I'm sad that no one even tried to figure out the riddle. This chapter does get a dedication though, to momocolady and Angelis Raye for figuring out two other major plot mysteries. Note that I am aware of the fact that the orphanage was in London, but putting it in Little Hangleton made the story easier to write.
Chapter Eight: What's in a Name?
Rose Evans ended the fire call she had just had with her other sister, Blaire, who was six years younger than she was. She had fire-called Blaire, to check up on her son, Octavian. The sixteen year old boy had been staying with his Aunt Blaire while Rose and Petunia worked things out. It had been agreed upon by all three of the Evans sisters that Blaire, Rose, and Octavian would be move into 4 Privet Drive later that month and that Octavian would attend Hogwarts in September. He had just turned sixteen, and would thus be at a sixth year level. Rose had begun his schooling when he was eleven, just as if he were to start regular school. Rose had written to the headmistress and it was decided that he would be placed in sixth year. Walking into the kitchen, Rose noticed that Petunia had received a letter. From the look on the older woman's face, the letter contained shocking news.
"What is it Tunia? What's wrong? Who is the letter from?" Her voice was full of concern. Her older sister looked up. For a moment, it was as if she hadn't heard the questions at all.
Then she handed Rose the parchment and said, "It's from my son. I can barely believe what if says. And look how he signs it! The 'Dudley Dursley' is just a courtesy signature. He's going by father's name now, Terrence Evans. And he's been living with the Longbottoms." Quickly scanning the letter, Rose could easily see why her sister was shocked. But then again, hadn't Petunia done a 180 turn around in her attitude toward magic over the past year too? After she finished reading the entire thing, she pulled out a chair and sat down, handing the letter back to her sister.
"Well, what do you think I should do," Petunia asked. It was very clear what she wanted to do. I just wasn't clear (to her) if it was the right thing. Rose thought it was quite clear.
"I say, get out a quill and some parchment this instant and write to McGonagall. Better yet, let's fire-call her and then you can write back to your son."
"Alright, I believe I'll do just that," Petunia said, still a little in shock. Just as she was about to leave the kitchen however, there was a tapping at the window and Petunia recognized the owl on the windowsill as Hedwig. "Wait a moment. Here's a letter from Harry." She went to the window and opened it. The snowy owl flew into the room and after Petunia took the letter from the bird's leg, Hedwig perched on one of the chairs. Apparently, Harry had told his owl to wait for a response. Petunia looked at the envelope and announced, "Rose it's for you."
Rose took the envelope that was handed to her, but then dropped it, as if burned. She made a strange noise and an almost frightened look came over her face. There was nothing frightening or suspect about the envelope, save for the way it was addressed:
Mrs. Rosanne Elizabeth Black
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging, Surrey
"Petunia," the red haired witch asked suspiciously, "did you ever tell Harry who I was married to?"
"No. Why?"
"Tunia, it's addressed to Mrs. .Rosanne Elizabeth Black! Is this Harry's handwriting?" Petunia looked the envelope over once more and nodded, also mentioning that it was most definitely their nephew's owl too. "I don't want to open it," Rose declared moodily.
"Rose, it's just a letter," Petunia insisted, "And it cannot possibly be any stranger than my letter. Besides, you asked Harry to write to you."
"I know all that! But how did he know my married name was Black?" The older of the two sisters sighed as she sat back down.
"Did you know that Harry inherited Grimwald Place from Sirius?" Rose shook her head. "He lives there now," Petunia explained, "and he probably saw your name on the tapestry and thought that you'd appreciate being called by your married name since you never legally ended your marriage, even after your husband died." This information seemed to calm down the other witch significantly. Exhaling loudly, Rose picked up the envelope and opened it. To her relief, the letter was only an invitation to dinner that evening. Unfortunately, Petunia already had plans and had to decline. Rose wrote on the back of the parchment that she would me there at six o'clock, just like the letter said. Then she replaced the parchment in the envelope and, crossing out her own name and address, wrote:
Mr. Henry James Potter
12 Grimwald Place
London
Midmorning at Grimwald Place found Regulus Augustus Black pacing back and forth in the den. He had just been informed by Ginny, who had been the only one to cross reference all the names of all the unknown people on the clock to the tapestry, that his wife, Rosanne, was still alive. Ginny waited patiently for him to stop pacing so that she could talk to him. Hermione, who had written out Melanie's riddle and was now attempting to solve it, was in the library. Ron was still asleep. Harry had yet to come out of his room since the locket incident the previous evening. Realizing that Regulus was not likely to stop pacing any time in the near future, Ginny decided to go and see if her boyfriend was alright. She was just about to get up from her chair when the young man in question appeared in the doorway.
