Lily Potter (Harry Potter's Twin)

Chapter 71

Published September 10, 2016

"Yes, Lily," said Dumbledore briskly. "I have two more memories to show you two tonight, both obtained with enormous difficulty, and the second of them is, I think, the most important I have collected."

"Cool," I said, Harry remained silent, glaring at the table.

"So," said Dumbledore, in ringing voice, "we meet this evening to continue the tale of Tom Riddle, whom we left last lesson poised on the threshold of his years at Hogwarts. You will remember that he refused my company on a trip to Diagon Ally, and that I, in turn, warned him against thievery when he arrived at school.

"Well, the start of the school year arrived and with it came Tom Riddle, a quiet boy in his secondhand robes, who lined up with the other first years to be sorted. He was placed in Slytherin almost the moment the Sorting Hat touched his head," continued Dumbledore, waving his blackened hand toward the shelf over his head where the Sorting Hat sat, ancient and unmoving. "How soon Riddle learned that the famous founder of the House could also speak to snakes, I do not know--- that very evening, perhaps. The knowledge can only have excited him and increased his sense of self importance.

"However, if he was frightening or impressing fellow Slytherins with displays of Parseltongue in the common room, no hint of it reached the staff. He showed no sign of outward arrogance or aggression at all. As an unusually talented and very good looking orphan, he naturally drew attention and sympathy from the staff almost the moment of his arrival. He seemed polite, quiet, and thirsty for knowledge. Nearly all were most favorably impressed by him."

"Didn't you tell them, sir, what he'd been like when you met him at the orphanage?" asked Harry thoughtfully.

"No, I did not, Though he had shown no hint of remorse, it was possible that he felt sorry for how he had behaved before and was resolved to turn over a fresh leaf. I chose to give him that chance."

Dumbledore paused and looked inquiringly at Harry, who had opened his mouth to speak. I could tell how he was thinking about Dumbledore's willingness to trust anyone, probably comparing Dumbledore trusting Snape to trusting young Voldemort.

"But," Harry spoke at last, decided, "you didn't really trust him, sir, did you? He told me... the Riddle who was in the Diary said, 'Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did.'"

"Let us say that I did not take for granted that he was trustworthy," said Dumbledore. "I had resolved to keep a close eye on him, and so I did. I cannot pretend that I gleaned a great deal from my observations at first. He was very guarded with me; he felt, I am sure; that in the thrill of discovering his true identity he had told me a little too much. He was careful to never reveal as much again, but he could not take back what he had confided in me. However, he had the sense to never to try and charm me as he had charmed so many of my colleagues.

"As he moved up in the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that for want of a better word. Riddle undoubtedly felt no remorse for any of them. This group had kind of a dark glamour within the castle. They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weal seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts.

"Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open  wrong doing, although their seven years at Hogwarts was marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never for a fact linked. The most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of that crime."