Chapter 36
"It would seem we have much to discuss, Severus" Dumbledore told him as he rummaged through the shelves of tiny vials and bottles.
"The ring? Another piece of Him?" Severus asked, though he was almost certain that was the case.
"Yes. And this clue is something we may be able to follow up on. I may have the answers to some of our questions already" he informed him, continuing his search, peering carefully at the hand-written labels. Severus nodded slowly, trying not to get his hopes up too high. After almost two months, another memory had finally revealed itself in his dreams, a memory which finally ended the stalemate they'd found themselves in. "Ah, this is the one we need" Dumbledore told him cheerfully, turning to face him, holding up a small crystal bottle, filled with a swirling, shimmering substance.
"A memory, Sir?" Severus asked.
"A memory, given to me by one Bob Ogden" the Headmaster said, setting the bottle down on the table. Dumbledore moved to the Pensieve on his desk, using his wand to gather up Severus' recently viewed memory, placing it carefully in an empty bottle. "Bob Ogden was employed by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, this memory shows a rather interesting visit he made during his investigations" he added. Severus nodded, was Dumbledore actually going to 'show' him? Finally reveal something of their quest to him? He certainly hoped so. Dumbledore removed the stopper from the selected bottle, tipping Bob Ogden's silvery memory into the Pensieve.
"Are we both going in, Sir?" Severus asked cautiously. Dumbledore nodded.
"We are, Severus. I believe the time is right to begin discussing things in a little more detail" he answered. Severus took a deep breath, nervous and relieved. He was going to get some answers, but would he like what Dumbledore had to show him? "Are you ready?" the Headmaster asked with a raised eyebrow. Severus nodded, plunging his face into the swirling contents of the basin, feeling himself leaving the office, falling through the darkness until he landed on a country lane, blinded by the sunlight. Blinking against the brightness as he noticed Dumbledore right beside him.
Severus spotted a short, plump, bizarrely dressed man a short distance from them, who set off down the lane at a brisk pace. Severus glanced at the signpost they passed - Great Hangleton, 5 miles behind them, and Little Hangleton, 1 mile, the direction they were headed. The two of them continued to follow Bob Ogden down the lane, nothing but hedgerows around them and blue sky above. Suddenly, the lane curved away, sloping steeply down the hillside, Little Hangleton on display, nestled in the valley between two steep hills.
Ogden trotted on, his speed increasing thanks to the steep slope, Dumbledore and Severus hurried to keep pace with the man. Ogden's frock coat vanished through an almost invisible gap in the hedge, leading to a dirt track. They followed Ogden as the hedgerows became higher and wilder than on the lane they left behind. The track opened into a cool, dark copse of trees.
Severus spotted an old building, half hidden amongst the trees, nettles growing up to the filthy windows, mossy walls, missing roof tiles. A grimy window opened, a trickle of steam poured out. Ogden stepped forwards, wand in hand, staring at the front door nervously, at the dead snake nailed to it.
A rustle and a crack, and a man in rags dropped from the nearest tree, right in front of Ogden - who promptly jumped backwards tripping over his own coat. The filthy man in front of them hissed menacingly. A terrifying sight to behold - hair so dirty and matted it was impossible to tell its colour, teeth missing, eyes seeming to stare in opposite directions. Ogden stepped away again before speaking.
"Er - good morning. I'm from the Ministry of Magic -" the filthy man hissed at him again. "Er - I'm sorry - I don't understand you" Ogden told him nervously.
"The hissing, Sir?" Severus asked quietly. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow and smiled. Severus glanced at the dead snake again, "Parseltongue?" he asked.
"Very good, Severus" Dumbledore nodded and smiled approvingly. The man in the rags advanced on Ogden, knife in one hand, wand in the other.
"Now, look -" Ogden began, but there was a bang, and Ogden was on the ground, clutching his nose, a nasty yellowish goo squirted from between his fingers.
"Morfin!" said a loud voice. An elderly man hurried out of the cottage, slamming the door behind him. He stood next to the man with the knife, now cackling with laughter at the sight of Ogden on the ground. "Ministry, is it?" the older man asked.
"Correct" Ogden replied angrily, dabbing his face, "And you, I take it, are Mr Gaunt?"
"'S right. Got you in the face, did he?"
"Yes, he did" he snapped.
"Should've made your presence known, shouldn't you?" said Gaunt aggressively "This is private property. Can't just walk in here and not expect my son to defend himself"
"Defend himself against what, man?" Ogden asked, pulling himself back up to his feet.
"Busybodies. Intruders. Muggles and filth" he stated. Ogden aimed his wand at his nose, stopping the stream of yellow pus. Mr Gaunt hissed and Morfin out of the corner of his mouth, a threatening look in addition had Morfin lumbering back into the cottage.
"It's your son I'm here to see, Mr Gaunt" said Ogden as he finished cleaning his coat, "That was Morfin wasn't it?"
"Ar, that was Morfin" he answered indifferently. "Are you pureblood?" he asked, suddenly aggressive.
