Chapter Sixteen

"What happened to her?" Harry said quickly, a painful mixture of panic and rage bubbling within him.

"The girl? Oh she survived." Dumbledore said calmly.

"I know that!" Harry snapped, "I'm not stupid. She's Voldemort's mother, correct?"

Dumbledore looked slightly stunned for a moment before rearranging his face to one of being impressed, "Yes Harry, well done she is."

Harry paced the room for a moment, "What happened after Ogden left?"

"He came back quickly." Dumbledore said, "With re-enforcements. Both Morfin and their father…"

"Marvolo right?" Harry said, interrupting Dumbledore.

Dumbledore gave a small nod, "Yes, Marvolo. They both faced charges for attacking a Magical Law enforcement officer as well as the original charge against Morfin for attacking Tom Riddle."

Harry crossed his arms over his chest and sat down abruptly, "And?"

"Morfin was in prison for three years." Dumbledore continued, "Marvolo, who had injured not only Ogden but several other Ministry employees as well, received a six month sentence."

"Bet it didn't change anything." Harry spat, "At least it gave that poor girl a break though."

Dumbledore looked curiously at Harry for a moment, "She certainly struggled."

Harry shook his head, standing up and pacing again, "Did she go to Hogwarts?"

"No, she didn't. Neither her, nor Morfin, attended any school." Dumbledore told him levelly.

"Why? Why did no one look into it?" Harry snapped.

Dumbledore shrugged, "There are a few, not many, but a few families who choose to home school. Hogwarts attendance isn't mandatory, it never has been."

"She needed help." Harry exclaimed.

"Well there was-" Dumbledore began.

"No excuse?" Harry hissed, "No excuse could ever be good enough for leaving a child in that position."

Dumbledore remained silent, wisely choosing not to argue with Harry on the matter. Harry paced for a few minutes, taking several deep breaths to calm himself. This was all a long time ago, there was nothing to be done about it now.

"How on earth did she end up with Tom Riddle? That was him, wasn't it? I mean, he looked just like Voldemort when he was younger." Harry asked.

Dumbledore gave a small nod, "Yes that was Tom Riddle Senior we saw ridding by. He rode that way often with one pretty girl or another, giving Merope plenty of time to watch him."

Harry was getting a headache. He hadn't known what to expect from these lessons but seeing Merope so afraid and the cruelty displayed, by Morfin especially, had shaken him badly.

"How did she end up with Tom?" Harry asked. He couldn't think how on earth the snob would ever lower his standards for a tramp's daughter.

"Well this is one of the many areas at which we must guess." Dumbledore mused, "I doubt we will ever know for sure."

Harry grumbled at his annoyance at Dumbledore's answers, it was clear that Dumbledore wanted him to work this out himself.

"She was a witch?" Harry asked for classification.

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes. I don't believe that her powers were truly allowed to flourish until her tormentors were safely locked away, but there were certainly there."

"So…" Harry hated himself for thinking like this.

Sure she needed a good bath, a hair cut and some good food. Less fear and flinching wouldn't of hurt either but with the right help she would have been fairly pretty and certainly she deserved someone who treated her right, but a bath wouldn't have raised her to the level Tom expected.

"So it was a love potion? Or maybe a spell?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore smiled and nodded, "I believe you are quite correct there Harry. Personally I believe she used a love potion, a powerful one."

"Why do you think that?" Harry asked, it seemed to him that there was no evidence there.

"I think it would of seemed more romantic to her, giving the handsome man a quick drink on a hot day…" Dumbledore smiled.

Harry could see the logic there, it did sound like something out of a fairytale, "I bet the Riddle Family was pleased." Harry muttered sarcastically.

"They were… confused." Dumbledore said, with something very close to a grin, "And it was a cause of great gossip through out the village."

"What happened to her and Tom when her father got out?" Harry gasped, the panic rising.

Dumbledore's face fell, "Marvolo was not pleased. He had expected his dutiful daughter to stay home and wait for him. He was horrified to find out she had run off with a Muggle. He never spoke of her again, nor even acknowledged her existence again. He never lived to see his son return to the cottage."

"Good." Harry spat, "What killed him?"

Dumbledore shrugged, "Possibly the shock of his daughter leaving him, or the fact it is unlikely he ever really learned to feed and care for himself. Azkaban greatly weakened him and he was not as powerful as he would of liked people to believe."

Harry sat down, staring into Dumbledore's ice blue eyes, "She died, didn't she? Merope? Voldemort was raised in an orphanage."

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes, he was and yes she did die. Within a couple of months, four I believe, Tom returned to the family home without his wife. He told them strange tales of being hoodwinked and taken in. Everyone had assumed he had been sleeping with her and she had lied, saying she was carrying his child but he left her finding out this wasn't true."

"But she was pregnant? With Tom's child?" Harry asked, getting slightly confused.

Dumbledore smiled and nodded, "Yes, she was. I believe the enchantment she had been using wore off and Tom left her, even though she was at this point pregnant."

"He left her, just like that?" Harry asked, feeling even less like for the snotty man on the horse.

Dumbledore shrugged, "We will never know for sure, but I think it likely with the state of poverty Merope ended up in a few short months later."

