Title: Orphan

Author: Chakahlah

Characters: Harry, Tom Riddle Jr, OCs

Pairings: Harry/Tom Riddle Jr

Warnings: mentions of child abandonment

Summary: Harry and Tom adopt twins who had been abandoned in the woods

Orphan

Harry lay on the branch he had claimed as his personnel perch, ears flickering to catch each noise the wind bought his way. There was no real reason for him to be outdoors at this time of evening, but he found himself in a restless mood. He took a page from his … well, he didn't know what label to give Tom … and shifted to his Animagus form, and ran through the woods that surrounded their house until he could no longer move. He used this time to think over the events that led him to where he was.

Firstly, his family – mother, father and uncles – had been slaughtered by a self-proclaimed Dark Lord who called himself 'Voldemort' and he had been shipped off, to his mother's sister. She had kept him as the family's dark secret until he was four years of age, which was when he first performed accidental magic. This had led to him being dumped at an orphanage in the middle of the night after being drugged asleep by the horrible woman.

He had been at the Orphanage for roughly a month before an odd red-headed man wearing a fuzzy purple suit came to visit and left the orphanage with him and two other kids. That was the day he discovered the world of magic.

The man, Arthur Weasley, introduced himself and explained the basics of their new world to them. It was explained that they would not be going to a family, nor an orphanage, but to a place that was sort of both and acted as a primary school at the same time. They had then been taken on a sickeningly spinney ride via empty cardboard box to a building that looked warm and inviting regardless of its immense size. At the door to meet them was a lady with red hair who gave hugs that felt better than a mother's hug had been described. She was introduced as Arthur's wife, Molly, and she insisted they call her "Mum Weasley' like everyone else did; not because she was taking their mothers' place, but because she was the Matriarch of their new abode and 'Mum' was her preferred title.

Harry shifted on his branch as an unfamiliar sound reached him, pulling him from his thoughts. He relaxed after several moments of complete focus after the wind changed and bought the fresh scent of Tom's Animagus form to him. Harry chuffed softly in amusement as he stretched before settling once again. He should have known Tom would come after him if he was out for too long: Over-protective worrywart. Harry allowed himself to relax back into his thoughts.

The second major even that lead his life to what it was began upon learning that the building he was living in was a relatively new concept created from the mind of a man by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle. At first, the idea was heavily contested by both the Ministry and the current 'Light' Lord, Albus Dumbledore. Further investigation revealed the Ministry was of the belief Tom Riddle was Voldemort and held that belief until the ICW forced the idiots in charge to accept they were two separate entities as Riddle was working for them for the first six years of Voldemort's reign.

Dumbledore's reason for contention was the rather idealistic idea that no one would harm a child for any reason. Fortunately – or Unfortunately, depending on how you chose to look at it – all it took for him to change his mind was going through some memories of Squibs who worked in law enforcement and the Ambulance services, as well as one memory of a school-aged magical child who was living in an orphanage. Personally, Harry thought it was fortunate, even if it did destroy the old man's innocence towards the world: The good of the many innocent being worth the loss of one man's Rosy glasses, as it were.

It was Riddle's dedication towards the health and well-being of orphaned and abandoned magical children that caused Harry to view him as a role model during all of his schooling and several years after graduating. When he was old enough to gain his inheritance, the first thing Harry did was open an account and transfer all the interest he had gained over the years to it and gifted it to the school/Orphanage for all they had done for him.

The third had been his introduction to a man by the name of Rodolphus LeStrange. Rodolphus was one of many purebloods who volunteered his time to mentor young magical's and guide them throughout their years of magical maturation. It had been Rodolphus who had explained why his body was changing and doing things without his permission, why he felt uncomfortable in his own skin, and helped him research what the term 'asexual' was when a new-blood witch by the name of Hermione bought it up in one of their sexual education classes. Needless to say, the information almost mirrored Harry's feelings of sex exactly.

