long’s it been?”
“It’s about time you got here, Harry, and three years to be exact,” Hermione countered in a mock-scolding tone, “And you lot didn’t even have to apparate internationally!”
Ginny laughed, waving her off, “Well, we did have to coordinate between our two families, and pick up Teddy from Andromeda…”
Hermione giggled, hugging her friend, “Fair point! And how are your kids doing?” she turned to address the smaller group lingering behind her friends, waiting for their parents’ approval to join her own children, who were chasing each other around.
“They’re doing well! James is excited about school. Every bit of Harry’s son in that respect,” Ginny joked, elbowing her husband’s arm while he was busy fixing the zipper on Lily’s jumper. Of course, Harry snorted and muttered something that sounded like “As if.”
“And Albus has two more years? And Lily has four?” Hermione rubbed her chin, trying to remember how old the two children were.
Harry stood back up, ushering his seven-year-old daughter forward so Hermione could crouch down and give her a hug, “That’s right. Lil’ is seven and Albus is nine,” he turned around and noticed his younger son fiddling with one of his uncles’ inventions, “Oh Gin! He’s got another one!” Harry quickly turned to his wife who immediately ran over to confiscate the toy.
“Albus Severus! I thought I told you…” the rest was indecipherable due to Ginny’s lowering volume as she continued to berate her son. Hermione looked back to Harry, the question practically pasted on her face.
“He set the kitchen on fire yesterday,” Harry shrugged, “and may or may not have stashed multiple stink bombs all over the house,” he winced, scratching the back of his head, “If he wasn’t so transparent with them, I’d swear he was going to be a Slytherin… That one is just one of the prototypes Fred and George have been working on, and he swiped a handful of them from under their noses… Though, knowing them, I’m sure they just outright handed them over to him.”
Hermione winced, knowing how chaotic such prototypes were in her youth. Changing the subject, she quickly moved to hug Harry, who immediately reciprocated the gesture, “Merlin, I’ve missed you,” she grinned, patting the boy-who-lived-twice on the shoulder.
Bill crossed his arms with a small frown as his mate hugged each of her friends, including their young. This meant that she would smell like them until he got a chance to scent her, and depending on how persuasive he was, and how malleable Hermione’s libido was, that opportunity might come sooner rather than later. He grinned internally, already coming up with a few ideas to loosen her morality until she caved.
“Ron! How lovely it is to see you! How have you been?” Hermione tittered, tightly hugging her second-best friend and noticing that had a bit of a gut despite only being thirty-six, “Congratulations!”
“I’ve been good, great even! Yeah, I forgot how many bloody stairs are in this damn place. Lavender still insisted on coming, but I’d thought she’d want to turn ‘round and ‘ead ‘ome...” he grunted at the tight squeeze of Hermione’s arms and hugged her back despite the lingering feeling in the back of his mind that told him not to. The feeling was immediately ignored and he wondered why seeing her prompted this feeling.
Lavender glared at her husband, rubbing her belly, “You were complaining more than I was! I can’t believe you…” she fumed before turning to Hermione, all smiles, “I’m so happy to see you, Hermione! It’s been sooo long, too long.”
The mood swings gave the other witch a bit of a whiplash, but Hermione was happy to pull her into the hug she was sharing with Ron, “I’ve missed you both, too. Have you thought of any names yet?”
The redheaded man shrugged in response to Hermione’s question and let Lavender answer it. He glanced over his shoulder to greet Bill, only to see the other man’s face darkening into a stormy expression. His arms were crossed tightly, knuckles turning white. However, what paralyzed him the most were his eyes. They weren’t their usual blue but rather an eerie shade of glowing amber. Something itched at his mind, urging him to remember those eyes. He’d seen them before, but not in Bill’s face. Spooked, his body finally caught up to his brain and jumped just as Hermione moved to break off their hug.
“Woah, Ronald,” Hermione patted him concernedly, speaking in a quiet voice, “Are you okay?” Lavender palmed his cheek, feeling for his tell-tale flush when he got upset.
Ron gulped once, looking between his wife and Hermione before returning his gaze to Bill, who was now distracted by Rose, who had picked a flower and was now giving it to her father to hang onto. From what he could see, the man’s eyes were back to their usual blue. He cooed at his daughter, ruffling her riotous curls as he pulled her into a hug.