"Good morning, Ginny. Good morning, Regulus. Regulus, whatever are you pacing for?" Harry seemed to be in good spirits once more, though Ginny could tell that from that morning on, everyone would be hearing a lot more of Tom's accent and speech pattern and seeing a lot more of his mannerisms. At the sound of Harry's voice, Regulus ceased his pacing –this was only to be temporary- and turned to face him with a haggard expression that almost made Harry flinch in its similarity to Sirius.
"Well," Regulus began in a voice that clearly highlighted the fact that the man was anxious beyond belief, "Ginny has just told me-"
Ginny interrupted him by saying, "When he says 'just', he means a half hour ago."
"Just told me," Regulus continued as if she had not spoken, "that my wife, your aunt, Rose is still alive and that she's living at Privet Drive with Petunia." Instead of acting shocked by this information, Harry merely leaned against the doorframe, crossed his arms, and silently nodded for the man who was apparently not just his god uncle, but his real uncle, to go on. "Ginny thinks I should contact her, but I'm worried she won't want me back. I played dead for almost seventeen years, when I could have tried just a little bit harder to find her. I really want to contact her, but-" Regulus just let the sentence drop off.
Harry's neutral expression suddenly turned into a good-natured smirk, as he said, "Don't worry. I believe I've already taken care of that." Both the boy's girlfriend and his uncle looked highly confused and slightly suspicious. Harry's apparent foreknowledge of the situation and the impression of omniscience it gave were very reminiscent of Dumbledore. Ginny was about to ask what he meant by that, but found there was no need. For at that precise moment, Hedwig flew out of the kitchen and down the hall to perch on Harry's shoulder. Taking the envelope from his owl's beak and reading the brief note it contained, Harry gave the letter back to Hedwig, who flew upstairs, presumably to Harry's room. Harry looked back up at them and his smirk became a smile as he announced, "Yes, the matter is settled." Ginny ignored her confusion because it was far outweighed by her suspicion. Harry's seeming omniscience, Hedwig's perfect timing; it was as if the whole thing had been planned. The Boy-Who-Lived glanced momentarily at the youngest member of the Weasley clan before he looked significantly at Regulus. "I took the liberty of contacting her earlier this morning and she has, as you can see, just sent back a reply. She wrote that she would be very happy to accept the invitation to dinner tonight. Aunt Petunia unfortunately had to decline, but I was planning on that." Then without a further word and with the Dumbledore-like smile on his face, he left the room and made his way to the kitchen.
Regulus looked too shocked to even comment. Ginny, on the other hand, ranted, "Wonderful! Now we've got a Boy-Who-Lived who acts like Tom Riddle one moment and Albus Dumdbledore the next!" With this, she marched upstairs to wake her lazy brother. That left Regulus to his pacing.
At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Minerva McGonagall looked up from her desk to see a very nervous-looking Petunia Evans' visage in the flames of her fireplace. The new headmistress rose from her desk slowly, not really believing her eyes. Petunia Evans –no, Dursley- had left the magical community over seventeen years ago. Why on earth was she contacting someone, Minerva in particular, now of all times? Taking a seat in front of the fire, Professor McGonagall quickly masked her shock and politely said, "Good day, Mrs. Dursley."
"Oh, it's Evans again, now," the other woman replied, not really meeting her former professor's gaze. "You see, I divorced Vernon early last September."
"Really?" Minerva leaned forward and eagerly listened to Petunia's tale. Some time later, the eldest of the Evans sisters had concluded her story by finally asking if it would be possible to admit Dudley, now called Terry to Hogwarts in the fall. The headmistress leaned back in her armchair and pondered the matter silently for a while before replying, "Ms. Evans, there is no rule stating that your son can not be admitted several years late –though I must admit, I don't believe any other student has ever been admitted this late- , but I would have to get his transcript from Augusta Longbottom and find out what year he should really be placed in. Also, if he truly wished it, he will be known as in the wizarding world as Terrence Evans, providing, of course, that you write to the Ministry's Department of Records and have his name legally changed. I also advise that he tell Mrs. Longbottom and Neville his history, just so that it does not cause tension later on." Petunia nodded.
