Chapter 120

"Interesting, so he doesn't see me?"

Thomas watched as the old man continued to read while frowning slightly. Wanting to test his deduction, Thomas walked right in front of the desk and waved his hand in front of the headmaster, alas to a reaction from the old man.

"So, I can't interact with the past, well this is just a memory but still is pretty nice to see the past."

Standing in the office for no more than five minutes, Thomas saw how the old headmaster's expression changed every time he read a new paragraph from that letter.

Just as he was about to leave the old man to his reading, the headmaster folded up the letter with a sigh, stood up, and walked past Thomas before drawing the curtains at his window. Taking a quiet look outside, Thomas found the ruby-like sky quite a beautiful sight, but unfortunately, the old man was there to block it.

Before he could watch the sky for too long, the old man returned to his desk and sat down before looking directly at the door, like was waiting for someone to burst through it any time soon.

Thankfully he didn't have to wait for too long for someone to knock on the door. "Enter," said the old wizard in a feeble voice.

A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. The boy was no more than a head taller than Thomas, then again, Thomas was not quite normal, to say the least.

"Ah, Riddle." The headmaster said with a smile.

"You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?" Riddle answered, looking quite nervous.

"Sit down," Dippet responded while pointing with his hand at the chair beside Riddle. "I've just been reading the letter you sent me."

Strange, Thomas thought as there was no name written on the letter, then again, Dippet should have at least recognized his student's writing style.

"Oh, right, my letter…" Riddle muttered as he sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.

"My dear boy," Dippet spoke kindly, almost like Dumbledore. "I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for your summer holidays?"

"No," Riddle quickly said back, not giving the old man any time to react. "I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that … to that …"

"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" Dippet said curiously, remembering something about Riddle.

"Yes, sir. I do indeed live in a muggle Orphanage." Riddle confirmed, reddening slightly.

"So, I take it that you are Muggle-born?"

"Half-blood, sir," Riddle answered somewhat proudly. "Muggle father, witch mother, sir."

"Forgive me for asking this, but where are your parents ?"

"My mother died just after I was born, sir. They told me at the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me, Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather."

Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically.

"The thing is, Tom," he sighed, "special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances… "

"You mean all these attacks, sir?" Riddle asked, making Thomas curious for the first time since he got into this memory.

"You are right," the headmaster answered with a heavy heart. "My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly in light of the recent tragedy … the death of that poor little girl. … You will be safer by far at your orphanage. The Ministry of Magic is even now talking about closing the school. We are no nearer locating the …er … the source of all this unpleasantness …"

Riddle's eyes had widened.

"Sir, if the person was caught … if it all stopped, what will happen then?"

"What do you mean?" Dippet shouted with a squeak in his voice, sitting up in his chair. "Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?"

"No, sir." The black-haired boy quickly shook his head.

Thomas who was listening to their conversation couldn't help himself from smirking when he heard Riddle's response. The boy could lie, that was for sure, but by god was he still a beginner? Only a fool like headmaster Dippet would believe this blatant lie.

At the same time, Dippet sank back, looking faintly disappointed. Alas, his old age was catching up to him.

"You may go, Tom…"

Seeing that the headmaster dismissed him, Riddle quickly got off his chair and left the office, while a certain blonde Ravenclaw followed him closely from behind.

After leaving the headmaster's office Riddle wandered around for a while with Thomas following and observing the usurpingly similar layout and decor of the school. When they reached the entrance hall, Thomas stopped in his tracks when he saw a tall wizard with long, sweeping auburn hair and a beard calling out Riddle.

"What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom?"

Taking a closer look at the wizard, Thomas was surprised to see a younger Dumbledore, but what shocked him was the power of the young- old man. Bloody Dumbledore was Peak High-Class to the point of breaking into the Ultimate Class. Now, fifty years after this memory, Thomas couldn't even feel the old man's power.

"I had to see the headmaster, sir." Riddle said while trying not to look at Dumbledore's face.

"Well, hurry off to bed," Dumbledore said, giving Riddle that grandfatherly look he usually does. "Best not to roam the corridors these days. Not since …"

He sighed heavily, bade Riddle good night, and strode off while Riddle watched him walk out of sight and then, moving more quickly than before, he rushed straight down the stone steps to the dungeons, making Thomas follow him, matching his pace.

