However, Dumbledore's voice was rather calm when he spoke again. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"I'm very impressed, Harry."

"Scrimgeour wants to know where you went when you weren't at Hogwarts," Harry said, still staring at his knees.

"Yes, he did enjoy asking about that," Dumbledore's voice was now pleasant, and Harry felt it was safe to look up at this time. "He even wanted to send someone to follow me. It's really funny. He sent Delix. That's not very friendly. I've been forced to cast a spell on Delix once; I did it again with great apologies. ”

"So they still don't know where you've been?" Harry asked, hoping for more information on the subject of interest, but Dumbledore only smiled from the top of his half-moon glasses.

"Yes, they don't, and it's not time to tell you. Now, I suggest we move on with what we did before, unless you have anything else-? ”

"Actually, there is, Professor," Harry said. "About Malfoy and Snape."

"It's Professor Snape, Harry."

"Yes, Professor. I overheard their conversation at Professor Slavhorn's party...... Well, I actually followed them......" Dumbledore listened to Harry's story with a blank expression. After Harry finished speaking, he was silent for a moment, then said, "Thank you for telling me this, Harry, but I suggest you forget about it. I don't think it's too important. ”

"Not too important?" Harry repeated incredulously. "Professor, do you understand?" "Yes, Harry, I've been blessed with extraordinary intelligence, so I've figured out everything you told me," Dumbledore said a little sharply. "I think you should even consider that I probably know more than you do. I'm glad you trusted me, but I assure you that what you told me didn't upset me. ”

Harry sat there quietly, but his heart was turbulent, and he glared at Dumbledore. What's going on? Now that he'd told Dumbledore all about Snape, does that mean that Draco was indeed the one Dumbledore sent Snape to investigate? Or was he really worried about what he heard, but pretended to be nothing?

"So, Professor," Harry hoped his voice would appear polite and calm, "do you trust—?" ”

"I've been patient enough to answer that question," but he didn't sound so patient. "My answer hasn't changed."

"I don't think so," said a sarcastic voice; Phineas Nigelus was clearly just pretending to be asleep. Dumbledore ignored him.

"So now, Harry, I'm going to have to keep going with our lesson. I have more important things to discuss with you tonight. Harry sat there in defiance. What if he refused to change the subject, if he insisted on arguing about Malfoy? Dumbledore shook his head, as if reading through his thoughts.

"Ah, Harry, how often this happens, even between best friends! Everyone believes that what they have to say is much more important than others! ”

"I don't think what you're going to say doesn't matter, Professor," Harry said bluntly.

"Well, you're right, because they do matter," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "I have two memories to show you tonight, each of them was hard-won, and I think the second one is the most important of all the memories I have collected."

Harry made no comment on this; He was still resentful that his secret had been given a cold reception, but he didn't know what the outcome would be if he continued to argue.

"So," said Dumbledore in a loud voice, "let's continue the story of Tom Riddle tonight, who was already on the threshold of his Hogwarts career. You must remember how excited he was when he heard that he was a wizard, how he refused to go to Diagon Alley with me, and how I warned him not to continue stealing when he arrived.

And so his school career began, Tom Riddle, a quiet boy in a second-hand robe, waiting in line with other first-year freshmen for the sorting ceremony. The Sorting Hat parted into Slytherin almost as soon as it touched his head," Dumbledore continued, waving his blackened hand at the ancient Sorting Hat that was quietly placed on the shelf. "I don't know how soon he discovered that the famous founder of the academy could also talk to snakes - maybe that night. The news undoubtedly excited him and boosted his self-esteem.

However, even if he had ever displayed a parseltongue in the common room to scare his fellow Slytherins, none of that reached the ears of the instructors. He never openly displayed his arrogance or aggressiveness. As a gifted and good-looking orphan, he won the attention and sympathy of the teachers almost as soon as he arrived at Hogwarts. He seemed very polite, quiet and eager to gain knowledge. He made a good impression on almost everyone. ”

"Didn't you tell them, Professor, didn't you tell them what he was like in the orphanage?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I didn't. Although there is no indication that he is repenting, it is possible that he will be sorry for what he has done in the past and determined to be a new person. I chose to give him a chance. Dumbledore paused and looked inquiringly at Harry, who had just opened his mouth to speak. Again, Dumbledore was casually trusting someone, although there was overwhelming evidence that that person was not worthy of his trust at all!

But Harry suddenly remembered something...... "But you don't really trust him, Professor, do you?" He told me...... Riddle, who came out of that journal, said, 'Dumbledore never liked me as much as the other teachers'. ”

"I didn't take it for granted that he was trustworthy," Dumbledore said. "I had already made up my mind to keep an eye on him, and I did. I can't claim to have learned a lot from him in the first place. He was wary of me; I'm sure he felt a little too much to tell me in addition to the excitement of discovering who I am. He never divulged about himself like that again, but he could not take back what he had accidentally said to me in his excitement, nor could he take back the secret that Mrs. Cole had revealed to me. However, he never tried to confuse me as many of my colleagues did.