"Thank you, Professor," Petunia said earnestly, "this will mean so much to him; and it means so much to me."
"You are welcome, Ms. Evans. I shall write to Mrs. Longbottom requesting a transcript. Once I have decided what year he is to be it, I'll contact you and a letter will be sent to him, inviting him to Hogwarts and containing the usual supply list and other such necessary information. I only need to know if I should be owling his letter to the Longbottom's address, or to Privet Drive."
"To Privet Drive; I plan to have him move back home as soon as possible. Hopefully it will be sometime in the next few days."
"Very well, I suspect that you want to write to your son, so I shall bid you have a good afternoon."
"You as well," Petunia returned. Then the connection cut off. For a moment, Minerva's eyes lingered on the fire and then she returned to her desk and began composing a letter to Augusta Longbottom.
It was now noon and Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Ron (who had finally gotten up), and Regulus (who had finally stopped pacing) were all seated around the kitchen table, enjoying a lunch of sandwiches, salad, and fresh lemonade. Hermione was holding half a sandwich in one hand and a pen (the muggle kind) in the other. She tapped the pen against the side of her glass as she scrutinized the piece of parchment that lay before her on the table.
"Mione," Ron complained between mouthfuls of his turkey sandwich, "don't tell me you've already started your summer work. It's only the second full day of summer holiday!"
"I'm actually not doing homework, Ronald," she informed him in a very matter-of-fact tone, without looking up from the parchment she was studying. "If you had woken up at a reasonable hour this morning, you would have already known that I am trying to solve Melanie's riddle." The quartet had stopped calling the Ravenclaw ghost 'Melanie Duval' and started calling her simply 'Melanie', since both Harry and Regulus already did so. Ron looked a bit taken aback that his girlfriend had actually sounded offended when he asked her if she was doing homework. At the same time though, he was relieved. As long as she hadn't stated her homework yet, she wouldn't be harping on him about doing his own.
"Have you figured anything out yet," the boy's younger sister questioned.
"Well not exactly. What I mean to say is that I know what I have to do in order to solve the riddle, but I don't know how to do that. Regulus looked it over and thinks that the whole poem is not so much a list of clues as it is a verbal map or a list of directions, though we're not sure if it's one or the other or even both. I'm rather sure that most of the clues or directions are puns-"
"Whats?"
"Puns, Ron, plays on words," she explained before continuing. "If I could just figure out which phrases to alter, then I think I could solve it."
"Let me see it," Harry requested. In response, Hermione handed him the parchment and the pen. "Hmm," he mused as he looked at the words and their placement, completely ignoring the apparent meaning of the words as they were. The riddle, as Hermione had written, appeared on the parchment like this:
"This riddle has two beginnings here;
One in life, the other in fantasy.
The direction you want is straightfowards,
But you must look as if it's diagonally.
What you seek, though very full,
Is, within, a hollow still.
The answer lies not in memory,
but in memory in a dream."
Harry distinctly remembered that Melanie's ghost had stressed the first word and also given the second word significant weight. He was fairly sure that when she said 'riddle' she had not been referring to the poetry-like list of clues that followed. She had said straightfowards oddly, pausing almost imperceptibly between the t and the f, as well as saying the last two syllables slowly. He took note also of the unnecessary s at the end of the word. The word 'diagonally' had been likewise spoken, with an unnecessary stress on the second to last syllable. Deciding to work with just the first four lines for now, Harry mentally replayed Melanie's pronunciation of the riddle and compared it with what Hermione had written down. Suddenly, he understood and began crossing things out and capitalizing other things. The whole group watched in fascination as he did this, since none of them had any idea what he was actually doing. Finally, he put the pen down.
"Here," he said, passing the parchment back to Hermione. The muggleborn witch looked at the changes he had made, the parchment now looking like this:
This Riddle has two beginnings here:
One in life, the other in fantasy.
The direction you want is straightfowards simply four words,
but you must look as if it's DiagonAlly.
What you wish to find, is↓ though very full,
is within a hollow still.
The answer lies not in memory,
but in memory in a dream.
"Harry," she asked astonished, "how did you ever see that?"
