As always, thanks to my incredible beta, FalconHonour.

Sirius Black, Lucius Malfoy, Hyperion Greengrass and Severus Snape stood in the middle of the woods outside Little Hangleton, looking at the dilapidated shack that apparently served as the Gaunt ancestral home.

The walls were shaky at best, and a snake was nailed to the door, its carcass magically preserved. The forest was deathly silent, with not even the rustle of leaves or the scuttle of an animal to be heard. It was as if no living thing dared to alert the Gaunt Shack of its presence for fear of suffering the same fate as the snake.

"So," Sirius said, rocking back and forth on his heels, "Are we just going to stand here like a bunch of wusses, or are we actually going to go inside?"

Severus rubbed his temples, "Merlin, Black, could you try to be even an iota less Gryffindor?"

Sirius shrugged, "Wouldn't be half as fun." With that, he went up to the door and kicked it open. Instead of swinging open, the door fell to the floor with a thud and Sirius looked back, apologetically. "Sorry." As the other three men joined him inside the house, Sirius asked, "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Any proof or evidence that the Dark Lord was a Gaunt," Lucius said, "He claimed to be descended from Salazar Slytherin directly, although I have yet to uncover any proof to back up his claim. I read over some of my father's old letters to and from his schoolmates, because he's always told me that he and the Dark Lord went to Hogwarts together and were close friends in their schooldays. The only name I didn't recognize was a man by the name of Tom Riddle."

"So was this Riddle fellow...," Hyperion hesitated, "Was he the Dark Lord?"
"That seems to be the only option of who it could've been," said Lucius.

"Riddle isn't exactly a Wizarding name, though, is it?" Sirius asked, "I mean, Walburga made me memorise every single Pureblood's family tree back to the days of the Founders. I admit I was hardly a good student, but I don't remember there being a Riddle."

"Severus, do you know anything about this?" Hyperion asked.

Severus's face was stony. "I know the identity of the Dark Lord, but I'm under oath not to share it with you all. As such, I can neither confirm nor deny that Riddle was the Dark Lord's original name."

"What are we doing at the Gaunt House, then?" Sirius threw his hands in the air. "I mean, this certainly isn't the place I wanted to be. What's the point of all of this if Riddle wasn't even a Gaunt?"

"His mother could've been a Gaunt," Hyperion pointed out.

"But would she have married a man who was at best, a half blood?" Lucius pondered aloud, "The Gaunts were rather enthusiastic about their view on blood purity."

"Which would explain the Dark Lord's similar beliefs," Hyperion nodded.

Sirius snorted, "With him being a half blood? That seems hypocritical."

"The Dark Lord was not always the most veracious of men," Severus drawled.

"So how do you even know if what he was saying about being descended from Slytherin was true?" Sirius asked.

Hyperion shrugged. "We don't. That's what we're here to try and find out."

Sirius sighed in acceptance. "Fine. I'll go search through the pile of rotting food left in pots and pans, and the rest of the kitchen."

"I'll check under the floorboards," Hyperion said.

"I will look for any hidden compartments and in the walls," Severus stated.

Lucius nodded, "And I can go look through the bedroom."

Each man got to work. It was a tedious effort on each of their parts, slow and dull and seemingly fruitless. The house reeked of rot - rotting food, rotting floorboards, rotting walls. The smell was so bad, in fact, that each of the men cast a Bubble-Head charm in an attempt to escape the permeating stench.

Sirius took to his task with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. While digging up dirt on Voldemort's secret past had sounded interesting when Lucius had told him about it, the actual process was...less so. Sirius had imagined it to be like solving a mystery, maybe even fighting Death Eaters and interrogating old blood purists, rather than searching through archives and old papers, and going into a dilapidated old shack. Still, it was all for the kids. The kids that Sirius had never known before, but had come to care for rather quickly.

