Euphoria ; Harry Potter [4] (DISCONTINUED)

Ten

Saturday rolled by quickly and Harry soon found himself in front of Dumbledore's office. He knocked and entered.

"Good evening, Professor."

Dumbledore looked at Harry through his half-moon spectacles. "Good evening, Harry. You have been busy, haven't you? A detention under your belt already!"

Dumbledore didn't look cross at Harry so Harry didn't feel ashamed, he just smiled sheepishly. The detention wasn't his fault anyway.

"How is your hand, sir?" Harry asked out of curiosity, and remembering how painful it looked.

The Headmaster smiled at Harry. "Professor Snape has been a great deal of help with it. Nothing to worry about. Do you know why I asked you here, Harry?"

Harry sat down in front of Dumbledore's desk. "No, sir."

"War is coming, Harry. Indeed, it is already here. Soon you will be at the heart of it. You know this."

Dread filled Harry at the thought of this but he knew it was true. "Yes."

"I would be remiss if I let you go into it unprepared. Your teachers are doing what they can but there is other knowledge that you need that I think I am best prepared to give you. Knowledge about Tom Riddle."

"You still call him that?" Harry found himself saying.

Dumbledore didn't reply but instead waved his hand over the Pensieve that was sat on his desk, and out of the watery/gassy substance rose a figure with odd eyes and a dull face.

Dumbledore gestured to the women. "This, Harry, is Tom Riddle's mother."

Harry noticed she had a locket around her neck.

"Merope Gaunt. Daughter of a long line of pureblood wizards, descended from Salazar Slytherin himself, whose family were fiercely proud of it."

"Do you have a picture of his father?" Harry asked.

"I do not. Indeed, I do not believe there are any. Do you remember me telling you Riddle Senior was a Muggle, Harry?"

"Yes, I remember," Harry nodded. "It shocked me that Voldemort was a Half-blood because he always went on about blood purity."

Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed. It should be no surprise Tom Riddle rejects his Muggle heritage so vehemently. His mother used a love potion to ensnare his Muggle father, who abandoned her and their child when the potion wore off. She then died, leaving Tom to be raised in an orphanage. The Muggle world was not kind to young Tom Riddle."

"But he came to Hogwarts." Harry said.

Dumbledore smiled at Harry. "You are thinking of yourself, orphaned, unloved by your aunt and uncle, and how happy you were when you learned you were a wizard. The parallels have not gone unnoticed by me, either. But the difference, Harry, goes deeper. Tom Riddle, when I brought him to Hogwarts--"

"You brought him?" Harry interjected, shocked. His head was reeling with all this new information.

"Oh, yes. I, personally. He was a strange boy, knowing he had powers that made him different, but he was already using them to prove he was superior to those around him. Even when other children got hurt. You never were like that, Harry."

Harry felt his cheeks going warm from the fond look Dumbledore was sending him.

"He never changed, did he?"

"I thought he might, when he first came here. I thought being among other wizards would make him happy, would make him stop his petty and childish torments of others. Harry, you have touched Voldemort's soul; you have felt it. He's never changed from the frightened unhappy boy that he was; his defenses against his fear have only grown on a much larger scale. I do not believe he's ever loved, or ever been loved. That is the difference between you."

Harry's mind was reeling and it seemed Dumbledore could tell Harry needed some time to collect his thoughts because he remained silent for a moment.

For years, Harry had always noticed the scary similarities between himself and Voldemort. Some days were worse for Harry but he once remembered when he was in his second year, asking the Sorting Hat if it had made the right decision because after all he was going to be put into Slytherin. He remembered asking this because after he left the Chamber after saving Ginny, he couldn't ignore the similarities he had shared with the memory of Riddle and it filled him with fear.

But Harry also remembered that night he had had the worst nightmare about himself turning into Voldemort and clinging on to the little bit of life he had left. No matter how many times he would wake up and reassure himself he was okay, he would fall asleep only to have that dream again.

But even now, even after hearing Dumbledore's reassurance, he couldn't ignore the darkness swirling in the back of his mind, begging to be heard. Or the anger that's always sizzling in his veins, waiting for the opportunity to boil over and explode.

"I have something I want to show you. It is a memory of mine when Tom Riddle was at school." Harry jumped at the sound of Dumbledore's voice and looked up. The Pensieve was in fact swirling with a memory and Harry could see something at the bottom of it.

Harry nodded mutely before standing up and following Dumbledore to stand in front of it before the both of them bent over and fell into the memory; free falling until they hit the bottom...

>>>

They were thrown into the middle of a bustling corridor at Hogwarts. Among the many students, Harry noticed Dumbledore but instead of his long white hair, he had shorter auburn hair and his face looked younger.

Harry and Dumbledore followed the younger Dumbledore down the hall and then Harry saw him; Tom Riddle. He was smiling charmingly at a younger Professor Slughorn. Harry's blood froze at the sight of him.

Younger Dumbledore walked past Riddle and Slughorn and caught some of their conversation.

"Sir, I wondered what you know about... about Horcruxes, sir?" Tom Riddle asked. His voice was smooth, collected but Harry saw the excitement and hunger in his eyes.

Harry then watched the younger Dumbledore hesitate as he walked past but continued before anyone could notice.

The conversation died away as young Dumbledore continued to walk away and soon Harry and Dumbledore were spiralling back into the present.

"Wish that I had stayed to listen that day." Dumbledore said and Harry saw the regret in his blue eyes.

But Harry was focusing on one thing. The thing that made Tom Riddle show more emotion than Harry had ever seen him show. "Horcruxes, sir? What are Horcruxes?"

"For you to learn that, I need you to perform a task. I need you to get the memory of that conversation from Professor Slughorn." Dumbledore had suddenly turned very serious and grave.

"Me? Sir, why don't you ask him?"

"I have. He has refused me." Dumbledore laced his fingers together.

"But, sir, if he won't give it to you, why should I--" Harry couldn't understand why Dumbledore was asking this. If Slughorn won't give the memory to Dumbledore why would Slughorn give it to Harry?

Dumbledore shook his head, silencing Harry. "Harry. There will come a time when I am no longer here for you. I need to know that, when I am gone, I have left you capable. This task is for you."

Harry was filled with a feeling of foreshadowing. He was confused and quite worried. What did Dumbledore mean that there would be a time when he was no longer there for Harry? And how was he meant to get this memory? Harry did know one thing though, he was definitely going to need some help so he was going to have to drag his friends into this too...

(I know this chapter is a lot of dialogue and all about Harry but it is important and needed, so I'm sorry about that. I hope you all enjoy it though. Until next time...)

Also sorry about updating this later than I said, some stuff popped up and I didn't have time to finish it until now.