Percy Jackson and the Locket of Salazar

21) MerNOPE

"The Imperius Curse?" Harry suggested. "Or a love potion?"

"Very good. Personally, I am inclined to think that she used a love potion. I am sure it would have seemed more romantic to her and I do not think it would have been very difficult, some hot day, when Riddle was riding alone, to persuade him to take a drink of water. In any case, within a few months of he scene we have just witnessed, the village of Little Hangleton enjoyed a tremendous scandal. You can imagine the gossip it caused when the squire's son ran off with the tramp's daughter Merope.

"But the villager's shock was nothing to Marvolo's. He returned from Azkaban, expecting to find his daughter dutifully awaiting his return with a hot meal ready on his table. Instead, he found a clear inch of dust and her note of farewell, explaining what she had done.

"From all that I have been able to discover, he never mentioned her name or existence from that time forth. The shock of her desertion may have contributed to his early death — or perhaps he had simply never learned to feed himself. Azkaban had greatly weakened Marvolo and he did not leave to see Morfin return to the cottage."

"And Merope?" I asked, frowning. "She died, right? Voldemort was brought up in an orphanage."

"Yes, indeed," Dumbledore said. "We must do a certain amount of guessing here, although I do not think it is difficult to deduce what happened. You see, within a few months of their runaway marriage, Tom Riddle reappeared at the manor house in Little Hangleton without his wife. The rumor flew around the neighborhood that he was talking of being 'hoodwinked' and 'taken in.' What he meant, I am sure, is that he had been under an enchantment that had now lifted, though I daresay he did not use those precise words for fear of being thought insane. When they heard what he was saying, however, the villagers guessed that Merope had lied to Tom Riddle, pretending that she was going to have his baby, and that he had married her for this reason."

"But she did have his baby." I pointed out.

"Yes, but not until a year after they were married. Tom Riddle left her while she was still pregnant."

"What went wrong?" Harry asked. "Why did the love potion stop working?" I would hardly call that going wrong, as a failing love potion was the best kind of love potion.

"Again, this is guesswork," sighed Dumbledore, "but I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby's sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son."

I had many questions but wanted no answers. I wondered what became of Tom Riddle Senior. How had he felt when the glamor had fallen away and he'd found a strange pregnant woman in its wake? Had he been eating, then suddenly choking from his shock — his terror? Had he been outside, soaking in the sun, then suddenly was standing not in the warmth of outside, but in the shadowed side of a mountain of tricks, manipulation, and taking what one has no right to take? Had he woken up in bed, staring into her face, the dark outside not nearly as dark as his heart?

Hopefully, whatever had come of him, he had been happy.

"I think that will do for tonight, boys," Dumbledore said, staring outside into the inky black sky. I wondered what he thought of Merope and Tom. I wondered if he would tell me if I asked.

"Yes, sir," Harry said, climbing to his feet. He didn't move to leave. "Sir... is it important to know all this about Voldemort's past?"

"Very important, I think."