There was Draco, his baby cousin, a kid who he had assumed would grow up to be a snob when he read about the boy's birth in the newspapers back in 1980. However, while Draco had his pride, he was still just a boy. A boy who mooned over the smartest girl in his year. His devotion to Hermione reminded Sirius of the carefree days when James chased after Lily relentlessly, spouting declarations of love. There was Hermione herself, the girl who had gotten Sirius his freedom. A girl who loved to read and had a strong moral compass that she wouldn't let anyone divert. A girl who reminded him of Lily. There was Theo, a bookish boy, who was seemingly quieter than the rest of his friends and reminded Sirius all too much of Regulus, before everything had all gone wrong. It was almost painful to be around Theo some days. Then there was Daphne, who made Sirius reminisce about Marlene McKinnon, a girl he had dated back in sixth and seventh year. The girl who had finally convinced him to ask Remus out. They were both lively and confident girls, and although Marlene would have hexed him for the thought if she was alive today, Sirius now honestly thought that in hindsight, Marlene would've made an incredible Slytherin. Pansy was rather closed off and a tad harsher and sarcastic, but from what he knew about her living arrangements, it was far too similar to how his parents had treated him for his liking. Hannah, the lone Hufflepuff of the group, had the same cheery attitude that Alice Longbottom had embodied before Bellatrix had gotten to her. Sirius had visited her and Frank in St. Mungos once, just before he left, having been given a clean bill of health by the Healers, but it had been too much for him to bear, seeing some of his oldest and closest friends broken beyond repair. He hadn't gone back since. Finally, there was Ginny, whose situation was like his own reflected through a broken mirror. The girl was spunky and bright and optimistic, in spite of everything. And then, of course, there was the youngest, Astoria. Bright and bold and overdramatic, the girl could just as easily be a Gryffindor as a Slytherin when she was sorted next year. Astoria had always insisted on dragging Sirius along to wherever she went with the other adults, and Sirius had finally realised that it was her way of trying to include him into the group.

So, going through rotting meat, and orange peels covered in mould was all worth 'd do anything if it meant that these kids, who reminded him so much of the people he once knew, could have a brighter future. A future where they wouldn't have to worry about Voldemort, or Death Eaters. Where they wouldn't have to go into hiding, or be killed far too young. The world that Sirius desperately wished had come twenty years ago.

Oblivious to Sirius's inner musings, Hyperion methodically tore through the floorboards, one by one. Most were terribly easy to get through, being warped from water and rotting from the outside in. That was, until he came across a floorboard in the middle of the main room of the house. It was jammed into the flooring, and visibly newer than the other pieces of wood.

Hyperion frowned and vanished the piece of wood, instead of attempting to pull it up. And underneath the floorboard laid an ornate golden box, that was surrounded by layers of curses. This was not his specialty - it would be better for somebody else to try and break through the curses.

"Severus?" he called out.

The dour looking potions master looked up from where he was peeling back the wallpaper. "Yes?"

"I need you to come and take a look at this."

Severus frowned, before coming over. Hyperion levitated the box onto the remnants of what must have once been the table, and set it down. "It's highly warded. Lots of curses. I think it might be better if you tried a go at it first."

Severus nodded, and quickly got to work. After nearly half an hour, the box clicked and unlocked, and Sirius and Lucius came over to see what was inside.

Hyperion hesitantly opened the box. Inside lay a gaudy signet ring for the House of Gaunt. The stone inlaid in the ring was murky and clouded, and the entire piece of jewelry gave off such a strong dark aura that it seemed to choke the life from the entire room.

Hyperion looked up, and realized that all three of the other men seemed to be staring at the ring, their eyes as clouded as the stone itself. Slowly, as if in a trance, the three men started moving towards the ring.

Alarmed, Hyperion shouted out, "Lucius! Severus! Sirius!"

They paid him no heed. It was as if they were in some sort of trance.

When Severus reached for the ring, Hyperion, panicking, stunned him. This was deeply disturbing - Severus was not the kind of person to be unable to resist such a dark item. Quickly, Hyperion stunned Lucius and Sirius, before closing the box back on the ring.

"Rennervate," Hyperion said, pointing his wand at each of the men. As they all came to, Hyperion frowned. "What was all that about? Severus, Lucius, I know the two of you have dealt with several objects as dark as this without blinking an eye. Sirius being lured in, I can understand, but you two?"

"Lily was there," Severus said, slowly. "Lily was there and that ring could've brought her back. She said that it would bring her back to life."

Lucius looked at Severus in confusion. "Lily Potter? No, I saw the muggle family. The muggle family that I-" he cut himself off, "And they were telling me that I could bring them back to life, that I could make things right…"

"It'd be easier to name who wasn't there," Sirius said, in a dull voice. "James. Lily. Marlene. Dorea. Charlus. Reggie. Even though we didn't get along once we started school. Even though he was a Death Eater. My baby brother was there."

"What the hell was that thing?" Lucius asked, his voice distant. "If it showed us those that we've regretted the loss of...what is it?"

"I don't know," Hyperion said, his voice hard. "All that I know is that that thing gave off the darkest magic I've ever felt."