Ron winced internally, hoping he could be as good of a dad as Bill seemed to be. A large part of him envied the man because he made it look so easy. Even though he was an auror and handled a lot of different chaotic situations, he definitely didn’t think he could handle what Bill’s done with raising six children while Hermione worked long hours as a healer to support them all. His own baby, an eight-year-long-awaited arrival, wasn’t even here yet, and he was terrified. He thought about the yellow eyes again and shivered, his instincts telling him to run and hide while nothing seemed to be wrong. Maybe Harry would understand the feeling...
“Lily!” Roman darted over and behind the trio slowly untangling themselves from their hug, making a b-line for Harry and Ginny’s youngest with a fist full of clumped flowers pulled straight out of the dirt, “These are for you,” he thrust them into her befuddled hands and darted away, transforming into a wolf pup and running over to hide behind his father’s legs.
After a moment, he hesitantly popped his head up, only to see his little crush sniff the flowers and smile happily at him. Gasping, he ducked his head back down, pressing it into his father’s thigh as he tried to make himself as small as possible. Bill chuckled, running his hand through his son’s ruffled tufts.
Hermione giggled for a moment and then sighed, grateful for their curious and adventurous personalities, but also disliking the fact that they tended to be rather destructive when doing so. She groaned at the effort she’d placed in making her children look presentable, now being undermined by what likely would be a lot of grass-stains and dirt smudges. Her two more animalistic boys were particularly ones for rolling around in the mud to wrestle with the other. Sometimes even her little Rose would join in, leaving her three more studious children to wonder why they were even bothering.
Teddy strolled towards where their other children had gone, Victoire following closely behind them, “Don’t worry, Aunt ‘Mione. As future Head Boy, it would be remiss of me to educate possible future students of the rules here,” he spoke with a bit of a sarcastic tone, shifting in appearance to that of Headmistress McGonagall and smirking, “but it would be remiss of me as their cousin to not give them a good scare first.”
Everyone else laughed at that and James moved to join his adopted brother, leaving the adults, Roman, Lily, and Albus behind. Ron spoke first, “Sooo… Three Broomsticks anyone?”
★★★
“Now, are you done being a right arse and drinking yourself silly?” Harry huffed at Ron where they stood in the loo of the Three Broomsticks. Harry stood outside the stall currently occupied by his rash and somewhat moronic best friend. Granted, it wasn’t like this was the first time this situation had occurred, but this was the first time it had occurred in front of their wives and his friends’ children.
Of course, Ron had talked a big game about holding his liquor, but it turned out, to the surprise of no one, that he in fact couldn’t. Bill had basically told him to put his money where his mouth was and ordered a few shots of firewhisky for him to drink. Not an hour later and he was throwing up in the bathroom while the disguised eldritch was smirking into his wife’s hair, holding her in a possessive gesture.
Ron groaned angrily, “‘Smug bastard dared me… and I still can’t forget his bloody yellow eyes,” he groggily rubbed his face, using his wand to clean himself up.
“What yellow eyes?” Harry tilted his head in confusion.
“Bill has yellow eyes,” Ron groused, holding his stomach as he left the stall.
“What? No he doesn’t,” Harry chuckled humorously, “They’re blue, just like yours.”
Ron shook his head, moving to wash his hands in the rather dingy-looking sink and noticing a small ivory spider lingering near the soap. He made a small yelp that sounded much less dignified considering his state and quickly squashed the little arachnid with his fist.
A memory resurfaced in his mind and he remembered a similar ivory spider nearly crushing someone else. It had been the size of an acromantula, and a large one at that. The person beneath it hadn’t been crushed, but rather.. Then everything became clear, or at least as clear as a drunken memory could be.
He remembered waking up on a spider web hanging over his other best friend’s living room with the woman herself moaning underneath a large white and black spider. It bit her, nibbling on her flesh while she did nothing but writhe and whine with pleasure. Watching her reach her climax under the belly of that beast was nothing short of horrifying, but the worst of it was that those eight yellow eyes had stared into his very soul and laughed at his insecurities. Then, eight became two, fitting inside the skull of a seven-foot clown, and then yellow turned blue as the creature finally shrunk into Bill, his friend’s husband.
For the longest time he’d thought it had all been a nightmare brought upon his fears of being infertile. However, now those fears were very much moot considering his wife’s distended middle. Now, ten years later, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
Ron gulped, gasping for breath, “Hermione fucked an acromantula.”
Harry reeled, hoping he’d heard his best friend wrong, “What?”
The other wizard looked to him and nodded grimly, “Bill is a metamorphmagus—”
Harry cut him off, “I think that’s rather obvious. Have you seen their kids?”
