Hello everyone! It seems like its been such a long time since I've seen you all! I apologize for that but I really have been quite busy with work... Anyways, I think I'm going to have an author note at the end of this so please do read it. Anyways, I think you all again for your reviews! I do not own Harry Potter.
Harry stood in front of the gargoyle statue that led to Dumbledore's office. After a moment he spoke the password. "Acid pops." The gargoyle moved aside and revealed a long staircase. Harry stepped onto the bottom step and the staircase began to move on its own. The staircase acted like an escalator and carried him to the very top of the stairs. Harry then stepped off and held the brass knocker on the door in his hands. He rapped the knocker on the door and waited for a response.
"Come in." Sounded Dumbledore's voice from the other side of the door.
Harry walked in and noticed the headmaster at his desk. "Good evening, sir."
Dumbledore smiled up at Harry from his seat. "Ah, good evening Harry. Please do sit down."
Harry sat down in the chair across from Dumbledore. "Sir?"
"Yes?" Dumbledore responded calmly.
"Can I ask what this meeting is about? Is it about the prophecy?"
"Yes, this does pertain to the prophecy."
"But I thought you said you told me everything about the prophecy." Harry said with a hint of frustration in his voice. Dumbledore had told Harry the prophecy at the end of last year. It was because of the prophecy that Voldemort had used the unguarded link, thanks to Harry bothering Snape, between their minds. This would have been better protected it Harry had not looked into Snape's pensieve, which contained some of Snape's worst memories, during their Occulmency lessons. The lessons would have been used to help Harry guard his mind from others prodding and probing into his mind. Because of the problems he had, had with Snape the lessons were cancelled by a rather irate Snape. Little did Harry know, how important those lessons would have been.
While Harry back in fourth year had discovered that once in a while he would get glimpses of what Voldemort was doing. The following year, Voldemort himself had discovered the link and used it to his advantage. In the Department of Mysteries, was where the prophecy was stored. Voldemort knew he wouldn't be able to get into it because it was in the Ministry of Magic, which is heavily against him and his followers. He had let Harry see a few things, like where the Department of Mysteries was inside the Ministry of Magic. This proved useful for Harry, as he was able to save Mr. Weasley's life, Ron and Ginny's father, by alerting Dumbledore immediately. But this link had also proven to be a trick. For Voldemort had implanted in Harry's mind that his godfather, Sirius Black, was being tortured there. On a wild goose chase Harry, accompanied by Ron, Hermione, Jess, Ginny, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom, left Hogwarts on winged beasts named Theastrals, which can only be seen by people who have saw people die. Only Luna and Harry could see them. Luna, having saw her mother die, and Harry, having saw Cedric Diggory, a Hufflepuff who was two years older, the same year as Ron and Ginny's twin brother's Fred and George Weasley, die at the end of Harry's fourth year. This happening at the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament, which Harry and Cedric had been part of. That had been the night when Voldemort regained his power and human form.
The group rode the Theastrals to the Department of Mysteries in search of Sirius. This led them to the exact spot the prophecy was held in an orb. As soon as Harry grabbed it, Voldemort's Death Eaters arrived. A long battle progressed, in which the Order of the Phoenix, wizards and witches against Voldemort, which Dumbledore was the head of came and fought. Such people as Mad Eye-Moody, ex-Auror, their third year Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Marauder, makers of the Marauder's map, and friends of Harry's parents and Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, as well. Sirius fought valiantly against his cousin, one of Voldemort's biggest supporters, Bellatrix Lestrange. In the end Sirius fell into the veil and was never seen again, gone forever. Harry remembered that night oh too well.
