,,Well, this is certainly going to go wonderful, isn't it?"

There he was, standing in front of Dumbledore's office, after going to the common room to drop off his things and hopefully mentally prepare for the situation that's about to come.

,,Lemon drops."

Splitting horizontally into two, the door let him in.

,,Just as eccentric as the person behind it.", Tom thought.

Behind the door was a long corridor, flashing with yellow lights and sparkles. Even with the situation he was currently in, Tom couldn't help but gaze at the lights with awe. They continued into a whimsy, spiral staircase and the end of the corridor. The stairs weren't that long, and soon after, Tom reached a door at the end of them.

Before knocking, he took a deep breath and put on his best fake smile.

If he was honest, it didn't matter all that much, because Dumbledore was certainly onto him now.

Well, at least he could try.

He knocked on the door and gently pulled the doorknob shortly after.

,,Good afternoon, professor", he said, trying to sound as polite as possible,
,,What did you need me here for today?"

,,Ah, hello Tom. Thank you for coming. Please, take a seat.", Dumbledore said as he gestured to a chair near his desk.

Tom watched as Dumbledore walked over to a bookshelf and put the book he was reading on it.

Before he could return, Tom sat on the chair near the desk. Soon after, Dumbledore sat on the chair right across him.

As Dumbledore cleaned up the table of any leftover parchment, Tom began to ponder what on Earth Dumbledore was going to ask him. After all, he'd never done anything out of place in his six years of being in Hogwarts.

The things he considered doing did not count.

No one but his parents knew about this secret that haunted him.

Every day, every minute, every second.

But, if it wasn't about that, what would he get called for? N.E.W.T.s information? Head boy duties? Prefect duties?

Oh, forget it, it must be out of pure spite.

Millions of questions flooded his mind, yet, there were absolutely no answers.

,,Sherbet lemon?", Dumbledore asked him.

,,Really?", Tom thought,
,,Out of every thing he could of said, he says this!?"

,,No thanks, sir, I'm full after today's dinner. Thank you for the offer.", he responded.

,,Well, you should know that you're really missing out.", Dumbledore smiled at him.
,,No matter.", he said,
,,I've been meaning to ask you, Tom."

Oh no.

,,How have you been?"

Tom struggled to process this question, his face making an unsure look.

Why would Dumbledore, of all people, want to know the answer to that question? His suspicions were rising.

,,I've been" Bloody spectacular. ,,fine sir. What about you?"

,,Same as usual, Tom."
,,But."
,,Tell me how you are honestly this time, Tom."

Why was he so determined to know how he felt? He never bothered to check on him any other time. Well, Tom still wouldn't admit anything.

,,I'm fine, sir, I assure you.", Tom said, while trying his best to sound honest.

,,Well, Tom. If you really are fine,"
,,Why did your housemates decide to distance themselves from you?"
,,After all, they all seemed to have some respect for you. That is, until now."
,,What happened, Tom?"

Dumbledore's tone was strangely more demanding than usual, which made Tom a little nervous. He started fiddling with his sleeves while trying to think about what to say. This was one of the things Tom despised.

Being out of control.

,,I do not know, sir.", he said, pretending to be unsure,
,,It appears that they loathe when a non-pureblood is in their house."

This wasn't the real reason as to why his reputation was tarnished, but he wasn't telling anyone the true reason.

,,Yes, Tom, that is plausible."
,,But, they didn't like you from day one, and you managed to fix that."
,,Maybe they treat you differently because of your adoption?"

In actuality, that is one of the reasons as to why they distanced themselves from them. The only reason as to why they even respected him in the first place was because of one fatal human weakness. One that Tom managed to instill upon them.

Fear.

But, after he himself started showing doubts, uncertainty, fear, weakness, they stopped fearing him. He was now what he used to be on the first day of coming to Hogwarts:

A mere mudblood.

After Abraxas spread the news that Tom Riddle was adopted by muggles, they truly stopped taking anything he did seriously. His reputation plummeted.

,,Yes, sir, they did start to treat me worse after that.", Tom confirmed.

,,And do you feel like your adoption made things worse for you, Tom?"

,,Of course not, sir."
,,I would never change that for anything else.", said Tom, unusually honest with Dumbledore.

,,Very well, Tom."
,,Though, it takes me by surprise that you developed an attachment to muggles. You always seemed to have some kind of disdain for them."
,,Why was that, Tom?"