He shrugged. "Back in school, Melanie used to make up riddles and have me solve them." They all looked at him for saying 'me', but then decided to give up and just let him use whatever pronoun he wanted when referring to Tom Riddle. "And the rest, by the way, is in plain speech; no tricks in the last four lines. They just mean that the pensieve is full of memories and that it is hidden in something hollow. I, as Harry Potter, have never seen this place in real life, but I've dreamt of seeing it in a memory as Tom Riddle, who is obviously the Riddle in the first line. He was born at the orphanage in Little Hangleton. He also met his first wizard at the orphanage, or more specifically at the wall dividing the orphanage's back yard from the estate next to it. The pensieve must be hidden in a hollow block in the wall. To find the right block, we need to stand in front of the middle of the wall, just like you would to get into Diagon Ally, and count the right number of blocks up and the right number over. That formula should give us four words: two numbers and the words 'up' and 'across'."
"But, Harry," Ron asked, "what are the right numbers?"
"The same numbers you would use to get into Diagon Ally," Hermione added, catching on. "But I can't remember the numbers," she added in distress.
"I've never known the numbers to begin with," Ginny confessed, "We normally just floo in." That statement apparently applied to her brother as well as Regulus.
"Well I do remember, because I wanted to make sure I could get there again if I ever needed to," Harry explained, "and I didn't know about or have access to the floo network at the time. The four words are 'three up, two across.' I suppose you'd tap the correct block three times with our wand, since that's what Hagrid did with his umbrella to open the archway."
By five thirty, Minerva McGonagall's owl was on its way to Augusta Longbottom; Augusta herself had already received a letter from Petunia, as had Terry. Neville had been more than a tiny bit shocked to find out that Terry Evans was really Dudley Dursley, but he'd taken it surprisingly well. Terry was thrilled that he would be able to continue his home-schooling, move back in with his mum, and maybe even go to Hogwarts. In anticipation of a letter from the headmistress, Mrs. Longbottom had already begun writing out Terry's transcript.
At Privet Drive, Petunia, her youngest sister Blaire, and Octavian, the later two of whom were expected to move in, were redecorating the house so that it would look more like it had when Petunia, Rose, and Blaire had been children. Rose, who had already reclaimed and redecorated her old room, which the Dursleys had used as a guest bedroom, was in said room, getting ready for the dinner she had been invited to. The letter had said it was nothing fancy and to dress comfortably, but Rose loved dressing up, at least a little bit. So she had put on a magenta robe, which resembled a muggle evening dress, and a rose-pink, light weight cloak which was meant to be for fashion, not for warmth. She had fastened the cloak with a moonstone broach. Her shoes matched her robe and her red hair was loose. Putting the finishing touches on her make-up, she finally went down stairs to the parlor which her sisters and son were currently redecorating.
"You look really nice, Mum," Octavian commented when he saw her enter the room, "but I thought you said the dinner wasn't fancy."
"It isn't, Tave," she told her son, "I just got a feeling that I should dress up tonight. I have no idea why. It's just-"
Her son finished the sentence for her "-one of those seer, third-eye, precognition sensed you and Aunt Blaire get." He rolled his eyes. "Mum, if your seer senses told you you should dress up, then I'm all for it. Far be it from me to argue with the forces of the cosmos." Rose and Blaire laughed at the finality with which he had just made his proclamation. Over the few years he and Rose had lived with Blaire, Octavian had eventually realized that ignoring the gift of Sight was usually not a good idea. When the laughter quieted, both Petunia and Blaire also complimented their sister's attire before telling her to have fun. She assured them with a smile that she would and then apparated from 4 Privet Drive to a spot several houses down from her destination. Her high-heeled shoes made a soft clicking sound as she walked up the sidewalk before she finally arrived at the front door of 12 Grimwald Place, somewhere that she had once, long ago, when her husband was still alive, called home. Pushing away the memories, she reached up to grasp the door knocker and lifted the heavy bronze handle, and then let it fall, causing a fairly loud noise.
Inside the house, the quartet were attempting another series in a long list of Herculean tasks. Hermione was in the parlor with Regulus, trying to force him to stop pacing and sit down. Ginny was in the kitchen, telling Dobby where to put this dish or that plate and making sure he had placed heating charms on them so that they would not get cold.