"That's neither here nor there" he answered coldly. Gaunt appeared to think differently, squinting into Ogden's face.
"Now I come to think of it, I've seen noses like yours down in the village"
"I don't doubt it, if your son's been let loose on them. Perhaps we could continue this discussion inside"
"Inside?"
"Yes, Mr Gaunt. I've already told you. I'm here about Morfin. We sent an owl -"
"I've no use for owls, I don't open letters" Gaunt told him.
"Then you can hardly complain that you get no warning of visitors" he snapped, "I am here following a serious breech of Wizarding law which occurred here in the early hours of this morning -"
"All right, all right, all right! Come in the bleeding house, then, and much good it'll do you!" Gaunt yelled.
Severus and Dumbledore followed Ogden into the tiny cottage. The main room seemed to serve as a kitchen and living room, Morfin was now sitting in a filthy armchair beside a smoking fire, twisting a live adder between his thick fingers, hissing at the thing. A scuffling noise drew Severus' attention, he turned to see a girl in a ragged dress, the same shade of grey as the stone wall behind her. She stood beside a steaming pot on a grimy black stove, fiddling around the shelf of squalid looking pots and pans.
"M' daughter, Merope" said Gaunt, as Ogden looked enquiringly at her.
"Good morning" said Ogden. Merope didn't answer, she merely turned her back on the room after a frightened glance at her father, continuing to shift the pots and pans on the shelf. "Well, Mr Gaunt, to get straight to the point, we have reason to believe that your son Morfin performed magic in front of a Muggle late last night" Ogden told him. There was a deafening 'clang' as Merope dropped one of the pots.
"Pick it up!" Gaunt yelled at her, "That's it, grub on the floor like some filthy Muggle, what's your wand for, you useless sack of muck?"
"Mr Gaunt, please!" Ogden said, shocked. Merope flushed as she picked up the pot, only to drop it again as she lost her grip. She pulled her wand shakily from her pocket, muttering a hasty, inaudible spell, causing the pot to shoot across the floor, cracking in two as it hit the opposite wall.
Morfin let out a mad cackle of laughter.
"Mend it, you pointless lump, mend it!" Gaunt screamed. Merope stumbled across the room, but before she could raise her own wand, Ogden had lifted his own, mending the pot with a firmly cast Reparo.
"Lucky the nice man from the Ministry's here, isn't it?" he jeered at his daughter, "Perhaps he'll take you off my hands, perhaps he doesn't mind dirty Squibs..."
Merope picked up the mended pot, without a word or look at anyone, and returned it to the shelf with trembling hands. Taking her place in the corner again, back against the wall, looking as though all she wanted was to sink into the stone wall and vanish.
"Mr Gaunt, as I've said: the reason for my visit -"
"I heard you the first time!" Gaunt snapped "And so what? Morfin gave a Muggle a bit of what was coming to him - what about it, then?"
"Morfin has broken Wizarding law" Ogden told him sternly.
"Morfin has broken Wizarding law" Gaunt mocked in a pompous, sing song voice. Morfin cackled. "He taught a filthy Muggle a lesson, that's illegal now, is it?"
"Yes, I'm afraid it is" Ogden told him, pulling a roll of parchment from an inside pocket.
"What's that, then, his sentence?" Gaunt asked angrily.
"It is a summons to the Ministry, for a hearing -"
"Summons! Summons? Who do you think you are, summoning my son anywhere?"
"I'm the head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad" said Ogden.
"And you think we're scum, do you?" screamed Gaunt, advancing on Ogden, a dirty yellow-nailed finger pointing at his chest "Scum who'll come running when the Ministry tells 'em to? Do you know who you're talking to, you filthy little Mudblood, do you?"
"I was under the impression that I was speaking to Mr Gaunt" Ogden replied.
"That's right!" Gaunt roared, waving his middle finger under Ogden's nose, showing him an ugly black stoned ring. The ring? "See this? See this? Know what it is? Know where it came from? Centuries it's been in our family, that's how far we go, and pureblood all the way! Know how much I've been offered for this, with the Peverell coat of arms engraved on the stone?"
"I've really no idea, and it's quite beside the point, Mr Gaunt. Your son has committed -"
Gaunt flew at his daughter with a howl of rage, his hand grabbed at her throat; next moment he was dragging her towards Ogden by a gold chain around her neck.
"See this?" Gaunt bellowed, shaking the heavy gold locket as Merope gasped and spluttered.
"I see it, I see it!" Ogden said hastily.
"Slytherin's!" Gaunt yelled, "Salazar Slytherin's! We're his last living descendents, what do you say to that, eh?"
"Mr Gaunt, your daughter!" said Ogden, alarmed. Gaunt released her and she staggered away, back to her corner, massaging her neck.
"So!" Gaunt shouted triumphantly, "Don't you go talking to us as if we're dirt on your shoes! Generations of purebloods, wizards all - more than you can say, I don't doubt!" Gaunt spat on the floor at Ogden's feet, Morfin cackled again, Merope huddled beside the window, her head bowed and her face hidden by her lank hair. Silent.
