Saturday evening at 20:00 sharp, FitzSkimmons rapped on the heavy oak door of Dumbledore's office.

He called them in, but as soon as he saw that there were three of them, he said, "Um, Harry? I know I said that you should tell Miss Ronna Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger about the prophecy, and I was going to say that you can inform them about these lessons, but —"

"We do everything together," interrupted Fitz. "We never leave each other's sides, so if we do these lessons at all, we do them together — those are our conditions. Take it or leave it."

"Oh. Very well then," replied Dumbledore after a second. "Then I guess we'll need two more chairs—"

"Never mind," said Simmons as she pulled out her wand and quickly conjured two more chairs identical to the one already sitting on their side of the desk set up for Harry to sit in.

Once they had all sat down, Dumbledore said, "So, you have been wondering, I am sure, what I have planned for you during these — for want of a better word — lessons?"

"We were curious," Simmons answered dryly, but still as politely as possible.

"Well, I have decided that it is time, now that you know what prompted Lord Voldemort to try and kill Harry fifteen years ago, for you to be given certain information. But I must warn you, from this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork. From here on in, I may be as woefully wrong as Humphrey Belcher, who believed the time was ripe for a cheese cauldron."

"But how correct do you think you are, Sir?" asked Daisy, years of being second in charge at Shield kicking in. "Are you ninety-nine percent sure you're right, seventy-five percent, it's a fifty-fifty toss-up, or you're just wildly guessing? Although I assume it's not the last, or you wouldn't be telling Harry."

"I would like to think that I am closer to ninety-nine percent than otherwise," answered Dumbledore, "but I would also like to see what you think about my suspicions, and you can tell me how correct you think I am."

A few minutes later, Dumbledore had brought out the Pensive and the four of them were diving into the memories of one Bob Ogden, former Head of the Magical Law Enforcement squad. Beforehand, Dumbledore had warned them that much of the conversation was going to be in Parseltongue, that he'd planned on letting Harry discover that for himself, but since there were now two non-Parseltongue speakers as well, it was best they know that going in. So throughout the entire memory of Ogden's visit to the Gaunt residence, Fitz quickly and quietly translated all of the Parseltongue for his wives so thatthey would know what was being said as well.

Arriving back in Dumbledore's office a memory later, the headmaster concluded, "Ogden apparated back to the Ministry and returned with reinforcements within fifteen minutes. Morfin and his father attempted to fight, but both were overpowered, removed from the cottage, and subsequently convicted by the Wizengamot. Morfin, who already had a record of Muggle attacks, was sentenced to three years in Azkaban. Marvolo, who had injured several Ministry employees in addition to Ogden, received six months."

"Marvolo — that's Riddle's middle name," said Fitz. "I assume they must be related, if we're looking at this particular memory?"

"Indeed — I'm glad you're keeping up," answered Dumbledore. "That was Voldemort's grandfather. Marvolo, his son, Morfin, and his daughter, Merope, were the last of the Gaunts, a very ancient Wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins. Lack of sense coupled with a great liking for grandeur meant that the family gold was squandered several generations before Marvolo was born. He, as you saw, was left in squalor and poverty, with a very nasty temper, a fantastic amount of arrogance and pride, and a couple of family heirlooms that he treasured just as much as his son, and rather more than his daughter."

"So Merope must be Riddle's mother, since he's Tom Marvolo Riddle, not Tom Marvolo Gaunt," said Daisy.

"Indeed — and it so happens that we also had a glimpse of Voldemort's father. I wonder whether you noticed," replied Dumbledore.

"Tom — the man on the horse," replied Simmons, suddenly understanding. "Meaning Riddle's mum — well, our Riddle, who now that I'm thinking about it, I think I knew was named after his father, making that Tom Riddle, Sr — already had her crush on our Riddle's father."

"So how did they end up together, since Tom Senior clearly despised the Gaunts?" asked Fitz. "Or at least he did when this memory occurred, though I suppose it's reasonable that he might never have actually met Merope yet at this point — he only mentioned Morfin, and not by name."

