Chapter 5

Albus Dumbledore was both concerned and mystified. Ever since McGonagall told him about a Matthew Thornton, he been trying to figure out the boy. McGonagall shared her memory of the boy and the boy did look like Tom Riddle. The resemblance was so strong that it would be impossible for the two not to be closely related. Normally that wouldn't be a concern. After people aren't necessarily like their relatives. There were dark families that occasionally produced children that opposed everything their family stood for and light families that had children that became some of the most notorious dark witches and wizards of all times. The same was even true in the Muggle world. Petunia Dursley was born to the Evans family which were some of the most kindest and compassionate people Dumbledore ever knew and yet Petunia ended up developing a jealousy of her younger sister Lily that turned into a hatred of all things magic. A hatred that nearly killed Lily's son Harry.

Dumbledore, like the headmasters and headmistresses of all other schools of magic in the world, had access to the school records of all the students that attended his school that attended a muggle primary school. Matt's wasn't the best student but was up there. There were a lot of As with some Bs of his report cards and only had detention once. The teachers had a high a opinion of his but then again, people had the same opinion of Tom Riddle and Tom ended up becoming Lord Voldemort.

Harry on the other hand didn't do as well as Matt in school but still was a good student. His grades were about half Bs and half As, which was still good. Teachers described Harry as being more athletic then Matt but Matt tended to be close to Harry and stood up for Harry more then Harry stood up for himself. All this information under normal circumstances would be normal but these weren't normal circumstances.

Matt had some kind of connection to Voldemort. The physical resemblance was there. Even some of the memories was there. To Dumbledore, there was more going on then what others were aware. He knew that Matt was adopted when the boy was a little over 2 which was some time during the winter of 1982 and his real mother gave him up but her identity was unknown to him. He knew Voldemort didn't die on 31st October, 1981. The evidence that Voldemort was still alive but weakened was there. The wards at the Potter's cottage showed a weak Voldemort had crossed the wards after the house blew up. To Dumbledore that left two possibilities.

One is that Voldemort deaged himself and things didn't go as planned and is suffering from temporary memory loss and it would be a matter of time before he got back enough of his memories to know who he really is and finish what he had started. The other was more disturbing.

The other possibility was that he physically deaged himself and all of this was an act to thrown Dumbledore off. He had all his memories and possibly had learned more about the prophecy. The prophecy did say Voldemort would mark Harry as his equal. There wasn't anything in the prophecy that said Harry wouldn't go dark. All it said was that Harry was the only who would be able to kill Voldemort.

Either way, to Dumbledore, this could be the prophesy fulfilling itself. "Mark him as his equal" kept running through Dumbledore's mind. Dumbledore had always assumed it meant the scar but now he wasn't so sure. No matter what possibility, Dumbledore concluded that there was a chance that Harry would go down a path that nobody liked. A chance he didn't want to take. However, there wasn't anything he could do legally to stop it before it was too late.

He could go to the Ministry and tell them his assessment of the situation and request that Harry be removed from the Thorntons and find some way to have Matt transfered to another school. That would never work out the way he intended. Harry loved his adoptive parents and take to him away from them would only make him resent Dumbeldore. Not to mention Harry, Matt and the Thorntons would find some way to get reunited. Obliviating them to solve those two problems weren't good either. It was dangerous to oblivate anyone under the age of 20. The chance of permanent brain damage was too high even though the chance went down with age to what the ministry called an acceptable level and to erase people from other's lives would been erasing just about everything memory associated with them. In this cast, the last several years. That was out of the question. Simply removing Harry wasn't feasible either. There were too many people out their who would want Harry for their own purposes and had no qualms about bribing the Ministry into doing things that were morally and/or ethically wrong. Harry may end up finding himself in another home like the Dursleys and that would be a disaster.

Dumbledore was at a loss at what to do. Even if he did act, what if he was wrong and that Matt was related to the Riddle family and merely someone who was simply 'telepathic' to Voldemort which made the boy not a threat at all. He needed access to medical records to confirm that but only the healer assigned to the school, Poppy Pomphrey, or Madam Pomphrey as the students referred to her, had access to those. He doubted he could persuade her to let him have access but he could ask her to tell him if there was anything out of the ordinary in Matt's medical records after explaining the situation to her.

Dumbledore couldn't afford to make another mistake. He knew Harry needed protecting and possibly training. If he made another mistake, Dumbledore felt he would be lucky to be able to even hear what was, going on with Harry. Everyone wouldn't trust and/or believe him anymore and the situation would be a disaster. Dumbledore knew things about Voldemort that no one else knew and/or believed. Things that were vital that Harry needed to know to get an idea of what he was up against. For now, Dumbledore decided it was best to sit and observe until he got more information while he dealt with his friend Nicholas' problem.