"I've felt something like that before, once or twice," Lucius admitted. "I believe it was with a book that I sold to Borgin and Burkes. A book that had been in my study for a while."

"Then you can try and buy it back from Borgin and Burkes," Hyperion suggested. "Or perhaps figure out who they sold it to, and buy it off them."

"It may be best if Sirius and I go down into town to ask around about any Riddles who may have lived around here," Lucius said, "Severus can stay here, in case there are any further items that need to have curses broken, and Hyperion seems to be the most unaffected by the ring, so in case if they come across any more items like that, he would be able to handle it."

About half an hour later, Lucius and Sirius had walked down into the town of Little Hangleton.

"So," Sirius said, kicking a pebble around, "Divide and conquer?"

Lucius nodded, "I suppose that may be the best method. I can go to the town hall, and talk to the government officials and look through the old archives."

"Have fun talking to all the stuffy Muggles," Sirius said, before turning off and heading towards Main Street. Lucius would be more suited to talk to the boring Muggle governmental figures. He'd feel right at home. But Sirius going in there, asking strangely specific questions in his shaggy black hair and leather jacket? That probably wouldn't go over well.

As Sirius walked through the town, he spotted a scruffy looking old man, sitting on a bench and yelling at the pigeons. Bingo. The town's elderly 'lunatic' - as they were viewed - always knew everything. When James and Lily had been in Godric Hollow, that person was Bathilda Bagshot, and they had learned more deeply hidden wizarding gossip from the old bat in three years than Sirius had overheard in his eleven years of spying on his father's meetings and his mother's teas, which was truly saying something.

Sirius sat down next to the old man, and stuck out his hand. "Sirius Black, and yes, that's seriously my name."

"You're new in town," the old man said, with a thick Suffolk accent, "The name is Bertie. Are you staying around or just passing through?"

"Passing through," Sirius replied, "Although I'm trying to figure something out before I leave."

"Then you've come to the right place," Bertie said, "They all say I beat the Devil round the Gooseberry-Bush, but there's not a thing that I don't know, and everything I say is true. That's a Bertie guarantee."

Sirius nodded, grinning. "That's what I was counting on, Bertie. Do you happen to know anything about the Gaunts? They were the people who used to live in the old shack in the woods. Oh, and, while we're at it, do you know of anyone by the name of Riddle?"

"Oh that's quite a story, innit?" Bertie chuckled, "They talked about it for weeks down the pub. But I'm the only person who knows what happened to the Riddles, even though everyone thinks I'm chuckle-headed. I saw it, with my own two eyes, I did."

He took in a deep breath. "There were three Riddles. There was Mary and Thomas, who were married, and their son, Tom. See, the Riddles were all high and mighty folk and they had a big house, so they needed help to keep it clean. That's what me ma did. She lived in their house and worked and kept it clean, and when I was a wee lad back in the late thirties, I began working for them as well. One day, Tom Riddle pulled me aside and he told me this story. Of course, it was a story he told everyone, and they all thought he was mad, but I believed him. He told me of the Gaunts, these people who used to live just off of the Riddle property in an old shack by the woods. Devil-worshippers that practiced magic. There was old Marvolo, who was the father, and then his son and daughter Morfin and Merope. See, Tom told me of how he'd met Merope one time, and Morfin gave him hives, just by pointing a stick at him. Tom told me that soon after, Merope started giving him drinks and potions, and made him fall in love with her. They ran off together and got married, and when she was pregnant, Tom said that she stopped giving him the potions. She tried to get him to stay, saying that she loved him, and that she was naming her child after him, but he left right quick. He didn't love her. He hated her, said she'd cost him his chance with Miss Cecilia. She wouldn't be a second wife, not when there might be a son out of Merope, so that her children couldn't inherit the Riddle house.

Bertie looked off into the distance, "That seemed to be the end of it all until one night when I was a strapping young lad. Me ma had died in '42, but I still worked for the Riddles. I took care of their electric lights and their cars, kept everything running, see? I had a knack for that kind of thing. I had a friend, named Frank Bryce, who was their gardener, and they had hired an old woman by the name of Ada to replace me ma. One night, I was sneaking back in from seeing a girl in town, and the house was quite loud. And...and what I saw, I tell you, I'll never forget. There was a young man who looked just like Tom, who was standing in the middle of the parlour with Tom, Mary and Thomas. He was spitting feathers, he was. Said he was Tom's son, from Merope, and called himself Tom Marvolo Riddle. Called them all a strange word like 'Muddle' or 'Mubble', or something like that."