But this prophecy was what this was all about. This prophecy was why Harry Potter's parents were killed. The prophecy was made in the Hog's Head, a bar in Hogsmeade, by no other than professor Trelawney, as Dumbledore was conducting a job interview. The prophecy said this:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…
This was Harry, but it might not have been, but Voldemort had made it Harry. You see there was another boy, born July 31st as well, his parents had also escaped Voldemort three times, and his name was Neville Longbottom. But the reason why it was Harry and not Neville was because Voldemort was the one to mark Harry as his equal. This was why Harry's parents were killed. An eavesdropper had only heard the first part of the tale and told his master, Voldemort. The reason why Voldemort was desperate to have Harry get the orb for him was so that he could hear the final half of the prophecy. For Harry, this whole experience and being told the prophecy, changed his life.
"Ah, so I thought I did at the time." Came Dumbledore's answer.
Harry looked at the headmaster with a puzzled look. "What do you mean, sir?"
"From this point on I am not sure if this is true. But we will be delving into what I think might be useful information. Harry, I might be wrong.
"But you think that you're right" Harry asked.
"Yes I do, but I do make mistakes."
"Sir, what is this going to have to do with the prophecy? Will it help me survive this war?" Harry looked concerned and wondered is he should be there.
"As I said before it does have to do with the prophecy." Dumbledore responded calmly. "I do hope it will help you, Harry." Dumbledore then stood and walked away from his desk and Harry. Harry turned and watched him. When Dumbledore came back to the desk he was holding the familiar basin that he had looked into, in fourth year. It was Dumbledore's pensieve. Dumbledore placed it on the desk. Harry didn't look pleased to see the pensieve as both of his previous attempts with it weren't that pleasant, mainly his last encounter with it.
Dumbledore got his attention with a gentle voice. "You will be going in with me, and with permission."
"Where will we be going sir?"
"Inside a memory of a man named Bob Ogden." Dumbledore pulled out a small bottle from his pocket.
"Who is he?"
"He used to work for the Ministry of Magic, for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He is now since passed away, but not before I convinced him to give me this." He replied, referencing to the bottle. Dumbledore then tried to take the stopper off the bottle, but had difficulty with his charred looking hand.
"I can do it sir." Harry offered, not liking to see him struggle.
"No matter." Dumbledore pulled out his wand and took it off.
"Sir? How did that happen to your hand?" Harry asked while looking at his hand with a distasteful look and concern laced underneath.
"That is not relevant at the moment, Harry." Dumbledore poured the contents into the pensieve. "After you."
Harry bent forward and stuck his head in the pensieve, Dumbledore following after him. They saw a stumpy little man wearing extremely large glasses, hiding his eyes behind them, which made Harry wonder if they were even there. The little man stood by a sign that read one way, Great Hangleton, 5 miles, the other direction read Little Hangleton, 1 mile. The little man was Bob Ogden. It was a beautiful summer afternoon as Bob walked towards the town of Little Hangleton. Harry and Dumbledore followed him down the steep hill. Bob took a detour, just outside of the little town, down a small rocky dirt road. After a short while he stopped, which made Harry and Dumbledore stop behind him. Bob pulled out his wand. He approached the house that was on its last leg. You could see the rafters in some places because the tiles had fallen off. The house looked green on the outside because of the moss that had grown from lack of upkeep. Harry thought that there was no way someone would live there. He spoke too soon as the window opened and for a brief moment he could see a figure inside the house. Bob quickly moved to the front door, which had a dead snake nailed to it.
There was a rustle from one of the nearby trees and a man dropped out of the tree. The man's clothes were tattered and reduced to rags that covered two-thirds of what they had been originally capable of. The man landed right in front of Ogden, who stumbled backwards in fear.
"You're not welcome." The man hissed. He took a step forward into the light so Harry could get a better look at him. The man's hair was black, caked with so much dirt. His eyes were small and beady, making the man look even more frightening. Poor Bob Ogden tried to start a conversation, telling the person where he was from. All he got was the answer, "You're not welcome," before he could finish explaining why he was there.
"I don't understand what you're saying." Ogden replied rather nervously.
"Do you understand him Harry?" Dumbledore turned and asked.
