To Kill You With a Kiss

Chapter 24

Night had fallen, and only the golden light from the fireplace illuminated the study. Ginny was leaning her head on Alphard's shoulder now; her hair were tendrils of flame against his dark robes. Harry marveled at how effortlessly they seemed to fuse together, the boy from the past and the girl from the future. He played absently with Alphard's golden time turner.

"Are you sure you are ready to go to the Riddle House, Harry?" Tom took the small glittering vial containing Regulus' memory from Alphard. The flickering light from the fireplace cast a warm glow over his face. Tom regarded the little silver swirl of memory in the stoppered bottle thoughtfully. "What a terribly strange thought, Harry, that you will go to the Riddle House to commit murder... just like I once did." He swallowed. "I murdered my father, and you will kill his murderer."

"Harry needs to explore the memory first." Voldemort spoke softly from the shadows. "He needs to become familiar with the Riddle House and with the Dark Lord of that time first. Tom and I will come with you, Harry, and we will guide you through the memory. Then we can come back here and enchant the memory so you can use it to travel back to that moment in the past."

Harry nodded. "I'm ready." He felt his heart pounding in his chest.

"You... you want me to come with you and Harry into the memory... back to the Riddle House?" Tom whispered.

"Yes, I do." Voldemort stirred in the shadows. "What better guides could he have? We know that house well, don't we? I spent quite a bit of time there, and even though you only came there once, something tells me that you remember it well. I imagine that the Riddle House used to haunt your dreams... What's the matter, Tom? You are not frightened, are you? Afraid of your father's ghost, perhaps?"

Tom grew pale for a moment, but then he lifted his head and stared defiantly at Voldemort. "Perhaps I am. I am still human enough to feel fear. Are you?"

"Oh, I still have human emotions, Tom. Did you doubt that?" A white hand reached out from the shadows and brushed Harry's cheek gently.

"Will you stop that!" Tom hissed.

"I do, however, have more control over my emotions than you do," said Voldemort lightly.

"Oh, stop it." Harry took the vial from Tom's hand. "How will I assassinate the Dark Lord if you two keep distracting me?" He got up from his chair. "Let's go find the headmaster's Pensieve... No, wait, Professor Dippet doesn't have a Pensieve, does he? I was expecting to see it in the headmaster's office when I first arrived in this time, but it wasn't there. Where will we find a Pensieve?"

"Albus Dumbledore has one in his office." Tom got up as well. "He told me that he often uses it to re-live his favorite Quidditch matches."

Harry laughed. "That sounds like Dumbledore. Let's go find him, shall we?"

...

"Come in!" Dumbledore glanced up from his work and greeted the three visitors cheerfully. "Hello, Harry. Good evening Tom and..."

"This is my guardian," put in Harry, with a quick glance at Voldemort.

Dumbledore peered at them over his half-moon spectacles and beamed. "Oh, a time paradox? How interesting!" Over in the corner, a scarlet bird fluted softly in its cage.

"Good evening, Professor Dumbledore. I am Mr. Gaunt, Elias' guardian," said Voldemort, eying Dumbledore warily.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Are you, Tom?"

Voldemort stared at him. "What? What makes you call me that? I'm not Tom, Professor."

"Aren't you? I wouldn't be so certain of that." Dumbledore calmly put down the quill he had been writing with and blotted the parchment before him carefully. "What can I do for you two - oh, I'm sorry, three - gentlemen this evening?"