Harry felt his heart break a little for her, she had such a tragic life and there seemed to be no sign of light in her darkness. Every time she got somewhere, it was snatched from her, she never even really got to meet her child.

Harry didn't even need to be told what went wrong. She had stopped the potion, or spell or whatever it was that she had used on Tom as she had convinced herself that he loved her, that someone out there had to love her and this was the closest she'd gotten. But it hadn't been real, none of it was real, just magic and hollow. He'd left her, knowing she was alone and had nothing, not even caring enough to look after the baby, his baby.

In the end Tom Riddle Senior had been just as cruel and heartless as all the other family Merope had ever known.

Harry left Dumbledore's office in painful thought. He couldn't get his head around what had happened, the cruel control of Marvolo, the truly sadistic behaviour displayed by Morfin, the pathetic brokenness of Merope and then back to the cruel control of Tom Riddle.

Harry rushed back to the common room; he needed to talk to his friends, who despite the late hour, were sitting around the fire waiting for Harry.

"How did it go?" Draco asked quickly.

Harry sighed, "It was… informative."

He filled them in on what had happened, on what he had seen in the pensive. They all seemed as shocked as Harry had been, making Harry feel a little less over dramatic.

"I just can't stop thinking, I just don't know what I would do." Harry sighed, "If I woke up from a trance, and found out I was going to be a father…"

"Well you wouldn't abandon the poor thing!" Pansy snapped, "It's awful."

Harry nodded in agreement, "No, no. I mean, I don't think I'd stay with the mum but the kid would still be mine."

"Even if it wasn't, I don't think you'd abandon a baby." Daphne said softly, "Look at how close you are with Danica."

"Danica is my sister." Harry said quickly.

"Half sister, technically. I think that's Daphne's point." Draco smiled.

Harry gazed into the fire, they were right. A baby could be dumped on his doorstep and he'd never leave it. Harry quickly wiped his eyes to stop the forming tears getting any further.

"I was… I was thinking…" Harry started, he didn't know exactly how to put his thoughts into words, "Dumbledore was around… lots of people were but she was… the way they were treating her. Someone must have known! Many people must of known and they ignored it, they turned a blind eye. I mean…why?"

It was an uncomfortable question, one that had many possibly answers and none of them were good.

"There's something else…" Harry said, barely more than a whisper, "You… you've never met my aunt and uncle. I'm not saying they're as bad as the Gaunts but they're bad enough. Dumbledore wanted me to go there after James died. Sirius once said that Severus went 'white with the shock' at the idea."

"But why?" Pansy said, her face filled with worry by now.

Harry shrugged, "He said it would be safer, to live away from the magical world, but I was never in danger until I came here, ironically."

Harry took a deep breath, staring into the fire and hating the way his brain was going. His friends were looking at him intently. He was so grateful for them right now, he couldn't imagine trying to sort out where his head was all by himself.

"You're clearly thinking about something Harry." Draco pressed gently.

Harry looked around, they were the only ones in the common room at this point but Harry still didn't feel safe.

"Come with me." Harry said quickly.

He popped up to the dorm room and grabbed the invisibility cloak. It wouldn't fit all four of them but as prefects, Draco and Pansy had an excuse to be wondering the halls at night.

Harry led them to the Come and Go room, making sure he thought of something that they wouldn't be over heard in.

The room had changed itself to hold a roaring fire and four large armchairs, with dark green walls and gold trim.

They hurried inside and shut the door tightly behind them.

"What is it Harry?" Daphne asked, once they were all huddled around the fire.

"Did you ever thought it was odd, that we got through all of those tasks in first year?" Harry asked quickly, "Mum brought it up back at the time but I never really thought about it. We're good, we're not that good."

"We're the top of our year… especially with Neville and Hermione." Draco pointed out.

"Yes." Pansy agreed, "Top of the year, always, four out of six of us are prefects but, as Harry pointed out, we were first years going up against what was meant to be some of the best witches and wizards in the world, adult ones. I… I never thought about it before."

"Then they missed us, didn't even check the staff room to make sure there were no students. And it has those horrible gargoyles that didn't sound off…" Draco muttered, "In second year I mean."

Harry nodded, "Then my name ended up in the Goblet of Fire, he didn't even try and get me out or help me and look how that ended. There's loads, sometimes big things, sometimes little ones but loads and… and it's just feeling like…"

"Like we're getting set up." Pansy finished, running her hands though her hair.

"Like I'm being set up." Harry clarified, "And I'm just dragging you guys along for the ride."

"Be careful Harry." Draco said, taking a deep breath, "These lessons…"

"I need them, I think anyway…" Harry let out a cry of frustration, "I think I need to know about Voldemort, about his past and… and him."

"Do you think you're in danger? With these lessons?" Daphne asked.

Harry shrugged, "I don't know. Mum told me not to do anything I didn't want to and I think I just really need to remember that."

They sat together for a few more minutes in silence, each trying to find some shred of evidence that they were wrong.

"But it's Dumbledore!" Harry said after a moment, throwing his hands in the air.

"Yep, world loved and admired." Draco said, his face as white as a sheet, "That's the problem. It's Dumbledore."