"Yeah, I can. But why can't Ogden? Is he speaking Parseltongue?"
Dumbledore nodded, "Yes."
The man had pulled out his wand and a crimson coated knife. He began pursuing Ogden who was slowly retreating backwards. A loud bang sounded and Ogden was on the ground. He tried to squirm backwards while pleading with the man.
"Morfin!" Yelled the voice of a man who came into view from inside the cottage. This man was older and shorter, his hair dirt-free, and a wrinkled face. He stopped by the man with a knife and laughed at Ogden on the ground. "Ministry?"
"Yes!" Ogden stood up and looked at the pair irritably. "And you are Mr. Gaunt?"
"That's right." Gaunt replied shortly.
Ogden quickly took his wand and fixed his nose before continuing to speak. Gaunt looked at the man with the knife and ordered him into the house in Parseltongue. Morfin didn't want to go inside, but the threatening glare he got from his father, he trotted inside.
"I'm here to see your son, actually." Ogden replied, finding his voice. "That's Morfin, am I right?"
"Aye, that's Morfin." Gaunt replied as if forced. "You a pure-blood?" His voice sounded more threatening.
"That has nothing to so with this. Lets go inside and discuss this further" Ogden suggested.
"What for?"
"I told you I am here for your son. I sent an owl."
"I don't use owls, don't open letters."
"Well if you don't answer your mail then you can't blame me for coming out here myself." Ogden seemed to become more irritated by the minute.
"Alright! Get in the bloody house then!" Gaunt snapped and stalked inside the house. When they walked in Harry noticed another person was in the house, by the open window. This was a young woman, dressed in a raggy grey dress; her eyes were the same as Morfin's. She looked utterly defeated in appearance.
"My daughter, Merope." Gaunt grumbled, as Bob looked over at her.
The girl didn't answer but looked scared as she went back to what she was doing.
"Mr. Gaunt, I'm here because it is believed that your son used magic in front of a muggle last night." Ogden had launched into his what seemed pre-prepared speech.
A loud clang sounded as Merope dropped a pot. "Pick it up you worthless brat! Use your wand; don't grovel on the ground like a filthy muggle!" Gaunt snapped at her. Ogden looked shocked at this outburst as Merope used her wand but failed in picking it up. The pot cracked instead. "Fix it you worthless lump!" Gaunt screamed at her. "Maybe the nice man from the Ministry will take you off my hands."
Ogden continued talking with Mr. Gaunt on how his son had broke wizarding law by harming the muggle and was to be summoned for a hearing. Mr. Gaunt was outraged and found it rubbish, and told Ogden that Morfin wasn't going anywhere because he had done nothing wrong. He then proceeded to defend himself and question how dare this man treat them like trash, because they were the last living descendents of Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founding fathers of Hogwarts. Gaunt showed him his ugly black ring and almost choked Merope in the process of showing Ogden Salazar's locket that Merope wore. While the argument continued they heard the sound of a horse drawn carriage outside.
A handsome young man and his beautiful guest went by. The man's name was Tom Riddle. Morfin alerted his father that Merope favored the muggle man. This sent Gaunt over the edge; he grabbed Merope and began to choke her. The memory ended with Ogden screaming no, and shooting off a spell.
Harry looked at Dumbledore as soon as they were out of the pensieve. "Did the girl survive?"
"Oh, don't worry, she survived, Ogden quickly apparated back to the Ministry and brought people back with him to the cottage. Morfin and his father put up a fight but were soon taken away. Morfin was sentenced to three years in Azkaban, for already having a record for hurting muggles. Marvolo, received six months."
Harry's head snapped up at the name Marvolo. Voldemort's name, he had discovered back in second year was Tom Marvolo Riddle. "Marvolo? Do you mean?"
"Marvolo is Voldemort's grandfather, the three of them, Marvolo and his children were the last of the Gaunts, which is a very old wizarding family, all pureblood."
