Chapter 94

Memories and Lessons

The day of Lily and Ginny's first lesson with Dumbledore arrived quickly, although the day itself - filled with lessons - dragged on. Lily and Ginny were both excited about what they would learn from Dumbledore, and as they uttered the password for access later that evening, when they got close to the door, Lily found herself surprised to hear Barty Crouch Junior's voice.

"Albus, I'm confident they can handle it," Crouch was saying. Ginny and Lily shared a confused look before Ginny knocked to announce their presence.

Junior opened the door, a smile tugging at his lips.

"Handle what?" Ginny asked, making no secret as to how the two girls had overheard the curious statement.

"Something we'll discuss later, Miss Weasley," Crouch said, moving aside to let the two Gryffindors enter the office. "For now, this is Dumbledore's lesson."

"You should stay too, Barty. You will likely need to know more about what is happening," Dumbledore commented from behind his desk. "Welcome, Miss Potter, Miss Weasley. Punctual as always."

Barty returned to the seat he must have been occupying before the arrival of the two students, so Lily and Ginny sat down on the two available. They looked expectantly at the headmaster.

"Now, I expect the two of you have been wondering what these lessons will be about?" Dumbledore began, an amused smile on his face.

"The thought did cross our mind," Lily confirmed.

"Well, we covered a lot of information at the end of last term. There is much more to discuss about Voldemort but from here on out, everything we discuss will have us leaving the foundation of fact and travelling through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork," Dumbledore said cryptically.

"Well, you've still got your flair for melodrama, Albus," Crouch groaned, causing Lily and Ginny to giggle.

"Indeed. Perhaps, were it not for the war, I'd have gone into drama," Dumbledore chuckled before he cast a more solemn look over his guests. "Our journey together may show that I'm woefully wrong about many things, as has been known to happen."

"But you believe you're correct?" Ginny piped up.

"I do, but I have been known to make mistakes before." Dumbledore nodded, almost to himself, before continuing. "Forgive me for, as the muggles say, tooting my own horn, but being smarter than most means my mistakes tend to be much better."

"We all make mistakes," Lily replied diplomatically. "So, are we starting with the Prophecy?"

"Indeed. Much of what we discuss may seem like a long-winded way to get to where we need to go, but if you're going to survive properly, you need to be fully aware of this history," Dumbledore informed.

"And don't worry, we won't be droning on like Professor Binns," Crouch Junior added, his hands folded on his lap with an air of ease.

"Did he teach you?" Ginny asked him.

"Aye, that he did, and sadly, I didn't pay much attention. He made the lessons so boring," Crouch commented with a half shrug. "I mean, the poor bastard loved teaching. I figure he lost his passion at one point but kept going because it was all he knew."

"Sadly, I can't disagree," Dumbledore added. "He was already a ghost when I was a student here. Every headmaster has felt sorry for him. Without this job, he would have nothing, but he is very knowledgeable, and an excellent teacher for those who pay attention."

"Were you one of the ones who paid attention?" Lily turned to her headmaster.

Dumbledore smiled at her, and she saw the twinkle in his eye again. "Alas, I was one of those who fell asleep often in his classes. I wasn't the most studious student. I regret it now, but have learnt much from Cuthbert, whose knowledge of history surpasses mine." Dumbledore replied, his tone of voice becoming serious once more. "History, you will find, can help us prepare for the future, and defend the present. To paraphrase the fabulous muggle author Victor Hugo, 'history is an echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past'. I implore you all to pay attention to what we will be learning. Today, we shall be using the pensieve to travel into the past, into the memory of Bob Ogden."

"Bob Ogden? He worked at the Ministry, didn't he? Magical Law Enforcement, if I remember rightly. My parents were friends with him," Crouch said, rubbing his chin. "When I was a child, at least, before… well…"

"Indeed," Dumbledore confirmed. "He passed away earlier on this year, but this memory was one I was able to procure from him before he died. I knew we would need it, although I was unsure as to when."

"So how far back are we going?" Ginny asked.

"To the summer of the year 1925," Dumbledore replied, as the four of them stood and walked over to the pensieve. "At that time, Bob was working as an enforcer for the Magical Law Enforcement team," he informed them as he removed a vial with what Lily recognised as a memory from a shelf near the pensieve. Dumbledore tried to remove the lid, but it was proving difficult with one of his hands still weak and blackened.

"Sir, do you need help?" Lily offered, eying the appendage apprehensively. "What happened?"

"If I told you now, you would not understand. I daresay you will learn before the end of this school year," Dumbledore assured her, as Crouch took and opened the vial. "Ah, thank you Barty."

