Luofu fell downwards, as if being sucked into a black vortex, and when he landed, he appeared in a small, square courtyard.
Heavy snow is flying in the sky, covering the ground, bending the branches of the branches, and covering the world with a white coat.
From a house not far away, a woman's shrill, high-pitched howl sounded, which was spine-tingling and incompatible with the scenery in front of her.
Rolf walked through the snow up to his ankles, walked to Dumbledore, and asked: "Professor, where are you?"
The old man stood in the middle of the yard, with his hands behind his back, looking up at the heavy snow in the sky, and said softly:
"A Muggle orphanage. This is where Tom Riddle grew up and lived here until he was eleven years old."
Luofu looked around in surprise. Is this the Wu Orphanage?
"Rolf, I think you already know - Tom's diary - is a Horcrux made when he was sixteen," Dumbledore said.
The boy nodded.
"The function of a Horcrux is to help its owner avoid death, and the maker will try his best to hide it."
Dumbledore stretched out his wrinkled fingers, and soft snowflakes passed through his palms and slowly fell to the ground. He said calmly:
"But Tom gave the diary to Malfoy, hoping that the soul in the diary could possess someone else so that he could open the secret room and release the basilisk."
Dumbledore paused, collecting his thoughts, and then said: "There is undoubtedly a risk that the Horcrux will be destroyed by doing this - which actually happened: the soul no longer exists.
Tom's protection of the diary can be said to be very careless..."
"Unless he has made more Horcruxes." Luo Fu followed up the old man's words and continued: "So losing one will not be so dangerous."
"That's right." Dumbledore was very happy that the young man could keep up with his thoughts. He sighed softly:
"There is also evidence that Voldemort seems to have become less and less human over the years, both in character and appearance.
I can only explain this change to the fact that the damage to his soul was far beyond the scope of ordinary black magic. "
Dumbledore looked at the house where the screams came from, his gaze above his half-moon glasses looked very serious.
"So, I'm collecting Tom's life, trying to find any clues about other Horcruxes.
If you want to defeat someone, you must understand them thoroughly. "
Luo Fu nodded lightly, followed the old man's gaze, looked at the low house, and asked, "Who is the woman shouting in the house?"
"Melope Gaunt - Voldemort's mother." Dumbledore explained, "She came to this orphanage alone with the child in her belly on the last day of 1926."
When he heard "1926", Rolf raised his eyebrows. He was too familiar with this year. It was in this year that young Newt took Thunderbirds to the United States, met Tina, and captured Grindelwald by the way. .
Rolf had often heard Tina talk about these past events.
Who would have thought that when the first generation of the Dark Lord was causing trouble in the United States, the second generation of the Dark Lord would actually be born in a Muggle orphanage in London.
"This memory comes from Mrs. Cole, who is the director of this orphanage." Dumbledore looked towards the kitchen not far away.
A young woman was cooking in the kitchen, stirring the fire with a poker, and beside her were piles of neatly chopped wood.
"Eleven years later, I came here to persuade her to let Tom Riddle go to Hogwarts." Dumbledore said calmly.
"Thirty years later, Tom has changed his face and become the famous Voldemort.
I found the elderly Mrs. Cole again and asked her for this long-lasting memory of Merope Gaunt, which I have kept to this day. "
When Luo Fu heard this, he sighed inexplicably. The old man's tone was calm, but it reflected the changes in the world and the passage of time in the past seventy years.
Just then, a sharp cry came from the room.
Apparently, Tom was born.
Mrs. Cole hurriedly picked up a bowl of porridge and hurried across the courtyard toward the room, the snow crunching under her feet.
Dumbledore and Rolf followed her into a very dark room. There was no fireplace in the room, only an iron brazier beside the bed, with burning coals.
A woman was lying dying on the bed. She was probably only twenty years old. Her black hair was messy and stuck to her haggard face. She was covered with a thick quilt.
The elderly mother-in-law who delivered the baby held the baby wrapped in a thick cloak and kept coaxing her, but the baby still kept crying.
"Give me...give me the baby quickly..." Merope Gunter sat up weakly. She took the child, untied her clothes, and began to feed the baby.
"He looks so much like his father," Merope Gaunt said as the child sucked breast milk. "He has Tom's nose and Tom's hair..."
Luofu was very suspicious. How could such a wrinkled, ugly, and small baby resemble anyone else?
"The child... will be called Tom after his father, and his middle name will be Marvolo after my father."
Merope touched the baby's soft dark hair lovingly, and the hair slipped through her fingers like black silk, and murmured:
"Tom Marvolo Riddle."
After the feeding, Merope sang a lullaby to soothe the baby.
Dumbledore asked: "Can you understand?"
Rolf nodded and said, "She speaks Parseltongue."
But after singing it just once, the woman started crying heartbrokenly. After the baby fell asleep, she seemed to have been drained of strength and lay back weakly on the bed.
"Madam...if one day, Tom grows up and he asks about me, if you are happy...please tell him, tell him...I love him."
"I will." Mrs. Cole sat on the edge of the bed, "Eat something first."
Cole fed Merope porridge, but she couldn't swallow it. As fast as the spoon filled her lips, the porridge dripped down her chin.
Mrs. Cole wiped the corners of Merope's mouth with her sleeve, while the woman looked at the sleeping little Tom with distracted eyes. Her lips were moving, but she couldn't hear what she was saying.
Mrs. Cole wiped her tears and choked up: "I promise you, Tom will never have to worry about food and clothing in the orphanage."
Hearing this, Merope smiled, it was hard but sweet.
She is dead.
"Melope Gaunt died not long after giving birth to Tom Riddle. She did not survive the next day's New Year's Day." Dumbledore sighed:
"Her son did grow up healthily according to her expectations, but he took a detour in the end."
Luo Fu was silent for a moment, then suddenly remembered something and asked:
"Professor, where was Merope Gaunt buried after she died?"
…
…
(Thanks to the two big guys "Yu Wo Tao Yuan" and "Shang Jiang Nan Kong Zi Xu" for the reward.)
