[Author's note: This takes place at the beginning of the 2000 school year at Hogwarts, roughly two years after the defeat of Voldemort.]
The brain is a sadly fickle thing. Memories can be forgotten or twisted, due to disease or injury or simple passage of time. Even a Pensieve is not a foolproof method to guarantee the sanctity of a memory.
Nevertheless, he was sure that he had at least one memory that would never fade.
It was the first week of his third year at Hogwarts, and he was in his Muggle Studies classroom, waiting with his fellow students for their first lesson to begin. He came from a pureblood family, and wasn't particularly interested in Muggles, but his parents had insisted he take three electives instead of only the required two; his mother was a Slytherin who emphasized the opportunities that knowledge could open later in life, while his father—a Ravenclaw like himself—stressed the importance of learning for its own sake. He'd already chosen Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes, from what he'd heard you had to have a natural talent to get anything worthwhile out of Divination, and a chance encounter with a feral crup when he was younger had left him disinclined to take Care of Magical Creatures, so that left Muggle Studies by default.
Well, maybe he could use it as a class to relax and turn his brain off in.
The door had opened and a tall, striking, red-headed woman had entered. She placed something on the desk at the front of the room, fiddled with it, and a moment later it flew into the air, shakily fluttering over the students' heads.
"This is something the Muggles call a rubber-band helicopter," she had said. "It needs no magic, it does not even need electricity. It is constructed out of nothing but wood and rubber and ingenuity. If they can make something fly with just those, imagine what else they can do."
Serendipitously, the machine had finally come to a stop on his desk. His eyes wide, he gently ran an admiring finger over it. He looked up to see the woman smiling at him.
"I am Daisy Hookum, and Headmistress McGonagall has graciously allowed me to teach Muggle Studies this year. As you can see, there's a lot we can learn from them."
Yes, there is, he had thought, as Professor Hookum waved her wand and cast a Summoning Charm. The helicopter returned to her, this time by magic.
How could he forget that short flight? It had led him down his life's path.
It had led him to take up the title of Dark Lord.