"Do you mean Muggle?" Sirius asked.

"That's it," Bertie nodded, "Called them all filthy muggles. He took out a real fancy stick, and said something that sounded like 'abracadabra', and a green light shot out of it, and the Riddles all froze and collapsed. He rushed out of the house right after, and I went right to the Riddles, but they were all dead. I went to report it, and at first, they thought it was me what did it, but Mary-Ellen told them I had been with her that whole night. And then, they thought it was Frank. I knew it wasn't Frank, and I kept on telling them what I had seen, but everyone thought I had been drunk, or screwy in the head. But I know what I saw," Bertie said, absolutely certain. "Thankfully, they didn't have any evidence on Frank, so they had to let him go free. I made sure to keep on telling everyone what happened, but they all thought I was addle-headed." Bertie leaned back on the bench and looked at Sirius's stunned face. "And here's the part where you tell me I'm crazy, innit?"

"No," Sirius said quickly, "No, actually. You've actually been a great help to me." He fumbled into his pockets, looking for his wallet. He pulled out a wad of muggle money and shoved it into the man's hands. "Here, take it. It's my thanks for you telling me what happened."

"These are fifty pound notes," Bertie said, his brows furrowed.

"Is that not a lot?" Sirius asked.

"Ah," Bertie said, "You're one of those rich foreigners ain't you, who don't understand our money? No, what you gave me is a lot. Almost too much. I'm just Old Bertie, I don't need all this."

Sirius shrugged, "I have no use for it. Take it. It's yours." Sirius looked up to see Lucius walking over towards him. "Looks like it's time for me to leave. Thank you, though. You've been a great help."

Sirius and Lucius walked back up the hill and met Severus and Hyperion, who were standing just outside of the house.

Sirius grinned. "You know, I was an Auror for a little bit, back in '80 and '81, and I would just like to say that, fifteen years later, I'm still just as good."

"Do you expect us to be able to make sense of the blithering nonsense you're spouting, Black?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, no, no, you guys should all go first," Sirius said, "Mine is kind of a bombshell."

"Well, we didn't find anything in the rest of the house," Hyperion said, "So we ended up putting it back together so that if anyone came around to see if anything was out of place, they wouldn't find anything."

"Ah," Lucius nodded, "That's some good thinking on your parts. While I was in town, I went through the records. I found a record mentioning a family of Riddles, who were killed in the 1940s, so we do at the very least know that there were Riddles in Little Hangleton around the time the Dark Lord would have been born." He looked at Sirius, who was rocking on his heels. "Sirius?"

"So, I was talking to one of the townspeople named Bertie, and he happened to be one of the hired help for the Riddles back in the thirties and forties. So he got to know the family pretty well. There was Thomas Riddle, who was married to Mary Riddle, and they had a son together, named Tom Riddle. And then, of course, there were the Gaunts, with Merope and Morfin, and their father Marvolo. But this Tom Riddle isn't the Tom Riddle we know of. He was a Muggle. But he knew of magic. So, according to Bertie, Tom said that he was taken in by Merope, and tricked into loving her with potions. They eloped, and ran off together. When Merope got pregnant, she stopped dosing Tom with Amortentia, hoping that he would stay with her because of the baby or because he loved her. Instead, Tom hightails it out of there, and never sees Merope again." Sirius took in a deep breath. "Bertie was sneaking in one night back in the forties, when he saw a man kill all three of the Riddles with the killing curse. The man who did it looked just like a younger version of Tom Riddle, and before he killed the Riddles, he revealed himself to be Tom Marvolo Riddle - Tom Riddle's son by Merope Gaunt."

The men reconvened in Greengrass Manor, the gold box and town records in tow. Narcissa and Selene sat hunched over a letter, talking in hushed whispers in the drawing room, while Astoria sat upside-down on the couch, reading 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard'. When Sirius, Severus, Lucius and Hyperion came in, all three looked up.

"So?" Selene asked, "Did you find anything?"

"Merlin above did we find something," Hyperion groaned sitting down. "We found two things, actually."

"Care to share?" Narcissa asked, delicately raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, well," Lucius began, but he was abruptly cut off.