"Do not forget that Merope was a witch. I do not believe that her magical powers appeared to their best advantage when she was being terrorized by her father," answered Dumbledore. "Once Marvolo and Morfin were safely in Azkaban, once she was alone and free for the first time in her life, then, I am sure, she was able to give full rein to her abilities and to plot her escape from the desperate life she had led for eighteen years. In which case, can you not think of any measure Merope could have taken to make Tom Riddle forget his Muggle companion, and fall in love with her instead?"

"Love potion — so she raped him," said Daisy. "Even using him to impregnate her. Well, if Riddle ever found that out — Riddle Jr, that is, our Riddle — that could definitely help explain why he turned out so bad. Learning that your mom raped your dad in order to conceive you could definitely give you a few issues, especially when you're a diagnosable psychopath on top of that."

"Yes, well, um, uh...I am inclined to think that she used a love potion," stuttered Dumbledore, flustered by a student of the first time since he'd become an adult — even Voldemort had never flustered him as a student. Waryied, sure, but never flustered. "I am sure it would have seemed more romantic to her, and I do not think it would have been very difficult, some hot day, when Riddle was riding alone, to persuade him to take a drink of water. In any case, within a few months of the scene we have just witnessed, the village of Little Hangleton enjoyed a tremendous scandal. You can imagine the gossip it caused when the squire's son ran off with the tramp's daughter, Merope.

"But the villagers' shock was nothing to Marvolo's. He returned from Azkaban, expecting to find his daughter dutifully awaiting his return with a hot meal ready on his table. Instead, he found a clear inch of dust and her note of farewell, explaining what she had done. From all that I have been able to discover, he never mentioned her name or existence from that time forth. The shock of her desertion may have contributed to his early death — or perhaps he had simply never learned to feed himself. Azkaban had greatly weakened Marvolo, and he did not live to see Morfin return to the cottage."

"How long were Merope and Tom Senior together?" asked Simmons. "We know Merope died right after Riddle was born, which means Tom Senior had to have either escaped by then, or else already died, since Riddle didn't grow up with him."

"This is once again where we must do a certain amount of guessing," answered Dumbledore. "What we know for sure is that a little over three months after their runaway marriage, Tom Riddle reappeared at the manor house in Little Hangleton without his wife. The rumor flew around the neighborhood that he was talking of being 'hoodwinked' and 'taken in.' What he meant, I am sure, is that he had been under an enchantment that had now lifted, though I daresay he did not dare use those precise words for fear of being thought insane. When they heard what he was saying, however, the villagers guessed that Merope had lied to Tom Riddle, pretending that she was going to have his baby, and that he had married her for this reason."

"And Merope was so long gone by the time she started showing, let alone actually gave birth to Riddle, that they never knew that it was actually nearly the opposite, and she had in fact had his child, only against his will," said Simmons as she nodded her head in understanding. "But that still leaves the question of how he escaped, or else why she finally let him go once she found out that she was pregnant."

"Again, this is guesswork," answered Dumbledore, "but I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby's sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son."

"Shame Senior couldn't have taken his child away from her, and raised him as a muggle like Harry, only not abused. And then Riddle could have gone to Hogwarts from a loving family, and maybe he wouldn't have grown up to be the psychopathic tyrant he did," sighed Daisy. "But I'm sure even if Senior could have taken Merope to a muggle court back then, they still would have sided with her simply because she's the female, and there's no way he could have proven that she'd raped him. And then even if he could have, she still probably would have just used her witchly powers to escape with Senior's child."

Once again, Dumbledore didn't seem to know how to respond to this, so after several seconds he simply said, "I think that will do for tonight. And I must ask you not to repeat any of this to anybody outside this room. It would not be a good idea if word got around how much I know, or suspect, about Lord Voldemort's secrets."