"You're welcome," Crouch replied, pouring the vial into the pensieve. The liquid in the pensieve swirled and began to form into an image. Dumbledore dipped his head into the pensieve and was pulled into it, followed by Crouch. Lily and Ginny took a breath and dipped their heads in to follow them.

As Lily opened her eyes, she saw that they were in a country lane, with high, tangled hedgerows, and the sky bright and clear above them.

"I always forget how surreal memories can feel," Barty said, smiling as he looked around. "It almost feels real."

"It was real, to Bob Ogden, at least," Dumbledore pointed out, as they saw the man walking down a road. They passed a sign that showed directions to Little Hangleton and Great Hangleton. Alarm bells began to sound in Lily's head.

"Wait… those places… that's where Voldemort's dad was buried," she said.

"You're not wrong, Lily," Barty told her. He looked around once more, no longer smiling. "I remember this place. I've been meaning to apologise to you, Albus, for trying to kill you that night."

"I hold you no ill will for your actions that night," Dumbledore replied. Lily was impressed with how casual Dumbledore sounded. That was something she greatly admired about the headmaster; his ability to see the good in everyone and forgive their mistakes.

"Professor, I was wondering," Lily began slowly, doing a half jog to catch up to his longer strides. "You've always been able to forgive people for their mistakes. Why is that so easy for you?"

"In truth, Lily, I have made so many mistakes myself in the past, and taken the wrong paths, that to not forgive would be hypocritical of me," Dumbledore answered as they caught up to Bob Ogden. Lily tried hard not to laugh at what he was wearing; a frock coat and shoes as well as a one piece bathing costume.

"Wait, is this what wizards thought muggles wore?" Ginny asked, frowning.

"Unfortunately, yes," Dumbledore replied, rolling his eyes. "I preferred to wear suits personally."

"Yeah, about that; when did you stop wearing suits at Hogwarts? I remember years ago, you often wore vest, shirt, and trousers," Barty commented, a teasing lilt to his voice.

"There comes a time in one's life when it is considered acceptable to be more…eccentric, shall we say," Dumbledore chuckled, a playful grin on his face. "I still wear them when I must blend in with muggles, as Lily can confirm."

"When we met in the summer? Yes sir, I rather liked that suit," Lily admitted, with a small smile.

"Thank you for saying so, Lily," Dumbledore replied, as they kept followed Ogden.

"Why was he here? Or is that what we're here to learn?" Ginny asked.

"That is why we are here," Dumbledore told them all. "This is, perhaps, one of the most important memories you will need to see," he clarified.

The group followed Bob Ogden to a little house, and watched as there was an interaction with Bob and the people living there; Morfin, Marvolo, and Merope Gaunt. Merope, Lily noted, was poorly treated by the two men, and was attacked when Morfin revealed that she had been eyeing up a muggle man. Bob had tried to intervene but had been forced to flee.

"Less than an hour later, Bob returned with Aurors, and after a swift, yet dangerous fight, Morfin and Marvolo were both arrested, and sent to Azkaban," Dumbledore explained, spotting Ginny and Crouch Junior's confused faces.

Lily had been the only one to fully understand everything that had been said. Morfin and Marvolo had spoken in Parseltongue, and she translated the argument that had taken place in the memory.

"Because Merope liked a muggle, Morfin and Marvolo thought she was lesser?" Ginny summarised, disgusted when they returned to Dumbledore's office.

"Sadly, yes," Dumbledore confirmed. "Blood Purity has been an issue for centuries, I'm sorry to say. There was once a time when being with a muggle was forbidden, but if not for magical kind marrying and having children with muggles, our kind would have either died out or be on the verge of extinction."

"I have to admit, there was a time I thought muggles were bad," Barty confessed, as he sat down. "My views have changed greatly, of course, and for the better."

"Indeed, and it is a change I believe we are all thankful for," Dumbledore complimented. "Do you understand who those people were, Lily?"

"I do," Lily said softly. "That was Voldemort's Mum, Uncle, and Grandfather."

"Indeed. Merope Gaunt was left to her own devices after Morfin and Marvolo was sent to Azkaban. She remained at the home for a short time, but then did something that was somewhat foolish, but to her, it seemed logical," Dumbledore explained. "That will be discussed in our next lesson. For now, I want to speak of what you thought of Morfin and Marvolo."

"They were arrogant jerks, thinking they could control Merope and use her as a servant," Ginny replied, her voice bitter and angry. "I know even some muggles think women are lesser than they are."

