"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand."
Neil Armstrong
Chapter 1
About six miles from Little Whinging and an hour from the larger community of Great Hangleton, the muggle village of Little Hangleton was certainly one of the least inviting places for strangers. There were no more than eleven residences, and the most prominent, Riddle's Park, was a 13th century manor house perched high on a hill overlooking the city. Even ten years after the alleged murder of the wealthy Riddles in their own home by the last Gaunt heir, Morphin, the whole place was considered cursed. It was therefore not surprising that the arrival of a new visitor caused unrest among the townspeople. As far as was known, the small cabin deep in the woods had remained uninhabited since the reclusive Morphin Gaunt had been found dead near the entrance to the property. Ten years later, the new owner, a young woman in her late twenties, Miss Hermione Granger, surprised everyone by buying the dreaded cottage.
The place was practically abandoned and left in the open. On the walls, weeds dominated the stone structure. Nevertheless, a kind of magic protected the interior of the small house of three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large room that doubled as a living room and kitchen. It was immediately apparent that the once wealthy descendants of the noble Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Britain's leading wizarding school, were spending their last days in utter squalor. The entire cabin was sparsely furnished and the few pieces of furniture showed signs of wear and tear, In some of them the spell Reparo had been used so often that it no longer had any effect.
Even after so long, the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Mary and Thomas Riddle and their son Thomas Riddle Jr. were never resolved. At the end of the investigation, the muggle police concluded that Morphin Gaunt deliberately committed the crime after learning of the sudden death of his sister Merope. The woman had fled to London years earlier with the younger Riddle and become pregnant. However, despite numerous joint efforts and investigations with the illegitimate son of Riddle Jr., no real evidence was ever found. The arrival of Tom Riddle had also caused some commotion at the time. His first visit to the city coincided with the death of almost his entire family. Not much was known about his past, only that he had grown up in an orphanage in a suburb of London and had attended a boarding school in Scotland.
Since her arrival in town, Hermione had the strange feeling of not being welcome. Unfortunately, contrary to her expectations, her boss, a grumpy man named Mordred Selwyn, had thwarted her plans to visit the Library of Alexandria, the largest in the magical world. Upon finally earning the title of senior Unspeakable, the witch moved to Little Hangleton instead of continuing her advanced studies on time magic. The Ministry's reasoning was an increase in suspicious activity, likely dark magic, around the Riddle estate. Although upset, Hermione had no choice but to accept the assignment. The sad truth is that since the defeat of Gellert Grindelwald, some fifteen years ago, the entire British Ministry of Magic had been ordered by the International Council of Witchcraft and Wirzandry to put an end to all signs of the dark arts in the country.
Sitting in an old Victorian-style armchair, Hermione first read the folder from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with the entire description of the case. The first twenty pages detailed how Morphin Gaunt killed the three Riddles and then committed suicide with one of the Unforgivables, the Avada Kedavra curse. However, it was clear that there was something strange. This included a number of inconsistencies, such as the whereabouts of Tom Riddle. The illegitimate son and one of Hogwarts' finest students in recent memory had disappeared into the woods of Albania six months after the murder. Even though this wasn't the job of her dreams, the Granger girl decided to investigate further. After three days of visiting the large abandoned mansion on the hill, she finally managed to find the source of the anomaly that pulsed with dark energy. It was a small object, a ring, protected by strong protective spells.
Seeking a better understanding of the nature of the cursed object, Hermione decided to turn to Bill Weasley. The older brother of one of her best friends, Ron, was very well known for his great talent as a curse-breaker of Gringots. "I am sorry, 'Mione. But there's not much to say about this ring," said the middle-aged wizard during a special visit to the Department of Mysteries. Not even in Egypt and Romania had he found such a strong sign of dark magic. "Are you sure, Bill? I thought this item had been cursed with an ancient spell," Granger said as the two looked at the ring in a heavily sealed crystal box. No counterspells had worked and not even one of the dark curses she researched fit this case. "I think you should seek Dumbledore's advice," Bill suggested. He believed the old wizard would surely have come into contact with something of such nature during the time he was chasing Grindelwald. Granger had already asked her friend Harry and his father James to take a look at the artifact, after all they were both aurors. But with no result. James' wife, Lily, a teacher of magical theory, and also the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Snape, suggested the same thing as Bill. Last week Harry even arranged for her to talk to the Headmaster of Hogwarts. "There's no point. Not even the great Albus Dumbledore knows what it's about," confessed the distraught witch. "I do not know how you manage to remain suspicious of Headmaster Dumbledore," commented Weasley. "I actually cannot understand how everyone trust him so blindly," Hermione retorted. The old man was friends with the Dark Lord Grindelwald for years and only then decided to switch sides.