"Of course, Sir," replied Simmons, before adding dryly, "Not that anyone else would probably even be willing to listen, considering the fact they practically faint or pee themselves or run away screaming every time they even hear the word 'Voldemort', and presumably don't even have a clue who Tom Marvolo Riddle is. Hard to have a conversation with someone who's having self-induced seizures the entire time you're trying to talk with them."

But if Dumbledore agreed or disagreed with her, he didn't say, and FitzSkimmons bid the headmaster goodnight, before heading back to their dorm.

"So what all did we learn?" asked Daisy a few minutes later as they walked, hoping not to run across Filch or Mrs Norris after hours. "We now know that Riddle was a rape baby, and his family on his mom's side were a bunch of inbreds with almost Aida-level anger management issues."

"We learned that he got his parseltongue ability hereditarily, which he then somehow passed on to Harry with the failed curse," said Simmons. "Still not sure how that worked, I've never come across anything in my or Hermione's reading that suggests that's even possible, but back in second year Dumbledore did tell Harry that Riddle transferred some of his powers to Harry, and that that was one of them."

"Riddle is directly descended from Salazar Slytherin, and possibly the Peverells, whoever they were were, based on the family heirlooms," said Fitz. "And Dumbledore's somehow got his hands on the Peverell ring — he was wearing it the night he picked me up, and it was sitting on Dumbledore's table near the door tonight. But that seems like that's about it."

"Well, I suppose Dumbledore is building up to something — this was only the first night," answered Simmons.

On the second Saturday of term, Simmons was reading the Daily Prophet at breakfast, when she suddenly gave a little gasp.

"Dear?" asked Daisy, as she and Fitz turned to look at their wife.

"Well, this sure is unexpected — Stan Shunpike's been arrested as a Death Eater," answered Simmons. "Nothing about a date for his trial, though — assuming they are granting people their God-given rights this time around, which sadly, and criminally, they may still not be doing. The person sitting in the chair changes, but the policies rarely do to any real degree. Says they raided his house after he was overheard talking about the Death Eaters' secret plans in a pub — doesn't mention anything about whether they got a warrant, either, to do so or just busted in, trespassing on private property."

"You know, there seems something sus about that, though," commented Fitz, tapping the piece of bacon he was holding against his plate as he thought it out. "If he's a real Death Eater — an actual one, not some low-tier lackey — it's unlikely he could be stupid enough to be talking about their plans out in public, and Riddle and the boys still let him join their club. But if he's either a low-level redshirt, or has nothing to do with Riddle at all, then how did he hear any of their plans to be yakking about them in a pub to begin with? And beyond that, how did whoever overheard him and turned him in know that they were Death Eater plans to begin with? I highly doubt Death Eater secret plans include the words 'death', 'eaters', 'secret', or 'plans'. Something's not adding up here."

"An actual Death Eater figure that the Ministry was getting a little too close for comfort to another actual Death Eater, so they threw the Ministry an easy target to arrest? Sent in an anonymous report that Stan Shunpike was practically Riddle's new adopted son, and the government bought it hook, line, and sinker, because all they've managed to prove through two wars is that they're incompetent morons when they're not too busy being tyrants and refusing people's right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury?" suggested Daisy. "Or maybe the Ministry is simply so desperate to look like they're doing anything helpful after how badly they fucked up last year, that they just went out and arrested a completely innocent man without a shred of evidence against him, just so they could plaster it all over the newspaper and increase the sheeple's trust in them."

"I honestly wouldn't put that past them, sadly," sighed Simmons. "But the first suggestion's a good one too, and less nefarious — and boy, how times have fallen, to be able to say that framing an innocent man is the less nefarious possibility."

"It would be interesting to know exactly what tip-off the Ministry got, and who it was that reported it," said Fitz. "We never will, of course, but it would be interesting."

"And whether any gold was handed over as a 'completely unrelated' 'donation' at the same time as information that Shunpike is Riddle's new second-in-command was," added Daisy.

~FSK~

That evening, as FitzSkimmons entered the Great Hall after their afternoon hike, they were stopped by Professor Slughorn.

