What if Sirius Black didn't die?

Chapter 32: The Third Lesson with Dumbledore

SNAPE & THE UNBREAKABLE VOW- Nicholas Hooper

HARRY POV:

"Those whom I could persuade to talk told me that Riddle was obsessed with his parentage." Dumbledore started as we were about to enter another memory.

"This is understandable, of course; he had grown up in an orphanage and naturally wished to know how he came to be there. It seems that he searched in vain for some trace of Tom Riddle senior on the shields in the trophy room, on the lists of prefects in the old school records, even in the books of Wizarding history. Finally, he was forced to accept that his father had never set foot in Hogwarts." He finished.

"I believe that it was then that he dropped the name forever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort, and began his investigations into his previously despised mother's family," Dumbledore said, beckoning me towards the pensive.

"Let us enter this memory of Tom's, and pay close attention to the details Harry," Dumbledore said right before we both entered the memory.

Voldemort's eyes moved slowly around the hovel and then found a man in an armchair. For a few seconds they looked at each other, then the man staggered upright, the many empty bottles at his feet clattering and tinkling across the floor.

"YOU!" he bellowed.

"YOU!" And he hurtled drunkenly at Riddle, wand, and knife held aloft.

"Stop." Riddle hissed in Parseltongue.

Morfin stopped abruptly, his eyes wide and staring at Tom.

Morfin pushed the hair out of his dirty face, the better to see Riddle, we saw that he wore a black-stoned ring on his right hand.

"I thought you was that Muggle," whispered Morfin.

"You look mighty like that Muggle." Morfin scoffed.

"What Muggle?" said Riddle sharply.

"That Muggle what my sister took a fancy to, that Muggle what lives in the big house over the way," said Morfin, and he spat unexpectedly upon the floor between them.

"Ar, he left her, and serve her right, marrying filth!" said Morfin, spitting on the floor.

"Robbed us, mind, before she ran off! Where's the locket, eh, where's Slytherin's locket?" Morfin bellowed loudly as Tom was deep in thought.

"Is Marvolo here?" Tom asked curiously, not being affected by Morfin's yells.

"He passed, he did. Only a while after he was released from Azkaban,"

"Assaulting ministry personnel," Morfin spat mockingly.

"Rubbish," He snapped angrily as the memory faded and we exited the Pensieve.

"Soon after, in the village of Little Hangleton, a maid was running along the High Street, screaming that there were three bodies lying in the drawing-room of the big house: Tom Riddle Senior and his mother and father," Dumbledore said.

"He killed them all," I mutter lowly in astonishment.

"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," Dumbledore continued

"The next day his uncle was taken into Azkaban, where he eventually died," Dumbledore finished, heading to his cabinet of memories and taking another one out.