Don't Let The Cruel World Change You [Tom Riddle]

Epilogue

Dumbledore had closed his mouth as if the story were over. 

"But, sir," Harry asked, "What happened to her?" 

Dumbledore sighed, peering over his half-moon spectacles at Harry. "Exactly what was destined too, I suppose." Dumbledore took a breath before continuing to explain. "Olive, and her son, were killed two years later by Tom, who had now named himself, Lord Voldemort." 

"Her son?" Harry asked, amazed. 

"Yes," Dumbledore confirmed. "Tom Riddle had bore a son with Olive, only he had never known of that fact. Olive had failed to tell him that she was even pregnant with their child." 

"I don't understand." Harry confessed, sinking deeper into the chair in front of the Head Master's grand wooden desk. "Why wouldn't she had told him?" 

"We are make decisions, Harry, sometimes thinking that they are what is best for the people we love. Olive had not wished to hold Tom back to her, as he had said before; he wasn't going to make any promises or commitments. Olive had believed that raising their son on her own was simply what life had in store for her." Dumbledore explained patiently. 

"Why did he kill them?" Harry asked finally. "Why did he kill his own son?" 

"Think about it, Harry," Dumbledore prodded, "Tom Riddle returns two years later; and all his rage allows him to see is his Olive with a child. Tom had not even given pause to put the timeline together, he acted on rage." 

Harry took a breath, thinking it all over. "Sir?" 

"Yes, Harry?" 

"Do you think it would have changed him? Had he known that he had a family, a son, do you believe that he would have turned out different?" Harry seemed to catch the Professors point clearly in those questions. 

Dumbledore smiled gently. "It is difficult to say, and I would like to assure you that it would have. However, Tom Riddle had changed and Tom wasn't the same man that Olive had fallen in love with, therefore it would have been impossible to have predicted where their story would have ended. If you are asking my opinion though, Harry, I had seen in the brief moments that Tom had spoken of her, or of my first visit to Wool's, something inside of Tom that I had never seen anywhere else. I believe that Olive changed him, or a part of him. 

"I believe that what Tom had perceived to be Olive's betrayal, had been a sort of final factor in becoming Lord Voldemort. It was the one thing that pushed him completely over the edge. Had he paused for her to explain to him, perhaps one more moment, the world as we know it now could possibly be completely different. I have a letter here, Harry. It was Olive's final letter to Tom in his last year here at Hogwarts." Dumbledore then opened the drawer of his desk, handing on old piece of parchment to the boy, watching carefully as Harry read the letter to himself. 

My Dearest Tom, 

I know that by the time you receive this letter, I will be long gone and there will be no one back at Wool's to await your reply. I have loyally watched at your side for countless years now as you have slowly become what you believe, is who you are destined to be. This is something I fear that I can no longer do. 

I simply cannot understand how what you had here, more importantly what you had with me was never good enough for you. I will never understand your deep hunger for power and control, and I will certainly never understand this 'Lord Voldemort' character that you are so desperate to become. 

However, as you have pointed out, you have made me no promises and have never bound yourself to me the way I had done to you. I agreed, and I understand this. I just have one simple request in my farewell; Don't let the cruel world change you, Tom. You're too good for that. 

Deepest Love Always, 

Olive McRidder