He watched as Peverell surreptitiously watched them move and develop a very slight smirk for just a moment.
'It amuses him,' he thought. 'But, why did his gaze linger just slightly on Severus? Do they know one another; or does he know of him?'
Unsurprisingly, Peverell stopped about twenty five feet short of him. "Am I correct in assuming you are the one known as Lord Voldemort?" the young man softly asked.
Harry heard a stifled hiss coming from one of the minions to his right. Lucius, moving to a position near the wall to Peverell's right, almost stuttered in his smooth stride as he walked.
Riddle, however, gave a slight smirk and replied, "Indeed. Welcome, Lord Peverell. I feel I have waited many weeks to finally meet you." "I thank you for the invitation," he returned.
While giving the appearance of casually walking back to what was clearly his throne, Riddle said, "And I thank you for accepting it."
Nonchalantly, Riddle then sat upon it and said, "I trust my good friend, Lucius, was respectful in offering it?"
"He was," he replied with a slight nod.
'No offer of a chair?' he thought. 'Thank you, for that; though you probably did it to try and intimate you're the more powerful between us. Being on my feet means I can more quickly move.'
Riddle gave his own slight nod back after a quick glance to his left to Malfoy. "I asked you to join me because I believe we have a mutual enemy - Albus Dumbledore."
Harry gave a slight snort of amusement and wryly replied, "I do not so much consider that half-blood, self-aggrandising, hubris-riddled, geriatric, white-whiskered, old fairy an enemy as much as I find him a significant annoyance." And scowled.
Riddle burst out in laughter.
"He does seem rather upset with you, though," said Riddle.
Harry gave another snort and said, "Because he both does not know who I am and because I do not praise before the mighty pedestal on which stands the so-called great Albus Dumbledore.
"Because I do not, he has immediately labelled me as dark."
"Are you?" Riddle immediately pressed.
"I do not see a distinction between light and dark," he replied. "There is just... magic.
"As such, him labeling me as dark is like water off a duck's back. It does not cause me any concern. Especially, when it comes from an old fraud like Albus Dumbledore."
Riddle sat back and smirked. "Figured him out, have you?"
With a slight huff, he replied, "It wasn't a difficult exercise for one who knows how to analyse a situation; for one who knows how to properly research and actually does it."
"And how did you figure it out?" asked Riddle.
Well, he wasn't going to tell him about Luna and her gift.
"Everybody knows... and you'll pardon me if I sneer at that phrase... everybody knows Bathilda Bagshot is an old family friend of the Dumbledores. Throughout Dumbledore's teen years they lived near one another in Godric's Hollow. Before that, the Dumbledores lived in Mold on the Wold. "Bathilda Bagshot is also the author of almost every book on recent wizarding British history. For your information, if you didn't already know, she is also the maternal aunt of one Gellert Grindelwald."
That earned him a few gasps from the minions around the walls and a cocked eyebrow from Riddle.
"As such, it was not much of an effort on my part to quickly figure out that Bathilda Bagshot... as a dear friend of Albus Dumbledore... would not have written her books that showed Dumbledore in a, shall we say, poor light.
"For instance, Bagshot has not included in her books that Dumbledore is a homosexual. She has also not written that Albus Dumbledore and her nephew, Gellert, were... quite close... while Grindelwald was staying at her place in the 1910s after being kicked out of Durmstrang. "While having to look after his little sister, Ariana, while forced to stay at Godric's Hollow because his mother had passed, old Albie and Gellert struck up a friendship. Between them, they came up with a slogan, 'Für das Allgemeinwohl'; it's German, Grindelwald's adopted mother tongue, for 'For the Greater Good'."
Again, the gasps. Riddle went from being quite amused to almost staring at Harry in his intensity.
Harry thought, 'Did none of them know of what I spoke the first time Dumbledore accosted me after I got back? The idiots didn't do their homework.'
"Aberforth, Dumbledore's younger brother, finally had enough of the pair of them and what he feared Grindelwald was turning his big brother into... and initiated a duel between he and Grindelwald. A duel, which old Albus jumped into. "During the duel, Ariana was killed and Grindelwald fled.
"Aberforth believes it was his brother who killed his sister; if not by his own wand, then by bringing Grindelwald into their home at the time. And since that time the two brothers have been estranged, with Aberforth the aggressor of that.
"It's one of the main reasons Dumbledore... Albus, that is... is constantly pleading with people to forgive. He's subconsciously, I'm sure, hoping that's what his brother will do with regards to him.
"Immediately on Ariana's death, Grindelwald fled back to Europe.
"Less than ten years later he had formed his Knights of Walpurgis. Less than five years after that, the ICW declared him a dark lord."
Harry had begun walking back and forth, as he gave his talk. Then, at each 'end' he began to start rapidly spinning about 180 degrees. He wanted Riddle and his minions used to him giving sudden movements and not being alarmed by them.
Slowly, but surely, he was setting things up the way he wanted them. He would slowly pace from one side to the other with measured steps, then quickly spin on his heel and slowly pace back the other way. Every now and then he would spin to face Riddle, looking at the man, to emphasis a point, before then continuing the turn to return to pacing.
"Now," he said, quickly spinning again, "By then, Dumbledore had his phoenix familiar. As you'd know, a phoenix can flash anyone to anywhere in the world in a few moments."
Harry spun to face; Riddle nodded.
Starting to slow pace again, Harry continued. "That means that Dumbledore, with the phoenix's help, could have flashed directly to Grindelwald at any time. Dumbledore already intimately knew Grindelwald. And a phoenix knows what its companion knows."
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