Chapter 8: Core Memories
Life went on as Harry got used to using the Half-Blood Prince's book. Naturally his friends should be disapproving of him using this book, but they were pretty divided. Right now Harry was going to Professor Dumbledore's office, as he had been given the date and time for the personal lessons of his. "Acid Pops," said Harry, and the gargoyle leapt aside; the wall behind it slid apart, and a moving spiral stone staircase was revealed, onto which Harry stepped, so that he was carried in smooth circles up to the door with the brass knocker that led to Dumbledore's office. He knocked on the door, as he heard Dumbledore's voice telling him to come in. He opens the door to see Dumbledore waiting for him. "Good evening Harry," he said, greeting the boy. "Good evening Professor Dumbledore," Harry said and soon the two got down to business.
"What is it you're going to teach me?" Harry asked. "Well to be exact, I'm not going to train you on how to fight him, rather I want you to see the memories of Tom Riddle, to find clues as to how he became the man he is known today," Dumbledore said. Harry's eyes twitched, "Sir," said Harry tentatively, "does what you're going to tell me have anything to do with the prophecy? Will it help me…survive?" he asked. "It has a very great deal to do with the prophecy," said Dumbledore, as casually as if Harry had asked him about the next day's weather, "and I certainly hope that it will help you to survive." He brings out the pensieve, as he hands Harry a bottle showing a silvery substance. Harry takes the bottle and pours the substance down in the pensieve, as it swirled. Both Harry and Dumbledore put their heads down on the pensieve to see the memory of Tom Riddle.
However the first memory they saw wasn't of Tom himself, but rather some guy named Bob Ogden, who was delivering a message to some guy named Gaunt. From how the memory went, the Gaunt family were nothing but scum by how they were treating their own daughter, as shown from what happened at the house. But it doesn't stop there, as from that memory it was revealed that the Gaunts were the descendants of Slytherin, Salazar Slytherin. Anyways the memory goes on showing how much the Gaunts are Pureblood trash, but the biggest reveal was that the daughter of Mr. Gaunt, loved a muggle which caused her family, namely her brother and father, to be furious, as they went to kill the daughter along with Ogden. Soon Harry and Dumbledore got out of the Pensieve, but it seemed that Harry looked rather sick from his stomach by what he saw. "Are you alright Harry?" Dumbledore asked, as he noticed the boy looking like he lost a lot of color. "Yeah…but what I just saw, what happened to the girl?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore explains that the girl was fine, her brother and father were sent to Azkaban for attempted assault. However the biggest bombshell was that the Mr. Gaunt's name was Marvolo. Harry was shocked, "Marvolo?! Are you saying that…" he was about to say when Dumbledore nodded. "Yes Harry, Voldemort's grandfather is Marvolo Gaunt," Dumbledore stated. He explained to Harry much more about the Gaunts, which sickened Harry by how disgusting they were from them glorifying violence to endorsing incest within their family. Due to how the Gaunts lacked common sense, they lost their riches and became even more arrogant. "So basically that girl, from the Gaunt family…was she Voldemort's mother?" Harry asked, as Dumbledore nodded. "Exactly, but she wasn't the only one there, as Voldemort's father appeared. Can you guess who?" Dumbledore asked. Harry said it was the muggle Merope's brother attacked, which was the man riding the horse. Very good indeed," said Dumbledore, beaming. "Yes, that was Tom Riddle senior, the handsome Muggle who used to go riding past the Gaunt cottage and for whom Merope Gaunt cherished a secret, burning passion."
After learning more about how those two got together, how Merope conceived Voldemort and everything else that happened, all Harry could do was shake his head. "I believe that's all the time we have Harry," Dumbledore said, wrapping this session up. Before Harry left, he had to ask, "Is it ok if I tell Naruto, Ron, and Hermione about this?" Dumbledore thought about it and nodded. "It's alright, but I ask you to not repeat this to anyone else, do you understand?" Harry nodded and he began to leave when he noticed a rather ugly looking ring. "Sir, that ring, was that the one you were wearing on the night we went to get Slughorn?" Harry asked. Dumbledore nodded, "Yes, why do you ask?"
"But isn't it . . . sir, isn't it the same ring Marvolo Gaunt showed Ogden?" Dumbledore bowed his head. "The very same." Harry was shocked and he began to ask more questions, when Dumbledore decided to end it early. "I'll tell you about this another time, best get some sleep Harry," Dumbledore said, as Harry nodded, though he was a little disappointed.
Timeskip
Harry was with Naruto and the others at Jiraiya's cabin, which was technically Naruto's cabin given how Jiraiya left it for the blond to inherit. Harry told them about what he did from his private lessons with Dumbledore and needless to say they were surprised. "So basically, instead of Dumbledore teaching you how to defend yourself or any other advanced magic, you and him went to look at past memories?" Naruto said, as he polished both his gunblade and chokuto. "Yup, that's it. Dumbledore claims that it would help out with the prophecy, but so far there haven't been other major clues about how to stop Voldemort or even Menma. All we have gotten was the origins of how Voldemort's parents met and some bits and pieces about the Gaunt family," Harry stated. "Man from how Merope Gaunt decided to feed love potion to Tom Riddle Sr. just to get in his pants, honestly it's just borderline crazy. If anything I can't blame the man for leaving," Naruto stated, as the others nodded.
"So Harry, when is the next lesson going to happen?" Hermione asked. "I'm not so sure, but hopefully we could get more clues as to how this pertains to the prophecy," Harry said, as he was starting to have doubts about these lessons. "Besides those private lessons of yours, what about you Naruto? Have you found any clues as to how you will control the Nine Tails powers?" Ron asked. Naruto sighed, "Sorry guys, with how busy the year is shaping up to be when it comes to academics along with my other training, I haven't had the time to find the clues as to how I could control Kurama's powers." The group sighed, as they know full well as to how busy their year was given that each class was now expected to learn nonverbal spells. "Anyways Harry, have you found more clues as to who the Half-Blood Prince was?" Naruto asked, as the others looked at Harry. "Nope not really, but then again this book has been making Potions class a breeze," Harry stated, as Hermione was looking rather irritated.
Yup, it turns out that the book Harry owns had been making Hermione rather jealous, as Harry had been getting better marks than her at Potions. "Honestly Harry, you need to get rid of this book and replace it. The book could be dangerous, you know," Hermione stated. Harry scoffed, "Nonsense, it's not like the book is telling me to go do something morally wrong, if not illegal. All the book was showing were better ways I could make potions. Besides, Naruto owns a journal that belongs to one of the most infamous dark wizards that came before Voldemort," Harry stated. "Ok Harry first of all, Dumbledore gave me that journal as a gift, and second of all, it's because he trusted me to keep it so I don't use it all willy nilly," the blond said. "Look, the point is that I haven't done anything wrong that comes out of a book. It isn't Tom Riddle's diary, it isn't the Necronomicon, it's just a simple Potions book with some guides as to how I could make my potions better," Harry claimed. The others tried to find a counter argument for this claim, but in the end they dropped it as Harry was right, it was just a book.
