Darwinism | hp

021: Slytherin's Monster

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Hermione was in the Hospital Wing for several weeks. Once the students returned from Christmas break, rumours started to spread about why she had gone missing, most people believing she had been attacked, and students were constantly walking past the Hospital Wing to get a glimpse at her, to see what had happened, and so Madam Pomfrey put curtains up around her bed, so that no one would know why she was really there.

Something Marilyn thought was interesting, was that Mattheo Riddle's Mother was at the school. She sat at the Staff table at meals, which was mostly the only time they would see her.

"What do you suppose she's here for?" Ron questioned, looking up at the woman, as she ate her breakfast, while pouring over a book on the Dark Arts. "I mean, it's not like she can do anything."

"If my son was almost killed at school, I'd probably sob at his bedside everyday. And try to fix it, though the sobbing would come first." Marilyn was reading her own book - on Dark Magical creatures.

"Yeah, but you don't have a son, Marilyn. And a guy like Riddle isn't one to have a very loving mother."

Mrs Riddle spent most of her time in the Hospital Wing. When Harry, Ron and Marilyn went to see Hermione and catch her up on homework, Mrs Riddle could be heard from behind the curtains, where she usually sat with her son.

"Weird," Hermione had muttered the afternoon her whiskers fell out, eyes narrowed at the curtain hiding the Riddles.

"What?" Marilyn sat in a chair beside Hermione, filling out her own homework.

"She's really lovely, Mrs Riddle. Like, lovely. She was asking about why I was here, and if I felt better, and told me some story about how when she was in school, she tried to become an Animagus and - anyway, you'd think someone raised by her would be nice, but Riddle's horrible."

"Hmm." Marilyn didn't really much care. Mrs Riddle hadn't bothered her, and Riddle wasn't the heir, so her interest was mostly gone, aside from her interest in how he knew about the Chamber.

Her interest in the Riddle family was not reignited in early February, when Harry showed a Diary he had found in the bathroom to her and Hermione in the common room late one night. The Diary had been thrown at Myrtle, and Harry had pocketed it. It was empty, and old, though it did have a name written on it.

"T.M.Riddle?" Marilyn questioned, looking up from the back cover of the book, where the name sat. 

"Got an award for Special Sevices to the school fifty years ago." Ron said, as they gathered in the Gryffindor Common room one night. "Maybe he's our Riddle's grandfather or something."

"M could stand for Mattheo." Hermione muttered, flicking through the pages.

". . . Okay . . .? " Ron shrugged. "Or Mathew."

"That's Riddle's name, Ron, seriously! Do you not remember a thing?!"

"What's the point in remembering his name? We all call him Riddle anyway."

Marilyn took the book from Hermione, looking over it, and flicking through the empty pages, too. "We could mention it to Mrs Riddle. Maybe she knows."

"This Riddle was Muggle-Born, I think." Harry said. "The book is from a store in london."

"The plot thickens!" She thought for a moment. "Do you think he caught the - OH!"

Ron jumped. "What?"

"That's why Mattheo knows so much about the Chamber! That's why it seemed like he was the heir - his Grandfather caught the heir of Slytherin! That's what the special Services to the school was!"