As his studies progressed, he gathered a group of enthusiastic friends; I call them that only because there is no better word, and as I have pointed out, Riddle has no friendship with any of them. This group has a black charm in the castle; They are made up of a wide variety of people; There are underdogs who want to seek refuge, careerists who are eager to share in the glory, and a mob of thugs, all gathered around a leader who can play cruelty even more perfectly. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and some of them did become the first Death Eaters after they left Hogwarts.

They were firmly controlled by Riddle, and although there were several serious incidents at Hogwarts during their seven years at school, no one found any of them to have anything to do with them, the most serious of which was the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which led to the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid is responsible for this crime.

"I haven't been able to find many memories of Riddle at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, placing his crumpled hand on the meditation basin. "Hardly anyone who knew him at the time was willing to talk about him; They were all too scared. All I knew was found after he left school, after hard work, after tracking down the few who could be coaxed into talking, after searching old records, and interviewing Muggle and wizard witnesses.

"Those I could persuade me to speak up told me that Riddle was very troubled by his origins. This one is certainly easy to understand; He grew up in an orphanage, so it's natural to wonder why he got there. He doesn't seem to be able to find Tom Riddle Sr.'s name in the school's trophy room, in the school's roster of past prefects, or even in the wizarding history books. In the end, he had to believe that his father had never entered Hogwarts. I believe it was then that he abandoned his name for good, conceived Voldemort's identity, and began to investigate his mother's family, whom he had despised in the past—the woman he thought could not be a wizard because she had succumbed to the shameful weakness of humanity in the face of death.

"His clue was only the name 'Mavolo,' which the orphanage owner had told him was his maternal grandfather's name. After a painstaking study of the wizarding family's old books, he discovered the remnants of the Slytherins. In the summer of sixteen, he left the orphanage, to which he had to return every year, to look for relatives of his Gang family. So now, Harry, please stand up......" Dumbledore stood up, and Harry saw him take a small crystal bottle with a pearl-colored swirling memory.

"I was very lucky to get this thing," he said as he poured the glittering substance into the meditation basin. "You'll know when we go in. Let's go? Harry walked over to the stone basin and submissively dipped his head into his memory; The familiar feeling of falling into nothingness returned, and then he hit the ground on a dirty stone floor, and it was pitch black before his eyes.

It took him a few seconds to recognize the place, and by this time Dumbledore was already standing beside him. The Gont's house was now indescribably dirty, worse than anywhere Harry had ever seen. The ceiling was covered with cobwebs, and the floor was covered with dust; On the table was moldy and rotten food, in the middle of a jar of dirt. The only light in the room was the flickering candlelight at the feet of a man, his untrimmed hair and beard obscuring his eyes and mouth. The man sat slumped in the armchair by the candlelight, and Harry even wondered if he was dead for a moment. But then there was a knock at the door, and he awoke suddenly, picking up a wand in his right hand and a knife in his left.

The door creaked open.

Outside stood a boy with an old-fashioned lantern, and Harry recognized him at a glance: tall, pale, black-haired, handsome-looking - young Voldemort.

Voldemort's eyes slowly scanned the room, then spotted the man in the armchair. They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then the man staggered to his feet, kicking the bottle at his feet with a loud bang.

"You!" He yelled. "You!"

Drunken, he rushed at Riddle, wand and knife in his hand.

"Stop." Riddle said in a parseltongue. The man slid onto the table and slammed the moldy jar to the floor. He stared at Riddle. They looked at each other in silence for a long time. Then the man spoke.

"You say?" "Yes, I would say," Riddle said. He walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Harry couldn't help but be jealous of the fearlessness of the Falling Earth Demon. There was only a look of disgust on his face, and maybe a little disappointment.

"Where's Marvolo?" He asked.

"Dead," the other said. "Died years ago, didn't you?" Riddle frowned.

"And who are you?"

"I'm Mofen, right?"

"Marvolo's son?"

"Of course, then......" Morfinn brushed his hair away from his dirty face and looked at Riddle more clearly, and Harry saw that he was wearing Marvolo's black stone ring on his right hand.

"I thought you were the Muggle," Morfen whispered. "You look a lot like that Muggle."

"What Muggles?" Riddle asked sharply.

"The Muggle my sister likes, the Muggle who lives in the big house over there," he suddenly spat on the floor between them. "You look like him. Riddle. But he's old now, isn't he? He's older than you, let me think about it......" Morfen looked a little dazed, his body swayed slightly, his hands still gripping the table for support.

"He's back and remembers," he added stupidly.

Voldemort stared at Morfin, as if estimating his usefulness. Then he came closer and said, "Riddle is back?" ”

"Ah, he abandoned her, she deserved to marry such a filthy thing!" Mofen spat on the ground again. "Stolen our stuff, I remember, before she escaped! Where's that gold box, uh, where is the Slytherin gold box? ”

Voldemort did not answer, and Morfen erupted in another burst of rage; He brandished the knife in his hand and shouted, "Shame on us, it's her, that slut!" Who are you here to ask those questions? It's all over, isn't it...... It's all over......"

He turned his face away, shaking slightly, and Voldemort stepped forward.

At the same time a strange darkness descended, extinguishing the lantern in Voldemort's hand and Morfin's candle, extinguishing everything...... Dumbledore's fingers gripped Harry's arm, and they flew back into reality. After all the darkness he had experienced, Harry felt that the soft golden light of Dumbledore's office was a little dazzling.