ruins ; harry potter [1]

twenty six ; into the past (part 2)

Diana, standing amongst her insufferable ancestors, could finally understand in greater depth how Tom Riddle had become the evil, Muggle-hating man that he is now. Merely by watching the way Marvolo Gaunt verbally abused his poor daughter, along with the way Morfin terrorized her unrelentingly portrayed them to be the kind of people who prey on the weak and are so heavily influenced by social status and class that their lives are lived in an unending determination of who's better and who is not.

"Well," said Ogden after curiously eyeing the strange girl in the kitchen, "Mr. Gaunt, to get straight to the point, we have a reason to believe your son, Morfin, performed magic in front of a Muggle late last night."

With a deafening clang, Merope dropped one of the rusted pans onto the floor, and Mr. Gaunt yelled at her so ferociously that she cowered. She was so startled, in fact, that upon pulling out her wand she muttered an inaudible spell that only caused it to slide across the floor and hit wall, splitting it in two.

Morfin let out a manic cackle. Gaunt screamed, "Mend it, you pointless lump, mend it!"

Ogden quickly mended the pot for her, and Gaunt made a rather nasty jeer on the subject of her being a Squib. As Gaunt yelled at her, her hands trembled in fright and shame and she shakily returned the pot to its respective shelf. Her face was flushed in anxiety and she looked as if she'd like nothing more than to vanish into the stone behind her completely. Diana's heart ached for her as she peered at the trembling girl, her grandmother, who was obviously so miserable.

Gaunt, completely unsympathetic to the situation of his son using magic around Muggles, tried defending him in a loud shout.

"Morfin has broken Wizarding law," replied Ogden sternly.

"'Morfin has broken Wizarding law,'" Gaunt imitated obnoxiously. "He taught a filthy muggle a lesson, that's illegal now, is it?"

"Yes," said Ogden. "I'm afraid it is."

Ogden pulled a piece of parchment from the inside pocket of his coat and unrolled it.

"What's that, then, his sentence?" said Gaunt angrily.

"It summons him to the Ministry for a hearing--"

Gaunt's face reddened in rage as he continued to yell at the Ministry employee. "Summons? Who do you think you are, summoning my son anywhere?"

Ogden stood his ground, though warily. Nothing Ogden said could deter this man from his obvious fit of anger, his voice only rising with each sentence he spoke. After a loud shout that Diana could barely understand, Gaunt lifted his hand and made what looked like a obscene hand gesture, but upon closer look, Diana noticed that he was showing Ogden his ugly, black-stoned ring that was heavily familiar.

"See this?" Gaunt roared. "See this? Know what it is? Know where it came from? Centuries it's been in our family, that's how far back we go, and pure-blood all the way! Know how much I've been offered for this, with the Peverell coat of arms engraved in the stone?"

"I have no idea," said Ogden quite wearily and Gaunt shoved his ring in the man's face. "And it's quite beside the point, Mr. Gaunt. Your son has committed--"

Gaunt bellowed in blind rage and charged at poor Merope--for a moment, Diana thought he was going to throttle her neck right there, but instead he pulled her violently by the golden chain on her neck toward Ogden.

"See this?" he bellowed, shaking the heavy gold locket while Merope spluttered for breath.

"I see it, I see it!" hastened Ogden.

"Slytherin's!" Gaunt yelled. "Salazar Slytherin's! We're his last living descendants, what do you say to that, eh?"

Merope continued to gasp for breath as she was being choked by the chain, and Ogden yelled in alarm as though she might faint. As Gaunt released her viciously, Diana couldn't keep her eyes away from the heavy, golden locket hanging limply around the poor girl's neck. She stared at the collection of emerald stones embedded into the surface, and the S for Slytherin on the front. She had seen that locket before, among the flashes of strange images she often sees when she sleeps, usually followed with images of some cup or some sort of crown. She had seen that locket before, she knew it, and she furrowed her eyebrows as she took a step closer to Merope, ignoring the heated conversation between Ogden and Gaunt. Harry eyed her curiously, but Dumbledore looked as if he had been expecting such a response from Diana at the sight of the locket. In fact, he looked almost as if he had waiting for this moment just to gauge her reaction.