chapter 46

And that sword," said Matthias, finally gathering himself, "The Sword of Gryffindor?"

"Yes," Harry replied. "I believe the Headmaster currently has it in his office in a display case."

"Amazing," breathed Matthias, shaking his head; still somewhat disbelieving what he'd just witnessed in the memory. "And, how much did you make from the potion ingredients and hide of the basilisk?"

"Sorry?" Harry quizzically asked. "I... don't know what you mean."

"When you harvested the basilisk," explained Matthias. "Surely, you've done that."

Harry slowly shook his head. "I didn't know I could."

Quite surprised Matthias asked, "Do you mean to tell me the carcass of the basilisk is still lying down in the Chamber?"

"Well, yes," shrugged Harry.

Matthias looked quite pained and explained, "That'll be something else I organise for you, then. A basilisk of that size will be worth millions of galleons, Harry."

"I never thought about it, really. I was just happy to get out of there alive." Changing the subject he looked resolute and asked, "After listening to Tommy-boy's story; do you understand, now, why I took you to the trophy room, first?"

Nodding, his mind elsewhere, Matthias replied. "He Who-Must-Be-Named is really named Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"Yes," said Harry. "Tom Marvolo Riddle; born the 31st of December 1926. As you saw in the memory, his made-up name is an anagram of his real name.

"His mother was Merope Gaunt; a near-squib witch who lived in Little Hangleton in a shack in a small copse of wood. His father, Tom Riddle, was a muggle squire of the same village, living just up the hill in Riddle Manor. So, Tom junior is a half-blood. So much for his pureblood supremacy nonsense, yes?

"His mother, apparently, dosed his father with Amortentia to get him to pay attention to her. When she stopped using the Amortentia before Tom junior was born, Tom senior dumped her in London. Tom junior was born and, an hour later, his mother died due to complications with her health and the birth. The muggle medical staff was unable to help her.

"Tom junior was then raised in a muggle orphanage in south London. An orphanage where the other children knew he was different and treated him as an outcast. That treatment may have tipped him over the edge into what he became in later years. Though, even before Professor Dumbledore took him his acceptance letter to Hogwarts on his eleventh birthday, he was already doing nasty things to his fellow orphans; and was somewhat of a sneak thief and vicious. He used to kill the pets of the other children, just to spite them. And see it blamed on others.

"Once he became a student, here, he hid his origins; but knew little of it, anyway. However, he spent a lot of the school breaks researching. It was during first year he discovered he was actually an heir of Salazaar Slytherin, himself. He told very few people about that, at the time. Those he did were all purebloods. It led him to tracking down his maternal uncle, Morfin Gaunt, in that same shack in Little Hangleton. During that meeting he discovered his birth father was a muggle. He then killed his birth father and family, implanted false memories of the murder in the mind of his maternal Uncle Morfin, and bespelled his uncle into confessing to the DMLE he'd done it. It saw the man sentenced to Azkaban; where he later died.

"In 1943, he also discovered the Chamber of Secrets and released, at that time, the basilisk. That's how Myrtle... you know her as Moaning Myrtle, the ghost... died in the girl's bathroom on the second floor. Tom... he was a prefect by then... and as with his uncle and kids at the orphanage, blamed the whole thing on another; a fellow student and Gryffindor, Rubeus Hagrid. That's where his award came from.

"Tom junior figured out pretty quickly that the money in the wizarding world is mainly with the old pureblood families. To get hold of that money, he knew he had to pass himself off as a pureblood. So, soon after he finished Hogwarts, he ventured over to the mainland and learned what he could. When he returned, he came back and out with the name of Lord Voldemort. And told all and sundry he was a pureblood.

"Using his false background of a pureblood he demonstrated how he was the heir of Slytherin. He then used that to gather pureblood supporters to himself. And they brought him the money he needed and wanted to prosecute a war against the wizarding world.

"He told them that their perceived difficulties and fear in life stemmed from muggleborns and muggles. He then turned their fear of those people into hate, and sent them after the muggleborn. That's a tactic that's been used by megalomaniacs for many centuries. Adolph Hitler was one such recent expert at doing that. Later, he sent them against his real targets... other purebloods... by referring to them, just as Grindelwald did, as blood traitors.

"Tom is... was... not really a 'blood bigot'. Or, not in the way people think. He's a 'blood bigot', alright. His bigotry, though, goes counter to what people think. He despises purebloods and their bigotry. He despises that the purebloods control the wizarding world. It must give him great joy to use the very people he despises to attack and kill other purebloods.

"Look back at how many pureblood lines have been wiped out by Riddle and his people - Meadowes, Prewett, McKinnon, and Fenwick are examples. Take a look at how many lines are close to extinction - Potter, Bones, Longbottom, Rozier, Lestrange, Greengrass, to name a few. Riddle was either directly or indirectly responsible for them all.

"So, everything you thought you knew about Voldemort and his origins, unless it gels with what I've just shown and told you, is a lie. Sorry."

Both Greengrass ladies were in tears; Matthias, nearly so.

"It was all a lie," sniffled Deece.

"Yes, Ma'am," replied Harry.

"How in Merlin's name do you know all this?" asked Matthias, before he provided his own answer. "Wait. Those three."

Harry couldn't correct the man's belief, due to the confidential 'contract' but it didn't matter so long as he was believed. Besides, he simply couldn't tell them he knew the knowledge from their future. That was still forbidden.

"Will you help us, Matthias?" he asked instead. "Will you organise such a solicitor for me?"

"Yes, Mis... Yes, Harry; I will," replied the shaken older man.

"Thank you," said a relieved Harry. "I thought I might have had to go to the goblins to organise one for me."

"Oh, they'd organise one for you, alright," Matthias nervously chuckled. "But, only one who was willing to pay them sufficient kick-backs. But, that's not the sort of one... or more... you need or want."

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