“So, were those random thoughts about how seven was the right number or how seven was the ideal number, about the horcruxes?” Mused Harry.
The scene showed an adult Riddle, fresh out of Hogwarts. He immediately approached the headmaster, Armando Dippet, asking to join Hogwarts to teach Defence against the Dark Arts, but Dippet turned him down, saying he was too young. He did, however, ask Riddle to get some experience and apply in a few years.
Disappointed, Riddle made his way out of Hogwarts but on the way, he met the ghost of Ravenclaw house, Helena Ravenclaw and charmed her into revealing where the Diadem of Ravenclaw was hidden.
Finding that information, Riddle promptly made his way to a forest in Albania, searched and found the Diadem in the hollow of a tree. Afterwards, using the death of an Albanian peasant he had murdered, he converted the Diadem into another Horcrux.
“That’s three,” thought Harry. “Did he really make all his horcruxes before he attacked my parents?”
As the scene faded, it abruptly froze. With a loud sound, the space itself seemed to crack. Harry watched as parts of the scene kept flipping between multiple other scenes as if something was wrong.
With a jarring sound, the scene somewhat settled. The cracks in the air remained as they were but the scene itself seemed to depict a dirty shack. Standing in the middle of the shack was Voldemort, though what seemed odd was that Voldemort was actually kneeling.
The cracks in the air moved around, disrupting Harry’s view of the scene, though he could still see parts of it. The cracks moved a little more, and he noticed a cloaked figure in front of Voldemort.
“You only have one jo-” A screeching noise echoed through the air, interrupting the figure’s speech.
“Find the... Do not fail me!”
That was all Harry could hear before the scene abruptly shattered. The pieces turned into light and disappeared before another scene faded into place.
“What the hell was that?” exclaimed Harry. “Who was that cloaked figure and why was that scene alone so messed up?”
The scene was back to Voldemort right after he had created the third horcrux. Upon his return to Britain, Voldemort took up a job as a buying assistant at Borgin and Burkes, much to the disappointment of many at the Ministry.
The scene once again faded.
Harry fell into thinking about Voldemort’s choice of work. It seemed rather odd for someone who had the ambition Voldemort had to work in such a shop. When Harry turned his attention back to the scene, he saw Riddle talking to an elderly woman who went by the name of Hepzibah Smith and claimed to be a descendent of Helga Hufflepuff herself.
After several visits, Riddle charmed her into showing him the locket of Slytherin and the Cup of Hufflepuff.
The moment she showed them to him, Harry could feel the greed and envy Riddle felt looking at them. He clearly felt that the locket was his birthright.
After that meeting, Riddle snuck back into Smith’s house and added a lethal poison to her cocoa.
Once she was dead, Riddle stole the cup and locket and changed the memory of the house-elf, Hokey, to make her think that she mistakenly added the poison into the cocoa instead of sugar before making his way out of the house.
The scene then changed, showing Riddle quitting his job at Borgin and Burkes and then running off abroad.
The scenes quickly changed, showing him meeting with vampires and learning their secrets, befriending giants and trolls, torturing wizards and muggles alike, and doing various experiments into the dark arts.
One scene had Voldemort use the souls of some random people to make the locket of Slytherin and the cup of Hufflepuff into his horcruxes.
“That makes five of them. He almost has all the horcruxes he wants.” Thought Harry.
“If he wanted seven to be the ideal number and if the part of his soul in his actual body is part of that number, then he should make only one more horcrux.”
Harry turned his attention back to the memory and watched the scenes flash by.
Eventually, 10 years passed and Riddle, now only known as Voldemort, made his way back to Britain.
He made his way to Hogwarts to once again ask for the job of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but Dumbledore rejected him.
Despite his irritation, he didn’t dare make a move against Dumbledore, as the only wizard he truly feared.
On his way out of Hogwarts, he took a detour and made his way into the Room of Requirement. He found a bust inside and placed the Diadem of Ravenclaw on it. Just as he was about to place curses to safeguard it, he heard a sound outside and rushed out of there.
