Harry paused before the gargoyle. It was not unusual for the Headmaster to take an interest in him, everyone knew that the chosen one would speak with the leader of the light. However, three students in the headmaster's office was unusual and could be noted upon by people who should not be seeing these movements. Harry had insisted that Ron and Hermione also take part in these special lessons. The headmaster agreed as he had intended for Harry to brief his two closest friends within minutes of the lessons anyways. So now the two of them were a step or two behind Harry hiding underneath his invisibility cloak.
"Cockroach cluster." The gargoyle nodded and the wall open up to a winding staircase. As soon as the walls closed, Ron and Hermione emerged from the air. Hermione took the cloak and folded it carefully before she placed it in her shoulder bag. Her face was slightly flush. Ron's hands had been on her hips for the entire walk from the Gryffindor Tower. He had been careful to not bump into her, but she enjoyed having strong hands guide her. She shook her head to clear her mind before this lesson.
Professor Dumbledore was waiting for them behind a large desk. Fawkes was perched on an oak staff attached to the wall behind the professor. Dozens of silvery instruments were humming and clinking and moving in the background. He was focused on a parchment on his desk and his crippled hand rested on the desk. He initialed the document one more time before he looked up.
"Harry, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, thank you for joining me tonight. I had originally intended to only have Harry here, but he quickly convinced me that brining you both to see what I would show him would have merely saved him a few minutes of explanation as you three share all. Having you all here will perhaps add an additional perspective. I ask that you keep your thoughts to only those in the room. What we see and what we learn in these lessons are, in my opinion, the key to defeating Voldemort." He stood up, carefully and husbanding his energy before he waved his hand to take a cover off of a stone bowl mounted on an intricate pedestal. Even as the three students focused on the artifact, the old man removed a trio of vials from a nook in his desk. Each vial was mostly filled with swirling silver and purple fluids.
"That right there is a penseive. It is an amazing device. We can see memories of our own and others in it. I've spent some time collecting everything that people know of Tom Riddle before he became Lord Voldemort. We will watch a few memories. The first is from Bob Ogden, a ministry worker who is responding to an incident of Muggle Baiting sixty years ago… hold onto me and each other…"
Hermione was sucked into the memory. She intently looked at the Ministry worker visited a ramshackle shack. There were hisses of parseltongue by the Gaunts and a tale of rape and control of a hapless Muggle that led to the birth of Tom Riddle. She had asked the Headmaster to back the memory up once or twice to take a far deeper look at a detail or three. The memory ended and the four moved back to the office.
"What did you notice?" The headmaster asked the three of them once they had a moment to collect themselves.
"They, they were living almost no better than I was when I was in my cupboard. Any semblance of orderliness was provided by Merope and they hated her for that. Everything about them was battered and broken down because they refuse to engage with the world around them. She must have potioned or Imperiused Tom Riddle Sr." Harry's voice was breaking as he could see parts of his life in the memory. Riddle was alone and brought up in a sparse environment that could never reflect even a hint of actual, warm, freely given love with no manipulation or expectations.
Ron paused for a moment before chiming in.
"The Gaunts have barely any magical ability. The few spells that they're using are inefficient and under powered for what they should be doing. My mom could clean up their kitchen in an hour or two every day for just a week or two…. It's like they barely care about staying alive and no matter how proud they are of being Purebloods, they are barely using magic for anything useful. You don't need money to have a good home, but you have to care."
"Ms. Granger, any thoughts?"
She looked at her headmaster. His eyes were twinkling expectantly, waiting for her to have an interesting insight that he fully expected from one of the smartest witches of her generation. She glanced at the crippled hand of her headmaster. There was a ring with an odd-looking stone. She paused and closed her eyes for a moment. She saw the ring in her memory.
"They had the same ring that you have on your hand Professor..."
He nodded. And then he hummed for her to go on.
"Wait one second, I've seen that locket before…. I just don't know where." The old man was no longer wounded and exhausted. There was an energy in his voice and a direction in his eyes that Hermione had not seen since the night at the Ministry. She scrunched up her eyes.
"Ms. Granger, can you say more? This is critical if you know where that locket is… it could save us months if not years and dozens or hundreds of lives." Albus Dumbledore was shocked. He had long thought that the locket would be one of the more difficult Horcruxes to find. There had been one or two rumors of it being seen in the mid sixties but the sources were unreliable at best. But Ms. Granger who he knew had a near eidetic memory was certain that she had seen something that she thought was the locket.
"Do you need to see the memory again?" He asked as the locket was only visible for a few seconds. Perhaps a refresher was what she needed to jog her own impressive memory and more impressive recall. He wondered if she used a mind palace or at least constructed the foundations of what could eventually be built into a mind palace. They were not too different than the tools of a master Occulumens, the Muggles just used slightly different mechanisms to achieve the same goal of ordering, protecting and indexing their minds. He waited for three long breaths as the young woman in front of him just stood there with her eyes closed.
"No, I don't need to see it again." Hermione was frantically searching through her mind. She knew the locket was fairly recent in her memory. As she concentrated, the memory was sometime after the Triwizard Tournament but well before the end of the school year.
"Grimmauld Place… it was in the drawing room before our 5th Year. Bill and Remus were checking on the artifacts in the room for our safety while Ron, Ginny, the Twins, Harry and I were straightening things out. They could not open it and through it into a pile. I don't know what happened to it since then…. But it was under a glass case and felt like Kreacher valued it for some reason. I can't remember any more professor." She sat down. She wanted to remember more but there was nothing left.
"Very well, that was extraordinarily helpful Ms. Granger. I had been trying to track that locket for several years now and the last rumor of a sighting was when your mother was still in school. Even if we know nothing more, we know more now than we did just thirty minutes ago." The old man slumped. The excitement drained him of the energy he needed. He took a lemon drop and allowed the sourness to re-invigorate him. "Harry, would you be able to call Kreacher and allow me to interrogate him?"
"Yes sir, do whatever you need to do. Should I call him now."
"No, it is getting late tonight and another day will not harm us as a good rest will allow for better questions. Soon, but not tonight."
The three Gryffindors left the Headmaster's office in silence and made their way back to the dormitory.
