She had dreamed of growing old with him, having plenty of children and granchildren gathered around them for many years. The woman could still remember the first time she had layed eyes on him, she had coveted him in hopes of one day being his bride. She had imagined that the liquid with the mother-of-pearl sheen would be able to help her bring her hopes and dreams into reality, she had been right, or so it seemed.

It had been a whirlwind courtship, they had ran away together and gotten married. Every day he spouted poetically to her of his undying love, he held her close each night, and woke her with a light kiss each morning. She couldn't have been happier, well that is not completely true.

After a mere three months of marital bliss she found that she was with child and the predicament could not have agreed with her more. People usually saw a plain, pale looking girl with a heavy face and dull lank hair but it seemed as if she had transformed overnight. Her pale skin took on a certain glow and her face which had held a smile since the beginning of the courtship no longer seemed as heavy as it first had. She could also no longer be considered plain though she was still no beauty, except in the eyes of her adoring husband who told her how gorgeous she was at least ten times a day.

Things went well for the couple the next few months her husband was thrilled to be having a baby, and his wife was so sure she was carrying his son, someone to carry on the family name. Every morning she would fix him his coffee, stirring in a small amount of a special ingredient that was distinctive due to its mother-of-pearl sheen, and he thought her to be a good wife because of it. Little did he know his wife held a dark secret within her heart.

One day sometime within her second trimester her husband asked her what the special ingredient was, adding that it smelled of cardamom, irises, and, strangely enough, leather. The wife blushed deeply, slyly replying that it was just something she had picked up somewhere along the way. Her answer had been enough to satisfy her husband, but the inquiry had left her mind in deep doubt and worry. Maybe it was time that she quit giving him the potion, it certainly seemed that he loved her enough and after all she was pregnant with his child, surely he would still be happy to still call her his wife after finding out she was a witch. But what if he doesn't? The two thoughts seemed to reverberate against each other in her mind. In the end her decision would ruin her.

The following week the wife abrubtly quit placing the mother-of-pearl colored special ingredient in her husband's morning coffee and to her delight it seemed to her that nothing had changed. He still smiled at her lovingly, still held her close to him every night, and woke her with a kiss each morning, until one night exactly a week and a half from the date she had last given him the mother-of-pearl potion.

He had awoken abruptly, staring down at the woman next to him his handsome features twisted into a look of strong revulsion. Sensing movement in the bed next to her, the wife awoke to find her husband quickly getting out of bed and rushing around the small bedroom putting on his clothes in a panic.

"What's wrong darling? Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yes I did, you treacherous guttersnipe! One that I have woken up from after eight months of forced imprisonment! Stay away from me," he exclaimed as she made a seemingly consoling movement towards him.

"You can't really mean that, can you? Not after all we've meant to each other these last several months! For Slytherin's sake, Tom, we're married and... and... I'm pregnant," she sobbed.

Her husband heading towards her, she held out her arms thinking he was coming to comfort her; he merely shoved her out of his way roughly and made for the bedroom door with her trailing at his feet, pleading with him to stay.

"Stay? Stay? Why on earth would I stay with a foul loathsome creature such as yourself?"

With his last spiteful words he left her there, kneeling on the kitchen floor sobbing uncontrollably.

---

Merope Gaunt seemed to come out of a trance. Shaking her head she inquired on the shopkeeper's question once again. "What was that, sir?" she mumbled, not bothering to take her eyes off the floor.

"How do I really know that this once belonged to Slytherin?" he queried again with disdain. "For all I know it's something you've picked up in a Muggle shop. I'll give you ten Galleons for it and not a Sickle more," he said with a note of finality.

She thought on the offer for but a moment, knowing that this man would probably only lessen the price if she attempted to argue. She no longer cared for its worth anyway and accepted his meager offer. Her only thought now was of her child, the child of the man she loved, the man who had abandoned her.

The shopkeeper had retired to the back of the store to collect her money, and for the first time since entering the dingy shop, Merope took a look at her surroundings. There appeared to be quite a few strange artifacts, but the one that caught her attention was a simple strand of what appeared to be muggle pearls. Walking over to them she thought of the mother-of-pearl coloring of the potion she had once put in her husband's coffee. The Amortentia had been the reason she had lost him, it was the potions, for had she never given it to him he would have never loved her, would have never married her, would have never left her in such a predicament.

"Nice aren't they?" came the shopkeepers voice as he approached her. "They're cursed, you know, and have driven sixty Muggles insane within the last several years," he said happily as he handed her the coins.

Merope grabbed the necklace and threw it with all her might across the store where it shattered sending pearls flying and quickly fled the store, leaving a stunned shopkeeper stammering obscenities after her. She could not take looking at the hateful mother-of-pearl staring back at her.