Chapter 30: Riddle
“Hey, Hailey?”
Hailey looked up, to where Morning Sun was jogging towards her. “Mm?”
“That diary,” Morning began.
Hailey nodded. Even though she’d never heard of Tom Riddle before, she still found herself opening his diary and flipping through the blank pages, like it was a book she wanted to read- and his name felt like it should be familiar, almost like he was a childhood friend. She’d inspected it for magic, and not found anything, so she’d presented it to first Bonbon, then the entire rest of the Student Instructor Program Management Team- and none of them had been able to figure out its secret. “Mm?”
“It has emotions,” she muttered.
Hailey tilted her head, peered into an empty classroom, and led Morning in. “We alone?” she asked.
Morning paused for a second, then nodded silently, as she closed the door.
Hailey knew what she was doing; she was using her uncanny empathic sense to detect any people nearby, and using her actually functional Equestrian magic to check for recording spells or the like. Speaking of, shortly after the Dueling Club, Bonbon had approached her with a few questions… and let her in on the Foreigner’s- on the Equestrian’s- big secret. Following that, since she was the only British member of their management team, and Rita Skeeter wasn’t present for their meetings (as verified by Hailey, who did so by observing Morning’s non-verbal signals), the team was pretty loose-lipped and casual. She’d been amazed to discover that it had resulted in something like a ten or fifteen percent efficiency increase.
She pulled out the diary, and placed it on the nearest desk, which both she and Morning sat at. “You said it has emotions?” she asked.
Morning nodded.
“What kind?”
“Patience, mostly,” she answered. “And only emotions, no energy. Plus, it seems to be dormant whenever nobody is touching it and the covers are closed.”
“Hmm,” Hailey muttered, looking at the diary. “Does it respond when people touch it, or the covers are opened?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think it’s… um, aware, of things like that.”
She scowled at the diary. “How do you suppose we communicate with it?”
“Not everything with emotions can be talked to, you know,” Morning warned her.
She nodded. “Yes, but this one might.”
Morning looked at her. “Hmm. It’s a book, though. How would you talk to a book?”
Hailey tilted her head. “By… reading it? But it’s empty.” She looked at Morning. “Maybe writing in it?”
Morning shrugged. “Possibly. But do you want to mark it up?”
Hailey shrugged as well, pulling a pen out of her bag. “There are spells to remove ink.” She flipped the cover open, and glanced at Morning.
She shook her head. “No response.”
She reached forward… and placed a single period on the page.
The tiny dot shone for a second, then vanished without a trace.
Morning raised an eyebrow. “Curiosity,” she announced. “It’s curious who’s writing in it.”
Hailey looked at her. “Do you think it’s time for Harry?”
She shrugged. “Why not? It’s technically true, so you won’t even have that problem.”
She grinned, and reached forwards once again to write. Hello. My name is Harry Potter.
They also shone for a second, then vanished. Morning let out a small chuckle. “Very surprised now,” she muttered. “And… Hungry?”
Meanwhile, words were seeping out of the page, that Hailey had never written. Hello Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come across my diary?
Hailey looked at Morning. “Let’s go into this like we’re sitting in on a class, shall we?”
Morning nodded. “And be ready to write a lengthy report on it, yeah.”
She chuckled, and looked back at the diary. “Definitely. So then, let’s see…” Someone tried to flush it away.
“He’s trying to get me excited,” Hailey observed. “And get me to start blindly accepting his words too, I think.”
Morning nodded. “Yeah. He’s definitely engaging in trust farming.” She looked down at the book. “Though I’m not sure what he means by taking us inside his memory.”
Hailey scowled back down at the book as well. “Do you think it’d hurt?”
Morning shook her head. “It’s non-malicious. Right now, at least. And… Yeah. He’s not aware of my trap.”
Hailey nodded; Morning had emplaced some kind of magical trap which would, in the event that the diary did anything harmful to them, cut it off and magically isolate it- even, potentially, blast it to smithereens. “Well then, might as well find out.” She reached out and, underneath the words- ‘Let me show you’- that were disappearing on the page, wrote two letters.
OK.
Hailey looked around, almost as soon as she landed, inside the diary. “What-!”
Morning landed next to her, looking around. “Oh, that’s interesting.”
Hailey looked at her. “But your trap-!”
“It’s still standing,” she answered. “This isn’t dangerous at all. As a matter of fact, it’s very similar to changeling magic- he’s projecting the memory at us, to allow us to experience it. It can be harmful if sustained for too long, but unless he’s planning on projecting his memories from an entire year, that won’t be an issue.”
“Then what about…?”
“That’s the thing: This is all in our minds. We’re processing and experiencing this memory far faster than realtime- and don’t worry, I can cut it off at any time. I’m not seeing any maliciousness, though, so…” She shrugged. “As you said, he’s trying to gain our trust.”
