THE AFTERMATH | RON WEASLEY [BOOK FOUR]

13. IN TIME, YOU'll KNOW

Gene was a little on edge after the incident on Christmas Day. And by a little, she meant a lot. She just wasn't prepared to admit it. She wanted to move past it, as much as she could still hear Bellatrix's cackle ringing in her ears and the vicious glare of Greyback staring her down.

She hadn't spoken to Ron the remainder of her stay at The Burrow, all the way up until after New Years, despite his attempts on the journey to the station, and then again on the train, and once more when they arrived at Hogwarts, to no avail.

He had seen her talking to Harry and Finn, so it wasn't the talking that was the problem. It was him. He thought after what had happened, they might have been alright again.

But they weren't. He tried not to let this phase him as he saw her with Harry, smiling and tucking her hair behind her ears, a tick of hers he'd noticed over the years, but he couldn't explain why.

It was something she did when she was happy, truly happy, and he found himself feeling irate that it wasn't him that was stood beside her.

Ron knew he didn't have a reason to be so annoyed, as he was reminded of the fact that he was in a very happy relationship, as Lavender pressed kiss after kiss to his cheek repeatedly. He liked her a lot. They'd been together three months– of course he liked her.

Then, realisation began to dawn on him. Three months? He realised that he had really gone three months without speaking to Gene. Three months without her. At that, Ron suddenly stood up, hoping to catch Gene before she completely disappeared, only to find he was too late.

Both Gene and Harry had received an owl requesting their presence in Dumbledore's office, and Gene was more than happy to oblige. She was glad to find that he was back already.

They entered Dumbledore's office, with him stood around the Pensieve in his office, waiting for Gene and Harry's arrival.

"So, we meet this evening to continue the tale of Tom Riddle..."

Dumbledore continued to explain, reflecting on what they had already seen of him, including a memory of their first meeting at the orphanage, where he seemed to display quite a show. He had been quite guarded throughout his time at Hogwarts, appearing rather untrustworthy to Dumbledore, which was an opinion that seemed to hold.

"As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that, although as I have already indicated, Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them. This group had a kind of dark glamour within the castle. They were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts."

These words alone made Gene give a shiver outwardly, finding that it wasn't just particularly cold in Dumbledore's office that evening.

"I have not been able to find many memories of Riddle at Hogwarts," Dumbledore continued to explain to the pair, "Those whom I could persuade to talk told me that Riddle was obsessed with his parentage. This is understandable, of course; he had grown up in an orphanage and naturally wished to know how he came to be there. Finally he was forced to accept that his father had never set foot in Hogwarts. I believe that it was then that he dropped the name for ever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort, and began his investigations into his previously despised mother's family– the woman whom, you will remember, he had thought could not be a witch if she had succumbed to the shameful human weakness of death."

Somehow, after everything Gene had discovered about Voldemort's past and family, she found herself almost feeling sympathetic for Merope Marvolo.

"All he had to go upon was the single name 'Marvolo', which he knew from those who ran the orphanage had been his mother's father's name. Finally, after researching through old books of wizarding families, he discovered the existence of Slytherin's surviving line. In the summer of his sixteenth year, he left the orphanage to which he returned annually and set off to find his Gaunt relatives. And now, if you'll step forward–"