As always, Dumbledore was right. Tom Riddle loathed muggles, felt repulsed by anything that didn't reek of magic. But, to say that he only loathed them would be an understatement. He wanted to enslave them, torture them, kill all of those he deemed unworthy. Those thoughts only worsened when he found out that his father was a muggle. Not just any muggle. A muggle that left his struggling, poor mother alone to rot all by herself, while she was pregnant with him. Not only did he leave his mother, he left him, simply because his mother was a witch. Now, Tom knew not to hold a disdain for all muggles just because of a single one, but still.

He was named after him. His mother's dying wish was for her son to be given that foul muggle's name.

Simply put, his father disgusted him.

,,None of those muggles ever wanted to do anything with me. I was always a burden to them. And I was only in that orphanage because my father left my mother, just because she was a witch."

Dumbledore knew that Tom frequently used to victimize himself in order to gain sympathy from others. This time, though, it didn't look like that was the case. It appeared that he was merely saying the things that were true.

,,And do you feel anything for your biological mother, Tom?"

By now, Tom was starting to get confused. Why was he asking him things that were obvious? His mother was part of the Gaunt family, the last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself. Tom was proud to be descended from such a noble bloodline. Even if he never met his mother, he felt pity for her.

,,I feel pity for her, sir. It was wrong of my father to leave her."

,,And do you think he did the right thing, Tom?"

Tom looked at him with a confused glance.

,,Of course not, sir."

,,Well, Tom,",
,,You should know that things aren't sometimes as they seem.", Dumbledore said as he looked him in the eyes.

Not as they seem? What would he be talking about?

,,What do you mean, sir?", Tom said in a questioning tone.

,,Well, you see, Tom", he began,
,,Your mother isn't what you imagined her to be."

As Dumbledore began to pace around his office, Tom began to question everything he knew about his biological family.

,,As you know, your mother was a descendant of the house of Gaunt, one of the sacred 28 pureblood lines."
,,They were obsessed with keeping their bloodline pure, to the point of marrying their cousins."

Tom looked disgusted, breaking eye contact with Dumbledore.

,,Eventually, their inbreeding resulted in consequences. Your grandfather, Marvolo, was an unstable man, who abused your mother."

Tom was starting to get uncomfortable.

,,One day, your mother got infatuated with a muggle, who you were named after. Sadly, her family didn't approve of that, and they forbid her from seeing him."
,,Eventually, because of a crime they committed, both got sent to Azkaban, and she was free."
,,The first thing she did was get your father's affection, but in unhealthy ways."
,,My guess is that she used a love potion on him, something of that sort. Nevertheless, she stopped using magic on him when she got pregnant with you, hoping that he would stay with her because of her pregnancy. But, he remembered every thing she did to him, even if he wasn't conscious. Of course, he left her after that. Your mother struggled to survive alone, and she eventually died giving birth to you at Wool's orphanage."

To Dumbledore's surprise, Tom didn't say anything after that. He just wore a horrified expression on his face.

Had every thing he ever knew about his ancestry been a lie?

Every thing he imagined them to be, they were not. His views of them were getting warped and distorted. For such a long time he believed that his father was the one in the wrong, that he caused his suffering. He wanted to get his revenge, torture him, kill him, get rid of him as if he was a mere worthless scrap. Now, when the true story unfolded, he was downright horrified. Even more so when he remembered what he wanted to do.

How could of he been so wrong? How could of he been so deranged?

Thinking of those past thoughts made him even more disgusted with himself.

Unbeknownst to him, Dumbledore saw his expression, which was filled with guilt.

,,I was afraid that you might turn out like them, Tom.", he said,
,,You weren't exactly the nicest child in that orphanage. Stealing from other children, abusing your magical abilities on them."
,,But."
,,You have proven to me that anyone can change.", Dumbledore smiled at him.

Those words stopped his current thoughts. After this revelation, he felt so many negative emotions. But, if the person who trusted him the least said that he has changed, that must be a good sign.

,,Thank you, sir.", Tom responded with a small smile.

,,Well, Tom, I'm not going to bother you anymore.", he said.
,,You're free to go."

Tom slowly stood up and slid the chair he was sitting on to it's original position. He slowly made his way to the exit.

,,Goodbye, sir."

Exiting the hallway, he couldn't really believe that this meeting ended on good terms. Actually on good terms, not just surface level agreements.

But, he did have lots of things to think about.

This revelation about his true ancestry was difficult to process. And with it came loads of negative emotions.

On the contrary, the fact that Dumbledore believed that he changed made it all the more complicated. It was all starting to turn into one big blur. He felt so many emotions.

Too many.