After a month of fruitless research, the investigation had once again reached a dead end. Therefore, the young witch decided that it would be better to return to London. There she could look for the person who was present during the murder and also survived. However, the biggest problem would be to find Tom Riddle's whereabouts. The last heir of Slytherin, only two years older than Granger, spent his entire childhood in an orphanage called Wool's Home for Foster Children in a suburb of London. Despite his quiet nature, he harboured strong prejudices against anything muggle. Hermione, who was known as the brightest witch of her age, did not have much to say about him except that he seemed to avoid her because she was a muggleborn. The woman was also the first student in two centuries who had skipped two years of school because of her great intelligence. It annoyed Tom that a younger muggleborn witch always seemed to surpass him in terms of academic achievement. Still, it had never come to a confrontation or an argument, for the two of them stayed out of each other's way as much as possible.
Upon her arrival by portkey in the Albanian capital of Tirana, Granger proceeded to the Palace of Brigades. At two of the clock in the afternoon, she was to meet the current head of the Albanian Department for International Cooperation. Hermione's research in recent weeks had led her to travel. The aurors said Riddle had last been seen on the edge of an Albanian forest. To the witch's great surprise, none other than Viktor Krum, her old friend and school sweetheart, was waiting for her. The two had met years ago when the first Triwizard Tournament was held since the fall of Gellert Grindelwald. The goal of the competition was to bring together students from Europe's three largest wizarding schools. The Durmstrang Institute in the far north of Europe, the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France, and finally, Britain's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which welcomed the event. Tragically, the series of dangerous challenges during Hermione's sixth year at the school put several students in harm's way. Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff Head-Boy and champion of Hogwarts, was tortured to the point of insanity by two fanatical followers of Gridelwald seeking revenge. The other victim, fifth-year Ravenclaw Myrtle Warren, died in an attack by an Acromantula that Rubeus Hagrid, the school's janitor, kept secret.
"It's so good to see you again, Viktor. How come you don't play in the Bulgarian national Quidditch team anymore?" asked the surprised witch. The last time they saw each other was years ago at Bill and Fleur's wedding, and everyone thought he was a rising star in the sport. "It wasn't by choice," Krum said. Due to the turmoil in Eastern Europe after the fall of Hittler and Grindelwald, his team had been disbanded. Thanks to the prejudice against the emphasis on teaching the dark arts at Durmstrang, no other team took him on. Upon months of not knowing what to do, he decided to take his father's advice and start a career in the Ministry of Albany. His entire family had moved there eight years ago. "I'm sorry you'd to give up your sports career, but I'm very happy to see you again," the witch said with tears in her eyes as she hugged her friend. "Meeting you is great. But I think we should talk later. The area you want to visit is very dangerous at night," the wizard warned. So the two apparated together to a point near the outskirts of Burrel, a town 22 miles from Turana. From there, it was a three-hour walk to the nearest magical settlement. The rest of the way was covered in a two-day hike through the forest.
On the night of the second day, the two were sitting around the campfire when Granger heard strange noises coming from the woods. "What is that?" the witch asked, exasperated by the shrill noise between the trees. Not even near the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts had she ever heard such disturbing sound. Speaking of which, she did also not understand why they had to walk to reach the forest of Zall Gjocaj. "You do not have to worry about getting lost or attacked. Still, the area where we will arrive tomorrow is notorious for other reasons," Krum said as he reinforced the magical wards around the two tents. The woods were dense and had barely been touched by wizards, or muggles. "Do you believe in these legends about the forest being haunted?" asked the Granger, who was very rational from an early age and never believed in superstitions. When Viktor had arrived in Albania, the first thing he did was to explore all the forests. The man visited more than nine in three years, it was a way to process the end of his Quidditch career. In Burrel, Krum wanted to visit the nearby woods. Still, even the most intrepid of guides would not accompany him to Zall Gjocaj. "It's haunted and cursed there," they said. Until the day he met an old man named Almir Dalmat.
Mr. Dalmat used to say that a walk among the hundred-year-old trees of the forest of Zall Gjocaj was like a journey into the past. The ancient witch Circe herself decided to seek refuge there and bring her precious grimoire to safety. Later, when Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter Helena stole her mother's diadem, she also hid it there. What do these sorceresses have in common? Both died under tragic circumstances. About a decade ago, Almir lost his wife Dielza and their young daughter Elira. The witches had decided to accompany a young wizard to the ruins of Circe's old residence. Days later, only the bodies of the two were found badly mutilated. "Was this wizard named Tom Riddle, by any chance?" Granger asked after the Bulgarian had told her the story of the forest. Before he could confirm her theory, Hermione realised that there was something very strange about Salazar's last heir.
The young man had witnessed the death of his entire family a year after graduating from Hogwarts. Some time earlier, when Myrtle Warren was found lifeless in the girls' bathroom on the second floor, he was the sixth-year prefect and also the first to discover the body. According to Mrs. Cole's, the muggle caretaker of Wool's Orphanage, whose report was included in the investigation files, Tom Riddle had always been a problematic child. As a nine-year-old boy, he was also present when two of his colleagues, Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson, drowned in a cave during a visit to the beach. It was a trail of death and destruction that followed the wizard's steps wherever he went, and Hermione Granger was ready to understand why.