Strangely enough, Riddle led him to the dungeon where Snape was teaching potions. The torches hadn't been lit, and when Riddle pushed the door almost closed, Thoams wondered what could be there for Riddle to stay still without saying or doing anything.

Minutes passed by with nothing happening and with Riddle just standing there, frozen in place and seemingly waiting for something to happen or maybe for someone to come to him.

Then, out of nowhere, someone creeped along the passage. Almost as if those rhythmic footsteps were some kind of signal, Riddle edged as quietly as he could through the door and followed whoever walked down the dungeon, while Thomas followed him once again.

For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. Taking a closer look, Thomas heard a door being opened before someone's hoarse voice was being heard.

"C'mon . . . gotta get yeh outta here. . . . C'mon now . . . in the box . . ."

Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner and like before Thomas followed him. As soon as he stood beside Riddle, Thomas saw a dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.

"Evening, Rubeus," Riddle said sharply.

The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.

"What yer doin' down here, Tom?"

Riddle stepped closer.

"It's all over," he said. "I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop."

"What d'yeh …"

"I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and …"

"It never killed no one!" Hagrid shouted, backing against the closed door.

"Come on, Rubeus." Riddle said, moving closer to Hagrid. "The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered or caught. Think about her parents, Rubeus."

"It wasn't him!" roared the young Hagrid, his voice echoing in the dark passage. "He wouldn't! He never!"

"Stand aside. "Riddle said, drawing out his wand.

His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the wall opposite.

Riddle then pointed his wand at the large spider that Hagrid was defending. He was about to utter a curse when Hagrid shouted "No!" and tackled Riddle to the ground. The two boys struggled for a moment, but strangely enough, Riddle was stronger and managed to push Hagrid off him.

"Get out of the way, you oaf!" Riddle snarled. "You're only making things worse for yourself. I'll deal with you later."

The memory started to black out and in a matter of seconds, Thomas found himself back in his body lying on his bed. Blinking for a few seconds, he put the diary on the nightstand, not wanting to deal with it anytime soon, not after seeing such an interesting memory. One that did explain quite a lot about what happened fifty years earlier or at least that's what it should.

No spider alive can petrify a person or an animal, paralyze the yes, but not petrify them. Which makes the last part of the memory even more strange. If what Riddle says is the truth, then Hagrid and his pet Acromantula should be the ones who opened the chamber fifty years ago. However, no matter how Thomas looked at it, there was no way in the seven hells that Hagrid, the harmless and friendly half-giant of Hogwarts could kill anyone willingly.

This means that perhaps, Tom Riddle could have been hiding the truth by throwing poor young Hagrid under the bus as a sacrificial lamb.

Massaging his head, Thomas didn't know what to do. Should he tell anyone about or mayhaps he should go and ask Hagrid about what happened that night fifty years ago?

That night was the first Thomas couldn't sleep at all, not even when he killed his first enemy did he feel so confused or better said powerless and without a damn clue of what to do. Just like he thought like night, Hagrid was far from being normal after all what sane person would take a Cerberus as a pet or worse, a dragon as one? And truth be told a thirteen-year-old Hagrid could by all means try to have a monster as a friend. Not that that acromantula looked like one. Maybe just maybe in the future he could take a quick trip to the forbidden forest and visit the spiders and the centaurs.

Nevertheless, as soon as he woke up, he told all of his friends what he did last night. Most if not all of them had the same reaction as him with only Ron and Harry seemingly believing that Hagrid was the one at fault, judging by what we had seen him do over the past year and a half.

"Riddle might have got the wrong person, Hermione said, trying her best to defend Hagrid. "Maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people …"

"She might be right. For all we know, that Tom Riddle could have had some kind of grudge against Hagrid." Daphne too said her mind.

"I … I don't think that Hagrid could ever harm someone. He might be huge, but he's as harmless as a feather." Tracey said softly.

"C'mon girls, how many monsters d'you think this place can hold?" Ron asked dully.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," Harry said miserably. "And the attacks must've stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have got his award."

"We still have to remember that despite everything that we had found above the incident, there are a lot of things that have little to no explanation. Such as why was Riddle so keen on staying over the summer when a supposed monster was roaming free. And why for the love of God did he say that he would take care of Hagrid later as well?

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