Lords Voldemort and Mortem

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Albus Dumbledore walked through the streets on the rainy, dreary day in London. His bewilderingly strange plum velvet suit indeed would have been drenched, if not for his dark colored umbrella. He walked through the gate and up the steps to the front door of the large and adverse orphanage of the city area. He knocked once on the large, aging, grey door.

It was opened a few moments after by a scruffy looking girl who had on an apron.

"Good afternoon," said Dumbledore. "I have an appointment with a Mrs. Cole, who, I believe, is the matron here?"

"Oh! Um… just a mo'… MRS. COLE!" she yelled over her shoulder.

The bellow was met with a frantic and irked reply from Mrs. Cole who was coming down the landing.

The girl turned back to Dumbledore, eying his suit as if it were some failed joke.

"Come in, she's on 'er way."

Dumbledore smiled kindly and stepped into the hallway of the orphanage.

A skinny, beleaguered- looking woman came scurrying toward them. Her sharp featured face looked more anxious than unkind as she continued

"….and take the iodine upstairs to Martha, Billy Stubbs has been picking his scabs and Eric Whalley's oozing all over his sheets- chicken pox on top of everything else!"

She ceased the frenzied ordering as she came with a wide eyed look to Dumbledore's suit which he was beginning to think wasn't as good a muggle disguise as he had hoped.

"Good afternoon," said Dumbledore, holding out his hand.

Mrs. Cole continued to gape at him.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore. I sent you a letter requesting an appointment and you very kindly invited me here today."

Mrs. Cole blinked a few times and then, after deciding that Dumbledore wasn't an illusion, said feebly

"Oh yes. Well- well then- you'd better come into my room. Yes"

She and Dumbledore both entered a small office that also seemed to be part sitting room.

"I am here, as I told you in my letter, to discuss Tom Riddle and arrangements for his future," said Dumbledore.

"Are you family?" asked Mrs. Cole.

"No, I am a teacher," replied Dumbledore. "I have come to offer Tom a place at my school."

"What school's this, then?"

"It is called Hogwarts," said Dumbledore.

"And how come you're interested in Tom?"

"We believe he has qualities we are looking for."

"You mean he's won a scholarship? How can he have done? He's never been entered for one."

"Well, his name has been down for our school since birth-,"

"Who registered him? His parents?"