Internally, he seemed to believe that no one could get into the room, anyway; him being the only one who knew how.
The scenes started changing rapidly again. It showed Voldemort making the dementors, giants, werewolves and various other creatures shunned by the wizarding community into his followers.
Years went by and Voldemort waged war against the wizarding world and slaughtered many excellent wizards and countless muggles. Soon 9 years passed after the start of the war and that was when he strengthened the defences of his horcruxes.
Realising what he was about to do, Harry felt excited. The moment he had been waiting for was finally here. Sitting through all those gruesome, mind-numbingly cruel scenes and he could finally find out about the rest of the horcruxes.
Harry watched as Voldemort went to a young death eater called Regulus Arcturus Black and asked to borrow his house-elf, Kreacher.
“Black?” Thought Harry with widened eyes. “Is he Sirius’ brother? I’ll have to ask him when I meet him.”
When he turned his attention back to the scene, he watched how Voldemort entered a cave with Kreacher in tow, disarming or avoiding the traps in place. Harry watched Voldemort force Kreacher to drink an emerald potion in a basin in the middle of a lake and then just walk away from the gasping house-elf who rushed to the lake just to be attacked by odd zombie-like creatures.
The scene dissolved and then changed to one of Voldemort talking privately to Lucius Malfoy, as the latter knelt in front of him. Voldemort gave him an explanation of the Chamber of Secrets and told him how it was made by Salazar Slytherin himself to purge Hogwarts of those ‘unworthy’ to learn the magical arts.
He then handed a diary over to Lucius and instead of informing him that a portion of his own soul was in the diary, he just told him it was charmed and that if he smuggled it into Hogwarts, it would allow the chamber to open once again.
The scene changed after that to him having a conversation with a woman Harry recalled the moment he saw. He had seen her in one of the old wanted posters he’d skimmed through. She was one of the death eaters who had been especially active during Voldemort’s heyday, Bellatrix Lestrange.
He watched as Voldemort gave her the cup of Hufflepuff and told her to keep it safe, to which she quickly replied that she would keep it in Gringotts, in her highly secure vault.
Though Voldemort didn’t seem to think much about the security of the bank, which Bellatrix seemed to notice, hence, she quickly added that she would add curses of her own to secure the cup.
Satisfied with her replies, he nodded and left her, despite her attempts at seduction.
The scene faded and then displayed the figure of Snape in front of Voldemort, kneeling down, narrating how he had overheard part of a prophecy by Trelawney and how it said that the one who could vanquish the dark lord would be born at the end of the seventh month to those who had thrice defied him.
Snape had not heard the rest of the prophecy as they had caught him, but that much information was enough for Voldemort to go on.
Harry couldn’t believe his eyes. He had always considered Snape to be slimy, but since Dumbledore seemed to have so much respect for him; he thought he had just misunderstood Snape. But to think that the worm was the reason his parents were dead was enough to push him over the edge.
The scene changed slowly this time, seeming to have come to the end of its reel. The scene showed Voldemort talking to Peter Pettigrew, one of his father’s best friends and saw the worship and excitement in the rat’s face as he told Voldemort how he had been made the secret keeper for the Potters and how he could finally deliver them to the dark lord.
Though Harry already knew this was what happened, he couldn’t help but feel a fresh surge of anger as he watched the rat sell his parents out with that much excitement.
The scene shifted to Voldemort walking into Godric’s Hollow and walked into his childhood home. His parents, caught unaware, could only attempt to mount a defence, as Voldemort walked leisurely through the house on his way to Harry’s location.
He watched as his father tried to defend his mother and himself, despite not having a wand.
He watched his mother plead with Voldemort to spare Harry and take her instead.
He watched as Voldemort just laughed loudly at their attempts and killed them one by one with a killing curse.
He watched as Voldemort approached Harry, looking at his sobbing face. He watched as Voldemort raised his wand, pointed it right at Harry’s temple.
A flash of green light… then darkness.