"That has been the case for some time, sadly," Dumbledore sighed. "In the muggle world, there was a time when women weren't allowed to even have a say in their own lives. That has been slowly changing over the last hundred years. I hope that the same can be said for our world as well."

"Lily's making some headway, showing people it's okay to be transgender," Ginny pointed out, looking at her girlfriend with pride. "Raising awareness about different sexual orientations as well." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Is it wrong of me to say that, in a way, muggles are more advanced as a society than the wizarding world?"

"How do you mean?" Crouch enquired, looking at her with interest.

"Well, in the older pureblood families, arranged marriages are still a thing. While it can also happen in the muggle world, it's a lot less common. People tend to marry out of love," Ginny explained. "Hermione also told me that not being heterosexual was considered a crime until 1967 in the muggle Britain, and in the 1980's for Scotland and Ireland. But in the wizarding world, we've only just started to realise that there are different sexualities and gender identities."

"We may have magic, but we are indeed behind on certain matters," Dumbledore agreed, sounding solemn. "Take the memory, as another example. Marvolo had been raised by a family that believed in pure blood supremacy which had led him to believe that muggles were a lower class of people."

"And he raised Morfin the same way, but not Merope?" Lily asked.

"No, indeed not. He also believed women were meant to serve men. Had he been more open-minded, it is entirely possible that Voldemort would have never been born, or if he had been, he might have been a very different person," Dumbledore explained.

"There's always a case to be made for what if's, though," Barty commented. "We can say the same thing for anything. What if this had happened, instead of what had happened. What and If, I think, are two words that can cause more pain than anything else."

"A wise observation," Dumbledore concurred. "What do you think, Lily? Ginny?"

"I think the man that rode past on the horse was Voldemort's father, just from the way Merope was looking at him. I could see it in her eyes; she looked at him the same way I look at Lily," Ginny replied.

"But he didn't even seem to notice she was alive, so how did they have a child?" Lily pointed out. "After her family was arrested, did she pluck up the courage to talk to him?"

"Things certainly changed after Merope was left alone," Dumbledore answered. "I don't wish to overload you with information. You certainly have enough to consider."

"There is something I noticed, though," Lily continued slowly, frowning as she thought back to the memory. "That necklace that Merope was wearing, I'm sure I've seen something similar, somewhere."

"It is possible," Dumbledore agreed. "I'll explain more on it at a later time as well. For now, it is getting late, and you should both consider sleep."

"Yes, sir," Lily and Ginny said at the same time.

"Get plenty of rest. I'll let you know when our next lesson is. For now, I wish for you to simply contemplate everything you've seen tonight," Dumbledore said. "It may seem of unimportance, but I stress you both that it is. Goodnight."

"There's more to this than you're saying, isn't there?" Crouch said after the two students left, turning his attention to Dumbledore.

"Yes, there is," Dumbledore agreed, folding his hands together under his chin. "I only have theories, however, and have much to determine myself."

"But why show those two, and me, that memory? Is there something we missed?" Barty asked, leaning back in his chair.

"No. You all saw what I did, and you know what I know, but I have certain suspicions. I can't tell Lily everything, much as I would like to," Dumbledore sighed, aging right in front of Crouch's eyes. "There is going to be a lot of difficult choices to be made, Barty, and you will have a difficult path ahead of you. I have an… assignment, for you, something I believe you will be suited for."

"Name it," Barty didn't even hesitate, and for that, Dumbledore felt relief. It proved to him that Barty was committed to helping to defeat Voldemort.

"I need you to begin procuring a number of locations, anywhere you decide, around the country, and ensure they are hidden from everyone. Not even the Ministry can know. Even I can't know," Dumbledore said. "A time will soon come when Lily, and others, will need safe locations, and the fewer people who know, the better. Only those who will use them as a hideout will be made aware of their precise locations."

"That shouldn't be too difficult," Barty said slowly, frowning as he did quick mental calculations.

"I am sorry that I can't tell you everything yet either, and please do not mistake this for a lack of trust. As I mentioned before, my mistakes tend to have bigger consequences and I must be fully certain of facts before I, or anyone, can act upon them."

"Makes sense," Barty commented, pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill from his robes. "I'll need a few supplies, including Polyjuice potion."

"I suspected as much, and acquired some from Horace for you," Dumbledore said, waving his wand and summoning a small box. "Twenty flasks, certainly enough to maintain a decent cover. Make sure there is no pattern to the locations, and that no one will find them."

"Don't worry, I got this," Barty promised, accepting the case before leaving.

Dumbledore watched him leave and let out a small sigh. "I hope so," Dumbledore mumbled to himself. "Everything depends on it."