A/N: Get some popcorn, y'all, bc this is a longer chapter than usual. I was going to shorten it but there wasn't really a good place to cut it without breaking up the flow of events. You'll see as you continue reading.
I entered Albus's office, a feeling of dread settling in my stomach. I knew I shouldn't have gone off on him that way but it felt as if I had no control of my emotions in that moment. All I could see was Harry continuously being forced to do Albus's dirty work and I was no longer going to simply stand to the side and allow him to put everything on Harry.
Albus closed the door behind us and made his way over to a case with vials and pulled one out before making his way over to a pensieve.
"You wanted to know everything, Y/n, but... do not be alarmed by the information. This is the memory I showed Harry... the one I believe has been altered. Depending on how you do with this one... I may show you more."
I was slightly confused as to what he meant but I nodded, nonetheless, and stood over the pensieve as he poured in the liquid and I was suddenly plunged into the memory. Slughorn was in his office and he turned to find a young boy... Tom... standing there.
"Look sharp, Tom," Slughorn said. "You don't want to be caught out of bed after hours."
"Sir, I wanted to ask you something."
"Ask away then, m'boy, ask away."
"Sir, I wondered what you know about... Horcruxes?" A dense fog filled the room before I heard Slughorn's voice.
"I don't know anything about Horcruxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did! Now get out of here at once and don't let me catch you mentioning them again!"
With that the memory ended and I was back in the office once more.
"Horcruxes," I muttered and Albus nodded.
"Ever heard of them?"
I shook my head and he hummed.
"There's more... if you're interested... but these are a bit harder to swallow... especially given that he's your father."
"He's not my father," I hissed.
Albus raised his hands. "I meant nothing by that statement, Y/n. I simply want you to be prepared should you choose to view these memories."
"I want to know everything."
He nodded and pulled several vials from the cabinet.
"You should prepare yourself, Y/n... these are difficult memories."
***
A/N: I am simply going to write out each memory as a refresher or for anyone who hasn't read the books. There isn't much dialogue between Albus and Y/n as they are going through each memory mostly silent. Any dialogue outside of the memories should be clear as Y/n explicitly states the memory has ended. Each new memory will be separated by ellipsis (...)
Memory: Bob Ogden
I stood inside an old looking house as a man sat in a gross looking armchair, twisting a small snake between his fingers as he sang to it in Parseltongue and Bob Ogden looked curiously at the man and who I assumed to be his son, who had just entered the room. There was a faint scuffling noise in the corner of the room and a girl was standing beside a pot on the stove.
"M'daughter, Merope," the man twisting the snake said as Ogden looked at her curiously.
Ogden greeted her but she said nothing, her terrified eyes finding her father's before turning back to the steaming pot.
"Well, Mr. Gaunt... to get straight to the point, we have reason to believe that your son, Morfin, performed magic in front of a muggle late last night."
There was a loud clang as Merope had dropped a pan.
"Pick it up!" Gaunt yelled as she scrambled to grab the pan. "That's it, grub on the floor like some filthy Muggle. What's your wand for, you useless sack of muck?"
"Mr. Gaunt, please!" Ogden exclaimed as Merope grabbed her wand and accidentally sent the pan flying into the wall, cracking it in half. The son laughed as Merope made her way over to the pot but Odgen repaired it for her.
"Lucky the nice man from the Ministry's here, isn't it?" Gaunt hissed. "Perhaps, he'll take you off my hands. Perhaps he doesn't mind dirty squibs."
"Mr. Gaunt," Ogden began. "As I've said: the reason for my visit-."
"I heard you the first time!" Gaunt yelled. "And so what? Morfin gave a Muggle a bit of what was coming to him. What about it, then?"
The two men argued before Mr. Gaunt brandished the ring on his finger. "See this? Know what it is? Know where it came from? Centuries it's been in our family! That's how far back we go, and pure-blood all the way! Know how much I've been offered for this, with the Peverell coat of arms engraved in the stone?"
Ogden tried to get things back on track as Gaunt made his way to Merope and grabbed the locket around her neck. I froze as I saw it. Regulus's locket.... Or the one that had gotten him killed.
"See this?" Gaunt yelled as Merope struggled to breathe. "Slytherin's! Salazar Slytherin's! We're his last living descendants! What do you say to that, eh?"
"Mr. Gaunt, your daughter!" Ogden exclaimed as Gaunt released her.
Mr. Gaunt began boasting about his pure-blood line as Ogden explained being pure-blood had nothing to do with the matter at hand. Suddenly the sound of horses and laughter streamed in through the open window. I could hear a man and woman's voice discussing the state of the house as Merope perked up at the sound. Morfin began making fun of her for it and her father turned to her, fury flashing in his eyes.
"You filthy blood traitor!" he yelled, storming toward his daughter, his hands wrapping around the girl's throat.
"Relashio!" Ogden yelled and Gaunt was thrown backward. He quickly stood, brandishing a bloody knife and raising his wand. Ogden ran out of the house and quickly collided with a dark-haired man on a horse. He brushed himself off and continued running. The memory ended and Albus explained that Ogden had returned with reinforcements and Morfin had been sentenced to three years in Azkaban, while Marvolo Gaunt had received six months.