It was also through Rodolphus that he met two of his schooltime, and hopefully life-time, friends. Neville Longbottom and Heather Moon had been mentored by Rodolphus's brother and wife respectfully, and the three of them had developed a bond that only grew stronger when they'd been sorted into separate houses, (Harry being a proud Hufflepuff due to his strong work ethic, Heather being a New-Blood Slytherin who scared even Severus Snape with her sharp tongue and sharper mind and Neville being their fiercely protective Lion).

The three frequently met in Diagon Alley for lunch and discussions of what was new in their lives. Harry was a paediatric Healer with St Mungo's and insisted on treating all newly found/orphaned/abandoned magical children for free the first year of their magical lives. Neville had surprised everyone bar his two friends and his mentor when he quickly climbed the ranks to become the highest potions ingredient provider – in both requests and quality – in the Northern Hemisphere. Heather had, to the dismay of many, used her intelligence and Devil-May-Care attitude to become one of the world's best Lawyers. She was requested in both worlds and didn't discriminate between clients from either.

The biggest event in Harry's past, however, happened when he was twenty-one and just finishing his last month of internship at a smaller medical clinic in Wales. A tall man with black hair, blue eyes, and pale skin came into the clinic with a child of around eight in his arms. Seeing the complete panic in the man's eyes and the state of the child, Harry had indicated for the man to follow him and, once the child was placed on the patients' bed, he got to work cleaning the child and getting the things he could fixed, fixed.

Together, the two of them wrote a medical report and kept the child, a female, alive until a medi-team from St Mungo's arrived to transport her for further, and better, treatment than what the clinic she'd been brought to could manage. That was how the first thing he'd ever said to Tom Marvolo Riddle, the man who he had viewed as a role model for most of his life was, "I hope that whoever did that to her gets a punishment twice as painful as what she went through.'

Tom, amused at how Harry hadn't suspected him of being responsible for her injuries, asked what he saw that the others hadn't. He laughed when Harry just tugged his own collar, indicating the very clear insignia of the magical and muggle departments that dealt with Child protection. It hadn't been until he had escorted the older man to reception that he'd discovered he had been talking to his childhood hero.

A sharp, smacking noise interrupted Harry's thoughts and he tensed, knowing that somewhere below him, Tom had done the same. Both of them were intimately familiar with that sound. It came again, this time followed by a barely stifled cry of shock or pain, motivating both men in animal form to bound in the direction it came from.

Due to his smaller form, Harry easily slipped further ahead of Tom, using the trees to his advantage. In only a few minutes, a scene greeted him that made him growl. A large, beefy male was standing over a pair of twins who had matching hand print marks on their faces. With an outraged hiss, he leapt at the man, changing to his human form to add extra force to his attack. Once he had the man on the ground, Harry placed himself between him and the Little Ones.

"How dare you!" Harry hissed at the man, unknowingly scaring the man with his glowing, slit eyes and pointed teeth, both having remained after he changed for defensive purposes. "Children are gifts and should be treated as such."

"They aren't children," the blubbery man attempted to rebuff, "They're freaks. Should have drowned them at birth and killed their mother years ago for birthing them!"

"The only freak I see is the one before me," Harry stated glacially as he stared the fat coward down. "And if I miss my guess, my Companion heard every word."

The puddle of human jelly paled when Tom walked out of the tress to their left in full uniform and murderous intent in his eye.

"I certainly did, my friend," Tom stalked towards the floored man like the dangerous predator he could change into. "I'll take this poor excuse of an evolutionary experiment in while you handle the kids."

Without waiting for confirmation, Tom heaved the man up with hidden strength and vanished from the spot.

Harry turned to face the twins and knelt down before them.

"Hi, my name is Harry and I'm a Doctor for St Mungo's Private Hospital," he soothed, taking a closer look at his patients now the danger was over. "the tall man that was just here was my Companion, Tom. He works in the Government to protect children from people like the man you were with."