"So, Merope is Voldemort's mother?" Harry asked, being a little shocked.
"If you remember we also saw Voldemort's father as well."
"The man on the horse?"
"Very good, that was Tom Riddle senior. A handsome muggle who used to ride by their cottage and Merope was enamored with."
"They got married?" Harry asked while looking at Dumbledore. That seemed highly unlikely.
"Ah, but you forget, Merope is a witch. I believe her powers were not to her best ability while her father was around. When her brother and father had been arrested not long after Merope and Tom Riddle ran away together. Can you think of a way Merope could make Tom Riddle fall in love with her?" Dumbledore replied as he watched Harry think it through.
"The Imperius curse or a love potion."
"I venture to think it was the later. The town was shocked when Tom had run away with her. But this was nothing to when Marvolo came home and she was not there. Only a note was left there for him. He did not live to see Morfin come back to the cottage. Three months after Merope and Tom had run away, Tom came back to the village, claiming he had been under some sort of trance. When, what I think happened is when Merope became pregnant, she felt bad for still keeping him under the potion, and stopped giving it to him. I think she thought that Tom would have grown to love her and stayed. This was not the case, however."
"Did Merope die shirt after she had Voldemort? Didn't he grow up in an orphanage?"
"Yes indeed. But I do think that is enough for tonight."
"Yes, sir." Harry got to his feet. "Sir? Am I allowed to tell, Jess, Ron and Hermione?"
"Yes, I think all three of them have proved themselves trustworthy. But do not tell anyone else."
"No sir. I'll just tell them." Harry then turned to leave. As he walked to the door he noticed a familiar black ring that was cracked down the stone, on a small table.
"Sir." Harry said while looking at it. "Is that ring?"
"Yes" Responded Dumbledore.
"Isn't that the same ring Marvolo Gaunt showed Ogden?"
Dumbledore nodded his head. "The very same."
"But… Have you always had it?"
"No, I acquired it shortly before I came and got you from your aunt and uncle's."
"That was around when you injured your hand, isn't?"
"Yes, around that time."
"Sir, how did…"
"That's enough for now, Harry. You will hear the story later. Good night."
"Goodnight sir." Harry walked slowly to the Gryffindor Tower, while pondering all that had happened, when he got inside, Jess and Hermione where the only ones left in the common room. Almost instantly Harry was pressured to launch into what had happened. When he was finished telling them, they had a long discussion about what it might have meant. They came to no real conclusion as they all went to their rooms and went to bed.
Author's Note: Alright so chapter twenty-nine is up. Though I have to say this is one of my least favorite chapters. Why you ask? One, because there is no Draco in it. Two, there is hardly as Jess in it. And three, those meetings are a pain to write, you can't really expand on them and they have some important information in them so I had to go open up HBP and heavily use it in this chapter. Know that I don't do that in any of my other chapters, just these pensieve ones because well, there isn't much to add but it all needs to be said. Why it needs to be said is because how the heck otherwise is everyone going to know whats going on in regards to Voldemort. He is the main villian so we all need to know some background info, and you know, the further pensieve meetins reveal more and an actual possible way to destroy Voldemort. So thats my reasoning and I'm sticking to it. That being said, again, sorry for the long delay. They had me working this first week of my stop like a ton. So after work I'm pretty dead and don't want to do anything except veg so that's why I haven't updated. Though, today I have a day off, and tomorrow as well. And my next few days of work are no where near as many hours so I'll have some time to update stuff! If I get enough reviews tonight for this chapter I might just type up another chapter tonight and put it up as well. We'll have to see how the reviewing goes. Also, I thought some of you would enjoy this, but theres this really cute guy at my work that kinda reminds me of Draco... Haha! Well, yeah, it keeps me entertained... So, now that you have read this extremely long author's note, PLEASE REVIEW, as always. Until next chapter, where I'm positive at least one of the main characters will be in it more, please review!-Jess
