TSS: Chapter 32: Solving Riddles

> *Riddle actually laughed. It was a soft, genuine laugh born out of pure amusement. “Emily Riddle never vanished off the face of the planet, nor was she absent when the Dark Lady rose to power. You have simply missed the obvious truth that has been staring you in the face the entire time. Emily Riddle is Lady Voldemort.”*
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— Harry, being informed that sometimes the simplest explanations are the correct ones.

## Plot:

Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald talk. Dumbledore sends a message to Hogwarts via Fawkes. A full lockdown goes into effect at Hogwarts. Hermione and Charlus sneak into the Staff Room and hear the latest developments. In the Chamber of Secrets, Emily Riddle prods Harry Potter for answers.

## Summary:

**June 4th, 1993:** In his cell, Gellert Grindelwald is question by Albus Dumbledore on some facets of Chaos Magic. Albus moves the conversation onto basilisks — the so called king of serpents, born out of Chaos Magic — and onto the possibility of them being altered so that they gaze does petrify their victims instead of killing them. Once he is satisfied with the answers that he received he prepares for his departure, but not before Grindelwald warns him that one day he will be back asking more questions.

Dumbledore appears back to his hotel room on the outskirts of Greece with the help of Fawkes. Given the Ministerial staff already deployed at Hogwarts he can not risk his return to the school. Thus, he writes a message and sends it via Fawkes back to Hogwarts.

Around the same time at Hogwarts, a full lockdown is announced to be in effect. In the Gryffindor Common Room, Charlus and Hermione, at Charlus' urging after hearing the announcement, go to investigate under the protection of the Potter Invisibility Cloak. They manage to sneak into the Staff Room where the two find out that Harry Potter and Ares Black are the latest victims of the Heir of Slytherin and that, according to the message left by the Heir, their skeletons shall lie in the chamber forever.

After the revelations, Hermione drags Charlus to an abandoned classroom to collect himself. There they are greeted shortly afterwards by the arrival of Fawkes.

Meanwhile, in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry — tied up — wakes up. A conversation ensues between himself and Emily Riddle that he recognizes. The two end up talking with Riddle revealing some of her past actions throughout the year, and prodding Harry for information at the same time. Eventually, Harry comes to the realization that there are two Emily Riddles, the one in front of him — that is no quite right, and according to her, just a shade from the 1940s — and the one with whom he had conversed for most of the year via the linked diary. Shortly afterwards, it is revealed that Emily Riddle is the birth name of the one who is to become to the future Lady Voldemort. Emily confides in Harry that for the time being she is bound to a blasted book — pointing at a black diary lying on the floor — but that soon enough she will have her own body and her own volition. Thus, she wants to know what magic was at play on the night of Samhain 1981. As Harry refuses to answer her, she proceeds to use Legilimency on him.