Hi Everyone. So, I've been having major writer's block for this story. Here is a semi-fluffy little interlude about the memories Harry received. Hope you like it.

Chapter 3: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Harry reentered the sitting room with his parents. He was prepared to watch the memories they had given him, but he wanted to watch them with his family. "Father, can this Pensieve project memories?"

"Yes, son, it can. Did you want to watch the memories with all of us?"

"Yes, please. How do I project them?"

"It is a complex spell. I will take care of it for now."

"Ok, thank you, father." Harry pulled out the first vial and emptied it into the Pensieve. He read the label. Day of Birth. "Ok, we're watching me get born." Tom waved his wand and the memory was projected around them.

A young Tom was bending over a young Bella in a bed. Memory Bella had the blankets pulled over her, but the bulge of her belly was impossible to miss. Harry didn't recognize the room they were in. "Where is this?"

"This is St. Mungo's, Harry. It is the wizard hospital. We didn't want to take any chances with the birth." Just then something started beeping. Tom explained to Harry that it was a monitoring charm cast on memory Bella. Harry saw memory Tom wince as Bella grabbed his hand. Two older women came rushing in moments later. Tom explained that they were healers.

"I think it's time, Mrs. Riddle. Now, push when we tell you to." The blond witch had spoken. She quickly helped her colleague arrange the blankets to allow for delivery, and Harry made sure to stay up near Bella's head. Harry saw memory Bella tense and groan. "Push NOW!" Harry wasn't positive exactly what was happening, but he watched his memory mother's face scrunch and turn red before she let out a mighty scream.

"That's great, Mrs. Riddle," said the other healer, a redhead. "One more big push." Memory Bella's face scrunched again, and she let out another scream, this one even louder than the first. If it weren't for his mother's comforting hand on his shoulder, Harry would have feared for her life. Harry saw memory Bella slump back against her pillows and looked at her worriedly.

"I was fine, Harry, just tired. Now look." Harry looked to where she was pointing. He saw an ugly, red baby get spanked and start crying.

"Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Riddle. You have a healthy baby boy." The blond healer cast a quick cleaning charm on the baby, then wrapped him in a blanket and handed him to memory Bella.

"Is that…me?"

"Yes, Harry, that's you," said his mother fondly.

"I was so small…and scrunched up." The adults all laughed. They quieted down just as the redheaded healer was asking for his name.

"Harry Thomas Salazar Riddle," pronounced memory Tom proudly. The healer nodded and cast a spell at a parchment, which quickly filled in and copied itself thrice, before two copies disappeared. The healer handed the final copy to memory Tom.

"What was that, father?"

"That was your birth certificate, Harry. One is filed at St. Mungo's, and one is filed at the Ministry."

"Oh." Harry watched the last few moments of the memory as his memory parents cooed over his baby form. Eventually, the memory world dissolved around them and they found themselves back in the sitting room. Harry took a look at his watch. The memory had lasted half an hour!

"I don't think we'll have time to watch all of them tonight, so let me choose a few more, and then I'll watch the rest some other time."

"That sounds like a good idea, Harry," said Bella approvingly.

Harry knelt down next to the box of memories and pulled a few out at random. He took a quick look at the labels. First Steps. First Word. Abduction. He decided to watch his first steps first. Harry watched as Tom returned the previous memory to its vial, then he emptied the vial he was holding into the Pensieve. Once again, Tom waved his wand and the memory was projected.

They were now standing in Tom and Bella's room at Malfoy Manor. This surprised him, as he had always assumed that they had lived in their own home before his father's disappearance. He'd always assumed his mother lived at Malfoy Manor because she didn't want to live alone. He had been expecting his parents to tell him they were moving at any time, perhaps, however, that wasn't going to happen.

Curious, he turned to his parents. "Mother, Father, do we have our own home?"

"We do, Harry," answered Tom. "And I'll explain why we don't live there as soon as this memory is over." Harry nodded, satisfied for now. Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, Harry focused on his memory self. He looked to be about seven or eight months old. He was sitting on a rug near the foot of the bed and playing with his blocks while watching a much younger memory Bella brushing her hair.

Baby Harry wailed loudly, obviously hoping to catch memory Bella's attention. It worked, sort of. "In a moment, dearest. Mother needs to get ready for the day too, you know. Play with your blocks like a good boy." Harry smiled at the love that was evident in her voice. However, baby Harry wasn't pleased. He wanted attention.

