Hogwarts Herald

Chapter thirteen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is called “The Secret Riddle.” Monday night arrives and Harry goes to another lesson with Dumbledore. They briefly discuss the incident with Katie. It turns out she was only minorly cursed because she had a hole in her glove, but she would have died if more of her skin touched it or she had worn the necklace. She was transferred to St. Mungo’s to recover.

In the lesson Dumbledore shows Harry a memory belonging to Caractacus Burke (co-owner of Borkins and Burkes) about giving a woman (Voldemort’s mother) ten Galleons for the Slytherin necklace because the woman was desperate for money with her baby about to be born and did not realize the priceless worth of the necklace. Dumbledore then shares that he thinks Merope used no more magic after Tom Riddle left her and not even to save her own life.

Dumbledore than takes Harry into Dumbledore’s own memory. The memory shows a much younger Dumbledore visiting a building to see a Mrs. Cole. Dumbledore explains to Mrs. Cole that he wants to offer Tom Marvolo Riddle a place at his school. Mrs. Cole then tells Dumbledore about Tom being born at the orphanage and his mother named him shortly before dying. She also mentions that the other kids are afraid of Tom and some of the incidents include a rabbit being hung by the rafters and two kids being odd after going to a cave with Tom.

Mrs. Cole leads Dumbledore to see Tom and leaves them alone. Tom thinks Dumbledore is there to take him to an asylum and does not believe he is offering a place at a school at first. As soon as Dumbledore mentions magic Tom believes him and tells of how he can use powers to move things without touching them and do bad things to those that annoy him. Tom makes Dumbledore prove his magic and Dumbledore briefly puts a wardrobe on fire. Dumbledore finds a box of items Tom stole from the other kids and Dumbledore tells Tom to return the items. Before leaving Dumbledore explains to Tom how to get to Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express. Just before Dumbledore leaves Tom tells him he does not like the common name Tom and that he can talk to snakes.

After leaving the memory Harry asks Dumbledore if he knew at that time that Tom would become the most dangerous Dark Wizard. Dumbledore says he did not, but he did know to watch him and notice that Tom possessed inclinations towards cruelty, secrecy, and domination. Dumbldore makes sure that Harry took note of how Tom collected trophies of those he tormented, as this would be important later.