Harry, as the host was overseeing all of this. He had told everyone earlier that he just had a strange feeling that his aunt would be dressed quite nicely and so they had all decided to be a bit frivolous and transfigure their clothing into dress robes. Regulus could easily do it himself. Ron was determined against the odds to transfigure his own robes. He was upstairs somewhere attempting, and to his distinct shock and delight, succeeding in transfiguring one of his school robes into a burgundy, silk dress robe. He knew his girlfriend would be very proud of him, since he normally was almost as bad at Transfiguration as Seamus Finnegan. For the girls however, Harry had done most of the wand work. After much work, Ginny was wearing a pale yellow dress robe similar to Rose's. Her shoes went from black flats to whit high-heals. She had a string of pearls around her neck, which she had borrowed from her mother. In addition, her Gryffindor scarf had been transfigured into a scarf of shear yellow material that matched her dress. Her hair was pinned up very gracefully. Harry knew Ron would complain that she looked too grown-up, but he was just content to describe her as stunning.
For Hermione, he had transfigured a faded purple shirt and skirt into a brilliant violet colored, full length dress robe. It was fitted at in the torso, but seemed to cascade and float down to her ankles. Over her violet robe, she wore a long, airy, lavender over-robe with bell sleeves and an open front. It was of a similar material to Ginny's scarf. Somehow Harry couldn't quite imagine Ron complaining about this outfit. At least, not as long as Hermione was the one wearing it. Harry had transfigured a pair of his oversized jeans, one of his school shirts, and an oversized, hoodless, zip-up sweatshirt into an outfit that was reminiscent of muggle clothing from several centuries ago. That hadn't really occurred to Harry though. He had just remembered seeing Lucius Malfoy wearing something like that, and though he nearly hated the man, he did have to admit he had good fashion sense. His tattered jeans had become fitted velvet pants. His school shirt, a white button down cotton material had become a fancy-collared, silver, silk dress-shirt, which was something he formerly never would have imagined himself wearing. Over that, he wore what had formerly been a sweatshirt and was not an emerald green, ornately embroidered, velvet overcoat, which matched his pants perfectly. He had realized that his worn out old trainers would look absurd with the rest of his elegant attire and had transfigured then into black leather boots which came just above his ankles. For his cloak he wore a darker evergreen.
By the time all this was finished and Hermione had finally convinced Regulus to sit down, and by the time everyone was assembled in the parlor, the knock on the front door came. Harry went to answer it as the other three teenagers physically restrained Regulus from jumping out of his chair. When he opened the door, Harry almost stopped breathing from shock. Rose looked so much like Melanie. 'She must have been told that she looked exactly like her mother, Heather for her entire life,' he thought as he greeted her and invited her in.
Once they were in the front hall and far enough away from Mrs. Black's portrait that she wouldn't begin shrieking, Harry chose the moment to tell his aunt the real reason she had been invited to dinner at Grimwald Place. "Aunt Rosanne," he said seriously, "before we join everyone in the parlor, I need to talk to you." His expression mirrored his tone in terms of seriousness, but it also conveyed a bit of worry.
"What's the matter Harry? You look worried," she said. He flashed her a brief smile as they sat down on the fancy bench in the hallway. Harry sighed
"Nothing is wrong at all," he replied. She looked at him skeptically. "Really, Aunt Rose, nothing is wrong. I just thought it would be better if I told you before hand instead of just having the news sprung on you when you get to the parlor."
"It would be better if you told me what?" She now seemed the tiniest bit angry, feeling as though someone was trying to trick her.
"May I be blunt," her nephew asked. She nodded. She wanted to know what was going on and she wanted to know now. "Regulus is alive." She heard him say the words. She heard him perfectly, but her mind did not seem to process them at all.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" She spoke with complete calm only because she had not absorbed what her nephew had said.
He repeated himself slowly. "Regulus is alive. Regulus Black, your husband. Aunt Rose, your husband is alive." For a moment, she could only stare at him as Harry's words slowly sunk in. She didn't doubt the truth of them. She trusted Harry.
When she finally found her tongue, she asked, "How do you know he's alive? Where-"
"I know he's alive because he tripped out of the parlor fireplace yesterday and landed on the floor in front of me. As for where he is right now, he's in the parlor, waiting for you." Rose didn't hear a single word after 'parlor'. She immediately got up and rushed down the hallway and into the parlor. When she stepped through the doorway, she froze as she saw the love of her life, a man she had thought dead for over sixteen years, stare back at her, equally as paralyzed with emotion as she was.
I know the ending is sort of lame, and I must admit, the second part of this chapter is my least favorite part of the story that I have written so far, but I would still like your thoughts on it. Please review and tell me what you thought of Harry's behavior regarding inviting Rose to dinner. Also any comments on the riddle's answer would be much appreciated.