|
"I'm afraid I don't know," said Dumbledore, his voice gentle.
"My mother can't have been magic, or she wouldn't have died," said Riddle, more to himself than Dumbledore. "It must've been him. So when I've got all my stuff when do I come to this Hogwarts." "All the details are on the second piece of parchment in your envelope," said Dumbledore. "You will leave from King's Cross Station on the first of September.
There is a train ticket in there too." Riddle nodded. Dumbledore got to his feet and held out his hand again. Taking it, Riddle said, "I can speak to snakes. I found out when we've been to the country on trips they find me, they whisper to me. Is that normal for a wizard." Harry could tell that he had withheld mention of this strangest power until that moment, determined to impress.
"It is unusual," said Dumbledore, after a moment's hesitation, "but not unheard of." His tone was casual but his eyes moved curiously over Riddle's face. They stood for a moment, man and boy, staring at each other. Then the handshake was broken; Dumbledore was at the door.
"Good-bye, Tom. I shall see you at Hogwarts." "I think that will do," said the white-haired Dumbledore at Harry's side, and seconds later, they were soaring weightlessly through darkness once more, before landing squarely in the present-day office.
"Sit down," said Dumbledore, landing beside Harry.
Harry obeyed, his mind still full of what he had just seen.
"He believed it much quicker than I did I mean, when you told him he was a wizard," said Harry. "I didn't believe Hagrid at first, when he told me." "Yes, Riddle was perfectly ready to believe that he was to use his word 'special,'" said Dumbledore.
"Did you know then." asked Harry.
"Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time." said Dumbledore. "No, I had no idea that he was to grow up to be what he is. However, I was certainly intrigued by him. I returned to Hogwarts intending to keep an eye upon him, something I should have done in any case, given that he was alone and friendless, but which, already, I felt I ought to do for others' sake as much as his.
"His powers, as you heard, were surprisingly well-developed for such a young wizard and most interestingly and ominously of all he had already discovered that he had some measure of control over them, and begun to use them consciously. And as you
 |  |
|
