Father!Tom Riddle headcanons
First of all to be clear: I don't think he'd be a father.
-I think he doesn't see a need for an heir since he's immortal and probably thinks he'll be so forever.
-And if he gets an heir, he's not the only Heir of Slytherin anymore, which would probably make him feel less special (the thing he's afraid of the most besides dying, because he has a superiority complex). I mean, there is probably a reason he killed his whole family besides the obvious; he wanted to be the only Heir of Slytherin. Yeah so anyway
About the kids:
-I'm gonna say it because nobody said it before:
-some of them are gonna be ugly.
-We always forget about the Gaunt inbred genes. The Riddle genes can't save them forever; some of them are gonna not look so good, and those are going to be the ones Tom doesn't see as worthy enough because they don't resemble him.
Who would the mother be?:
-Despite how much I want him to have a child with someone like Bellatrix, he'd probably look for someone like Merope,someone obedient and desperate who he can control, just lock into a room, and never worry about.
-So Tom would probably treat her awfully. And since he made sure she’s both emotionally and financially dependent on him, she’d probably be very emotionally unstable, and his other children would have to comfort her and take care of her.
- So I feel like his children (minus the heir) would be very protective of her.
-I imagine her to be a very short, very frail, and repressed woman who was probably sheltered by her pure-blood family as well, and that's probably another reason why he chose her: because he knows she'll never fight back or try to leave.
The heir:
-I think Tom wants a complete copy of himself, so obviously a boy, and he’d get his wife pregnant until he got the perfect child.
-The other ones he’d probably push aside and give them to his wife while focusing on his perfect little copy all by himself.
The baby's name:
-I’m kinda conflicted here. He’d either name him Tom Jr. because that’s his name, or he’d completely reject that since he hates that name and choose something very far from the ordinary.
-The “unwanted” children (idk how else to refer to them 😭) would probably be the ones named by the mother.
How would he act like a father?:
-He’d only focus on his heir.
-He’d raise him separately from his siblings.
-The siblings would be with their mother, who’s probably very mentally unstable since he purposely sought someone out who was like Merope. So there would be one child (probably the oldest) who’d take that role and take care of their mother and the rest of them.
-And Tom and his son? He’d take him to trips, teach him discipline, and teach him about the importance of their bloodline and about his role as an heir. But don’t get me wrong, he wouldn’t love the child; exactly the only things he likes about the heir are the things that resemble himself he Dosent see him as his own person just an extension of himself.
-So his heir would probably grow up seeking his approval and attention.
-And the other kids would despise their father, or maybe some would be obsessed with him and try to also seek out his approval, but fail over and over again because they’re wrong in his eyes.
The children’s relationship with each other:
-One thing I can tell you for certain is they’d hate the heir. They would feel immensely jealous and feel hatred towards him because not only is he the only one getting treated well by Tom, he’s an extension of Tom like I said before, so he’d treat his siblings just as badly and they could do nothing about it.
-Occasionally they’d get along. Maybe when Tom leaves them alone to go to a meeting, they’d all have to spend time together.
-Maybe they would play a game with the little heir; it would be kinda fun at first and everyone would get along.
-and then the little heir would lose his temper because he lost, ruin the game, maybe dramatically throw everything on the floor, cuss his siblings out, make sure they remember how worthless they are, and ruin everyone’s mood.
(Okay I got a little lazy near the end but you guys get my vision 😭)