"Ah, just the people I was hoping to see!" he boomed genially. "I was hoping to catch you before dinner! What do you say to a spot of supper tonight in my rooms instead? We're having a little party, just a few rising stars, I've got McLaggen coming and Zabini, the charming Melinda Bobbin — I don't know whether you know her? Her family owns a large chain of apothecaries."

Still wondering how getting Slughorn to like Harry was going to be beneficial, FitzSkimmons said that they would be there. So at 20:00, they walked into Slughorn's office with a handful of other students.

Amongst them was a large, wiry-haired boy who'd been at the party on the train as well, who as soon as he saw Fitz, exclaimed pompously for everyone to hear, "Guess what, Harry! I'm the new keeper for Gryffindor, just got confirmed this morning! So I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other. Hey, weren't you seeker last year, Weasley?"

"I was," answered Daisy, all three of them thankful that they had something to say that wasn't that Fitz wasn't playing this year, so they would not in fact be seeing a lot of ol' what's-his-face.

They also suavely hurried to the far side of the table from where McLaggen immediately headed to the available seat next to Slughorn, the other seat being taken by some famous guest none of the three of them had ever heard of. Unfortunately, this meant that they ended up right next to Ginevra Weasley, who as they sat down screeched in a voice very reminiscent of her mother's with a matching glare, "Harry! Where were you this morning?! Katie made me try out for seeker! Your ban's over, remember!?"

"I think we were snogging in stand of firs when seeker tryouts were going on," answered Fitz, pretending like he was thinking back to remember where exactly they were that morning instead of at tryouts. "But that's really a wild stab in the flipping dark, because we weren't anywhere near the pitch at the time of seeker tryouts to know what we were doing then. We might have been snogging behind a rock, Hermione might have been throwing Ronna in the lake because she said one too many stupid things for one morning, or we might have been snogging in the shade of an old oak tree, I don't really know. Also, I had no clue tryouts were this morning until you just said they were, though McLaggen's comments as we walked in did seem to indicate something of the sort."

"Also, also, If there were tryouts this morning, how does what's-his-name over there not know that you're seeker instead of Harry?" added Daisy.

"Snogging?!" Ginevra exclaimed in disbelief, like she'd never heard of such a thing before, despite having made her way through multiple Gryffindor boys already by that point. "But you're our best player! The best player at Hogwarts! Our key to winning!"

"Didn't you win without me last year? And didn't you win with your sister, who you've completely failed to mention wasn't there?" asked Fitz. "But getting back to the point, how does he not know I'm not playing this year?"

"Keeper tryouts were first — I guess he went swaggering off to tell the entire castle he was keeper," growled Ginevra, clearly less than pleased with her teammate. "And believe me, I'm fully aware Ronna wasn't there, when we ended up with — him. But let's be honest, we kind of won despite you last year, sister."

"No arguments here," replied Daisy.

"Well, hopefully he'll settle down a bit once the excitement of making his first team has worn off," said Simmons. "How was he, though, personality aside for the moment? Is he any good?"

Ginevra sighed, slouching back in her chair. "He saved eight out of ten goals in the two rounds of tryouts, and the next best was only six, with one of those very, very lucky. But he's an arrogant prat!"

But before Simmons could reply anything soothing, Slughorn gathered their attention, and introduced Melinda Bobbin of the chain of apothecaries renown, the guest of the night.

Like lunch (and afternoon) on the train, the entire meal was about expounding on everyone there's claim to fame, though Fitz was happy to see that he had upgraded Ronna and Hermione to the level of everyone else there, and expounded on them as well, especially in regards to potions, instead of just talking about Harry Potter. Of course, he did still laud Harry more than anyone else there, but that was rather to be expected out of someone who wanted the entire world to know he was on first name basis with 'The Chosen One'.

Fortunately, all this talking meant that Ginevra couldn't try to ask Harry why he wasn't playing seeker this year like every year before, and when Slughorn finally dismissed them at well past curfew, FitzSkimmons put their day job skills to great use and slipped away unseen back to their married dorms, happy for the gathering to be over.