Fanfiction by Vivien - Harry Potter | Neil Gaiman Universe | Buffy | Multiverse-Milliways | Recommendations
Door
Door would never forget the first time she’d asked – no, demanded – for Tom to go down on his knees and beg for her. It had been sometime around the holidays, not long after the jar of hot fudge had been brought back from Milliways that one incredible night. They hadn’t been sleeping in the same room then, not every night at least, and Door had missed Tom miserably even while she’d taken the desperately needed time to figure out who she was without him.
It had been a quiet Sunday afternoon, and everything had started in his study with kisses that flared quickly into a fire they had to quench immediately. They’d run to their bedroom, hands reaching blindly to Open the paintings in their way.
Once inside, the words had come to Door. She didn’t know why she said such a thing – she’d teased him and made him beg for her before, but never like that. As soon as she’d spoken she’d wished she could have taken the words back.
But Tom sank to his knees, a wicked smirk on his face as his hands slid under her skirt. He’d looked up at her, his handsome face lit up with love and desire, and whispered, “Please, Door. Please let me ravish you. Let me make you scream. I’m begging you, my Lady.”
She’d gasped then, and not just because his fingers were tracing patterns up her inner thighs. Power and pleasure and want and <i>need</i> coursed through her, making her shiver violently.
Tom was hers. He would do whatever she pleased and keep her safe and happy and he would be with her forever and always. He wasn’t perfect. He was far too intense sometimes, and he spent much too much time away from her with his friends. There was always a worry that he might change his mind one day, decide the Wizarding world was where he belonged. She knew he looked down on the Underside at times. Then there were the snakes, the bloody snakes she still hadn’t told him she feared and despised. Despite it all, though, Tom was a good man to her, and more importantly, he was good for her.
He murmured more words but she didn’t hear them as he pulled her skirt down to pool around her ankles. Now the words were whispered into her flesh in between nips and licks as he slowly moved up to the center of her desire. The intensity of the sudden passion between them made her already shaky legs give out beneath her. Tom’s arms went immediately around her, one arm at the small of her back, one at the back of her thighs.
“Got you,” he said, smiling up at her. Door nodded her head and sank down to her knees, equal to him again, and their kisses were passionate as they both slid to the floor.
Seven months later, Door sat in her study staring off into space over mounds of papers. She recalled that afternoon and how he’d caught her. She thought then he’d always be there to catch her. She thought he’d always be there by her side, keeping her safe. Now he’d be leaving her, claiming to be saving their world, but she knew he was only going because he’d been convinced to do so by someone even more charismatic in his own strange way than Tom himself.
She was hurt, and she was angry. More than anything, she was terrified. Everyone who’d mattered in her world before Tom was gone, except for Gavroche and Ingress, and even Ingress would leave Door one day not too long from now. Gavroche was dead, but who knew he wouldn’t move on one day, as Sirius had?
The politics of London Below were more complex and chaotic than she’d realized. She’d known a great deal about them before her father was murdered, but actually being in the thick of things was much different. She’d been hurt during negotiations this week – her blood had been spilled. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She didn’t see how she’d ever fulfill her father’s vision of a unified Underside, but she was determined to try. If she was left alone, there would be no way she could even make the attempt.
Tom had caught her more times than she liked to remember. He’d taken his place beside her with the dignity and strength she’d known he was capable of showing but only just discovered within himself. If he were killed… if he didn’t come home to her, she didn’t know what she’d do.
The fact remained that he had promised her to place her above all others. Now he didn’t. He wouldn’t do whatever she pleased. That’s what hurt her the most, even though in her rational mind she knew he wasn’t hers to order around like a slave. She wanted him protected and safe and with her, damn it…
They needed to talk about this, but Door didn’t know what to say. She’d already made such a mess of things with her outburst the other week that she was afraid to open her mouth lest the fear-driven anger overcome her again.