"I believe we have seen enough for today, Severus" Dumbledore told him. Severus nodded in agreement as he felt himself being lifted out of the Pensieve, finding he was back in Dumbledore's office, staring down at the swirling contents of the stone basin once again.
"The ring, Sir, it is the same one as I saw destroyed in the memory?" Severus asked.
"It certainly looked that way. An ancient heirloom of the Wizarding world"
"Why would he choose the ring, if it was a Gaunt family heirloom?" Severus asked.
"Perhaps if I told you Gaunt's first name that would make things clearer"
"Sir?"
"Marvolo" Dumbledore stated.
"Marvolo? As in Tom Marvolo Riddle?" Severus asked, his eyes widening.
"The same, Severus"
"So, Gaunt is his grandfather, Sir?"
"Precisely"
"And the girl, Merope, his mother?"
"Yes, and the Muggle that Morfin 'taught a lesson'. Tom Riddle Senior. Marvolo and Morfin were sent to Azkaban. Once free of their control, Merope was able to control her powers, and plotted to escape them permanently.
"The Muggle didn't love her though, did he?"
"He did not. As I told you before, he was tricked into marrying Merope. When he became aware of this and broke free, he left her, never to see her again" Severus nodded, sinking down into his chair, mulling over this new information.
"So the ring is important to him. He put a piece of himself in it?" Severus asked, meeting Dumbledore's gaze.
"We can add the ring to the list. Another piece of the jigsaw we have to find"
"Do you have any idea where the ring might be hidden, Sir? If it's even been hidden yet, he might wear it every day for all we know" Severus suggested, that was the drawback of getting memories from the future - they could find out 'what' they were looking for, and potentially where it was 'going' to be, but they had no idea 'when' it was going to be there.
"Just a hunch, Severus, but I believe the ring has already been hidden. And I believe I have an idea where to start looking"
"Can I come with you, Sir?" Severus asked suddenly.
"Perhaps. But I need to investigate first. I will not go without discussing matters further" the Headmaster told him. Severus nodded, Dumbledore's answer had rather surprised him, he's expected a flat out 'no'. Well, it still might be a no, for all he knew, but at least he would be involved in the discussions. He could make sure he took 'someone' with him, even if it wasn't him. Someone needed to make sure Dumbledore didn't put on the ring, an older Severus might be able to slow the curse down, but a seventeen year old Severus? He wouldn't stand a chance. And if Dumbledore was lost now, the War essentially was too.
...
The group of boys sat in the black leather chairs, idly reclining by the fireplace in the Slytherin common room.
"Time is getting on, and we're still no closer to having him join the cause" Avery started.
"I still don't know why he thinks it's a good idea, there's plenty of others to choose from" Wilkes added. Evan Rosier nodded in agreement.
"For some reason, Malfoy thinks he's important" he told them.
"But it doesn't make sense, though. He might be smart, but there's plenty of smart people to choose from. Snape isn't the only one who's created his own spells" Avery told them.
"Yes, but none of us have. There seems to be a knack for it, and Snape has it" Rosier said.
"It's too dangerous to go after him, last time we tried that, Mulciber got himself expelled!" Wilkes told them.
"Only because he stupidly got himself caught using an Unforgivable!" Rosier snapped. The others sighed in frustration "The Dark Lord doesn't care, Mulciber is training with some other members of the circle. He'll be marked soon enough"
"So why not leave it to Mulciber? Let him go after Snape during the next holidays" Avery suggested.
"Malfoy wants Snape as soon as possible. We know he's still having these meetings with Dumbledore, and it's not detention because he's been keeping out of trouble" Rosier said.
"Mmm. He's not even been fighting with Potter and his little friends" Avery agreed.
"So, he must have information then" Rosier reasoned.
"You can't know that, though" Regulus Black put forward, finally joining the conversation.
"True. But we need to find out"
"I thought after the Hogsmeade incident, Lucius had given up on Snape being recruited" Wilkes said.
"Initially, yes. But he still thinks he can be swayed, perhaps by 'other' means" Rosier said.
"Black mail?" Wilkes asked.
"The girl. The Mudblood, Evans" Rosier spat.
"While she's in the picture, Snape is never going to willingly join" Avery said.
"Then she needs to be taken out of the picture" Rosier smirked.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? If anything happens to the girl, surely that's only going to make him more determined to stand against us" Black said to the older boys.
"Well, maybe we don't have to hurt her then. Maybe a little Imperius, have her break up with Snape" Rosier suggested, "Or have her throw herself at Potter, that will really make Snape hate her" he laughed cruelly. "Then I guarantee, he'll be ours"
"But if we get caught using an Unforgivable, we'll be expelled" Wilkes protested.
"Then whoever does it, better not get caught. Though I'm sure the Dark Lord's reward will be more than enough to compensate" Rosier added.
A/N - first part of the chapter based on Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The House of Gaunt.