“The prat turned himself into a spider and fucked Hermione!” Ron nearly yelled, making Harry gape and try his best to quiet his friend before the rest of the pub heard him.
“So they’re kinky and he’s a powerful metamorphmagus… Why does that matter?” Harry interjected when Ron moved to argue further, “Dumbledore told me Hermione would marry someone very powerful yet also dark. I suppose this is what he meant…”
Ron scowled, adjusting his clothes to look presentable, “And how’d he know that? Dumbledore wasn’t a seer.”
Harry shrugged, “I guess there was a prophecy. He told me about it while we were researching all that stuff about Tom Riddle and Voldemort. He thought he was being referred to in that prophecy, but when Voldemort didn’t take any interest in ‘Mione, we must have forgotten about it. I’m only just remembering it now.”
Ron ran a hand through his hair, “Well, Voldemort’s gone now so I guess we don’t have to worry about that. Right?”
★★★
Ron and Lavender had left after they walked out of the three broomsticks, the blonde curly-haired witch berating him all the way to their apparation point with one hand on her belly and another gripping her husband’s shoulder in a death grip so tight that the wizard was hissing obscenities until they were out of earshot. Meanwhile, the remaining four adults and their three children walked along the sunny cobblestones, looking to head back up to the castle.
Lily and Roman skipped ahead of their parents, racing each other to each bend in the winding road used by carriages in the winter. Their giggles fluttered through the air and the warm summer breeze carried them back downhill to the adults. The half-eldritch was obviously much faster, his legs and feet turning long and furry underneath his scuffed trousers to give him an extra secret advantage. Harry’s youngest had a frown on her face each time her rediscovered best friend managed to beat her, but she couldn’t find it in herself to be too disappointed, as she was happy to see him again after so long, nearly half of her life. He’d become a faint memory, only remembered through pictures and a lingering feeling of joy associated with his image.
Soon enough, they stood in front of the castle and waited for their older children to emerge from its grand interior. The sun had begun to dip, nearly touching the mountains across the black lake and a cool breeze fluttered through the trees. Far away, crows cawed territorial obscenities back to each other in their own tongues.
Hermione frowned, tapping her foot and wrapping her arms around herself. She wished she’d remembered to bring a jacket. Rubbing her hands together, she waved her wand to create a warming charm around her body. Bill’s arms curled around her, pulling her warming body into his chest to provide his mate with even more warmth.
Pennywise let out an inaudible purr, the vibrations in his chest making her sleepy as they flowed into her back to ease the tension there. Roman yawned, cutely rubbing his eyes when Hermione picked him up. While he’d gotten quite a bit larger, his overall weight was surprisingly easy for her to lift. She often berated him for being only skin and bones, but his metabolism was so high, he burned off anything she fed him almost instantly.
“Tired, little love?” she cooed in his ear as he snuggled close, his head resting on her shoulder.
He breathed warmly against her neck and he let out a quiet doglike huff, “Mmm…” he voiced eventually and his mother smiled, rubbing his back as he fell asleep.
“Shall we go look for them?” Harry asked Hermione and his wife, a look of concern showing on his face, “It’s getting dark and I told Teddy to be back here before sunset, and it will be sunset in about an hour.”
“I can help look,” Hermione voiced immediately, handing a twitching, groggy Roman over to his father, “Bill doesn’t know the castle as well as we do…” she looked to her husband and mate, “He can stay here and watch Roman and Lily, and be here in case they find their way back here without us seeing them.”
Bill nodded silently, gently forcing his youngest back to sleep. Ginny smiled thankfully, leading Lily and Albus over to him, “Here, Lily. Come sit with Uncle William… Mummy and Daddy have to go find James while Auntie ‘Mione has to find her children.”
Pennywise snorted at the longer version of his human persona’s name, but he understood why his mate’s friends used it. Apparently one of Ginny’s brothers was also named “Bill.” He’d never met the man before, even if he could smell the faint scent of him on Victoire when she passed by him earlier in the afternoon. Evidently, he was half werewolf, much like the boy his daughter was currently dating. The boy, Teddy Lupin, fascinated him, as he was the only human he’d seen that possessed such similar traits to his young.
Albus sulked at his side, watching his parents go inside with what seemed like jealousy. He kicked his feet back and forth, knocking pebbles to and fro.
Bill hummed passively, luring him to look into his eyes, “You’ll go inside eventually, Al…”
Albus sighed, “But I have to wait two more years…” he pouted, hanging his head.