"Oh, no no no no, dear, I forgot to mention that Selene and I have just learned something quite interesting," Narcissa said, her voice sugary sweet. "Do you remember that little black diary that said T. M. Riddle on the front? The one that I told you that we should burn because it seemed to blacken the spirit of the whole room whenever we touched or opened it? The one you said was alright to be sold to Borgin and Burkes, and that it would, in all likelihood, sell for a very high price? That book?

Lucius nodded, on edge. "I do recall that book. In fact, we had something about that as-"

"I'm not quite finished, dear," Narcissa said, cutting him off smoothly, "Because that book somehow ended up in Hogwarts. And not only did it end up in Hogwarts, but it ended up in the possession of one Harry Potter."

The men froze.

Lucius put in a last ditch effort, "Are you absolutely sure-?"

"Oh yes I am. Because our son wrote home about it."

Lucius abruptly sat on the couch. "Narcissa, what are we to do about this?"

"Well," Hyperion said, trying to diffuse the situation, "Do we know what exactly this book does?"

Selene shook her head. "That's the problem. It could do anything, and we wouldn't have a clue. Severus, have you any idea?"
Snape shook his head, sinking into a chair. "There are any number of things an object as dark as you say this journal is could do, both good and bad. It could be something as harmless as storing all the emotions that are written into it, which would require an incredibly dark ritual to be performed upon the book. On the other hand, it could draw the user in, so that they wrote in the book nearly every day, and poured their soul into it, bit by bit, and they would be trapped. I can advise Professor McGonagall to conduct a search on the boys' dormitories of Gryffindor, but that's about as far as I can go being that-" his voice cut out.

"Severus?" Selene asked, concerned, "Are you quite alright?"

"Dumbledore has him under a vow not to relay any information that is in direct relation to the secrets Dumbledore knows about the Dark Lord," Lucius explained.

"But," Sirius said, "We were able to find it out anyways. Turns out, Voldemort was actually a half-blood named Tom Marvolo Riddle. He was the son of Merope Gaunt, and-get this-a Muggle man."

"Sirius," Narcissa said sharply, "Now is not the time to joke."

"I'm always Sirius," Sirius protested, and at Narcissa's scowl, he hastily added, "But I'm not joking. Promise."

As the men filled Selene and Narcissa in on what they had learned, nobody noticed Astoria looking curiously at the golden box that had been laid to rest on the table. Slowly, careful not to draw attention to herself, Astoria grabbed the box, and unclasped the lid. The effect was almost instantaneous, as Sirius and Severus' eyes glazed over, while Lucius gripped desperately onto the couch. Narcissa, who was sitting next to Astoria, quickly grabbed the box from the young girl's hands, and snapped it shut.

"And what is this?" she asked, her voice an octave higher than normal. "You brought another object into the house that feels just like the one I told you to get rid of? The one that should not be in our son's school?"

"Narcissa-" Lucius said, holding up his hands, but quickly everything devolved into chaotic interrogations coming from all ends.

Astoria frowned, before trying to speak. "Hey, guys?" It seemed as if nobody had heard her the first time, so she repeated again, "Everybody?" When that didn't work, she screamed, "STOP!" All of the adults looked at her, their bodies completely frozen. "Oh no," Astoria said, chewing on her lip, "I didn't mean to freeze everyone. How do I undo it?"

"Finite Incantatem," Selene said, although her voice was muddled from being unable to move her mouth.

Astoria, a bit nervously, picked her mother's wand out of her robe pockets and waved it in the air. "Finite Incantatem." The adults all sagged back from their positions, able to move again.

"Astoria, dear," Hyperion asked, "What were you trying to say?"

"I know what the ring is," Astoria said confidently, flipping through her book as she spoke . She landed on her desired page, and showed it to everyone. "It's the Resurrection Stone!"

Selene's eyes softened, "Astoria, those are just children's tales, you know that."

"But it looks just like the picture in the book," Astoria protested.

"Astori-" Selene began.

"I think she's right," Sirius said softly.

"Sirius-" Narcissa started, but Lucius cut her off.

"No, Cissa, it makes sense," he said, "It was able to make us see those who have died, and they tell us that we could bring them back. What other artefact could do such a thing?"

"So then," Severus said, "Assuming that this is the Resurrection Stone, why does it give off such a dark aura? It must've been tampered with, perhaps like the diary."

"More importantly," Hyperion said, "Where are the other two Hallows?"

Hey, so I've had a really rough past few days, so I'd appreciate some love in the reviews 3.

As always, check out my tumblr to find other fics I've enjoyed reading, as well as extra content, ideas, or musings about Snakes and Sunflowers!