All the Time in the World

Chapter Twenty Nine

Ron was discharged from the hospital wing in the evening and he and Hermione decided to go for a walk before returning to the common room.

"I feel so suffocated there," Ron told her.

Hermione nodded. "I know. I feel the same." She shuddered. "I don't see this going well, Ron. I don't see what good we are doing."

"Nor do I," muttered Ron gloomily. "But how do we convince Harry?"

"We can't," she sighed. "But we've got to try. Otherwise, we would simply be wasting our time here when we could be back there doing something constructive about stopping him."

"Let's go back to the common room, now," said Ron. "Harry's alone there."

Hermione nodded and they walked back. Ron was frowning heavily. Not for the first time, he was cursing the impulse that had caused him to suggest to Harry the deception that had landed them in this mess. Did they think it was going to be that easy to make the darkest wizard who ever lived experience love? Did they really think stopping You-know-who was that easy? Ron could only wonder at their naïveté. He could now understand Professor Dumbledore's reluctance to let them do it.

What fools they were! What naive fools! Ron suddenly turned to Hermione, "Do you remember how You-know-who's father died?"

Hermione looked sick. "He killed him, Ron. He killed his father and his grandparents a few days after he came of age. As per wizarding law, all their wealth became his."

Ron nodded. "That's what I remember too. But he told Harry the night he came back that he killed his father and grandparents when he turned sixteen. Anyway, you said he became heir to the Riddle fortune after their death. But what about Muggle law? They were muggles, right?"

"His father had made a will leaving everything to him. So, by muggle law too, he was the heir."

Ron blanched. "So, by making his father take him in, we effectively signed the poor man's death warrant?"

Hermione shrugged. "He would have killed him anyway, judging by what he told Harry the night he came back. Your memory of that night would be of the time when Riddle spent his life in the orphanage."

"In that time, You-know-who would not have profited from his father's death," muttered Ron. "We just gave a budding dark lord, all the wealth he needs to fund his rise to power! He's probably going to do it in half the time it took him last time!"

Hermione frowned. "As per your recollections, when did his rise to power start?"

"Ten, fifteen years before he tried to kill Harry. Why?"

Hermione was pale. "In our time, after you convinced Tom Riddle to take him in, he became powerful much before that. Hogwarts was safe, but most of the Order were in hiding. He deposed the ministry a week before he tried to kill Harry."

"Merlin! We can't just go back!" muttered Ron. "We have to do something! If we can't change Riddle Jr, perhaps we can try to save Riddle Sr. I mean, that should change something, shouldn't it?"

"But how?"

"I have no idea." But Ron's face was determined. "But I will find a way."