Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Serpent of the World	By : TheLadyMiya Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 9486 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I make no money writing this story.

Chapter List
- 22
- 23
Ozzy! My beta, my love, thank you so, so much for working so hard to help me with the betaing! Couldn't have done it without you!
A/N at the end.

Epilogue
5 years later
Hermione knocked on the door to Riddle's flat, or "Abbott", as he went by in Australia. An ordinary name that wouldn't draw much attention to him. She had a special knocking sequence reserved just for him. He knew it and probably hated it. It was fun to tease him.
Riddle opened the door a moment later, glaring at her. "Granger."
"Brother, dear," Hermione said happily. "It's that time of the year again."
"As I have dreaded," he said, rolling his eyes. "Come in."
He was looking better than he had the first few years in Australia. Losing his magic had pushed him into a serious depression. She wasn't sure how he had come out of it, and didn't really care. Perhaps he had decided that death really was the worst thing that could happen after all, and found the strength to actually live.
Either way, now he kept a healthy figure and even had a tan. That was something she had thought was impossible with his pale complexion, but Australia did that to you. Even her normally pale mother had been several shades darker when she had first met her.
As she had expected, they had been angry. The first few months, every meeting had been tense and ended in fights. But when her pregnancy began to show, her parents seem to decide to go easy on her. By the time Rose was born, they had got over their anger.
"I'm heading out tonight, so we'll have to make this quick," Riddle told her, as she made her way to his kitchen. She knew better than to expect him to offer anything to her, but she was thirsty. The flight to here was long, even on a broom.
"You always say that," she reminded him, getting a water bottle out of the fridge. "So how are you?"
Riddle shrugged, leaning against the doorway to the kitchen. "Muggle."
"Not found a way around that yet?"
"Actually, I have, and I want you to know it so you can stop me."
She snorted and sat down at his kitchen table. "Right. How is the library?"
He had been working at a library for the past three years. The ones monitoring him had said that he had no magical contact through it, but Hermione couldn't understand what Riddle found so interesting in a library.
"Good. But since you'll no doubt find out soon, I may as well tell you. I'm getting into politics."
Hermione frowned in suspicion. "Muggle politics?"
"Clearly. I've read all about them. I'm certain I'm more competent than anyone else," he said calmly.
"And more corrupt."
"Yes, but you know I can't do anything illegal. It's just a hobby. I miss bossing people around." He smiled sweetly and came over to sit at the opposite side of her, at the kitchen table.
"Will you try to become a prime minister or something?" she asked, worried.
He shrugged. "Probably not. Maybe an adviser. But enough about me, what are you doing with your time?"
She was surprised, and worried, about the change of subject. Riddle usually never asked about her. "I'm working at the Ministry. I'm a secretary in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Just got transferred."
Riddle snorted. "Why am I not surprised? How is Luna?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Luna was the only one I didn't mind spending time with," Riddle said softly. "And she is the mother of my son."
"Luna is fine," Hermione said carefully. "She spends a lot of time with the children and works part-time with her father's newspaper."
"You are still living together?"
"Yes."
Ever since they had left Hogwarts, Hermione and Luna had lived together in different places. Ginny had lived with them for a time as well, but as soon as her engagement to Harry became official, she moved in with him. For someone as logical as Hermione, it had been hard to live with someone as peculiar as Luna. However, with the children, she often didn't have time to notice. It was a very good arrangement. Even though Hermione didn't care for when Luna took over the kitchen table to plan a new trip to discover a fictional creature, it was worth it just to have someone else there when both the kids had a stomach flu.
"Are you fucking?" Riddle asked.
Hermione sighed. That was something a lot of people had asked, if not as directly as Riddle.
"No, we aren't. I can't say for Luna, but I'm heterosexual. Are you fucking anyone?" she asked, wanting to turn the conversation back to him. Even though the people monitoring him (they didn't know exactly who he was, just that he was dangerous) hadn't mentioned anything suspicious about his activities, she wanted to question him herself. She knew him the best.
"I fuck a lot, but no one worth remembering the name of," he said uninterested. "How is Lysander?"
"Healthy and strong. He and Rose have already started speaking Parseltongue."
A flash of something went through his eyes. Was it longing? She realised she didn't know if he could still speak with snakes.
"Can I meet him one day?" he asked, his voice careful.
Hermione regarded him closely. Was it possible that he wanted to have contact with his son? Or did he want to use the boy for something?
"We'll see. When he is older and knows the whole truth, he can decided for himself if he wants to meet you. But you'll have to be ready to meet Rose too. We have told everyone you are her father as well." Even Luna thought that was the case.
"You don't want to tell her the truth?" Riddle asked, surprised.
"Not unless I have to. It's bad enough she thinks you are the father. If she finds out about Loki…" she trailed off.
"She's not displaying any … unnatural talents, then?"
"No," Hermione said softly. "And I don't think she will. He never went through with the spell changing her DNA, I took the magic from him before that."
"What a shame," Riddle said. "It would have been interesting to see what he could have come up with."
Hermione glared at him darkly. "No, it wouldn't."
Riddle shrugged. "If you say so. But if you agree to let Lysander see me – if he wants to, of course – then I'll pretend to be Rose's father as well. I'm her uncle, its close enough."
She wasn't sure what he was planning, wanting to see the children, but it would be many years before that could happen. Lysander and Rose were only four and as far as they knew, they only had two mummies and no daddy at all. No doubt they'd start asking questions, and she and Luna had agreed to tell them the truth, but in portions.
It was possible he was just curious. However, she was quite certain he wanted to influence them so he could get a foot into the magical world again. She would not let that happen. She would make sure the children were clever enough to see through his manipulations if they wanted to meet him.
Just like Jörmungandr, Riddle was a serpent that had been contained and would stay contained. That was something she, the heir of Slytherin, would make sure remained the case.
The End

And there we are, folks! Final chapter!
I want to thank everyone who have read, reviewed, faved and subscribed this story! This was a really special story for me, that has been growing in my mind for a long time, even before I wrote Shared Flame. But it just didn't come together until now.
As always, review replies can be found here: tomioneconvention.forumotion.com/t1011-review-reply-serpent-of-the-world#49192
For those of you who have missed the Tom/Hermione-action, fear not, I am writing on a new story. It will of course take some time before I start posting, but it's coming there. Thus far, it's called The Dragon Chronicles and is based on a drabble Nerys wrote a few months ago, called "Extra". If you are curios, check it out here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7885349/20/The-Forbidden-Ship
I'm also writing on a Remus/Hermione story, but I'm not sure which one I'll publish first, or if I'll publish this one at all. Depends on if I manage to finish it.
Until then,
Miya
- 22
- 23
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Serpent of the World