“Do you want to know a secret?” Bill whispered lowly, drawing Albus and Lily into his space. Quickly, his pseudo niece and nephew nodded.
“I’ve never been inside either,” he sighed sympathetically, even though he didn’t really care about seeing the inside of an old castle, “But Hermione makes it sound like the best place in the world… Me? I don’t see what’s so great about it.”
It was like opening two cans of worms. The two children’s mouths opened, exhaling scandalized breaths in between lecturing him on everything they’d heard from their cousins about Hogwarts and all the secret passageways, feasts, and extraordinary learning opportunities they could ever ask for. Pennywise let them speak, subtly feeding off their intense feelings of envy and excitement, and after a few moments, they began to droop, growing tired enough that their arguments became fainter and fainter with each word.
They leaned against him, their eyes blinking with drowsiness before fully closing. Three faint snores floated around him and he sat vigilantly, checking for any signs of danger. This was a new place for him, and he had yet to see if any magical creature in the area was stupid enough to tangle with a paternal eldritch.
★★★
Harry, Hermione, and Ginny had only been searching the castle for ten minutes when they spotted Victoire standing near the entrance of the great hall with only four children. The teen looked nervous, her long blonde hair looking a bit disheveled, as though she’d been running her hands through it. Her lips and cheeks were pale as well, lacking their usual blush.
“Oh thank Merlin!” the now fifth-year gasped relievedly, “I’m so glad you’re here! W-we couldn’t find them, and we didn’t know how to contact you. I still have problems with my patronus and I—”
Ginny raised her hands to placate the girl who looked about ten seconds away from breaking down, “Victorie, it’s okay. We’re here now, and Hermione could probably tell you that only losing two out of the bunch isn’t bad for your first time with all of them,” she joked and the teen seemed to relax a bit.
Hermione smiled wryly, passively hugging her children as they came near, “You’ve got that right…” she subtly rested her forehead against her younger daughter’s, making a quick mental connection to her. Do you know where they are?
Penny parted from her and shook her head. No, I was able to track them to the second floor, but then Robbie blocked me and told me to “Buzz off…” He’s gotten better with shielding, Mum.
Hermione leaned back up and ushered her along, pushing her towards the way out, “Victoire?” the teen looked up, her eyes shimmering with her partial veela characteristics, “My husband is waiting outside with Roman, Lily, and Albus. Can you bring them out to at least the entrance? While it might be hard to tell here, the sun is going to be setting soon.”
Victoire nodded determinedly, “Teddy’s looking, too. I believe he said he was going to look in the library,” she bid them adieu, ushering the four children along and towards the way Harry, Ginny, and Hermione came in. The red-haired witch paused, looking to her spectacled husband where he stood with the curly-haired witch, “That’s all three of ours. I can take them home… just so they don’t have to wait around.”
Harry nodded, “Alright, Gin. I’ll drop Teddy back off at Andromeda’s when we find him. I’ll see you at home, I suppose.”
★★★
“Tommy?” Robert whispered to his intended as they snuck down another deserted hallway on the second floor. Neither of them had realized how large the castle was, and as such, the half-eldritch was feeling a bit nervous about sneaking away from his siblings and cousins at Tom’s request.
“What?” the reincarnated dark lord hissed, keeping his ears pricked and his head swivelling.
“Can you explain to me why we’re here?” Robert pouted, hearing a slight yet distant hissing, likely from the old pipes that ran through the castle’s walls and under their feet.
“I… I hear something,” Tom rasped, gripping the other boy’s hand as they neared a stone archway, “They’re calling to me… Snake-Speaker… C’mon!”
They rushed into the entrance, completely ignoring the “Girl’s Lavatory” sign next to the door. Tom skidded along the tiles, stopping in the middle of the space. He turned enough times to make himself dizzy. Robert heard the hissing increase, wondering if he was mistaking old hissing pipes for something else. “Tom?”
“They want me to open the sinks,” he answered, slowly moving towards the circuit of sinks away from the stalls. Free us… Snake-Speaker… Slytherin Prince… Free us… Open the passages…
Robert nodded eagerly and both boys rushed to the faucets, their fingers quickly twisting the knobs until water poured from seven of the eight sinks. Tom struggled to turn the final knobs, and when they became loose yet yielded no water, he paused. Upon further examination, the curved faucet had a small coiled snake resting on the side of the metal. His intended came to stand by him, nearly vibrating with chaotic energy.
