Chapter 17: A Sluggish Memory
Returning to Hogwarts after Christmas (who else chuckled at McGonagall's truly insouciant greeting to her students?) Harry gets up with Hermione to fill her in on his news about Snape & Malfoy. Like a dog with a good bone, Harry refuses to give up his theory about what it could mean, still insisting that Malfoy is in league with Voldemort. Hermione helps him connect Fenrir Greyback to Voldemort and Malfoy, much to Harry's great excitement, though she still doubts it. Even Dumbledore blows it off (later in the chapter)--and becomes quite sharp when Harry questions the old man's brainpower and his trust in Snape. (Oooh, feel the chill)
Everyone is all a-twitter about taking Apparition lessons (who else found it boggling that Hogwarts didn't offer the course as part of the curriculum AND that they have to pay for the lessons?)
Later that night, Harry and Dumbledore have an interesting conversation about Harry's encounter with Scrimgeour. Dumbledore keeps his replies in his calm, sometimes loopy, style. But when Harry declares that he affirmed that he was Dumbledore's man through and through, the old wizard is moved by Harry's loyalty. After their disagreement over Snape (see above), they press on to the evening's work--interpreting two more memories stored in the Pensieve. First, Tom Riddle comes to Hogwarts, and Harry figures out that Dumbledore never trusted the boy's apparent change of attitude from the orphanage and resolved to keep an eye on him. During his time in school, Riddle gathered about himself "friends" who became the Death Eaters and discovered information about his parentage. The memory is of Riddle's visit to the Gaunt house and the conversation with Morfin Gaunt, conducted entirely in Parseltongue. The memory ends, and Dumbledore fills Harry in on the events that happened afterwards: the Riddles' deaths, Morfin's false imprisonment, Dumbledore's speculation on how things came to pass, and that it took Legilimency to coax out the real memory.
The second memory was of a very young Horace Slughorn with the Slug Club gathered about his feet. Slughorn is talking to Tom Riddle and then--the memory fills with a thick white fog. It continues with Riddle staying behind after the party breaks up to ask Slughorn about Horcruxes, and then the thick white fog is back with Slughorn yelling, "I don't know anything about Horcurxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did! (US ed p 371).
Dumbledore tells Harry that the memory has been tampered, because Slughorn is ashamed of what he remembered, or more importantly, told Riddle. But as with Morfin, the real memory exists, and Dumbledore assigns Harry the task of convincing Slughorn to reveal the true memory of that conversation about Horcruxes with Riddle. The evening ends with Dumbledore making his own declaration of his trust in Harry.
Everyone is all a-twitter about taking Apparition lessons (who else found it boggling that Hogwarts didn't offer the course as part of the curriculum AND that they have to pay for the lessons?)
Later that night, Harry and Dumbledore have an interesting conversation about Harry's encounter with Scrimgeour. Dumbledore keeps his replies in his calm, sometimes loopy, style. But when Harry declares that he affirmed that he was Dumbledore's man through and through, the old wizard is moved by Harry's loyalty. After their disagreement over Snape (see above), they press on to the evening's work--interpreting two more memories stored in the Pensieve. First, Tom Riddle comes to Hogwarts, and Harry figures out that Dumbledore never trusted the boy's apparent change of attitude from the orphanage and resolved to keep an eye on him. During his time in school, Riddle gathered about himself "friends" who became the Death Eaters and discovered information about his parentage. The memory is of Riddle's visit to the Gaunt house and the conversation with Morfin Gaunt, conducted entirely in Parseltongue. The memory ends, and Dumbledore fills Harry in on the events that happened afterwards: the Riddles' deaths, Morfin's false imprisonment, Dumbledore's speculation on how things came to pass, and that it took Legilimency to coax out the real memory.
The second memory was of a very young Horace Slughorn with the Slug Club gathered about his feet. Slughorn is talking to Tom Riddle and then--the memory fills with a thick white fog. It continues with Riddle staying behind after the party breaks up to ask Slughorn about Horcruxes, and then the thick white fog is back with Slughorn yelling, "I don't know anything about Horcurxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did! (US ed p 371).
Dumbledore tells Harry that the memory has been tampered, because Slughorn is ashamed of what he remembered, or more importantly, told Riddle. But as with Morfin, the real memory exists, and Dumbledore assigns Harry the task of convincing Slughorn to reveal the true memory of that conversation about Horcruxes with Riddle. The evening ends with Dumbledore making his own declaration of his trust in Harry.