With a squeal, he launched on of his blocks at his mother. Harry gasped, surely his baby self was in for a major punishment. Tom and Bella noticed his reaction and frowned. Harry, eyes riveted to the memory, didn't notice their interaction. Much to Harry's surprise, however, memory Bella simply levitated the block back to baby Harry. "That wasn't very nice, Harry. You know better than that." She cast an obviously mild stinging hex on baby Harry's hand. Harry could tell it was mild by the fact the baby Harry only barely flinched. When memory Bella turned back to her mirror, baby Harry huffed.

Harry watched as his baby self narrowed his eyes in concentration. Then, using the bed as support, he pulled himself up into a standing position. Holding the foot of the bed tightly, baby Harry took faltering steps toward his mother, who noticed his reflection in the mirror.

Memory Bella gasped and turned around. "Harry! Oh Merlin, how wonderful. TOM!"

A younger version of Tom quickly appeared at the door. "What is it, love?" Bella merely pointed at baby Harry, who was still carefully toddling toward her.

"Oh, HARRY!" Memory Tom raced forward and scooped up his son, twirling him around as he did so. Baby Harry squealed with delight at finally receiving the attention he had so craved.

"We should go show Cissy."

"Of course, Bella. I believe the Pensieve is in the sitting room." The memory world faded as memory Bella and memory Tom walked out of the bedroom, Tom still carrying baby Harry.

Harry shook his head as he came back to the real world. He smiled at his parents. "I was pretty determined as a baby, huh?"

Everyone laughed at that. It was Bella who answered, however. "I believe you are still rather determined, Harry." This caused another round of chuckles. When everyone had calmed down, Harry turned to his father expectantly.

"Oh, right. Well, Harry, as I said, we do have out own home. It belonged to my father, Tom Riddle, Sr. Someday I'll tell you the full story of my parents. For now, however, suffice to say that my father did not know I existed. When he mysteriously died, I purchased Riddle Manor and cast multiple charms and enchantments on it. I worked with the Goblins of Gringotts for help warding the house as well. We were about a month away from moving in the night you were abducted. Only two wards still needed to be erected.

"However, after you were stolen from us, we stayed here at Malfoy Manor for the moral support. Then, of course, after that fiasco all those years ago, your mother stayed with her family. We are considering moving there after your true identity comes out, but, for now at least, you need to be seen to be living with you Aunt and Uncle. Do you understand, Son?"

Harry nodded. "Will I be able to see it before then?"

"We'll see, Harry," answered Bella. Harry sighed and turned back to the memories, picking up the next bottle. He pulled the cork out of the vial and paused for a moment to allow Tom to remove the previous memory, then he poured in the memory of his first word. Again, Tom projected the memory.

When the world became clear, Harry realized they were out in the back yard. Baby Harry was playing on a blanket with a baby with blond hair while a young Bella and a young Narcissa drank tea at the table on the patio.

"Is that Draco?" asked Harry.

"Indeed it is, Harry," answered Narcissa. "Wasn't he a cute baby?"

"Moooootheeeerrrr!" whined Draco. Harry giggled as he watched the babies play. They were playing with blocks and cars. He saw baby Draco pick up a green car and move it back and forth, just enjoying the turning of the wheels. Baby Harry noticed how much fun baby Draco was having, and picked up the red truck. However, upon inspecting it, he threw it down, unhappily.

"You never did like red. Green was your favorite color back then."

"It still is," Harry answered his mother's implied question. She smiled at him gratefully. Baby Harry grabbed a couple of green blocks and clapped them together, attempting to look like he was having fun. However, when baby Draco ignored him, baby Harry threw the blocks down and huffed. Baby Harry sat there for a couple of moments.

Finally realizing that baby Draco would not relinquish his toy car anytime soon, Harry pointed at it. Baby Draco shook his head emphatically, then turned away and kept playing with it. Baby Harry pouted. He crawled over in front of baby Draco and pointed at the car again.

When baby Draco ignored him, he pointed once more. This time, the point was punctuated with a rather loud, "MINE!" Harry noticed that both memory Bella's and memory Narcissa's heads shot up.

"Was that Harry or Draco?" asked memory Narcissa?

