Always || Tom Riddle

The Pensieve ~ Chapter 150

"You cannot go back again, you only just made it out alive the last time!" Penelope cried, her hands placed on her hips, as she sent me as disapproving look as she could muster from where she stood beside the fireplace in Godric's Hollow.  "I know it sounds crazy, but I have to do this! If not me who else?! I see no other way of him getting out of Azkaban alive if they find him guilty!" I stood my ground, but whereas Charlus seemed to understand why I had to go back in time, Penelope had been taking it worse than I had imagined. "Will that be what I am to tell him when we tell him you are dead; that you had to do this?! I am sure he would much rather stay in Azkaban than know you are died trying to free him!" I turned away from Penelope, arriving at the conclusion that if I was to do this, I would have to turn to someone else for help; Dumbledore. As much as I did not want to admit it, there was no other choice, after all, he was the only person that had a real time turner; a time turner that would allow you to go back in time farther than a few hours. 

I lifted my coat off of the hanger, slipping it onto my shoulders and reaching for the doorknob, only to have Penelope race across the room and prevent me from doing so, her hand closing firmly around the door knob, turning a pale white from where she was clutching to the carved metal so tightly. "I won't let you go, this is madness! You are not thinking straight!" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, preparing to pry her hand off of the doorknob; fortunately, Charlus took control of the situation, rising from his armchair with a groan of annoyance. "Penelope, let her go, there is no stopping her; you know what she is like" Penelope's widened eyes moved from me to Charlus, and back to me again as she seemed to be deciding whether to listen to her intuition or her husband. "If you don't trust me, why don't you come with me?" I asked after a few moments of silence. "That way you can be sure that I return home in time for Tom's trial" 

"Fine, but do not think I am doing this for you, I am doing this because if Tom is found guilty, all that hope that you were saving her father and the wizarding world, will have been for nothing." I smiled, as Penelope grabbed her coat, throwing a quick glance over to Charlus who had stuck his hands into his trouser pockets in protest. "I do not see why I should have to go as well, you are both adults, you can look after yourselves!" I cocked an eyebrow at Charlus and shook my head in mock disbelief "I guess we will see you when you get back then" I shot back, gently tugging at Penelope's coat as we made to leave, stepping out of the front door of the Potter's house and preparing to apparate. From behind us, the door creaked open and then was slammed shut being simultaneously locked. "I decided I am coming with you" Charlus muttered under his breath, looking less than pleased about the idea, but stepping forward and taking hold of Penelope's hand. 

We apparated to Hogwarts, finding ourselves in the forbidden forest; that meant we had to trek our way up the hill and through the castle to get to Dumbledore's office, the proposition would not be so bad if Penelope was better at walking. We had nearly reached the bridge when she had to take a breather, leaning heavily against the stone while Charlus sympathetically patted her back. This was going to take a lot longer than I expected. 

*** 

At last, we had made it to Dumbledore's office, stood outside huddled together by the door; I raised my hand to knock, only to have the door swing open, greeted by a smiling Dumbledore rising from his seat. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" We stepped over the threshold and took a seat on Dumbledore's sofa, each with a just poured cup of tea in hand. "I went to visit Tom in Azkaban today" Dumbledore stiffened ever so slightly in his seat, but he played it off by plumping up the purple pillows behind him. "He told me there was some crime that he had committed that he had never told me of... I was wondering if you might have a clue as to what that might be" 

"Did he happen to tell you that this crime was what created his first Horcrux by any chance?" When I shook my head no, Dumbledore placed his cup of tea onto the table and made for his desk, opening a draw and revealing a diary, by the golden initials on the front of it, I recognised it as Tom's. "He murdered what was left of his muggle family, severing all ties with his father; he then framed it on his uncle, and fortunately for him; got away unscathed." From beside me, Penelope put her cup back onto its saucer dramatically, gasping in shock at the new revelation. "I remember reading about that in The Daily Prophet! Everyone was so sorry for Tom that he had lost what was left of his family...no wonder he seemed so unaffected by it" 

"By the sound of it, you knew that he had not just murdered his father, but framed his uncle, didn't you?" Dumbledore averted his eyes away from my unwavering gaze, sitting back down into the sofa opposite us, his eyes moving over the diary in thought. "Yes, I did. You were to be sent to Riddle manor the day you returned to this time. I thought that after everything you had been through, after everything you had sacrificed that Tom deserved some punishment for his actions. You've seen what he is like in there after one night, imagine what he will be like in a year; there will be nothing left of the confident dark lord left in him" 

"Which is precisely why I need to get him out of there...I am carrying his child, maybe the only child that we will ever have. After losing Amber and never getting to properly say goodbye to her, would you really deprive him of being a father to this child?" I had not been planning on revealing my pregnancy to any of them until things were more settled, already I was regretting my decision to speak up for Charlus roughly placed his cup on the coffee table, standing from his seat to look at me. "And to think you want to go back in time, not just knowing that Tom deserves to reap what he sowed, but knowing that you are more vulnerable than ever!" 

"I do what I have to, to save my family. Maybe if you had tried harder to do the same your own family would not be dead!" Glaring down at me from where he stood, Charlus stormed out of the room, Penelope following quickly after him in an attempt to calm him down. "He cares about you" Dumbledore commented, a sad nostalgic look in his eyes. "Do not take it for granted, there will come a time when you wish you hadn't" He rose from his seat, gesturing for me to follow and moving toward the Pensieve, taking out a small phial from his cabinet and pouring it in. "There is a memory which was taken from Tom upon his arrival at Azkaban. I think you will want to see it" I frowned at Dumbledore, but trusted his word, and looked into the pensive; my surroundings shifted to a cold snowy day in Hogsmeade. Tom was trekking out of Hogsmeade and towards the village of little Hangleton, arriving at the gates of Riddle manor, the Manor towered above all of the other houses, just as I remembered during my time there. 

Tom pushed the gates open, entering the house in a matter of seconds, removing his wand from his pocket and killing each of the finely dressed muggles in the room with a flick of his wand; if it wasn't committing a crime that he would now be paying for, I would have admired him for how effortless he made it seem. The memory shifted once again, and I found myself looking on as Tom replaced his memory of the murder of the Riddle family, and distorted it, as to confuse his uncle enough to trick him into believing he had committed the murders; it was smart, that I will admit, but the very fact that this was now a crime looming over his head, and the difference between remaining in a prison that was likely to send him mad, or being proven falsely accused, and being set free. The memory ended, I returned to the present time with Dumbledore hastily recovering the memory, placing it into the phial and replacing it in his cabinet.

"I suspected at the time that he had been up to something that day, I just never understood how critical what he had done would turn out to be" I spoke up, ending the silence that bequeathed the headmaster of Hogwarts office. "Can you help me change this or not?" I asked, starting to become agitated at the lack of answers I was receiving. "As it happens, I can. Tom was not the only person in Riddle manor that night, he forgot the servants who worked for his family. We have eye witnesses who still very much believe that it was his uncle, supporters of the Riddle family out of fear. They are old now, but it is the best option we have." 

"Where do we find them?!" Hope had begun to rise within me, as a smile broke out onto my lips in pure happiness. "If we have witnesses who could 'prove' that Tom's uncle had in fact been the one to commit the crime, now that his uncle is dead the charges would be dropped because there would be no one left alive to put them onto. It is practically foolproof, except for the part where we have to find them, get their evidence ready, and persuade them to join Tom's cause, all of which will take much longer than one night." 

"Leave that to me. You will find I can work in mysterious and wonderful ways, Miss Pevensie" 

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