Nicholas approached Dumbledore earlier that summer saying that he heard a rumor from a friend there was a plot to steal his Philosopher's Stone from Gringott's. Dumbledore, after some persuasion, agreed to hide the stone at Hogwarts. Dumbledore didn't like the idea and now more then ever since a few days earlier, an attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone from Gringott's after it had been relocated to the school. Now with Matt who was possibly Voldemort at the school, he was tempted to send a message to Nicholas saying that the chances of the stone falling into the wrong hands while at the school was too great.

However, Dumbledore realized this would be a good test. Dumbledore believed that since a lot of the teachers were involved in setting up the stone's protections, Matt, if he was indeed Voldemort, would be able to find out what is stored at the school by reading their minds. Given Voldemort's obsession with trying to avoid death would love to get his hands on the stone in Dumbledore's opinion. If Matt made an attempt to go after the stone, Dumbledore would have his answer. As he was thinking, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Dumbledore answered and the school's Potions Master Professor Severus Snape entered.

"Ah, Severus. Finished setting up the logic puzzle?" Dumbledore asked referring to the protections for the stone and Snape walked up to the desk Dumbledore was sitting at.

"Yes. My main concern is that if any students decide to wonder down there, with the exception of a few of the older students, I doubt they they will be able correctly guess which potion to drink to get past the flames and end up killing them self," Snape replied.

"I was concerned about that and tried to tell Nicolas that children tend to be too curious about things and might try to sneak down their to see why the 3rd floor corridor is off limits. Fortunately Hagrid is donating a rather large dog he bought to guard the stone for the first level of protection. I doubt any student in their right mind would try to get past it due to its personality the size of its teeth... Not to mention its ability not to be incapacitated by conventional means," Dumbledore attempted to reassure Snape who simply raised his left eyebrow.

"I wonder about Hagrid and his taste in pets... Its a matter of time before his lack in judgment with beasts injures him and/or others. Anyways, I came in here to inform you that Quirrell has depleted the student's potion store of garlic. The man has not only put enough garlic in his classroom that no vampire will want to be closer to the school than northern Africa but he has stashed enough garlic in this turban he is now wearing that I don't know anyone who will want to be in the same room as him. To make matters worse, I caught him trying to ask a house elf for more garlic to keep vampires away. Given the man's new phobia of vampires, I may end up having to be constantly buying garlic for potion brewing this year..." Snape complained.

"Severus, you know you don't have to pay for supplies using your own money. The school has more then enough money to pay for potion ingredients. I'll look into the possibility of growing more garlic here at the school and talk with Quirrell," Dumbledore explained as he thought of something. "Before you leave Severus, I know this maybe an odd request but you are aware that Minerva had found Harry a week ago. There's something about his situation I think you should be aware off."

"That he turned into an arrogant, attention seeking rule-breaker like his father was after being almost killed by his relatives? It would seam perfectly natural for him to turn out that way considering the muggles he has lived with probably felt sorry for him and decided to not to punish the boy for anything thinking he had been punished enough for things that even I agree wasn't his fault." Snape replied leaving Dumbledore shocked that he would say something like that.

"Severus, I assure you that I've looked at Harry's school records and viewed a few people's memories of him and I found no evidence that he is going to give the staff headaches like his father and the Weasley twins do. What I was going to inform you is that Harry's adoptive brother Matthew, who likes Harry a lot to the point of standing up for him, not only suspiciously looks exactly like a young Voldemort but appears to have a lot of Voldemort's memories. I have theories about how such a thing could be possible and most of them aren't good. Until this mystery of Matthew Thornton is solved, as a precaution, I want you to try to favor Harry and Matthew," Dumbledore explained trying his best not to say Lily would not appreciate Snape jumping to conclusions about her son with out ever having met the boy.

"You fear that this boy maybe the Dark Lord in disguise? That wouldn't make any sense considering the Dark Lord fears that Harry Potter or whatever the boy is called now days is destined to kill him. I remember the first couple of lines of the prophecy..." Snape replied puzzled.

"I know but there is more then one boy the prophecy could be about. However, I'm confident that Harry is the one the prophecy spoke of. The line after my brother discovered you spying on me was 'and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.' It could mean that Harry will join Voldemort but it could simply be referring to Voldemort giving Harry that scar. Prophecies have a tendency to come true in ways that one doesn't expect them too." Dumbledore explained.

"That is rather... Disturbing. But I will try my best to favor the two boys. If your theory that Matthew is Voldemort proves to be correct and this possible interpretation of the prophecy is true, I will do what I can without raising suspicion to prevent Harry from becoming a loyal Death Eater, no matter what house the boy gets sorted into. The Dark Lord knew no house rivalries when recruiting. Lily would not want her son to be a Death Eater."

Chapter End Notes:

There it is. Dumbledore's reaction to finding out about Matt. I'm pretty sure there are some of you out there who might be able to figure out what is up with Matt after this chapter. If you haven't figured it out, he's a clue: none of the theories Dumbledore came up with are correct though one tends to be more correct then the others. You can ask questions about Matt in reviews but please take into account that everything about Matt will be explained as the story goes on.

Also, I need betas for all my stories. If anyone is interested, please contact me.

Anyways, reviews please!

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