"Hi Dr. Harry, I'm Linda and he's my brother Richie. We are twins!"

"That is really interesting, Miss Linda. I went to school with two sets of twins and I was jealous that they always had a friend close by. I used to get really lonely sometimes. Do either of you hurt badly anywhere?"

The twins exchanged looks and bit their lips, scared.

"Do you think you can walk a bit?" Harry asked. "We are close to the house Tom and I share. Once there I can heal your bruises and make sure nothing more serious is wrong with you."

"My foot hurts, Dr Harry," Richie softly admitted. "It hurts to walk."

"Are you and Mr Tom married?"

It seemed that Linda was not only the more outspoken of the twins, but also showing signs of being curious and maybe a bit of a gossip.

Harry knelt before the softly spoken twin and gently rolled his pant leg to half way up his calf before using his wand to provide a light bright enough to inspect his patient's foot.

"No, Tom and I aren't married, though we are sort of together," he explained, keeping their attention on something other than the sight of Richie's very much broken ankle. "Do you know how most people who are married are boy and girl?"

Both of them nodded as Harry gently inspected the non-broken limb first for any sign of past damage.

"Well, there are also people, like Miss Linda suggested, who want to marry someone the same gender as them. So, boys want to marry boys and girls want to marry girls."

"That man said that was disgusting," Linda said. "I don't think it is because he was wrong about me 'n' Richie being the Devil's children."

Harry smiled at the girl, though he was sure she didn't see it.

"I'm going to look at your sore foot now, okay?" he said to Richie. "I know it is sore and I'm not going to be able to fix it until we get home, but I have to wrap it so it doesn't move more and make it hurt more."

"O-okay," Richie whispered, obviously terrified of the pain to come. Linda glanced at Harry and moved until she was leaning against Richie in a way that hid her joining their hand together.

"Good girl," Harry smiled, "it always helps having someone close to you when you are sore, scared and sick. Now, as I was saying before, there are other people who belong in different categories of love, correct?"

Both kids nodded yet again, too shocked by Harry's support of their comforting the other to do much else.

"Well, Tom and I belong to another one," he admitted. "Just like some boys like boys and some girls like girls, there are some who like both. There are also people like me and Tom who like neither."

At the widening of their eyes, Harry chuckled and slowly began wrapping the foot, wincing when his patient did.

"We can love other people," he explained, "we just don't like the thought of doing married people stuff with anyone. We hug and snuggle and give head and temple kisses, but we don't hold hands or kiss on the mouth or always share a bed."

"Harry? Is everything okay?"

"One of the little ones has a bad foot," he replied, smiling reassuringly at the pale twins. "He can't walk on it so I've wrapped it until we get them home."

Tom looked at Harry shrewdly. Both of them, despite being in an odd parody of a romantic, asexual relationship, wanted a family. Both loved kids and had come to terms that they would never have their own family at an early age, but nothing, and no one, would protest to them taking in abandoned, abused children.

"The man, Dursley, I believe his name was, is in custody of our law agency. I thought it best considering their eyes," was all he said.

"Dursley, huh?" Harry smirked, "that is a name I thankfully haven't heard in a long time. Think you are up to carrying these two kittens' home while I run ahead to get things ready?"

"I'd love to," Tom replied, nuzzling the top of Harry's head fondly before transforming into a giant feline.

"This is Tom's Nundu form," Harry lectured as he gently arranged the twins on his companion's back. "You will learn about them when you are a little bit older, but know that you are always safe with him close by. I'll see you soon. My form is smaller and more agile among trees than Tom's so I'm going on ahead to prepare to get you both fixed up."

After the twins said their 'see you soon's' and Tom had affectionately head-butted his hip, Harry returned to his Savannah Cat form and leapt towards the tree closest to him. He knew, deep down in his soul, that these two children would begin his and Tom's entrance into parenthood.