Chapter Thirty Four

Harry looked over his work load, munching on his toast. Quidditch was going well, Gryffindor had failed the last match spectacularly. McLaggen had been getting frustrated with the teams beaters and taken the bat from one of them, swinging wildly at the next incoming bludger and knocking Ron out cold by accident.

Ron had been caught by his team mates, a very angry Ginny amongst them and spent the night in the hospital wing but was otherwise OK.

It did mean that Slytherin was well on track to win the house championship at the end of the year. The team was working brilliantly well together as well, Harry was confident there.

The DA was going similarly well. Ron was coming on leaps and bounds, Harry was really impressed with how well he and everyone else was doing. The only worry was school work.

The homework was increasing week by week and more and more of it made less and less sense. The thought alone seemed to be enough to make Harry's head hurt.

It had been a tough decision to make, when Harry had made sure he was in Professor Dumbledore's path after the Quidditch game.

Dumbledore had smiled down at him, "Did you enjoy the game Harry?"

Harry could feel his heart thumping in his chest as he slapped a smile on his face and nodded.

"Yeah, it was… good. Umm, I hope Ron will be OK." Harry said.

"I'm sure Mr Weasley will be quite all right. Madam Pomfrey is rather good at her job, as you yourself are aware." Dumbledore smiled.

Harry nodded again, pulling at the cuff of his sleeve.

"Was there something you wanted Harry?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

Harry wasn't sure he could talk, his mouth suddenly felt painfully dry and all he could hear was his heart beating, his mind screaming at him not to do this.

"I got it." he choked out, "I got he memory from Slughorn."

Dumbledore's eyes flashed with triumph before softening again, "Well done Harry. I will send word for you soon."

Harry had watched him go, the memory burning a hole in his pocket.

"Harry?" Luna's soft voice broke through, bringing Harry back to the present organisation and toast.

"Hi, Luna." Harry smiled, "Everything OK?"

She nodded, a lock of hair falling over the quill that was tucked behind her ear keeping her hair from her eyes.

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to give you this." Luna smiled, "And said that Ron should be out of the hospital wing by breakfast, so by now really."

Harry grinned, "Thanks." he took the scroll of parchment, quickly looking at it, it was the time for the next private lesson that evening, "Want to sit for a bit?"

Luna glanced quickly over to the Ravenclaw table before nodding and slipping onto the bench next to Harry. She grabbed a free slice of toast and covered it in a layer of mayonnaise. Harry wrinkled his nose at her but she just laughed.

"It's better than it looks." she promised him.

"If you say so." Harry smirked.

"Where are your friends?" Luna asked, her eyes flicking to Draco's normal seat.

"Draco and Daphne wanted to get in some extra flying, Pansy got called in by Professor Sprout to go over her latest assignment." Harry shrugged, "I had a few bits to plan so figured I'd take the chance for a long breakfast and get the next couple of weeks planned out."

Luna nodded vaguely, "I hope the note from Dumbledore won't mess things up for you too much."

Harry smiled, "Not at all." What he didn't tell her was he'd been leaving the next two weeks evenings free, expecting another lesson with the headmaster sooner rather than later.

"So…" Harry said slyly, "You and Draco seem to be getting on reeeeaaallly well?"

Luna looked at him with big, innocent eyes, "Yes." she said simply.

Harry grinned, "Want to tell me about it?"

"No." Luna said, grinning back, "He's just sweet."

Harry tried to stop grinning, but found the smile seemed to be stuck well and truly to his face.

Luna was pretty really; she was slight, like a fairy almost with long, pale blonde hair that fell to the bottom of her shoulder blades in surreally perfect waves. Even her facial features were slightly surreal, with large pale grey eyes and porcelain skin. Sure she was a bit weird, but Harry really didn't understand why the other students, especially some of those in Ravenclaw were so mean to her.

"I really enjoyed your commentary on the last Quidditch match by the way." Harry told her, forcing himself to stop analysing the way she looked and moved.

Luna's face fell, "You're making fun of me aren't you?"

Harry looked shocked, "No! No, why would you say that?"

"Because it's what I think." Luna said, as though Harry was being slightly slow.

"Well, why would you think that?" Harry asked.

Luna shrugged, "Everyone is saying I was awful."

It had been unusual commentary for sure, but it was funny and certainly covered what was happening.

"Well I really enjoyed it." Harry assured her, "I'd vote for you to do it again for sure and definitely over Smith."

Luna grinned at him, "Thanks Harry."

The bell rang and Luna stood up gracefully, smoothing out her skirt, "Well, see you around Harry." she said before skipping off down the Hall.

Harry trudged his way through lessons that day, lessons that seemed to be going both very quickly and very slowly. It was all too soon that Harry found himself staring at Dumbledore's office door, hearing loud voices coming from the other side.

Harry hesitated before opening the door, he wasn't sure if he should interrupt or not. The door was yanked open from the inside and Harry saw Professor Trelawney glaring at him.

"Professor?" Harry said awkwardly, a strong smell of cooking sherry coming from her many shawls.

"Aha!" Professor Trelawney cried, glaring at Harry with slightly unfocused eyes, "I see! So this is the reason I am to be thrown from your office Dumbledore!"

Dumbledore sighed, "My dear Sybil. There is no question of throwing you from anywhere."

"Thrown most unceremoniously!" Professor Trelawney insisted.