So instead she turned to her father’s notes, rereading them and making her own notes and thinking up plans to make things better. She could pour all of her energy into fixing London Below. That would keep her from having to think about how anything else in her life needed fixing.
“Do you think they’re having another fight?” said Gavroche, placing blocks carefully on top of the tower he’d built.
Ingress shrugged. “They were, but now they’re in the same room lots, so I think they’re not.”
Gavroche kept building. Ingress would know more about these things than he would. He just hoped things would be like they used to be soon. Door was nice. She told him stories and hugged him and made him feel safe. But lately she looked tired and she didn’t smile much. Gavroche thought she was sick like when the chicken pox happened.
“I’m going to find Tom. I want to go flying,” said Ingress, standing up decisively.
“Yeah!” said Gavroche. “Ask him if we can go soon! And tell him Door has to come, too.”
Ingress wrinkled her nose. “She probably has to work.”
Gavroche nodded. “Maybe not this time, though.”
She nodded back and hurried to the painting of the family room. Tom would be there, she bet.
Rushing out of the painting, Ingress saw Tom sitting on the couch. She bounded over, climbing into his lap and throwing her arms around his neck. He put his book down and hugged her back.
“What’s wrong, little one?” he said.
“Nothing!” she said, hugging him more. Tom always smelled nice. He didn’t smell like her daddy – Ingress couldn’t remember <i>exactly</i> how her daddy smelled anymore, but he had smelled really nice, too. He and Tom had the exact same hug, though.
“Can we go flying?”
Tom smiled faintly. “We haven’t gone in a while, have we? I don’t think we could today, but perhaps tomorrow. How does that sound?”
“Yay!” Ingress kissed Tom’s cheek and he laughed. “Gavroche said Door has to go. I want her to come, too.” She frowned. “But she’ll say she’s too busy.”
“We’ll ask her. I bet she’d like to come,” he said, voice faltering a bit. Even the children were noticing now. “She loves flying.”
“Why is she sad and working all the time?”
Tom hugged Ingress fiercely. “We have a great deal of work to do. And there are things that make her sad. I’m going to help River and her friends soon, and that makes her very sad.”
“Because bad men hurt River in the head, right?”
“Right.”
“You’ll come back though, right?”
Tom hesitated. “I certainly plan to, yes. But it’s going to be dangerous.”
Ingress thought a moment, absently sucking one of her fingers. She’d grow up to fight bad guys, too, and it was always going to be dangerous. “We can still go flying, though, can’t we?”
“We can, love, and we shall.”
“Okay,” said Ingress, smiling brightly, reassured that things would be just fine. Tom and Door always fixed things that were broken. That’s what grown-ups did.
Tom was a determined man. He was also very charming and persuasive. He planned to use all three traits, as well as a certain amount of cunning, to overwhelm Door's resistance to leave her study and her work. He knew that he was responsible for much of what was wrong between them, and he was determined to try to make things better.
She had to know he loved her more than anything. Didn’t she realize how much he’d changed, all because he’d wanted to be a better man for her? Now he was that better man, and he believed that she and his entire adopted world could be in danger.
He would fight for them. He would protect them. He was Lord of the House of Arch.
He didn’t want to discuss the matter of the Academy. Not yet. He simply wanted to make her smile, see her relax for the day. He'd laid his plans in advance, plotting carefully for all possible responses and arguments. He was nothing if not thorough.
First of all was breakfast in bed. He'd woken early to obtain fresh, sticky cinnamon rolls from the bakery in Diagon Alley. He brought one to her on a tray with a teapot of her favorite breakfast blend and a vase with a perfect rose.
She was wary. "What's this for, then?" she'd mumbled sleepily, stretching. Then she'd paled. "You're leaving today, aren't you?"
"No, no, darling. I just wanted to do something nice for you." He bit into his own cinnamon roll. "Oh God, these are good. Go on, take a bite."