"I don't know, Cissy." Their question was soon answered as baby Harry grabbed the toy car baby Draco was playing with and yelled, "MIIIIIIIIIIINE!" This, unfortunately set baby Draco to crying. He had enjoyed his car. The look on baby Harry's face was priceless. He looked at baby Draco, shocked, before looking at the toy car with obvious tears in his eyes before putting it on the ground in front of baby Draco, who stopped crying relatively quickly.

Memory Bella was now directly behind baby Harry. She picked him up. "That was very good of you, Harry. I'm glad you gave back the car. Here, as a reward…" She conjured a nearly identical green car for baby Harry to play with, and he squealed in delight.

Memory Bella sat baby Harry back on the blanket, where he eagerly crawled over to baby Draco to show off his new toy. Baby Draco grinned at him, and they proceeded to "race" their cars.

"Isn't that adorable," said memory Narcissa. Memory Bella simply nodded. After a moment of watching their children, memory Narcissa's head shot up. "We should tell Tom and Lucius about Harry's first word."

"Of course! How could I forget. I'm surprised, however, that it was 'mine'."

Memory Narcissa chuckled. "Well, perhaps his next word will be a little less self-centered." As the memory faded, the entire group shared a laugh at Harry's expense.

In an attempt to change the subject, Harry turned to his mother. "Was it?"

"Was what, dear?"

"Was my next word less self-centered?"

"Well, I suppose so, in a way." She was barely suppressing a laugh.

"What do you mean?"

"Your second word was 'NO'." Harry hadn't achieved his goal, as everyone was now laughing even harder. Burning with embarrassment, and thinking that perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to watch the memories with everyone, Harry grabbed the final memory he had chosen.

"Well," said Harry, "this is the last memory for today. It's the day I was abducted." The atmosphere in the room immediately became tense.

"We started with Sirius' visit, then it skips ahead to that night," mentioned Tom. "Are you ready for this memory?"

Harry nodded. "I'm ready, father." After Tom emptied the Pensieve, Harry poured in the last memory. He noticed that there seemed to be more of it than the others, and wondered how long it was. With a wave of his wand, Tom projected the final memory.

Harry recognized the sitting room, as only a few things had changed. His memory parents were sitting on the longer sofa, and his memory Aunt and memory Uncle were sitting in the armchairs across from them. They were quietly discussing something about the war, when a much younger Dobby popped into the sitting room.

"Master Tom, Mistress Bella, a person is here to be seeing you!"

"Who is it, Dobby?"

"Dobby isn't knowing him, Sir. But the man is saying his is Mistress Bella's brother."

Memory Bella gasped. "Tom, it's Sirius!"

"What could he possibly want?"

"I…I don't know. I haven't seen him since school."

"Dobby," said memory Tom. "Please bring him in."

"Yes, Master Tom. Dobby will be bringing him now!" Memory Dobby popped away and returned a couple minutes later with a man Harry could only assume to be Sirius.

"Sisters! It is good to see you both again." He seemed nice enough, but memory Bella frowned.

"What do you want, Sirius? Why are you here? Spying for the old coot?"

"Sister, you wound me. I have never, nor will I ever, spy on my family. I am here to try to mend this rift between us. Family shouldn't fight." Harry moved to stand beside his mother. He could see that watching this memory was painful to her. However, before he could speak, she turned to him with sad eyes which clearly told him he needed to watch this. Harry turned his attention back to the memory.

"You expect me to believe that, Sirius?"

"I do, Bella. Truly. I may have been sorted into Gryffindor, and I may have Gryffindor friends, but I would never turn against my family." The unspoken rebuke was obvious in the bitterness in his voice.

"You betrayed us, Sirius!"

"I could not convince the hat to put me in Slytherin. Believe me, I tried."

"Oh, of course…" Memory Bella's sarcastic retort was cut off by the POP! of an Apparating house elf. A young Dottie now stood in the sitting room holding a crying baby.

"Mistress Bella, Harry is crying and Dottie is not being able to stop him!" Memory Bella stared at her in horror. Her gaze transferred to Sirius before looking back at memory Dottie.

"Dottie, how could you?"

"Bella, is that? Do you? Do I have another nephew?" Sirius' face split into a grin as memory Dottie turned and saw him.

Memory Dottie turned back to memory Bella fearfully and squeaked out, "I is sorry, Mistress Bella. I is taking Harry now!" She disappeared with another POP!