“We’re gonna flood the whole bathroom,” he grinned but paused when he noticed the tiny snake on the metal, “Maybe that could help…” Tom nodded back, moving to touch the snake…
A watery explosion from behind them had the two boys jolting to attention and turning around to the direction of the bathroom stalls. Robert looked to Tom and the other shrugged confusedly at the toilet that now had water all around it and the toilet seat up.
“What are you doing here?! This is a girls’ bathroom!” a shrill voice yelled from right behind them.
Robert hissed dangerously, his normal blue eyes momentarily flickering yellow at the possible danger from behind them. He quickly threw his arm around the paralyzed Tom and twisted him around so he stood in front of him, his thin chest puffed as much as he could make it and his second mouth writhing its tongue in his stomach enough to move his shirt. The sight before him took a moment to process in his instinctive mind.
It was a ghost, not necessarily a brand new concept despite his first ghost sighting being earlier that afternoon when Teddy introduced him and his siblings to the Fat Friar. However, this ghost was female, had glasses and pigtails, and looked to be wearing a school uniform, albeit a different uniform than what he’d seen other female students wearing as they studied for their finals. Also, this one seemed to be much more wrathful than the others he’d seen during their tour of the castle, and he’d seen a band of men on horses waving decapitated heads around.
“Stupid little boys, flooding the entire floor! Only I can do that! Now I’ll be punished because of you!” she shrieked again, soaring up near the high stone ceiling in an enraged yet also mournful wail.
The water had begun to trickle onto the floor, wetting their socks and the bottoms of their trousers. Robert huffed at the feeling, keeping his tense eyes on the floating girl, “I’m not scared of a ghost.”
Even angrier than before, she swooped down to their level and hovered within punching distance of Robert’s face, “Oh sure! Let the ignorant American boys bully poor Myrtle to get a laugh. I can be scary when I want to be!” she yelled once more, sending her transparent fist through the half-eldritch’s head.
It felt like ice wherever her hand went inside of him, a cold shower to his brain. His deadlights simmered, tracking each leading knuckle and fingertip before pouncing all that once to sear themselves into her ghostly skin. Blue fully gave way to slitted amber eyes, his full eldritch characteristics showing through his humanity.
“Myrtle” shrieked even higher than before, lurching herself backwards and examining her hand and noticing three dark splotches where the translucent blue made way for bruise like purple. They burned, tingling and itching in all the wrong ways.
“What are you?!” Myrtle held her hand close to her chest and looked him over, finally noticing his change of eye color, “Yellow eyes… by that sink...” she muttered, slinking back to the toilet she came from with a haunted glazed look in her eyes. Briefly, she looked to Tom and did a double take. He seemed familiar… almost like…
“Riddle?” Myrtle rasped, staring at the ten-year-old with raven hair and dark eyes. He looked just like her old school mate, the boy who told a basilisk to kill her, at least that’s what she heard. Fear consumed her and she fled.
Before either of the two boys could say anything, the ghost girl was gone, exploding the toilet once more. Robert looked to Tom, who tilted his head to the side, staring at the spot where Myrtle vanished, “She was scared of me,” he pondered, ignoring the feeling of water creeping up his pant legs.
Robert frowned, reaching gently for Tom’s chin and tilting it to his, “She was scared of me, too, Tommy… Now c’mon! Say something to them!”
Tom gulped, nodding rapidly. He rounded his intended and rubbed the side of the metal snake’s coils, What should I say? He rasped, looking around to listen for the multitude of voices in the stone walls and soaked floor.
Suddenly, sharp clangs and bumps met their ears, urging Robert to move them to the middle of the room. The water stopped flowing, silence invading the large otherwise vacant space. Wriggling, brown, green, yellow, spotted, striped bodies pushed themselves out of the pipes, hissing. Free! Free! Free! Snake-Speaker has freed us!
They moved over to him, swimming quickly through the water to congregate around him. Tom recognized garters and spotted pythons, Eurasian and European vipers common to the Scottish countryside. Larger ones began to emerge from the toilets, joining what was likely their children, as the babies were only a few inches long while these new ones were around two to three feet long. Snake-Speaker, has blood of Slytherin… Can trust…
Tom turned to Robert, a look of awed disbelief on his face, “They said I have Slytherin’s blood. I am a Slytherin.”
Robert wrinkled his nose, crossing his arms in a way that reminded Tom of his adopted father, “So? Y’know what Teddy said… Mean people get put in the Slytherin house. Why would you want to go to school here if you’re just going to be surrounded by a bunch of mean people? The sorting hat will put you in Slytherin if you’re related to him.”