"I repeat," Dumbledore said rather warily, "you are not being thrown anywhere, ceremoniously or not. But as I said, Harry does have an appointment and I really don't think there is any more to be said…"

Professor Trelawney looked at Dumbledore with deep hurt in her eyes, pulling her shawls tighter, "Very well. Well.. if you will not banish the useless, assuming old nag, so be it! Perhaps I shall find a school where my talents are appreciated!"

She didn't wait for an answer but pushed passed Harry, sending him smacking into the wall as she stomped down the stairs.

"Is everything OK?" Harry asked.

"Please close the door and sit down Harry." Dumbledore said with a sigh.

Harry nodded and did as he was asked, not pushing the issue. Apart from anything else, there was no point, whatever had happened would be all over Hogwarts by the morning.

Dumbledore looked over Harry for a moment before smiling brightly and sitting forward, "I was very happy to find out that you managed to get the memory from Professor Slughorn. You brought it with you I assume?"

Harry nodded, bringing out the small crystal vial and placing it on the desk before him, the memory swirled inside like a silver cloud; Harry still wasn't sure this was the right thing to do.

"It wasn't too difficult to get I hope?" Dumbledore asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Does it matter?" Harry asked plainly, "I got it, right?"

Dumbledore gave Harry a smile, "Quite right. So, we shall be busy this evening. I must confess that you managed to get the memory far quicker than I had been expecting. I feel we have enough to be getting on with tonight and will leave this, most important memory for next time."

Harry made a move to take the vial back but Dumbledore reached it first and slipped it safely into his robe pocket.

Harry said nothing, it seemed a lot of work and hurt for a memory that they didn't even need to see as soon as possible.

"We have two other memories to see today." Dumbledore continued, as though Harry wasn't glaring at his feet, "We left off with Voldemort having killed his father and returning to Hogwarts. I hope you remember that at the very start of our meetings, I told you that for all we would try and focus on the facts of what happened, we would be forced to enter the realms of guess work and speculation?"

Harry nodded, "Yes sir."

Dumbledore gave him a nod, "Very good. I hope thus far, you will agree that I have shown you information from solid sources from which to draw our conclusions. Now, however, we must leave that solid path. Up until the age of seventeen, we can, for the most part, plot out Voldemort's life but now things become far more difficult. I doubt there is a soul alive, apart from Voldemort, who could give us a full and true account of his life. However, we must try."

"Let me guess, Tom passed all of his exams with flying colours?" Harry sighed.

"You are quite correct Harry." Dumbledore smiled, "He was head boy, prefect, winner of the Special Award for Services to the School and nearly everyone thought he would go onto do great things. Many of the teachers, Slughorn amongst them, thought he should go to work for the Ministry. They offered to set up meetings and job offers came in certainly. So imagine everyone's surprise when Tom went out of his way to secure a job at Borgin and Burkes."

"The creepy shop in Knockturn Ally?" Harry asked, "Oh… the one who bought, scammed, his mum's necklace…"

Dumbledore nodded, "Exactly. Although there is no way for us to know if Tom was at this point aware of that fact."

"So why would he go and work there? It's a bit of a dead end job." Harry pointed out.

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes. I think, and as I said at the beginning of this lesson I can not be sure, that Tom thought it would be a good place to learn. He was always interested in magic, the darker the better and where better to learn about the darkest of magic than a shop like Borgin and Burkes?"

Harry nodded, it made a lot of sense.

"It, however, wasn't Voldemort's first choice of jobs." Dumbledore said, "Few people knew at the time, even fewer now, that Voldemort first approached Professor Dippet and asked if he could remain here at Hogwarts but as a teacher."

"Wow." Harry said, shocked, "I can't imagine what sort of teacher he would've been. Why?"

"I believe he had several reasons." Dumbledore mused, "Firstly of course, it would have given him ready access to young minds."

"Not always the right ones though." Harry pointed out, "For every student that might have been turned towards him there would be ten or more that would of thought he was insane and twenty that he wouldn't want."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, that is very true but I think he thought that one was better than none perhaps. The other reason, I do feel was more a factor in his decision, that he felt at home at Hogwarts and I feel that he was not ready in himself to leave the school."

Harry nodded, he could understand completely why Tom would be reluctant to leave his childhood home. It still however didn't explain why he didn't get the job at Hogwarts.

"He didn't get the job of course." Dumbledore continued, "Can you guess which position he was applying for?"

Harry knew at once, "Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Exactly. Professor Dippet, I am not sure truly listened to my worries about Voldemort having such a position of power over young minds. He did, however, feel that at just eighteen, Voldemort was too young to teach. He suggested Voldemort reapply in a few years, when he'd had a taste of the wider world."

"You told Professor Dippet about your worries?" Harry asked, surprised as so far in the story Dumbledore had played things very close to his chest.

Dumbledore gave Harry a small smile, "Not exactly. Voldemort was, as I have said, a most favoured student and I didn't feel that announcing my worries in such a dramatic fashion would be for the best."

Harry bit his tongue and said nothing, but not saying exactly what he meant sounded very like Dumbledore.

"For Voldemort it worked out for the best though, as he was denied the job and went to work in the Dark magic shop." Dumbledore said, pouring the first of the vials into the pensive, "Where he met an old witch named Hepzibah Smith."

Harry stood and prepared to delve into yet another memory.