The next morning I saw a lot of sixth years gathered around a board in the common room. I pushed past them and read the board. It said that anyone turning seventeen before August 31 could participate in a 12-week apparation course.

I had the same boring day on Monday as always and double period D.A.T.D.A. With Snape which was awful as per usual. After dinner Harry and I walked to Dumbledores office for our lesson.

"So, what do you usually do at these?" I asked Harry as we walked the deserted halls.

"Well, I'm not allowed to tell you about past meetings-" Harry said.

"Harry-" I said.

"Dumbledore forbade me," he said.

"Fine," I responded. I let my mind wander as we walked up the stairs to his office.

We entered the office quietly and I saw the same office with old portraits of headmasters and head mistresses. Dumbledore gestured for us to sit which I did calmly.

"So, I heard you both met the Minister of Magic over the holiday?" Asked Dumbledore.

"Yes," said Harry and I in unison.

"He's not very happy with us-" Harry said.

"No," sighed Dumbledore. "He is not very happy with me either. We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, but battle on,"

"Scrimgeour wanted to know where you go when you leave Hogwarts," Harry said.

"Yes, he is very nosy about that," said Dumbledore cheerfully.

"So, they don't know where you go?" Asked Harry.

"No, they don't and the time is not quite right for you to know either. No I suggest we dive in-" said Dumbledore. "I have two more memories to show you this evening. Both, obtained with enormous difficulty, and the second of them, I think is, the most important one I have collected," Dumbledore said.

"Memories?" I asked quickly. Panic filled me, I experienced enough of memories that were and weren't mine.

"Ah, don't worry, these memories are very important and you view them from this pensive," he gestured to a stone basin that I recognized from Snape. I nodded still nervous.

"A little summary Elizabeth would be that Tom Riddle was orphan who I collected from his orphanage as a young boy at eleven. He was independent and h as a very bad reputation at the orphanage. Now you are caught up. Well, the start of the school year arrived and with it came Tom Riddle, a quiet boy in his secondhand robes, who lined up with the other first years to be sorted. He was placed in Slytherin House almost the moment that the Sorting Hat touched his head," continued Dumbledore. "How soon Riddle learned that the famous founder of the House could talk to snakes, I do not know — perhaps that very evening. The knowledge can only have excited him and increased his sense of self-importance.
However, if he was frightening or impressing fellow Slytherins with displays of Parseltongue in their common room, no hint of it reached the staff. He showed no sign of outward arrogance or aggression at all. As an unusually talented and very good-looking orphan, he naturally drew attention and sympathy from the staff almost from the moment of his arrival. He seemed polite, quiet, and thirsty for knowledge. Nearly all were most favorably impressed by him-"

"Polite?" I said in disbelief. From what I have known young Tom Riddle was a creepy stalker who tortured me for years and then saved my life by taking my dead soul and mixing it with a piece of his soul.

"As unbelievable as it may seem, yes, Elizabeth, he was a polite young boy," he said.

"Hm," I sighed.

"As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that, for want of a better term, 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 a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the fore- runners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts. Also, in the end of second year Tom began to stalk Ellie Welther. Elizabeth, I am sure you know what happens from then on. Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked, the most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of that crime. I have not been able to find many memories of Riddle at Hogwarts. Elizabeth you are full of them as he was obsessed with you but of course, from what I've gathered, he can choose which you do and do not see of your past memories. But he is becoming reckless with controlling your memories. Few who knew him then are prepared to talk about him; they are too terrified. What I know, I found out after he had left Hogwarts, after much painstaking effort, after tracing those few who could be tricked into speaking, after searching old records and questioning Muggle and wizard witnesses alike.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. It seems that he searched in vain for some trace of Tom Riddle senior on the shields in the trophy room, on the lists of prefects in the old school records, even in the books of Wizarding history. 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 forever, assumed the identity of Lord Voldemort-"

"He told me that in a memory," I whispered.

"Yes, I think he would recount that to you," Dumbledore said serenely.

"So, 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 painstaking research 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 will stand . . ."

"I was very lucky to collect this," he said, as he poured a tiny bottle into the Pensieve. "As you will understand when we have experienced it. Shall we?"

"Elizabeth I ask that you not view this memory, it is important, if Voldemort wishes for you to know this then he will show it to you, I'm sorry," and he dove headfirst after Harry into the pensieve. I sat patiently on the chair in Dumbledores office for awhile before walking around for a few minutes. I looked at a bookshelf and saw a very familiar title of a book but it looked old and filthy. I pulled it out slightly and dusted off the black leather bound book that had the title "Hogwarts: A History" it was what Hermione often talked about. I put it back as I heard stirring near the passion and ran back to the seat. Both Harry and Dumbledore came up and Dumbledore smiled at me.

