A couple of mornings later, Harry finished his shower, dried off, and got dressed. He then used his wand to undo the complicated locking charm he had placed on the door to ensure his privacy. He opened the door to find Bellatrix wearing only a bra and knickers. She was clearly annoyed that he had locked the door.
"Morning," Harry said cheerfully. "Don't take too long in the shower. If I have to leave without you, I will."
Bellatrix scowled at him, but said nothing. Harry had stubbornly resisted her attempts to entice Harry into a more intimate relationship. His proactive stance to avoiding her wiles had made it difficult for her to pursue the campaign without losing her dignity
Harry made his way to the kitchen where he made breakfast and served himself. Bellatrix, fully dressed, though her hair was wet, soon arrived and ate quickly. Harry had received a reply from a Mrs. Cole, matron of an orphanage, who recalled that Tom Riddle had once been one of her charges. Harry had contacted her and arranged a meeting. Bellatrix, of course, had insisted on going with him.
The pair were soon prepared to leave and promptly apparated from the main living room to a secluded alley in London. Their unorthodox arrival unnoticed by the Muggles, they stepped into the daily sidewalk traffic and walked the rest of the way to the orphanage Lord Voldemort had once called home.
They were shown from the orphanage's central reception into the private office of Mrs. Cole, who was responsible for maintaining the orphanage. She greeted them. "Mr. Ashworth," she said, addressing Harry, "it's nice to meet you. I hope I can be of help."
Harry glanced over to her desk and spotted the letter he had written and charmed. Apparently, her reading it in anticipation of the appointment had helped to make her helpful. "Yes," Harry said casually, "I think you can help. My… wife and I are looking for information about Tom Riddle."
Bellatrix arched one of her eyebrows at the term 'wife.' Harry mentally shrugged. He had been prepared to say business associate, but she wasn't quite dressed as a businesswoman. Wife would have to do. It gave them a certain measure of legitimacy anyhow. How likely was it that a man and his wife would be going around to orphanages and making inquiries for nefarious reasons?
Mrs. Cole nodded and they all sat down. With no further ado, Mrs. Cole began telling them everything she could about Tom Riddle with the addition of speculation and any conclusions she could infer from what she knew. She began with the basics-his name, his parents, how he had come to the orphanage, etc. Eventually, she moved onto how he got along with the other children.
"As he got older, nasty things began to happen to children he didn't get along with. It was very difficult for us to understand how some of the things could have happened," Mrs. Cole explained.
"I see," Harry said, finding this nasty nature hardly surprising. The mysterious nasty mishaps could also be easily explained by accidental magic, too.
"Was there a pattern to any of these nasty behaviors?" Bellatrix askd.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Mrs. Cole said.
"Well, for instance, was he cruel in the same way, did he have a pattern for victimizing the other children?"
Mrs. Cole shook her head as she tried to think back to the earlier days of Tom Riddle. "Every bad thing that happened tended to be different. You could say he was creative."
"Okay," said Bellatrix, "but was there ever an underlying strategy? Something that connected the things he did even though they were different?"
"He would only directly enter a confrontation if he believed he had the upper hand," Mrs. Cole said, frowning intently as she searched her mind for any helpful information. "He would also steal."
"Steal?" Harry asked.
"Trophies, I guess," Mrs. Cole said. "It seemed he often stole items from the other children he had bullied. In a way, they were his trophies. He had a twisted sort of sentimentality, you could say."
"Can you tell us anything more about this sentimentality?" Bellatrix asked intently.
"Well, items and places seemed of supreme importance to him. He was also obsessed with his parentage. He asked me on more than one occasion to help him find information about his father. I always tried, but it was difficult, especially in those times."
"I understand the obsession with items, and I already knew about his obsession with his father, but I'm not sure what you mean by places," Harry mused out loud.
Mrs. Cole shrugged. "We'd take the children to visit various places for a little holiday, you know. Lots of them would buy postcards or souvenirs. He'd buy postcards, but it would be different. It was as if somehow, the place he had visited would become his. It was the same with various locations around the orphanage. You might say he was very territorial."
"Okay," said Harry, vaguely understanding.
"Yes," said Mrs. Cole, "very territorial and possessive. Also very ambitious."
"Indeed," Bellatrix said.
"Whatever became of him?" Mrs. Cole asked.
.....
Evening found Harry and Bellatrix at another posh London restaurant. Bellatrix had dressed in another fancy dress and had put her hair up with the familiar hair ornament. She seemed determined for Harry to court her. He had acquiesced and formally designated their outing as a date. He was even vaguely enjoying himself. The food was nice and Bellatrix's company was pleasant.
Ironically, Bellatrix could not stop thinking about the Voldemort situation. So, although Harry was prepared to engage in light and flirtatious conversation or even deep soul-searching query, her mind just was not on him or romance.
"I think," Bellatrix declared, "that the diary was a horcrux."
"A horcrux?" Harry asked. "What's that?"
....
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