Half-Blood Princess Book Six

Chapter 6 - Mirror Image

Third-Person POV

23rd September 1996

Tilly and Harry make their way through the castle to Dumbledore's office, as he called for them. Harry knocks on the door, and they hear Albus let them in, so he holds the door for his sister, and they go inside.

"Ah, Harry, Tilly, you got my message. Come in. How are you both?" Dumbledore asks his two favourite students.

"Fine, Sir." Harry answers.

"I've been alright." Truth be told, Tilly has been struggling with Draco for a while now. He's always sneaking off or lying about something, but they always work it out.

"Good. I know Professor Slughorn is most impressed with you both."

"I think he overestimates my abilities. But he is right with Lill; she's brilliant." Tilly chuckles, and Albus laughs.

"What about your activities outside the classroom?" Tilly and Harry share a puzzled look. "I know Tilly you're with Mr Malfoy, but Harry, I noticed you spend a great deal of time with Miss Granger. I can help to wonder if-"

"Oh, no, no. I mean, she's brilliant, and we're friends, but no." Harry quickly says when he follows Dumbledore's drift.

"Forgive me. I was curious." Tilly sighs, glad she wasn't asked any love life questions. "Well, Tilly, how are you and Malfoy doing?" Spoke too soon.

"We're doing great. Draco's, Draco, and he has a lot on his mind right now, but he's still the same boy I've known and loved for years." Tilly smiles.

"Yeah, besides the fact he hurts you and is evil," Harry mumbles under his breath.

"James, we talked about this...Let it go." Tilly huffed.

Albus laughed at the two bickering siblings.

"You remind me of my siblings when I was younger. Anyway, I have summoned you here to help me look through some memories. This one being Voldemort's or as he was known then, Tom Riddle." Albus reaches and takes out one vile. "This one holds the memory of the day I first met him. I'd like you to see it if you would." Harry and Tilly nod, then are passed the vile and Harry pours it into The Pensieve. Both students put the heads into the water and watch the memory unfold. The walls of the orphanage are black tile and seem more like a cell than a home. Tom is young, maybe only ten, and is short-handed with Albus in his speech. Tilly watches as Tom, such a wounded boy, believe Dumbledore is going to be manipulating him as the House Mother wanted a doctor to look at him.

"They think I'm different. I'm not mad."

"Hogwarts is not a place for mad people. Hogwarts is a school of magic." Albus looks at the boy before him. "You can do things, Tom. Things that other children can't." Dumbledore states.

"I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want without training them. I can bad thing happen to people who are mean to me. I can make them hurt." Harry and Dumbledore see is a scary little boy who became one of the darkest people of all time. But Tilly sees something else, his broken heart and trampled soul. Voldemort may be an awful man, but Tom Riddle was a hurt boy who was dealt the wrong hand in life. Such a vulnerable boy, he asks a fully grown man to prove himself, and after he has, Tilly can see the boy open up a bit more.

"At Hogwarts, you'll not only learn to use magic but how to control it," Albus says before he packs his stuff and walks away, but Tom calls out.

"I can speak to snakes too. They find me. Whisper things. Is that normal for someone like me?" Tilly feels something change in her heart that second, the way Tom was so fragile as a child scared her because she mirrors him in ways she never thought possible.