Drabble #8

[matril]

All right, I'm on a weird sort of roll here. But I promise tomorrow's drabble will not have any pregnant women in it. ;P

Lying
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Cream, sugar. Just how Tom liked it. And then -

Merope paused. Her hand had gone by instinct toward the small vial hidden behind the canister of flour. Naturally, after all these months it had become a habit. Add the potion to Tom's tea along with the cream and sugar. But today she hesitated.

She had found out about the baby this morning. All day she had been terrified, wanting to tell Tom and fearing what would happen when she did. Was the potion strong enough to counter the shock her pronouncement would cause? What if he left? What if - what if he stayed, and the baby came, and one day their child asked how Mummy and Daddy had met and fallen in love? Tom would tell the truth, as he knew it. But Merope would be lying.

She was tired of lying.

Merope closed her eyes and pictured his face longingly. Tom's smiles had seemed so genuine lately. Sometimes she had given him the potion a bit late, and she hadn't noticed any effect. Maybe - maybe the love that had started out as false and forced by magic had gradually become real. Oh, she wanted to believe it. She wanted it so much. She wanted their baby to know that its parents really loved each other.

She pulled her hand back from the potion and picked up the tea tray. "Tom, darling," she called out. "I've made your tea."

Comments

[sonetka.livejournal.com]

Oh, nice! I really like this one - it makes sense that Merope would grab for the counterfeit version of love and then realize afterwards that it wasn't enough, no matter how good it had looked beforehand. Good vignette; you should post it somewhere else.

One timeline nitpick: would Merope have been giving Tom Sr. the potion for a whole year? If I remember HBP correctly (I can't check it right now, since it's in the same room where Daniel is sleeping) Tom Sr. left her about four months after their marriage and she gave birth about a year afterwards, so it works that she would stop giving him the potion at about the time she would discover her pregnancy, but eight months seems too long for them to have been courting before their marriage - it sounds like the love potion led to a violent infatuation that would make their courtship closer to eight weeks than eight months.

[matril.livejournal.com]

Oops, I should have checked the book before writing the drabble - I was arrogant enough to think I remembered it correctly. :P Now that I look at it, yes, she had the baby "a year after they were married. Tom Riddle left her while she was still pregnant." I knew a year figured into it somehow. I'll try to fix it.