The Burrow. January 5, 1997
Mrs. Weasley lined up Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Ginny Weasley in front of the kitchen fireplace, ready to say goodbye to the children as the Ministry allowed access through Floo Powder to get the children safely back to Hogwarts. One by one all three of the children left a teary-eyed Mrs. Weasley behind, landing themselves in Professor McGonagall's office, who didn't even bat an eye at their arrival through her fireplace. The trio left the office, walking to the Gryffindor Tower, seeing Hermione coming by when they arrived.
"Harry. Ginny." Hermione called out, completely ignoring Ron's presence in the group.
"Where were you?" Ginny asked as they hugged each other, Ginny noticing how pick Hermione's face was.
"I just got here a couple of hours ago. I went to visit Hagrid and then ran to the headmaster's office to visit Zoë. By the way, Harry I have something for you."
As the four of them walked to the common room, Hermione gave Harry a letter, which had the date for his next lesson with Dumbledore. Ron got taken away from the group by Lavender, and Ginny reluctantly said she was to see Dean, leaving Harry and Hermione alone for Harry to tell her everything that happened over the break and during Slughorn's Christmas Party.
"Are you completely sure? Don't you think Snape is...I don't know pretending to get information from Malfoy?" Harry had to resist rolling his eyes. The same thing was said to him by Mr. Weasley and Lupin. Both stayed silent for a bit before Hermione spoke up again, how Lupin was doing with his mission among and werewolves and all that.
"Not good...have you heard of Fenrir Grayback?" Hermione gasped, sounding startled as she remembered the time when Draco was threatening to bring Fenrir Grayback on Borgin to check upon him. Harry also gasped, now just remembering that from Knockturn Alley.
"Hermione, this just proves more that Draco is a Death Eater I'm telling you." Harry said, raising slightly from his chair. Harry deflated again when his ideas were yet again dismissed by Hermione, saying how it could have been an empty threat. Harry only sighed. No matter what he said no one believed him
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Headmaster's Office. January 6, 1997
Harry entered the office a few minutes before the meeting was to begin. It was empty, the only light in the room coming from the Pensieve and the small crack from Zoë's door. Suddenly all the lights came to life as Professor Dumbeldore entered, holing the memories needed from that lesson. Without any delay, the lesson was begun at exactly 8 pm, with Dumbeldore pouring the memories into the Pensieve.
"Before we begin Professor...I would like to talk to you about Snape and Malfoy." Harry told him everything he had discovered. After all was said, Dumbledore stood up, flattening his robes.
"Yes. Thank you, Harry. Now let us move on to more important matters shall we?" Harry sat there dumbfounded. He had changed the topic in an instant, not even taking into consideration his words. Harry, seeing that there was no way he could change the topic back to Snape and Malfoy, walked his way to the Pensieve.
Before Harry could go view the memory, however, and voice was heard calling out for Dumbledore.
"Uncle Albus! Do yo..." Zoë stopped, viewing Harry staring back at her, in an almost puking like pose over a bowl of sorts. Dumbledore calmly turned around to his niece.
"What is it dear?"
"Uh...Dobby brought an extra pudding with my dinner...do you want it?"
"No thank you. I had lots of sweets already." Dumbledore turned to Harry, who was still looking at Zoë. Dumbledore smirked. "Harry, would you like the pudding?" Harry snapped out of his trance, taking him a few seconds to fully be able to answer.
"Um...I suppose so..." Zoë walked up to Harry, giving him the pudding quickly before retreated to her room again. Harry sighed. She definitely hated him. Harry ate the pudding as fast as he could before putting it aside, facing the wise man. Before he began speaking, Dumbledore lifted his wand and places a spell over Zoë's bedroom door, blocking off their conversation from her.