I looked up at him. "Marvolo?"
Albus nodded.
"That's my father's middle name. They're related somehow, aren't they?"
"Marvolo Gaunt is Tom's grandfather... your great grandfather. His son, Morfin, and daughter, Merope, were the last of the Gaunts, a very ancient Wizarding family."
"And Merope... She was Tom's mother... and the man on the horse..."
"His father."
I thought for a moment. "But Tom said he was conceived from a love potion... when did they split... and why?"
Albus smiled sadly. "It's unclear. Perhaps she simply let him go as she couldn't bear to continue enslaving him... or perhaps she hoped that he would love her... especially now that she was pregnant."
"But he didn't."
"No... he didn't," he replied, softly. "He left and never saw her again. She died not very long after and the young Riddle was sent to the orphanage."
"The ring... it's the same one that cursed your hand, isn't it?"
He nodded. I knew I probably should've mentioned the locket but I kept quiet for now, deciding to see the rest of the memories before making a decision.
***
Memory: Morfin Gaunt
I was standing in the same house, though time had clearly aged the place and the years had not been kind.
A teenage Tom Riddle entered the house and a scruffy-looking man with an overgrown beard stood. "You!" he yelled. "You!"
"Stop," Tom hissed, though it sounded different.
"You speak it?"
Suddenly I realized he was speaking in Parseltongue.
"Yes, I speak it," Tom hissed, moving forward and closing the door behind him. "Where is Marvolo?"
"Dead. Died years ago, didn't he?"
"Who are you, then?"
"I'm Morfin, ain't I?"
"Marvolo's son?"
"'Course I am, then." He pushed the hair out of his face, the Gaunt ring on his finger catching the light streaming in from the window.
"I thought you was that Muggle... you look mighty like that Muggle."
"What Muggle?" Tom growled.
"That Muggle what my sister took a fancy to, that Muggle what lives in the big house over the way. You look right like him. Riddle. But he's older now, in 'e? He's older'n you, now I think on it..." The man swayed and clutched the edge of a nearby table. "He come back, see..."
"Riddle came back?"
"After he left her and serve her right... marrying filth!" He spat on the floor. "Robbed us, mind, before she ran off! Where's the locket, eh, where's Slutherin's locket?"
Tom said nothing as Morfin grew angrier. "Dishonored us, she did, that little slut! And who're you, coming here and asking questions about all that? It's over, innit... It's over."
Tom stepped forward and suddenly a darkness filled the room before the memory ended and I was pulled back to Albus's office.
"Seriously, that's how the memory ends? What the hell happened."
"Short version: Morfin couldn't remember anything after that. When he awoke the next morning, he was lying on the floor, alone, and Marvolo's ring had gone. Meanwhile, in the village of Little Hangleton, three bodies were found lying in the drawing room of the big house: Tom Riddle Senior and his mother and father."
My hand flew to my mouth as he spoke.
"The Ministry called upon Morfin as he was a convicted Muggle-hater that lived just across the valley from the Riddle house. He admitted to the murder on the spot and seemed quite proud of the murder. Even his wand was able to corroborate the story. We have no memories to show us this but I think we can be fairly sure what happened. Voldemort stupefied his uncle, took his wand, murdered the man who abandoned his mother and, for good measure, his Muggle grandparents, thus obliterating the last of the unworthy Riddle line and avenging himself upon the father who never wanted him. Then he returned to the Gaunt hovel, performed the complex bit of magic that would implant a false memory in his uncle's mind, laid Morfin's wand beside its unconscious owner, pocketed the ancient ring he wore, and departed. It took a great deal of skilled Legilimency to get even this memory out of him. He died before I could discuss his release with the Ministry."
I sighed as he returned the memories to their case before turning to me. "I know that was a lot... How are you doing?"
"I'm fine, Albus. I wanted the truth."
"Yes, but wanting the truth and seeing the reality of what you were born into... it's a lot, Y/n."
"I'm fine, Albus. Now, onto Harry," I said, trying to change the subject. "What exactly are you trying to find out?"
"What a Horcrux is and how one creates it."
"What do you know about the locket Merope Gaunt had?"
"She sold it to Borgin and Burkes some time ago. It was then acquired by Hepzibah Smith and later stolen by Voldemort after she was killed. Why do you ask?"
"Kreachur... he showed me a memory. It was how Regulus died. He'd learned something my father didn't want known and he went to a cave where he found that very same locket."
"What did he do with it?"
"I'm not sure... the memory appeared to be edited but the basin refilled with whatever potion Regulus had drunk that made him ill and the locket was still there."
He seemed deep in thought before finally looking up at me. "Must be something quite powerful for Voldemort to have hidden it that way... I'm sorry for your loss... Regulus was a wonderful boy."
I smiled softly. "Yeah, he certainly was."
There was nothing more to say and we parted ways with the promise that Albus would discuss things with me before putting Harry in danger. I knew he would go back on his word again as he had a habit of putting his plans before everything else. I only hoped I could trust him with this.