Hailey looked around. “This is Dumbledore’s office,” she observed.
Morning looked around too. “Oh, interesting. And since this is a memory from fifty years ago, I bet that’s Professor Dippet.” She gestured towards the man behind Dumbledore’s desk.
Hailey looked at him, and scowled. “Probably, yeah.” She stepped around the desk to peer over his shoulder at the letter he was reading.
“It’s probably blank,” Morning told her.
“It’s not,” Hailey noted. “It’s… Hmm. A letter to him, from Tom Marvolo Riddle.”
“Marvolo, huh?” Morning mused, tilting her head. “Interesting middle name. What’s he saying?”
“Um… Looks like he’s asking if he can stay at Hogwarts over the summer,” Hailey observed, while the old Headmaster folded the letter. She glanced up at Morning. “Do you think Riddle knows you’re here?”
Morning shook her head. “No. He thinks he’s showing this to one boy, Harry Potter. He can’t see anything in here, since it’s a one-way projection into our brains- as a matter of fact, the only reason we’re able to see it together would be because we’re connected.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t exactly hurt that changelings already have basically no magical signature, despite being literally made out of magic. Unless they’re like me, and actively projecting a pony signature, but I’m not doing that right now.”
“You can do that?”
She nodded. “It’s one of the few Changeling things I actually know how to do.”
A knock suddenly sounded on the door.
“Enter,” Professor Dippet called.
A prefect entered, and both girls stood back to watch.
“So that’s Tom,” Hailey observed. “I wonder why the memory started so long before he arrived?”
They watched, and listened, while the two wizards talked to one another.
“Why is he telling Dippet why he was named like that?” Morning muttered. “Er- sorry, I’m… not getting anything from him- or Dippet- with my empathic sense. It’s not part of the memory.” She shuddered. “Is this how the world looks to non-emotovores?”
Hailey laughed. “Yes, it is. Looks like he’s not a fan of his names, either. I wonder why he’s telling why as well? Let alone the middle name- I mean, I bet you don’t know my middle name is James, right?”
Morning looked at her. “Hailey James Potter? Seriously?”
She shrugged. “Technically Harry James Potter, yes. James was my father. Makes me wonder if I’m Hailey Lily Potter now, since Lily was my mom.”
“That is a good question,” Morning mused.
“Huh, the memory was waiting for us,” Hailey observed, looking back forwards.
Morning nodded. “It will, yes. Playback is in our heads, after all- the memory transfer has already been completed.”
They both looked forwards, and watched the events playing out in front of them.
Eventually, Dippet asked Riddle if he knew something about the attacks.
“No sir,” Riddle answered, quickly.
Hailey squinted her eyes. “He’s lying,” she told Morning.
Morning tilted her head. “How do you know?”
Hailey scowled. “It’s… I don’t know how to explain- it’s like those of us without innate empathic senses develop a way to emulate it a bit through our other senses.” She sighed. “He’d probably be a beacon of deception if you could see him- I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one causing the attacks. Or at least related to the one that was.”
“Huh,” Morning muttered- then they both followed Riddle out of the room.
Finally, he stopped, just outside the staircase.
Morning looked at his face. “Is… Is he thinking?” she asked.
Hailey looked, and nodded. “Looks like he’s thinking mighty hard, yes. Which… Yeah. Considering what we just saw, that’s suspicious. Especially since this is, purportedly, the memory of the night he caught the person with the power to open the Chamber.”
Morning nodded. “The memory checks out, at least. Genuine.”
Hailey smiled, as Tom seemed to make a decision and hurried off. “It remains to be seen whether his claims about the memory are genuine or not,” she mused, and they hurried after him. As they went, she glanced at Morning. “I take it you’ve got ways to tell if it’s been faked or not?”
She nodded. “It’s not very hard at all to fake a memory, but changelings work with them all the time. We’re pretty good at telling if it’s been faked- even by another Changeling, and we’re pretty good at that too.” She grinned at Hailey. “Speaking of, I’ve ‘saved’ this memory, so to speak- I can easily tether it, in its original form, to an object, so we can show it to others as well.”
Hailey laughed. “That’ll no doubt be useful if our report makes it to Rita’s hands.”
Morning laughed as well, as Riddle encountered Professor Dumbledore in the Entrance Hall.
Hailey looked up at Dumbledore. “Interesting. Dumbledore doesn’t like Riddle, but in Dumbledore’s normal style, I can’t tell if he’s suspicious or not.”
“Me neither,” Morning scowled, as they followed Riddle down the stairs. “It really is unnerving, being unable to detect them with my empathic sense.” She sighed. “Then again, this is also the first human- or even pony- memory I’ve studied or experienced, so…” She sighed. “All the others were Changeling memories, back during training.”