"Bella," said Sirius. "No one knew. There was no announcement…"

"Of course there was no announcement, you fool! I'm enough of a liability to my husband. Imagine if the old coot found out. And now you know!" Her last words came out in a wail, and memory Narcissa rushed to comfort her sister.

"Bella…" Harry could hear pain in Sirius' voice. "You couldn't possibly believe I'd turn my own nephew over to Dumbledore, could you?"

"How should I know what you would do? Get out! Get out of this house now! I hope I never see you again!" When Sirius failed to move, memory Dobby took hold of his arm and Apparated him out.

As soon as he was gone, memory Tom spoke. "We'll have to leave. Tonight would be best. I know the manor isn't completely ready, but it's our best choice."

"Tom, dearest, we can't leave today. Did you forget that the Goblins will be casting the intrusion ward? They said it would be done by morning, but we can't go while they are casting."

Memory Tom swore and kicked a chair. "We'll pack tonight and leave first thing in the morning. We can go to Gringotts when it opens to find out when our manor will be ready. Lucius, Narcissa, you and Draco are all welcome to join us."

Memory Lucius and memory Narcissa shared a look. "We'll discuss it later today," said memory Lucius. Memory Tom nodded before calling to memory Dobby and discussing some plans.

The memory suddenly dimmed. Harry was about to ask what happened when it brightened again. They were once again in Tom and Bella's room. However, it was night, and a loud alarm was going off. Harry noticed memory Tom spring out of bed and blast open a door. It led to the nursery. A dark figure was bending over baby Harry's crib. It was immediately apparent that it wasn't a house elf, so that meant it was an intruder.

Memory Tom shot a stunner at the figure without a moment's hesitation. However, the person standing there deflected the spell with a quick wand movement. The person straightened up with baby Harry in his or her arms and disappeared in a flash. Memory Tom had raced forward to attempt to stop them, but was unable to reach them in time. It had all happened so quickly.

Memory Tom's wail of anger was chilling and heartbreaking at the same time. Harry was curious as to what Fawkes had been thinking when he helped in the kidnapping. Did he not know who he was transporting? He realized that memory Bella was standing behind memory Tom and loudly questioning him.

"Mum, Dad, I don't think I need to see more." Nodding in understanding, Tom waved his wand and the memory dissolved, leaving them back in the sitting room. "So Sirius told Dumbles that I was here?"

"Yes, he is the only one who knew about you who was loyal to the old man."

"But why would he do that? He's my uncle. He's your brother."

"Some people are just difficult to understand, Harry."

"I guess." He looked at the clock and realized it was nearly midnight. "I think I'm going to go to bed." He started to walk out of the sitting room, but was joined by his mother.

"Are you alright, Harry? Do you need to talk?"

"No, mother, I think I just need to process everything. I'll be ok. I'll see you in the morning."

"Alright, dear. Have a good night." A chorus of "good night"s followed him out of the sitting room.

Once in his room, Harry laid back on his bed and concentrated on talking to Fawkes.

Fawkes, can you hear me?

Yes, of course, Chosen One. What troubles you?

Why did you help Dumbledore kidnap me?

Harry could feel the sorrow in Fawkes' reply. I did not realize it was you. The old man asked me to transport him away as he was in a life or death situation. I did so. It was only after that I discovered what he had done.

Oh. Well, it wasn't your fault. I'm going to go to sleep. Harry dressed for bed and laid back down. His rest was plagued by nightmares. He dreamt he was a baby in his crib and a man was hovering over him. But it wasn't Dumbledore. He didn't recognize the man, who had a rat-like face.

As he bent over baby Harry, he whispered, "No more pretending to serve your parents, you brat. Now Dumbledore will finally accept me completely."

Harry sat up, instantly awake and breathing heavily. He was sure that something was very wrong in his dream, but the details were fading fast. Someone had been… Harry shook his head. It was no use, the details were gone. He woke the next morning without even remembering he had had a dream.

A/N 2: Ravenclaw Midnight Blue, since you don't have PM'ing enabled, my answer to your review is here. I'm not going to tell you too much, 'cause I don't want to give things away, but the story will really start diverting from canon with this book, and you'll see it even more in 4 and 5. There will be "good" werewolves, and I'm considering a major 180 as well. I'm not sure yet if I'll have werewolves who can transform at will. It's an interesting idea, I'll see if it fits anywhere.