"Did you like the book?" He asked me.

"Didn't read it," I said suspiciously as to how Dumbledore knew o looked at the book. "Just looked if it was the book I thought it was-" I said calmly.

"Would you mind go reading it outside of the office while Harry and I discuss the last memory?" He asked me calmly.

"No problem," I walked over to the bookshelf and exited the room then sat on the stairs of Dumbledores office. Something felt off but I didn't know what it could be. I opened up the old book a a puff of dust went to my face causing me to cough.

"Eliza were ready for you-" Harry said poking his head out of the door.

"What? Oh-" I said quickly closing the book. "Sorry-" I muttered when I got in the room. I sat the book on a chair and then entered the pensive.

I felt like I was falling into a dark abyss until my feet hit the cold stone ground. A scene around me materialized. There were about six boys sitting in a Hogwarts classroom with Professor Slughorn.

Slughorn looked younger than he now was. He was sitting in a red velvet armchair with a glass of wine in one hand and crystallized pineapple in the other. Next to me was Harry and Dumbledore. I looked at the boys who were all in their midteens probably fro my he looks of them. One looked incredibly familiar and I actually jumped at the sight of him. It was Rom Riddle. He, like the other boys around him, was sitting on a low, hard armchair.

"So, is it true that Professor Merrythought is retiring?" He asked.

"Tom, Tom, if I knew I could tell you," he winked slightly. "I must say, is like to know where you get your information, boy. You're more informed than half the staff, you are,"

Riddle smiled and the other boys looked at him admirably some looked familiar, most likely I've seen them in a memory.

"What with your uncanny ability to know things you shouldn't, and your careful flattery of people who matter- thank you for the crystallized pineapple by the way, you're right it is my favorite," a few of the boys laughed slightly and then the room filled with thick gray fog. Through the fog I could hear extremely loudly Slughorns voice yell "you'll go wrong boy, mark my words"

The fog cleared quickly and no one in the room seemed to have noticed anything. The little gold clock on Slughorns desk chimed eleven.

"Good gracious, is it that time already?" Said Alughorn looking at the clock then to the boys. "You'd better get going, boys, or I'll be in trouble. Lestrange, I want your essay by tomorrow or its detention. And you Avery, same for you," Tom seemed to stay behind for after everyone left he stayed.

"Look sharp Tom. You don't want to be caught out this late. And your a prefect-" said Slugjorn when he noticed Riddles still being there.

"Sir, I wanted to ask you something-"

"Ask away then, my boy, ask away," said Slughorn.

"Sir, I wondered what you know about... About horcruxes?"

Fog once again filled the room and I could see nothing but I heard Slughorn yell again. "I don't know anything about Horcruxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did. Now get out of here at once and I don't let me see you mention something like that again!"

"Well, that's that!" Said Dumbledore merrily and I was back in his office moments later.

"That's all there is?" Asked Harry.

"As you might have noticed that memory has been tampered with," said Dumbledore.

"Tampered with?" I asked following Harry and Dumbledores lead and sitting down.

"Certainly, Professor Slughorn has meddled with his own recollection,"

"But why would he want to do that?" Asked Harry.

"Because I think he is ashamed of what he remembers. He tried to rework the memory to show him in a better light, obliterating the parts which he does not wish me to see. It is, as you have noticed, very crudely done, and that is all to the good, for it shows that the real memory is still there under all those alterations," said Dumbledore. I thought this through. "And so, for the first time Harry, I am giving you both homework. It will be your job to persuade Professor Slughorn to divulge the real memory which will, undoubtedly, be our most crucial piece of information yet-" said Harry.

"But, surely sir- you could use Legimency... Or veritaserum-" Harry stammered.

"Well, Harry that would be a little bit rude I my own opinion-" I said facing him.

"Well, there is that and Professor Slughorn is a extremely skilled wizard and will be expecting both probably. I think it would be foolish to try to force the memory from Prfoessor Slughorn. It may do much more game than good and I do not wish for him to leave Hogwarts. However he has weaknesses like all of us and I believe you are the people to penetrate them. It is very important a t that we get the true memory... How important we will not know. Until we see it. So, good luck... And goodnight,"

"Goodnight Professor," I said quietly and I walked to the door.

"Goodnight, sir-" said Harry and we walked into the dark hallway together quietly.

"I wonder why he wants us to do it," I said quietly as we walked together towards Gryffindor tower.

"I don't know- how will we?"

"We can find a way I'm sure-" I said as that thought dawned on me. I was not very confident in this task.

"Goodnight-" I said as Harry and I went up separate staircases to bed.

"Night Liza!"