"Now Harry, in our last lesson we discussed how Tom Riddle was excited to find out he was a wizard. Well that year, Tom Riddle went into his first year and was sorted into Slytherin House as soon as the Sorting Hat touched his head. He also discovered at some point that the founder of Slytherin House also could speak to snakes, which only boosted his ego. Despite this information, he had displayed no such arrogance in public and was generally a talented student. He easily impressed anyone who had the privilege of talking to him. I even trusted him...despite lack of remorse you saw back in the orphanage memory. However, something change in him. You see he found out his true identity. Tom Riddle had found out he was half muggle and that his name was related to his muggle father. So he changed it to Lord Voldemort and investigated his mother's side of the family who, as you will recall, was the side he hated because he believed his mother could not be a witch."
Dumbledore stood up and directed Harry to the Pensieve before finishing his lesson before viewing the memory.
"Tom found his uncle. Let's have a look it shall we." Harry stepped up the Pensieve and bowed into the memory, feeling himself falling through it until he reached the ground. With Dumbledore coming right beside him a few seconds later, both viewed the memory of the interaction between Morfin and his nephew.
Zoë opened the door slightly, wanting to see if Harry was still there and he was, hunched over that bowl with her uncle. Zoë stared in confusion at them both. She wondered what that thing was and why it was so important for her uncle to place a spell on her door preventing her from hearing anything.
What was all the secrecy?
Zoë immediately closed the door when she saw both of them shot back up, and once again she was unable to hear anything.
"Is that all?" Harry questioned when they left the memory. Dumbledore nodded.
"I'm afraid so. Morfin does not remember what happened to him after this point, thus why it all went dark. After this, he admitted to the murder of several muggles and was sent to Azkaban without any fight on his part...his ring gone. You see Tom must have used Morfin's wand on him and implated false memories of killing those muggles." Harry was fuming with anger with the injustice of all this. Lord Voldemort was clever in his work.
Dumbledore took out another crystal vial from inside his pocket. Another memory.
"This one is extremely important. It will not take long, but I shall request something of you after we are done." It took a bit of effort from Dumbledore to pour the memory in the Pensieve as if it had gone bad like rotten milk. Once it was fully in, both of them lowered their faces, falling again.
As soon as they reached the ground and Harry lifted his head, he instantly recognized a younger-looking Professor Slughorn surrounding by a table of students, one of them being Tom Riddle. As the memory progressed, Harry noticed white fog at a certain point and only the loud voice of Slughorn as heard, before it went back to normal in the memory.
Towards the end of the night, Slughorn dismissed all the boys and was left with just one: a curious Tom Riddle.
"Sir, Would you mind if I asked you a question?"
"Not at all m'boy. Ask what you like."
"Sir, I wondered what you know...about Horcruxes." Suddenly the memory went foggy again, with Slughorns loud voice booming through Harry's ears.
"I know nothing about Horcruxes and even if I did I would never tell you! Now get out and never talk about that ever again!"
"That is all." Dumbledore said besides Harry. Harry nodded and they both landed back to the present.
"Sir, why were there foggy areas in the memory?" Harry asked.
"Ah yes. The memory had been tampered with. I believe Professor Slughorn did so to mask what he said since he is ashamed of whatever information he told Tom." Dumbledore went back to his chair and sat down, Harry following after him.
"This leads me to what I ask of you. Harry, I would like you to retrieve the memory. The one that hasn't been tampered with by Slughorn. He would never let me retrieve it and he is well versed in Occulmency which proves a challenge. I believe you are the only person who will be able to get the true memory." Dumbledore paused, thinking his words over before speaking. "Good luck...and have a good night."
Harry stood up and with a good night back, Herry left.
Dumbledore let out a heavy sigh as he pointed his wand at Zoë's door, lifting the spell from it.
"I can't see how that boy will be able to do what you couldn't." The portrait of Phineas Nigellus said in a harsh tone.
"What can Harry do that you can't uncle?" Zoë said as she exited the room, having heard what Nigellus has said. Her uncle only presented her with a warm smile and without answering her question, he kissed her on her forehead and bid her good night.
Zoë bid her good night as well, but curiosity inside her spiraled out of control.