Her eyes went wide, "But Ingress and Gavroche-"
"Have already had their cinnamon rolls along with orange juice and scrambled eggs. They are happily ensconced in the playroom with Mary." He tore off a piece of her cinnamon roll and held it up to her, knowing the smell would do much to convince her to try it. She took the bite, closing her eyes and humming a little noise of contentment.
She'd not been eating particularly well. She devoured the cinnamon roll hungrily and they'd split a second one.
When breakfast was over, she began making noises about heading for her study. She seemed almost guilty about the shifty looks she was giving him as they lounged in bed together. He sighed. They'd not been making love like they once had because Door was simply too tired or not in the mood. Often. He wanted her desperately, but he'd learn long before now to never make her feel like he was pressuring her.
"I'm not going to force you to sleep with me, Door,” he said, caressing her face. “But I'd very much like to make this a special day for you."
She closed her eyes and lay back on the pillow. "There's just... so much to do."
"And so much to avoid discussing," he said quietly.
Door glanced at him with a mix of anger and forlorn sadness. Then she got out of bed. "I'm going to my study-"
He hurried out of bed and rushed around to block her path. Then, on a whim to make sure the next part of his plan went accordingly, he picked her up and flung her over his shoulder. She squawked in indignation. "Put me down!"
"No, my lady, I think not." He wouldn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do, but she had never passed up a bubble bath, especially one with a shoulder massage thrown in for good measure. He carried her into the bathroom. Sitting her on his lap where she couldn't get away, he spelled the tap to fill the tub with hot water. If he had made the bottle of expensive, charmed Relaxation bubble bath she only used for special occasions look just like the regular bottle of more mundane nature, well, that's a Slytherin for you.
Door did like bubble baths, and she was tired to the bone despite the decent night's sleep she'd gotten. She wanted things to be right again between herself and Tom, but she'd convinced herself things would never be right again. When he kissed her, however, she kissed back because she did love him. She loved him so much her heart ached with it. She slid off her nightgown and stepped into the tub, sinking into the bubbles with a gratified sigh.
Tom went behind her, kneeling on the floor by old fashioned tub. He massaged her shoulders, digging into the knots of tension. He felt her relax under his hands and soon his hands were roaming over her wet body, soothing her and making her sigh. He didn’t want to have his way with her. He wanted to give her pleasure, pure and simple. He wanted to mend what he’d helped break.
After several minutes of this, she whispered, "Join me?" Silently, he took off his jeans and shirt and slipped into the bath. He loved her, taking his time and trying to show her with every touch how deeply he felt for her.
Afterward, she was more relaxed than he'd seen her in great while. Tom knew she'd put up less of a fight when he suggested a day at the meadow with the children. His plan had gone swimmingly so far, but he crossed his fingers anyway.
"Ingress asked if we could go to the meadow today for flying. I'd very much like to take her and Gavroche, but I don't want to go without you. Neither do they."
She pulled on a black dress. She was really and truly going to go to her study now, because there was a lot of work to get done. But the idea of an afternoon at the meadow, especially after the morning they'd had, was very enticing.
Tom watched her closely. “Please, darling?”
She groaned. He was not going to stop, she could tell. For just one afternoon, though, she could try to forget this weary sadness in her soul. “You are a piece of work, Tom Marvolo Riddle, and you’ve manipulated me quite well enough for one day.” She sighed, admitting defeat to his relentless persuasion. She really didn’t mind overly much to do so. “We’ll have to make up the work tonight.”
“I think the price is worth it, Door. We all need you.”
She nodded and ventured a small smile. “Then let’s go tell the children we’re going flying today.”
***
Epilogue: The Family
They took turns going up with Tom on the broom. He flew the children first, and then Door, who turned round in mid-air, scaring him half to death, to kiss him soundly, very nearly causing him to lose control and crash in a most delightful way.
Later, the children played on their own child-sized versions – Tom had bought Gavroche a broom to match Ingress’ some time before – while Door reclined on the grass, her head in Tom’s lap. He was stroking her hair, and in the warm sun of the ancient meadow, Door fell asleep and dreamed a dream of happy endings.