“We’re going to have to ask Hagrid what that spider was,” Hailey noted, as soon as she and Morning returned to the classroom. Then she looked up at Morning. “But he framed Hagrid- if anything, that memory proves it was Riddle that was attacking everyone.” She looked down at the diary. “What’s your bet this diary has been convincing people- or, even, taking over them- in order to open it this time?”
Morning scowled, rubbing her chin. “Not… Not impossible. It has a mind, and the ability to direct magic, though it relies on the magic provided by its reader- but it could very easily use that magic to dominate the reader’s mind, yes.” She shrugged. “At least, a less prepared reader’s mind. My trap would’ve activated the moment it tried, with us- but said trap also doesn’t last very long. A few hours, tops.”
Hailey took a deep breath. “Alright. Then, I suppose we also need to ask Dumbledore what he might remember about Tom.”
Morning looked up suddenly. “Oh? Ron’s coming… Yes, he’s alone.”
Hailey grinned. “Feel like meeting him?” she asked.
She laughed. “Sure, why not?” She vanished in a bright flash of green flames while Hailey snapped the diary shut and put it back in her bag. “How about… Sorelina, this time?”
Hailey grinned. “Sorelina it is.” She jogged to the door in time to stick her head out in front of Ron. “Hey, Ron! Do you have a minute?”
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Past Riddle rolls a 1 on deception
Book Riddle rolls a 1 at disadvantage on deception
11045410
Yup. And against something with very high wisdom and intelligence scores, which also had advantage on perception checks (instructor training) or whatever else sees through deception other than empathic senses! He had a very high bar to hit…. And flunked it. Whoops.
Oh yes, and let’s not forget Hailey’s pretty darn good deception roll (convincing him she was Harry, though she may have had Advantage due to actually being Harry)…. And Morning’s natural 20 with racial Advantage on the same!
Tom, I believe you have something to tell us?
11045410
Well, Book Riddle had neither maturity of his older self and information of the current situation. And the first rule of tactical war states that the side with less information or understanding of the situation will surely loss.
The moment the diary showed them a "memory" that Tom hadn't personally witnessed they would have to have known they were seeing a manufactured memory by simple deductive reasoning. Tom could not have known what the Headmaster would be doing prior to his arrival, he could only speculate.
11047743
It's kind of how pensieves work in a lot of fan works - you somehow can get a sense of time in a bubble around the person experiencing the memory that's somehow completely objective. Of course others have it be imperfect... it depends on the story being told, in essense.
At the very least we've had the confirmation it's a true memory so maybe if the former fanon is the case here it's that Tom was psyching himself up outside the office? Or a purposeful manipulation (having reviewed the memory ahead of time) using the 'orphan' part of the boy-who-lived myth he picked up off Ginny.
11047760
Psyching himself up, very possibly. Time-of extrapolation from Professor Dippet's first words (and prior knowledge of what the room usually looks like, probably, since in canon Dippet walked over to and opened the window before returning to wait for Riddle to knock), also very possibly- authenticity checks won't fail on an interpretation, at least in part because it's a very rare person that will recall the environment in perfect detail for someone else to step "inside". Basically, as long as Riddle thinks it's what really happened, it'll pass as genuine. Presumably, she can also detect second-hand forgeries believed by the middlemare, though that's got to be a different matter.
Fabricating/manipulating/etc based on what Ginny told him, on the other hand? No, that's exactly what Morning is checking for (albeit not specifically based on Ginny).
Then of course, he doesn't know she's there. He was lucky he picked a true memory... yet he likely views it as a missed opportunity to try and spoof "Harry" with a false one. The truth is a two-edged sword, isn't it?
11047760
In this case, a manufactured memory could still be a true memory. As in it's the way Tom remembers it. He knows what the office looks like, and his mind fills in what he couldn't possibly know with presumptive details. The assumption is never challenged and becomes the memory of what happened. They were very careful with this in the movie. Harry starts in an empty hall but Tom was well familiar with the hall and there's not going to be anything Tom couldn't have known about.
11047917
Yup. But it's presumptive details, not concocted/manipulated details- he has to actually believe it, and a might bit stronger than an Occlumens has to "believe" it...
In short, the accuracy of the memory is hit or miss, even when it's 100% genuine- but if it's genuine, no matter if it's accurate or misremembered, Riddle honestly believes it to be the case... and it passes the test. It's basically a hyper-advanced lie detector...
These apostrophes should be at the end for the plural possessive, since there are certainly more than one Foreigner and Equestrian.
Also, 'emotivore' is probably the more common spelling, paralleling most other -'ivore' categories, such as 'carnivore', 'herbivore', and 'omnivore'.
11091661
The suffix in play is “-vore”, though, unless I’m much mistaken…