Tom frowned, “I want to understand this… I’m not your brother, and Mum isn’t really my mum, nor is Dad really my dad… I don’t know where I came from, but this… I might learn after all this time—”
Robert glared, “So what?! Hasn’t Mum and Dad loved you enough?! Do you really want to chase after the people who left you? Who they are shouldn’t matter. You don’t owe anything to them, and you don’t owe anything to yourself. We’ll be together when we get older, and we could start a new family. What more do you need?” he rasped, feeling needier than he had been lately.
Tom pulled the taller boy into a hug, wrapping his limber arms around his back and feeling Robert’s vertical mouth nudge his belly button, “I think that’s the most intelligent thing I’ve ever heard you say…”
Robert purred at the compliment before looking around their feet and realizing that Tom’s new friends had trapped them where they were, creating a four-foot diameter circle around them. The pale boy chuckled, reaching into his pocket to unfurl a small bag that he’d gotten from his Mum for his birthday. He’d been using it to bring snakes home ever since. C’mon you lot! Get in.
Tom giggled as each of them twisted up his legs and down his arms before coiling into the bag. Within three minutes, there were only two boys standing in a flooded bathroom. However, when they turned around, they noticed a figure pointing a wand at them, or more specifically, Tom.
“Tom Riddle.”
Shocked green eyes stared at him, looking over his face and down to the beige satchel with a single serpentine tail sticking out of it. His hand came up to his forehead, feeling an all-too-familiar pang from the lightning-bolt scar. Water soaked his feet and he didn’t even notice it through the blood rushing to his head and drowning out the sound of the sinks spitting more and more water out.
“Uncle Harry…” Tom’s lip wavered, “W-what are you doing?”
“It’s you, isn’t it, Tom?” Harry rasped, narrowing his eyes at the boy’s fear, “I’d thought we’d finished this sixteen years ago. Why did you wait until now?”
“What?” Tom shivered, “B-but I’m ten. You know this, Uncle—”
“Then why are you opening the chamber again? You knew where to find it, but you know as well as I do that the basilisk is dead.” Harry spat, pointing his wand fully at Tom.
“B-b-but they just wanted to be free. I never opened it before—”
“That’s a lie!” Harry shouted, making both Robert and Tom jump. The half-eldritch moved the other boy behind him again, narrowing his eyes at their uncle.
“No it’s not!” Tom sobbed, “You’re scaring me, Uncle—”
“Don’t call me that!” Harry yelled, “Robert! Stand aside, now!”
“No, he’s mine,” he pointedly reached for Tom’s hand and held it tight in his own, “We’ll be together, forever. Nothing will change that.”
“Now, Robert! I don’t want to hurt you,” Harry tried to reason with the redhead but all he got were narrowed amber eyes.
“Don’t worry. You won’t. I’m an eater of worlds, just like my dad,” Robert puffed himself up again, standing a bit taller than before, “And I’m not afraid of you, Uncle Har—”
“Expelliarmus!” Harry shouted suddenly, sending a powerful red spell in their direction. Robert moved quickly, pushing Tom into the puddle on the floor before dodging the spell from hitting him in the face. With a burst of his supernatural speed, he was tackling Harry in no time, delivering swift punches to whatever he could reach, or at least he was about to after a loud voice filled the air.
“Immobulus!”
Hermione and Teddy ran into the lavatory, taking in the scene of a sobbing Tom sitting in the water holding his satchel to his chest as he watched his now frozen adopted brother fighting an equally frozen Harry. The witch called to him and he shakily got to his feet, running over to her and throwing his arms around her.
“Mum…” he cried, letting his sobs take over him as he clung to her waist and buried his head between her breasts. Hermione cooed and stroked his hair, immediately hugging him back.
“It’s okay, sweetheart… Mummy’s here, mummy’s here…” she calmed him quickly, looking to Teddy for proper protocol, “Alright... Former Head Girl to New Head Boy, a situation like this is normally brought to the headmistress and then to aurors. In this case, Harry will get in big trouble for attacking minors on Hogwarts’ grounds. It would be enough to get him arrested, and I don’t think anyone here wants that…” Teddy nodded, tilting his head reasonably for her to continue. Hermione nodded towards her children, “So, if you could please take Tom and Robert outside to my husband, that would be overly helpful… I’ve got some explaining to do, somethings I should have told him nearly eleven years ago…”